Class Valentine Party

Kira was dressed up '50s style for her class's Valentine's Day party yesterday.



At the class party, Kira worked really hard decorating this cupcake. What a talented girl!






And a little limbo dancing, just for fun!

Some before-Christmas photos

The Christmas tree on Rockefeller Plaza. This was taken on Saturday evening, December 19th.
No, Robert isn't trying to strangle Simone! He's showing us the snow in her hair! It's also on his and Danielle's coats, in their hair, and on Danielle's hat ... everywhere. This is just inside the walkway that would take us into Grand Central where we waited for the next train to take us back to Scarsdale.
Robert and Ollie
Charlotte, snoozing in her favorite spot since Simone was a baby!
A very sacked-out Ollie!

Some Christmas photos 3

The Spandaus' decorated house! Very cheerful!!

Danielle is helping Simone write her letter to Santa in one of Macy's windows.
Simone's letter, sent to Santa!

The Empire State Building, visible from in front of Macy's entrance.

The plaza in front of Macy's entrance - there are "dripping" lights in those leaf-bare trees, but they don't even show up well in a little video. They were fun to watch, though.

Some Christmas photos 2

Simone and Danielle, working on the gingerbread house.
The finished gingerbread house!
Simone, practicing piano in preparation for her upcoming recital.
The children's nativity scene at the end of Christmas Eve services. Simone is the angel, seated second from the right.

The Spandaus' Christmas tree.

Simone just unwrapped her Christmas Eve gift - a beautiful sweater with fur around the hood.

Some Christmas photos

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.

Christmas concerts

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!)

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Morning after...

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.

Barely visible snow!

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'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!