Roller Skating

Just before Christmas, Brenna attended a friends roller skating party.  This was her first time to visit a roller skating rink and she loved it!  There were several wipe outs, but no tears.  She quickly moved from the skate walker to independent skating.  I even rented a pair and did a little skating myself.  Turns out, its like riding a bike!  You never forget how!  And I'm proud to say I had no falls, which is good because not only would it have been embarrassing, I'm certain some injury would have likely occurred.  There would have been a lot more hitting the floor than there was 20 years ago!  Brenna enjoyed it so much that she's already asking to go back, so I see return trip in our future.

Kansas City Soccer - The Best Season Yet!

While looking ahead to the upcoming basketball season, I realized I never closed out our 2013 Soccer season.  The season ended in November, but with all the rush of the holidays, somehow I missed posting our team pictures.  This season was our best yet, with an actual winning record!  Brenna enjoyed it as always and we're so proud of our little athlete!

Everything Christmas and Two Front Teeth

Wow!  December was a big month!  It was fun, but busy!  In all our merry-making, I got a little behind on blogging so I've decided to roll everything into one really big Christmas post.  So here's how our holiday went!

We kicked off the holiday festivities with a Mom and Me Christmas PJ Party.  Three friends of mine hosted the party and it was for just the moms and kids.  They asked that everyone wear their pjs and instead of bringing food for the party, to bring an unwrapped toy to be donated to the Star Foundation Holiday Toy Drive.  It was a fun way to help teach a good lesson on giving!  Both the kids and the moms and a fantastic time!

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.