Homecoming 2007

We started out today at 9am at the nail salon. The I dropped Maddie off at home, while I trekked to the mall in search of a small silver purse to complete her outfit. While I was at the mall, Maddie called me in a minor panic, because she realized that her ticket to the dance was in her trumpet case, which was in her locker in the bandhall. Luckily, I knew there was a drumline competition today, so they would be returning to the school and opening up the bandhall to put the equipment away. I called Wes's mom to find out when the buses would be returning to the school, then went to wait for them. Finally, ticket safely in hand I headed home. Oh - I found the perfect handbag at the mall, for only $3.50 too.

Once I got home, gathered up the dress, jewelry and shoes and started getting her ready. Finally, with hair curled, makeup done and everything put together, we snapped a few pictures at the house. We also visited Mary Lou at work - she wasn't scheduled to be home until after Maddie had already left for the dance, and wanted to see her. However, on the way to Wes's house, we realized that we'd left the ticket (and Maddie's school ID) at our house. So, one more detour, then we finally arrived. Victoria and Justin joined us there, then we went down the street to another house, where we took more pictures, with a bigger group. Wes's parents drove the kids to the restaurant, and by now they should be at the dance, having lots of fun.

There's a slide show of all my pictures here, as well as some pictures from the game yesterday:

Homecoming

You might be from Texas if you . . .

Wear a ribbon flower thing as big as your head, with streamers down to the floor, and painted overalls to school on the Friday of the Homecoming game. Texas is definitely a world all of its own.

Mom-mobile

This video was too funny to not post:

Campers

Dave and the boys went on an 11 year old camp out - they had a great time.

The Big Easy

Dave and I took a weekend trip to New Orleans. It was great - what a beautiful and interesting city. We had some delicious food there too. Our second night we had dinner at Antoines, and now I understand why my neighbor from Baton Rouge says that people in Houston don't know how to make gumbo. This is definitely a place for repeat visits.

mmmmmm . . . Caramel!

This picture turned out blurry, but I still like it. Everyone's eating my instant caramel popcorn, which is a family favorite. I've never made a bowl that's not completely devoured in under five minutes. Heres the recipe:

Make 8+ cups of plain popcorn (I use an air-popper that I got at a garage sale for $1, a million years ago.) In a small saucepan, melt together 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup butter and 1/2 cup dark corn syrup. Bring this to a slow boil, then cook and stir for two minutes. Pour the mixture over the popcorn, in a large plastic bowl that has a lid. Stir it up, then shake the bowl vigorously with the lid on, until all the popcorn is coated. Eat right away, but watch out, it's hot. I have no idea how well this stuff keeps, because we've never had any left.

Birthday breakfast

Because of everyone's busy schedules, we had a birthday breakfast for Mary Lou, with fruit salad and a coffee cake. Maddie, Mary Lou and I declined to be in the pictures, since it was the first thing in the morning.

The invitation

We've discovered there are a lot of traditions surrounding Homecoming weekend here in Texas. This is the invitation that Maddie got to the dance (I think Wes had more than a little help from his Mom and big sister putting it together.) We've also gotten a garter for Wes - it's this huge ribbon flower thing that goes around the arm, with all sorts of stuff attached to it. The kids wear them on the Friday of homecoming. The girls get mums (also huge ribbon flower things that are pinned on). At Maddie's school there's a tradition of wearing overalls that Friday, probably so that the huge mum has something sturdy to be attached to. We've obtained those and are almost ready for the big weekend.

Marking time

Maddie is in the marching band at her new high school. This is a picture of the March Off - the drum majors barked out orders and the kids followed. If they made a mistake, they stepped off the field.

Thespians

My kids and my friends Laura's kids spent two of their weeks this summer at a local Theater Arts Daycamp. During the camp, they got to create their own play, with some guidance and help from the camp leader. Their play was called "Medieval People" - the plot was a little murky, but there were some great sword fighting scenes. Before the night of the play, we took them all eat at Johnny Rockets. Luckily that place is very loud already, because they were just as rambunctious as they appear in the top picture.

You can see a video of the play here - it's a little long so I'm just linking it in.

Down the Slide

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The swim school that we enrolled Ellie and Sam in this summer is nothing short of amazing. Four weeks ago, Sammy was terrified of the water - we could barely coax him onto the steps of our community pool. Now he's a regular fish, jumping in and paddling around. Ellie has made just as much progress. Dave said that we couldn't have a pool in our backyard until everyone could swim, so I'm keeping everyone in lessons until they are swimmers.

Splashway

My friend Laura and I played hookie from work and took our kids to Splashway in Sheridan, TX. It's a great water park for families - not very big or crowded.

Magic Time Machine

After a day in the sun, we went to dinner at The Magic Time Machine. Harry Potter was our waiter, and we also met Hermione Granger, Jack Sparrow and Daphne from Scooby Doo. The food was so/so, but the atmosphere was great.

Sea World

We finally got a break from the rain, so while Maddie was in Dallas visiting her friend Sarah, we spent the weekend in San Antonio. Ellie and Sam have been taking swim lessons this summer, so we had a blast at the Lost Lagoon water park inside Sea World, floating around the Lazy River and playing in the wave pool.

Money Changers

On a slow Saturday, Dave likes to pull out his big plastic jar of quarter, nickels and dimes. When they were done stacking the coins, Ben added it up. It was a lot of money.