Special Events: Our Horses • House Addition • Mustangs 2008/09 • Mustangs 2007/08 • Mustangs 2006/07 • Summer Vacation 2011 • Family Traditions

April weather has been good and the flowers are starting to bloom around the year. We made our annual trek to Home Depot, Texas Nursery and Hand Nursery in Tyler to pick out plants for the summer growing season. We have some new roses, black eyed susans, and a couple passion vines along with the usual array of hibiscus plants in many colors. We planted some strawberry plants as well to see how they would do - time will tell....

Rick and Kelly made the decision to move to Colorado and went ahead and purchased a house outside of Denver. Its a 3 level house, larger than the one they currently have in Highland Village (which they are selling). Not exactly sure but I think they will be moving up there after school is out. Here's to new adventures in Colorado!

Sean took Mia to the Saint Andrews Daddy Daughter dance tonight. Mia got all gussied up in a dancing dress and Sean did as well. From the pictures, they must have had a good time - I'm sure this was pretty special for Mia!

Jalen is now 13 Months old, walking and starting to gab. I didn't get many pictures of him this month.

I caught this off Facebook - someone has built a custom version of the Big Boy Locomotive 4014 completely in Legos. This is the same engine we saw a couple years ago in Palestine when it was on its tour around the US. This is a pretty impressive build, would love to see it in person some day.

Today we spent the day with Kalyn and her family to help celebrate her birthday. She opened her gifts and we were off to watch Mia play basketball. Mia's team (The Amazons) is pretty good, and they ended up winning the game. Many of the girls on the team are also on Mia's soccer team so they all stick together it seems which is nice to see.

Kelly, Rick and Violet went to Medieval Times in Dallas this evening for dinner. Violet was all decked out in her Princess dress, very appropriate for the castle and knight theme at this restaurant. From the pictures, it looks like she got to interact with some of the characters which is nice. Its a fun place to have dinner.

Mia and Jack are doing their thing as always, keeping busy. Mia has been playing basketball and finished the season this month - She even got a trophy! Imagine that. Jack continues to grow and developing a personality. He's now pulling himself up on things.

Tonight was Senior Night at the ACPA basketball games and all the seniors for boys and girls were recognized in ceremonies before each game. Jacquelyn and Erik escorted Charlie on the court for his turn, and Coach Brown gave him a nice acknowledgment. Hard to believe we're already at this stage, seems like just yesterday he was playing Little Dribbler's. Congratulations Charlie on your senior night!

We stop by to say Happy Birthday to Mickey at Applebee's today - Ericka and her family took him out for lunch. We couldn't stay long due to a dog grooming appointment, but it seemed like Mickey enjoyed his lunch. Happy Birthday Mickey!

In the evening, we went to see the Mavericks take on the Milwaukee Bucks. This is the first time I've seen the Dirk statue they put in Victory plaza - it turned out really good. Gianis Antetukumpo and his crew are really tough competition. He is hard to stop. The game was pretty good but in the end, the Bucks prevailed and won the game.

We finally got the old Macromedia crew together for lunch in Dallas. We went to a place called Rise, a French themed menu which was really good. it was a blast hanging out with these guys again, miss the old days working with them. Everyone seems to be doing good which is great to see.

We went to Saint Andrews Catholic School today to attend Grandparents Day. Soutara and Mike were also there. The different grades put on skits and performances and then we all got escorted to our different destinations within the school. This was highly organized. We spent some time in Mia's class, then we went to the Book Fair, and finally we got to play Bingo. Our group ended up winning a couple Bingos and Mia got some prizes to take home. it was a neat event, i think the school did a good job on this one.

Afterwards, we and Soutara took Mia over to the Fort Worth Stock Show to see the animals. We sat in on a horsemanship competition, and then walked through the barns to see the different animals - it was pretty neat. Mia got her face painted and we spent time at the amusement area so she could ride a few rides. We ended up at her house in the afternoon. It was a fun day all around.

Things are moving fast at the California Science Museum in Los Angeles - they are standing up and assembling a full stack of the space shuttle Endeavor They plan to stand things up in a launch position, then build the actual building to house it around it over the next 1-2 years. We visited the museum about a year ago and saw the plans for this, its good to see it happening. It will be cool to actually see up close what this all looked like on the launch pad.

We made the trip down to Haley's to help celebrate Jalen's 1st Birthday. We met Kalyn to pick up Mia and headed south yesterday afternoon. Haley and Tank decorated with a underwater Nemo theme with balloons a cool cake. Of course, he made out like a bandit with a electric car and other fun toys. They tried to get him to dig into a cup cake which was tough - he wasn't really sure about it but once he got a taste of the frosting, I think he liked it :-) After the party, we went to Logan's Roadhouse for Dinner which was fun. It was a really good trip - Happy Birthday Jalen!

Mia and Jack keep themselves busy as usual. Jack sure seems to like Mia and Mia is the same about Jack - they do well together...

Jalen is closing in on the 1 year mark and is developing a personality. He's a pretty happy baby and is getting really close to walking - won't be long. He also got his first haircut recently - look at that! His birthday is in about a week and we plan to go down there to help celebrate it.

We got an arctic blast last night combined with some moisture from the south and viola - we have snow! We got about 2 inches I think but it won't last long with temperatures going up in the next day or so. At least there was enough snow for the kids to play, and Lily really liked it as well - its her kind of weather.

We got as many of the family as possible together to celebrate birthdays from Dec and January this weekend (Melody, Charlie). We met at Uncle Julio's in Arlington for this event. The weather was starting to change and get really cold this day. It was a good dinner, and Charlie and Mia got to smash open the Chocolate Piñata which was fun. Jack got passed around as well and spent time with everyone around the table - he's getting so big. It was a fun evening with everyone - Happy Birthday!

The basketball season rolls on for the Storm with multiple games this season. The team is doing ok but the competition is tough. Charlie still suffers from a wrist issue which I think is affecting his shot. We'll see how the rest of the season goes here, looks like it could be a tough season.

We spent a quiet New Years Day at home watching the Rose parade and some football. Nothing too special. The College Football Playoffs included Texas so we had a horse in the race to follow. unfortunately, they fell short to Washington and didn't make it to the Championship game. Looks like the championship will pit Michigan vs. Washington this year.