Summer fun

We are into summer and having a blast. We have quite a few activities going on, but it's a lot of fun. We had a visit from Tia Jill and Julia. Tio Mike and Max weren't able to make it this time. We are ready for all of them to make the trip when they're ready. Here's the latest:

Erin - Erin and Elizabeth were asked to be in a commercial for a Temple family recreation & fun place, Hank's Town. They shot the commercial today and they had so much fun. The commerical is schedule to air Saturday, July 5th (Melinda's birthday). Erin believes this could be her big break. Look out Hannah Montana! Erin has been to the local waterpark, Summer Fun, and absolutely loves it. She has a summer pass & is ready to go 24/7. Erin is really excited about her latest Webkinz. She has been on the Webkinz website almost everyday now. Evidently it is really cool....I'm too old to know now. Erin has decided she wants to stay in dance and take hip-hop again.

Emily - Em just finished the University of Texas soccer camp today. Em and Dad drove to Austin every morning this week...Austin traffic is still horrible. The camp was from 9-3. Em got a picture with Coach Petrucelli (UT's head coach). Em thought it would be cool to show him the picture in 8 years when she starts to play for him and say remember when. Love her positive thinking. She did great at camp. A trainer from another soccer club, Cortney, was asking about where Em was playing. She is interested in having Em switch soccer clubs and join Lonestar Soccer Club with her. Em just made the select soccer team for Centex Cyclone in Temple. We will probably wait until next year to consider the switch, but it was cool to feel like she was being recruited. Em wore herself out all week.

She had a few friends that made it to the camp as well (Caroline, Ashley, Kaitlyn, Alana, and Valencia). I may be a little biased, but she was the best out there. Em is looking forward to spending a lot more time in the pool since soccer is over and it is hot!

Elizabeth - E has cheer practice once a week for 3 hours. She is still loving it. She probably loves it more now since Melinda is in charge. Mel has a couple of coaches working with the girls, so they are already looking better than last year. E has cheer camp coming up soon. She and Melinda will be doing that for a full week. E is true to her word....I want to hang out with friends, swim & not much else. That is exactly what she is doing. E has decided that Rice University needs to be included in the selections for colleges.

Melinda - Still busy with everything cheerleading. She has things beginning to take shape. She may begin to enjoy more instead of working to organize. Melinda has many projects for the house this summer. She will also be busy with a Math conference in Dallas for a week. Too much going on still....

Eric - Eric took the week off to go to the UT soccer camp with Em. Had a great time watching how many drills Em knew and had an easy time with. Driving every morning and afternoon in Austin traffic wasn't a lot of fun, but it was worth it. I got to speak with Chris Petrucelli (UT head coach) a couple of days. Intense guy that seems to really enjoy the kids. A buddy I work with and I were the only ones that stayed for camp each day for the whole time. The others were probably smarter for getting out of the heat.

School's out!

We made it through the final 2 weeks. There was so much going on I will try not to forget too much. The summer looks to keep everyone busy, but not crazy like during school. Here are the updates:

Erin - Erin made it to the awards ceremony. She wasn't quite sure she could wait to get her trophy. Thankfully, she did and received her trophy for all of her hard work reading. Nana and Papa were able to make it to the awards. Papa offered to take Erin's trophy off her hands, but she had a serious death grip on the thing. Wouldn't have had a chance prying those fingers loose. Erin's teacher, Ms. Tyson, has gone through the growth of the family first hand. She was Elizabeth and Emily's teacher as well. I'm sure she is going to miss not having another Chavez to look forward to in a future class...unless Dad needs to start over. Erin's dance recital was terrific. She had so much fun and it really showed. One of her buddies in dance is Emma Cox. Here's some trivia for you...Tia Jill babysat Emma's Mom growing up. The circle of events is amazing. Could this be the start of the 6 degrees of Erin???


I tried to include some video of Erin dancing...she is 3rd from the left. Erin is looking forward to swimming and playing with her DS Lyte this summer.

