Thursday, July 31, 2014

A Visit with H. W.

Way back in June JR was staying with my parents. They all took a trip over to the George Bush Presidential Library on the A&M campus.
I haven't been to the Bush Library in years, but my parents said they've really added it to it.
JR loved every second of it.
 
So you might be wondering why I'm telling you about this now.
Well, my mom and dad don't really know how to do anything on their cell phones but answer them when they ring.
 
They can't take pictures, work voice mail, or text. (Okay, so they can get a text if I call them and say "I'm sending you a picture, open your phone and push the green button when it beeps.")
 
So I was super surprised when JR told me they had taken some pictures that day.  (I think he was able to show one of them how to use their camera.)  But nobody knew how to get the pictures "off the phone".
 
 
We remembered the pictures yesterday and I was able to "get them off the phone". 
 Not bad pictures for a flip phone!
 
JR and President Bush
 
 
Taking a call in the Oval Office.
This is his exact desk President Bush used. 
(JR must have told me that a million times.)


And with a replica of a Desert Storm soldier. (He was super excited with the Desert Storm area too.)

Monday, July 28, 2014

The Bahn!

This is our 4th year in a row to do our annual New Braunfels Schlitterbahn trip.
Each year we've stayed someplace different due to who was with us, and the age of Kyle and Reed.
This year everybody was old enough to do everything all day, and it was just us.
Thankfully, we planned it perfectly.
 
(So if anybody wants to go with us next year, let us know, we've got it down!)
 
 
We stayed at the resort inside the park in one of the new log cabin looking houses.  If you know Schlitterbahn, then you can see we are steps from the Black Knight and Master Blaster.

 
 
Looking the other way we had a view of one of the pools and the cabannas.
The pools are open to resort guests until midnight and we had to pull Kyle out and make him go to bed at 9 every night.
 
 
We were also right behind the wave river. Here are Jason and Kyle going by.
(Jason has on an orange hat.)



 We brought our own food and Jason grilled each night. As soon as the park closed Reed would put on his pajamas and climb into bed. I'm so glad we didn't have to prop him up at a restaurant for dinner every night.
 
 
Here are our "souvenir" pictures. Happy smiles all around.






 No trip to New Bruanfels is complete without a trip over to Gruene, so we were able to work that in too.  It was crowded and hot, but it's always fun.  (We all look so tired.)
 
The trip was such a success, Kyle actually feel asleep on the car ride home.  We have documented proof, because he never sleeps in the car.

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

You'll be Singing This the Rest of the Day

I really do apologize for posting this video since you'll be singing it the rest of the day.
If you don't want "Ease on Down the Road" stuck in your head, you can just look at the pictures.
 

 
 
 
The "yellow brick road" wasn't an actual road, it was kids dressed up in yellow construction uniforms singing "Ease on Down the Road".


The Wiz was the only one wearing green in The Emerald City. Everyone was in white, but "the rules" said they must wear green glasses.


Tin Man asking "The Wiz" for a heart.  This Wiz's mouth actually moved as he talked.
 
 
The Wiz is exposed, and Tin Man gets his heart.
 
 
One of the funniest parts of the show is when Glenda the Good Witch comes to help Dorothy get home. She roller skates in (and you know how I love rollerskating) and everyone treats her like a literal rock star. 
JR cracked me up, he kept motioning for her to "call him". That's what he's doing here. (It's hard to see his hand because it blends in with his face...but that's the "call me" sign.)
 
 
Dorothy saying her good-byes.

 
And, as always, JR had quite the "fan club" in the audience.
Granny Sherry, Maw-Maw and Paw-Paw, and even one of Kyle and Reed's friends came.
 

Monday, July 21, 2014

Ease on Down the Road

JR just finished 3 shows of The Wiz as the Tin Man and just look how cute his costume and make-up were! (I can say that because I didn't have anything to do with it.)
 
 

Here's his big solo number. (I was allowed to video!) This was his first performance, and I actually think he got better with each one. (I only videoed the first night, I wanted to just watch and enjoy the other shows.)
 


I had never seen The Wiz before, and I think I like it even more than The Wizard of Oz (and not just because JR was in it). The songs are so catchy! Kyle, Reed, and I have been walking around the house singing Ease on Down the Road and JR's solo for a few days now.
 
 

I'm pretty sure I audibly gasped when I saw him on stage for the first time. He looked so old with all his make-up. His entire face, neck, and ears (even inside his ears) were covered in silver and his hair was also sprayed silver. His make-up was definitely a process. He said they "painted" him, then sprayed his hair while his face dried, then added the face details. He said they usually weren't finished with his make-up until after the show had already started.
 
 
JR's been so sad the show is over. (He hasn't been upset about a show ending since Willy Wonka), and though I don't want my child to be sad, I'm thrilled he had so much fun and enjoyed it so much.
 

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Front Page

Here was the front page of the Houston County Courier after July 4th.
Both of our 1st place entries!
 

Friday, July 18, 2014

So I Can Make Room on my Fridge for New Ones

Here are Reed's latest drawings. 
(This seems the perfect place to put them so I don't feel guilty when they "disappear" from the house.)

