Halloween 2013

We had a day full of Halloween celebrations.  In the morning we went to Evan's class party and in the afternoon we went to Noah's class party.

Tonight we went trick-or-treating of course.

Here are some pictures from today.

Goodbye Grandma and Papa

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

This morning the boys got up and all of us, including Grandma and Papa walked to school.  The boys were in good moods.

Grandma and Papa had breakfast but then left shortly after.

Rachel seems to have gotten a cold so she stayed home today, even canceling her tutoring.

I picked the boys up from school.  They were in good moods on the walk home.

Later in the afternoon, Evan and I ran some errands. We had to stop and get food for Lizzy as well as pick up some things at Play It Again Sports.  We got dinner from Austin Pizza Garden on the way home.

The boys are in their rooms now.

Until next time...

Top Golf

The boys were supposed to have baseball games, but we had a really big rain storm last night.  Both of the fields they were supposed to play on were closed today.

We decided to go to Top Golf.  None of us had been before.  It was a good time.  All of of played golf.  The boys really improved in the hour that we played.  We ate lunch there and the food was good.  For dessert we got cotton candy and chocolate chip cookies.

We came back home and hung out here the rest of the day.  Morry watched the Steelers.

For dinner we picked up food from Saps.

The boys are in their rooms now ready for bed.

Game Party

This morning we slept in some and then went to HEB.

In the middle of the afternoon Grandma and Papa got here.

Evan played baseball outside while Papa worked with Noah on riding his bike.

We all went to a birthday party of one of the baseball kids.  It was at the same game place we went to last weekend.  We had a nice time and then got dessert at TCBY afterwards.

The boys are ready for bed now.

A Deer and a Block Party

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Both boys were in a very good mood when I woke them up.  Noah was being silly.

As we were walking to school, Noah and I were walking and holding hands in front of Evan and Rachel.  We were walking down the trail which is wooded to school.  I thought I heard the sound of running and it was getting closer.  I thought, man that kid who is running is going fast.  All of a sudden a deer burst out of the trees from our left about 5 feet in front of us running at top speed.  I yanked Noah into my body and Rachel screamed.  It was close.  It was so close I was worried its antlers might clip Noah.  It was crazy.  I have no idea why it was running like that.  And we saw no other deer.

Later in the morning, Rachel went to the muscle activation place.  She and I met after that at Wholy Bagels.

We walked to pick the boys up and they were in good moods.  In fact they ran up ahead and carefully crossed the street before we got there.  I jokingly asked Noah if he took care of Evan and Noah said "No, Evan is the one who takes care of me."

We had our neighborhood block party for Halloween.  Noah's costume is Super Mario and Evan is a Steeler.  The boys seemed to have fun.  Jack was there.  Evan, Nathan and Jack played together the whole time.

Around 8pm we came home and put the boys to bed.

Until next time...

Evan's Room is Clean

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

This morning, Noah was a bit cranky when I woke him up but after that, both boys were fairly good.   Noah, who normally walks kind of slowly, wanted to beat Rachel so he and I walked pretty fast.

Rachel did some cleaning in the morning.  Around mid-day, she started the Big Project - cleaning Evan's room.  We have clean up nights and Evan basically just picks things up off the floor but the room needed an organization - not to mention it looked like a toy bomb exploded in his room.   Rachel worked for quite a while and then took a break.  Later in the afternoon, she started back up.  After Evan finished his homework, he went up and helped Rachel.  It was a massive task, but I'm happy to announce that the room is clean.  Not only can you walk into the room without stepping on a Lego and screaming in pain, you can see the top of his desk, dresser and nightstand.  It's amazing.

We had a quick dinner.  Rachel also baked cookies for the block party tomorrow and after dinner, the boys helped Rachel decorate.

The boys are in bed now.

Until next time...

Simon went home

We walked the boys to school today and Noah threw a fit a lot of the walk. 

Later this morning Bernardo picked up Simon. We were sad to see him leave.  We had fun with him.

