A Trip to San Antonio, TX with the Grandparents.

During Grandmoi and Pappa Wally's visit to Houston we took a two day trip to San Antonio, TX. It was drizzly the entire time but we made the best of it and had a blast. For our first excursion into town we visited the Alamo and wandered about doing a little site seeing and shopping. After a trip back to the hotel and a dry out, we headed back into town and walked the 'River Walk'.

The River walk is a below street level viaduct system made in the early 1900's to divert the San Antonio river and prevent flooding. It has been embraced by business and civic affairs and there are hundreds of restaurants, bars, and other establishments. Live music, thousands of Christmas lights, and other sites to see. The next morning we headed to the San Antonio Zoo. The kids loved the sights and sounds and had a blast. One of the highlights, as you can see, was an area where you could feed live birds. They swarmed you if they saw that you had 'nectar' in a little cup (sold at the entrance to the bird area). It was awesome to feed the birds and put almost a 1/2 dozen of them on each kid.

Over all we had a blast, great accommodations, and a safe trip. Thanks Grandmoi and Pappa Wally for a great trip.

Jason

Christmas 2010

Christmas 2010 was certainly an adventure, and continues to be one! I have a set of pictures on this post from the last few weeks - so let me go over a few of these.

You are seeing Lambert and Maxwell making cookies for the family and Santa. Santa not only ate their cookies but left a note in the tray saying he LOVED them. Grandpa Russ and Grandma Sue sent the boys a Trampoline for Christmas and after Amy and I assembled it, the boys have been getting a lot of use out of it.

On Christmas eve we went to a local service at the Methodist Church that the family are members of. It was a service geared toward children. It was great. We sung songs, lit candles, sung carols and heard the good news. When we got home we opened two presents to sate the loot thirst the kids were experiencing.

On Christmas day the boys woke up at 4 am, and by the time we heard them they had one present open already. We told them that they could play with that present, and made them promise not to open any more presents until 6am. At that time they could wake us up and we would open the rest.

That didn't go well.

At 6:30am we walked out in the living room and not only was every present open, but nearly every Lego Star Wars present open and most of the bags of pieces open and dumped out on the carpet - in various piles. When we asked which pile belonged to which, they were not sure and I had hell to pay figuring it out. We were, to say the least, disappointed. You see in one picture that Amy caught me assembling these (some 2,500 pieces) that I was not pleased. This wore off quickly and we got on with our day.

However, because of this early morning loot raid, you don't see many pictures of the kids opening presents. We staged a picture of me and the boys with the Lego's I assembled - but that is about all.

Grandmoi and Pappa Wally came on on Christmas day and we have been visiting with them all week. It has been a great holiday!

Jason

Lambert's Seventh Birthday.

We celebrated Lambert's Seventh Birthday this week (his part was on the 11th, his birthday proper was on the 15th). The were up early and opened up their gifts (to keep fighting to a minimum we allow each boy one present on their 1/2 birthday as well). Lambert has barely allowed his new DSi-XL out of his hands since opening it. His party was held at Katy City Park and some of his classmates celebrated with him. He received many gifts at his party as well and a great time was had by all. On his birthday we celebrated with a small cupcake and allowed him to blow out his candle (it was too windy at the park during his party). You can tell by the look on his face that he had a great time throughout the celebration.

Jason

A Visit to the Boys School.

As you saw in the video below we went to the boys school to see them sing songs for Fine Arts Day. We helped out at the school after the performance; wrapping presents, cutting out laminates, and other things and then had lunch with the boys. We sat with Lambert's best friend, Kayla, and her Grandmother. We had a great day.

Jason

Fine Arts Day - Fall 2010

Nine Week Report Cards.

The boys came home with their second nine week report card from their school today and I thought I would give and update.

Lambert:

Lambert comes home every day one the highest behavior setting in his class. For all of the kids in the younger classes they have a seven step behavior chart set in colors. All the kids start the day on 'Wonderful' (White), and they can move up to 'Great' (Green), 'Bravo' (Blue), and Praiseworthy (Purple) or they can move down to 'Yikes' (Yellow), 'Oh-No' (Orange), or 'Rough Day' (Red). Lambert comes home every day on 'Praiseworthy' or just slightly below.

He is having a wonderful year at the Charter school they boys attend. He has a wonderful teacher and all is very well in his school life. He received seven A's and one B (Music). All comments were great.

Maxwell:

Max started the year in a very rough way. The first nine weeks he performed okay in class but his behavior scores were always 'unsatisfactory'. He was suspended once for melting down in class (they call the suspension 'at home recovery') and had many rough days - coming home on 'Oh-No' or below. However, in the second nine weeks things have certainly improved. The suspension scared the dickens out of him (we found out later this behavior was mostly due to strep throat) and he really started to work hard on his behavior.

His second nine report card has 'E's' (or excellent) in every academic category with his teacher saying that he is 'at the top of his class' in every subject. He received a 'Needs Work' in the behavior category - only because of a few days at the beginning of this nine weeks. His teacher is VERY happy with his performance and growth and said he will 'for sure be in the satisfactory category by the time the report card comes out.

All in all things are going very well with the kids and their schooling, we could not be happier.

Jason