A Christmas tradition for the Clark family is to attend the Chuy's Children's Parade downtown. The girls each bring an unwrapped toy to donate and get to watch a pretty cool parade too! This year, we had extra special company - G&G Clark, G&G Lavis, and The Schultz Family!
Grandma Clark (aka GG) brought knitting kits to Texas this trip and taught the girls how to knit hats for their American Girl dolls. Bill even got into the knitting mood.
Everyone in this company is burning banked vacation since they changed policy and we can no longer bank hours but instead go to the "use it or lose it" policy. There are people here who get 8 weeks of vacation annually, plus 5 floating holidays, plus had 2 months of banked vacation to use up in 2010. Needless to say, I'm the one turning the lights on and off every Friday - there is no one here.
Per #2 above, I have a lot of time to myself with no one calling me, emailing me, or stopping by unannounced
I can catch up on my blog reading and writing
On Thursday, Lauren's school hosted a Thanksgiving lunch. Bill was already there as a W.A.T.C.H.Dog for the day, so I picked up Emma from school and met them all there. We arrived early enough so Emma was able to catch recess with the 1st graders. She ran out the door with all the kids and b-lined straight to the swings, where she got into the sitting line...how did she know to do that? She waited patiently and was so excited to swing on the big kids playground. Lauren, on the other hand, rallied the kids and got Bill to play a game of tag. Seems all the kids decided to be the taggers and gang up on the Watchdog :-) The lunch was really good and Emma was so excited to eat hot lunch at the elementary school, even though she says she gets hot lunch every day from Chef Tara (at her school).
We had a family homework assignment to disguise a turkey so that it would be spared from being a meal on a Thanksgiving table. We discussed possible disguises...a cheerleader, a football player, a princess...all great ideas. We ended up wrapping it like a Christmas present, attaching a tag to its beak which read "To: Santa, From: Lauren"...it turned out very cute. Lauren, Emma and Bill colored the Turkey while I cut out the wrapping paper and made the curly streamers. Lauren taped the paper and streamers to the Turkey. It was a lot of fun. Here's a picture of my two turkeys working on the turkey.
Lauren's class took a trip to Sweet Berry Farm on Friday, and I was able to go along for the day. Even more special, Emma was able to come along and participate as well (our 1st grade teacher ROCKS!!!). The kids had so much fun going to all the stations prepared for them. They shucked corn in a rotary machine, then took the kernels and cobs and made a cute Thanksgiving decoration out of them. They had a pumpkin relay race, then took their pumpkin to a painting table and decorated them. They had a hayride and ran through the corn maze (no child left behind...whew). It really was a lot of fun!
I finally found my camera USB download cord, so we have pictures to share! We had two families over for Halloween yesterday, and spent the afternoon getting ready, eating, and running around the neighborhood gathering candy. It was really a fun day.
Bill was "The Situation" from MTV's reality TV show, The Jersey Shore. I went as the Wicked Witch of the West Texas, and the girls were also witches (so I was also called the Mother Witch last night...).
My favorite picture was finding Emma and her friend Baelen eating their candy...sitting in the bowls of candy.
It has been far too long since the last post. I blame this on ease of keeping tabs on Facebook, busy schedules, brutally busy work days (seriously, they expect me to do work instead of blog!), and general exhaustion after the kids are in bed. But, I've decided those are all bad excuses to not keep everyone up to the minute on happenings in the Clark household. I searched high and low for my camera and USB cord this morning, but realized my procrastination on organizing the home office has just come back to bite me. So, I'll hunt tonight while sorting papers. I do have a picture though of Emma at school...she is working on tying, and is proud to tell all that she can tie her shoes! She can also ride her bike with NO training wheels. Her knees are proof :-) We do have video on Bill's phone, and once we figure out how to get that out of the phone, we'll get it up here.
I'm sure you are all wondering what we've been up to since the last post. I will make the attempt to list the activities here, in no order of occurrence because they've all blended in my mind:
Lauren lost her third tooth and Mommy was in town to witness the event. She actually took a paper towel and pulled it out herself!
Emma transitioned from being a Longhorn to being a Giraffe at school. She is doing so well! She has commenced her reading program and read her book to the entire class.
Lauren started first grade!! We are THRILLED with her teacher, the classroom, and the overwhelmingly positive feelings we all have this year. What a difference! Lauren's spunky personality is back, her imagination and creativity are full speed ahead, and she is just an all around happy little girl. We couldn't be happier.
Bill's new business venture, Microventures, received full SEC/FINRA approval and is up and running!!! He's been busy with the start-up and media, and loves what he's doing.
I raised $$$ for Alzheimer's Research by participating in Austin's Memory Walk. It was emotional and rewarding. Although they did not post final rankings, I had to be in the Top 1o individual fundraisers for the Austin event, and I was the first one back from the walk (it was not a race, but I wanted to be first!). I was so proud to be able to do this for my family and friends. I can't wait to participate next year!
Lauren's school had their Fall Fest event last Friday! Lauren spent a good deal of time in the petting zoo holding bunnies, baby chicks, and chasing a baby pig around the pen. Emma spent most of her tickets trying to win at the cakewalk. She enjoyed the game, but didn't end of winning. They had a hayride and bounce houses. It was a nice evening.
We determined in October our neighborhood was targeted for garage break-ins. We are OK, but did realize that someone unscrewed our garage exterior lightbulb, hoping that we'd forget to close the garage door and then take a few items from us. Luckily, we double and triple check every night so they never had a chance, but still unsettling.
