Damon's first birthday

We held the festivities for Damon's birthday a little late because on his actual birthday he was getting on a plane to visit Grandma Brown and his cousins in that area for a week. Hopefully Amber will blog about that.

His "party" was very low-key since he had split opening presents between his actual birthday, the trip, and now this. We sang happy birthday and let him make a mess with his cake.

It took him a while to get into it, but he eventually got the idea and did better than either of his sisters did with their first cake.

After the cake he got to rip into a few presents. He was a little slow in getting the paper off, but his sisters were more than willing to help him out.

One present in particular really tickled his funny bone.



He's fully converted to walking now, loves to laugh and smile, and of course, loves to get into everything. It's fun to have a little boy around to play with. Happy birthday Damon!

Olivia's 5th birthday

It's hard to believe, but our Olivia is 5 years old. Her birthday was on Wednesday and she was very excited about getting presents. She talked about it for at least three weeks before, telling us we needed to go to the store so we could buy her presents, etc.

She got necklaces and hairbows, lots of Mickey/Minnie stuff, a real (princess) camera, an umbrella, puzzles and books, some clothes, and this backpack and lunchbox set from Grandma Roper for school this fall.

And of course she gave thank you hugs.

On Friday she had a birthday party with her friends from preschool and from our street and her cousin Aaron. I missed the Mickey and Minnie beanbag toss, but got home in time to catch the tail end of the "Mickey shorts" sack race (red burlap sacks with white buttons) and be the official Mickey head pinata holder.

Olivia was not at all disappointed to have to open some more presents either, and got a few more toys and dolls to add to her collection.

It was a good party and Olivia loved every minute of it. She's growing up fast, but it's fun to see her progress and become such a wonderful little person.

Pots and Pans

Amber's birthday present finally arrived. We unpacked several very large boxes yesterday to find all of this.

She's still trying to decide on an inaugural meal, but in the meantime, the kids are having fun with the boxes.

San Jacinto Festival

A couple weeks ago we went to the San Jacinto Day Festival and Battle Reenactment, which commemorates and reenacts the Battle of San Jacinto, which was the decisive victory resulting in Texas independence from Mexico. We'd been to the monument before to see the lovely views of the oil refineries in the Port of Houston, but never for the festival.

They had lots of period-appropriate booths set up and we had fun watching flamenco dancers, learning about spinning wheels, and riding the train.

Before the battle we were able to visit the camps of each army, where we got to meet Santa Ana himself, see their cool outfits, and check out some of their hardware.

The day started off cloudy and a little chilly, but by the time the battle started we were baking in the sun and all of us got at least a little burned. The reenactment was not as exciting as I was hoping (the battle itself was very short, apparently), but we got some fun cannon fire, and an exciting charge at the end.

We were worn-out by the time we went home, but had a fun time. Remember the Alamo!

Damon walking

As a follow up to my last post, today Damon really started walking. Yesterday he was only taking a few steps at a time, today he just decided he could walk and was making trips across the room and back. He seemed very pleased with himself.