Cookout & Hoedown!

Jim and I were able to join J.D. at his school for lunch on the day of the school Cookout and Hoedown. The funny part was that J.D. doesn't like hamburgers, so Jim and I ate the school lunch and he ate a lunch from home. J.D. enjoyed us eating lunch with him at his desk.


After lunch, Jim and I did some volunteer work for the PTA helping with the Cookout, then we got our seats for the Hoedown. It was fun for J.D. to have one of his friends from church as his partner. They danced well together.

Here is a short representative video of their dancing. They were right in front in the center and the audience was seated around the sides and back, so we didn't have a great angle for filming. Just watch for the striped shirt and the Woody hat.

Here's J.D with a friend from his class during dance where they pretended to be a cactus.

He did a great job and this year, he walked and danced normally in his boots because he had practiced wearing them the week before.

Unfortunately, although Grandma flew into town on her way home from Florida that afternoon, she was not able to get here in time for the Hoedown. She has to watch the video with the rest of you.

Janalynn's First Hairdo

She finally has enough hair to do a tiny ponytail on the side with a bow on it. I snapped a quick picture before church because I wasn't sure if it would stay in for long (but it did). I didn't get a great angle, so it looks like it is on top of her head, but it is really on the side. Here's to the beginning of many hours spent doing little girl hair.

Destination Imagination

For the past few months, J.D. has been participating in an after-school program called Destination Imagination. He and his team met with their team leader (a parent) once a week after school for an hour to create things using their imaginations. Then they prepared for a regional competition where they would present a structure they created out of newspaper and a skit they created as well. They were judged at the competition, but everyone received a medal and certificate for First Grade, just for participating. J.D.'s team decided to build an alien structure out of newspaper and also an alien ship out of a box and various other items. Their skit was a news report of a strange structure and also a commercial about eating fruit. The kids came up with all of the ideas by themselves. Their team leader just guided them and wrote everything down.

The competition was yesterday at a local high school. Here is J.D. and one of his friends with the structure.


Here is their skit. I'm not proficient at editing video with my new camera yet, so you get the whole thing, with the judges asking them questions at the end. (You'll probably have to turn up the volume to hear.)



After they presented their skit, they also had an "instant challenge" where they were given some materials and they had five minutes to create characters or things out of paper bags and other materials and to plan a skit, then they had two minutes to present the skit. J.D.'s team of six First Graders spent the whole five minutes in silence, just working on creating different things and didn't plan a skit. When the judge said, "Time's Up," J.D. said, "But we didn't talk about our skit yet." The judge told them just to improvise, so they got up and just goofed around for two minutes. Oh well! After the instant challenge, the judges presented them with medals and certificates. Here is the whole team with their structure and their medals and certificates.


Here is J.D. with his medal and certificate.

He had a great time and on the way home, all he talked about was what they would do next year and how much fun it would be. So, hopefully he will be able to do it again!

Ten Months and On the Move

Janalynn turned ten months old yesterday. She is on the move and will probably be walking by eleven months. She stands up in the middle of the floor on her own then sits back down and crawls over to wherever she wants to go. None of the boys could even stand up in the middle of the floor until they were already walking. She has started to take steps a few times and she can walk pushing the walker or holding onto someone's hands. So, it is only a matter of time. She looks so cute when she pops up off the floor and stands up, but it has been really difficult for me to get a picture of her doing it. Every time I try, she crawls over to me to check out the camera. Finally, I got one the other day.



She also almost has enough hair to put a little barrette in.



She is also clapping and waving bye-bye and hi. It even sounds like she says, "hi." I couldn't get a video of her waving, but here she is clapping.



Here is another recent, cute picture of her crawling toward me to try to get the camera. (Boy, it looks like we always have toys laying around everywhere. Oh, well, I guess we do. A glimpse into real life at our house.)



