I’ve gotten fairly good at putting things off lately, like this blog post. I was going to start it on Monday last week, but the pictures weren’t up yet, so I was waiting on that. Then when I finally posted the photos, I realized that I had 101 other things to do, so I did those first. At some point so much time had past that I thought, enh, why bother. But yesterday I complained to a friend that she hadn’t updated her blog lately and her responses were so close to mine for not blogging that I laughed long and loud. So here I am, blogging. Yay.
The next-to-last week of March was busy, but that’s really normal these days, right? Greg and I did a lot of stuff with the school, but we also had some fun time on our own, going to the big park on the south side of town and walking some of the trails & bridges, then playing afterwards, and also going to the McDonald’s with the fun play area (using coupons a friend gave us). I also got to visit my favorite local baby and her mama for an afternoon.
It was Texas Public Schools Week, so our PTA did Muffins for Moms one day, Pancakes with Parents another, Donuts for Dads a third day, and also a program with the 1st & 2nd graders. Since I’m one of the PTA volunteer regulars, I went up each day and helped out with various things.
We had a bit of a kerfluffle, due to some miscommunication about what the events really entailed (the muffins & donuts were for parents ONLY, due to some bizarre regulations about offering kids free food at a competing time a federally sponsored free food program was being offered) and a lot of parents and kids went away from what was supposed to be a positive event with bad feelings in their hearts, which made me really sad. (Also, I had baked 9 dozen mini muffins for the event and had to take most of them back home with me.) One good thing, though, was getting to tour all the new library books the school ordered from the last of their grant. So many beautiful books! Also, both of my kids won door prizes from my having gone (one new book each!).
The 1st and 2nd grade program was nothing but pure delight, though. Ben was a soloist (one of 6, but only he and one other girl had really long parts), and an actor (clownfish #3), as well as singing and dancing with the rest of the kids. We had to make him a clownfish costume (most of the other parts there were costumes already made up for, but the clownfish were on their own, costume-wise) and he looked really really cute. 🙂 He did a great job singing, dancing, and acting.
Oceans of Fun end song
Afterward, Pa took us out to dinner at Taco Bell while Nana skeddaddled off to teach her class (which she’d postponed an hour for us: so thanks to her and her students!).
The next day we spent getting ready to go camping. We picked up the boys from school and headed on over to Martin Creek Lake State Park and spent the weekend camping with some of our friends from church.
Most of the kids from church were there, so the kids had a blast. David got to spend both night in the Boys Tent (the other kids stayed with us). We took the kids on nature walks around the lake and got to see an electric plant up close.
It was really windy on that side of the lake and it made the waves and wood really interesting. The lake was quite a lot down on water as well, so there were lots of shells everywhere. We collected a bunch of pretty ones to take home. We had a church service in one of the open air cabins, listening to the sermon from our regular service over the internet (lovelovelove technology) while the kids made crafts at our feet. 
It was a really nice weekend. Entire photo set can be found here.
We came back Sunday afternoon and unpacked. Nick went off to work for a few hours while the kids and I went over to Ben’s best friend’s birthday party. 
It was a fabulous party, one of those big Hispanic neighborhood/family/friends parties (one of the kids asked the birthday boy if he knew everyone there & he said “I don’t know. I think some people just saw the balloons and came on in. It’s a party! The more the merrier!”). There was a pinata bigger than I’ve ever seen and a man stood on the roof to pull it up,down, & around so the kids had to really work to hit it. I really wish now that I’d taken Spanish as my foreign language so I could speak to more of the people there. This party was a great end to a very busy week! 🙂
Lisa Holcomb 