The Run Down

As Christmas quickly approaches, our free time has been consumed with decorating, shopping, holiday parties, hay rides, and tons of fun in general!  That's left little time for blogging.  Before I get too far behind, here's the instagram run down for October and November and a short video that makes me laugh.

Kemah Boardwalk

A few weekends ago, Jacob surprised me and Brenna with a fun day trip to Kemah.  It's been years since I've been to Kemah and Brenna had never been.  The weather was beautiful, the temperature was just right, and our little family had a fantastic day.  We got there right when it opened and started off the morning at the carnival rides.  The crowds hadn't showed up, so we practically had the entire place to ourselves at least for a little while.

Gorgeous Day!

Bulldog of the Week

Brenna was Bulldog of the Week last week at school.  She had to make a poster about some of her favorite things.  After looking over all the things that she picked to include, I would have to agree that she nailed it!

Brenna's Favorites:
Color - pink and purple
Food - spaghetti
Thing to do - draw
TV Show - My Little Pony
Place - the beach
Activities - sports

Happy Halloween

Halloween was a lot of fun this year!  Things that we've done every year seems to get more fun the older Brenna gets.  We got boo'd this year by a school friend.  Brenna suddenly turned into Nancy Drew on the case to discover who the culprit was.  But this time the boo'ing was more fun than being boo'd.  We made a special shopping trip to fill our boo baskets with fun halloween treats and then we developed our boo plan.  DRRD!  Drop, Ring, Run, Drive!  Drop the basket!  Ring the doorbell!  Run like crazy as fast as you can back to the car!  Drive away ASAP!  Needless to say she thought the whole thing was fantastic fun!

Dewberry Farms

Dewberry Farms has become a favorite Fall tradition for us.  This makes our 4th year to attend with friends and enjoy all the fun that the farms has to offer.  However, this year was slightly different for a couple of reasons.  This is the first year Jacob got to go with us and Brenna enjoyed showing Daddy all the fun.  Also, this was the first year we had to go on the weekend when the farm was open to the public.  In past years we've always attended on a weekday when the farm is only open to private groups.  The farm was never crowded, always easy to maneuver, and we enjoyed each of activity as long as we liked.

This year was a tale of a different story.  We faced huge crowds that resembled a backwoods version of Disney World!  We arrived just before opening and waited in line for 30 minutes before we even made it through the gates.  Once inside we quickly hit the big ticket activities moving the kids from one to the other alittle quicker than they would have liked.  The kids would have definitely lingered on the jumping pillows longer if we had allowed it.  Within one hour lines were backed up and people were everywhere!  In the past, we've spent more than half a day at Dewberry, leaving only after the kids were completely spent.  This year we managed 2.5 hours before heading home.  The crowds were just too much.  On the way out we discovered that it pays off to be early because the line of cars to get to Dewberry was more than 2 miles long!!!!

Here's some pictures from our fun Fall day at Dewberry!

Another New Friend

The Gholson's added another new face to their family last month.  I was tickled pink when Kristie asked if my baby gift would take the form of photographs!  So I got to spend one morning with this little one.  Welcome to the world Emma Joy.

National Night Out 2013

This is my 5th year to co-host National Night Out for our block.  What started as a short, sweet, and simple get-together of a few neighbors has steadily grown into a long, large, and planned event.  But all the effort has always been worth it.  I count my neighbors as a blessing!  This was our biggest year yet as our block continues to expand and we've added new friends.  It was another great "Night Out" this year!

Fire Prevention Week

Two weeks ago we celebrated Fire Prevention Week at school with a visit from the Richmond Fire Department.  This was a real treat just for the first graders, since one of the first grade teachers happens to be the wife of the Fire Marshall.  The firemen came in and did a presentation on fire safety and then geared-up one of the first grade teachers.  After that the class moved outside where they got to investigate and tour the fire truck.  We've done several fire safety programs and toured lots of trucks in the past couple of the years, but this one was by far the best.  These firemen were very friendly with the kids, let them ask lots of questions, and explained things in way that the first graders really enjoyed it.  Here's some shots from the day.

