Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Little Jan and Not Jan

JR came home from school on Monday and informed me I  "needed to do his Greek mythology homework."  He just assumed that since it involved drawing and coloring I was his go-to.

Now, I showcase JR's talents on here all the time, but drawing and coloring are not one of them.  So I enlisted my mini me to do the drawing, but I did make JR do the coloring.  (JR had to do everything except the drawing...he also had to list some things on the back of the pictures.  I know, the horror of him having to do some actual work!) 

So here are a few of Reed's cutest pictures.  He was worried they weren't good enough and the teacher wouldn't think JR did them.  I kept telling Reed, "Oh, she'll be super impressed with 'JR's' 
drawings!" 

And as you look at these, remember this is coloring done by an almost teenager.  Oh my. 




Look at these next two. JR hardly even bothered to follow the pencil lines, and then he certainly didn't bother to erase the pencil lines.  


Monday, April 25, 2016

ifly

Kyle and Reed went to an ifly birthday party and sleepover on Saturday.  They loved ifly and tried to see how late they could stay up at the sleepover.  How late you ask? Late enough that Reed went to bed at 6:30 last night and I had still had to wake him up for school at 7:15 this morning.

The parents sent us videos of the flying and they are very cute. 

I still think it looks like Kyle, but Kyle swears up and down it's Reed, and Reed swears up and down it's him (and those are Reed's shoes) so it must be Reed.  Here


Which means this is Kyle's.  I just assumed this was Reed because he was following directions so well, but then I saw Kyle's big toothy grin, and yes it's Kyle.  Here

Friday, April 22, 2016

She's Not a Cartoon

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I've done an exclusive Chloe post.
She is getting so big, and that's the first thing everyone says when they see her.

"Chloe's gotten so big!" 





I think it's time for her 1st grooming.
I'm not sure who she's starting to look more like.

Barkley from Sesame Street


or Sheepdog Sam from Bugs Bunny.



Thursday, April 21, 2016

Bros Seein The Stros

I wasn't supposed to even go to the Astros game Saturday night.
The plan was for Jason to take Reed and 2 of his friends.


But then JR and Jason got invited to sit with Christian and his dad, so I found myself baseballing with three 8 year old boys.


They celebrated 2 home runs...even though we still lost.


And ate pizza and ice cream.


JR scored them all a free hat
but they still said their souvenir was getting on the jumbo-tron.
I even had two people I didn't even know were at the game text me to tell me they saw them dancing around. 


We could see JR and Christian from where we were sitting, and they were sometimes nice enough to wave back.


And if you're feeling sorry for "poor Kyle" who didn't get to go, don't.
Granny Sherry sent me this picture of him enjoying his evening at her house.

(And he gets to take 2 friends another night.)

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Rain Day 2

No school today.
On the bright side, Kyle slept until 8:00 and JR and Reed until 9:00.

I now have kids ranging in ages from 5 to almost 13 upstairs.
After their lunch out with friends, of course.


And if you're wondering what the humidity is like after a Houston flood, it's a million percent.
No seriously, a million! 

Monday, April 18, 2016

Turn Around Don't Drown

Jason left for work this morning, but this was as far as he got.
Can you see the two cars that didn't turn around?

The kids already had school off today for our bad weather day.
What are the odds that we'd have an actual bad weather day on the scheduled bad weather day?!

So Kyle and Reed were at a sleepover last night.

Where we live didn't get hit that hard. We got about 7 or 8 inches of rain.
Other parts, like near Jason's office, got hit really hard.

Have you seen the family floating down the street in the refrigerator yet? 
(If you haven't you don't live in Houston. You can see it here.)  
That's just a few streets from his office.

But not to worry, we are high and dry. 

Friday, April 15, 2016

Mud on the Tires

This is what Kyle, Reed, and Pierce returned from their bike ride looking like.

Although to be fair, this is about 2 hours worth of bike riding fun mud.

They say they didn't even go in any ditches. 
This is strictly from "puddles on the street".

I sent this picture to PawPaw and he couldn't even tell them apart.

The two on either end belong to me.
 (And to make things even more confusing, all 3 of them have the exact same bike.)  

On a side note, it's my new favorite picture.

Thursday, April 14, 2016

Channel 11

One of the (many) things I bought at JR's school auction was a tour of Channel 11 (the CBS affiliate) here in Houston.
Because one of the moms works there, it actually turned out to be one of the best auction items I've ever bought.

The kids (and 1 parent) got to tour the newsroom, see the Great Day Houston set, go in the control room, and sit in the studio while the news anchors were live on air. 


Here we are at Great Day Houston (our local "talk" show). 

Pretending to cook in the semi-fake Great Day Houston kitchen.  (The fridge works.) 

In the studio


Practicing being a weatherman for the Broncos. 


Pretending to give the sports report. 
 He said, "Carlos Correa hit two homeruns last night, which was great for my fantasy baseball team. This is JR Ingersoll with sports, now back to you." 

 With the sportscaster.  


And if you watch Houston news, you'll know this is Greg Hurst.  
He's the anchor and face of Channel 11. 