 
He did this first picture from one of the pages in this book.

 
 
(an upside down cat talking to a fish)


He followed a YouTube video for the next two.


Captain America

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Guess We're Done Talking

JR and I have never communicated through email before.
I know he's sent a few to Jason, but I've never been the "lucky" recipient of one until the other night.
 
Here it is:
 
Of course I'm not thrilled that he's going to be in 5th grade and doesn't know how to spell "off", but it did crack me up that he sent me this while I was putting Kyle and Reed to bed. 
 
I'm going to pretend he was being considerate of their bed time, and not that he's done talking to me.
 
And, yes, I took him.

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Bigger

I always have to remind Jason that I don't really know my way around here all that great.
 
Yes, I grew up in "Houston", but I was in a suburb about 45 minutes from where we are now, and I never came to this part of town.
 
The last time we lived here I was pregnant with twins (or had new born twins), so I didn't get out a whole lot.
 
The other evening the weather was nice (for Houston) and since we were out, I asked Kyle and Reed if they wanted to go to the park. I said, "I think I've been to one around here before."
 
Everything seemed familiar, and thanks to the magic of my blog, I was able to find where we had indeed been there before.  Only JR looked like this.

 
 
And Kyle and Reed looked like this
(Reed is green, Kyle is blue.)


This time around I don't even have a picture of JR since he was off at the movies, and here's what Kyle and Reed looked like.  (We tried to recreate the JR picture with Kyle.)

 
They've all grown just a smidge.

Monday, July 14, 2014

At Least They aren't Selfies

 
What goes through boys' heads that they think a family trip to the zoo is a great time to position themselves into "dangerous" photo-ops?
 



 I guess at least he's smiling as he pretends to hang on for dear life...right?

 

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Just Look at Him Now

We tried to go to the Houston Zoo back in May to use Reed's free pass he won in the TX Beaches art contest.  We got there, drove around, and couldn't find a parking spot anywhere. 
So we just came back home.
 
I saw where the zoo was open on Friday evenings until 8:30, so after Jason got home from work Friday, we decided to go. 
 
If you're in Houston and want to do a zoo trip, the Friday evening deal is perfect.  Not crowded at all, no big day care groups, and of course it's hot, but at least it's not sun-beating-down-on-you-hot.
 
 
Poor Reed, no matter how old he gets, he'll never live down his 2 year old petting zoo experience.
Unfortunately for him, it's one of our favorite pictures to laugh at.

 
 We started teasing him there was a petting zoo as soon as we got near it.
 In case you were wondering, he's fine with petting zoos now.
 
 
And if there was any doubt he still might have been a little scared (or scarred, either word works)....

Friday, July 11, 2014

Shirts! Skins!

Kyle and Reed finished up football camp this week.
(Just a fun skills camp at church, they have soccer next week.)
 
It was only from 8:30-11:00, but it was still hot (and it hasn't even really gotten hot yet, we've had a "cool" and wet summer).
 
This is what hot and dirty boys look like after playing football.



And they also got to participate in the time-honored boy tradition of playing "shirts vs. skins".

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Now if I Could Just Get Them to do This at Home for Me

While we were trying to get moved in, we spent a few nights over at Grandpa Gary and Granny Buffie's.
 
I'm not sure how she does it, but Granny Buffie always has the kids cooking really good stuff.
 
(They act like they can't even open a package of chips at my house!)
 
 
She even bought them aprons so they'd look the part.



After a few days, they'd learned how to make more things than I do.
 
 
Though you never know about Kyle, at any moment he might up and leave his cooking station for something "better".

Monday, July 7, 2014

Annie

With all the moving and goings on, it wasn't that I forgot to write about JR in Annie, I just couldn't find my camera to download the pictures.
 
JR actually tried out for Annie in May at the School of Performing Arts at Second Bapstist.
He sang "Easy Street" and "NYC", read for Rooster and Daddy Warbucks, learned a full dance routine he had to perform, and also tap danced.
 
 
We found out over our trip to Denver that he had been cast as Bert Heley (the radio announcer). It wasn't the part he wanted (he wanted Warbucks, I wanted Rooster) but it turned out just fine since we didn't have to spend any of our cruise practicing (which would have definitely thrown a wrench in his rolling in at 1 AM every morning).
 
 
I quickly saw I wasn't going to be able to get any pictures from the show (I forgot my big lens) and due to copyright laws we weren't allowed to video tape.
So here's my one picture of him introducing the show. (He's on the end with the hat and bow tie!)

 
The gist of his part was to introduce Daddy Warbucks and Annie on the radio, then the orphans sing "Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile" while they all do a tap routine together.
Dancing is still the hardest for JR, so I was so proud of his tapping. It was very cute.
Even Granny Sherry leaned over and said, "He can tap!"
 
  I happened across this picture on Facebook a friend of a friend had posted.  There's JR in the back!

And there he is again.


 This one I got off the school's FB page. 

 
Kyle and Reed have watched the movie version of Annie about a million times so they really enjoyed the show.
 
And look how cute Paw-Paw and JR look.