Goliad and Popular Chewie

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Noah had a field drip to Goliad, TX to see the mission there and the state park.  He had to be at school at 6:20 and they took charter buses down.  Rachel got up early with Noah and took him to school.

Chewie didn't get to go for a walk this morning since we didn't have to walk Noah to school. 

Rachel left to go teaching a bit later and I went into HomeAway for a meeting.

Noah wasn't supposed to get back until 5pm, so there was no afternoon walk either.

Shortly after Evan got home, I took him to baseball practice. 

Rachel brought Chewie to school to pick Noah up when the buses dropped him off.  Chewie was very popular.  All the kids ran over to pet him.  Rachel said that he was so happy with all the attention, he didn't want to leave.

Evan and I stopped at Pho Thaison on the way home and got dinner.  We ate and watched Stranger Things.

The boys are getting ready for bed now.

Until next time...

Birthday Party

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Evan had a birthday party to go today.  They were doing standup paddle board on the lake.  We hadn't yet gotten a birthday gift, so Evan and I went to Academy this morning to get a gift certificate.

When we got back, we had waffles.  Rachel had made the batter while were gone.

Rachel dropped off Evan at the party.  When she got back, she, Noah and I walked to Grandma and Papa's to see them for a bit.

For dinner we picked up Pho Thai Son.

I picked up Evan from the party after dinner.  He said he had a really good time.  The boys were playing basketball when I got there.

The boys are in bed.

Until next time...

Busy Afternoon

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

It was supposedly warmer on the walk this morning than yesterday but it was windy which made it feel cold.

I went into Aaron's for a while.  Then I stopped at another client on the way home to show him how to do something.

Of course I had to stop and get Smoothie King after that.

When I got home, Rachel was out for a run.  She came home, showered, had lunch and went to tutoring.

I walked to pick up Evan.  Noah had Math Pentathalon.  Grandma volunteered today.  Then Noah went home with Grandma.

Evan played outside with Brody for a bit.  Then I made him dinner and we left for hitting practice.

Noah was happy because Grandma took him to Pho Thai Son for dinner.

Rachel got Noah on her way home.

The boys are asleep now.

Until next time...

Baseball is Back

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Evan and Noah stayed over at Grandma and Papa's last night.  But Evan was asked to fill in for a baseball team at a tournament this weekend.  It was up in Georgetown which is about 45 minutes away with no traffic.  He had to be there at 8am.  I brought his uniform over this morning and he got dressed and were on the road by 7.  We stopped at Donut Taco Palace for the first time since the fall baseball season.

As a fill-in, Evan was relegated to right field for the entire day. That didn't stop him from making a few nice plays.  He caught a fly ball and then got in to the relay man to get the boy tagging from third for a double play.  He walked, stole second and third and scored and he hit a ball to the right side to move the runners up later in the first game.  In the second game, he had a couple good at-bats that didn't end up with him on base.  In the last inning he fielded a hard hit ball and threw to first to try to get the runner.  I actually thought he got the runner.  The two umpires were not actually watching the play.  One was focused on a runner coming home and the other was focused on a runner to second.  I guess they saw the ball go in the outfield and didn't think Evan would try to get the out at first.  We got home around 3pm.

Rachel went over to Grandma and Papa's.  They all played a game that Noah legitimately won.  It was a strategy game.

Shortly after I got home, Rachel left to go to a Team Survivor orientation.  It's a women's fitness program for cancer survivors.

The boys and I watched a documentary about Rocky and then walked to Grandma and Papa's.  Rachel met us over there and we all went to Pho Thai Son for dinner.

We're home now and the boys are in bed.

Until next time...

Terrific Student

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Last night, Evan stayed over Jack's house with Wade and Ethan.  Noah stayed over at Grandma and Papa's.  So Rachel and I went out.  We had a nice dinner.  We walked to a place called Voodoo Doughnuts.  Apparently it is a Portland, Oregon institution and the first one they opened out of state was here in Austin.  They are known for their crazy doughnuts.  They were huge too.  Rachel got one with chocolate icing, peanut butter drizzle and Oreos on top.  I got one with chocolate icing and Oreos.