I tutored.  Morry picked up the kids and Gabby came over.

Evan and Noah went to baseball practice and Evan's coached picked up Evan a little later for their practice.

After my tutoring, I got Evan at his practice and then we all met at home.

For dinner we had a frozen Asian meal.

The boys are in bod now and Evan's already asleep.

Marauders

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

This morning was another easy morning.  The kids were good on the walk to school.

Rachel ran out to Kohls in the late morning to get some new bedding and new sneakers for the boys.  She was successful with the bedding but not with the sneakers.

I had to make a run to the bank and I stopped and got a smoothie at Smoothie King at lunch.

In the afternoon we walked to get the boys as usual.

At 5:30 we had practice for Evan's new baseball team.  When news of the baseball fields being damaged, Evan's coach called me and we set up a Select Team.  We got a bunch of the better kids in the league.  It turns out they are going to make up some of the original Oak Hill season at other fields but we will still have the Select Team.  Evan will play in some tournaments throughout the winter and then probably pick back up again at the end of the spring season and do some tournaments in the summer.  We decided to call the team the Marauders (after the Pirates single A affiliate).  The practice went very well.  It was immediately obvious how good the kids were.  They are going to be very competitive.

We had left overs for dinner and then the boys were excited to sleep on their new sheets.

Until next time...

Good Start

Both boys were in good moods this morning when we walked to school.

Morry picked them up while I was tutoring.

Gabby came over.

For dinner we had corned beef, which both boys ate. 

I gave Simon a bath.  He seems to be doing much better each day. 

The boys are ready for bed now and still in good moods.  Let's hope it stays this way this week.

Lots of boys

We had a lot of boys in the house this morning.  Noah had Cole over and Evan had his friend Lucas over.  We also still have Simon in our house.  The kids had fun together.

Noah had a scrimmage game this afternoon and played well.  During Noah's game Evan went with Lucas to watch his flag football game.

We had really nice weather today and it was good being able to be outside.

For dinner we had leftover pizza.

The boys are both in bed now.  Noah's asleep and Evan will probably be asleep soon.

Parties

This morning we didn't really sleep in. Noah kept coming in.  He was concerned about Simon.  Simon slept fine downstairs.  It turns out he just has really bad arthritis and needs lots of help getting up.  Once we got him up he was able to walk around decently.

Morry went to the baseball fields at 10am to help with the cleanup.  He was there for a few hours. 

The boys and I went to Sams Club.

At 3pm I took Noah to a birthday party.  He had a good time there.  Many of his friends from school were there. There was a bouncy house, and Noah even got to ride a horse.  Yes, they had horse rides at this party.

Then, we came home for a few minutes and left again for another party.  We all went to a party at our friends' ranch in Driftwood.  The boys had a really good time.  There was a zip line, hay rides, egg toss, pumpkin decorating, and more.

We just got home a little while ago.  The boys are ready for bed and in their rooms.

More On Simon

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

The boys went to sleep very early last night.  So this morning was more pleasant that normal.  Both boys were in a good mood on our walk to school.

At lunch time, Rachel and I went to Wholy Bagels.  We stopped at Alamo Drafthouse to get gift cards for two kids whose birthday parties the boys were invited to.

As normal, we picked the boys up from school. For a little while Jack come over to our house and then they went over to Jack's house later on.

On the way to pick up the boys, we heard Simon again.  He didn't sound quite as bad as yesterday.  On the way home, we decided to bring him into our yard.

He seemed happy in our yard.  Gabriela's brother came over and we asked if they wanted us to keep Simon while the family was away.  He said that was fine.  Then we brought him into the house to around everyone.  He seemed happy but unfortunately, he is now just laying down and we haven't been able to get him up to move since about 5:30.  We're worried about him.

In the meantime, Noah has his first loose tooth!

At 5:30, we left to pickup Evan and take him to a birthday party for a boy in his class.  It was at a place that you rent out and they have a ton of arcade games, air hockey, skee ball, a classic Nintendo and classic Atari system as well as all the modern game systems.  Evan immediately went and found a football game to play - Madden 25.  He was playing with a friend of his.

