Ready for Battle

This is Daniel ready for a Nerf gun battle with his friends.  If you're counting, that's 5 visible guns, 2 ammo clips and pockets with more bullets. I'm not sure who won, but he said, "It was an AWESOME time!!"

It's Derby Time!

The Pinewood Derby.  It's a big deal and right of passage for any cub scout and their dad.  Daniel's own grandfather's both look fondly back at making cars for them self or their son.

This is year two of Derby car making for Brian and Daniel.  Last year's car was "fancy", a land speeder from Star Wars that made it to the finals of the race.  It was definitely a labor of love for the two of them.

Star Wars Land Speeder Derby Car

This year, with time shortened (don't ask, long story) they discussed many ideas before settling on a car that was sleeker in design, and therefore simpler to make.  An iPhone!

Daniel's iPhone Derby Car

They had a blast making it.  Again, Brian had Daniel do most of the sanding and labor so it was truly his car.  I helped a little with getting the Angry Birds picture stuck to the top of the car.  An old pair of ear buds completed the look necessary for a sleek black iPhone Pinewood Derby car.  

They did have a little trouble adding the wheels so the boys had an inkling the car wasn't going to be too fast.  It had drag on one wheel.  Daniel really didn't care.  He thought it looked awesome!  Off to the registration they went.  

We all turned out the next day for the race.  1... 2... 3... GO!

Oops, that's the iPhone car in the back of the pack

The car didn't perform well, but our boy was really happy with his cool looking car. We had one dad mention that his iPhone must be an older model, not the newest 4s, because of the lack of speed.  He said he had that problem with his own iPhone.  Daniel thought that was funny!  

Did I mention that this was evidently the year of the Angry Birds car?  Daniel had the only iPhone car, but many had the Angry Birds theme on them.  And of course, Star Wars was still very popular.  Daniel is already dreaming about what to make next year.  

Bugz Play Super Star

After weeks and weeks of practice for anyone who would sit still and watch, Daniel finally had his big night in the spotlight.  Both sets of grandparents joined us to watch Daniel shine on stage as a Safari Guide soloist in the 1st Grade Bugz Play.

He was so very cute!

Don't take my word for it - Watch for yourself!!!

(He starts out on the left)






I know I'm a little bit biased, but he was AWESOME!!!   Lots of people have approached me since his performance telling me how much they loved it!  Watching him just made me grin from ear to ear.  They boy just radiates happiness.

It was a really fun night.  We are so proud of our Bugz SuperStar!!!

Bugz Play Practice

Daniel is very excited to be a Safari Guide for the Fire Ants in the 1st Grade Bugz Play on April 7th.  (If I haven't mentioned it to you yet, mark your calendar!)

He wanted to show Gigi and Aunt Flora while we were visiting for Spring Break since they can't come see it in a few weeks. We heard and saw him practice many many times over the weekend. So much so, that Birdie has learned it also.  Here is a video I took of him at Gigi's house practicing his part with Birdie.

We've always known he is quite the performer.  He's going to shine next month in Bugz.

Cub Scouts Food Drive

This morning Daniel and I headed to another section of the neighborhood with his cub scout den to collect food for their canned food drive.  In cooperation with the Souper Bowl of Caring, our local Cub Scout Pack sent the boys out last weekend to blanket our neighborhood with flyers.  Today, we went to pick up any food left on porches for us.  With the recent crazy cold weather and cancelled school, most people didn't seem to remember about the canned food drive.  Thankfully, one of the parents in our group suggested letting the boys knock on doors to directly ask for food donations.  

It was a great idea because of the doors that were opened, 99% of them gave at least 1 can with most giving several.  We even had quite a few who put together a bag of items for the boys. The scouts loved running up and down the streets knocking (banging) on doors and throwing cans in the back of a dad's pick up truck.  

All in all, even the cold weather (30's) couldn't stop these boys from having a great time.  Daniel's den donated more than 250 lbs of food to the Sacred Heart Food Pantry this morning.

Wanna Laugh?

Wanna laugh?  Check out my son dancing while at the ranch after Christmas!  Who knew he was interested in break dancing?



The best has to be the booty shake at the end.  And to a Miley Cyrus song to boot.

Gotta love what happens when we're sitting around at the ranch with nothing to do.

Joke Loving Boy

Last Saturday at Daniel's Cub Scout Pack meeting, it was his Den's turn to tell jokes.  This is right up Daniel's alley.  He couldn't seem to find his joke book (I probably "accidentally" left it at the ranch after hearing constant jokes), so we went online to find one for him.

Just a little background - When another Den told their jokes at the last Pack meeting, Daniel had his hand up every time ready to answer the jokes.  Even jumping up and down saying, "ooh, ooh, I know!" He was called on several times, but never quite had the right answer even though he was very confident in his response.  He LOVES jokes.

