Noah's Birthday Party

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

There was a big rain storm over night.  They had predicted thunder, lightning and hail.  There definitely wasn't any hail.  I didn't hear any thunder either.  Parts of the city may have gotten hit hard, but I think it was just a heavy rain storm for us.

It was clear enough for Noah and I to walk to school though.

I worked all day from home as I will be doing from now on.  Rachel went in early to teach.  She stopped at HEB on the way home to pick up a birthday cake for Noah.

We had Noah's birthday party tonight.  This was really our first opportunity to have a birthday party doing what Noah wanted to do.  He wanted to have a few boys do an Escape Room with him.  His friend Cole got dropped off at our house at 5pm.  We left and picked up Jude.  Four other boys met us there.

In the Escape Room, our goal was not actually to escape.  Rather, we had to solve lots of puzzles, gather clues, and unlock things in an effort to find a golden goblet.  We had an hour to solve all the puzzles.  Evan and I joined Noah and his friends.  Rachel set up the party room during the time.  It was fun.  The boys were hyper at times.  Overall, I enjoyed myself.  We were able to solve the room with 17 seconds remaining.  I think Noah was happy that we were successful.

We fed the boys pizza after the room and then gave them cake.  Noah seemed to enjoy being with his friends.

The boys are upstairs playing.  There isn't any school tomorrow so there's no rush to get to bed.

Until next time...

First Day of School, Last First Day of Clayton

This morning we walked Noah to school and went inside briefly to drop him off at his classroom.  He did not want us to go inside the classroom.  :)

Since Chewie couldn't go with us this morning I took him for a walk once we got back.

I did some stuff around the house today.

We walked with Chewie to pick up Noah from school.  He seemed like he had a good day.

Evan got home a little after 4:00 and it seemed like his day went well too.

I left to tutor and a little while later Evan went over to Grandma and Papa's.

When I got home we made dinner - A General Tso's meal from H-E-B.

Then, we drove to get Evan from Grandma and Papa's since there was thunder.

Soon, the boys will get ready for bed.

Here are some pictures from today.

Oh, and a few from when we went to Austin Pets Alive on Friday.

Clean House

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

We had a wild thunderstorm overnight.  There was a really loud clap of thunder at one point.  Evan keeps talking about it.  He said he had just gone to the bathroom when he heard it.  He said he looked out the window to see if lightning had struck something.  Evan's friend Cooper was freaking out about the exact same clap of thunder.  He said it woke him up and he thought it was a gun shot.  He said it "scared the crap" out of him.  Cooper is a pretty funny kid.

So we didn't walk Noah to school.  It rained pretty hard all morning.  We drove him and Chewie came in the car with us.

The cleaning people showed up just before 9.  They were really afraid of Chewie.  It made the cleaning difficult.  After they finished downstairs, I took Chewie upstairs.

After the left I had to go into the office for a little bit.  I had to work with two other people.  I couldn't make it home in time to get Noah so Rachel walked with Chewie to get him.  By that time the rain had stopped.

Evan got home shortly after I got home and we immediately left and picked up Cooper for baseball practice.  They focused more on pitching today so Bruce Ruffin was working with them.  Evan said that Bruce was working with him on his wind up.  He normally pitches out of the stretch. 

While Evan was at practice, I went to HEB and Randall's to get stuff for dinner tonight and this weekend.

For dinner we made tacos.  Evan had shrimp.

The boys are going to get ready for bed soon.

Until next time...

Thunder

We drove Noah to school this morning since it was raining.

I went to my school and after had a meeting to help a neighbor with marketing their website.

Then, Morry and I went to lunch at Wholy Bagel.

Morry had a phone meeting this afternoon.

I drove to get Noah from school since it was still misty outside.

Shortly after Evan got home, I left to tutor.

Morry dropped Evan and Noah off at Evan's school's basketball game.   They sat with Evan's friends Reid and Carter, who go to the opposing school.

After the boys got home we ate dinner.

Now they are going to get ready for bed.   

