Ready for some football

After a successful season coaching baseball, Brad has decided to switch gears and become a football coach. Originally he had planned to wait another year or two to start Ben in football. But when it came time to decide what to play in the fall (for football you need to decide by the end of May) he decided to go for it.

So Ben will play flag football (tackle starts in 2nd grade.) His team will be the Gators. We have 12 boys on the team - some from baseball, some from preschool, some neighbors, and a few extras. There will even be cheerleaders.

And I get to be the Team Mom. While I took on this role unofficially with baseball, with football it is an actual position, and every team must have one. It seems to be mostly to handle administrative details. I get the impression they don't trust the football coaches to worry about the details, like picture day, etc. We are also expected to fund raise for the league - I am not really thrilled about that, but we'll see what happens.

This is Texas, and Texas is football.

The half-way point

Today we have reached the half-way mark of our summer vacation. Five-and-a-half weeks down, five-and-a-half to go.

Its gone much faster than expected. So far we've had one week away (California) and two weeks of summer camp. We've also had soccer - Susanna is playing on an indoor team for summer), yoga (also for Susanna), practice for fall sports, the pool, and playing outside most nights until late. Occasionally I can get my kids to sit down and do math worksheets (they prefer math books to others at the moment) and they've been to the library twice so far (should be more, I know.)

I'm sure the next half of summer vacation will go faster than the first. Lots to do before school starts. Both kids are enjoying the break but are looking forward to starting school again, especially Susanna. I, on the other hand, would like to put off the 6:30 wake up calls as long as possible!

The tooth fairy returns

Tonight we had corn for dinner. It didn't occur to me until I was cooking it that this might be a challenge for Ben.

One bite was all it took!

San Diego Zoo

We spent a day at the San Diego Zoo. The zoo was as wonderful as we've always heard. We didn't quite see the whole place, but we covered quite a bit during our day there.

Sightseeing

Today's adventure was visiting some local animal attractions.

First we went to a koi place. They sell koi of all sizes and prices. If you want a fish for several hundred or thousand dollars, you can get it here!

Ben and Breck were ready to jump in with their new snorkel gear.

Next we went to the Pacific Marine Mammal Center. This is a non-profit group that rescues, rehabilitates and releases stranded or injured seals and sea lions. We couldn't get too close to the animals, but they were interesting to see.

California

Here we are in sunny California! We have come here to visit Brad's sister Tara and her family. Susanna and Ben love seeing their cousins Breck and Piper. They are having lots of fun together.

Today we went to Laguna Beach. Its not too hot outside, but the kids don't mind. They loved playing on the scenic beach.

Summer vacation, day 1

So today was the first official day of summer vacation. Susanna's last day of school was last Friday (one extra day for snow in Texas!) Ben was out a week earlier, but that was just preschool.

I can't say it was the most exciting day - hopefully better days are yet to come. We spent the morning in a futile search for the children's version of a certain allergy medication that is currently unavailable due to recall. Even though this took us to three different stores, I couldn't buy much because you can't buy anything in Texas in summer unless you are taking it straight home. Tomorrow the shopping will continue, this time for a pill splitter to properly split the adult medicine I bought instead into child friendly doses (after first triple-checking with the pharmacist, of course.) Wednesday's fun will be getting my 5-year-old to learn to either swallow it or eat it crushed up on applesauce.

Its all just as well because its just to hot to go outside. Ben asked many times today to go outside and I kept putting him off. No one else was out and I knew he'd get bored quickly. Finally at 5 o'clock we got the bikes out and headed out front. We were back in at 5:05.

We did go out to play around 7 when everyone else finally came out. It was manageable, but still a bit sauna-like.

Bedtime was late, but since its summer and there is no reason to wake up early, my kids are naturally inclined to be up by 6 a.m. So I'm hoping to shift that just a bit...

We actually have a good summer planned. A few trips, a few camps, the pool... plenty to keep us busy. Bring it on!