Finally, the boys were making a pile of leaves in the front yard today and I thought it would be a cute picture to plop Janalynn down with them. I couldn't get J.D. to smile, but here it is. Amazing how in the course of one week we had a 75 degree day (last Sunday), snow and ice (Tuesday), and now back to the 60s (Saturday). Crazy Texas weather!!!

Janalynn's First Trip to California

At the end of January, I was going to a seminar in San Diego for work and since I can't be away for Janalynn for very long yet, I took her with me. I flew my sister in from Utah to watch Janalynn while I was at the meetings. Janalynn had a lot of fun adventures with Aunt Megan while she was there.

We flew in on Wednesday morning. (Janalynn and I left Texas at 8:30 a.m. and arrived in San Diego at 9:30 a.m.--gotta love time zone changes.) We met Megan at the airport and took a shuttle to our hotel--The Westin in downtown San Diego. Here is the view from the elevator.


Janalynn and Megan on the elevator.


We had some nice accommodations. Janalynn even had a "Heavenly Crib." At least that is what the hotel called it. She was happy to be in this picture.


After we got settled in our hotel, we got some lunch at a sandwich place, then I went to my meetings while Janalynn took a nap and Megan did homework in the dark hotel room. When I was finished, we took a walk along the ocean. We saw this Harbor Excursion place and had to take a picture for the flashback.

Six years ago when J.D. was one, he and Jim went to San Diego with me for this same seminar and we stayed for part of the weekend. We decided to go on a whale watching excursion. However, when we got out of the harbor, the water was really choppy and J.D. threw up all over me. We used up all of our wipes to clean the boat and clean me and J.D. as best we could, then the boat captain decided to turn back because it was too choppy, but gave us a one-hour harbor tour instead. Fortunately, J.D. fell asleep shortly after he threw up, but, unfortunately, he and I smelled like vomit for the rest of the boat ride and it was making me nauseous (even though I normally don't get motion sick) since I had to smell it. Anyway, on this trip, when I saw the Harbor Excursion booth, I had to take a picture to remember that "wonderful" excursion with J.D. and Jim.

We also took a picture with the "popcorn" chicken.


Gotta love the self-taken shots.

Here are Janalynn and I with a cool boat in the background.

We fed Janalynn some dinner in the hotel room, then we took a cab to a restaurant called Oceanaire with some of my work colleagues. We had some really yummy seafood and desserts. Poor Janalynn was a trooper, but since we didn't get to the restaurant until 7:30 p.m. Pacific time (9:30 p.m. Texas time--way after her bedtime), I had to rock her to sleep and she slept in my arms for most of dinner. Then we took her home to bed.

The next day (Thursday), I had meetings all day. Megan and Janalynn went to the mall and went shopping, hung out in the hotel, took naps, and played. Since Janalynn had been out so late the night before, we decided to just stay in and order room service. Megan got ready to go to the hot tub while we waited for our food. Here she is enjoying her yummy chicken.

The dessert was really good too.

The next morning (Friday), Janalynn and Megan went to the pool hotel and Janalynn took a nap. After we checked out of the hotel, Megan and Janalynn took the ferry to Coronado island and had some lunch. Here's Janalynn on the ferry.

Here's Megan with Janalynn.

Here they are on the island looking across the harbor at downtown San Diego.

Megan and Janalynn got back to the hotel just in time to get on the shuttle to the airport. Janalynn had a bit of a rough trip back on the plane because she was off her schedule and tired, but we made it home. Janalynn had a great first trip to California and hopes to go back again. Thanks, Aunt Megan, for showing her around.

Happy Valentine's Day

We had a low-key Valentine's day at home since it was a Sunday and Jake and I were the only ones who went to church since J.D. hadn't been feeling well so Jim and the other kids stayed home with him. After dinner of Chicken Puffs and veggies, the kids were excited to get ready for bed and open their Valentine's present from Grandma and Grandpa and cards from Nana.

Joey loved the Thomas Valentine book and immediately started reading it.