It's still raining and thundering right now.

Expensive Day

This morning we had a lot of rain and thunder.  Lizzy was not happy.

I drove Evan to his 11am dentist appointment.  He needed to get a cavity filled.  Everything went well and we were done in about an hour.

On the way home we stopped at HEB.

Finally, our car was ready this afternoon.  So, we drove to the dealership to pick it up.

For dinner, we invited Grandma over.  We had hamburgers, corn on the cob, and asparagus.

We walked Grandma home.

The boys are playing video games, but will get ready for bed soon.

Math Pentathlon Recognition and Class Party

This morning we walked to school and stayed for the assembly.  The school was recognizing the Math Pentathlon team. The school team placed gold in the state of Texas for the Math Pentathlon National Tournament.  They had all of the kids stand up to be recognized.

After that Morry went home and I went to Noah's class party.  They had centers with breakfast and crafts.  After, they played on the playground.

In the afternoon, the sky looked pretty dark and there was some thunder.  We decided to drive to pick up the kids from school.

Evan had a good day.  They had market day.  The kids made or brought in items to sell for pretend money.  Evan made finger flick footballs and said they sold well.  He bought some candy and a bag to carry it all in.

Morry and Evan went to baseball practice.

When they got home we had leftovers for dinner and ate outside.

The boys are ready for bed now.

Here are some pictures from today.

New Bike

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Much like yesterday, it was drizzling on the walk to school.  It wasn't sunny like it was yesterday.

We had someone come to look at out outside lights and get an estimate on repairing some of the fixtures that need to be replaced.

I went into Aaron's for a bit and Rachel cleaned.

We drove to pick up the boys.  It was dark and we could hear thunder in the distance.  We didn't know if it would start to rain or not.

I grilled ribs and corn and then put them in the crock pot to keep them warm.  Then we drove to Bicycle Sport Shop and got a new bike for Evan.  It was Evan's birthday gift from Grandma and Papa.  Now Noah will use Evan's old bike until he gets more comfortable starting and stopping and he'll get a new bike as his birthday gift.  They were very nice and Evan got a bike he liked.

We came home and ate.  Then we went outside and Evan rode the new bike while we worked more with Noah on starting and stopping.

The boys are getting ready for bed now.

Until next time...

Stevie

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Last night we had a massive rain storm.  Around 2am, I woke up to heavy rain, thunder and lightning.  It was clear this morning, but from what I heard, it rained between 3.5 to 4 inches over night.

We walked to school.  The path was pretty torn apart. In one spot where the water must have come through the path was about a foot deep and maybe a foot wide.  It was easy enough to step over but I saw a kid hit it with his bike and tumble over.

We stayed at home today though I did run out to Smoothie King and the bank.

It's Evan's turn to bring the class pet home this weekend.  The pet is a guinea pig named Stevie.  We stayed after school with Evan and got Stevie's cage and things (food, treats, etc...) and brought them home.  Stevie is staying in Evan's room and Evan will have to keep the door closed to keep out the other animals.  Calvin does not seem to be a mouser but Flash does so we wouldn't want Flash to get to Stevie.  Lizzy wouldn't do anything other than bark.  But it's just safer to keep the door closed to the room.

For dinner, we had hamburgers and corn on the grill.  As I started to grill, the skies opened up and we're having rain like last night.  Our patio is covered but even so the rain was coming sideways so I got a bit wet as I came out to flip the corn and burgers.

The fields where Noah plays baseball flooded again.  They are closed at least through next week, so Noah won't have a game this weekend or have practice.

The boys are upstairs.  Noah has to do his reading and Evan is with Stevie.

Until next time...

Practice then Rain

This morning we drove the boys to school.

Morry picked them out while I was tutoring.

Morry took both boys to Noah's baseball practice.  Right after they got home it started raining hard, with lightening and thunder.

For dinner we had hamburgers and rice.

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

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..

