Ray's B-party!

Ray wanted a birthday party, so mom made it happen. Dad was scared to death, as he almost missed his flight the day before for attending Ray's party. Mom had another mission so she had to leave before the party ended. It was a pretty scary relay but we made it!

Tony's violin

Ray's violin moved up to 1/2 size. Tony's violin need to move to a real 1/8 size from his paper box. A big step.
"Tony, do you want to get a new violin?" mom asked.
"How much does it cost?" Tony asked.
"180 dollars," mom said.
"That is OK. Get it." Tony replied calmly with a little thinking.

This surprised mom, as Tony even didn't show much emotion on such an "expensive" thing. The other day mom asked Tony why he thought 160 dollars was OK for a violin.
Tony replied, "Because I can afford it."
He meant the money he saved in his little piggy bag. He is not kidding. He is having about $200 saved so far.

Tony's bed

Mom bought a new bed for Tony and sold Tony's old bed for 60 dollars.
"Where is my bed?" Tony found his bed was gone.
"I sold it", mom replied.
"How much did you sell it?", Tony asked.
"60".
"Can I have 30 dollars? It is my bed", Tony asked.
Before mom replied, Ray talked to Tony, "If mom give the money, can you give 15 to me?"
Mom cannot hold her laugh.
It is like an old Chinese saying, JIAN MIAN FEN YI BAN.

Something remarkable

Mom dropped Tony and Ray at the entrance of Butler music school. She needed to find parking so Ray and Tony walked to the classroom themselves. When mom came over after parking, Tony was playing violin while Ray was teaching on the hall way.
Actually Tony asked to play Ray's violin as Tony's 'violin' is still a violin shaped box. And Ray not only let Tony play, but also helped him to press the right string to make the sound better. Love Tony's curiosity and motivation and Ray's kindness. It is just such a sweet scene!

Near UT campus, where mom can find free parking

This year UT string programm shirt is long sleeve. And the design is very nice.

Bike to school

Ray's lunch at school

Starter's violin

Tony got his first upper front teeth! Congratulations!

UT string project started!

This year Tony is also in. Here is the convocation last year.

Ray caught a little frog

Swimming lesson continues

Since Ray has been in swimming team so long, dad felt Ray should be able to coach Tony. When dad was away, dad gave Ray this assignment with some incentive. Tony was not happy about it in the beginning, as he was concerned about Ray could be mean. The attitude changed faster than Texas weather, right after dad gave incentive for being a good swimming student. Both reacted over the phone like:"mom, let's go to the pool."
Finally, mom managed to take them to the pool today and mom saw such a sweet moment as two brothers worked together so well as a coach and an apprentice. Tony was so serious about his butterfly stroke and Ray had been trying to teach him and thinking hard to get some supporting tools like kicking board. This was a good learning experience for both of them. Way to go!

Star war party rock!

Nathan's mom and dad hosted an awesome birthday party for him. Every kids got a chance to get jedi training. Here are a few scences captured by mom.

Tony was totally inspired by the party and continued to make his own star war fantasy after going home.

 

Tony tried and tried. He tried so hard but still felt down from climbing pole. Ray finished it even without trying.

The bag loaded skywalker through maze is a challenging weight training and Tony's favorite. Tony repeated it a few times. Even when everyong was eating, Tony quickly finished his stuff and loaded himself up again into the maze. There must be some really serious fantacy on his little mind.

Sabering on balance bar is a must training.

Ray knows how to pose.

 

The final act, blow the death star. Ray blew the death star with a really hard hit.

Two archeologists

Tony became a blue jay!

Ryan's stay

Summer break at Grace's house

Soccer season in spring

It was a great season. Ray has played in Rattan Creek TASK group on Sunday for three years. It is the first time he plays outside of that group. It works out well. In YMCA 1st/2nd grader league, making a goal in a game was not easy, as the defense was pretty tight. Ray averaged almost one score for a game, as his team's leading scorer. The highlight of the season was the game against Will's team. Ray was late due to violin recital. When we arrived, the game was tied at 0:0, and there was 10 minutes left. With fresh legs, Ray scored the only two goals for his team. We all were impressed.

