September pics

Alex has taken on another sport. This season it is soccer that is taking up all his energy. He is a maniac about his sports, so now we are enjoying the constant, 'Can we go to the park and play soccer?' and 'Can soccer be our family night activity?'

Alex was picked to be sent in as team captain for the coin toss. The boys are still learning their positions and Alex is still getting familiar with the ball, so it isn't always smooth sailing, but Alex enjoyed his first game anyway. This is from Dan, but he says that the coach was surprised that this was Alex's first soccer game. I think I have heard that for basketball, football and t-ball. He is a natural go getter and athlete.

Ah, but he was a little too intense. He fell down and got kicked a few times. And it was very hot and humid. This is his recovery.

Macey Jane has fallen asleep on the couch eating crackers. What a cutie!

Kindergarten is rock awesome. They occaisionally celebrate Wonderful Wednesday, when they dress up. This week's theme was Mice and Monsters (M is the letter of the week). So, at 9pm the night before I threw together this green eyed monster costume. Being the costume lover that I am, it was a little painful to send off such a shoddy, last minute effort, but he came home still in it and thrilled, so it was enough then.

Ryan's roller coaster. He made this in art class. Now out of his mouth I got two different stories, so I am going to put together what I think happened. They were to make art with the different strips of paper. Someone came up with the idea to make a roller coaster (I don't think it was Ryan) and then the whole class followed suit.

Either way, this is a way cool piece of art and I am proud of my little designer!

Photo Book

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Great Blue Heron

Macey and I went to feed the ducks at the Russell Creek Pond. There lives an Egret and a Great Blue Heron at this pond. As I was feeding the 30 plus ducks the blue heron comes over. I was a little surprised since I can't imagine a heron wanting to eat stale bread. There is complete bedlam with the ducks vying over the scraps of bread. The heron turns his head to the side and SNAP, he grabs a fish right out of the water churning with duck feet. I can only assume that the bread attracted more than ducks and that the heron let me lure breakfast for him. He stepped on to the bank with his catch and unceremoniously gobbled it whole. He then takes his elegant legs and descends back into the pond. Have you ever seen their legs? They are so graceful. Again, the mayhem, the noise, the ruckus, and this heron dips his head to the side and then snatches up another fish. 2 fish in 3 mintues. I could fish at that pond for an hour and probably wouldn't get two fish. He climbs out, finshes off his breakfast and then meanders a nice quiet distance away from our crowd. I really enjoyed this experience with the circle of life, the miracles of birds, and the majesty of a bird undettered by life's commotion.

Update

Macey loves Sesame Street. Here she has Elmo and Oscar while watching her favorite show. Macey sings the ABC's and counts up to 20 (with assistance). PBS is really paying off for us. I think we better donate during the next fundraiser!

My kids love the library. Alex and I both get too many books. Macey loves the books, but also this statue. Ryan loves the non-fiction section. We have exhausted the marine life section, but with his poor memory we should be able to cycle through them a few times before he realizes we are repeating!

Ryan is my special guy. He is addicted to all things electric. I know this won't always be a bad thing, but he needs to be an outdoor, rough housing boy now, not a TV zombie.

Alex has taken up a new sport and Dan being the Athletic Chair in our family, has the joy of going to practices and taking Alex out for conditioning. I have taken Alex out on a 2 mile run, which we should make a regular activity, but I am not up to full field one on one soccer matches!

My Uncle Mike came down with his family for the weekend. Macey warmed up quickly to them all with calling Leslie 'That one' and playing dolls and kitchen with her the first night. Mike got to color with her the next morning.

My uncle remembers the JFK shooting and wanted to go down to the grassy knoll and see where JFK was assassinated.  I didn't realize that Congress decided that the assassination was a conspiracy and then never did anything to solve the case.

While we were there two gentleman were giving speeches and selling DVD/magazines about the plot. We met a gentleman that was standing on the grassy knoll when he was 13 years old and recounted the events to us. It was an interesting moment to hear him speak.

We went further afield and went to the American Airlines Center.

And then we went to fair park. The boys wanted to go to the science museum, but it was a bit costly to see the Chinese dinos, so we ended up wandering around. We found Alligator nosed turtles and red eared slider turtles in this pond, along with lots of fish.

Ryan quickly found a way onto this sculpture that went over the pond.

And here the kids are posing (for the second time) on the Mammoth. We spent the rest of the weekend in leisure swimming, balling, tennising, wii-ing and what not.