Home Depot

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

We had a big thunderstorm early this morning.  It woke Evan up around 6am.  He got up and played in the game room, though he told us with one thunder clap, it caused him to run back into his room.  I don't know if he was being silly or whether he had actually been scared.

Rachel and I, ended up sleeping in, though.  It's been a very busy last few weeks and it felt nice to sleep in.

When we got up, we had brunch and then got ready to leave.

We went to Home Depot which turned into a big trip.  We wanted to look at a new back door since Lizzy has scratched up our current door.  We had to also get some stuff for a handyman who is coming tomorrow including a new door bell.  It seemed to take forever.  We paid to leave and then Rachel wanted to see if they had a lemon tree.  So I put all the stuff in the car and then came back and Rachel had found a lemon tree as well as a pomegranate tree.  Rachel wanted to put them in large pots initially so we got pots for them.  The boys were kind of wild so it was really good to go.

On the way home, we stopped and got smoothies at Smoothie King.

In the afternoon, I had some work to do and my friend Dmitriy stopped by as well.

For dinner we had left over pizza and had a movie night.  Rachel had never seen Despicable Me and the boys want her to come with us to see Despicable Me 2.  So we watched that movie while eating our dinner.

We put the boys to bed and now are about to get ready ourselves.

Until next time...

Family Movie Night

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Early this morning, maybe around 5 something, I was awakened by the sound of thunder and the pouring rain.  After seeing how bad the fields looked because of the rain during Evan's game yesterday, I thought to myself that poor Noah's game was going to be cancelled.

When I got up in the morning it was sunny.  Evan and Noah were up playing with each other.  I held out a slim hope that maybe the fields would dry enough.  Unfortunately, around 11am, we got an email that the fields were closed and all games were cancelled.  Noah cried when Rachel told him though he refused to admit it was because of the game being cancelled.  I'm hoping that the game will be made up.

We decided we were going to go to Sam's Club.  It's been a while since we were there and we needed some things.  Evan and Noah were very well behaved there, so we got them an Icee and soft pretzel at the end.

We came home and had lunch.  After lunch, the boys went upstairs and started the massive cleanup in the game room and their rooms.

Around mid-afternoon, Rachel had to tutor a student so she left.  On her way home, she picked up pizza at zpizza and got the movie Big Miracle from Redbox.  We ate at the coffee table and watched the movie.  The boys ate well and they seemed to like the movie. Rachel also made meringue cookies.

We just put the boys to bed, but Evan decided to come down here and is watching me type.  He wanted to show me a baseball card.  If you need to get him something small for Hanukkah, baseball cards will do the trick.

Until next time...

Wet Walk

We took it easy at home this morning and then went to the pool around 11:30am.  Evan and Noah wanted to walk there.  It was a hot walk, but they both did well.

Evan made a friend at the pool.  He met this kid, Luke, who is also going into first grade.  Luke goes to another school in our neighborhood.  Noah had fun jumping into the shallow end. 

We noticed some dark clouds were rolling in and then it started to sprinkle.  As soon as the drops got big, the lifeguards had everyone get out of the pool.  We started walking home in the drizzle, but before we could get home it started pouring.  We got very wet.  Evan thought it was fun.  Noah whined some. 

We took a funny video.  The kids were splashing in the puddles before we came inside and a big thunder surprised all of us.

The rest of the day was spent at home.  It's been raining pretty hard for the last few hours.

Noah has a slight fever right now.  He told us he wasn't feeling well at dinner time so we took his temperature.  We'll keep an eye on him and see if he'll be able to go to school tomorrow.

This week Evan is doing Mad Science Camp.  He's very excited about it.

Soon, we'll put the boys to bed.

Thunder Storms

This morning Morry wasn't feeling well. He was up late last night, so I walked Evan to school again.

When I got back home I went back to sleep for a while.

We had a good rain storm today with thunder and everything. It's been a while since we got real rain.

Noah and I stayed home today. I did some cleaning around the house.

We picked up Evan and then came home for a little bit.

Kim was not able to come today so I dropped the boys off at Clubhouse for Kids.

