First day of school- he is a middle schooler now

First Day of school- how in the world do I suddenly have a middle school boy????  Rocket is starting 6th grade, just this year and then 2 more and he will be a high school student.  I am not sure I am ready for this part of the adventure.

this is the "mom, stop taking pictures".  Our bus stop is full this year.  I counted about 7 kids

Then the bus came to the opposite corner where the kids who go to the other catholic school stand.  Yep- we were at the wrong stop.  Of course, this begs the question as to why after 6 years is the school changing the route.  We'll see how long this lasts.

Praying he has a great day at school.  I know the bus ride is going to be good as one of his classmates is now riding the bus too.  He is excited to have a friend to sit with on the bus. 

tonight- part 2 of our adventure starts, we have dancer coming to spend the next 10 days with us. Life is going to be full here. 

I have some photos of soccer practice to post in the next few days.  First soccer game is this Saturday morning.  Wohooo.

Love and hugs,
Deb

fun at the Aquarium, Monday 15Aug2016 (Happy birthday to Rocket)

Monday, Dancer arrived at 12 noon right as I finished up work.  We headed out to the Aquarium soon after to enjoy the afternoon. 

The kiddos on the  levee.

Snake necked turtle.  I think if I ever came across one of these in the wild, I would be screaming.

Both Dancer and Falco were game to touch the wildlife.  As usually, Rocket wanted nothing to do with touching the wildlife.

The newest exhibit- SEAHORSES!! 

this is a dragon seahorse.  I could not use flash photography in this area- but it really looks like a miniature dragon or a baby loch ness monster.

sea horse- I am happy.  they are soooooooo cute

a new octopus.  the one that here last year must have died (it was old last year when we came to visit). this one is much more active.

stingrays- also my favorite

none of the kiddos are taller than the alligator's tale.  It is interesting that this chart shows Rocket at 5 feet, but another chart later in the aquarium shows him under 5 feet.

in the jaws of the alligator. 

the otters were out today- they bring them out one at a time as they are introducing the otters to each other.  both are new to the aquarium and there might be otter babies in the future

Tortuga!! 

See, Rocket is significantly shorter than 5 feet on this chart.

Dancer touching the sharks.  I like Dancer, I think she will be OK while she is with us.

 

OK- that's about it for today.  I might have to see what photos Falco has to see if he has some good ones of our adventures this week.

 

Love and hugs,

Deb

Downtown- Wednesday, 17Aug2016

this post is going to be reverse order from how we actually spent our day.  Also, it is out of chronological order as I will post Tuesday's activities later today.

 

 

Yesterday, I took Falco, Rocket and Dancer downtown.  Dancer will be staying with us while her host family is in Thailand on vacation, so this is a good way for her to start getting to know us.  yesterday was very hot and humid.  I really should have thought about doing something else, but both my boys will be starting weekend sports soon and getting out to see the city will not be easy.

 

We ended our adventure with some late lunch.  Here are Falco and Dancer trying some of our local specialty food for the first time.  Both of them liked it, so they got another item to have at lunch instead of a baked potato or salad- the non specialty items on the menu.

We spent some time at Smale park.  Falco enjoyed this area- he was a typical big brother and tried to scare Rocket.  I think Rocket is getting the picture that a brother can be fun but also not so fun at times.  They were fine together and I don't have any worries about them for the rest of the year.  I just think Rocket is going to see that his 'big brother" is just like his friend's big brothers.

Dancer liked this area too.

me and the bridge.  I like this angle. 

exercising with the city behind them. 

the kiddos and the bridge.  Even though the sky looks like it might rain, there was no rain while we were downtown in the afternoon.  Now, in the morning it poured and I though we would have to cancel our outing.  We got over 1.5 inches of rain in under an hour.

We also went to the carousel.  Because it was the first day of school in the city, the park and the carousel were empty.  I got to ride my favorite horse- finally.  Though I did have to kick Rocket off it.  He knew I wanted to ride it and he deliberately got on it.  Silly boy.

Me on the horse.

Rocket rode a second time and picked the corvette.  he was the only one on the carousel.

Dancer picked a great tiger to ride.

Falco choose the horse in lederhosen (of course).

Some pictures from Tuesday evening- Falco talking about scouting in Austria to the scouts in rocket's troop.

We also went to a local market/superstore that specializes in foods from around the world.  This is what we brought home- some plums, nectarines, bananas, tomatoes and cucumbers, along with a bunch of chocolate from Austria and Germany.

The Ritter Sport display- the most I have seen outside of my trip to Berlin in 2014.  I know where we will be shopping again.

 

Pictures from the aquarium are coming later this evening.  Falco and I are going up to the high school today to schedule his classes.  This ought to be a fun time since the freshman (9th graders) are in school today and I will want to walk Falco through the building with his schedule so he knows where to go.

 

More to come.

 

Love and hugs,

Deb

Rocket's 11th birthday

Friday, I took the boys and some friends over to the Y for some swimming.  Since none of the boys had been at this Y in a number of years, they all needed swim tests- including Falco.

Here we have D already done, his little brother P completing the 25 yard/meter swim, and Falco ready to go on the other side.

Rocket is off changing into his swim stuff.

Falco coming into the wall.

After the 25 meter swim, they have to tread water for 60 seconds. 

Of course, they could choose not to do the swim test, but then they will be marked with a red band and I would have to stay in arms length of them in the shallow end of the pool.  None of them wanted that, so they took the swim test to get a green band so they could be anywhere in pool and I could be another area.

This is rocket taking his test.

We stayed at the pool for 3 hours, playing and swimming.  it was sooooooooo nice.  I think we need to go to this pool more often.

Sunday, we had the family birthday party for Rocket.  He wanted fried chicken, mash potatoes and corn for his meal.  He really wanted me to buy KFC chicken, but that was not happening.  So the boys and I fried chicken.  this is 2nd or 3rd time I attempted to fry chicken.  It worked this time.  I had expert helpers in Falco and Rocket.

After dinner, we had presents for him while we let our food digest. 

Rocket received an Austrian futbol jersey from Falco. 

An X shaped rubiks cube from Auntie Lulu and Uncle Darrell

the game of RISK from me and some cash from Mam.

We had cake later.  Rocket says he does not like cake now, so I think I will need to do ice cream sundaes for him from now on. Or maybe ice creams cakes?????

Happy birthday to my little man

"Happy birthday to me"

So happy

Even Pablo got some treats- he got a frozen dog treat

 

Love and hugs,

Deb