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Numero Uno!

It's been awhile since I've updated, so I figured I better get to it once again. About a week ago Jack and I went up to a Badger game, and Jack had a great time. About $70 later Jack was geared up to go and ready for the game.

Jack dancing to some tunes after the game.

Jack was also in the Oshkosh Holiday parade, and this is a few hours before it started. There was some initial resistance regarding the elf hat, but eventually it grew on him.

My dad was the Grand Marshall, so Jack was the Mini-Grand Marshall. He seemed to have a good time riding along once he got going. The firetruck was from the 30s I believe, and at the time it goes $10,000. The man driving, Eric, bought it from someone while it was all in pieces in a box and put it together. A very nice ride.

Since the holiday spirit has begun, here is Jack eating at the classroom Thanksgiving luncheon we had on the 19th. And yes, he does have all 4 food groups on that plate.


This is Madeleine with Jack. She happens to be the same Madeleine that Jack had a "brawl" with only a few weeks back. Sweet little things now, and there actually appeared to be some love in the air with the past behind them :)

Camp Texlake

This past weekend we went camping with some friends at Camp Texlake, which is a Girl Scout camp, but in the off-season they have family camp too. We had a nice cabin with everything in there except a kitchen. We also had a nice private camp fire ring that drew in a little visitor--Mr. Fox. Apparently he just sat about 5 feet away from Duane at night and watched the camp fire with him. I think his main mission was to get any s'more remnants he could find. He ended up chewing the heck out of a Capri Sun pouch too.

On Saturday we hiked around and later in the afternoon we did archery for about an hour. It's a nice area, and very secluded from the city. It was unfortunate that the lake was so low as we were not able to do any boating or fishing.

The recent rains had brought in about 5 boat docks from other locations on the lake. One of them alone appeared to be about a $500,000 dock. That was quickly found however because the wealthy woman who owned it had a GPS system on it that tracked it. I have to laugh when a boat ramp costs more than my house!

Anyway, we had a nice time, and it was nice to get out of the city for awhile.

Chapel Time!

Every Wednesday is chapel day at school, and they boys are required to wear white shirts. The tie is optional, but Jack always insists on wearing one, which I think is very cute. He goes about his morning routine, and he buttons the top button and clips it on. After chapel however, that tie is off and the button loosened!

Baby Sister and Indiana Jones

Anyone know what Jack plans on being for Halloween? Duane was able to find a bunch of very good Indiana Jones clothes and accessories, and Jack has been wearing them ever since! He is very excited to have that costume.

While Indie was playing on the computer, Baby Sister, as she is called, was hanging out and had a few seconds to pose.

The Future Tony Hawk?

Jack is a skateboarding maniac now. For weeks we heard about how he wanted to practice the "Ollie." The problem was, he didn't have the correct gear to actually be out there boarding. Lucky for him however, his birthday wishes came true, and he got all the necessary gear.

I am impressed with him as he has been checking books out at the library and studying up on skateboarding tricks and so on. Who knows, he actually may be the next Tony Hawk!

Happy Birthday Jack!

Jack celebrated his 7th birthday on October 8th, and who showed up--that's right Kelso (yes, I know he appears to be Kermit the Frog). Kelso sang happy birthday and gave Jack a ton of kisses. As you can see by his expression, Jack was very amused by it all.

Besides doing little side trips to sing, Kelso's main job at school it to be a role model of how to treat people. He talks about bullying and you name it. As far as I can tell he's quite the hit with the kids, and I am sure the adults too although they may not admit it.

Ballerina

Anya started tap and ballet two weeks ago, and she really loves it. She seems very happy to walk in the room and get going. The owner of the dance company is her teacher, and she appears to have good techniques that help the kids along. Anya willingly does everything as opposed to one of her classmates that looks like a deer in headlights

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The Circus

Last Saturday we went and saw the Barnum & Bailey Circus. We have made this an annual event, but this is the first year Anya has really gone and enjoyed it. In the pictures below, the Chinese acrobats were juggling, and they pulled kids from the audience (pre-show) to play along. As they were juggling, one of them would walk the kids through the juggling act, and suprisingly enough, no one got hit. Anya was brave enough to attempt it and seemed to really have fun. Jack was too shy to try. As you can see, there were tiara issues.

Second Grade

Today marked Jack's start of Second Grade and to follow the tradition from Kindergarten and First Grades, he bought his teacher flowers. In addition this year, he also bought the secretary some too as it is her first year at this campus. He was very embarrassed, and most of the time I had the flowers sticking to my back because he didn't want anyone seeing him with them. I of course made him hand them to each person :) They were very excited with their gifts, and after the horror of having to carry flowers wore off, he seemed glad he did it.

Mrs. Hammel is his teacher this year, and like all the others he's had, she is wonderful, and I know he will have a great year. To top it off, there are only 8 kids in his class. He got back right into the swing of things despite two episodes with his orange juice. He was full of stuff before he even got out of the car.

The annual before school picture. Anya really wanted to keep a sour face but somehow managed a smile.

Mrs. Graham, the new secretary.

Mrs. Hammel.

A Christmas Carol Train Tour

Yesterday we headed to San Antonio to see Disney's A Christmas Carol Train Tour. If you have an opportunity see this when it passes through your city or close to, take the time to do it, it was phenomenal. Disney knows how to market, and this adventure will pay off at the box office! The The entire display was free, and you even get a sneak peak of how they made the movie, plus about a 5 minute trailer. It comes out on November 6th, and I can guarantee you our family will go see it.

The tour actually has some of Charles Dickens' writings and books, the costumes used in the making of the movie, and a whole car dedicated to showing scenes from production and clips of the movie. They had a about 20-25 flat screen TVs place inside picture frames, and it was awesome. Everything they had on display was interactive and enjoyable.

The movie was computer generated, but live actors were used to get the movements, etc. Read about it, it's very neat. At the end of the train portion of the tour, we also got to morph our faces into one of the characters. Those should be interesting once they are sent to us.

Scrooge!

Despite the fact that it was 100 degrees, we got to enjoy some Christmas carols while we waited in line. I did not envy these people at all.

One of the costumes used in the prodcution and behind it the case that contains some of Dickens' books and writings.

One of the clay models to help replicate the characters's faces. It was sort of creepy it was so real!

Another replica. This is Scrooge's house.

The suits the actors wore that allowed the movements and so on to be captured for the computer.

One of the flat screen TV images. You can't tell from this picture, but the image was as crystal clear as I have ever seen.

By the fireplace--I only wish the fireplace would truly have been needed :)

After the tour, we walked down to the Riverwalk for lunch. We at at Casa Rio, and the kids had a great time feeding the ducks. I think the ducks consumed more than the kids. In the process of feeding the ducks however, Anya's shoe went overboard and into the river. By instinct, Jack retrieved the shoe, and I am happy to say he did not go overboard too. It was a successful shoe recovery.

Pre-shoe in water.

Some South Padre Island Pictures--Yes, FINALLY!