Feb-brrr-ary

I spent the last few days of January at a conference in San Antonio with some other principals from my district. We had a couple of days of cold, rainy weather, but on one beautiful day, I enjoyed a lunchtime walk to the Alamo. I sent this picture to Steve and the girls, which inspired our little "Texas Tour" road trip we have coming up for spring break!

I was back at school for one day after the conference before we ended up at home for four ice days! No snow ... just pure sheets of ice. Our driveway was once again the preferred sled run and it sure was fast this year.

There wasn't much to shovel, but Emma enjoyed hacking away at the ice.

We did lots of this ... spending the first part of February, including my birthday, cozied up with the fire, books, and true downtime was an amazing reprieve from real life that we didn't know we needed!

Once we could get back out, Steve and I had a belated birthday date night - margaritas and HEB!

Every year the 4th graders in our district go to hear the Plano Symphony Orchestra and are supposed to dress up. Emma literally wears Nike shorts and athletic tees every single day (a hoodie if it's cold), so I knew finding her a real outfit might be a struggle. She finally agreed on black jeans and a top - she looked so cute!

She said that on the say of the field trip, everyone did a double take when she walked down the hall. One teacher told her, "Ok, I'm not going to make a big deal about this, but wow, you look nice!" The next day she was back to her usual look, but I would like to think she enjoyed her day in a complete outfit. The tradition at Daffron is that the 4th graders get a pizza lunch (with table cloths, even) after the symphony. Emma was thrilled that, based on luck, her class had front row seats and she could see everything!

February has been a month of academic accomplishments for Sara. After she won her school's science fair, her project advanced to Regionals. She spent most of a Saturday downtown being interviewed by judges about her project. She didn't win any awards, which disappointed her, but we were so proud. She did every part of this project completely independently and absolutely deserved to be among all of those regional projects!

Sara's Mock Trial team continued to pour hours into practice - several hours on Saturdays, late nights after school ... it has been a lot. Friday was the first day of competition at the Collin County Court House.

Sara won an Outstanding Witness Award. She sent Steve and I think picture mid-morning on Friday. Steve had won the same award a hundred years ago, and so a few hours later, he sent us a picture of his almost identical prize that he had gone into the attic to find!

Sara's team was one of four (from fourteen) that advanced to Saturday's semi-final round. They won that round, then competed in the finals, and took 1st place. The hours these kids and their amazing teacher have poured in are countless, but the work paid off. So proud of them! Sara is about to have a lot more time on her hands after school without Mock Trial practices. She'll miss this group, but I know she's also looking forward to her after school walks to Starbucks with friends, too. All about balance!

Meanwhile, we got an email from Emma's PE Coach that they had been doing a jump rope challenge at school, and students were to work their way through nine levels. Emma was the first student at her school to accomplish the "Black Belt" level with 175 consecutive jumps! She got to sign the "Black Belt" wall and she said all the kids cheered for her!

After Sara received her 1st place trophy yesterday, Emma got one of her own at the end-of-season basketball tournament. This team has come such a long way in the past few seasons. They started this season in a bracket they were dominating, so they were moved to a higher won, where they continued to play well and mostly win. They were then moved to a tougher bracket for the tournament, and we hoped to play well but didn't expect to rack up wins ... but they did it. So fun to watch these girls! Several of them are back together this morning for softball practice as we kick off another new season.

Next week is spring break - hallelujah! Spring will be busy with soccer, softball, high school cheer tryouts, and normal life. The time is flying by, but I couldn't be more proud of my girls and all they're accomplishing along the way.

Vegas, Baby!

 Over MLK weekend, Steve and Emma headed to Vegas for a soccer tournament. The girls had been looking forward to this big trip for months! After weighing our options, we decided Steve would take Emma and I'd stay home with Sara. There were several other dad/daughter combos who went, so it worked out perfectly.

Emma scored the first goal of the tournament! In the second game, she followed up with two more. I was sorry to miss them, but loved reading Steve's excited updates. So proud of her hard work!

These girls are teammates and great friends, and they got lots of bonding time between games. Meals at House of Blues, arcade time, exploring the strip ... they did it all!