I tutored and Morry picked the boys up.

Morry made dinner, fed the boys and got them ready for bed. Once the boys were in bed we ate dinner.

Noah was pretty cranky tonight and threw a big fit because he wanted to brush his teeth by himself.

Both boys are asleep now.

2 Sick Boys

This morning I took Evan and Noah to the doctor. They both have upper respiratory infections. Evan’s is worse than Noah’s. Evan had a 103 fever and Noah’s was 99. Since Evan has been coughing a lot and has a fever, the doctor wanted to do a chest xray. Everything was fine. He had a little bit of fluid, but the doctor wasn’t concerned. Since it’s a virus we have to just let it run its course. The doctor recommended some things we can do and over the counter medicine the boys can take. If they don’t seem to be getting better in a few days, we’ll need to bring them back in.

Evan and Noah were very good and followed all of the directions for the doctor. They got to pick out stickers at the end of the visit.

On the way home we stopped at Sonic. I got the boys slushes and apple slices. They weren’t very hungry so that ended up being their lunch.

Noah took a little bit of a nap.

For dinner we made pasta.

Normally we go to Evan’s sports class on Wednesdays. Today was his last class, but we were not able to go since he is sick.

We let Evan play in the shower for a little bit tonight hoping that would help him feel better.

We just put Evan and Noah to bed. I’m hoping they both sleep well tonight. Between the thunderstorm and being sick they didn’t get much sleep last night.

Working Today

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Today, I had to go to work. Our latest software was due on Monday, so the powers-that-be wanted us all to work on Saturday. We didn't have to get until 10am though. Evan got up at 7:45 and got himself breakfast. I turned on the tv in the gameroom for him.

I left the house around 9:30. Noah was still in his room. Rachel planned on going to the gym with the boys for a 10:30 yoga class. Unfortunately, Evan threw a fit and caused Rachel to be late. He then refused to go into the children's area. Rachel said he crawled down the hallway to the area and into the area, crying. That caused Noah to cry. Eventually they did fine and ended up enjoying themselves at the gym.

After they were done, they came over the office to see me. I was glad everyone came by. Evan wore his sunglasses into the office even thought it was cloudy outside and obviously there was no need to wear them inside. The people at work all thought the boys were very cute. Noah played with the Nerf football I have at my desk. They both enjoyed themselves.

Rachel took them home and gave them lunch. Neither boy ate very much.

I came home around 3:45 or so. Evan was still up, but we don't really want him to take a nap anymore. Rachel took a nap after I got home. I ended up watching the movie Bedtime Stories with Evan.

For dinner we went to Wings-to-Go. Rachel and I shared boneless Buffalo wings. We got the boys a kids meal to share with chicken nuggets. Neither boy ate that though. Evan did eat a bunch of stuff, including a peanut butter and jelly sandwich out of the diaper bag.

While we were eating, it started to rain really hard. There was thunder and lightning. At one point we thought the power was going to go out.

We got home and put the boys to bed. Evan was complaining that he had a cut on his finger. This may be the smallest cut ever. But he insisted on a band-aid. I'm not sure if this is possible, but I think he may be addicted to band-aids.

Until next time...

Happy Birthday Dear Noah

It’s hard to believe… 2 years ago today Noah was born.

This morning Evan was up really early. It was thundering and he got scared. He went to bed and then got up a little while later again. Morry set him up the game room and went back to sleep.

Once everyone was up and dressed we went bowling. It was cold and rainy today so we wanted something fun to do indoors. Noah loves to bowl. We went to Westgate lanes and all four of us bowled. I won. I had the best score. Toward the end Noah got tired and Evan bowled some of Noah’s turns.

After the bowling alley we stopped off at Hollywood Video. They are going out of business and we wanted to see if they had any good DVDs. It was mostly picked over, but we bought a few DVDs.

Since it was Noah’s birthday and we know he likes smoothies, we stopped at Smoothie Factory on the way home. Noah specifically said he wanted one with strawberries and bananas.