So after going through what seemed like a hundred jokes, he chose one and Brian worked with him on how to say it clearly.  When it was time for his Den, don't you know Daniel was the first volunteer.  I almost didn't get the camera ready in time.

Here he is...






Oh, and that's a decorated Christmas sugar cookie all over his hands and mouth in case you were wondering.

A Great Birthday Present

Daniel got an awesome birthday present from Grandmommy & Granddaddy - JENGA.  The kids brought it with us to SBR after Thanksgiving and Daniel and Daddy spent a lot of time playing each other with "help" from Papa.  

Watching the two of them play was quite entertaining for the rest of us.

Daddy choosing his block while Daniel tries to blow it over

Papa giving Daniel advice

Brian sure was surprised he got that block out

Papa and Daniel played a game before breakfast the next morning

Did I mention that Papa was not above shaking the table to win?

Jenga was a great game.  A perfect Birthday present!

Daniel has Fifth's Disease

Daniel woke up the morning of his birthday party looking like this!

We weren't sure what it was, but it looked like some sort of allergic reaction so we gave him an antihistamine.  The swelling seemed to go down, so we continued with his birthday party.  As the kids were all leaving, one of moms told me it looked like he had Fifth's Disease.  I wasn't really sure what that was, so I hit the internet to check it out.  Says it starts with generic cold/flu like symptoms and then ends with a lace like red rash beginning on the face and spreading over their boy.  I kept him home from school the next day and visited the Dr. office.  Dr. D was on vacation for Thanksgiving, but her sub took one look at him and said it was Fifth's.  

He headed back to school Tuesday proudly showing his rash to everyone.  It was everywhere.  Back of his neck, arms, chest, legs...  His teacher said it was one of the worst she'd seen. Eating lunch at school for Daniel's birthday that day I noticed many of the kids at the table with the same rash.  Evidently it hit the 1st grade hard.  That's easy to believe since they are contagious until the rash breaks out, but before that point, you don't even know they have it.  

Thankfully, you are only supposed to get it once and his rash went away quickly.  I'm not sure the girls have ever had it, but so far no rash for them.

Happy 7th Birthday Daniel!!

It's Thanksgiving, but it is also Daniel's 7th Birthday!   

The boy was really excited to start the day with candles in his huge cinnamon roll for breakfast.

He had a great day, spending time with lots of family today.  All week, he had been telling people that his birthday was Thanksgiving.  Taking great pride in this not so frequent occurrence.  

Daniel's Grandmommy made a wonderful cake for Daniel's birthday party last weekend and outdid herself again by making a second cake for today.  It was a devil's food chocolate cake with fudge icing.  Wow!

He picked out a ribbon saying, "Birthday Boy"at the store last week and put it on first thing this morning.  He wore it all day so everyone would remember it was his birthday.  

Daniel showing Granny Merr his ribbon today

I know many people wouldn't like having their birthday on a holiday, but Daniel really seemed to love it. He felt very special.

Nana helping Daniel read his birthday card

    He opened presents from his grandparents even before the turkey was out of the oven this afternoon.  Then again he opened more after cake, this time from Aunt Flora and Nana & Papa.

What a special boy.  Check back at pictures of him through the years here.

Fall Soccer for Daniel

Daniel Fall 2010 Soccer

Team Okeke - U7 & U8 Boys

Boys Weekend at SBR

Daniel and Brian went to the Ranch for a boys weekend after the soccer game last weekend.  They stopped at the grocery store on the way and bought steaks.  Brian had an idea to cook the steak and onions over the open fire.

That's a lot of steak for just the two of them. 

 Wasn't this an ingenious idea for cooking steak over the open fire?  That's the top of the broil pan from the kitchen.

Would you believe that Daniel ate this whole plate of food for dinner?

 Sunday they spent their time at the big tank fishing.

Daniel & his fish

Toothless Wonder

We now have another Toothless Wonder in our house....

And just wait, he's got another tooth that's really loose.  I'm not sure how he is going to eat in another week or two.

Growing Boy

My growing boy lost one of his front teeth this week.  

I'm not ready for him to get his big front teeth.  He won't look like my little boy any longer.  But he sure is proud of that big gap in his smile.

A New School Year

The end of summer came upon us so very fast, but we were all about ready for school to begin again.  

Ashley is excited to be a 3rd grader (can you believe it?) and managed to get two of her good friends in her class once again.  She has already come home telling us she LOVES her new teacher.  

