July!

July is a bit more than halfway over! Bill and I have worked way more than we usually do, but as long as I can finish by lunchtime I suppose I can deal with it. We've had tons of sun and very little rain so far, so we are hoping to get a few downpours before the summer is out!

Brady spent the first 6 weeks of summer running and lifting weights at the athletic conditioning workout at school. He managed to attend every day so he was rewarded with a pint of vanilla ice cream! Over the 6 weeks he gained 8 pounds (which for him is a good thing)! Good work, Brady!

KC has been attending weekly dance classes where she's working on some tricky lyrical combinations and she's taking an Irish step dancing class, and she's doing great! I think she might be a natural - LOL. Last week she began learning the light jig and we all thought about our cousin Christine's wedding in Boston and Aunt Pat dancing a jig among our Irish cousins. That was such a great day. :-) Hopefully some day we'll get to travel to Ireland ourselves and say hello to our cousins again, and hopefully I'll get to see my Boston cousins again soon. Miss you guys! You'd get such a kick out of seeing KC dance!

Abby is doing Fort Bend theater camp this week. Today was her first day. Tomorrow she will audition for a part in the production of Sleeping Beauty. She's hoping to play a goon, one of Maleficent's crazy sidekicks. She's been practicing her singing tonight - she's quite fun to watch! Hoping she gets a part she loves and that she has a fun week!

On to some pictures! We had a good (toasty) 4th of July. Mom and Dad, Jill and Sierra came over to hang out with us and swim. My three kiddos managed the very difficult triple tower:

It's made trickier by me yelling at them to knock it off before they hurt themselves while Bill takes pictures. They did have fun and thankfully no one got hurt.

We decided one day to have a family Luau (for absolutely no reason other than it was Monday. Abby loved listening to the beach boys and hanging out on the waterfall:

Bill grilled beef, pork, and chicken shish kabobs and the girls and I made a pineapple upside-down cake.

That's Bill looking for a little love for the chef . . . and showing off his Hawaiian style (yikes).

We ate amid the tiki torches, drank from our coconut cups, and generally had a blast!

Abby will celebrate her 10th birthday this Thursday, and about a month from now Brady will turn 15! He is already excited about learning to drive - way more excited than I am! Yikes.

Hope everyone is having a good summer! Sending prayers to my good friend Virginia's soon-to-arrive new grandson and to Amber that the delivery goes safely and smoothly! Also to my sweet godsons - James and Josh, you are always in my prayers even if I don't see you as often as I wish! My dear niece and goddaughter Sierra, you are always in my thoughts as well! To all the rest of the wonderful girlfriends, cousins, mom, and sister who have made a difference in my life, past and present, you are always in my heart and in my thoughts! I wish you all blessings!

Take care, all! Taking a vacation next week - and boy, do I need it!

June has flown by . . .

I can hardly believe it's the last day of June! Where does the time go?

This month we had KC's 12th birthday party at the local bowling alley. Even Bill and I got to bowl (he won one and I won one). KC did great, she won both games on her lane!

KC's former dance teacher, Miss Robin, who recently retired from running her dance studio, wrote a really cute children's book called Patty Bouree' and her cat Jete'. Patty is a lovely little redhead, so KC was asked to appear at a book signing playing the role of Patty Bouree':

Finally, in June, KC spent a week at the Kids and Cops camp at our local middle school. Kids and Cops is a program designed to teach kids about teamwork and problem solving and to foster positive relationships between middle schoolers and police officers. Each team earns points for participating in various competitions, including dodgeball, basketball, solving riddles, writing skits and songs. This was KC's 3rd year to participate, and her team ended the week with the most points to take first place! (Brady's team also won during his 3rd year, and although he is strong in the physical events, I never even know they had song and skit competitions until KC started 3 years ago).

Speaking of Brady, he has been busy with baseball in the evenings, and a conditioning program for football and baseball in the afternoons. His select team, the South Texas Sliders, played in a tournament in San Antonio on Father's Day weekend. They won 3 out of 4 games over the weekend (there was no championship, though, just a round-robin tournament).

