New Student @ Hogwarts

This is Ben at the Harry Potter premier we went to a few weeks ago. Goldman Sachs had a special screening the Wednesday before the movie opened, and I took Ben and Maddie to it. They had forced one of their younger looking analysts to dress up like Harry and take photos with the kids. He looks more like Harry Potter after he gets his MBA. The movie was fun, we each got a $10 gift certificate for concessions, and they gave out carved wooden wands after the show.

Elder Monk

This is Sammy in his Christmas Suit. His usual church outfit is dress pants, shirt, tie & his cowboy boots. I think this is an improvement - he's even wearing little loafers.

Bad Santa

In honor of the first day of the Christmas season, here's my favorite Christmas picture ever. This is the Santa that Ben visited at the mall in Victoria with his preschool class. I wasn't there, but I have a feeling he leapt from this guy's lap immediately after the flash.

In a Hurry

I told Sammy to take off his church clothes as soon as we got home. He took me quite literally. I hope he's not running around the cul-de-sac in his underpants right now.

"There's a Tie in My Boot": For the past few weeks I'd been unable to find Sammy's tie. I would only think about it on Sunday, then gripe at the kids a little for losing it. Last Sunday, Sammy showed up after Primary wearing his tie - his very very wrinkly tie. His teach said that suddenly during class Sammy yanked off his boot and pulled the tie out. I think it had been in there for a few weeks and he just didn't say anything.

Lady's Man

Sammy went to a birthday party for his friend Cameron today. I didn't realize that Cameron was a girl until Dave called me from the party, to let me know. I made a quick run to the store and got a gift to replace the Hot Wheels Rescue Vehicles I'd put in the gift bag. Sammy was the only boy at the party. We can't tell if he loved it or hated it. We're not sure which we would prefer.

Captain Dave & his wench

I have no words for this picture - I just couldn't leave it out.

Motley Crew

Angelic Maddie and her friends at our annual Halloween Frito Pie party.

Preschool Halloween Party

Tinkerbell, Woody & a Ninja at Sammy's party.

Catwoman

Maddie got this face paint at the Fall Festival for the elementary school.

Band Buddies

Maddie and her friends at their Fall Concert. Check out the matching shoes - apparently great minds think alike.

A Day Out With Thomas

Sammy and I went with our neighbor to Austin to see the Thomas Train. We rode the train and checked out all the cool Thomas stuff inside the convention center.

PumpkinBread Men

Mary Lou cut these out of pumpkin bread and let the kids decorate them. Lots of fun!

Mad, Glad & Confused

Mother Nature strikes again. Right after Dave and Heather take a costly little trip to Palm Beach, we are forced to have an unplanned vaction in Tulsa, OK. This was a closest place that I could find a hotel reservation. We left Houston at around 10:30 pm, and it took us 20 hours to get here. In the first three hours, we made it about seven miles from our house. It was surreal, seeing the freeway absolutely packed, people running out of gas, etc. I'm just glad we left at night, so that when we shut off the air conditioners to conserve fuel we didnt' sweat to death.

This picture is of the kids at a entertainment place in Tulsa. We bowled, drove race cars and stuffed ourselves with pizza. According to our neighbors, we didn't even get a drop of rain, but after seeing New Orleans, we didn't want to stick around and see how things turned out.

Beach Bum

Dave and I just took a weekend trip to Palm Beach, Florida. I had originally planned our trip to New Orleans - the hotel was reserved and we were going to drive there. Mother Nature stepped in and put a stop to that plan, so we switched to Florida instead.

Where's my waterproof house?

I came across this picture a few weeks ago, and thought it was really funny. I've put it up here for Beenie's amusement. BTW, don't do a google search on Housewife unless you've changed your preferences to filter out porn. Apparently my computer at work does this automatically for me, but my laptop was not up to the task. Urgh.