Back to School

The kids went back to school this week. Jack has a great kindergarten teacher "Ms. Mac" and loves it. He asked on Friday if it was going to get harder, if he only new. Simon wasn't as pleased to be back at school as the following picture shows. He sorely misses his teacher and class from last year.

From First Day of School

Sadie and I kept busy this week running errands and volunteering school. We visited the coolest playhouses at the Dallas Arboretum. All the playhouses were based on famous storybooks. The kids' favorite playhouse was the pirate ship from Peter Pan. As typical in Texas, the day was scorching so Sadie spent quite a bit of time playing in the frogs.

From Dallas Arboretum Aug 2009

Sadie and Luca "her boyfriend"

From Dallas Arboretum Aug 2009

The Frog Fountain – Sadie with Josh & Riley Willis and Luke Baker. No surprise, Sadie playing with all boys.

We wrapped up the tiring week with mommy running 18 miles on Saturday (with no music, it was torture) and Daddy riding his bike and a fun soccer party. Simon and Sadie helped Mommy and Daddy in the yard on Sunday and Simon seemed a little more tired after his first week of school than usual. It might have something to do with all the swimming and sleepover the night before.

From Simon 1st week of school

Simon slept on the stairs for well over 2 hours and then finally moved to the couch.
This week stands to be as busy as any. Poor Jack is running a fever and Simon is moaning on the unfairness of Jack missing school tomorrow. We are thankful though that the high here will only be in the 80's the next few days! I am now off to enjoy some chocolate pie J

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from our home to yours.  Here is our annual family newsletter along with our holiday card photo.  Hope everyone has a wonderful and joyous Christmas.

Highlights from 2008

Tom took a new job with Microsoft this July and really enjoys it, but the most excited family member is Simon because now his Daddy works for the “XBOX company.”

Just before Tom got busy with travels to Seattle we took a family vacation to Seaside, Florida and had a wonderful time. Simon won (or lost) the jellyfish sting competition with 9 stings by the end of the week, but he and Jack had had a blast with their boogie boards. Sadie’s favorite part was hunting ghost crabs at night. We were so grateful to have the fun week together before the kids headed back to school and Tom started his new job.

For Thanksgiving, we traveled to Kansas City where Sondra’s sister Nici and her wonderful husband Jared live with their lab Truxton. The kids enjoyed wearing Truxton out and have since repeatedly asked for a playful dog.

 

Sports News

The kids stayed busy with lots of activities this year. Both Simon and Jack swam on swim team this summer, and played soccer. It was Jack’s first season for both sports, and Simon also played basketball and football. Tom stayed busy too helping coach both soccer teams and Simon’s football team. Sadie had her first dance recital this past May and is currently enjoying gymnastics. Sondra is still running and ran her first marathon this year. The highlight of her year was running the Bass Pro Marathon in November with her family cheering her on!

Our PETS

Enzo spends his day idly watching the birds and rabbits eat all our plants out back from his comfortable bed in the family room. We now have a bird feeder that is frequented by a red cardinal which excites Jack every time he comes to visit. The kids also won 3 thriving goldfish at the spring carnival at Simon’s school. The kids can’t wait to win more this spring!

Simon

Simon is in first grade this year and is really enjoying it. He was lucky and got in a class with some old friends and rapidly made some new ones as well. The highlights of his year were playing quarterback for his football team and winning two gold medals at Dallas All-Stars in swimming. Simon and Daddy also took a trip this fall to the Indianapolis MotoGP race for his birthday and Simon loved the entire weekend. He now lists this as the best birthday ever.

JACK

Jack is in his last year of preschool at the local Methodist church and is looking forward to Kindergarten next fall. He is in the Toucan class and can recite all facts related to Toucans and follows their motto daily -- “Toucans can!” He’s had a year full of bumps, scrapes, and bruises as he is constantly trying new tricks on his scooter and building things in the backyard on his fort. He is quite amazed by how things work and we see new things through him each day. One of our favorite questions from Jack this year was “How does God hold the whole world in his hands?” If anyone has a good answer, please let Jack know!

 

Sadie

Sadie recently turned 3 and is going on 10. She is quite bossy and drags Mommy out of bed each morning with all sorts of demands. She has turned out to be quite social and is often scheduling herself playdates as often as Mommy will allow. She is now riding her Razor scooter as fast as the boys and is not quite sure why she can’t play soccer with them yet. As well as being busy outside with the boys, she enjoys playing with her dolls, stuff animals, and to Daddy’s dismay Polly Pockets and all their little pieces.

 

OUR LIST TO SANTA

Below was our list to Santa this year. We have all tried to be good this year but have all had our moments of crankiness and bad behavior so hopefully Santa will forgive us. We hope Santa brings you all your wishes this year!

• Simon wished for a Green Machine and a Fuzion scooter.
• Jack asked for a weedwacker and a blower to help Daddy with the yard.
• Sadie wants a baby brother (she doesn’t get that Santa can’t provide this) and a baby stroller.
• Daddy wants a Ferrari (Santa seems to forget this each year; can’t imagine why!)
• Mommy wants a stable financial market and a break from kids talking back for just one whole week.

Princesses and Heels & Hills

I ran the Heels and Hills Half Marathon today and achieved my personal record in under 1:40:45. Unfortunately with my typical luck, they had my chip mis-numbered so my time was quoted wrong! Oh well. Tom took the kids to the park for the morning while I ran and they had a wonderful time.

