First Day of School

 I think it was a toss up as to who was more excited about school amongst the three of us.  After an extra long summer (MS schools got out 3 weeks before TX schools), a big move and a mom ready for some schedules there was a big sigh of relief from all of us.

 Tanner loves his new preschool.  He is only going 3 days a week, but his school hours are longer (which I love, I can actually get things done while he is gone!).  Another major plus is he gets used to eating lunch at school and being in a school environment for a longer period of time.  The sad part is I get lonely eating lunch all by myself when he is at school.  Then I remembered that I won't be a lone for much longer so now I'm just enjoying it while I can. It took me a while to find a place for Tanner in a preschool, I cannot believe how competitive preschools are out here.  But I am thankful I found a place and that we are happy with how things are going so far.  I also just want to say though, how much we miss his old preschool.  I loved how organized and efficient they were, there are a few things with this new school that could use some of that organization and efficiency but I digress.

 Lana was particularly excited to start at a new school this year.  I took her with me when I went to register and her eyes were big the entire time we were walking around and she kept commenting on how new and nice the school was (the school is only maybe 4 years old).  Meet the teacher was an even bigger plus for her because her teacher Mrs. Marquez is FABULOUS!  She is upbeat, bubbly and a great student motivator.  Lana's last two teachers were closer to retirement and just weren't cutting it for her.  It's amazing how much smoother this year has started off just because Lana loves her teacher.  It also helps that school starts later and she can wake up on her own instead of me dragging her kicking and whining out of bed in the morning.  She still loves to ride the bus which other than having to walk 10 houses down to the bus stop (instead of the bus stop being in front of our house) it's totally worth it.  Her bus ride is only about 15 minutes instead of the hour in MS and the buses here have A/C which I still don't get about the crap buses they have in MS.

Love my little goobers!  So glad the start of the year has gone so well so far.  Hopefully it will last!!

Catch up

Since it's taking me forever to get the rest of Grandpa's visit up I'll just lump it all into one post to sum it up!

 I was really impressed with the Natural Science museum!  The dinosaur exhibit was really impressive and they do a lot of other things that would be fun to go to without kids.

 Tanner was so impressed with the dinosaurs that he talked about them for days.

 We took a drive down to Galveston to show Grandpa where Paul worked.  I got this brilliant idea that I wanted to ride the ferry to Bolivar.  It turned out to be an hour wait and then we either had to drive another hour the long way home or wait in another long line of cars to ride the ferry back.  We took the long drive home.

 Other than the long wait it was a pretty neat experience.  We even got to see a couple of dolphins swimming on the side of the boat.

 Saturday night we took Grandpa to an Astros game.  It was one of the few games the Astros have won.  Apparently they are last place in the league.  Well, whatever their skill level is, they have the best venue to sit and watch a baseball game it.  The pregnant me appreciated the closed roof and air conditioning.

 On Monday we tackled the Children's Museum.  Lots of fun things to do there and of course, being still summer, lots of kids there too.

We had a great time Grandpa!  See you next time!

Space Center Houston

 Our next adventure took us to Space Center Houston.  It's hard to be a fair judge when you've been to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington DC where everything is free and actually legitimate.  SCH was very commercialized and had very few actual items on display that had been in space.  It was also a little pricey for what you got.

 We hit the tram ride right when we got there which turned out to be a good idea.  By the time it was over I was sweating hot and ready to return to the air conditioned building.

 This is the replica that was flown in from Cape Canaveral.  There was a big uproar here locally that Houston got the "replica" and New York got the "real" shuttle that went into space.

 The famous mission control room, "Houston, we have a problem".  I was hoping to get a glimpse into an actual control room.  Instead they had "live feeds" on two tv screens that you could watch people getting up and down from their desks.  I don't believe for a minute that they were live feeds.

 Getting to see the Saturn Rocket was actually really neat.  The thing is gigantic, and that itty bitty brown section on the rocket is where the astronauts sit.  Everything else is for fuel storage.

 The kids got a kick out of seeing the astronaut toilet.

Future astronaut?  I don't think his mother could handle the anxiety and worry!

Bowling for charity

Day one with Grandpa had us bowling for The Boys and Girls Club on behalf of Paul's work.  

It seems like we've been bowling a lot the last couple of weeks, but the kids enjoy it so I guess I can't complain.

 Even Grandpa got in on the action (although there is no picture since he is the one taking them!).  As much as I enjoy wearing the oh-so-hip bowling shoes, I decided to sit this round of bowling out.

And of course we couldn't leave without a round of racing in the arcade.