Rachel, Noah and I went to a Lebanese restaurant nearby.  It was pretty good.  Noah add a Kafta Kabob.

Afterwards, we went to the party and we played some games as well.  It was a really neat place.  No coins necessary.  I played the classic Nintendo for a while.

We came home and spent some time with Simon.  The boys are in bed and sleeping now.

Until next time...

Cold Doggie

This morning I noticed Simon (the neighbors' dog) was whining.  After dropping the kids off at school Morry and I checked on him.  He didn't look good.  He was laying on the ground shaking some and wasn't moving much.  His tail wagged when he saw us though.  I brought some food over and he ate some.  We got in touch with Gabriela, who was out of town.  Her brother was supposed to be taking care of Simon, but didn't come by last night.  Her brother ended up taking to him to vet and it sounds like he had some kind of problems with exposure to the cold from being out last night.  It wasn't that cold, but it was cold for here and the ground was wet from the rain.  Poor guy.

We walked to get the boys from school and both were in pretty good moods.  For some reason when we got home the whining and fighting started.  We think they are both just tired.  Noah fell asleep this afternoon and we had to wake him up for dinner.  That caused more crying and whining.

We had homemade pizza for dinner.

In a few minutes we'll get the boys ready for bed.

More Rain!

We had more rain this morning.  We left early and drove the boys to school.  We parked in front of the school and walked them into the cafeteria.

I went to HEB while the boys were in school and then tutored.

Morry got the boys from school and then Gabby came over.

For dinner we had burgers, salad, and rice.

The boys are in their rooms now ready for bed.

Closed Trail

This morning we walked the boys to school, but had to go a different way since the trail we normally take is closed.  I guess there's still too much water on it.

When we got back home Morry took Grandmom to the airport.

We walked to school to get the boys.  Noah complained about being hot.

Morry went out to dinner with some other coaches to discuss baseball stuff, so it was just the boys and me here for dinner tonight.

Morry should be home soon and we'll get the boys ready for bed.

Meeting with Noah's Teacher

This morning at 9:20am Morry and I went to the school to meet with Noah's teacher.  He had all good things to say about Noah.  It sounds like Noah's ahead of where he should be and his teacher is making sure to challenge him.  It was a good conference.

We came home and a little while later we all went to lunch at Einstein Brothers Bagels. Both boys ate very well there.  Evan had a cranberry bagel and a yogurt parfait.  Noah had a whole bagel with lox and capers.

From there Morry and I went home while Grandmom took the boys to the mall.

I left to tutor and the boys stayed home with Morry with and Grandmom.

For dinner we ate at home.  Morry made fried matzoh.

The kids are all ready for bed now.

Ridiculous Amount of Rain

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

It started raining after we put the boys to bed last night and it poured all night long.  There was a lot of thunder and lightning.  Every time I woke up I could hear it raining as if it was one of the short downpours but it kept going.  Evan said he woke up at 4am because of thunder.  He got up and looked out the window on the stairs for awhile before going back to bed.  One person on Facebook said their rain gauge measured 9 inches of rain.

Needless to say, there was no baseball today.  But the worst part of that is mid-afternoon we heard from the league and the fields were apparently damaged severely from flooding.  The fall baseball season is suspended indefinitely until the damage can be assessed and an estimate on the work needed to fix up the fields is done.  The fields are closed and locked until insurance adjusters can go out and see the damage.  It is very upsetting.

Grandmom, Evan, Noah and I went to Target this morning.  Noah got a big Lego set and Evan got baseball cards and some Legos.  When we came home, we watched the Steelers finally win a game.

The boys played with their Legos during and after the game.

We went to Trattoria Lisina for dinner tonight.  The boys ate really well.  It is still raining.  Below you can see pictures of Evan and Noah that we staged at the water fountain there.