We spent the gorgeous afternoon enjoying the nature trails at the Heard and the new animal exhibit. The kids really got a kick out of the Macaw that said "hello" and "bye-bye". Sadie's favorite was the monkey. She wants to go back and see them again and was disappointed when we didn't go back at the end of the day to see them. We then headed to Ben & Jerry's so she quickly forgot the monkeys.

Simon had a great soccer game Saturday and Tom said he played very hard and he scored two goals. Jack had fun bowling at his friend Jonas's party. Sadie and Mommy dined with the princesses for lunch at the country club and Sadie had a blast. She kept saying "I had fun with Cinderella.". I may regret getting her into the princesses, she was sad to return the Snow White dress to her friend Sophia.

The kids are in bed early after their full day outside and Tom and I are going to make meatballs. Fun in the suburbs on a Sunday night.

Yes, I Remembered I Have A Blog

For those of you who actually might check this (if anyone), feel free to shoot me reminders to update this. I know, I have been extremely bad.

The updates of the week. Simon has decided he wants to be an author and illustrator. He wrote three books on Sunday and took them to school. The librarian is putting barcodes on two of them. He is very proud. The three books were Formula One Cars, the Monkey Plays Football, and The Hidden Treasure. He told me this evening that his favorite things to do were (1) Read (2) Write Books (3) Soccer and (4) Video Games. I am shocked that video games made it down that low. Must be losing them for the entire month of April for back-talking.

Sadie got her first bike yesterday and is tooling around the driveway quite nicely. She is also squawking at her brothers anytime they try and get near it. She got her dance costumes yesterday too and I can't wait to try them on her. They are too precious.

Jack was the best helper today at school and is very proud. He is my sweet boy, a friend's sister-in-law decided she wanted him after he was at a birthday party on Sunday since he is so cute.

The kids are fighting as one would suspect for being so close together but are getting along fairly well. Simon knows everything all the time (wonder where that comes from, ha). Jack is still our dare-devil, and Sadie is drama-queen!

http://picasaweb.google.com/spuorro/ArboretumPhotos/photo#s5195573630826153906

Dinosaurs and Teacher Conferences

We had our first teacher conference today with Simon's kindergarten teacher. He is doing very well and the teacher is very happy with him. She said one of his strengths is how social he is and she sees him being the "president of his fraternity or at least the social director". Tom and I both thrilled with his report card and his teacher's review.

The kids and I joined friends at the Heard Nature preserve today and visited the dinosaurs. Jack did the loop 4 times and didn't cry once. He still doesn't like T-Rex but who does? Sadie was not too excited about them at first but by days end was standing as close as possible to T-Rex before it growled at her. We went on a long nature walk and the kids had a blast playing in a creek (especially Sadie who got muddy and then got Mommy muddy) and climbing a huge tree. Jack bruised his nose and tore holes in jeans and Simon scarped his knees as well but they had a wonderful time exploring the outdoors. We even saw tadpoles in the creek.

Simon's football team remains undefeated and we play the Giants in the Superbowl this weekend. I am gathering reinforcements this week since the Giants tend to be very loud and in full force at all their games. His soccer team is going to play in a tournament in 2 weeks and Coach Scott promised them that if they win all 3 games, they can pour Gatorade on Coach Scott and Coach Tom.

I hope to post pics of our Halloween and Heard adventures soon.

Saturdays are Crazy!

Saturdays are crazy this fall. Simon starts out with football at 8am every Saturday and then we get an hour or so break and off to soccer and usually a birthday party. Simon's football team is still undefeated and we have only lost 1 soccer game thus far this season. Yesterday's football game was insane. I am still in shock on how some parents act at these games. The ref had to stop the game 2 times yesterday and move parents back. A mom from the opposing team was cussing at our team parents over the kids heads. Our kids tied the game in the last 20 seconds with a touchdown to preserve their undefeated record. My hope now is that we don't play this team again due to the intense competition with the parents!

Tom and I had a wonderful date night last night and enjoyed a nice dinner in downtown McKinney. I love downtown and would have loved to stroll around more but felt we needed to get home to relieve the sitter so she could have fun on Saturday night. We are so lucky to have sitters in the neighborhood with their parents down the street. It really makes a night out less stressful.

Sadie and I are running late to church so off I go.

Go Cowboys!

Simon's football team, the Cowboys, won again yesterday. His soccer team tied with a disappointing game. Tom decided he did not like being the sole coach after the last two weeks. Simon did well at both games and then got rewarded with McDonalds. He also got to go swimming at Lifetime with his friend Josh so he had a great day.

I felt horrible and went to the CVS minute clinic and got a perspiration for antibiotics. I still feel bad but better than yesterday. I am off to Walgreens as soon to get some more sinus medicine to hopefully help me get a good nights sleep. Daddy took the boys to the afternoon birthday party so I got to get a rare nap in while Sadie slept which helped tremendously.

Sadie busted her lip climbing on the bleachers at soccer so along with her tumble getting ice cream on Thursday night and the red ant bites, she looks lovely! Jack is doing well, no tumbles or bumps this weekend thankfully.

We have another busy week this week. Simon has his 6yr checkup on Tuesday. I am curious to see how tall he is.