I know, I know - - been too long

Dear Kids ...

I know I have been neglecting my initiative of writing in this "Letters" blog. Please forgive me. What can I say -- - I am busy taking care of you all, and not taking much time to write about it. But oh it has been such fun around here lately. So much fun indeed.

Tonight, you all are planning a slumber party together in our living room. Victoria is blowing up the air mattress. William wants to sleep in some weird bed thing we bought at a yard sale. Thomas will be sleeping on the couch probably - but we all know the truth - that he will end up back upstairs because he hates the weird noises he hears downstairs in the night. James of course is not participating in this sleepover - and he remains in his crib.

The other day -we had an enormous amount of fun as we went to the Blue Bell Ice Cream factory, put on Easter clothes - - took pictures in a field of Blue Bonnets - drove around Texas A&M - visited a state park - etc. It was an exciting day.

Daddy has been busy, as he finishes up these last weeks in his semester of grad school. He tries hard to balance work, family and college - and I am so proud that he does a good job.

I started homeschooling Victoria - and that has been an adventure all by itself. We go back and forth about the type of curriculum to choose; and so far I've just been doing it on my own. Time will tell how it all ends up. But so far so good... all is well.

Pedro is in the home stretch of his stay here in America ... he departs back to Brazil on May 26th and I can hardly believe it has been about 10 months already. You guys are going to miss him big time when he leaves - - but he is talking about returning for college; so maybe we'll see him in the not so distant future.

Meanwhile; we have accepted a foreign exchange student from Germany who will arrive in August. Her name is Merle and we have been communicating through email. She seems ideally suited for our family. She plays the flute, loves to draw, likes kids, etc. She'll be arriving just as Marie is leaving from her summer visit here.

Grandma and Grandpa Larry from VA will be visiting us the third week in June. Before that, we are hoping to make a trip to Wisconsin to visit Grammy and Grand-Dad. So much fun and excitement in the air. I can hardly wait.

Right now, classical music is playing on the television via the X-BOX ... and I can't believe how much you all like it.

Goodnight my sweets. ta ta until next time. MAMA loves ya !