A brilliant week!

Oh forgive me!  I had been working on trying to get this post up for about two weeks, then magically last night in a series of unfortunate events, I managed to delete all but the title . . . .Argh.  Good thing the subject of this post is such a happy event.

We'll begin with a photo of the end.  On June 10, we welcomed two British soccer coaches to our home for the duration of the week that they would be coaching our annual camp.  I snapped this picture of them with the boys right before they headed off to their next assignment.  It was a delight to have Otto (on the left) and Chris (on the right) with us and I hope they were able to enjoy their time here half as much as we enjoyed having them!

Xavier was finally old enough to register, and he enjoyed his first camp experience.  He did really well (most of the time).  I'm curious to see how he will do in fall soccer, if that materializes.  He likes playing ball so much, it would be hard to keep him out.
 

Xavier didn't like the "Sleeping Giant" game until Coach Lucy let him be a giant too

Number 6: Do some tricks!

Number Two:  On my shoe!

The main camp group is ages 6-12, so Evan was one of the younger campers, but he was able to hold his own with the big boys -
 

 

and the big girls, too!

 

Evan was assigned to the Swedish World Cup team, and Cole to the United States team.  In addition to scrimmaging the other camp teams, they participated in bringing a fact about "their" country, decorating their soccer balls, freestyle demonstration, biggest flag, and most creative flag contests.  (No entries from us this year into the smallest flag contest.)  Evan also went all out on Wednesday, plastering himself with Swedish design. And I'm not talking about IKEA. 

Swedish Spirit

The living United States flag!

Practicing some freestyle tricks

The largest Swedish Flag you will likely ever see

Cole's winning ball design

 Their entry into the freestyle demonstration involved Cole placing a ball on Evan's feet while Evan was in handstand position.  Then Evan tipped the ball to Cole who kicked it into the goal.

Evan's evaluation mentioned his "defensive abilities and also his reading of the game."  Cole's evaluation noted that he was "a natural leader" and dependable.  Xavier's evaluation said he was a "star player" with a great attitude.

 We took Chris and Otto to Smitty's (happily we were able to host the meat-eaters), but they didn't get to Kreuz.  We really hope they get to come back - maybe next week while they are off (July 4th and all).  We were thrilled to bring them to Schlitterbahn with us after the last day of camp.  Unfortunately, we lost the (waterproof) camera early in the day.  Schlitterbahn called Saturday to say they had found it - but, alas - when we went to retrieve it this weekend, it wasn't ours after all.  Or if it was, our pictures had already been erased.
I hope to possibly update this post with some video or more pictures,  but want to get this "online". Can you believe I ever won awards in Newspaper Writing?  I'm not very timely these days. . . .

Butterfly life cycle

We've had a lot of caterpillars lately (Mom counted 73) so I thought I would make a post about the butterfly life cycle.

This is the life cycle of a butterfly.

                                                                                                First, a male and a female butterfly mate.               

After mating the female butterfly lays eggs.             

                                    The yellow dot in the middle of the picture is the butterfly egg.                  

                                             
                                              A tiny caterpillar hatches from each egg.  

                                This very tiny caterpillar that has just molted left behind its old skin.

                                               This is a video of a caterpillar eating.( This video is best viewed in full screen)
                                                     


                                                   After eating a caterpillar ready is to make its chrysalis.

                                                      This is a video of a caterpillar making its final molt.

                   

                                               
                  In this picture there are two caterpillars ready to make they're chrysalis(two steps  ago) and one     that has already made its chrysalis. Can you find it?                                                                                                                                                                                                    

                                                                           
                                    After a couple of weeks the Gulf Frittilary comes out of its chrysalis.

                                                    Empty Gulf Frittilary chrysalis on the fence.

                                     This butterfly is almost ready to start the life cycle over again

                             

 Last week, did a little backtracking and focused on trees for the last day of April- the month of Arbor Day.  We have included trees in our patience unit because it takes a long time to reap the rewards of planting a tree.  After a leaf collection exercise, we transformed them into creative collages:

Cole's fox

Evan's crab (with sand)

Mom's girl

Let him run wild

his imagination, that is. . .
Now I wonder if YOU have that Beach Boys song in your head like I do. . . let him run wild, he don't care, let him run, let him run wild,  he'll find out, let him run . . . . You're welcome.

It's true about this being the age of pretend play.  In a single week, Xavier. . .

was inspired by his new sunglasses to become a
 downhill skier
by adding cardboard skis and PVC poles.

There has been a lot of restaurant play around here lately.
He's quite the chef.  Last night, he fixed me a special birthday dinner-
complete with YeeHa's and the
 King's Mighty Special Make You Strong Dessert.

I don't quite remember how it got started, but Captain Xavier
ordered proper naval clothes (WHITE!).  Luckily, I was able to
 comply.  Here he is about to climb aboard his ship (complete
with porthole and nautical flags).

I had an assignment to write a poem about patience because our poem book didn't have one.     

Be sure to find the: cookies in the oven, the watermelon clock and the football clock. 

Can you also find: the computer program loading and a kid waiting for his dad to get home.

Picture Success

We had a bit of drawing practice the other day, and Evan drew this bat, ball, and glove,  with motion effects, no less.  During his next game, he caught a fly ball for an out while he was playing at pitcher.  Perhaps all that business about "see yourself accomplishing your goals" works for him!

Last Day at San Marcos Gym Flips

At the San Marcos gym last Monday, Cole had a game so he couldn't stay for the second hour. All semester, Grayson has been our coach. I didn't know what event I wanted to do. Mom suggested that I do flips. And that's what I did. First, I started with back handsprings. Then, Grayson asked me if I wanted to do front flips. And I said, "Yes." We set up a springboard in front of a big mat. And I ran onto the springboard and that's how I did my front flips. At first, I could not land my front flips in a stick. Grayson said if I landed it and held a stick he would give me a dollar! I flipped and flipped and flipped some more until finally I landed one. Then on my last front flip, I landed it again. This is a video of me doing a front flip, but I didn't land it. It may sort of look like it, but I did not. Mom's camera battery was low, so she didn't record the ones that I landed. I landed one so Grayson gave me a dollar! He said it was like a trophy.

Evan flips out