The Difference a Year Makes

Man, I can't believe how much they grow and change in just a short 365 days!!

Junior Year / Sophomore Year

(One thing that never changes about him is that he thinks he looks better when he does not smile!  He's not angry, although he looks it.  He was really excited about school both mornings.)

Ninth Grade / Eighth Grade

Fourth Grade / Third Grade

Off to Kindergarten!

School Days

First Day of School!

Tristan is a Big, Bad Junior!  He has two history classes this year and two band classes.  He is going to learn to play the saxophone.

Savannah is a Lowly Freshman.  She has three of Tristan's teachers either the hour before him, or the hour after him.  Poor baby was so nervous!  She said she would have a good day if she did not puke! 

Ethan is a Fourth Grader in Ms. Garner's class.  He also has Monsieur Jean Paul for French.

Jackson's First Day of Kindergarten!  He has Mrs. Castille for English and Madame Elaine for French.

Tristan and Savannah left together about 7:15.  I am so happy that they can take themselves.

I took Ethan and Jackson to school.  The traffic was crazy!  Holden and I walked Jackson to his class.  His teacher had placed a little jar of Play-Do on all their desks.  He was all smiles as he sat down to play.  I think he's going to have a great day.

Holden and I came home and sat down to breakfast.  Savannah requested french toast and bacon, which she was too nervous to eat.  Really, no one ate much of anything, except Tristan.  We chatted while we ate, but the silence in the house was deafening.  It was way too quiet.

Hurry up, Three O'Clock.  We are waiting for you!

Millennium Park

 This morning we went to Millennium Park to meet our friends, the Newmans.

Landon has been Ethan's best friend since Kindergarten.

His family moved out of the Gillis school district half way through last year 

and he is now going to Moss Bluff Elementary so they will not be together anymore.

Ethan is very sad and has been missing his friend a ton this summer, so we planned a play date

with Landon and his cutie little sister, Elaina.

 We played in the Spray Ground for a while before going over to the park.

~ Holden and Elaina ~

~ Jackson, Holden, Elaina, Landon, and Ethan ~

Beautiful Louisiana Sky!

Landon climbing high!

Today was Family Day for one of the plants, so even though we don't work at the plant,

we were treated to a cool ice cream treat for being there.

We had fun playing with our friends today!

And They're Gone!

Notice anything different?

Savannah got her braces off this morning.

We went to Dr. LeFort for a check up.  I knew it was getting close to the time for them to come off.  I thought he would have us schedule a day in the near future to come back and get them off.  He looked at her teeth and said, "Do you want these off?  There is nothing more I can do for her."  And he told his assistant to get a removal tray and in less that two minutes she was braces free!

She is incredibly happy!  She has a clear, plastic retainer that she has to wear over the top of her teeth until she gets her baby tooth pulled and her other tooth built up to normal size.  Then she'll get a retainer with a tooth on it to fill the space where no adult tooth grew.

Here's to a happy, candy filled life without braces!

Band Camp Ninjas

Tristan has spent the past ten days at band camp.

Last week, starting on Wednesday, he went to help teach the new kids how to march at Freshman Band Camp.  Monday started regular Band Camp for the entire band.

In the top picture, Tristan is on the far right side, behind the kid on the front row.  He's wearing a gray shirt. 

In this picture, he is on the right side.  There are two groups of kids pulled away from the main block.  One is marching toward the back field and the other is marching the same direction as the main group.  Tristan is working with the group facing the same direction as the group.  He is in front of a boy wearing a blue shirt.  

Marching, marching, marching!

Tristan monitoring the group.  He's a super cool drum major!

Playing Ninja at lunch.

In these pictures he is with Merit Jones, Mrs. Jones's daughter, who was his band director in Middle School. They have been hanging out this week.  Savannah said that Merit was in her French class and told Savannah that she liked Tristan because he had always been very nice to her.  I'm glad Tristan is expanding his circle of friends.

Last night, he went to the End of Band Camp Mixer.  They always have a party/dance for the kids.

Eleven more days of summer before it all starts again!

Quotable Quotes

Today, from Holden:

I hate spiders.  They're on the snakes team and they're BAAAAAAD!  

Water Parkin' It

We went to the Sulphur Water Park on Wednesday with our friends, Annee and Brenda, 

Alison, Jalil, and Aliana, and Alyssa.

~ Aliana, Alyssa, and Savannah ~

They added a huge lazy river and a second kiddie park, 

which is where we spent most of our day.  We loved the lazy river! 

~ Me and Jackson ~

~ Zack, Ethan, and Jalil ~

This is the first time this summer we have gone to the water park.

We had a lot of fun and are hoping to go back one more time before school starts!