New Tradition

Brian came up with the wonderful idea of purchasing a really nice watch for the boys when they are young and then handing it down to them when they graduate from college. Brian will wear the watches until the boys are ready to receive them. He spent many many hours searching for the perfect one for James. This past weekend, they went to Ben Bridge together to purchase the watch. Brian selected the Omega Seamaster 300 M Diver Chronometer. They had a wonderful outing on Sunday and then we all went back as a family on Monday evening to pick it up (Brian needed some links taken out). Here are some photos.


Brian and James outside Ben Bridge.




James in front of the Omega watch section.




James with the wonderful lady who sold us the watch.




Brian and James picking up the watch.

SOCCER!!!

The Fall 2008 soccer season has begun. This season James is playing the the Katy Youth Soccer league. Thus far we've been pretty pleased. For James' age the teams only have 8 kids instead of the ~12 kids the YMCA had on a team. The coaches have to attend several training sessions so it's not parent volunteers who may or may not have any experience with the game. Also they split the team into two groups and play on two fields at once. There are only three kids from each team on the field at any given time so the kids get to have a lot more contact with the ball. James seems to be understanding the game a lot more this time around. He's getting much better at dribbling the ball and passing it. Plus he is actually paying attention during the games and staying with the ball instead of being off doing his own thing. Here are some photos from his first game. This past week's game was cancelled due to Hurricane Ike. We're really hoping he gains some more skills and has a great time playing this season.


James and his teammate waiting for the other team to kick the ball off.




James getting ready to kick the ball into play.

Children's Museum

We had our first ever visit to the Children's Museum a couple of weeks ago. The boys had an absolute blast. It was so hard to get them to move from one area to another because they were having so much fun. I think we managed to see most of the areas while we were there but I think we left some sections unexplored. We'll definitely be going back again!!


John selecting vegetables at the grocery store.




James playing with the cash register.




James playing in the area that teaches kids about polution.




John standing next to the baby chicks.

RETIRED!!!

I know it's about a month late but I wanted to post that as of August 8th, I'm officially retired. While I don't have to get up and go to work every morning, I do work at home as a stay at home mom. Thus far we are all having a wonderful time. They FINALLY finished (well very close to finishing) the park next door so we've been spending a lot of time outside playing. We've been going to the library to play on their computers and check out books and movies. The boys have enjoyed playing with play-doh, painting, coloring, and learning letters, numbers and words. I've learned that James is a whiz at computer games. All I do is get him to the right starting place on Disney's website and he takes it from there. He can navigate through all of the different shows as well as the games and activities for each of the shows. I have to really watch it because he could play for hours if I let him.

Here are some photos of the boys.

John watching James play computer games



James and John painting

Good-bye Summer

To celebrate the final day of Summer vacation, I took the boys along with Katie, Aly, and Cameron to the zoo. All of the kids had such a great time. I think we saw all of the animals and even hit the Children's Zoo for a while. It was really hot so I let the kids cool off in the little splash park area. The were soaked from head to toe and were barely dry when I dropped them back off at home. Here are some photos from the day.

The kids watching the sea lions playing.



The kids sitting on the log in the splash park after cooling down in the water.



Sitting on the rocks outside the prairie dogs in the Children's Zoo