August updates

8/31 - Today we had Kasey's meet the teacher.  She is in 3s class at AppleCreek 3 days a weeks for just under 3 hours each day.  Her teachers are one of her teachers from last year and this summer, and a teacher Landon had for a few years.  This combination of teacher is who Landon had his very first year at AppleCreek.  We are excited.  She has about 5 or 6 kids from her class last year, and new friends as well.  I think she'll have fun. 

That night Greg, Doug, Dave and I went to opening game for Allen High School.  They played SouthLake Carroll, and ended up winning by quite a bit.   We stood up most of the game, and stayed into the beginning of the 4th quarter.  Kids were at Grandmas so we went out for a few beers after the game.  The stadium is pretty amazing and shocking that it's a high school stadium.  It was also fun to see the band and drill team.  We have kids on our street both in drill team and on the drum line so that was neat.


8/29 - We have 3 of 4 sports schedules in and actually few conflicts.  I have a feeling when we get football schedule everything is going to blow up.  We are also trying to figure out which football games we can go to.    I think at Thanksgiving I'm going to want to just sleep :)


8/28 - Kasey had her first soccer practice.  I took her because Greg was coaching his baseball team at the same time.  I think it was weird for Greg to not be there because he's always helped with practice for every sport that Landon has done.   She will have practice on Tuesdays most of the time so he won't get to help out much.  There are 7 girls on her team - they are the Starbursts.  Families seem really nice.  The coach has two girls, there was a German man there so we talked World Cup, and one of the dads used to play professional soccer.  Anyway, Kasey has been taking soccer tots for a few seasons so she has some of the skill down.  She does well dribbling the ball, but still needs to work more on kicking the ball hard.  They will learn a lot in the games themselves.


8/27 - Landon's first day of 1st Grade - He's in Mrs Davis's class (new teacher to Norton), and has friends like Collin, Andrew and Kyle in class.  Also a few other girls that we know from friends in the neighborhood.  He seemed to have a good first day.  They got to play on their new playground, be in their new school (it was completely renovated over the summer), and start learning again.  Landon has been doing great reading Magic Tree House books.  He's now on book 12 - 1st grade homework is to read for at least 20 minutes so he's moving through them pretty fast.


8/25 - Greg and I decided to have a night out just us.  Greg and Doug went to see Batman movie and I went with the kids to hang out with my mom and dad, and then I picked up Greg from the movie and we went to Bobs for dinner. YUM.   They had a chocolate peanut butter brownie dessert that I just had to try.  It was huge and wonderful, but we didn't finish it.  We were to full to do anything else so we went home to relax :)


8/24 - I had to work a bit in the morning, and then went to see Kasey's soccer tots class.  Landon had somehow hurt his neck and was having issues running and with full movement.  After Kasey's class we had a Schlotzskys lunch and then I took Landon to his dentist appointment.   They recommended pulling the tooth because it wasn't likely that the adult tooth would push it out where it was.  Landon did great.  They gave him laughing gas, and numbed the area then pulled it out.   She tried to hide that she was numbing his gums with a shot, but Landon saw.  He was fine though.   He was really excited to have lost his first tooth.

That evening we went to dinner as a family and then went to Market Street to meet school friends for ice cream before school started.  It was fun to see friends and talk about which classes we were in and what everyone did for vacation.   That night we also had a girls night with 5 of the ladies from neighborhood.


8/23 - I took few days off after vacation.  Today we started out with baseball practice.  Then we all went to lunch together.  Greg went to work and kids and I stayed home to hang out for a bit.   We went to grab some Ice Cream.  Then we all did our nails.  Had to cut Landons and then cut and Painted mine and Kaseys.  Kasey choose purple nail and toe polish which matches her new soccer team uniforms.  She will be playing on her first soccer team this fall - the Starbursts.  We had fun doing nails then we started taking videos and laughing about the one Kasey made.  Silly girl.  Then Landon brought in his ipad to show us a video he made of Lady and he was glad that we had that.
Tonight we got to see new school and met Landons new teacher Mrs Davis.  We also got to see his AIM room (gifted and talented program).   Everything in the school is new except the brick so it's nice.   Kids were excited to see their friends and teachers.

We also discovered today that Landon has an adult tooth growing in behind his baby teeth is front bottom.   His pediatric dentist is closed through Labor day so I called my dentist.  They said that sometimes they have to pull baby teeth so that new teeth will grow in fine.  We have an appointment tomorrow so we'll see.

Watercolor Family Vacation - 8/17 - 8/22
8/22 - We were leaving in the afternoon to head home.   We decided to all go to Breakfast at Great Southern Cafe.  We had eggs, fruit, pancakes, waffles, grits, mimosas, etc.  It was fun.  Then we took a little walk outside on our way back.  It was pretty humid.    Tracy and I took Landon and Kasey to the pool for a little while which was fun.  They seemed to enjoy it and was a little calmer than the beach.  