The girls enjoyed hanging with the other sisters in San Antonio.

Brady's also been busy playing on his high school Mickey Mantle team during the week. He's been catching and playing some shortstop and second base.

Bill and I have been working part time and catching up on a few projects around the house. Abby's been keeping busy taking a hip-hop class on Tuesdays and Thursdays and catching up on all the Disney Channel shows she misses during the school year. All of us are really enjoying our summer! I am so glad we still have another month off, though, I still need it! LOL

Looking forward to seeing my family this weekend for the 4th of July. Jill just had a house built, so she should be moving into her new place this week!

Hope everyone has a great 4th of July weekend!

Brady's a Bulldog!

This is my 10th year at Austin High School, so it's been about that long since Brady has talked about playing baseball for Austin High School. Even though we still have a week left of middle school (ugh) they have already held tryouts for the high school summer baseball league and guess who is now a member of the freshman Mickey Mantle league team??

Today was their first day to scrimmage in their official new uniforms. He is so excited!

This week is final exams, but Brady managed to earn A's in Algebra, Science, Social Studies and ELA, so he's exempt from all those final exams! (The district allows exemptions if you have an A or B, fewer than 5 absences, and pass TAKS. In our house, you have to have an A or take the final). He only has to take finals for Spanish, Band, and PE! KC's exempt from 2 finals with A's in Math and ELA (the only ones 6th grades can be exempted from).

Spring concert and Spring awards were held the past 2 Tuesdays. Brady's giving up band in high school, so it was bittersweet to see him play in his last concert. He was selected as Outstanding 8th grade musician for Brass.

During Spring awards, he won awards for A/B honor roll and a President's Achievement Award for having a 90 average and being commended on state tests. And I got him to smile for a picture!! You can actually see his braces!

Counting down to the end of the year! Very exciting . . .

Dance Recital

The girls had their dance recital the first weekend of May (it's been a busy month).

Now that a few weeks have passed and the stress has died down a bit, I can honestly say that they were wonderful (as always).

The recital theme was New York. KC began the day as a policeman in the NYC opening number.

The order of the recital worked out in such a way that KC had 3 dances of the first nine in the show, so we got to use the "quick change" room for the first time. After the opening number, she had 3 dances to change for her lyrical dance, Dream Like New York.

This was her first year to take lyrical and this was by far her favorite dance! After lyrical, she had 3 dances to change for her third dance (tap) No Bad News.

After tap, she got a break for about 30 numbers until it was time to go back on. She actually put on her street clothes to watch Abby's first two dances. Again, the program order was not in our favor as Abby had the first 20 numbers off (during which time she managed to end up "accidentally" turning on the shower backstage - thankfully she didn't wash off her makeup, she just got her costume a bit wet). When she finally took the stage, it was for her tap dance, Anything Goes . . .

Then she had 2 numbers (one dance plus a 1:30 solo) to change into her costume for Cats, including her nose and whiskers. That was a rough one - we barely made it. She ran to her spot seconds before the curtain went up. I ran back out to videotape and you can see the camera shaking at the beginning from my panic. She was wonderful, though, and terribly cute.

After that, it got much easier. KC continued the Broadway theme, finally making her 4th appearance of the day in Little Shop of Horrors. This was my favorite of KC's dance. They performed with a group of young girls and they were all wonderful.

Abby was back out next in Please Don't Rock the Boat. This was her favorite costume and dance. She did great!

KC's ballet was next, Cinderella Waltz. This was definitely her least favorite costume (Abby liked all of hers). It was kind of like a bathing suit with netting sewed on the sleeves and skirt. A bit itchy and little-girl-ish for her taste.

Abby's ballet was next, the Flower Dance. They had very cute costumes with real tutus!

KC finished up the day with their competition dance Boogie Oogie Oogie, and she was wonderful in that one also. Both girls did a great job, and we were so proud of them.

So, a short 4 hours later (seemed like even longer if you can image) we were finished for another year.

