The Corrys: Lone Star Edition

Just of few of my favorites

We had family pictures taken a few weeks back. Here are a few of my favorites:

(I'd do more but they take a long time to download).

Jason was working from home and we were heading out to the car to take the kids to school. Jason started laughing and told us to come look. In our laundry room (we have to pass through it to get to the garage) was a pile of sheets that I was in the process of doing. This is what we saw:

Apparently, Hugo was sniffing around the laundry and got caught in the sheets.

Also for you enjoyment, Hugo likes to chew the yellow fluff off tennis balls. He doesn't always realize he has something dangling from his lips.

Do you think Hugo needs a hair cut? He has quite the hairy chest don't you think?

Josh's final concert

Josh always enjoyed his choir back in 5th and 6th grade. He got a lot of pressure from friends and his old choir teacher to take choir in 7th grade. Unfortunately, he hasn't had a very good experience with this class. According to Josh, most of the boys just goof around all day (imagine that, 7th grade boys goofing off, hmm :). So Josh decided he was done with choir. So next year, he got accepted into an art class for that you actually have to have the teacher accept you into. He had to show her many of his drawings for her to let him in. He is excited to do art rather than choir.

His final concert was last week. All the boys had to dress up 50s style. They even did a bit of choreography (Josh wasn't too thrilled by this). They sang Jailhouse Rock, Ruby Baby, Poison Ivy and one other song that I can't pronounce. I thought it was really good and I like seeing the boys dance :).

His good friend Jake, is next to him on his right.

finishing up the year

Today was the kids' last day of school. Both kids did really well this year. They had a lot of fun with sports, music, and other school related activities. At the middle school level the kids start to be rewarded for their hard work in school. Josh had a few rewards for his hard work.

First, he was inducted into the National Junior Honor Society. We'll see what this entails, but Josh was excited to be accepted. I tried to get pictures of him but the setting on my camera wasn't set right and honestly, I just can't get good indoor pictures with my camera. So they are all blurry, oh well.

We didn't realize how serious the ceremony was until we got to the school and saw everyone dressed up. We had to run home and have Josh change into church clothes. He went screaming in right as it was starting. They even had a photographer all set up in the hall for kids to have their pictures taken. Funny if you ask me.

Josh also was honored in a ceremony at school for having a 95 percentile or better in all of his core classes. He is taking all Pre AP courses that are more advanced than regular classes, so that was a nice award for him.

Finally, each teacher in the school gets to chose one student out of all their classes to honor at an awards assembly. Out of all the Pre AP Texas History students in her classes, Ms. Winkley (J's teacher), chose Josh to receive her award. We figured she has over 100 students in her classes, so this was very nice of her to chose Josh. At the awards assembly, this is what was said about Josh: "Ms. Winkley's history award goes to a student who always exhibits the highest work ethic in everything he does. He is consistently prepared for class and takes great pride in his grades. He is an excellent role model who is funny and always smiling".

Ms. Winkley giving Josh the award

principals and other important people

Nice work Josh

End of the year update - soccer

Breanna's soccer season ended about a week ago. This spring season has been her team's best. They went undefeated 10-0. The girls really gelled this season and they worked together well. In the fall we got about 8 new girls from another team and it wasn't going very well. Four of the girls quit for the spring season and that made all the difference. The girls that really wanted to be playing soccer stayed on the team and so they worked hard and it worked out well for them.

Bree played striker all season, which is up front and center on the offense. I always love watching her play because she is so determined out there. She gets double and triple teamed a lot but doesn't back down. She is a hustler.

The girls played in a tournament at the end of the season and it was a repeat of last year. They played so well on Friday and Saturday that they made it into the finals on Sunday. Bree of course didn't get to play on Sunday (and another new girl is also LDS and didn't play either). A third girl was going to Six Flags that day so we only had one sub for the game.