When we got home, I had an email from Evan's baseball coach.  He's thinking of putting together a Select Baseball Team and wants to see if Evan would be interested in playing.  I could answer without asking Evan.  There are several fall baseball tournaments in the region.  We can enter a team.

We're about to put the boys to bed.

Until next time..

Grandmom Is Here

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Around 2 or 3 in the morning we had an incident with the smoke detector.  When the battery goes low, it beeps once every 30 seconds.  It freaks Lizzy out.  This time it was in Noah's room.  Somehow Noah slept through it but I got a ladder and Rachel got a battery and I changed it.  I think we could have slept through it but Lizzy was so upset by the sound she would not have let us sleep.

Evan got up early and began playing Wii.

When I got up I did some work and then I had to run over to HEB to get a few things.  Noah came with me but Evan stayed at home playing Wii.

At 1:15, the boys and I left to go pick up Grandmom from the airport.

We stayed at home in the afternoon.  At one point, Evan and I went outside and played baseball.

Matt, Rachael and Max came over later in the afternoon.  Rachael and Max went in the backyard with Evan and Noah and played some baseball.

For dinner, we went to BurgerFi.  They have a cool soda machine where you can mix sodas.  The boys liked it.

We came home and the boys are now in bed.

Until next time...

Meeting with Evan's Teacher

This morning we walked to school and the boys were both in really good moods.

Morry and I went to lunch at Wholly Bagel and then I had my muscle activation therapy. 

For an hour she worked on my left foot. It feels a little better now.  We'll see if it lasts.  I have a few more appointments scheduled over the next few weeks.

After school we had the parent-teacher conference with Evan and his teacher.  It sounds like Evan is doing well.  He's at the reading level where he should be and she offered some suggestions to help him improve even more.

We walked home.

For dinner we all ate various things.  Morry and Evan had pasta.  I had a bagel.  Noah had a hot dog.

The boys are in their rooms now ready for bed.

Frozen Yogurt night

This morning we walked the kids to school, like usual.

We also walked to pick them up.

Around 4pm Morry left for a start up convention downtown.

Later, the boys and I ate dinner and then we went to TCBY for dessert.

They are all ready for bed now, but still playing in their rooms.

Late night for Evan

We walked the boys to school and Noah was actually in a really good mood on the walk.  That was nice.

Morry picked up the boys and Gabby came over while I tutored.

I got home just as Morry and the boys were leaving for baseball practice.  I came later to pick up Noah. I also brought Audrey home with us again. She stayed here until her dad could pick her up after Jack's practice.

It's about 8:30 and Evan's still at practice.  He and Morry will probably get home around 9pm.

Noah is ready for bed, but still playing on his computer.

Today is Tuesday

This morning we walked the boys to school, like usual.

Morry had a morning meeting to go to and later in the day I had a consultation for Muscle Activation Therapy.

Morry picked up the kids from school, since I was still on my way home at pick up time.

Morry and Evan played some baseball out front.  Noah fell asleep on the couch for a while.  We had to wake him up for dinner.

For dinner we had burgers/veggie burgers, rice, and salad.

The boys are playing Wii, but in a few minutes we'll get them ready for bed.

Cool Monday

This morning it was pretty cool outside.  I think it was in the upper 50s. We all wore sweatshirts on the walk to school, though Noah complained the whole time about how cold was.

While the boys were in school I got the oil changed in my car - very exciting.

Morry picked up the boys from school and Gabby came over while I was out tutoring.

For dinner we had frittata.  It's an easy quick meal.  I just put potatoes, cheese, sometimes ham/turkey, and eggs together and bake them.

The boys are playing wii together now, but we are about to get them ready for bed.

Baseball, Baseball, Baseball

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

The boys slept in very late today which is nice.  It was a big weekend so it's good they got some sleep.

Today was a beautiful day.  In the morning it was in the 60s and sunny.  It felt nice to be in cool weather.  It did go up to 82, but even that is more than 10 degrees cooler than it's been.  It was great.

