El tiene 12 anos hoy!

Today is Oscar's 12th birthday. Of course, everyone had school today. But after school we all went to Red Robin for dinner. Oscar had pizza (yeah, I know it's a burger place - but it's his birthday). We then had a quiet celebration back at the house with cake and ice cream.

Enjoy the pictures!

After Dad set fire to the cake...

After he put out the fire...

Las Quatro

Can't get rid of Hank's 'blue eye' with my picasa freeware...

He says it is his dream to be a 'bombero', we'll see...

Short Happenings

*** Hankie boy ***

We brought Hank home the last week of June. He has done much better with the kids than we expected. We did have to have a few lessons on "when to know when Hank has had enough of you" and "where Hank will let you touch him so you don't incur his wrath" and "why it's never, ever a good idea to take Hank's toys away from him". They have been good about not pushing him past his limits, and he has been more tolerant of their intrusions on him than we thought he would be.

The kids all went to summer school in June. In July/August the girls went to a day camp that is run by the county parks and rec department at a local lake. Oscar spent his summer (after summer school) with Grandma Schoemig learning more reading, writing and math. He also started playing soccer on a team with his cousin Neil in August. The girls went back to school this week. Diana is in 2nd grade, Mayerly is in 1st grade and Claudia is in kindergarten. Oscar is still being home schooled by Grandma right now. We're hoping he'll be caught up enough to go to school next year, but we aren't going to rush him into something we feel he isn't yet ready for. He still has a lot of ground to make up.