Emily - Em had an incredible year. She had so many awards they barely fit on the certificate. Em wanted them to include Gifted & Talented on the award. The GT kids had more work than their regular classmates (Latin, 3 books, additional work, etc). Looking at her certificate, I don't know where they would have put it...no room. Em is really looking forward to the University of Texas soccer camp in 2 weeks. She plans on reintroducing herself to Chris Petrucelli (head coach). She told me she was going to tell him her name and let him know she would be playing for him in about 8 years. He should probably start to know her name. Made sense to me. Em is looking forward to swimming, soccer camp, soccer tournament, and playing with her DS Lyte this summer.

Elizabeth - E finished the year strong. Her overall grade for the 1st semester was a 96. This is what they based her top 10% performance upon. The 2nd semester her overall average was a 98. She didn't let down and kept doing well. We are very proud of her. E found out the last day of school that she made the symphonic band again for next year. This is the school's top band. She was excited a couple of buddies made it this year with her. E received the award for Outstanding Student for symphonic band. Pretty cool since only 1 student receives the award. E received a certificate for participating in the Duke University Talent Search as well. E made the National Junior Honor Society for the 2nd year in a row. Fortunately, she seems to realize this is not an award you just get. You have to work hard all the time to keep your grades high enough to be included. E is looking forward to hanging with her friends at the mall, movies, or whatever. E has cheer camp this summer as well.

Melinda - Mel made it through the rest of the year. She is still working with some partners on math curriculum for the school district. She is neck deep in the cheerleader sponsor thing already. She is getting things organized for the year and for the cheer camp coming up. So much for the break...she hasn't taken a break yet. Mel had a great time with Monika and Kim on their getaway weekend. I suspect that's what helped Mel get through the rest of the chaotic year.

May 2008

We are finally getting to the end of the year. Everyone here is ready for summer break. Still have lots of activities over the next 2 weeks, but here's the latest.

Erin - Erin and Dad went to the Cameron Park zoo in Waco with Erin's class. We had one of Erin's buddies, Ashley, with us during the trip. We had a lot of fun seeing all of the animals. Erin's favorites were the Scarlett Iris and the bald Eagles. They were pretty birds. We got to see the giraffes up close. All of the animals were awake and moving since it wasn't hot. After the zoo, we went with the class for a picnic. Erin rode back to Temple with Dad. We stopped at Marble Slab and had a little ice cream...very good! Erin had strawberry with gummy bears. Watching Erin eat it made my jaw hurt. Erin is very excited about the 1st grade award ceremony in a couple of weeks. This is where she will get her AR trophy. The dance recital is in a week. Erin is tired of practicing and wants to just dance. Eerily sounded like Footloose.

Emily - Em has been very busy with school and soccer. Her GT class started another book, the Invisible Thread. She has stayed busy with her Latin homework as well. Em is close to getting enough points for her AR trophy too. She should have her points in the next week or two.
Em had been practicing with some of the select soccer trainers for our local soccer club. She really enjoyed it. After one of the practices, a trainer brought a speed gun to see how fast the kids could shoot. The kids were pretty excited. Emily shot the ball 40mpg!!! She beat all of the girls with her shot & ALL OF THE BOYS! There were a couple of boys from her school that got a little razzing the next day from Em. She was really excited about winning. Em's team, United, went to the CAYSA invitational tournament. It was for area teams that had won there clubs championship or finished in the top 2 or 3. We won 2 games and lost 1 during the tournament. We missed going to the semifinals by 1 point. One of the teams we beat ending up playing for the championship. The girls played terrific and had a good time. After the tournament, most of the team went to Gattiland to burn off the remaining ounces of energy the girls had left. Em was amazing.
Em tried out for the select soccer team since Dad's knees won't let him coach anymore. We found out yesterday that Em made the team. There were 30 girls trying out, and they are wanting 16 for the team. Em and another girl from our team, Breyanna, both made it. Em is super excited about playing select.