Then we headed home to shower and finish packing.  We ate some food we had at house, and the rest of the crew headed to the beach on the beautiful day.

We headed out after lunch to return some stuff to Kmart, and to the airport.  Kasey fell asleep on the way so I guess she was tired.   We had an early dinner in the airport since we would be getting home about bed time for kids.  Mom and dad brought our car to the airport.  The kids were so excited to tell them about their fun trip.

8/21 - Finally a beautiful day at the beach.  Kids played in the sand, both Landon and Kasey did boogie board, and they met a little friend that they played with for a while.   We made pancakes for breakfast and then headed to the beach.  We stayed into the afternoon, had lunch from the trucks again.The waves were pretty rough though.    I was out boogie boarding with Landon and the rip tide kept pulling us back.   There were 2 times that I couldn't get back  to him.  The 2nd time Greg had to come out and help both of us back.  Luckily when Greg got to us Landon was able to catch a wave in.  He had a life jacket and boogie board.  This allowed Greg to help me back in.   It was a little scary.  It wasn't deep, but the tide kept pulling you back so you couldn't get anywhere.   All is well though.  
   As we were leaving we stopped and had some custard from one of the trucks just the 4 of us.  The Steiners had gone to the pool in the afternoon with Doug.  Doug played golf that day all morning.   We then walked back to Seaside for some dinner at the Taco Bar.  We had some good fish/shrimp tacos and burritos, and some yummy Sangria.  The kids had Quesadilla and tacos.  After dinner we went down to the beach for Tracy to take a few pictures of us as a family.   They turned out nice, and I'm excited about getting some printed.   That night Tracy and I got girls night.  We headed to Watercolor Gathering Place for a fun drink, and then decided to go to the wine World that we'd been buying wine from.   We sat outside, shared a bottle of wine and talked.  We had a good time.
The boys had gotten some beer on the way back from dinner, and when we got home found they had also had a Silver Oak bottle of wine.

8/20 - We woke up the next morning, and rain again.  Unfortunately this day it didn't let up.  I was still in bed, Landon and Greg were downstairs.  Kasey came into our room and got in bed with me.  She was sad Landon has left her and was acting a little weird.  She said she felt like she was going to get sick.    She fell back to sleep a few times in bed, on bathroom floor, and then actually got sick with nothing in her tummy.  Poor thing.  She had a rough day, and didn't understand as she got hungry why we limited what she could eat and drink.   She got sick a few more times, but was doing better.   In the middle of all this people were getting letters to find out which First grade teacher they have.   We had a friend getting our mail so that we could find out.  I was on facebook in the afternoon checking who was in Landon's class.

We needed to get Landon and Elizabeth out of the house.  We took them to a pottery place.  Landon made two tiles of his own design, and Tracy made a cute tile with Elizabeths handprint as a fish.  We then went to get some Ice Cream in the rain.   When we got back Kasey had taken a nap and seemed to be doing better.  The boys went out to watch soccer game that was on TV.  Somehow while they were out the washing machine started flooding the floor.  Landon noticed it and we were able to stop it.  We used most of the towels in the house to clean it up.  Once the guys got home we checked to see what the issue was, and it seems its a fluke that the level nob was turned between two setting so it just continued to fill.  

That evening Kasey didn't have fever so we decided to take her to dinner.   We went down the road to Stinky's Seafood.   Of course the movement of the car made her sick again.  As we were walking in the door she got sick.   She was ok after that and ate some pasta and crackers just fine.   No other problems for Kasey after that.

That night the boys went out for drinks so Tracy and I shared a bottle of wine and watched movie August Rush which was cute.   We were sound asleep  when the boys got home.

8/19 - It rained again in the morning.  We had some more eggs and fruit for breakfast.   Once the rain broke some we headed to the beach.  It started raining again later, but we were already wet so we stayed.   We pretty much closed down the beach.  Most other people left.  Landon dug a roller coaster on the beach, and then Elizabeth got it in.  It was cute. Just up from the beach is Seaside center and there are several trucks that serve food for lunch and dinner.  This day we had some Grill Cheese, hot dog and a beer for Greg which was good.    When it was raining Greg, Doug, Landon, Kasey and I were all in the water most of the time.  We had fun.   Kasey tried boogie board for the first time.  She wasn't to sure of it.

That night we hired a babysitter to take care of the kids while we went out.  They had 4 hour minimum so that's how long we were out.   This was new for Greg and I.  We have never left the kids with someone that wasn't family or a friend of the kids.   We had them fed and ready for bed so she just played with them some, and got them to bed.  We went to a nice restaurant (Fish out of Water) in Watercolor. Unfortunately with all the rain they weren't seating anyone outside.  We had a nice time and good food though.  After dinner we walked over to wine bar in Seaside for a bottle of wine.  It was a nice evening out.   The sitter said kids were good.