Since they boys snacked a lot at the bowling alley, they didn’t want lunch. We put got them ready for naps – Noah in his crib and Evan in the game room. Then, Morry and I ate lunch.

For dinner we went to Alborz, a Middle Eastern restaurant. We picked that because we know Noah had a great time watching the belly dancer the last time he was there. Evan ate really well. He had a lot of tabouli. When the belly dancer came out Noah didn’t seem that interested. Evan liked watching and got a little shy when the dancer came up and danced next to him.

For dessert, we went to Yogurt Planet for frozen yogurt.

We just put Evan and Noah to bed. They are both still awake.

Last Day of School

Evan woke up early again and Morry got him set up in the game room before he left for work.

We were late getting to school this morning. Noah slept until about 9:30. I didn’t want to wake him up. I let him sleep until 9:30 and finally I woke him up so I could get Evan to school.

Riley came over from 10-12. Noah cried for about the first 30 minutes, but then he eventually calmed down. I did a lot of cleaning while Riley was here. It had been a while since the house was really cleaned. I cleaned the bathrooms, vacuumed and mopped the whole house, dusted, … I did that all in about the 2 hours Riley was here. I was really exhausted by the time she left. Right after Riley left, Noah and I went to Evan’s school. It was Evan’s last day of school (until September), so they had a little pizza party. Noah had a great time with all the big kids. He even sat at the table with them for lunch. After lunch the kids had cupcakes and cookies. Both Evan and Noah loved the cookies. Who knows how many Evan ate.

When we got home I put Evan and Noah down for naps. Noah fell asleep pretty much right away. It started raining (finally) pretty hard and we had some thunder and lightening. Evan got scared and didn’t want to take a nap, so I let him watch TV for a little bit. Then, I tried again to put him down for a nap, but he refused. I was really tired and needed a nap so, I let him watch tv in the game room while I tried to lie down. A few minutes later Evan was in our room because he heard thunder. I asked if he wanted to come in bed, but he said no. He ended up falling asleep on the floor in our room. As soon as Evan fell asleep Noah woke up.

I brought Noah downstairs and tried to fold laundry. It took me about 4 times as long as usual because Noah kept grabbing clothes I had already folded.

Evan got up and while Evan and Noah played I got dinner ready.

Morry came home and we had corned beef and potatoes for dinner.

For dessert we went to Wendy’s for Frosties. We had 2 $1 off coupons and a $5 gift card I had won a while ago, but just got in the mail a few days ago. So, we had free dessert and still have $1something left on the card.

We just put Evan and Noah to bed and it seems to be quiet.

Water Day at School

Well, Evan got up around 6:30am again today. He was crying and Morry went to get him. Morry put on Wall-E for him and let him play in the gameroom.

Today was Water Day at Evan’s school. They had a blow up bouncy water slide. Below are some pictures and video from this morning.

Riley came over from 10-12 to help with Noah. Noah did much better today. He only cried a little. Noah seemed happy to see Riley when she got here. I was able to get some stuff done around the house.

We picked up Evan and then went to Postmark’d (mail/package store) to send back the defective DVD player.

On the way home Evan was throwing another one of his fits. I put the windows down to block out the sound.

Evan actually ended up napping today. He really needed it. Noah napped too.

Blanca came at 4:00. I had a new student scheduled for tutoring. This student is taking summer school and needs some extra practice with Math before school starts again.

On my way home I stopped at HEB to get tortillas. Morry made fajitas for dinner tonight. They were really good and he used the jalapenos that we grew in our backyard.

The potty training is still going ok. Evan wore underwear the last part of the day. He wore diapers during school. If given a choice Evan picks diapers, but when he wears the underwear he seems to understand about going on the potty.

We just gave the boys baths and put them to bed. Evan is still crying.

It’s pouring down rain right now. There’s a lot of thunder and lightening. Hopefully, we don’t get it as bad as Dallas did last night.

Evan is downstairs now. He got scared of the thunder and lightening.

Hopefully, he’ll go to bed soon.