Daniel was excited to no longer be a kindergator, but a "big kid" in 1st grade. He only knows one boy in his class, but knowing my son, he will make lots of new friends very quickly

Daniel was insistent he did not want to be walked in on the first day, but Ashley wanted to have us go in with her.  The plan was that Brian would drop them off in the carpool lane, since they were no longer kindergartners.  After they left, I once again hosted several mom friends over for a little back to school celebration, and Laurie was happy to have playmates for the morning. I was extremely surprised when several of my friends told me they saw Brian at school that morning.  I thought they must have meant in carpool, but no, they saw him in the school.  When I picked the kids up (carpool took an HOUR that first day), Daniel explained that Daddy really wanted to walk them in, so Daniel let him.  So very sweet.  Brian got a big kick out of taking them in and meeting their teachers.  

The first day was great, though I wish I'd taken an "After" picture when they got home. Much different than this "Before" picture.  Day 2 after school was a little rougher as the exhaustion set in.  But the rest of the week went smoothly.  They love their new classes, teachers and friends.  We're off to a great school year.

Candy Sushi

On Friday, Daniel and I tried our hand at rolling sushi but instead of sea weed paper and rice, we used fruit roll ups and rice krispies.  We found the recipe for Candy Sushi in our "Cooking Rocks" cookbook by Rachel Ray and just had to try it.  

It was a pretty simple recipe - mix rice krispies with melted butter, spread over unrolled fruit rollup, place twizzler in the middle, then roll up and slice.  Sounds very easy, but in reality, it wasn't.  Have you tried unrolling a fruit roll up without ripping it?  It's tough!  And very amusing.  We had lots of laughs while trying to get fruit rollup out from under our fingernails and roll them out smooth.  Let's just admit now that Daniel got to eat his fair share of ones that got messed up.  

All in all, they turned out great. And even looked like real sushi.   Daniel managed to leave a few for his sisters and the Thiem girls who were over playing.  He was sure proud of making his very own sushi roll that even the girls loved.

Bloody Tooth

Daniel has had four wiggly teeth for a few weeks with one getting really loose.  Yesterday morning he decided he was done with it and decided to pull it out since it was barely hanging on anyway.  So, I closed my eyes while he twisted and pulled.  And there it was - a bloody tooth and a big bloody hole in his mouth.  Boy was he proud!

Did I mention this all happened while in the mini-van sitting in the parking lot for swim team practice?  Yep, he walked proudly into practice a few minutes later with a still partially bleeding hole.  Yuck!  I do think he managed to show it off to everyone there.

So that night, he told me he had to write the tooth fairy a note to accompany the tooth.  This is his note.

It reads, "Tooth Fairy can you bring me lots of money PLEEEESE."  Yep, that's my son.  And no, the tooth fairy did not give him a bonus for the extra cute note.  She left her usual deposit of 8 quarters.  I think she was concerned that if she rewarded him he would work to pull out his other 3 loose teeth as soon as possible.

I have to post this picture of Daniel and the tooth also because of Ashley's face in the background.  She was totally grossed out by the whole thing.

3 teeth out for Daniel - a whole lot more to go.

KinderGators at the Zoo

Daniel had his first school field trip to the Houston Zoo.  In addition to his first field trip, it was also his first time on a big yellow school bus! 

Another mom and I were chaperones of 5 BOYS!  With 5 boys, our group was in constant motion, only stopping long enough at each animal for conversations about animal poop and to check the map.  Speaking of the map, Daniel was so excited to finally use the Houston Zoo iPhone app I had downloaded on my phone a few weeks ago.  With videos, animal information and an integrated map, he loved using it.

We could not have asked for better weather for a day at the zoo.  They were great kids, but wow, what energy! It was a long, fun day. 

This is how Daniel fixed his own hair for his soccer game today. 

It’s certainly a “look”!

Great Grades Deserve Sushi!

Because the kids got GREAT report cards this nine weeks, Brian promised them dinner out.  Surprise, Surprise, Ashley and Daniel agreed on Japeniero's, a Sushi Bistro we all love.  Even though Ashley and Birdie don't like sushi, they LOVE the "Baby Roll" on the kid's menu.  It is a chicken nugget wrapped in rice and seaweed - like sushi.  

Daniel, on the other hand, will eat his weight in sushi.  His favorites include California roll and Mount Fuji. 

Ashley requested sitting outside on the patio as part of our dinner.  Thankfully, the weather was gorgeous. 

Ashley and I got the afternoon started by shopping together for her First Communion dress.  We had a great time walking the mall together from store to store.  After trying on several, Ashley fell in love with the "princess" style dress she tried on first. We bought it, a purse and shoes.  We ran out of time to find her a headpiece for her veil, but we still have a couple of weeks to get it done.  If we'd had more time, she wanted me to try on a colorful long prom dress for fun!  I was game, I mean, how often do you get to dress up for your daughter in purple sequins and satin?

We met up with Brian and the other kids on the patio of Japaniero's for tasty sushi and great weather.  Great food, great conversation for great grades.  What a night.  We are very proud of our scholars!