Robert and Simone, beginning to open things. Simone, opening a gift card. Robert and Simone, checking out the present Aunt Anne sent. Simone can add letters and decorations to a darling denim bag. Simone, setting up and playing with her Littlest Pet Shop. Simone, learning how to weave on her new little loom.
Last week and this week, the schools around here have been giving Christmas concerts. Kira is in her school's choir, and Parker and Austen are in their schools' bands. Overall, they were very good! (Just a little biased here!!)
This is from December 8th, when Kira's school choir and choirs from another elementary school, the nearby middle school, and the high school gave performances. At the end of the show all the choirs were onstage singing the last song together. It was wonderful.
Kira's school choir performed six different times between November 21st and December 10th. This is from the last performance, which included a play as well as the singing.
Parker's school band put on their concert on December 9th, but I didn't make it there, sad to say. My Achilles tendinitis was really acting up. =( I'll bet they did wonderfully well, though. The music teachers at the intermediate school are very talented at getting the best performances out of their students.
Austen's school bands performed last night, December 14th. The first video is of the Jazz Band; the second and third videos are of the Wind Ensemble, in which Austen plays clarinet.
(Cut short about 30 seconds when my camera ran out of space for videos!)
On the morning after the super-light "snowstorm," we had very heavy frost -- heavier than I've seen since moving here. It makes sense -- lots of moisture still in the air and rapidly dropping temperatures. I think it was about 24 degrees here this morning, maybe less. All this melts pretty fast, though, once the sunlight starts hitting the frosty ground, roofs, plants, cars, etc.
I doubt that much can be seen here, but there are eensy-teensy snowflakes coming down outside! I can see them easily from my office window, but when I go outside to take photos or videos, it's as if they all disappear! (Click on the photos to "biggify" them.) We had more than this last December!! ~~> Last December's snow
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.
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.
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. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 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.
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:
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!
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!
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!
Simone, opening a gift card.
Robert and Simone, checking out the present Aunt Anne sent. Simone can add letters and decorations to a darling denim bag.
Simone, setting up and playing with her Littlest Pet Shop.
Simone, learning how to weave on her new little loom.