I had to go over to the fields early as I was volunteering for the concession duty for Evan's team.  Evan and Noah came with me.  After an hour, we went and had warmups for Noah's team.

Noah's team tied today.  My assistant coach couldn't make it unfortunately.  So I was running the team on my own.  A bunch of the parents helped out which was nice.  Noah did very well at the plate.  During warmups I saw that he was hitting the ball hard and very well.  I thought he might have a good game.  Twice he hit the ball into the outfield.  He ran well.  He made a couple plays at pitcher and a few more at second base.

After Noah's game we went to Evan's game.  I walked over there just as Evan was leading off the game.  They put Evan in the leadoff position.  His first hit was a hard line drive that went well over the right-center fielder's head and rolled to the wall.  Evan raced around and started the game off with a home run.  He was very excited.  Later in the game he lined a single to dead center knocking in two runs.  In his last at-bat he hit a ball right at the second baseman.  Somehow, and I've tried to figure this out in my head, he was able to easily beat the throw to first.  The second baseman didn't bobble it, and it wasn't a bad throw, but Evan raced down the baseline and it wasn't even a close play.  In the field, Evan was at shortstop and had a diving stop of a ball behind second base and on the second base side.  He saved a run although he had no shot at first.  The coach sent out the batting statistics of the team.  Evan is leading the team in just about every category.  His line is 8 ABs, 8 hits, 2 singles, 2 doubles, 1 triple, 3 HRs, 7 RBIs, 7 Runs.  His slugging percentage is 2.625 and his OPS is 3.625.  He really had fun.

Then, since we didn't get enough baseball, we came home and Evan and I watched the end of the Pirates game.  The Pirates won and took a 2-1 lead in the NLDS.

We had dinner and then gave the boys showers.

Until next time...

Twenty-Four Hours and 20 Minutes

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Twenty-Four Hours and 20 minutes is the exact length of time the boys and I were in Washington D.C.  Our plane got to the gate Friday at 4:40pm Eastern and we left the gate today at 5pm Eastern.  In between we went to a Bat Mitzvah.

My cousin Louis' daughter, Peyton was having her Bat Mitzvah today.  We wanted to be there for the Bat Mitzvah, but we have baseball tomorrow.  So we picked the boys up from school around 10:30 and Rachel dropped us off at the airport.  We flew into Washington and Grandmom picked us up.

We had dinner at Louis' house and then stayed at a hotel.  In the morning, we had breakfast in the hotel and then went to the service.  The party was at a Mexican restaurant.  A bit after 3pm we left for the airport.  It was good that we went.

Rachel was able to get a bit of a break which is nice.  She picked us up at the airport.  On the way home, we picked up burgers from a new place near us called BurgerFi.  It was pretty good.

Somehow it took the boys awhile to go to sleep even though it was an exhausting day.

Until next time...

Make-Up Game

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

The morning was a regular morning.  Noah whined a bit on the way to school.  When we got to school, we came in at the same time as his new friend Desmond.  Noah seemed excited.  We introduced ourselves to his mom.

Rachel went to HEB in the morning while I worked.

She and I went out to lunch together at Wholy Bagels.

We picked the boys up from school in the afternoon.  They seemed to be in good moods - Noah especially.

We watched a bit of the Pirates game before we left for Noah's make up baseball game.  Noah played very well at his game.  He made a couple nice plays at pitcher and second base.  Unfortunately, the inevitable happened.  Noah lost his first game.  He seems ok with it.

We came home and the boys ate dinner.  I gave them showers and put them to bed.

Until next time...

One Baseball Practice

This morning we walked to the boys to school.

Morry picked Evan and Noah up from school since I was tutoring. Gabby came over.

We had an early dinner of pasta and then Morry and Evan left for baseball practice.

I planned on going to HEB with Noah while they were out, but Noah didn't want to go. I didn't feel like fighting.  We just stayed home.

Morry and Evan got home around 9pm.

Both boys are in their rooms now.