Fort Bend County Fair Parade

Once again this year, we took our school holiday and got up early to go to the Fort Bend County Fair Parade.  We met friends, all loaded into the car, and traveled to Richmond in search of the perfect parade viewing spot (since last years spot was a little prickly)!  We found a great shady spot, with a grassy slope underneath a big oak tree, just a mile down from the start of the parade.  Our experience last year reminded us that the parade is long!  Our kids played, met a few characters, got some candy, and enjoyed dancing and clapping to the bands.

Sweet and Sassy Fun

After the fantastic time Brenna had at Sweet and Sassy on our Mom and Me Day, she was thrilled to hear that one of her friends was having their birthday party there!  The girls had so much fun picking their princess outfits, having their hair and make-up done, and getting manicures.  They ended the primp party with a princess coronation and dancing.

Kansas City Soccer - The Highlight Reel

At this post Kansas City is 2-2 half way through the season.  It's been fun to watch this season!  For the first time several of the kids "get-it" and the play has definitely stepped up.  Now there's actually strategy involved and they are working together as team versus a bunch of kids all trying to kick the ball around.  I find myself sitting on the edge of my seat, screaming for every kid on our team, and groaning at each goal the other team makes.  The practices have been long and the games have been hot, but Brenna preservers!  She gotten very good with her ball control and each week she gets better at running around (or through in some cases) the defender.  Here's a highlight reel from the week 2 game. 

Kansas City Soccer

This Fall we kicked off another soccer season.  The first two practices went well, but the kids were disappointed when the Week 1 game got rained out.  It's looks like the extra practice time severed them well, because we won our first game 2-0.  This year we moved up in the league and they play real-deal soccer.  They play three on offense, one defender, and one goalie.  While Brenna didn't score, she did great in the game!  She hustled hard and continues to get better and better at ball control.  Here's some pictures from the season opener.

First Grade Fall Picture

Well, they're better than last years Kindergarten picture!  At least she did smiled this time.  I like the crooked grin!  I still can't believe this kid is a first grader!

Western Day

To celebrate the start of the Fort Bend County Fair we had a Go Western Day at school.  Here's Brenna all decked out in her cowgirl get-up!

The Run Down

As time goes on I like instagram more and more.  It allows me to capture the small things that I wouldn't normally haul the big camera out for and all those impromptu moments of fun with friends.  It's fun, easy, and convenient.  So, here's the instagram run down for August and Septermber!

First Day of First Grade

How did it get here so fast?  We counted down the days until summer vacation and in the blink of an eye we were right back to this!  The new school is very nice.  Brenna moved over with lots of friends, so there was no concerns about starting something new.  We're adjusting to the new standard of homework that is more time consuming than I expected.  She hoped right back into the routine without any bumps, which is always a blessing!  We've got our fall schedule rolling with school activities, weekly gymnastics classes, weekday soccer practice, and weekend soccer games!  Also so another school year begins!

Lemonade for Sale

Brenna has requested to have a lemonade stand for a long time.  During the school year I assured her that we would have one in the summer.  With so much stuff going on during the summer, we were coming down to the wire and still hadn't done it.  She got a make-your-own lemonade stand for her birthday.  So together we sat down and assembled it and on the Wednesday before school started we had a Lemonade Sale.

It started off with Brenna supervising Matt and Tyler.  However the boys didn't last long and ditched the stand to ride bikes up and down the street instead.  That's was ok, because Brenna quickly replaced them with Brooke and Bailey and together these three managed all the orders.  They even served as car-hops for some of our drive-up customers.  We have wonderful neighbors and our stand quickly turned into a block party.  At one count we had more than 15 kids running around the yard.  Brenna stood strong for over an hour and then even she abandoned it to join the other kids in our back yard.  After some good playtime the lemonade flowed freely to the kids and then we closed up shop.

As we counted our money that night, I told Brenna that she did pretty good to make to make $25 dollars on 25 cent lemonade.  She said "But most people gave me a $1!" to which I replied "Did you give them back their change?" She said "Oops!"  I'm not sure how many of our friends she ripped off!

The Summer She Learned to Swim

The day after Brenna's birthday, she and I packed up and headed to Mom and Dads for a few days.  Like always, Brenna enjoys her visits to Mississippi because she never hears the word "no" while we're there.  She gets to do all the things that she enjoys with an ever attentive audience.  Mawmaw says yes to things like eating Chef-Boyardee in the living room while watching her favorite show and drinking pink lemonade (big no-no at our house).

