Ah, May. Let the craziness begin! The kids got free Dynamo tickets for reading books, so we made it out to a game finally. We were once again in the cheap seats, but we were able to meet up with Uncky Dan and Will after half time in their posh, season ticket section.
No pics with them, but we did see Will up on the big screen before the game started!
The kids even got to go down to the field for "goal kicks" after the game. Owen was probably too big for this. Can't you tell how excited they are?
To start off our busy second week of May, Owen was confirmed as a member of our church. He had gone to group meetings every Sunday evening over the school year to better understand our core beliefs and to take this next step.
Owen got to pick the place for our celebration lunch, and he chose Jimmy John's so he could get an 18-inch giant sandwich. To our partial amazement, he ate the whole thing! (He's always hungry these days, hence the "partial.")
Hadley capped off her time in Challenge with the 5th Grade Showcase where 5th grade Challenge kids from across the district presented their own research topic, gave a 3-minute summary speech, and answered questions from passersby. Hadley worked on hers all year and chose the History of Architecture as her subject matter, complete with a Lego-like replica of Big Ben composed of 3000 tiny pieces. They did a unit on Architecture last year, and she now wants to be an architect!
There were probably 50-60 posters set up; some kids worked in teams. The range of topics was amusing - from Greek mythology, black holes, and artificial intelligence to Michael Jordan vs. Lebron James. Hadley did a great job memorizing her highlights and talking to curious onlookers. We were so proud of her for stepping out of her comfort zone!
In the middle of everything, someone had to have a birthday! (It was me.) And my family made a delicious cake for me! Yum!
Moving on, Owen was inducted into the National Junior Honor Society this year. We're so proud of him for finding his way in Junior High and excelling in his academics! There were so many inductees in his class (162) that they had to separate them into two ceremonies alphabetically. 😳 As they crossed the stage, they were supposed to pick one of the 5 pillar candles (scholarship, service, leadership, character, and citizenship) to light their candle with. Owen chose Service.
Owen's not really sure what he's getting into, but hopefully it's just the first step in a long string of accomplishments and service for him.
These boys are obviously not strangers to group pictures! They are all in athletics together, and hopefully they will keep influencing each other in positive ways, even outside of their athletic endeavors.
Hadley went to her last Midweek at our church (Youth group for 3rd-5th grades). Ms Alyssa gave a nice speech about each 5th grader, included what she appreciated about them, and gave them each a special gift. She said Hadley was "so knowledgeable," and there was a resounding "Yes!" from all of the adult helpers, as well as her willingness to help wherever needed. Hadley enjoyed going and has learned most of the books of the Bible in order, among many other things, but she is really looking forward to being with the older kids.
Owen's orchestra had their EOY concert, which was the last for his teacher, Ms. Allevato. She is apparently moving on to take care of animals at the border, at least that's the story according to O. 🤷 Owen is in red below and played cello in the Advanced Orchestra (songs #5 and 6 in the link above). Next year he'll be in the top orchestra, Camerata!
Happy Easter! These guys are almost getting too big for baskets, but they can't turn down any excuse for candy.
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We did some competitive egg hunts in the backyard.
Look closely. Do you see the egg hidden in this picture? Hint: it's green and hidden in the tree. 2nd hint: It's on a lower branch near the fence post.
On the left is Hadley's school spring picture, which we preferred to her fall pic. She looks so little, but in reality she's about to graduate from elementary school and never look back. On the right is when she got "egged" from a friend at school.
After four years, our tiny alumni chapter finally scraped together its first scholarship dinner. Between Covid, domination of the area by the Houston chapter, and the plethora of Aggies in our city, I've been waiting for the chapter to quietly fold after trying to get started just before Covid shut everything down. But we survived, and the planets aligned to get Longhorn legend Vince Young to be our inaugural scholarship dinner speaker! He was a great speaker, down to earth, and our dinner was a success, bringing in more than our $8k target to give lifeblood to our fledging scholarship fund. Hook 'em!
