The 3 Little Pigs

Kolter's 2nd and 4th graders treated us to their rendition of The 3 Little Pigs.  The 4th graders had speaking parts and then the 2nd graders would come in and sign a song.  It was all in French, Spanish and Chinese, so we understood very little of the show (the speaking parts did repeat themselves in English) but it is always cute.  Here is Addy singing what I think was "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf" in Chinese.    

Happy Birthday Granddad and Uncle Dave

We were excited to have Dottie, Fred, Dave and Vicki in for the weekend and we got to top it off with a celebration of Dad and Dave's birthdays.

Rodeo Festivities

 I was able to catch up with the trail riders at Kolter again this year.  It was pretty cold this year, so I think the kids were a bit less interested in looking at the wagons, but still fun to see horses walking down the street.   

 

Here is Addison and her teacher Ms. Reardon. 

 

Meanwhile, Ella was riding ponies at her school!  This will be the last year of pony rides at BAC...

 

We were excited to have family join us at the livestock show this year.  Here are the girls with cousins Ava and Zoe in their new cowgirl hats. 

 

Mardi Gras 2015

Another Crystal Beach Mardi Gras with lots of golf carts, plenty of beads and one prized stuffed animal.  The exciting part this year was that Aunt Jean was able to join us which was a lot of fun!  The girls were also super excited to wear the Mardi Gras tie-dye shirts we made.

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Beach Garage Is Back

We are super excited to have a garage back!  Still need to do the painting, but the weather has not really been conducive to painting recently.  Looking forward to organizing and filling it up this summer.  #1 goal is to not fill it up with a boat that we never use!  Anxious to fill it up with some other toys though. 

Who Needs a Pool...

When you have a pile of leaves to jump into!

Runner

Another 13.1 in the record books!  Official time 2:07:55, pace 9:46. 

Ella and Ella

These girls are two peas in a pod!  They have been "Ella Wolf" and "Ella C" since they were in the baby class at Bertha Alyce. 

Braces!

Addy has a whole lot of metal in her mouth now!  So far so good, only a couple of days with some Advil and she was totally fine.  Think she has mastered eating now, although her first lunch after she got the braces took quite a while to finish. 

New Years Eve

Very cold New Years at the beach, but we vegged out inside for most of the time.  We did make one quick trip to the water though

This year we all watched the New Years Time Square show and both girls actually made it up to New Years New York time.  They were losing steam at the end but they hung in.  Definitely a record!  Michael and I made it up to midnight central time.  Not necessarily a record, but definitely an accomplishment.  We started the new year with everyone sleeping in past 9 which was a very nice treat. 

Christmas Day

Santa and the grandparents came bearing many, many gifts - I didn't think that our in-house Toys 'R Us could hold much more, but turns out there was room on the shelves.  Again, great times with family celebrating the big day!

 The girls were package unwrapping machines this year!

 

 Ella wouldn't pose for the annual Christmas morning photo.

 

 The girls getting ready for Uncle Tom's Christmas Day Feast.

 

Kind of blurry and a very slouchy Ella, but a cute pic nonetheless.



Christmas Eve

Another fun Christmas Eve that started with church and ended with good food and fun.

Ms. Reardon's 2nd Grade Hoiday Party

On the last day of school before Christmas break, Addy's class had a fun celebration too.  They had donuts, played games and exchanged gifts for books. 

 Giving Ms. Reardon her gift from the class.

 

Wrapping her classmate up like a snowman.  Pretty impressive toilet paper wrapping job, until he moved a minute late and it all broke apart!

Cats and Kids

This one is for the record book - the cats hanging out under the Christmas tree with both kids within range...the 2 blobs under the tree are the cats!

Happy Hanukkah

It is our last year to have any kind of Hanukkah celebration in the house since Ella will be moving on to Kolter next year.  Ella's pre-K class had a cute party to celebrate and fortunately I was able to go and join in the fun.

 No party is complete without cookies and icing.

 

Me and my girl!

2014 Christmas Prep

 Pickout a Christmas tree. Done

 

 Decorate Christmas tree. Done.

 

Tell Santa what you want for Christmas.  Done, but with a bit of nervousness on the part of the 4 year old. 

 

Take pic with Santa with no tears or screaming.  Done, but with a bit of a nervous smile on the 4 year old! 



Thanksgiving

Another fun year, with a bit of a twist on what we've done for years now - Aggie football had to be factored in, so we had an early lunch at the Denson house and then Michael and I headed to College Station for the game. 

 The Thanksgiving cookers, minus Aunt Jean who was taking the pic

 

 The Thanksgiving cookers part two

 

 Hungry cousins making funny faces

 

 We were all 4 smiling at this point, the people in white were not so smiley at the end of the night.  Super fun to have the family rivalry on Thanksgiving now!  Looking forward to watching the game from the couch with everyone next year.  Hopefully the Aggies can pull off a win!

 

This one is a classic!

Space Center Houston

We were excited to have Heidi and Susan in for Thanksgiving and even more excited that they came in early so we had a few days to hang out.  Ella and I met them and Grandpa down at Space Center Houston one day (poor Addy was in school still!) and we got to run around that place.  And I literally mean run around...because that is what a 3 and 4 year old do in a place with wide open spaces!  Not sure how much they got out of the experience but they seemed to have fun.  The only pic I got of the 2 of them was dark, but here are some of me and Ella

Me and Ella and the shuttle carrier airplane that Houston got in lieu of one of the actual shuttles.  Still pretty cool to look at.  Kind of makes the shuttle look small which is strange. 

 

 Ella at the original Mission Control

 

Ella and the really big Saturn rocket.  At least I think it was the Saturn...was definitely a really big rocket.  We mostly walked/ran alongside the rocket, not a whole lot of reading about it. 



Reunion Weekend

Finally it was Michael and my turn to go to a game together - and this time with a lot of friends!  Game was not so great, it was cold and rained the whole time, but we stayed until the fourth quarter to watch the Aggies lose.  Still had a great time hanging with good friends!

 Me and My Girls.
We missed our girls who have left Texas and have more than a short drive to get to College Station so couldn't make it.

 

Cute but blurry pic of us before we put the ponchos on and headed out in the cold and rain.