Father's Day: June 16, 2013

In 2013, Brian decided to treat himself to a man-toy for Father's Day:

He's loved it.  He's used it about 3 times on the house and about 30 times at a safe distance on Michael. :)

Billy happened to be in the area for work, so we took him to our fav Mexican place, Mi Cocina.  Here's two dads sharing a molcajete:

Best described as a Mexican vat of deliciousness.  There's cheese and cream and Mexican sausage and Mexican meat and Mexican spices and Mexican green onions and various other delicious Mexican things that I don't know.  Made my carnitas not seem nearly as exciting.

Michael got in on the picture too:

Michael gets chicken tenders and rice when he goes to Mi Cocina.  He's not a fan of Mexican food.  LOL.

Somehow, I stole Brian's cup of horchata, a delicious Mexican rice milk sweet drink.  Shout out goes to our friends the McNiehs, in Austin, for introducing us to a nectar of the gods.

First Track Meet: Sunday, March 23, 2014

On March 23, 2014, Michael had his first practice track meet at Bishop Shanahan High School.  Michael loves running as a "Pee Wee" in track, and we love socializing with the parents in the stands while he runs!  :)

Here's Michael, all business, for the 200m:

This is where the kid cut into his lane, which really threw Michael for a loop:

He couldn't ever get around the kid, and Michael ended up with a 20.74 second 200m run.

Last year, Michael's worst race was the 800m.  It was just too long!  He would skip, talk to his friends/etc.

Not this year:

There's Michael pulling in the lead.

Here he is in the lead after the first quarter lap:

This is where my neighbor, Kelly, said, "Hurry!  Take the picture while he's still in the lead and before he stops running because he's tired!"

Michael, still in the lead, finishing up the 2nd lap and 800m:

Michael with Daddy after finishing 1st in the 800m!!

CRAZY!

This track meet was smaller than most.  Only about half the schools were there, but we'll take it!  Can't wait to see how he does when there are twice as many runners.

He's doing very well with his sports, but his school assessment folders have been less than stellar.  I have a teacher/parent conference scheduled and will be asking lots of questions!  One of which I wonder if he is involved in too many extracurricular activities.  We have lots of practices, but we have it down pretty well this year since we had the same last year.

But last year, he did fine in school!  I'm going to say that all the snow days led to less practice, which led to a not so great performance on his assessment tests.  :(  But I will find out what's going on!  In the end, I need to do more at home for him.  I've kind of let the teachers do the teaching, but I can see now that I need to be much more involved with teaching him the material at home, including the material for the next lessons.  I used to be very on top of all that stuff through Kindergarten, and this has shown me that I have really slacked off in that regard!

June 10, 2013

Pity me, many years from now as I go back through my blog and find 2014 and 2013 all jumbled in together.  :)

On Sunday, Grammy drove Michael home from Giggleberry Farm (I think that's what that's called!).  It was a children's amusement park, which Michael loved!

On Monday, we got Grammy all ready to go back to TX!  However, not after popping into Valley Forge!!!

It was opening day of the red trolley tour, so we took it.  In the drizzling rain.  I "high-tailed" it there to make it in time for the first tour, and we made it!

The tour was informative and let us explore different areas of the encampment.  Here's Michael with Grammy at the log cabins:

And pretending to be a solider: 

Because I'm writing about this nearly an entire year later, I can't remember what we learned.  All I remember is that it was raining; we barely made it for the tour; and we saw log cabins and some command center house.  And this was a training camp.  And you could fit about 8 guys in one log cabin.  And that it was a good place for a training camp because you had the mountains to your back, protecting you on that side, and a river somewhere protecting you from another side.  Or at least I think.

Basketball in da house! On Valentine's 2014

This winter, Michael signed up for basketball with the Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) sports!

HE LOVED IT.

Michael started out not knowing how to barely dribble, and now, he's pretty good!  His last game, he had a breakaway moment and scored a 2 pt lay-up.  The second to last game he played, he scored all 8 of his team's points.  Pictures for that next!  :)

I have NO idea if that's the "right" terminology or not.  I'm sure Brian will make good fun of me.  Like the day I accidentally called the basketball "court" the "field."

Well, I am also the school CYO sports photographer.  I scheduled a session with a team on Valentine's Day, and Michael stayed after school with me. 

This is a lot of what I take for sports pictures:

Not exactly inspiring, but it's sports pictures!  It gets the point across!  We play hoops, and we love God.

After school, Michael played some hoops in his school uniform:

And he acted silly:

And he acted so very cute:

And he acted so very Michael:

And his "Big Momma" is so proud of him.  He gives his all and does his best, and you can see the determination in his face when he's playing.  He brings joy and dedication to whatever interests him, and we could not be more proud of who he is growing up to be!