Mid-April was the day for upcoming 6th grade band students to pick out their instruments. Hadley had her heart set on the saxophone, but the ex-band director who was helping kids try out all the available instruments said that she looked like a natural trumpet player. She tried the saxophone mouthpiece, for a score of 3 stars, but got 5 stars when she tried the trumpet. She didn't want to try anything else, so here we are. Future trumpet star!
Meanwhile, the boys did a quick trip to Austin to take in the Orange & White spring game for Longhorn football. There were mixed reviews; J is optimistic that we'll repeat our 8-5 record in the fall. I asked for pictures, and this was all I got from the boy.
It was a glorious sunshine-y day for Earth Day. H and I did yoga in the park and got a free oak tree. Hello, first sunburn of the year! We treated ourselves to some gelato afterward.
Our backyard has been undergoing a slow transformation. So long playset! Per the kids' request, the swings were granted a reprieve from execution. The yard looks a lot bigger now.
We filled in for J's trivia team for the championships. Alas, we came in third from last, but we did pretty good for a small team of last-minute subs!
April saw the end of H's Read Deed Run for the school year, her second year to do RDR. Over the 8 months of school, they read 26 books, do 26 good deeds, and run 26.2 miles. Though our school is one of the smallest, it's done at many elementary schools throughout the district. They do the last 1.2 miles around the stadium.
And finally, the end of April means that the beginning of swim team is just around the corner! The kids are both participating again, so you know where we'll be until July...
This year they added a fun run (for 14-and under) and a crawfish boil fundraiser. The first 30 finishers got to pick a prize. Owen and his buddy showed off their track team skills for a 1-2 finish, and Hadley came in 19th, so we ended up with a fro-yo gift card and Tri-ominoes. We're ready for summer!
We started off the month saying good-bye to a truck that we'd had for nearly 20 years and getting J a belated birthday gift in a new truck. The old truck was great, but it was starting to show its age and we crossed our fingers each time the annual inspection came up. The new one is no-frills, but it seats four and gets better gas mileage than our SUV.
We also cheered on the 'horns as they made a deep run in the March Madness tournament - Elite 8! The backs of our heads even made it on the local news when they covered a watch party on a slow news day.
Owen continued to run circles around the track in hurdles and relays in March. The season culminated in the district championships where he ran in the 100M hurdles, 300M hurdles, and 4x200 relay. I tried all season to take a picture right as he was crossing a hurdle, but this was the best I could do (he's second from left).
Here's an exciting finish to the 4x200m relay. Owen was running the closing leg, and you can imagine how excited we all were, until we realized there was a whole other (faster) heat to go. Unfortunately, this awesome run didn't get them any points for the team. There are 17 junior highs in the district, and track seems to be low down on our coaches' list of priorities, compared to some of the other schools out there. It was still a fun season, and I think Owen will give it another try next year.
Lastly, I took an afternoon off of work and took the kids to the HLSR one afternoon. We hadn't been to the rodeo since our first spring break here. Like then, we went on another rainy weekday, and there were still thousands of people there.
We had a few hours to walk around before the main event, so we took in a youth horse show, pig races, and mutton bustin' fairly quickly. The latter reminded me of Owen's attempt 8 years ago! Good times!
We do like to look at the animals - lots of horses and just a few cows, since we were near the end of the whole rodeo. They even had llamas, though the llama parade had been cancelled due to the weather. I don't know what it is, but llamas crack me up! If you look closely, the one on the right knew to "smile" for pictures. 😄
And the babies - several pink baby piglets and a calf only one day old. So cute!
Finally, we made our way to the nosebleed seats in NRG Stadium for the main rodeo event. We didn't go to this last time, so this was our first real rodeo! And yes, behind us was no one. We were quite literally on the last row. The stairs made me a bit nauseous, and I was afraid I'd lose my balance and tumble down until I splatted.
Thankfully I didn't! And we took in all of the rodeo with a birds' eye view: calf roping, bull riding, barrel racing, and calf scramble, among others. It was highly entertaining, but we often watched the big screen rather than the actual event. I'd go again, but would get closer seats.
The post-rodeo concert was Chris Stapleton. He was pretty good, but I think he's probably a better show for smaller venues.
The kids were fading, so we left a little early to beat the crowds to the car. The carnival at night makes for a pretty background, doesn't it?