We had a great time, but he says he'd still rather work for ESPN, 

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Some More and Another

Since my last baseball update, they won two more games and lost one.  
Which I think puts them at 3-3.

I didn't take any pictures at their next win, but I have some video.  My videos usually end up with me cheering, and a video of the ground where I miss the play completely.

This one wasn't so exciting/stressful that I managed to catch them.

Here's Kyle getting an out at 1st from the pitcher,


If I'd known what was about to happen, I'd have missed it.  
Reed made an unassisted double play (At least that's what JR tells me it's called). 
He caught a pop fly (which you can't really see), then tagged the kid running from 1st.



There were lots of fans in the audience to see the next win. 




Then last night we played another team from our school, which is always hard. 



But thankfully next door neighbor, Dave, was there to make the loss not so bad.

Sunday, April 10, 2016

Cabaret

This is the first time since JR got the acting bug that he hasn't been doing a show.

He auditioned for a show (that I really thought he'd get) that would have kept us busy this spring. 
But, he didn't get it, so we switched gears and he's just been working on some of his skills this semester. 


He's been taking a cabaret class (why did stuff like this not exist when I was young?!) and they had their recital on Saturday.


All the kids sang in 3 songs which were songs from Bring It On the Musical, Carrie the Musical (yes, like the horror movie) and 13 the Musical.  Then there were solos and duets from other shows.


JR sang "Purpose" from Avenue Q, "You and Me" from The Book of Mormon, and then had a substantial part in the group number 13.


All the grandparents were in attendance (yes, that's my mom you hear cheering, clapping, and wooing) and as usual, we were all super proud to claim him as ours.


Here's Purpose


You and Me


13

Friday, April 8, 2016

Clean Up

One of the things about our new house is there isn't much yard.
The people who lived here before us seemed to not want any yard.

No yard with just JR would be fine, but Kyle and Reed need a yard.

I don't have any "before" pictures because I was always so embarrassed with how "jungle-y" the front looked.  (Workers in the neighborhood would even throw trash in our "jungle".)

You can see from these old pictures how messy it looked. 






And now, you can actually see the house.
And Kyle is loving his rope tree ladder. 


Our neighbors even thanked us because you can now see their house coming down the street, before our jungle blocked the view. 

Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Finally!

The boys finally won their 1st baseball game last night.
And, let's be honest, I think the parents were just as happy (if not more) than the kids.


Kyle got 9 outs and Reed got 4. 

3 of Reed's outs were thrown to Kyle, and then he got one kid out at 2nd on his own.
2 of Kyle's outs were on his own, and then the other 4 (not from Reed) were from the 2nd baseman or the pitcher. 

(And yes, I take notes while the game is going on because I know I won't remember later.)


They barely won (only by 1) but it's nice for them to have a win under their belt.

Plus, JR did the commentating


There was lots of picture taking to commemorate the win. 

 Kyle and Christopher won the game balls.  Kyle for having 9 outs and scoring the winning run, Christopher for hitting him in for the win. 

Grandpa was there.


We had to have our pictures made with friend and neighbor, Pierce, individually.


 Reed refused to be in a picture with JR and only wanted Christian.

Commentator JR was allowed in this picture

Kyle celebrated that Caden had his first home run.

And both agreed to have their picture made at the same time with Daddy.


Tuesday, April 5, 2016

A Rocket and Free Stuff

JR and Christian went to a cellular phone store and stood in line to meet one of the Rockets.
(Patrick Beverly, not that I know who that is.)

Christian's mom took them and I told her she was a saint because I'm the mean mom that would never do something like she.  She told me they were "the only normal people there."

JR got his hat signed



 and his picture made with Patrick Beverly, who told JR he "liked his enthusiasm".
(I guess that's what you say to kids who are gushing all over you telling you how awesome you are.)

Making it totally worth the trip, JR also won a free phone (it's a Metro PCS) and even better, a $25 American Express gift card.

Sunday, April 3, 2016

Shower

Reed's teacher from last year is getting married this summer, and Reed and I were invited to her shower that some of the moms gave her.

Reed didn't understand what a shower was, or why he had to get dressed up.
His main concern was if he was going to be able to play outside.

I told him there would be cake, but that didn't seem to make up for the having to wear nice clothes.

Here we are all dressed up and ready to go. 

Reed wasn't too impressed with the shower (even after eating four petifores) so I told him not to worry...he'd never have to go to another one (since boys don't go to showers).


But he did get a cute picture with his teacher from last year. 

Friday, April 1, 2016

For the Birds

Kyle and Reed were in the 2nd grade Birds Play last night.

They both had speaking parts, but it was really hard to recognize anybody in their costumes. 
 I videoed at dress rehearsal and actually missed Kyle's part. (At least I knew when he was up for the night show,)

Reed was a parrot

and Kyle was a woodpecker.  (We actually have a woodpecker at our house right now and I never knew how crazy loud they are!  Kyle being a woodpecker is way cuter than a real woodpecker.)






Here's Reed's part.  




Reed's class sang "Birdseed in Paradise"




Here's Kyle's big part.  He's the 1st one to speak.



And then they sang "Redneck Birds"


We thought our little birds were adorable.