Kira's school choir performs

Kira's school choir performed this afternoon at the "Dickens on Cypress Creek" event at The Forum on Cypresswood Drive.

Here's a good profile of Kira with her choirmates just before the performance began.

Singing!!

The choir in the setting. It was lovely. (Kira's at the left.)



And a video --

From Halloween

Kira decided to be a geisha this year, but really didn't want the white face paint. It was enough to get the red paint on her lips! Her hair went up beautifully, though, and stayed put amazingly well!


Parker - no surprise!! - dressed as an Army guy, wearing his dad's jacket and boots (which he hadn't put on yet when I took this photo)!


Both kids had a great time. They went around neighborhoods near home first and then I drove them to my neighborhood. Kira had to have a second basket for her loot!

Austen was with the high school band at their last marching band contest of the fall. Afterward, he went to a Halloween party at a friend's house.

Everyone was very happy! We do like "happy"!!

Even the lake is overflowing!

The creeks have 'riz!

Here is only one of the creeks in this area, but it's at least 10' or 12' above normal right now, after all the rain we've gotten in the past couple of weeks. It's impressive!






After Hurricane Ike last year, it was much higher than this! The footbridge in the first and third photos was completely under water after the hurricane, so you can figure out how high on that stone wall the water was, too. It looked as if the trees along the creek banks were drowning, poor things.

Friday night football in Texas!

We've been to only two games this season so far, but Austen and the KO marching band have been to all of them, of course!

None of the photos I took worked (flash doesn't do well out in the open after dark!), but here's a video from last Friday night's game:



The band and crowd were really more animated that this video indicates. I'm amazed they were since the team did so badly ... all night long!

Memorial Service for Dad

UPDATE ON SEPT 29: My dad's ashes will be interred tomorrow, September 30, at 11:00 am PDT. I'll be observing several minutes of silence about then, but in Central time.
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Riverside National Cemetery, near March Field, is where my dad's memorial service was held on September 17th. His ashes will be interred there soon. It was a full military service: gun salute, the playing of "Taps," and folding and presenting the flag. The cemetery's flag was at half-staff in his memory that day, too.

To my Dad -- Jan 1918 - Sept 2009

My dad passed away late Thursday afternoon, Sept 10, 2009, and I want to post a couple of really good photos that include him. One of these days, I'll find more, but these are our favorites at the moment.

In this photo, taken in Nov 2005, he sits at the left, and he has family all around him. He loved his family! And that little grin ... his own grin, as if he were sharing a secret with someone!


This is a photo of my dad and mom around Christmastime in 1984. This is one of my favorites, too, for all the obvious reasons!


And here is a poster that the neighborhood children made for my mom:


We all love you, Dad.

September 11th Remembrance

Students at Austen's school set up this display to remember and pay honor to all those who lost their lives eight years ago. This is very impressive.

Austen turns 17!!

Today is Austen's 17th birthday! After school, he had band practice, as usual, and when he went to his car to come home, his car had been thoroughly decorated by his friends! When he first saw his car, there was a big pink piece of butcher paper across most of the right side of the car with a happy birthday message and the signatures of his friends, along with red streamers and beads and other imaginative decorations!

Below are the photos of what was left after he got home.




The big pink piece of paper covered most of this (above) side of the car!

Afterward, we all went to Romano's Macaroni Grill in The Woodlands for his birthday dinner; then, birthday cake once he got home!

Happy birthday to Austen!!

Parker is 14!!

Happy Birthday, Parker!!



After dinner at Chili's, the staff had Parker stand on the seat so everyone could see him while we all sang Happy Birthday!

First game of the season

Here are some videos of the first game of the KOHS season -- well, not of the game, but of the marching band's first halftime performance of this fall! It's very hard to hear the music because 1) they played facing the home stands (not us in the visitor stands) and 2) there were some REALLY noisy people sitting nearby! Oh, well ... that's a football game for you!

Just before school starts...

Last night was the marching band's performance for their families. Percussion units have been practicing since mid-July; the rest of the band and color guard have been learning new music and performance moves since the beginning of August. All their hard work really shows! It was a wonderful performance -- in sections and all together!

Here is the drumline with the rest of the percussion section in front of the stage. They are all just marvelous!

Here the entire band is playing, being directed by the three drum majors (standing on the raised stands). The drumline was still on stage, and the rest of this very large band was encircling the audience, mostly in double rows. The sound was amazing, and the quality of their performance was wonderful. They are fantastic, anyway, and to be this good after less than 4 weeks of practice as a whole is just awesome!

The color guard flag girls performed for a couple of minutes (next two photos).

And here are the members of the color guard who perform with "rifles" --

I can't wait for the first football game so we can see all of them performing all together!

Lizard on the door!

After I noticed this little beauty on the outside of the front door, I decided to leave the house a different way. No need to disturb his peace!

Spandaus in Amsterdam

Here are two photos sent this morning (around 2 pm in Amsterdam today!) of Simone and Robert trying on some of the wonderful items at the Diamant Museum - looks like fun!

Simone is "wearing" the Queen of Holland necklace and the Bridal Tiara of Queen Elizabeth II of England!

Robert is "wearing" a tiara from the Russian Imperial Treasury, a tiara worn by the last Russian Empress, Alexandra, wife of Czar Nicholas I (before the Russian Revolution, of course).

More birthday doin's

Today, Anne took Kira and three friends (and me) to Minute Maid Park to watch the Astros play the NY Mets. The game was sad, but we all had a good lunch and a fun time.

The four girls before we left for the game


The four girls as we were getting settled at our table


Kira and Abbi sharing a BIG brownie sundae!


Jenna and Morgan sharing their brownie sundae!


Kira's shot of the field and the stadium from where we were sitting

Kira went shopping!

Kira got a gift card for Justice (clothing for girls), as well as a 40% off card! She was very excited and had been browsing through the Justice website yesterday. Today we went to the nearby store, and she had a field day! Shop, shop, shop!

Here are Kira and Abbi modeling Kira's finds - two shirts with wonderful words and designs, and a sparkly hat. She's a very happy girl!

Happy Birthday to Kira!

Today, Kira turned 9. She's such a happy girl!

First, she and her brothers and I went to Starbuck's - her choice for breakfast! Then when we got home, she started opening all her cards. She collected a tidy sum, and after Austen's clarinet lesson for the week, we went to pick out her new NintendoDSi.