That's all I can think of at this point, and work is bugging me to get back to it :-) I will try to be better on getting updates loaded here!
Even though Emma's birthday was officially last Saturday, we held her school ceremony today. Emma has a poster which shows pictures from all 4 years of her life, and after talking about each one, she walks around the sun (a candle) holding the globe, which represents Emma growing one year old (since the earth takes 1 year to travel around the sun). Afterward, we celebrated with UT cupcakes on Spiderman plates - it was a hit!
Lauren is loving Leadership Summer Camp! She is making all sorts of new friends, and learning some neat things. She's been doing oragami projects. The class also held a lemonade stand, and put together an entire business case for it. It must've been a good one - they raised $245 in 5 hours! They are giving all the money to the Austin Zoo as their community project.
It has been a fantastic and busy summer so far. We had the best intentions of this summer being low-key given the very hectic school year, but little did we know that 2 weeks prior we would decide to make the 23 hour voyage to Michigan for the week! Our best friends, Jim and April, were baptizing their precious little girl, Madelyn, and being the nice friends they are, didn't tell us right away because they didn't want us to feel obligated to attend. So with about a week and a half before the baptism we get the phone call. HA! We decided to pack up the kids and the car and make an adventure out of the whole thing. Best part - Jim had no idea we were coming, so Saturday morning when the girls rang his doorbell, April told us later Jim yelled to her to get the door because "there were some little kids" at it. April was in on the surprise so she yelled right back at him to get it. And boy, did we surprise him well - he was stunned for a good half an hour. We were so honored to be able to witness Maddy's baptism, it was such a special day! We spent the rest of our week in Michigan between Grandma Gail and Grandpa Tom's house, where we went at the Detroit Zoo and to the Grosse Park Woods Park, and Grandma Luci and Grandpa Denny's house, where we climbed to the top of the Ludington lighthouse and went on a dinghy ride. While also in Detroit, I was able to see my best friend from college, Heidi, and her daughter Sophie - it'd been over a year since I'd seen her last and it had felt as though I'd just seen her last week...that's when you know you have a wonderful friend! We had so much fun visiting Michigan in the summer - the girls did ask where all the snow was though :-)Here is a photo recap of the events:
Lauren and Emma LOVE baby Maddy, and had so much fun feeding her. Why neither of my children are clothed, I have no idea, but at least they feel very comfortable at Jim and April's house!
Lauren and Emma with Maddy after her baptism -she was out and looks like a porcelain doll! Not even a bear hug from Emma could stir her awake! The next picture is Lauren with our great friend, Greg. Lauren loves Greg, as you can tell by her face. The last picture in this bunch is our handsome men. L to R: Bill, Tom, Don, Greg and Jim. Now, off to the Detroit Zoo! I was very much looking forward to this day, and was even more thrilled when Tom was able to get away from work to join us. We spent close to 6 hours at the zoo, riding the train to the back of the zoo (first picture below) and walking all the way to the front. I, as pseudo tour guide and holder of the map, ensured we saw EVERY exhibit! It was an awesome day - I may have had more fun than anyone :-) Emma was thrilled to see a Longhorn so far from Texas and begged me to take pictures of it with her. We also have one of her flashing the hook 'em horns sign which will be sent to her teacher (who taught her the UT fight song at like 2 years old). The girls favorite exhibit was the prairie dogs, and it is so cool because they have below ground tunnels for the kids to crawl into and pop their heads out just like a prairie dog! You can see Emma looking around for the little critters. And no trip is complete without a boo-boo. Lauren tripped over an uneven sidewalk section and slammed her head into a glass door. So, the local paramedics were called and I of course thought the world was coming to an end...until I saw this picture Bill took. Lauren certainly loves the attention, even if accidentally-gained.
While in GrossePointe, we decided to stop by the War Memorial where Bill and I were married, to get a couple of photos of the girls and us together. Can't believe it will be 9 years next week! How time flies. A favorite photo for most brides is standing in the wrought iron gate entry way. I remember standing there in my gown with Bill. Now, it is amazing to look at the newest picture and see the girls standing there where we were 9 years ago. We met my best friend, Heidi, at a quaint park near her home which gave the girls a chance to play with Sophie, and me a chance to catch up with Heidi. I'm so glad she is in Michigan as I'll for sure now be able to see her more than just every couple of years!
Now, off to Ludington! We packed up the Clark van with the girls, Gail, and Jim, April and Maddy following behind, and headed up to Ludington to spend some time on the beach and just relaxing by the water. We walked out to the Lighthouse and to my surprise it is now open for visitors to climb all the way to the top! And we did just that - the girls included. At the very top you can see the light and the fog horn and a few miles out - it was definitely a first for me and super cool! The girls didn't mind much that it was a bit cool and windy on the beach for the adults, and spent a few hours building sand castles and collecting lakeweed to build the barriers. They thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Bill and Jim seemed to really enjoy each others company and were quite adamant about getting a picture of the two of them with the lighthouse behind them :-) Grandpa Denny took the girls and Bill for a dinghy ride around the marina and the girls just thought it was the best. They also met Grandma Luci's fishin' buddy, Robert who was very proud to show off his latest catch to the girls. And finally, photo proof that mother-in-laws do get along very well together - contrary to what some experts may think...ha ha ha!! It was a wonderful time having everyone together and looking forward to doing it again.
As quickly as the week came, it was over and the massive 23 hour drive back was in front of us. We decided to break it up over two days and spend the night half way through. Somehow, the straight through drive to Michigan was more appealing to us all than the drive home :-)
