Halloween

Here are the pictures from Halloween. Instead of doing trick-or-treating in my mom's neighborhood, we went to the city of Burleson's Boo Bash, which was an outdoor festival. It was so crowded the kids didn't get much candy because the line going around to the different cars where they were doing the trunk-or-treat was so slow. But, they got to jump in a couple of bounce houses and that was what they were more interested in doing. The fire department had a truck out there and they got to climb up inside and look around and sit in the seats and the police department had their SWAT van there, so they also got to go inside of it. Jesse went with some of his friends to a neighborhood to do some trick or treating and spent the night with them, so there are no pictures of him. The Saturday night before Halloween, Dad carved the pumpkins with them while I went for a girl's night out with Sunday and a couple of other ladies. We saw The Secret Life of Bees and all thought it was really good. The boys had a fun night at home carving the pumpkins and they all turned out really good. Lil Jesse did his free hand and Dad and Cross used patterns.

Not too much has been going on since school started besides the normal daily activities of getting up early, rushing to get us all out the door, dropping the kids off, getting to work, picking the kids back up, making dinner, get the kids into bed, and falling into bed ourselves! You know the drill. Cross started Judo classes about a month ago. There is a center near our house and they have a van that they use to do after school pick up. So, that is nice because I am not rushing out the door at 3 from work to pick him up. They make the rounds picking up kids at the different schools, take them back to the center for a snack and they can work on homework or just play and then the Judo lesson is from 5 pm to 6 pm. He started off doing the class every weekday, but now is only doing the class 2 or 3 days a week. Which, they said is fine especially for the young ones like him. They still pick him up and keep him at the center even if he does not want to do the the lesson on that day. This has made it easier on me because I can stay at work until 4:30 or 5 or leave work early and go grocery shopping with no kids before I make the rounds to pick them up.
Since Cross started Judo, Jesse is walking home with a friend so they can have "band" practice (not so much a band yet as 3 kids getting together and playing) and I stop by and pick him up whenever I am picking the other two up. He is playing the drums and the other two play guitar and bass I think.
Cross had a little trouble adjusting to kindergarten and was getting in trouble for not following instructions and playing too much, but we have had a talk with him and are working with better discipline at home and hopefully will get him on the right track. He has had four days of green cards (they get green for a good day, yellow for some problems solved by warnings, and red for a bad day)
I will take a picture of Cross in his Judo uniform and post it soon.

Family Vacation to Florida 2008

We took a trip to Florida in August. Jesse's grandmother on his dad's side, two Aunts, and several cousins have moved from New York to Florida. We stayed in Palm Beach and his family all live within 30 minutes or so from there. I found a 2 bedroom condo right on the beach that we rented for the 5 nights we stayed. We were able to walk down some stairs from the pool area at the condo and be right on the beach. It rained every day, but we were still able to spend a little time of most the days on the beach. It is a good thing we went when we did because the next week after we left they were really getting rain and then the hurricanes! Our first night there we had dinner at the Old Key Lime House on the patio overlooking the intercoastal waterway. We went to a festival at the Japanese Gardens on Sat. night. Sunday we went to Lion Country Safari, which starts with a drive through of African Safari animals and then you can park and get out and walk around a small zoo where they had rides and shows. The kids got to swim and jump on the trampoline at Debbie's (Jesse's cousin) house and visit with their Great Grandma Ann. On our last night we all had dinner at a Japanes Hibachi restaurant. We want to thank everyone in Florida -Aunt Carmy, Debbie and John, Aunt Chris, and Grandma Anne for everything. We had a great time visiting with you all! Click on the PLAY arrow to watch the video below.

First Day of School

Cross started kindergarten this year and Jesse is in 8th! Cross is going to The Academy at Nola Dunn, which is part of the Burleson School District, but teaches a little differently through brain based learning. It is similar to a Montessori type school where they try to teach the kids in many different ways. His teacher's name is Mrs. Clark. Cross likes her and is excited about being at real school! I am taking them and picking them up, so it is a big change for our schedules. 3 different stops to get them to school and Cole to his daycare. I am leaving work at 3 pm to pick them up and hopefully it will continue to work out. If work becomes to hectic due to leaving at 3, we may have to put Cross in after school care. We will see.

Under Construction

I am working on getting this up and running. If anyone visits please check back later and hopefully I will have some pictures etc. up.