to Washington-on-the-Brazos

Yesterday, we went to the state park at Washington-on-the-Brazos, just southwest of Navasota. The park contains a wonderful visitor center with many exhibits explaining Texas history, the reconstructed building where the Texas declaration of independence from Mexico was drafted and signed, a terrific picnic area overlooking the Brazos River, and the restored and still functioning Barrington Living History Farm. We all had a terrific time.


The Brazos River


Tree climbing after lunch was a big hit with all three kids!





The reconstructed building where the Texas declaration was drafted and signed.



More tree climbing!

Where the ferry used to take people and their possessions across the Brazos River.

Lots of wildflowers ... all over the place. They've clearly had more rain that we have at home.


The farmhouse on the Living History Farm is built in standard Texas "dog-run" fashion; that breezeway between the main rooms on the first floor is magnificent on a hot day!


The cookhouse was built separately and away from the main house. If it happened to burn down, the entire farmhouse wouldn't burn down, too!

The barn was also built in "dog-run" fashion. It and the other farm buildings were built away from the main house.

2nd graders' field day

Kira and all the other 2nd graders at her school had their annual field day on May 13 - postponed from May 6 because of heavy rains and soggy fields! They had a GREAT time!

Mother's Day flowers - beautiful!

Mother's Day flowers from Robert, Danielle, and Simone. They are gorgeous! My smallest cat, Ruse, however, thinks that flowers and leaves are snacks! So I have kept the flowers in my bathroom - with the bedroom and bath closed off for as long as the flowers are looking good!

More in my back yard

In the first photo, you can see the 'spent' amaryllis blooms from the first stalk - and the new blooms from the second stalk. The second stalk of flowers was a big surprise to me!

In the second and third photos, you can see some of the day lilies that have started to bloom in my little bit of forest!

Spring 2008!

Gorgeous stuff in my back yard!

Catching up

Here's Kira in her Easter dress and (below) and hunting Easter eggs after church. (She's the blur at the left!)

And here are some snaps of Ken's birthday party. Since he had to work on his birthday (the 31st), we celebrated on the 30th when he was home!
Kira was especially ecstatic about the candles - the kind that are supposed to relight after being blown out. Well, one of them worked!

UPDATE: Austen objected to the photo above that includes him. He prefers this one; he is in the "guise" of Martha Stewart's second cousin twice removed!!

Hoedown 2008

Here are some photos from Kira's last hoedown -- at least, her last at her elementary school!

Amazing bird

Right in the center of this photo, there's a very large bird. I think it's some kind of hawk. There have been three of them around here for the past few weeks. They fly from tree to tree or housetop to tree or they soar across the area. They're beautiful. I wish I knew exactly what they are. (Click on the photo to "biggify" it.)

Updates!

Here are some update pix of Taylor and Jayden, the li'l darlings!

Quality??

Class.
Character.
Excellence.
You make it happen!

Does anyone recognize those lofty thoughts? Why, they're posted on the Klein Oak High School homepage, of course!

So far, so good, I was thinking as my oldest grandchild works his way through his freshman year in high school. This is usually the toughest time for a school kid -- adjusting to the demands of high school, especially when he is taking several pre-AP classes.

Then on the first day of second semester, he and many others at KOHS were handed new schedules! What? A new schedule? Why? He is enrolled in year-long courses, and his grades are really good. The excuse reason given was that these "changes occurred due to class leveling." Class leveling? Was someone complaining about class sizes? Was this done with the knowledge of the teachers? Did anyone even CARE what the students and parents thought?

And how does this concept of "class leveling" fit with class, character, and excellence? If a student is having real success with a teacher, and then is moved to another teacher's class that is supposedly the same course -- except that the original teacher was keeping a good pace and (as it turns out) is TWO UNITS ahead of the current teacher -- how is that "class" or "excellence"? What does that tell the student that builds his "character"?

Overall, I've been pretty impressed by the good education my grandkids in Texas are getting in this district. Even with this stupid move on administrators' parts, the level of education is still noticeably better than in California. But really -- what message does some political decision like this send to the students?

"Musical" video games

Austen, Parker, and Kira, along with their friends Abbi and Austin, have discovered some "musical" video games. These games don't MAKE music, you understand! The players just have to hit the right buttons on the "guitars" or the right drum on the "drum set" at the right time to rack up points. It's really a hoot, but I am not sure we should be calling these games "musical"!

And here is a link to a couple of videos. The picture "quality" is almost completely non-existent, but the sounds alone tell what these games are all about!

Birthday

Wow! It's been a while since I posted. Lots of things have happened, but I've taken very few photos. Oh, well.

Between Christmas and New Year's Eve, I went to visit my folks in California. It was a short but very good visit. And the plane flights were smooth and easy, no lost luggage, etc. Marvelous.

Kids went back to school on Jan 2, and life is back into some kind of routine. Austen will experience his first-ever Semester Exam schedule this coming week. He's really happy that he'll get out early - maybe he hasn't figured out yet that the extra time is meant to be used to study for the NEXT exams!!

Today is my birthday, and so far, so good. It's a gorgeous day outside, not hot, not too breezy. Just right. I'm going to send my mom a big bunch of flowers - SHE'S the one who should be celebrated!