E - E is finishing up her year, finally. She participated in the band solo/ensemble competition and received 1's (highest marks). She got a first place ribbon for her solo. She just had the end of year concert with her band and they sounded really good. We have National Junior Honor Society and the 7th grade awards and E is finished for the year. E is looking forward to swimming and sleeping late this summer.

Melinda - Mel finally got through the TAKS tests and now it's wait and see. She worked really had to help all the kids pass...let's hope they did! Because Melinda doesn't have enough on her plate, she is going to be the cheerleader sponsor at Travis Middle School next year. I'm not sure when she is going to find the time, but she is looking forward to being around E and the other cheerleaders. Now the school will actually have someone that knows what they're doing. Mel goes on her escape weekend with Moni & Kim next week. I know she will have fun and definitely needs the R&R. The girls & I plan to load up on candy and find things to break.

We will have another installment in a couple of weeks to end the school year...YEA!!!

The Home Stretch

We are getting down to the home stretch with school. TAKS tests are next week for Emily, Elizabeth, and Melinda. As usual, Eric's company has decided to have a meeting next week during TAKS testing. The week might be filled with a little more stress for Melinda.

Erin - I am happy to report that Erin has reached her goal of 150 AR points (Yea!!!!). We have set a goal of 200 points by the end of the year to keep her going. With the way she has been reading, she can probably do it. Erin and Dad are going on her class field trip to the zoo on May 12th. We did this last year and had a lot of fun (Dad might remember the camera this time). Erin is really excited about her upcoming dance recital. She is still pretty hush-hush about it...she may have a future with the CIA.

Emily - Em has been busy every morning with RedBird reader. She still really enjoys being part of the program. Em has been very busy with her GT (gifted & talented) class. They have been learning Latin all year. She has a Latin vocabulary test Monday...we just finished studying. Em has been talking about taking Latin as one of her electives through high school. We finished our soccer season and had fun. Em finished as our team's leading scorer. We finished in 3rd place. We will find out this week if we get to go to the playoffs. Depends on how many teams come from Austin...we may get to send 2, 3, or 4 teams to playoffs. Em has been practicing with some of the select team coaches on Sunday afternoon (gives the kids some exposure to the select team coaches and vice-a-versa). Em has done well and enjoys it. Em got asked to join the team that won our league for a 3 on 3 tournament next month. The coached is taking a couple of the kids from his team and asked if Em would play with them. Em knows almost everyone on their team, so she was pretty excited to get to go. We also signed Em up for the University of Texas soccer camp. Em has joked she was going to let the UT coach she will be playing for him in 8 years and wanted him to know her name (I was cracking up!).

Elizabeth - E has been really busy and still has more to go. She competed in the UIL band competition for her school. They did very well (1's and a 2). They beat all of the other schools in Temple. E participated in the UIL math competition in number sense - they didn't announce the results at school and she has been too busy to remember to ask how she did. We attended the Travis athletic awards. Very interesting evening....E received an award that night. She was voted Most Improved Player. The coach has some very nice things to say about E and how hard she always worked & got to be a good player. We were very proud of her. During the awards, some boys received an award for not flunking during any 6 weeks. Completely through me for a loop...an award for what you should be doing. No wonder we have problems in our schools. FYI - this was not an award with the girls.
E made the top 5% of her class this year (top 10 students). We went to an award breakfast honoring the top 5% kids. Needless to say, we couldn't be any prouder of Elizabeth. E had cotillion last night. It was their formal dance. E looked great and had fun!

Melinda - TAKS time is almost over. The testing takes place this week. We can't wait for it to be over for Melinda. She has been killing herself with the tutoring and extra work she does to get all of the kids prepared to do well. She is planning a girls weekend with friends (Monika and Kim) and it couldn't come soon enough. She needs the R&R.

Wish them all luck during the TAKS test and we'll update soon....

Happy Easter

Hope everyone had a great Easter weekend. We really enjoyed the time. We went to Nana and Papa's for a little Easter egg hunt. Thought we might have the appearance of a hockey game, but everyone was civilized while searching for eggs. Dad tried to bump Emily, but she knocked him over! So much for sneaking some of her candy! We have some pictures of the girls with their cousins...incredible how quickly everyone seems to grow up.

