Alex and ben at their first Triathlon

My triathelets..

when they had both finished, we got a photo of two happy boys

in the line for there chip ankle braclet

Alex finishing his 200 m

Alex walking after sprinting down the home run of his 2km run

Alex at the end of his 6km bike ride

I am was the cheering party for Alex as he likes being cheered on, and Allan was for Ben as he would prefer no noise at all!!! We had a great morning, all be it early as we had to be on site by 6.15am so we could be marked, chipped and set up the transition area, but that was all managed, and we all learnt a lot. so the next one will be easier..

The men removing a dead tree

The boys had to stay on the decking..out of the way..good reason to eat brownies( Cara makes the best) and cheer the older generations on..we now have more logs for our fire place and no worries about the tree coming down at an inopportune moment.

Ben's school trip to Austin zoo

Yesterday, may 11th I helped the first grade teacher, Mrs Higgins with Ben's class on a field trip to Austin Zoo, it was fun and quiet a few parents came, so it was not difficult to enjoy it.
The day was very warm, with temperatures in the 80f, and humid which makes it more challenging when you have a slight cold like me, hey ho.

The Zoo was not large and not at all fancy, but it held the childrens interest for the day, we also went on a train ride, which was rather strange , as it took us past no animals at all and had cut out Aliens and space ships..which really did the zoo no favours in my mind. I think at Christmas it is lit, as there were strings of lights everywhere, but it just look very tired and sad on that train ride...not sure i will be rushing to take visitors there, although I would take Alex so he can see the animals, as he will not be going there on a school field trip..tomorrow I am going with Alex class to the Texas state cemetery..photo's and thoughts to follow soon on that school trip.

am off to bed

i have just spent three hours updating the blog and need to get some sleep before that alarm clock rings and I start the next day...i hope this has updated you all, i will try and put some of the chess tournament on as well..i have been to two more of them and we came 4th in the Region VI this last weekend..may 1st, so am very proud of the boys..Ben even has a ranking in the American chess federation..he is rated 103..

Bens field trip to Austin Nature centre

So Mum and I offered to be adult help on the field trip for the first graders. It was to Austin Nature centre which I had not been too before, so that was interesting.

we spent a morning there and had lunch at a different park.

The kids enjoyed finding out about nature, they have just finished a section on pond life and habitats, so seeing the place deer slept last night, and pond dipping, watching for birds etc was great for them. the guide was great with the kids, he understood how to talk to them and keep them interested.

the sign about the snakes is always interesting...we had a field trip earlier this year in West cave preserve..must check if I put that on the blog...and the two classes that had gone the day before had a snake on the path down..and it did not move out of the way..which is unusual..so i have learnt to be on the look out for snakes now..I did think the sign was a good way to remind the kids that this is actually the snakes habitat and they need to respect that..and of course a very good reminder to the adults to keep an eye!!

I am on two field trips next week..Austin zoo with Ben and Austin cemetery with Alex..so more photos to follow..

Baranoff library club

Alex and Ben joined the Library club and each now have a book dedicated to the library from them, so for years to come they will be remembered..a good way to get new books for the library.

Ale playing football this season,

Alex has been playing football for the stormtroopers, and these are some pictures for you to see him in action..The soccer season is over now, but he might do a soccer camp in the summer..we will see, the local YMCA is offering them and they both seem to enjoy it.

The vets open day

No photo's sorry...Allan took the younger boys up to our vets..Star of Texas yesterday because they had an open day. jack and I were being good and ironing, strimming, cleaning the yard etc...
The walked the long way to the vets, it would have been about a 2 mile walk straight up Brodie lane, but they chose the back route passed as many play parks as they could..They had Tex with them and Allan said it was a slow but fun walk. in the end they did 5.5 miles
When they got there it was lots of fun, all parts of the vets was open, they could see the surgery, back of house, jars of organs the vet has removed, they were serving hot dogs, candy and there was games to play. There was a pet dressing up competition..which we did not do..Tex was just a plain old black lab for the day...the boys both got goodie bags filled with 'stuff'..pens, pads, paperclips shaped like bones, magnets, dog food samples...and the goodie bags were Halloween themed...what a day..home they came, happy and content, not a penny spent, all exercised and happy...

Thoughtful Alex

This is Alex eating his breakfast reading the comic strips in the local paper - Austin American Statesmen. I had made Breakfast taco's, with bacon and egg in, but as you can see he is more interested in the paper than the food!!
For your time line this was on Sunday, 24th may. The rest of us ate outside, but Alex decided it was too hot!! It is going to be a long summer. Our weather station recorded 100.5F yesterday, and remember it is recorded in the shade, not direct sun, so hot is the word.

Sammy's party

This is the birthday girl, her sister and Cinderella , with Alex's cheeky smile about to cut the cake.
Alex needs to work on the Limbo technique-although this worked!!
I just had to have one with both boys and Cinderella
Cara improving her tan ready to head back to UK, wants to looks fab when she turns up for her birthday.
Alex decided her wanted make up,getting into the spirit of the party, Ben went for the dinosaur tattoo!!!

We went to Sammy's 5th party on Saturday, the wind was up, but the weather was pleasant and the whole party was outside, which was great. The bouncy castle was a huge hit, and allowed A and B to make loads of noise as they bounced around!!

Alex and ben have finished their marathon for kids

Today, Saturday 21st February 2009, was the final mile of marathon for kids, so Mum, Allan and I took the boys down to The Tony Burger stadium with lots of other children and they completed there final mile. In actual fact Alex was running so fast around the track he past the finishers enclosure and kept running as he could see others still going around- but he had actually lapped the majority of the children. So Alex managed to do more than a marathon!!! This house is filling up with marathon medals, which we are all proud of.

The School Valentines parties

The Austin ISD, ( Idependant school district) made February 12th the official day for all schools to hold Valentine parties. It has been another learning curve for us-a very steep one in fact. It was compulsory for the boys to send in a valentine card for everybody in there class, they had to decorate a box for all their cards and goodies to go in and they had class parties, although Alex's class also went to Gatti Town with all the 2nd graders, then came back to school to a class party.
I made every child in both the classes a love heart cookie and decorated them with their names on, but A and B got another load of candy, colouring books, pencils etc. It was amazing what was in these boxes. I will know for next year!
It was also an opportunity for me to take mum down to school and let her meet the teachers and see the classrooms. I believe she was suitably impressed, it is a lovely school.