8/18 - The next morning kids got up around 7am.  Not to bad.  It was raining.   We made some breakfast - eggs and fruit and all at together which was fun.  After the rain slowed down we headed to the beach.  The beach was pretty calm that day.   We had reserved 4 chairs and 2 umbrellas on the beach that they set up for us which was nice.  It was right down the walkway in Seaside.  Landon, Dave and Greg played some football on the beach.  We came back to the house to have sandwiches for lunch.   In the afternoon the Steiners went to the pool and we decided to take a hike around the area.  There were some trails so we walked around the lake some.   It was pretty.  It was a little warm and humid, which Kasey didn't like.

That night we cooked dinner at the house.  Guys made Steaks and corn on the grill.  Kasey and I snapped green beans and Tracy cooked them and sweet potatoes.  Kasey was very proud to help with the green beans.  She even said she helped more than Landon.  Actually Landon was keeping Elizabeth happy while Tracy was cooking.   It was great dinner.  We had to eat quick because we wanted to go to the beach for a bonfire with Smores.   We got there and guy was playing guitar, and they had rods and marshmallows set up.   Landon enjoyed it, but Kasey wasn't to sure about the fire.   There was a big storm coming so we headed some to get kids to bed.

The 5 adults had wine (ended up drinking 5 bottles :)) and sat on the enclosed patio and talked until 10:45 or 11.

8/17 - Because we were using miles we left on a really early flight Friday morning.  7:25am flight is early with kids.  We actually had to wake kids up early.   When we got there, we had planned to meet some friends from the neighborhood at local waterpark to play.  We couldn't get into our house until 4pm.    People we were meeting had been there for several days and decided they wanted to go to the beach instead.   We met up at Crab Trap for lunch with Landon's friend Rohan, his family and another family with little girl in Landon's class.  We sat outside on the patio, and then a big rain storm came through.  We had to move inside.  We had good lunch, adults had fun drinks.   After that it was still raining so day at the beach wasn't happening.  We went shopping a little bit, and then decided to head back closer to where we were staying.  We met up with Dave, Tracy, Doug and Elizabeth at the grocery store to get some stuff for the stay.  

When we got checked into the house kids ran around to find their room.  They had their own room with bunk beds and their own bathroom.  Cute room.  it even had a balcony off their room.  The house was really nice.  Dave, Tracy and Elizabeth stayed in the master room, and then we had a room, kids had a room, and Doug had a room.

We got a text from another one of Landon's school friends who was in Destin to see if we wanted to meet them for Dinner in Destin at Deweys.  We were pretty tired, but went anyway.  We got to sit outside with nice view and  great weather. The kids were a little crazy, but ended up being ok.  The food was great.   At the end the kids were running around and we couldn't find Landon.  He had gone to the car with Carter's dad and sister, but I was of course freaking out not finding him.  All was well, but it was a little scary.

We headed back and stopped to get a fresh made key lime pie at Donut Hole.  Yum
That night we got kids to bed.   We had some wine and hung out at the house.
8/14 - I had first AppleCreek board meeting for the year.  I was going to try and do less at the preschool since I'm doing more at Landon's school, but we ended up with a fully new board.  So I'm back to being president again for 1 more year.  I have put some of my previous responsibilities on other board members, and home to be more of a mentor  to the new board and board meeting leader.  We'll see how it goes.

8/11 - It was a nice night so Greg took kids out backyard to throw baseball.  Even Kasey was trying to throw and catch some.

8/10 - I was told at work that my boss was leaving our group and that I was being offered a promotion to be in his role and manage a small team.


8/7 - Had Norton PTA meeting - new board, new principal, and the meeting lasted 3 hours.  We had a neighbor sitting at the house because Greg had softball double header and I wanted to hear new things going on.

8/5 - We celebrated Grandma's birthday.  We went out to dinner with everyone to Amegos, and then headed back to the house for some Bonnie Ruth Red Velvet and Coconut cakes, yum.

8/4 - I had a busy evening.  One of our neighbors had her 40th birthday party that I went to for a little while, then some of the ladies in the neighborhood hosted a dance party and donation party for our city community organization.   We got many donations, and we had a blast dancing til almost 1am.


8/3 - Greg and I were going to dinner and movie with friends so the kids were at the Grandparents.  I got home about 6pm to find our sweet Lady dog had passed away.  It was a blessing that the kids didn't see her like that, but it was tough for Greg and I.   We cancelled our plans and decided to get the kids and tell them about Lady in person.  The kids were sad, and I'm not sure that Kasey really understands.  Greg and I are definitely sad.   We got her right after we got married in January 2001.   She was a sweet dog that will be missed very much.   We read the Dog Heaven book to the kids, and they liked that.