Good Manners Lunch

One of our elementary schools has a LOT of community involvement. PLUS, the principal I used to work with is the principal there. ;) So, Little Buddy and I (and a couple of friends) got to decorate the cafeteria for a special "Good Manners Lunch" where the kids get to learn some extra good table manners. High goals for a school cafeteria! Since school got out early yesterday, I set the neighbor kids to work (I like to set them to work) on helping me put the little table centerpieces together. Don't look too closely. This is NOT what I was made to do...

The cafeteria crew all put on special chef hats for the event and really got into the idea of a "fancy" lunch. (of sorts)

Little Buddy is helping to tape the last table cloth to the table. Since the tables get 3 to 4 rounds of kids each, we had to think "durable" as well as "decorative"...

The food service guys set up a "fancy" table with linens, glasses, silver and china (ok, may not have been silver and china, but it wasn't plastic) to show the kids how a "proper" table should be set for fancy dinners.

The kindergarteners were the first to arrive and they just "ooooed" and "ahhhhd" at the tables. They were excited about sitting down to a "fancy" lunch at school.

School with a View

I knew he was going to enjoy having that big window seat in his room at some point...




Unfortunately, this was before he pulled on the blinds to put them back down and down they came. On him. On his computer. He was fine. Computer's another story. Thank goodness for the extended warranty against ANY kind of damage. Should be back in 2 weeks with a brand new keyboard installed. Um, Audrey, can we borrow your laptop while you're at school for a while...?

And So It Begins

Fifth grade looks a little different at our house this year...

Glacier Bay in Alaska

The incredible view from our balcony when we got up Sunday morning.

It was the most amazing sunny day as we cruised through Glacier Bay. Some people were even hanging out on the deck in swimsuits. We had to shed layers as we went through the afternoon. Didn't last long though. Temperature dropped as quickly as it went up.

This is the Marjorie Glacier. It was HUGE. The ship hung out here for an hour or so as it spun around so you could see from both sides of the ship.

We took up our spot on the railing and waited as the ship turned. Our patience was rewarded as we saw the glacier "calve" several times on our side. I got lots of good pictures of ice chunks falling into the water.

We're about to pull out of the port in Juneau, so hopefully this will upload before we lose our wireless connection. (this is the 2nd try, actually...)

Grandma, we'll try to connect again tomorrow if we can! ;)

Doing a Little Yardwork

We had planned to do some massive yard work Memorial Day weekend, but the place we needed to get rocks was closed all weekend. What were they thinking closing ALL weekend? I can understand closing Monday. And the crazy thing was, we tried two other rock places and they were both closed as well. They missed out because there were other people sitting at their gates wanting rocks and stuff, too...

So, we had to wait another week to get to work on our landscaping plans. Dad ended up getting off early on Friday, so we rushed to the rock place before they closed and picked up 2300 pounds of moss rock. Hoped it would be enough...
Little Buddy's starting to pull rocks out of the back of the truck to get some of the weight off.

Dad spray painted a line for the edge of the front beds. We pulled the existing bed out in a couple of places to add some extra landscaping. We got most of the work done Friday evening (working into the dark - thankful for the street light in front of our house). Saturday morning, we headed back to the rock place for top soil and mulch.

By 11am, we were finished with yardwork for a while! SO glad we started Friday evening.

We enlarged the front beds and planted a Crepe Myrtle and some other flowers. Still need more fillers for the extra bedding... Looking for just that right something.

We still had rocks left, so we continued around other beds on the side of the house and on to the back yard.

Even though Little Buddy got in a picture, Little Girl was the hardest worker.

And while we were working, Bit and Bear were packing for camp and fixing dinner.

Field Day!

Today was Field Day at the kids' school. They missed it. As you can tell, they were very sad about it. We tried to make up for it as best we could. I think we succeeded...

Little Buddy and Little Girl in one of the many hot tubs around the pool area.

Little Girl slid and slid and slid...

Little Buddy tried lots of "poses" as he came down the slide. Over and over and over...

She saw the camera this time.

Almost missed this shot.

It might be my imagination, but I really think they weren't too traumatized about missing Field Day at school. Whew! Good to know they won't be scarred for life.

Snow - Again... and again... and again...

What a strange winter we've had with all the snow (Christmas, Valentine's, Spring Break). So much so, the last time it snowed the kids weren't even rushing out to play in it. Here are some shots of our 2nd big snow of the season - the Valentine snow.

Heidi liked licking the snow.

Day one of snowfall. I drove the kids to school in this. Crazy. I don't think it was a very productive school day, even though they did go all day long.

A huge snowball fight - like with HUGE snowballs. Do you see the size of that thing flying at Little Girl?? (I believe it missed her.)

The kids had a blast playing until dark in all the snow. It was perfectly sticky, too.

They sledded down the slopes by our house so much, they wore all the snow off. And there was a LOT of snow. Little Buddy is in the red coat running up with the orange sled.

Bear enjoyed eating (and sharing) the Valentine cookies that would not be making their way to school for Valentine parties the next day. Another batch would have to be made over the weekend for the rescheduled school parties...