Brenna's 6th Birthday

I can't believe how quickly the years are going by!  One delay in this post was because of some necessary maintenance that forced me to work on some early posts from the beginnings of this blog.  Knowing that I had this posting waiting in the wings, I've been looking through the pictures and videos of when she was two and wondering where did that kid go?  How did she get so tall and independent?  Has that much time gone by that she's really changed that much?

At 6 years old Brenna is a beautiful and smart little girl!  Her personality has blossomed over the past year! She's loving and compassionate with her friends.  She still gets excited about even the smallest things and she loves to laugh.  She's very engineering and enjoys building anything.  She has an ability to take random items from the around the house and use them to create something new!  She stays active in every sense of the word, since still and quite time is not on her to-do list.  She loves playing with her friends and since we have so many that are so close we spend alot of time in the street, just having fun.  When she's on her own she likes to put on different shows that include dancing, jump roping, skip hops, and the ribbon dancing.  She loves music and frequently makes up her own songs.  She's become very independent and wants to manage all the small stuff on her own, like making her own sandwiches, washing her own hair, and getting her own snacks and water.  She's such a gorgeous girl inside and out and she's the biggest blessing God has given me and Jacob.

This year Brenna has a love for all things My Little Pony and it was easily chosen as her party theme.  At her request, we had her party at a bouncy house called Monkey Joe's.  The kids loved the bounce stations and a herd of girls with a sprinkle of boys ran from bouncer to bouncer with Brenna in the lead laughing all the way.  After a lengthy play time the kids headed into the party room for pizza and presents.  Brenna was one happy little girl with all her friends there to share in her birthday celebration!  Here's some pictures from her big day!

It Made It!

At the end of March, Brenna picked out a Marigold grow kit as a reward for a good report card.  For the next four months it was over watered, under watered, left in the freezing cold, left in the scolding heat, and generally mistreated.  However despite all odds, we finally got a bloom! It made it!

Cookie Maker

A few months back Brenna chose a cookie making kit as a reward for her report card.  We made cookies that week and then I stowed the kit away on a high shelf in the kitchen in hopes she wouldn't remember it again for a long time.  Well, it hadn't been long enough when she started asking to make cookies with her cookie kit again.  It's not that I don't enjoy making cookies with Brenna.  I love working with her in the kitchen and she really enjoys cooking too.  But, this cookie kit has what feels like a million tiny pieces that all have to be hand washed.  Then we have to add food coloring to the dough which means at least a half dozen bowls and spoons to get different colored cookies.  Add all that to one excited little girls and you get one big messy kitchen.  But she sure did have a good time and she made some very interesting cookies!

Turtle Rescue

Recently the turtles of our community have been on the move.  One friend's explanation was that its mating season.  I'm not sure if that's the case, but turtles have definitely popped up in unusual places.  About a week ago, I was making a late afternoon run to McDonald's for a nutritious meal for my family.  After crossing the bridge at our big 4-way stop a turtle ever-so-slowly made his way across the intersection.  After evaluating the likely hood of him making it back to safe terrain on his own, I put the car in park, put on my hazards, and hopped out to retrieve him.  I had on no make-up, no shoes, and a t-shirt with holes in it!  At the moment I picked up the turtle, three cars met at the intersection and kindly waited while I made my way back to the bridge and walked down to the creek to release him into a more friendly environment.

Later in the week, I looked out my front door to see another turtle cutting through my yard, crossing into the street, and heading up Andrea Park in the middle of the road.  At the same time, Jacob was driving in from work and had to stop the car to let the turtle pass.  Brenna and I captured him and walked him back down to the creek.  Just call us the Turtle Whisperer!

Our Little Swimmer

I didn't want the summer to go by without making note of one significant achievement.  Last year even after taking two weeks of swim lessons, Brenna still struggled in the water.  She was deathly afraid of putting her head underwater and not a fan of getting her face wet in general.  She was terrified to be in water where she couldn't touch the bottom.