Janalynn (and her bright blue eyes) loved her kitty and book.

The boys loved their play dough and wanted to play with it immediately.

They all loved their cards from Nana and can't wait to go buy their treats. J.D. and Jake both made some Valentines for us at school. Jake made the one on the left and when I went to pick him up at school he handed it to me and said, "Mom, I love you so much, Happy Valentine's Day." (I just have to remember that when he is frustrating me!) J.D. was supposed to make the one on the right at his school Valentine's party, but when I got to the school to help with it, he looked like he felt awful (red eyes from rubbing them and frowning and sad), so I took him to the nurse and he had a fever, so we just went home. Luckily, I got the supplies from his teacher and he made this at home when he felt better.

Jim and I also exchanged gifts and he had given me flowers a few days earlier. He and I also went out on a date night the Friday before (to beat the crowds). Our whole family had a nice day with lots of LOVE!

Jake is 5!

Jake turned 5 on President's Day, so we had his party on the holiday (even though he still had preschool and Jim still had work). He wanted to have a Thomas the Tank Engine theme, so we decorated with red, blue, and yellow balloons and did some Thomas activities. (Unfortunately, the weather wasn't great and we couldn't go outside.) We made a Thomas picture by cutting and pasting the pieces together and we played Thomas tic-tac-toe. (The latter was J.D.'s idea, implemented by me.)

Here's the table with some of the the friends:

Here's Joey playing Thomas Tic-Tac-Toe.

We also made train engines out of tootsie rolls, lifesavers and chocolate frosting.

The kids were creative with their engines and mostly had a fun time eating their finished products.

Jake and all of his friends also dressed up in Joey's Thomas costume from Halloween so I could take their picture. Here's Jake.

Of course, I couldn't get Joey to wear the costume on Halloween, but he didn't want to take it off to let other kids wear it this time.

Jake wanted a Thomas cake, so I used the Train cupcake pan that my mom gave us a couple of years ago and decorated it like Thomas. I was short on time and the cake and equipment weren't cooperating, so I did my best. (I'll get another chance on Joey's birthday in a month, so maybe I can improve.) I am encouraged that Joey, the Thomas aficionado, saw the cake before I had completely finished and said, "Look a Thomas cake!"

Jake liked it (even though he has his serious face in this picture, getting ready to blow out the candle).

Here he his opening his presents. He got some fun stuff--2 robots, Legos, Star Wars stuff, a Matchbox racer, and a Webkin.

After the party, he and J.D. got right to work on building his Toy Story Woody's Roundup Lego set. They were able to finish it before they went to bed.

Happy Birthday Jake! I can't believe you are already 5 and will be starting Kindergarten in the fall (already reading and doing lots of math--asking me to make Homework for you to do while J.D. does his--strong-willed and independent). We're glad to have you in our family!

Snow Day!

We got some real snow in Texas yesterday! The kids were soooo excited. It started snowing real, big flakes mid-morning and didn't stop until late evening.


This first picture was taken about midmorning before all the snow that did stick had fallen.


After J.D. got home from school we went outside and played in the snow with our neighors and honorary neighbors (the McCullochs -- there are some more fun pictures on their blog). Jake was throwing snow balls at me so Carleen could take a picture.

Jim happened to be home to play with us because he had jury duty yesterday and was dismissed from the jury in time to be home when J.D. got home from school. Here's our whole family with a small snowman the kids made in the neighbor's yard. (Joey was sneezing, but this is the best pic we got.) We only took Janalynn outside for a few minutes to take some pictures, then whisked her back inside out of the cold.

At first, I couldn't convince Joey to put his hat and gloves on, but once he got outside in the cold, he was happy to let me.

After lots of fun playing with the neighbors, Jim and the boys went in the backyard and built a snowman. We used a baby carrot for the nose and jellybeans for the eyes and mouth. (Jake suggested using olives for the eyes and mouth, but I didn't want to open a can of olives just for that.) The boys decided to name the snowman "Goofball."