Graduation flag leader

Tony told mom if she was coming for his graduation ceremony. Mom said of course. "Guess who is gonna hold the flag?" "Who?". Mrs. Sheila picked me because I am always a great little helper".

Want and Need

Dillon has a Nitro swimming gunn, which is pretty nice and mom thinks it is very cool. The other day, Mom and Ray were shopping something in Lane 4. Mom saw the Nitro gunn and asked Ray if he wanted one. Ray peeked the price tag, which was $100 for adult size. Kid's size might be cheaper. Then said, first, I don't need this. Second, look at the price. I am not gonna spend 100 dollars for this. So I don't want it.
BCES did a good job to have him understand the differenece of need and want and Ray has been using it fairly well.

25 cents gift for mom

Here is another mother's day. It happened to be our neighhood yard sale day. Both Ray and Tony were pretty excited about going yard sale. They got a bunch of dollar bills and ready to go. Mom were worried about too much traffic and didn't want them to go. Ray and Tony insisted to go.
Well, the compromise came as to do it in our street.
A while back later, Ray and Tony came home with hands full. They totally spent 25 cents. Ray and Tony bought a plate for mom as mother's day gift. And they got a big stuffed dog as a free bonus. Now Ray and Tony got their fourth dog.
It is a fun day to them.

Ray' warts

Ray had a few warts on his fingers and toes. It has been pretty bad. Mom and dad had been really worried about it, as they were growing bigger and bigger. And they are expanding to other fingers. We knew they were caused by virus. But we don't know how long he is getting over with it. This week, Ray suddenly found out one of them fell off. Wow, we finally felt easy.

An easy way to blog

I just found out an easy way to blog. Really easy! I am not telling how but it is quite amazing. Actually this blog was written with this way. This first actual product from this way. Way to go!

President and VP

That is what Ray claims. And rarely Ray thinks Tony is the 'P' man.

Auntie Yingqian visited Austin

Visit Xingxing in Houston

We went to Auntie Clare's house at Houston in Christmas with Auntie YingQian. Xingxing can walk around now. We also saw Xingxing's grandpa and Grandma.

Math Burger and Knight' Sword

Ray won two burger tickets by finishing Math superstar work. He only used one and shared his burger with Tony. The other ticket was saved to show to dad.
Tony has a new favorite toy now. He even held it when he was asleep. It is a knight's sword, a gift from Ray with the help of Ray's piggy bank. Don't know why he likes it so much, he just likes so much. Ray's words count, actually it counts a lot to Tony.

Confidence

On the way back home, Ray asked dad to go to HEB for honey nut Cherrios.
"Let's call mom so she can buy it on her way from work," dad proposed.
"No, we don't need to buy it. Mom bought it already." Tony commented.
"No, we don't have it. You must confuse it with parmesan cherrios (a cherrios Ray dislikes)." Ray quickly declared.
Ray was kinda right as we did have parmesan cherrios at home, dad figured.
"No. It is honey nut cherros. It sits on the kitchen corner" Tony insisted.
"You don't even know how to read. That must be parmesan cherrios." Ray was quite confident.
"But there are bee on the box." Tony didn't argue if he can read or not even he can read a little bit.
Well, Tony might see an empty honey nut cherrios box ... Dad figured.
"How much confidence do you have, Tony?" Dad asked and intended to wrap up this conversation.
"At most 50%," Ray said.
"80%," Tony replied.
Well, both traded 50% and 80% number verbally back and forth. Fortunately, just verbally.
When we got home, both forgot what happened. Dad was curious enough to bring this up. Ray went to the food closet and picked up a box of parmesan cherrios on the corner.
Tony went to another corner in the kitchen and pointed to a solid box of cherrios with bees on the box. Actually the box is still in HEB plastic bag. Dad had no idea how he could see bee. Maybe he pulled down the bag to check it on purpose.
Well, 80% confidence has a pretty good chance to be right.