In preparation for summer, we put Brenna in Aquatots swim lessons in April with hopes it would improve her comfort level in the water.  My child, who was seriously frightened of going underwater, was dunked every day for 4 straight weeks!  When I made this statement to someone who asked how things were going, they responded "Isn't that water boarding?"  The coaches were fantastic and she quickly moved through the paces and was swimming on her own by the end of the 4th week.  After returning from vacation, she continued to progress by enjoying playtime with her friends at the pool.  Now, its like the fear never existed!  She's swimming in the "big" pool with no worries that its 6 ft deep, she's diving underwater for rings without hesitation, riding water slides, and even doing flips in the water!  I know that she's not a marathon swimmer, but she can doggie paddle like a champ!  Her new found courage has definitely improved our fun-time at the pool.

Mom and Me Day

I was inspired by a friend who dedicated a entire week to her daughter while her youngest son was away at camp.  While every day is a Mom and Me day at our house since Brenna's an only child, I realized that we've never had a day to do just what she wanted, at her pace.  Usually its a comprise of my errands backed up with some kind of kid friendly fun that's convenient to wherever we are.  Also, Brenna's reached an age where her thoughts of fun usually consist of friends and Mom is the method of transportation.  So I thought it would be nice to have a day just to ourselves to enjoy some things that she likes.

We started our day bright and early by summer standards.  Brenna picked out her new favorite dress to wear and we made our way to Town Center in Sugar Land.  Town Center is a very nice shopping and entertainment area centered around the Sugar Land Court House.  The area is beautiful with fountains and brick paved streets that follow along fun shops and restaurants.

The Run Down

It's been a while since I had an Instagram run down.  Here's what we've been doing in June and July!

Pottery and Donuts

Last week we got together with a sweet friend to paint pottery.  After a quick tour of the options, the girls decided that mermaids were the way to go.  I didn't realize that picking what to paint was the easy part.  Leaving two 5 year olds to decide what colors to paint their mermaids took much longer.  They picked each paint color with careful thought as to which part of the mermaid it would be applied.  After everyone had a rainbow of colors on their palette, the little artists got to work!

Battle of the Bangs

For nearly 7 months we've been trying to grow out Brenna's bangs.  It hasn't been easy!  For the longest time we were in the "Peeking Through the Bushes" stage where her bangs just hung straight over her eyes.  Recently we've moved to the "Sweep to the Side" stage, which is an improvement, but they're not long enough to tuck behind her ear.  So she's always leaning to the left to keep her hair out of the her eyes.  This has created a major styling issue, since we can't do pig tales, a pony tale, or braids, because her bangs are left hanging out.  Her hair is very thick and soft, so we haven't found a barrette that will stay in.  To manage the situation we rock a side pony tale of just Brenna's bangs!  I sweep them over to the side, tie them back with a tiny band, and then pull her hair over the band so that is doesn't show.  I wonder how long this phase will last?!?

Can't I Just Sleep!

Pickles was trying to take an afternoon nap on the couch.  Then Brenna finds him!  She wanted to love on him, but I told her not to bother him.  She says "But he always wakes me up in the mornings to get lovin'!"  I really couldn't argue with that since most mornings he does get impatient waiting for her to wake up and often goes up to her room, hops in bed, and does the job himself.

The 4th of July

This year things were low-key and easy going for the 4th.  We enjoyed just being home and having nothing to do.  It seemed like a nice way to kick off the long weekend.  Jacob grilled steaks and Brenna and I worked on some My Little Pony craft projects.  As the afternoon wore on, we decided to meet up with friends for the La Centerra Fireworks Show.  The low-key attitude carried over to the afternoon.  Instead of fighting the crowds that packed into La Centerra, we all met up in the parking lot behind Target and backed the vehicles up to an open grassed area.  We threw out the blankets and popped open the lawn chairs!  The kids entertained themselves with Go Fish, tag, and hide and seek!

Bermuda Vacation

This year there were several failed attempts to schedule a summer vacation.  This was mostly due to the renegotiation of the Union contract and the pending strike associated with it where Jacob works.  I had all but given up hope that we would have a nice relaxing vacation that we all were in dire need of.  Finally the stars aligned, the Union compromised, and the strike was avoided.  So, in a mad dash I managed to book a Bermuda Vacation with only 3 weeks to spare.  For most people, it's a very common occurrence to book a vacation 3 weeks out.  For me, however, this goes against my true nature.  I like to plan!  Especially vacations!  I plan vacations months in advance and comb through all the details so I know I'm getting exactly the vacation I want.  I do all the work up-front, so on vacation day all we have to do is show-up and everything is taken care of for the week.  So in 3 weeks, I managed to find a fantastic suite on a new cruiseline, book airfare, airport parking, hotel stay, transportation, shore excursions, make all on-board reservations, and schedule a cat-sitter!  All the while I still had to manage my Room Mom and volunteer duties at school with Teacher Appreciation Week, Frost Field Day, Book Fair, Kindergarten Graduation, and End-of-Year Parties.  For me those final three weeks were total chaos and insanity!  This vacation became the light at the end of the tunnel!  Brenna finished up school on a Thursday afternoon.  We packed up Friday (which is usually a week-long event in itself), and left for vacation on Saturday!