After playing in the snow everyone came in, shed their wet clothes, and we roasted marshmellows in front of the fire. J.D. kept saying, "This is the BEST day ever!"

Because the wet snow was melting and it was going to freeze last night, they delayed school by two hours this morning (which meant Jake's and Joey's preschools were both cancelled), so we got to sleep in a little and watch the snow melt. This only happens about every 25 years in this part of Texas, so it was fun to enjoy with everyone.

Twenty-four hours later, it is a balmly 50 degrees outside and here is all that remains of the snow:

So long, Goofball!

J.D. Learns to Ride a Bike

J.D. has been wanting to learn to ride a bike without training wheels for a while, but he didn't really get motivated until he had help from his older next door neighbor and friend, Nicole. (Isn't it amazing that kids will learn some things better from anyone other than their parents?). So, with her help and encouragement and with his Dad's help, too, on one of the really nice weather afternoons we had at the end of January (before it got cold again), he finally learned. I was able to get a short video of him riding. He has actually improved a lot since then and is riding even better.



Now Jake is motivated to try to ride his bike without training wheels and hopes to be riding with J.D. soon.

Eating S'mores with Grandma & Grandpa

After J.D.'s birthday, Grandma spent the rest of the week with us, then Grandpa was also able to join us for a few days. It got really cold while they were here (at least for our part of Texas), so we decided to light the gas fire in the fireplace and roast marshmellows and eat S'mores. Here is Grandpa helping Jake.


Here are Grandma and Grandpa, enjoying the fire and roasting their marshmellows.




The best part, of course was eating them afterward!

Yum!

J.D. Turns 7

J.D. wanted to celebrate his 7th birthday by having a Wall-E party. I let him invite 8 friends. I was hoping for nice weather so we could be outside, but it was windy and kindof chilly so we were mostly inside. Let's just say that 9 boys ages 6-7, plus my other two boys, can be quite loud. There were several times during the party where J.D. covered his ears to keep out the noise. I got lots of ideas for the party from the Internet and from my super party planning friend, Jeannie. We marked the location of the party with a garbage can and balloons, since Wall-E is a trash robot.




When each guest arrived, we had them dress in J.D.'s Wall-E costume and pose with the "set." Here is J.D. demostrating. We plan to send out the photos with the Thank You Notes (which we will finally be doing soon!!!)


I found a print-out for some Wall-E googles that the kids could cut out and glue and I made some placemats for them to color. Some of the boys were really into these crafts (like J.D.) and others were not and found other things to do.


Note the goody bags--I cut out the letters from magazines for each name and my mom glued them on crumpled paper sacks, then I used stamping ink to run tracks across them to look like Wall-E had been there.

One of the biggest hits of the party was a building contest were each of the boys were given a set of Legos that would build Wall-E and they had a race to build them. I found these Lego sets online and the small business that sold them was clearly small--the instructions were handwritten and not very clear. However, with some assistance they all made their Lego Wall-E.


I found a Wilton Wall-E cake pan on clearance at Michael's a few months before the party, so I bought it and thought I could do the cake myself since my usual cake decorator had just had a baby. I did do it myself, but it was LOTS of WORK!!! I think it turned out pretty well for my amateur skills and supplies, but it definitely took more time than I planned. It was good that my mom was here to help me so she could do everything else.


Here's J.D. getting ready to blow out the candles.


Finally, it was quiet after the boys were all eating their cake!


J.D.'s friends and family got him some great presents, including this Webkinz. Now we have entered the world of virtual pets (which I must say I like better than real pets for the maintenance factor).


J.D. had a great time (despite the chaos) and we were glad Grandma was here to help and celebrate with us. After the party, Janalynn decided she would test out the Wall-E scenery. She was very proud of herself.

Happy 7th Birthday, J.D.!