"Close your mouth"

Last weekend we took the first swim of the new year. The two older boys, I think, can officially swim. They're not strong swimmers, i.e. I wouldn't totally trust them in the deep end, but I feel comfortable letting them play in the pool with little supervision. And that's a major step considering kids around water scare the crap out of me.

Master of board games

A couple weeks ago we played Monopoly for the first time. By the official rules. Did you know you don't get any money for landing on Free Parking? And if you roll more than three consecutive doubles, you go to jail. Oh, and if someone lands on a property and they don't want to buy it, then there's an auction for that property... and the person who didn't want to initially buy it can be in the auction. Yeah, the real rules. I don't remember ever playing like this so it's like a brand new game for all of us.

Andrew's rough morning

This is a picture of Andrew crying for the second time that morning. The first time was my fault. During his soccer game, Andrew looked spaced out. Balls would easily get past him. The opponents would out hussle him. He was constantly looking around. Very distracted. Then I yelled, "Andrew! Come on! Wake up!". And when he was subbed out, that's when he broke down and cried. "I don't want to play soccer anymore! I'm not good enough! Papa will yell at me!" Damn. I felt like total shit. #1 asshole dad right here. But I know he could play better. Just that day, he was moving half speed. Slow motion.

Happy Easter

Here we go again...

Dynamo game

Yesterday we went to our first Houston Dynamo game (free tickets thanks to the donut walk). Being free, we got seats in the "nosebleed section" (as expected) but surprisingly it wasn't bad at all. Any seat in this stadium is a good seat. The weather was really nice with temps in the cool 60's. It was a perfect day. It would have been better had the Dynamo won the game but it ended in a tie. Boooooo!

Camping during Spring Break (Needville, TX)

During Spring Break, we spent one day camping overnight at Brazos Bend State Park. It was a trial run to see if camping was doable with the whole family. I called this faux-camping because we had an electrical outlet and water nearby. But if all goes well, I would like to visit and camp at other state parks throughout Texas.

Cowboy by Andrew

Robotics tournaments

A couple weeks ago Jacob had a robotics tournament at his school, which was composed of third, fourth and fifth graders from different schools around the area. And from talking with the teacher that organized the tournament, this was the first year they allowed third graders in the competition. That makes sense, may as well get them started early. There were 18 teams competing and the top four teams would move on to the final rounds.

Shipley Do-Nuts' Dash

On Sunday morning was the inaugural Shipley Do-Nuts' Dash which was a fun run that benefited Kids' Meals, a non-profit organization providing and delivering meals to pre-school kids living in poverty. That's a great cause. And the race participants would get Shipley's donuts (my favorite), beer from 8th Wonder (which has the Vietnamese coffee porter, another favorite) and Houston Dynamo tickets. It was a no brainer, we're in.

Year of the goat/sheep

Happy new year! I'm not actually sure which animal it is this year (it might even be a ram) but for sure it's a four legged hoofed animal. And yes, it's official, I have no desire to gamble. Well, I take that back. I still love to make other bets, those that will cost you your pride and dignity. My bets will always involve some sort of embarrassment. But playing regular games for money, I've lost interest. So who wants to make a bet with me?

Valentine's weekend

Valentine's Day landed on Saturday so I took my love out for brunch because going out for dinner on that day is for suckers (or for people who made reservations weeks in advance, i.e. not me). We went to Weights + Measures, a new restaurant/bake shop/bar in Midtown. Eventually I'll post something about our visit at The Forgetful Eater but to sum it up, it was good. Donuts and chicken is the new chicken and waffles.

My boys' birthdays

Initially I was going to write about Jacob's birthday, which was a few days ago, but then I realized that I totally forgot about Andrew's birthday. Andrew always gets (unintentionally) forgotten. It didn't help that his birthday was sandwiched between Christmas and the day we needed to leave for our week long road trip. It was absolute chaos during that time but we did manage to make some time for his special day. (Yes, this post is late but better late than never.)

Snowboarding, Sundance and Super Bowl (Utah)

For the past 5 years, my same group of old high school friends have been going on an annual snowboarding trip. Well, not last year (too much indecisiveness). For this trip, we went back to Utah to snowboard at three different mountains in three days. And there was also a lot of movie watching (Sundance Film Festival), eating out and drinking.

My mom is addicted to emoji

When it comes to technology, my parents are stuck in the past. They are so slow to evolve but lately, they've made some progress. My dad now knows how to use email and send text messages. Every time I see him now, he's always on his phone or iPad watching random videos on YouTube. My mom on the other hand is much slower in adapting to new technology (due to the lack of interest). But I recently bought my mom her first ever smart phone, which forced her to finally get with the times.