This morning we had to get up early.  Even though it's Saturday, Noah's teacher scheduled Parent-Teacher Conferences.  The teacher wanted the students there for the conference.  We picked up Noah on our walk and then had the conference.  Noah's teacher said that Noah was a "terrific student" and that Noah was a "math genius".  She wanted to know if Noah had anyone that was good at math in his family.  We said only his entire family.  She could not say enough good stuff about Noah.

On the way home, we stopped and got Evan.

Evan and I went a little later to a batting lesson with Coach Chris.  Meanwhile, Rachel, Noah and Grandma went to Costco.

This afternoon, Rachel and Evan went for a bike ride to the Veloway.

For dinner, I picked up Pho Thai Son.  When I got home, they got the order somewhat wrong.  So Noah and I went out to pick up the mistake.  We watched Hotel Transylvania 2 while having dinner.

The boys are now in bed.

Until next time...

Birthday Party

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Rachel and Evan had planned to run to Wholy Bagel this morning.  The threat of rain though ended up being very great so they stayed at home.  It turned out, they could have run.  The rain really came down after lunch.

Evan was invited to Darius' birthday party.  The invitation said siblings were welcome.  Noah told us today he wanted to go.  About 20 or 30 minutes before I was going to take them, Miles' mom texted me and offered to take them and bring them home.  So Evan and Noah rode with Miles and Cole to the party.

With all this time to myself, I watched a movie that I wanted to see that I couldn't watch with the boys around.

The boys got home around 6.  They both had a really good time.

We picked up Pho Thaison for dinner.  We watched Ant-Man while eating dinner.

The boys are in bed now.

Until next time...

Very Cold

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Rachel and I slept in today for the second day in a row.  It's been very gray and overcast and I think that has helped with us sleeping in.

I put on the movie Rocky for the boys when I got up.  They want to go see Creed.  I said they had to at least see Rocky to understand it.

About an hour into the movie, Uncle Mike called and asked to bring Maya and Artie over.  The boys played with Maya upstairs for a while.  Then they walked back to Grandma and Papa's.

We had lunch when they left.  Then the boys and I played a bit of football outside.  It was only 42 degrees but it was really wet and humid.  The air really stung.

We finished Rocky when we got back in.  The boys want to go run up the Art Museum steps now.

Noah and I played some Nintendo in the afternoon.

For dinner, we went to Pho Thai Son and then to HEB for shopping.  We bumped into Grandma and Papa at both places.

The boys are getting ready for bed now.

Until next time...

Jurassic World

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

This morning all of us (including Rachel) went to see Jurassic World in IMAX 3D.  I kept joking with Noah that it was going to be so realistic a dinosaur was going to eat him.  He thought that was funny.  The movie was very good.  Evan was literally sitting on the edge of his seat.  He was really into the movie.

After the movie, we drove over to an open house near our house for Grandma and Papa. We liked the house so much that Grandma and Papa are on their way here to see the house to decide what they want to do.

We took it easy in the afternoon.  The boys cleaned up in the late afternoon.

For dinner, we picked up Pho Thai Son.

We took a walk after dinner and walked by the house we saw earlier.

The boys are getting ready for bed.

Until next time...

End of Season Party

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

When I woke up and came downstairs, Noah was playing on his iPad quietly.  He then moved to the playstation.

I got things ready to go meet the Bucs' parents over at Rudy's for the end-of-season party.  Josh's dad was bringing Evan since Evan stayed over there last night.

The party itself was very nice.  The kids all played various sports and had a great time.  We ended up being there for 3 hours.  Evan played the whole time.  Rachel and Noah got there an hour after we did and Noah played with the boys until the end.  Both boys looks very sweaty and hot at the end.  We had a nice time though.

We came home and the boys played on the Playstation for awhile.  It was good for them to take it easy.  Then they cleaned up.

For dinner we picked up Pho Thai Son. The boys ate very well.

They showered and now they are getting ready for bed.

Until next time...

The Big Party

Today we had the boy's birthday party.  We spent most of the morning getting ready for it.  The party was from 2-4pm.  We had about 40 kids there.  There was a game truck and laser tag.  Everyone seemed to have a great time.

For dinner we went to Pho Thai Son and got TCBY for dessert.

Here are some pictures from today.

Zayde is Here

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

We had another nice morning, so again, we were able to walk to school.  And again, Lizzy saw her golden retriever puppy friend.  The puppy was pulling so hard to get to Lizzy when he saw her.  He was breathing hard from choking himself on the collar.  He is really cute.

