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!

iPhone Camera

I just got an iPhone, and I figured I would try out the camera feature on it. I will have to say, it actually takes nice pictures. If you look closely enough, you will see Jack's missing upper tooth. I think this phone will be a lifesaver in many ways. Just the movie feature alone will be great!

Slacker

Obviously I have not updated the blog as I had intended to to while on vacation. Then once we got back, we had some curve balls thrown in our face, thus more delays. I will have it updated with pictures this week. I made a cool PowerPoint photo album, and I'm hoping I can upload it successfully on here! Stay tuned.