Same Tie

 

Here is a 14-year old Michael wearing the same red tie shown below on Tyler. Clockwise from Micahel in the red tie: Michael, Abuelita (Velia), Eddie, Ludy, Janina, and Abuelito (Edward)

Tyler's Fall Band Concert

Tyler's school held a fall band concert on Wednesday night that featured all their various bands. Tyler performed with the Symphonic Band. The band directors handed out purple (school colors) ties at the concert for the kids to wear so I made Tyler pose at home wearing a tie from Michael's childhood.

Our handsome young man. He
couldn't get over how tight the collar
is once it's buttoned all the way up.

Daphne refused to sit with us or pose for a photo.

Tyler is the only tuba in Symphonic Band. He is in the very back on the far right.

Can't see Tyler's face behind his tuba

Taking a bow and enjoying some applause

Watching Soccer

How Daphne survived Tyler's third soccer game of the weekend

Creek Clean Up

Yesterday a bunch of Girl Scout troops got together to clean up trash in Williamson Creek. It's amazing how much trash ends up in the creek or on the creek bed. The girls had fun making up storied about the trash they found. After finding a pale sparkly dress and something resembling a veil they made up a story about a bride and the lost groom.

Daphne and a few of her Troop members ready to go

The girls loved getting wet and fishing trash out of
the creek. Diana and I preferred getting trash from
the dryness of the creek bank.

The collective haul- pretty good for an 1.5 hours!

At the Park

At the park: Penny, Daphne, Ariana

Scootering back to the house

The Park

We biked from home to the Metro park in Circle C to see Hazel's soccer game this afternoon. The weather was gorgeous and Daphne is finally at a good age for longer bike rides.

Bike/ped crossing under Escarpment Blvd

Post-game soccer play- Tyler and Hazel

Daphne and Penny climb trees

Band

Tyler's band has a lot of fun activities and performances planned this year now that they are back in person.

Tyler was recently Principal Player
of the Week and showed up
on the band's Facebook page

Tyler is the tuba player in the green and black shirt.
Here they are rehearsing the evening before playing
a pep performance as students arrived to school on Football Friday.

The Circus

It was Girl Scout night at the Shriner's Circus on Friday night so Daphne and I had to go check it out with some of her troop members.

Clowns were everywhere! Ariana and Evelyn were really
excited about having them autograph the program/coloring
book. Daphne kept her distance.

The girls rode an elephant before the show.

Daphne

Ariana

Evelyn

Daphne's favorite part of the show was when they
shot a guy out of the cannon.

I really enjoyed watching the girls go wild and dance to Gangnam Style!

Major League Soccer in Austin

We finally made it out to an Austin FC match during their inaugural season. We found it only fitting to watch them play the Portland Timbers. Austin dominated from the beginning and easily won 3 - 1.

The new stadium is really nice

Tyler brought his buddy Luke to the game

View from our seats

The real fans were sitting at this end and leading
chants and beating drums throughout the game

Back to School

The kids went back to school today. Hard to believe that their summer break is already over!

First day of 4th grade

First day of 7th grade

Black Crowes Concert

We took the kids to see the Black Crowes play at the amphitheater at COTA last night. The kids were bored by the end but Michael and I really enjoyed it. They played the Shake Your Moneymaker album in its entirety plus a bunch of their other songs. We were worried the concert would be canceled because there were thunderstorms earlier in the day but it ended up being a great night for an outdoor concert.

Relaxing on the lawn before the opening band, Dirty Honey

A beautiful rainbow appeared between bands 

Monkeying around between bands

The Black Crowes

Tuba

It's a good thing Tyler grew a lot last year because his tuba grew too! He started last school year playing the French horn, switched to the euphonium, and then landed on the baby tuba. This school year he's moved up to the next size tuba. He is lucky that his school keeps extra tubas at school so that he doesn't have to lug this bad boy to and from school on the bus.

Caught Napping

I still can't resist taking photos of sleeping kids! We've been making the kids get up earlier to get ready for back to school; however, we keep finding Tyler napping in the afternoon.

Replaceable????

Michael and I were relaxing on the couch, looking at something on the laptop, when Brad came by yesterday to pick up Bumblebee since we had been dog-sitting for him. We helped Brad get all of Bee's stuff and load her up in his truck. When we came back to the living room, we found Daphne on the couch with her giant bears sitting as we had been sitting. The taller bear in Michael's spot and the shorter bear in my spot with the laptop. Most diabolical was the search the mama bear had up on the laptop: "how to replace daphne's parents". That Daphne is something else!

Braces!

 

Tyler got braces on Friday! Nothing says awkward middle school years like braces. He only needs to wear them for 14 - 16 months. Tyler is bummed about some of the foods on the do not eat list his orthodontist gave us like popcorn and gummy candy. The orthodontist said that Tyler did really well and sat super still. She also noted that he salivates a lot. It made me laugh and remember his baby\toddler years because he drooled more than any other kid we knew! We think Tyler should change his Xbox gaming name to The Salivator but he disagrees.

Throwback to The Salivator during

his baby years- look at that drool!