Rachel did some cleaning in the morning.  She tried to give Lizzy a haircut but the shaver died.

In the afternoon, we walked to pick the Evan up.  Noah had his last Mad Science.  Evan rode his scooter home.

We all drove to pick Zayde up from the airport.  He is flying in so we can all fly together to Bradenton for Spring Training.  There was quite a bit of traffic on the way to the airport so Zayde had gotten his bags when we pulled up.  I drove up to the terminal and Rachel, Evan and Noah went in to help with the bags.  I drove around one time while they did that.

For dinner, we stopped at Pho Thai Son.   We brought it home and ate out on the porch since it was really nice this evening.

After dinner, Evan played with kids in the neighborhood some.

The boys are about to go upstairs to bed.

Until next time...

My Turn

It's my turn to write the blog.  Morry has been writing it a lot lately.

This morning we drove to school.  The temperature was in the low 30s.

I did some stuff around the house and then met Aunt Sandy for lunch at HEB.  We had lunch together during her lunch break.  That was nice.

I drove to get the boys from school.

Noah's friend Owen came over after school for a little bit.  The boys spent the whole time playing Minecraft.

After Owen left we went shopping at Costco and then picked up dinner at Pho Thai Son on the way home.

The boys are getting ready for bed now.

Wet

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

We had nothing scheduled for today.  There were no birthday parties, no sports events, we were free the whole day.  I had talked with Jack's dad about getting Evan and Jack together and playing some baseball, but it was only loosely scheduled.

However, when I got up, it has already begun to mist and just looked wet out.  I got the boys breakfast and printed out some 1099s that I needed to send.  Then Evan and I drove to the post office and stopped at Donut Taco Palace for the first time since November.

Rachel made pancakes for lunch for she and Noah.  Evan had matzoh with jelly on it.  I had some leftovers.

By lunch it had really started to rain so we didn't play baseball.

Later in the afternoon, the boys and I watched the fourth Harry Potter movie.  We had popcorn as well.

For dinner, we went to Pho Thai Son.  The boys ate the grilled beef and vermicelli very well.

We stopped at Randall's and picked up Redbox on the way home.

The boys are getting ready for bed now.

Until next time..

After School Activities

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

We had a typical morning this morning.  Lizzy enjoyed her daily walk.

We stayed home this morning.  I was very busy this before lunch so we were not able to go to Wholy Bagel.  Rachel went out and picked up food there and we ate it at home once I finished up what I was working on.

Evan went home with Wade and some other boys after school.  We walked home with Noah.

Noah seemed to enjoy having the house to himself after school.

When I went to pick up Evan at Wade's, there were four boys.  They were playing football.  Wade's mom said that they had been playing for the 2.5 hours since they had gotten home.  Evan's face was all red but he was very happy.

After coming home, Noah and I went to Noah's baseball practice.  He missed all baseball activities last week so it was good to get him back out there.

On the way home from baseball, we picked up Vietnamese food from Pho Thai Son.

The boys just showered and are now in bed.

Until next time...

Noah on the Bike

This morning we just hung out at home.  The boys couldn't agree on what they wanted to do today.  I decided to take the boys in the cul-de-sac and start teaching Noah how to ride a bike (without training wheels).   I bribed him with Legos.  I told him when can ride on his own he can pick out a $20something Lego set.  He thought that was a good deal.

He did well for the first time without training wheels.  I was only able to let go for a few seconds, but at least that's a start.

The rest of the day we stayed at home.

For dinner we picked up Pho Thai Son for us and Mc Donalds for the boys.

The boys are in their rooms now all ready for bed.

Target and Challah

The boys have been wanting to go to Target.  They saved up their money and wanted to buy some Legos.  I told them we could go today.  Evan got a big square mat piece to build Legos on and Noah got a surfer/shark kit.  They were both very good at Target and the Target employee was very nice when I handed bags of coins and bills that the boys have saved up.

When we got home I made challah. I found a recipe online and used that along with making some stuff up on my own.  It turned out really good.  I would make it again.

For dinner we picked up Pho Thai Son an ate at home.

After dinner we took a walk.  The boys are in bed now.

Here are some challah pics.

Opening Day

Hello everyone...

Today was the official start of the the spring baseball season.  Noah's team kicked off the day with a 9am game.  I woke him up around 7:30.  Sometimes he can be difficult to wake up, but he got up very easily and seemed excited for his game.  I woke Evan up a bit later once Noah was eating his breakfast and in his uniform.