They fought their way to the quarter finals and lost a heartbreaker in PKs. Sounds like they were the better team, just couldn't find the back of the net. I know they were disappointed to come home without hardware, but I think the experiences and memories made up for it.

The team stayed at Mandalay Bay and enjoyed the aquarium there!

The weather was cool but didn't stop them from hitting the town!

What an amazing weekend for these 10-year-olds (and it sounds like their dads had plenty of fun, too...)

Meanwhile, Sara and I enjoyed a low-key long weekend. We took Jim to the dog park and then for a pup cup. It's cute but also a little ridiculous that he now gets excited when we enter the Starbucks drive through lane.

We spent way too much time (and money) at Target, where we finally joined the 21st century with a Keurig. Sara wasted no time putting it to use!

We ate out a bunch ... twice at Taverna. Why not?! We watched "Wednesday" on Netflix, shopped, went to the nail salon, and just enjoyed taking it easy.

Our weekend wasn't as exciting as Vegas, but it was pretty perfect!

More Celebrations

Last weekend we celebrated Steve's 42nd birthday ... and Jim's 3rd! We love these birthday buddies.

To celebrate, we took a family trip to Pinstack ...

With each year that passes, I'm more and more grateful for the time we have together. Time spent playing games, ordering milkshakes the size of Emma's head, laughing together, just having simple fun ... it's the best and I wouldn't trade a minute of it.

Here's to many, many more celebrations like this!

Winter Break Part II

 Finally catching up on the end of our winter break. It stayed super cold through Christmas, which we didn't mind. We had the fire going and good food to eat ... the cold put us in the spirit! We celebrated Christmas Eve with the Brittains, first watching a Cowboys win followed up several rounds of "A Christmas Story."

The girls were up and ready to go on Christmas morning. 

Both girls were thrilled with their gifts ... it's so fun to see Santa get it right! This was Emma's face opening her new Air Jordans.

And Sara got the Nike Blazers she'd been wanting.

Pickle Present ... this tradition lives on! Santa didn't do a great job of hiding the pickle this year, but nobody seemed to mind.

Steve and I exchanged Cyclone gear, of course.

And Jim was super happy with his haul - treats, chew toys, etc.

We got a laugh out of the "beer deer" I got for Steve. Bought it on a whim and he put it right together!

We headed to MN on the 27th for a continuation of Christmas. It was so good to have everyone together.

Finally, finally, finally ... the girls made it to a ski slope. They had a beautiful day for a lesson, and we were able to have a beer on the deck overlooking the hill they were on.

It took just a couple times down the bunny hill to really get the hang of it, then they moved onto a bigger hill. Both girls caught onto snow-plowing and making wide turns. It was so fun to watch!

The best part was they the loved it! After their lesson, they kept skiing for another hour on their own because they were having so much fun. We wrapped up the momrning with a chalet lunch ... yum!

On one of the evenings, we walked though the arboretum's light display. Super fun and festive!

I was so glad to have a chance to see some of my high school friends for lunch. We were missing a couple, but still had the best time. It's like no time has passed when I'm with these ladies!

Of course we hit a couple of sledding hills, too.

Down and back up countless times ...

We were lucky to have beautiful weather and plenty of fresh snow!

Melissa, Adam, Steve, and I had a date night at the Stars/Wild game.

I enjoyed every bite of this brat with kraut!

On the way out of the stadium, we had to pose for this picture with TS. We sent it to Sara who didn't act nearly as impressed as we were hoping she would.

I love having the cousins together, and my girls do such a great job with Cal. They baked, played pool, and basically did whatever else he wanted them to do.

Although it was a little chilly, the girls couldn't leave without a few games of darts.

Family bowling fun! 

We had a NYE dinner at Benihana before watching the ball drop and finishing a puzzle at home.

Cal wasn't sure what to think of the big table fire!

Before we knew it, we were back at the airport to head back to Dallas ... and back to reality. We had a great break with too much food and drink, and lots of special family time.

2023 started on a positive note for our little family ... hoping that's a sign of things to come!