When Dad got home, we went for a walk (slide) down to the creek. He got pelted with snowballs from the girls the whole way there. I was safe holding the camera... ;)

It was a winter wonderland at the creek.

Then, the next morning we woke up to THIS! More snow!! Dad took pictures when he got up with Little Buddy. It was unbelievable!

Little Buddy was up to his knees in snow as he made his way up the backyard.

Snow - Get it While it's Cold!

Dad is definitely on vacation. He sent the kids out to play in the snow in the dark. Definitely not the norm. Of course, it's also not the norm to have snow twice in one week in our part of Texas. At least not in December. And it was such "perfect" snow, he couldn't pass up the opportunity.

He even took the precious hand-made sled Poppa made years ago out to try out the backyard snow. Bit barely fit. She'll be glad to know I blogged that bit... ;)

Little Girl is spending the night with a friend, so she missed out. She's going to be VERY disappointed when she finds out...

The reddish blur is Bear making her slide down the hill.

This one is all blurry (I was taking all these pictures in the DARK), but I thought it was cool how everyone seems almost ghost-like since they're moving while the camera is setting up the picture. Dad's throwing a snowball (on the left). Bit is the barely visible blur in the center dodging the snowball Dad is throwing. Heidi is just to her right watching. Little Buddy is up on the top retaining wall working on his snowball for the snowman.

Bear is standing at the top of the backyard with the little snowman they built. Great snowball and snowman snow. Maybe he'll still be there in the morning so they can decorate him and we can get a better picture of him. Can you believe this picture is taken in the DARK?! Thank goodness for the tripod. The exposure took forEVER. Bear kept asking if she could move yet...

$2.99 Worth of Fun

Stocking stuffer from Santa - $2.99

Spraying soda all over the lot next door - priceless

Insert 7 Mentos into the tube on the soda bottle (we hear "diet" is less-sticky).

Position yourself so you can easily run away after pulling the string.
Then, "run, Forrest, run"...

Little Girl Twirls

I know. It's been a while. Would you believe I haven't had anything to blog about? Yeah, I didn't think so... ;}

I thought about catching up, but then I decided to take my own advice and start with what the most current piece of "news" might be. Maybe I'll have time to post from the past over the holidays. Or not...

Little Girl had her winter dance recital last weekend. Her class is moving on up the list of Nutcracker dances and they got to do the "Mother Ginger" dance this time. We (the moms) were very impressed with how well they did as a group. I watched the dress rehearsal through the lens of the camera, so for the performance I put the camera down and got to see the whole group. They did good!

It was cold standing in the hallway while I tried to take her picture. This is all I got...

I was taking pictures for her friend Rachel (in the background), too. I didn't get one single picture of Little Girl looking out to the audience. She looked everywhere but... Got some great shots of her friend, though!

Cute little colorful costumes.


I got several shots of her with other dancers and she always looked like she was going the wrong way because the dancers in the 2nd row were doing the opposite of the dancers in the 1st row...

Little Girl and her friend after the rehearsal.

Ok, Grandma - Here You Go

So, because Grandma is getting antsy due to the fact that it's been 3 weeks since the blog was updated... Here's the mundane happenings of late.

Dad let the kids play in the rain one Saturday with the rest of the kids on our street while Mom was gone. They had a blast. We'll try to ignore the fact the Little Buddy took his brand new light sabers out that he had JUST gotten for his birthday with his new Star Wars Wii game...

Little Girl and Bear with two of Little Girl's neighborhood friends. They're all in 3rd grade together at school and live two doors down either direction from our house. They play ALL the time.

Bear cheered in her first Middle School football game as a 7th grade cheerleader. It rained there, too. I got a few pictures before I had to hide the camera, though.

They cheered right through the rain and we only counted twice that they did a cheer that didn't quite go with the game. They were minor infractions, though... :-) They really did a great job. Dad stood up in the stands every now and then (we were almost at the top of the stands) and tried to do the cheer motions with them. Bear was SOOOO embarrassed. Dad was successful in his purpose... Bit swam in her first high school swim meet. She and and few other JV swimmers got to swim at this varsity meet. Hello High School! It was tough, but she had fun.

She was the anchor for her medley relay team. She likes the freestyle stroke and does pretty good on that one. She said she was really nervous and enjoyed cheering the other swimmers on as they swam. Not a competitive bone in her body. She obviously doesn't take after her Dad...

Their team suits didn't come in before the meet so they don't match very well... Bit's in the red and black suit on the starting block below. The girls' team ended up winning the meet!

Little Girl had her first soccer game of the season. They finally got to play after so many rain cancellations. Smiling as usual as she runs all over the field.

This year they get to play a goalie. And they've added 2 more players to the field. She's learning more about positions on the field and her coach is really teaching them how to play the game. They've got a great team and it's fun to see the improvements each season. Some girls have REALLY done a good job sticking with it and learning how to get around the field. We're so lucky to be on this team.

Oh, and they won their first game by like - 10 points. We kind of lost count and then they actually put a limit on the point spread when they posted the results...