First football game '07

On Friday, August 31, Austen's school went to The Berry Center in Cypress, TX, for their first football game: football players, cheerleaders, drill team, and - best of all! - the marching band!

The Berry Center is quite impressive. We were really surprised, though, at how sparse the fans on the "home team" side were. We, the visiting team, had far more fans, not to mention that we had our band; their band left before the game (delayed by threatening lightning storm) even began.

Here's the band in the stands before half-time. Austen is in the very center of the photo.

And here he is, also in the center of the photo, putting on his jacket and headgear in preparation for their half-time performance.

I took some videos of their performances, too: playing the school's fight song during the game and part of their half-time performance. Too bad they were facing the wrong audience!!

It was very late when we all got home. We all had a good time, even though the game was delayed by the storm that never came!

Bus stop

Yesterday was Kira's first day of second grade, and today was her first day to ride a school bus to school. You can't imagine how much excitement that generated! Here she is with her friend Abbi, Abbi's brother Austin, and other neighborhood children.

She got on that bus so fast, I was lucky to get a shot of the back of her pink backpack as she climbed aboard!

Band practice

I took these from the car this afternoon. Hot, hot, hot out there! It'll be interesting to see their performances from football stands in another ten days or so.

My resident critter

If you look carefully (or click on the picture to "biggify" and see better), you can see the toad that has taken residence inside that drainpipe. He is just sitting on top of the black drain, just at the left of the downspout.

He loves it there, I guess. Whenever it has rained a lot - and we've had PLENTY of rain this summer and are due for some more - he sits in that drainpipe and croaks and croaks!

He's very noisy, especially at night or just after a downpour!

Kira - so much fun!

On a day when going to get big brother Austen a haircut was NOT high on Kira's list of fun things to do, she made some fun for herself anyway. She built the tallest Lego tower she had ever done -- right there in the waiting room. She had a good time even though she didn't want to go in the first place!!


Then there were her swimming lessons, and she has really improved, especially her backstroke.

A new game for Austen

Austen bought a new video game that includes a pseudo-guitar. Here are some photos of him enthralling Parker, Kira, Austin, Abbi, and Alex one afternoon with his amazing video game skills!

What a way to spend a hot summer afternoon, huh?

Kira turns 7!

Happy seventh birthday to Kira yesterday! Kira and Abbi and their brothers (and Anne and I, of course!) went to the skating rink again, and all the kids had a great time re-learning how to stay up on those skates!

Parker and his pal Austin even entered one of the races!!

Kira had lots of help enjoying her ice cream cake and opening her presents!


Such a happy crew! And lots of laughs for Anne and me, too, as we watched their antics in the rink!!

More summer fun

Life continues to be nice and active this summer. Not any kind of go-go-go, frenetic activities, but enough to keep people from being bored!

Kira and Abbi were at Spring Baptist's vacation Bible school last week, and Thursday night, all the kids put on their performance.

Parker has been cleaning up his room and rearranging stuff. He is very proud of his trophy and medal collection from this past school year and baseball season.

Yesterday, we went to the Houston Children's Museum, and here are a couple of photos of Kira and Parker lifting themselves up via a pulley system.


Kira and Austen painted Kira's face!

Fourth of July

We went to see the Astros play -- from the Nine Amigos restaurant terrace again. What a wonderful place to relax and watch a ballgame!



And what's more American than watching a baseball game and kids eating cotton candy?!

What's happenin'??

So far, our summer has been active enough to suit just about everyone.

We've been playing with kitties, including one new toy (this kitty jungle gym) so far this month. I have my eye on another at Target, to add to the collection!

We've been to the new swimming pool, including taking Kira there for swim lessons. Parker's next. His swim lessons start on July 9.

Kids were getting ready for Father's Day -- posing for an appropriate photo that Anne printed and gave Ken for his office!

Father's Day afternoon was spent watching an Astros baseball game from a suite! Such luxury!!

We sent Parker off to camp on June 25, and he returned on the 28th. He had a TERRIFIC time, of course!!

So far, so good, even though we've also had rain, rain, rain. Not as badly as in northern and central Texas, but still ... lots of rain.

Fun in the water

Kira, Abbi, and Alex had a great time on the trampoline the other day -- with a sprinkler on it, too! It's a fine way to keep cool on a hot day. (Lots and lots of sunscreen was used, too!)

End of Baseball Season

Well, they did it! The Red Sox won the End of Season Tournament on Wednesday night, ending the season 21-3-0. They also won the South Zone Tournament and placed 3rd in the state tournament. Here are the teammates all lined up, ready to receive their EOS trophies. (You can click on each photo to "biggify" it.)

And here is an excellent team photo with their EOS team trophy (the big one!) front and center! Coach Kelly (on a business trip) was missing, but we know he'd love to have witnessed the last three nights of playing. Huge thanks to Coach Mike -- and to the other dads and one big brother who pitched in to help with coaching this week.

Wow, again!

After winning the South Zone Tournament on May 20, the team went to play in the state tournament in Grand Prairie this past weekend. The night of June 1, there were no games, but there was a team swim party and awards were given out. On June 2, the team had two games and won both. They came in third in the tournament - which means third in the state for their age-group. They had a wonderful time, and so did the parents.

Here are some photos of the picnic dinner for the team between the two games on Saturday.

After the picnic dinner, all the teammates and some of their siblings were taken back to the ball field for the second game.


Here's what Anne's car looked like! All the vans and trucks and cars were painted up like this!!

Parker was given the game ball for the second game; he made the hit that brought in the winning run. That game ended with a 7-6 score. He's flanked by his teammates, "Mo" on his right and Blake on his left.

This morning, in the hotel lobby, Coaches Kelly and Mike gave out the awards for the Red Sox team's third-place status. Coaches and families are all very proud of this team.