We flew to New York to board the Celebrity Summit for a 7-day cruise to Bermuda.  Besides this being to the first time to book on such short notice there were lots of other firsts involved in this vacation; my first time in New York, our first cruise with Celebrity, and our first time to Bermuda.  Going into this vacation, we had lots to look forward to!

Packed up and ready to go!

Fogel's Future Stars

Brenna was recently invited to a birthday party at Fogel's Future Stars, which is a local children's theater.  It produces plays with all kid actors from around the area.  They also offer drama summer camps.  For birthdays, they give the kids a backstage tour and allow them some fun in the dressing rooms.  They get to pick there favorite characters from nursery rhymes and fairy tales and put on a fashion show.  The kids had a great time and with the exception of one child, all the others never seemed to have an issue with stage fright.  Brenna chose Little Miss Muffit as her character.   They told her Miss Muffit was shy and polite and I thought she did a really good job "acting" out her character. After a few rehearsals the parents were invited into the theater to enjoy the show.

Practicing her "Strike a Pose!"

Brenna's Kindergarten Graduation

It's been quite a year!  I had no idea what we were getting into when we started school!  It has been an adventure for both Brenna and me.  Brenna loved every bit of kindergarten!  There was never a morning that she woke up and said "I don't want to go!"  And even on mornings when she was sluggish, all I had to do was say "I guess I'll call Ms. Franklin and tell her we're not going to make it to school today!" and she was up and at it like lightening!

Now, I know I complain about people who get on facebook and carry on about how fabulous their kids are at everything they do.  In most cases I know those kids personally and have an insider knowledge that they are not the saints their parents have professed them to be.  Given that information, I have a disclaimer.  Since this is my personal blog with a limited audience I chose to toot the horn of my very smart, yet very stubborn child who has done so well this past year.  She excelled in her studies!  For 4 straight semesters she mastered every skill with perfect report cards.  We were all green smiley faces all year which earned us a Good Citizenship Award.  She blew through her reading levels and by the end of the year she was reading DRA level 18 books when only a DRA level 4 is required to pass kindergarten.  Her writing quickly moved from chicken scratch to neat and legible and she mastered basic spelling using phonics!  Just to brag alittle more, all the kids were given the CogAT test shortly after the beginning of the school year.  CogAT is Cognitive Abilities Test which tests a students general reasoning abilities.  Brenna scored higher than 92 percent of children in her age bracket nationally.  She's always been a good thinker and has a natural ability to learn.  I hope this continues to carry us through the our many years of school.

Given the amount of time I spent at school I had the opportunity to get to know and see all kindergarten teachers in action.  I have a whole new respect for the teaching profession.  I also realized that like in any other profession, there are those that are especially talented in their career choice and there are those that just get by at what they do.  I have no doubt that Ms. Franklin was an answered prayer for us and we were blessed with a fantastic teacher!  I consider this one of the reasons Brenna enjoyed school so much.

Kindergarten Graduation was held the last week of school.  The kids put on a short program and then 110 kindergartens were called one at a time to receive their diploma and awards.  Brenna received  a medal for learning and reading all her sight words for the year, a trophy for participating in the Science Expo, and awards for Good Citizenship, Good Attendance, and Library Reading Club.

She looked very grown-up in her pretty dress and high-heel shoes!

Memorial Day

Memorial Day weekend pretty much kicked off summer for us.  We spent the entire weekend doing fun summer stuff; long hours at the pool, riding bikes in the street, playing basketball in the driveway, and just enjoying friends.  The kids couldn't wait to kick off the long holiday weekend, so as some as everyone was home from school on Friday afternoon they tossed the frisbee around.