Friday Night Lights

On a Friday (or Saturday) night from September to December, you can usually find our family sitting in the bleachers watching my high school's football game. Since I teach mostly seniors, the majority of my students are on some varsity sport or other. I enjoy going to the football games every week and seeing my students (football players, cheerleaders, brigade members, band, and drill team) show off their talents. And my students love to know that I am there in the stands supporting them. Every week my students ask if I am going to the game that week. A couple weeks ago, I happened to be sitting two rows back from our bench. It was neat to see the smile on my football players faces when the realized that I had come to watch them play. Here are a few pictures of David and the girls from this season.

Kaylee decided that David needed to wear her ears and she needed to wear his hat

Naomi smiling in the stands

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Through our ward, we were given free tickets to see the Astro's play on Sept. 11th. This was Naomi's second time going to a baseball game and Kaylee's first. The girls did pretty well. (They prefer football more.) However, we really enjoyed the time spent as a family.

Naomi and Kaylee sitting on a baseball out in front of Minute Maid

The girls and I

David and the girls

What to Do When the Lights Go Out

One very stormy and rainy Friday night in May, David and I decided to go on a date. As we were heading to the movie after our dinner, we got a text from the babysitter saying that our house had lost electricty. What luck?! So instead of a movie we headed back home. The storm was still pretty bad when we got home so our babysitters hung around until the weather and roads cleared up. The only problem was we had to figure out how to entertain the little girls with no electricity (oh yes and no AC). The girls found lots of fun things to do. They made shadow puppets on the wall with the flashlights. And then we built a tent in the family room with a bunch of quilts. Oh and to cool ourselves off, since it was so hot we had ice cream. We also played games in our tent. All of the girls (including the babysitters had a lot of fun)!!

Eating ice cream in the tent
Naomi and the babysitters (Kaley and Maddie)

Kaylee made her own little tent on the side just for her.

Homemade Pizza

In our effort to save money, we have been making our own homemade pizza. The recipe that I use makes very yummy pizza and is quite simple. And as a bonus the girls love to help make it. For those that would like the recipe. Here it is:

In 3/4 cups warm water add 1 tsp of sugar and 2 tsp of yeast. Stir and allow to sit for 10 minutes. Then add 1/2 tsp of salt and 2 Tbs of olive oil; stir. Measure out 2 cups of flour in a bowl and stir in yeast mixture until it forms a ball of dough. Put in a greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap that has been sprayed with cooking spray. Let rise until double--1hour. When dough is ready, roll out onto pizza pan. Add sauce, cheese and toppings. Cook for 20-25 minutes at 375 degrees. Enjoy!!

Kaylee rolling the dough

Naomi rolling the dough

The dough all rolled out

Naomi adding the sauce

Kaylee putting on the cheese. (Don't worry I took over the shredding!)

What it looks like before going into the oven. Sorry we were hungry so no picture of the cooked version.

Drive-In Movies

Yesterday we partook in an old past time. We went to a drive-in movie theater up in Hockley called the Showboat Drive-In. It was reasonably priced. $5 for adults and $4 for kids for a double feature. After a little difficulty finding it. (Our GPS could not find the address. Argh!) We showed up and only had to wait about 10 minutes before the show started. The movie starts at dusk around 9pm. We brought our chairs and snacks and watched G-Force with my parents and the girls. After the first movie we put the girls in the car so they could TRY and fall asleep while the adults watched The Proposal. We really enjoyed ourselves. It was not that crowded. No one complained if Kaylee started making too much noise. Weather was actually quite nice not too warm with a little breeze. No mosquitoes. And we could bring our own popcorn/drinks. It was definitely much cheaper than seeing both of these movies at the regular theater.

The gang ready to watch G-Force (Sorry the picture quality is poor)

Fun at the Park

Some cute pictures from our trip to the park this morning before it got too HOT!!!

Chilling in the shade

Mom a hippo ate me

Do I really want to go down this slide???

Museum of Natural Science

Yesterday we went to the Houston Museum of Natural Science. The museum has free Tuesdays from 2pm-9pm. This allows you into any of the permanent exhibit halls for free. If you want to go see one of the special exhibits, you still have to pay for them. However, only having to pay the price for the special exhibit is still a good deal. Yesterday we just visited the permanent exhibit halls. We spent most of our time in the paleontology exhibit and the chemistry exhibit. We really enjoyed ourselves. I did not think Kaylee would enjoy it that much but she had a blast. She would run from one dinosaur to the next saying look at this one. PS If you park in the Houston Garden Center parking lot it is free and you don't have to pay the $10 for the parking garage.

The family in front of a T-Rex
Look out their is an anklyosaurus behind you

Looking at one of the many dinosaur fossils

Circus Fun

On Wednesday the 22nd of this month, we went to see Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. We went with my parents, Jenny, Shane and Aurora, and a friend of my parents Patrick. We arrived at the circus early enough that we were able to see some of the performers in the pre-show down on the ring floor. Both girls really loved the circus. Kaylee had a blast. She danced to a lot of the music and really had fun. I don't think she had one favorite act because she liked it all. Naomi's favorite part of the show was the elephant's and the acrobats. We truly enjoyed ourselves. I can't wait for the circus to come again next year.

Kaylee, Naomi, and David with one of the Circus performers

Kaylee and Naomi with another circus performer

The elephants

Galveston Bay Day

This past Saturday we went down to Kemah Boardwalk. Kemah was holding a Galveston Bay Day celebration with educational activities for the whole family and lots of neat booths and exhibits about Galveston Bay. Since I teach Aquatic Science, I thought it would be a fun thing to go to. We did not get there as early as I would have liked so we did not get to see everything. But what we did see and do we throughly enjoyed. One of the girls favorite parts was the fountain where they got throughly soaked. They also got to touch some hermit crabs, blue crabs, and anemones in a touch tank. And I got to show off my knowledge of Galveston Bay. Here are a few pictures from that day. My dad has more on his camera.

Playing in the fountain

Next time we need to bring swimsuits

Take my picture please