A week after the recital, KC had auditions for company and this year she made senior company! Next year she'll compete in jazz and lyrical in January, so that will be exciting! Abby has decided to retire from ballet and just do jazz and tap next year. I'll miss her ballet (she's so cute) but maybe the recital will be a bit less busy next year!

Next week, KC begins a new dance class. She's taking Irish Step Dancing! She's wanted to for a while and we've had her on a waiting list for the only Irish Dance Company in Houston and she finally made it! She begins June 7th. Should be fun!

Happy Birthday, KC!

Today my oldest girl turned 12.

I look at her and I can't believe how grown up and beautiful she is becoming. Smart, smart, smart, and sweet as the day is long (most of the time - when she's not fighting with her sister). She's quiet as a mouse most of the time at my school, but I'm friends with the ITS at her school who sponsors the book group that KC loves and she tells me how much KC reminds her of me! Chatty and outgoing, definitely not quiet. :-) The highlight of her day was finally being old enough to sit in the front seat with the airbag.

KC's dream is to be a writer someday. Or a lawyer. Or a dance teacher. Or all three - LOL. I have no doubt she will be amazing at whatever she decides to do.

Katherine Carol, I want to wish you a very happy birthday! I love you so much and every day you make me proud to be your mom!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter 2009! We were blessed again to have our whole family together for Easter. My Mom and Dad, Bill's Mom and Dad, and Jill and Sierra came to eat and hang out with us for the holiday. We definitely did plenty of eating. I think we went a bit overboard and actually might have had more dessert than food. Oh, well. LOL

The kids spent Saturday helping me cook several desserts and coloring Easter eggs.

Brady is trying to figure out how his egg ended up pink instead of red.

Sunday we had everyone over, so we held our traditional Easter Egg hunt in the backyard. Based on the pictures, it almost appears the kids have joined the witness protection program. We certainly did a good job hiding their identities:

Eventually we gave up trying to take candid pictures and just lined everyone up for some posed shots. Here's my mom and dad with the kids. This is the first time since they were toddlers that Brady and Sierra are close to the same height!

After the eating, egg hunting, eating, picture taking, and more eating . . . we got dressed up for late afternoon church and headed out.

The thermometer read 81 degrees. Very nice for Easter. We did have some heavy rains for about 45 minutes around lunchtime, but overall it was sunny and warm.

The kids decided that it was warm enough to swim. The pool thermometer read 71 degrees. Now, 71 is a beautiful spring day, but it's actually rather chilly water (at least for us folks in Texas). We explained that to the kids, but some lessons have to be learned through experience, so off they went . . .

I think Abby's expression here sums it up best:

Hope you all had a blessed Easter! Best wishes for a happy summer!

Happy Belated Birthday, Jill!

It is a bit hard to turn 40. Truthfully, I think 39 was harder. The anticipation of 40 is probably worse than actually being 40.

But I have to admit that it is a bit tough on the ego when your younger sister turns 40. Which mine did, March 18th.

In the far corners of my mind, I can still remember a little blonde girl getting stuck in the cherry tree in front of our house in Quincy. It's amazing to me that the little blonde girl is all grown up now with a beautiful not-so-little girl of her own. Jill's an AP Economics and US History teacher these days, and a classroom management trainer, NHS sponsor, and basic jack-of-all trades.

I think the best testament to the success she's found is that for the second year in a row, she has been selected to attend the top 10 banquet at her high school. The top 10 graduating seniors in her school each select a teacher that has had an impact on their lives, and she has once again been chosen by one of her students. What greater gift is there than to know that you have touched the life of someone, and that they will remember you forever? That of all the teachers' classes these kids have sat through, that yours is the one that stands out in his/her mind? So many kids pass in and out of our lives, that to know that you have been a mentor and a guide, helped inspire dreams and build a foundation for someone who may well go on to change the world . . . that is the most wonderful part of being a teacher. And an amazing legacy for a human being.

And that's just the first 40, Jill. What do you have planned for the next? LOL

Happy belated birthday, little sister. I'm really proud of you, and I wish you joy and blessings for the future! :-)

Jeannie and Jill, early 1970s