Erin - she has already passed the reading level she should be at by the end of the year and then some. She is on pace to get the AR trophy and she is soooo excited about it. She is getting ready for her dance recital in a month or so. She is not discussing what they are learning....it's supposed to be a surprise. Erin has been doing really well with gymnastics...she has her round-off looking really good.

Emily - she has been very busy with her Redbird reader job. She goes to school early every morning, except Mondays. She and Beth, Melinda's team teacher, leave our house around 6:30am. Em has some long days. She is doing great at soccer. We won our last game 9-1. Em had 5 goals...she would have had more, but Dad tried to give the other team a break.

Elizabeth - she has UIL band competition on Thursday this week. She has a research paper she has been working on that is due Wednesday. She also has gymnastics and a science fair project due soon. It's exhausting just listing everything she has going on...going to feel really good next week when her projects are over.

Melinda - getting down to "crunch time" for Melinda and the other teachers with the TAKS test coming soon. Mel seems to be running ragged getting everyone prepared and her own class as well. After this year, we are going to evaluate whether we want to stay in the Temple school system or not. We are going to check out a couple of other options in the next few weeks. We'll keep everyone posted...

Spring Break!

We are in the middle of Spring Break and having so much fun. Emily had her 10th birthday on Wednesday. We celebrated by going to Sea World in San Antonio. We had some friends meet use there. It had been about 7 years since we had been there. Erin had never been. Everyone had a good time despite how crowded the park was. We are going to Melinda's parents, Nana & Papa, for Easter. The girls are really looking forward to seeing everyone and hunting for eggs. Elizabeth has gotten old enough she isn't sure if she wants to do the Easter egg thing or not. Where does the time go? We'll have more in a few days. Happy Easter!

March is here!

Can't believe how quickly time is going by this year. We made it to Spring Break! It's been a busy couple of weeks since the last post. Here are the updates:
Erin - she reached her first goal of 100 AR points! Yeah! She got the T-shirt given to any student at the school that reaches 100. She has been talking about wanting the trophy (150 AR points). With the way she has been reading, she can get there in a month. Erin had a program at school about physical education. She was on the red team and got to dribble a basketball. She had her pink Chuck Taylor's on and looked cute. She had fun with the program.

Emily - she has enjoyed being in the Redbird reader program. She has a 1st grader she works with on reading. Em has been doing very well in soccer. She scored again in our last game. We start the real season March 29th. After this season, we have to decide if she is going to try and play select soccer or keep playing recreation. Em had a birthday party on March 14th. We went to Hank's Town (games and fun) and then a sleepover. We only had 7 girls sleep over this time...we couldn't handle the 17 that slept over last year. Everybody had a lot of fun playing games and going nuts. Believe it or not, the girls started to calm down around 12:00am. I passed out around 11:30pm. Melinda got them to go to sleep around 1:00am (lotta help Eric was). The girls watched the Nancy Drew movie during their sleepover.

Elizabeth - she was almost as ready for Spring Break as Melinda. She had a very busy last week. Aside from all of the school work, she had cheerleader tryouts and UIL band prep. E worked for a couple of weeks learning the routine and getting ready. During the time at school, the 7th graders helped the 6th graders learn the routine. E got to teach and learn at the same time. She really enjoyed it. E made cheerleader again. She will be an 8th grade cheerleader. She really worked hard to be ready...she enjoys cheering so much & is really good at it! After cheerleader tryouts, she had to rush to the high school to participate in the UIL band prep. They ran them through the scenario they will see when they compete for UIL. It was a VERY long day for E, but she was pretty happy with the way everything went.

Melinda - Spring Break came at the perfect time. Mel needed some time to recharge and we hope this will do it. We are going to Sea World in San Antonio tomorrow & then shopping our way back home Thursday. I don't think it will take too much prodding to get Melinda to get a massage while they're off. Like most vacations, this week will be over before we know it.

Look for Sea World updates later in the week....