funny girl(s)

Soccer started for Catcher last week. It was a whopping 43 degrees warmer this afternoon than it was at last week's practice. So instead of standing on the field with the wind whipping through them, tears rolling down their cheeks (i.e. last week) the girls spotted a playground on the property. We climbed and slid and jumped while Catcher ran drills and scrimmaged his team. The girls made some funny faces, too.

runner's world

This morning we were on our way to church when we discovered a detour through our neighborhood for the Austin Marathon. I realized there was no way I could navigate my way downtown through side streets to sidestep the massive blockades, so we resorted to Plan B: cheer on the runners! We circled back to our house, parked the car and walked two blocks east to stand with our fellow citizens and chant "Go, runners, go!" The highlight for the Wheat children happened when a gentleman showed up with a boom box--those still exist?--and dancing (seriously) signs to cheer on his daughter to the sounds of Notorious B.I.G., Will Smith and other tunes suggestive of getting jiggy with it. Scout got jiggy with it. Spotting Spiderman and Captain America, by the way, was a close second in this morning's highlight race.

 

sand boarding

I don't know about you, but we've been watching the Olympics in our house. Snowboarding is a big hit, and since there's no snow in Austin, Catcher invented sand boarding today (it's something that happens "only in Texas," per Catcher's stipulation). I'm not exactly clear on the rules myself, but it involves running and jumping over tiny mounds of dirt--not sand, exactly--after saying something to the effect of "watch me go through my own forcefield." And...action:

   

a rose by any other name

I'm not really into Valentine's Day. And I'm not saying it in an "I'm-not-into-Valentine's-Day-but-I-secretly-want-a-dozen-roses-and-a-heart-locket" kind of way. I'm really not into it. I'm not a romantic, and my husband knows that. He happens to be in Russia this Valentine's day, but he texted me this picture of a rose saying "Happy Hallmark Day. From Russia with Rose." That's my kind of romance.

In other Valentine's Day news, Tillie was my lunch date this afternoon. We figured if Catcher and Scout were both having parties at their schools, then we should treat ourselves to frozen yogurt (for lunch...who needs nutrition on this saccharine holiday?). It also happened to be 75 degrees--Austin is back!--and sunny, so it was a perfect date on a perfect day.

the best pet

At least once a week Catcher asks me if we can get a dog. I tell him no, and then he asks if we can have a cat before he eventually resorts to begging for a guinea pig. Sometimes he accepts my inevitable "no" to his pet question, but other times he turns the questioning into an interrogation worthy of a Law & Order episode. He wants to know why (and why and why and why...). Last week when I was exhausted of the whys I finally told him that he could have a pet: a pet rock.

He wasn't on board with this idea at first. He was worried that his pet rock might need glasses and he didn't know how to draw glasses. This realization nearly sent him to tears until I turned the tables on him and asked how he could take care of a dog--because you know this is always the first line of defense when a child is asking for a pet ("I'll take care of it," they exclaim)--if he couldn't look after a rock. Catcher finally conceded. Meet Homer:

Scout quickly caught wind of all this the pet rock buzz and decided she should have not one but two pet rocks of her own. A boy and a girl. Their names are Scout (and Scout). Tillie, of course, followed suit and gathered her own stone, which went by the name Hannah. Below is my attempt at a family portrait:

After the rocks were abandoned on the sidewalk--and these are the kids trying to convince me they would take care of a living, breathing animal--we turned to sidewalk chalk and shadow dancing to entertain ourselves on this beautiful afternoon (can I get a hallelujah on the warm weather?).

hearts on fire

Before things went cuckoo for cocoa puffs around here yesterday afternoon, I did take advantage of our time trapped inside by insisting we work on our valentines. I detest the store bought Spiderman--no particular offense to Spiderman, just over-commercialization in general--variety of valentines, and I'm nowhere nearly as creative as those crafty crafters on Pinterest, so that left me with a recycled idea (that's a pun...continue).

Remember when I came up with that brilliant (I mean, I think so at least) idea at Christmas to use Scout's artwork for wrapping paper? Well, it turns out that recycling artwork is also great for valentines, so that's exactly what we did. Scout had already done most of the work for us, so I cut out some hearts and handed the kids colored pencils and crayons to sign their original, recycled, valentines.