It was very cold this morning - in the upper 30 to low 40s at game time.  But it was a beautiful day, without a cloud in the sky.  Noah played well and listened well.  He got out on one hit for only the second time ever.  But he seemed to be ok with it.  His team won the game.  In fact, since Noah has started playing, his team has not lost a game.  The team they played today was good and gave Noah's team a pretty good run.

After the game, the coach's wife brought donuts and the kids played together for a while.  It was a nice time.

We came home.  The boys played Wii a bit and we had lunch.  We wanted Evan to take it easy because his game was at 6:30 and he has a little cold.  They played with legos after lunch and then eventually went outside to play baseball.

Noah came with us to Evan's warmups.  A boy on Evan's team has a younger brother who plays tee ball.  Noah and this boy, Garrett played together a bit in the fall, but today they were inseparable.  They were sticking together.  There's a picture of the two of them together below.  The other boy called Noah his "BFF".

Evan's team played the last game of the day.  He played a good game.  In the bottom of the first, Evan hit a hard ground ball which I thought was going to go between first and second but the first baseman got to it.  It then was a race to first base.  Evan was running pretty hard and the two boys got there at the same time in a massive collision.  I wish I could see the replay but Evan somehow was lower than the other boy and ended up taking out his legs.  I think their knees hit.  The other boy went flying.  I thought Evan stayed upright the whole time but we have a picture of him on the ground, so I guess he must have fallen too.  Unfortunately he was out, but I think he impressed people by running through that bag.  I think the whole incident scared him because once he got over to me, he began to cry.  He got past it as the inning ended one batter later and he went out to third base.  On the first pitch, a boy hit a line drive that Evan was able to snag for the first out of the inning.  In the bottom of the third, Evan hit a double to right field.  Somehow, on a heads-up play, he scored from second on a ball hit to shortstop without the aid of an error.  He was running hard to third and when the shortstop looked at first, he turned and went home.  The coach sent him and he ran hard an scored.  Evan's singled in the 5th and came around to score.  However, Evan's team lost the game.  At first Evan seemed ok with it, but he told me he was really sad when we got home.

Rachel picked up food for us at Pho Thai Son but we put the boys to bed before we had our dinner.

Until next time...

Getting Better and HEB

This morning it was my turn to take care of the boys and let Morry sleep in. While Morry was sleeping I made muffins. Evan helped me mix, but he kept running off with cranberries.

Morry came downstairs at almost 11. We ate breakfast and then went to HEB. We had a lot to buy and both boys were pretty good during the shopping trip. They are both feeling better today and are not quite as cranky. I saved us $10.88 in coupons today.

After we got home we put Evan and Noah down for naps. Noah slept, but Evan didn’t.

After naps, Morry ran out to pick up dinner at Pho Thai Son. We had a buy one get one free dinner. I was able to print it out from the Entertainment book web page. Morry and I ate our vermicelli dishes. Noah had some cheese and fruit. Evan had macaroni and cheese (minus the cheese). He wouldn’t let Morry mix the cheese in the pasta. Evan also ate a lot of fruit.

Right now Evan is sitting on the potty downstairs. He hasn’t done anything yet. I think he’s just stalling because he knows it almost bedtime.

Park Playgroup and Panera

This morning we met some people from playgroup at the park. We were there for about and hour and a half. Noah and Evan had a great time. I let Noah crawl around and climb on things. Both boys went on the merry-go-round. Noah even went down the small slide while I held his hand. He loved it. Evan spent a lot of time in the baby swing. He kept asking me to push him higher.

After playgroup we went to Panera Bakery for lunch. I ordered a kid’s grilled cheese meal for Evan. He ate the yogurt and fruit, but not the sandwich. I cut up the sandwich and Noah ate half of it. Yenis and Kevin went to. We ate outside and when the boys were done eating they had a good time playing together. They were playing Star Wars with straws.

I guess Evan and Noah were pretty worn out. They took good naps. I was even able to nap.

For dinner we went to Pho Thai Son. Evan ate all the seafood out of my soup. He ate the fish, shrimp, krab (imitation crab), and squid. We were going to go to the bakery next door after dinner, but it had already closed for the day.

We are about to give the boys baths and put them to bed.