The team played their hearts out but lost 0-1. It was a bummer and Bree took it really hard. She really wanted to play and she felt that if she were there maybe they would have won. We'll never know, but I do know that we did what is right. It is hard, very hard, but it was right. Hopefully Bree can see that one day.

Our coach is awesome. He petitioned the commissioner to stop having the final games on Sundays. The commissioner doesn't let his kids play on Sunday either, but the board ultimately decided the schedule. They said maybe next year they'll think about it. The commissioner said he would do his best at not scheduling our team for Sunday games (Bree had a couple this season, but one was rescheduled for a weekday).

I talked to our coach and told him we were sorry we couldn't be there but we felt strongly about not playing. He told me that he respects us for our conviction and would be disappointed in us if we went against our beliefs just for soccer. He is a very good man.

For every game, Breanna always wears her hair in what the girls call her "octopi". Her octopi are two ponytails which flip up and kind of resemble octopuses or octopi (i'm not sure what the plural is). That is why her hair always looks a bit fly away. It is cute though and she has worn this hairdo for years now.

The girls had a soccer party at the end of the season. The coach handed out trophies to each of the girls and said nice things about each of them. He always leaves Breanna for the last and he always has such nice things to say about her. He said she is the best athlete he has ever coached and that she is such a leader on her team (among other things). I always feel a bit uncomfortable when he praises her but she sure eats it up.

Bree is at the age that she travels around to other soccer associations in the area to compete. She plays on the Keller soccer association. Out of all the Keller teams ages 10-18, boys and girls, Bree's team was the only one that got a 1st place trophy. Two teams in the league got 2nd place trophies. I thought that was pretty cool.

I just thought this was a funny picture of her playing volleyball.

End of year update- tennis

So I forgot to publish anything about Josh's tennis season this year. He had a great season and more importantly he had fun. He was the only 7th grader in the top ten in his school. He was also voted to be the 7th grade boys captain which was pretty exciting for him. He only played in 5 matches this season but he played hard. He won three of the five matches and came really close in the other two. It was definitely a learning experience for him.

The thing I noticed most about Josh's tennis is his serve becoming so much harder, faster and accurate. As he gets stronger I think his he we will see even more improvements.

I was very impressed with the team. They were so supportive of each other and really cheered each other on. These kids were very well behaved and were nice to everyone. Josh really did well in this atmosphere.

We'll see what happens next year since all the really great players are going on to high school.

Number 14!!

We celebrated Josh's 14th birthday a couple of weeks ago. He is growing up so quickly. I'm not sure where the time has gone, but I sure love that kid. He is such a great young man and I love having him around. I just wish time wouldn't go so fast. Josh got books (surprise), and a 3DS. He also bought some legos (surprise) and video games (surprise) with grandparent money.

Josh is having an omelet and smoothie breakfast before school.

We took Josh and a few of his friends to the movie "Avengers". The boys had a good time.

Doing the Tebow.

dumb yet entertaining

I'm sure you've all seen videos where dogs are chasing laser dots on the walls and they are pretty funny. Well it's true. Dogs aren't the smartest things alive but they seem to entertain my children well. Josh and Bree love to tease the dogs with the laser pointer. The dogs never seem to tire from trying to get the dot. As a matter of fact, Hugo will stare at the wall where the dot had been for a long time after the kids put the laser away. I guess he is hoping that it will appear magically.

waiting for it

got it, almost anyway

fighting for the dot

waiting for the dot to return (he stared at the wall forever)

How many ways can a 10 year old girl wear a mustache?

Jason and I went to a cinco de mayo party one night and came home with a few costume mustaches for our beautiful daughter Breanna. She wears them well don't you think?

A pirate sporting a Horseshoe mustache, arrrggg.

A goatee (I actually looked this up and a real goatee is only on the chin, not around the mouth).

the Hollywoodian or maybe the Balboa

The monobrow. This reminds me of a cartoon gal who is in love with a boy who's head is shaped like a football (I can't remember the name of the cartoon.