An afternoon at the park!

This afternoon, family and friends went to Minute Maid Park to celebrate Kira's upcoming birthday ~ to have lunch, birthday cake and ice cream, and watch the Astros game.

This is the area outside the Center Field Entrance to the ballpark.

Walking into the FiveSeven Grille ~ we went on upstairs!

The inside of the FiveSeven Grille, and the loft upstairs ~ a game room with lots of space for eating, etc.

A view of the baseball field from the loft.

Boys playing Pacman!

Boys watching TV and eating!

Girls eating their lunch ~ Abbi, Isabella, Kira, Morgan ~ cuties!

Austen putting the candles on Kira's birthday cake.

Singing "Happy Birthday" before Kira blew out the candles. Six candles because she's going into 6th grade ~ Austen's logic!

Girls watching the ball game after lunch and party!

Boys, walking back to the car after leaving the ballpark ~ notice the colors of the party-favors bags!

Another shot of the boys and party-favors bags ~ emphasis on the colors!

Kira's Tenth!

Our major celebration of Kira's tenth birthday was last Sunday, July 18, when all the Linehans plus Abbi and I went to Houston's Downtown Aquarium. We've been there several times, but we don't seem to get tired of it! There are lots of things to do there, indoors and out.

Here is a view of the grounds outside the aquarium itself. The carousel is at the left, the ferris wheel is obvious, and the Lighthouse Dive is behind the trees at the right.


Ken, Parker, Kira, and Abbi went on the Lighthouse Dive (making sure they did this BEFORE we had lunch!):

Views of the city from the ferris wheel:

Somewhere across the ferris wheel are Anne, Ken, and Parker!

Views of sharks from the train ride as it went through the "shark tunnel"!!

Inside the aquarium:

The White Tigers! Beautiful!!

The girls were playing in the water fountains, cooling off before we headed for home.




And here is a short video of the girls making the hula hoops go 'round and 'round while playing in the water fountains!

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!

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.