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.