Spring Break '23

We are back from our last-minute, need-a-change-of-scenery, Texas road-trip spring break! We left first thing Monday morning and headed south toward Galveston. On the way, we had to stop and see Sam Houston. This was the first of many stops that Emma LOVED - she spent lots of time this trip sharing everything she has learned in TX History this year!

We arrived to beautiful weather in Galveston, and after checking in, headed straight out for patio dining and seawall walking.

We enjoyed a couple of beach days. Since our spring break was a week earlier than most this year, we didn't deal with crowds anywhere - we had tons of beach space to ourselves!

The girls were set on recreating an attempted jumping photo from a few years ago in Florida.

We enjoyed a long beachwalk to this rooftop spot that had a real name, but that we just called "coffee and cocktails." Great views!

More beach fun ...

One afternoon we headed to The Strand to eat and shop. We enjoyed walking out to see the big ships, and spent LOTS of time in LaKing's!

The second part of our trip was spent in San Antonio. We returned to The Menger where Steve and I had stayed a few years back for the Alamo Bowl. While we were on the road from Galveston to San Antonio, the Cyclones were playing Baylor in round one of the Big XII tournament. I gave a few periodic updates and at the end, told Emma to guess the final score. Somehow she guessed it right on - 78-72, Cyclones. She thought it was the coolest thing ever and we all enjoyed a laugh about it. Not all of our car time together was the most enjoyable, but we found plenty of great moments!

Inside The Menger ... we left without seeing any ghosts!

We spent quite a bit of time at The Alamo.

"Come and Take It"

Emma posed with every single statue ... she was in history heaven!

We headed to the River Walk for food and shopping.

We had beautiful weather and light crowds!

The girls wanted to go through the wax museum ... again, Emma took pictures with *several* wax figures.

Meanwhile, Sara only needed one with Taylor.

Steve, Sara, and Emma went through the haunted part and I waited upstairs. I thought I had dodged it until they decided to go a second time and made me suffer through it. They thought it was hilarious!

We did another round on the River Walk and at The Alamo to enjoy evening lights and views. Then Steve and I had a nightcap at The Menger Bar ... really cool place!

We made it back to Plano on Friday in time for the Cyclone game watch. They lost - ugh - but I think they're ready for March Madness! Sara had had enough family funtivities, so she stayed home while Steve, Emma, and I watched the game and played some pool.

Now it's only Saturday but the Sunday Scaries have started as getting back to reality is SO close. It'll be a busy spring, but I am looking forward to plowing through and wrapping up this school year!

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!