On Mother's Day

On Mother's Day, Ken treated Anne and me (and two kids!) to an afternoon at the ball game, watching the Astros from one of the suites. It was a beautiful day, and the big roof was open ... the first time I've watched one of these games in open air. Usually it's so hot and humid, the roof is closed and the a/c is on!

We had a wonderful time!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Kira, having poured her first glass of sparkling cider!

Austen, setting up an artsy photo of his glass of sparkling cider!!

Three siblings: Parker, Austen, and Kira

Parker in parades!

Parker has been with his ROTC unit in two parades this month. 

The first was on Nov 12 for Veterans Day at Klein Memorial Stadium. He's carrying the New Mexico flag in this first photo.

This morning, he was in the parade down the streets of Tomball. Such wonderful groups of kids!!

Out to eat!

Yesterday, Anne's three kids and I went to lunch together ... something we haven't done in quite a while! Usually one or the other is at work or some other kind of activity. Walking to La Madeleine in Market Street in The Woodlands, I was reminded of the many times we did just this during the past seven years! 

See how tall they have all gotten? Those boys are both about 6' tall now.

Lovely place to wander around ... even when it's in the 90s outside!

Latest pix

Here are the most recent, really good photos I have of Anne's kids:

Parker - in AF JR ROTC uniform

Kira, about to play her favorite sport!

And Austen, on a photography trip around Austin, TX, with friends.

These are to keep everyone up to date about how these three are doing ... just fine!!

Parker and Sarah

Before Sarah's school's Military Ball last night ... such a wonderful pair of young people!

Wildfires

These are photos I took on Sept 9th and 10th while the Waller/Montgomery/Grimes counties wildfire was still blazing away. Very frightening.

Here's the column of smoke as seen from the high school, which is about 3 miles east of the road we were on in the photos above. 

And here's the annual KOHS tribute to all the people who died on Sept 11, 2001. Parker and others in ROTC helped set all this up.

Our TGIF on a Thursday night!

Fun times at Chili's!

Lt. Linehan, Flight Commander

Entering his sophomore year, Parker was chosen to be a flight commander in his ROTC unit. This past week, the ROTC unit at his school held their own freshman orientation, and he had charge of one of the units of new freshmen!

It's Parker's braces-come-off day!

Parker's smile is a nice one - and he'll smile even more after those braces come off!

Happy young man!!

This was taken in late May when we were at lunch in The Woodlands.

Here he is when he just got out of the chair in Dr. Studebaker's office ...

... and in the car as we waited in the drive-through for lunch at Whataburger!!

Honoring Band Seniors and Families

Thursday night, Sept 23, was when the Band Seniors were honored before that night's football game. What a nice, big, talented group of students!

Here are the seniors and their families as they were grouping themselves before walking onto the sidelines of the field. If you click to "biggify" this photo, you can see Ken in the red shirt at the very left of the photo. Anne is visible a bit more to the right (blonde, sunglasses), then Parker's head and shoulders (yellow shirt), and Austen's shoulders! Kira was there, but she's not tall enough to be visible!!

Here they are on the field: Parker, Ken, Austen in band uniform, Anne, and Kira. I'll add a video of all this if I can figure out how to get it off the camera and onto my computer!

Some pre-game shots of the Panther cheerleaders and others preparing for the football team to run out onto the field.

The band is preparing for their "stand music" which will include the National Anthem. It's a very large high school band -- well over 200 students.

First day of school -- again!

Kira starts fifth grade today. Very cute!

And her shoes and laces are trendy, too!

Austen starts his senior year in high school today; Parker starts his freshman year. Where did time go, anyway??

Austen REALLY didn't want his photo taken, so posting this one is his penalty for non-cooperation! This is a good one of Parker!!

Independence Day 2010

We all went to Judy and Will's in Richmond, TX, yesterday afternoon -- for dinner and good company and then a bonfire and fireworks when it finally got dark! After getting about 6" of rain on July 2 and 3, the kids could shoot off fireworks with no chance of setting stuff on fire ... other than the bonfire, that is, which was there to help get rid of a large tree downed by a windstorm a while ago.

Judy fosters cats and kittens for the Houston SPCA. Currently she has a few who have had to have a leg amputated, a litter of kittens with no mama-cat, older cats, and others with special needs.

Here is Anne (and Austen in the background) with one of the kittens. They are precious!

Parker, with a kitten:

Kira with a kitten:

The bonfire!

Kids and fireworks!

And here's a short video I took of one of the very successful fireworks, called Fiesta.

End of the school year 2009-2010

Yesterday was the last day of the 2009-2010 school year around here. All three grands are very happy about it, of course!

Austen is entering his senior year in high school, and he has reached two high goals for himself in the school band: He was elected band president - hooray! - and he continues as one of the drill instructors, who work within the marching band to help ensure that the others are in their places and learn their routines for marching season in the fall.


Parker will enter his freshman year in high school, and he's really looking forward to being part of the Jr. ROTC there.

Kira is very excited about having been promoted to fifth grade. She jumped off the bus yesterday and ran to me with the news, report card in hand!

Simone is still in school; I think FASNY closes out the school year in mid-June sometime. She will be entering fourth grade next fall.

What a bunch of grand grands, huh? =)

Mother's Day at the Astros game!

Here are some photos from our Mother's Day afternoon at the Astros game. Ken and Austen were working, but Anne, Kira, Parker, and I had a wonderful lunch, not to mention one of our favorite views of the game - from the far end of center field!

Parker and Kira had unlimited sodas and goodies.
Loads of fun!!

Music, music, music

We are at the beginning of springtime music performances, and they are wonderful, as usual.

I took Kira to her school's choir performance at the nearby Methodist Church, where they were holding their annual Eggstravaganza Market. Anne made it there on her way home from work, in time to hear the choir perform.

Parker's band's pre-UIL concert (dress rehearsal for regional competition) was also given last night, and Austen represented our family in the audience.

Tonight was Austen's band's pre-UIL concert, and I went to that one. Gorgeous and beautiful, as usual!

I took a photo and a video of the choir performance, but I'm still learning how to use that camera ... so I may or may not be able to add them to this post later. No camera tonight!! (I don't think Austen cares whether I have a camera or not!)

Parker's project for French class

I took this photo on Tuesday morning even though Parker hadn't quite finished his project. He finished Danielle's name and lettered his, Kira's, and Austen's names at school Tuesday morning. But I think his layout is a good one. Click on the photo to make it larger (and readable!).



The little white rectangles by each person's name contain Parker's descriptions of his family members -- written in French. Once in class, he had to use this to make a presentation. That would have been fun to 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"!!