Just a Good Story

The day before Anna'a dance recital at the Woodlands Arts Festival, she had a dress rehearsal at her dance school.  Her teacher calmly sat in the corner of the room spouting commands at each stage of the choreography as Mary Poppins belted out "A Spoonful of Sugar."  With each command, all four of the tiny dancers executed their steps.  They weren't quite ready for Bolshoi yet, but they did quite well considering their age.

On the car ride home, I told Anna how proud I was of her.  I said how impressed I was that she listened to her teacher so well, that she knew the steps and that it was obvious that she was getting something out of all her practices.  With each compliment, I glanced back and saw Anna with pursed lips sheepishly looking down.  It looked as if she were going to cry.  I felt the same strong emotion as I reached back and gave her a gentle pat on the leg.  Truly, this was a touching moment.

When we parked the car in the driveway, Anna hurriedly unbuckled herself from her carseat, jumped down out of the car and shouted, "I DID IT!"
"Yes you did!" I confirmed.
"No, Mom.  I had water in my mouth the whole way home, and I just swallowed it!  Just now!  I held it the whole way home!"  And she turned and skipped inside with her pink backpack in tow.  Like I said, truly this was a touching moment.

Springtime

Q1 2013 has been good to us.  Our little girl turned 5 years old!  

We got to celebrate her birthday in Baton Rouge where Nanna made a beautiful, delicious cake.

Back in Spring, she had a great party at a gymnastics training gym.  We had all the typical trappings of a birthday party, friends, cake, presents, and the kids especially enjoyed one of those huge parachutes (sorry.  not pictured).  Everyone had a blast.

We welcomed a new car into our family.  The kids love riding in the new Volt, and I love driving a brand new car without having to pay for it.  Thanks, employer.

Sam embarked on his journey toward the fame and riches of major league baseball.  We have a long way to go, but we're making progress.  In the early stages of the season (T-ball), we were lucky to get the kids to run to the right bases.  It was pretty common for the kids to just stand at the plate after hitting the ball.  We have played 7 games now, and everyone runs the bases the right way.  I call that success!

You'll notice that our team's name is Tigers.  I assure you that this is strictly coincidence.  Every team in the league was arbitrarily assigned a collegiate team. We drew the Clemson Tigers.  Oh well.  Close enough.

This is Sam with his buddy, Jake:

Here's Sam flashing his power swing:

We had fantastic weather for our "annual" crawfish boil.
Our crawfish boils used to look like this:

Now they look like this:

I can't tell you which style of boil is more enjoyable, but I can say without hesitation that the day after a boil is much easier when the evening doesn't end with fire-blowing.  This year I was able to get up in the morning to bring the whole family to see Anna represent her dance company at the Woodlands Art Festival.

Here is a video of Anna's dance:
http://youtu.be/rxvdz4d1SYg