Holly’s Biography of Annie Oakley

Holly’s Biography of Annie Oakley. Holly’s big school project recently was to read a biography of a famous American and prepare an oral presentation where she dressed as her subject. She chose Annie Oakley and she did a fantastic job. She was obviously very well prepared and spoke at length on Annie’s life without having to consult her notes.  Kudos to Holly’s Nannie, Aunt Debbie, and Mom for helping make sure she looked the part. After Andrew’s Meriwether Lewis costume, and now this, I think they could enjoy careers as Hollywood costumer designers.

Official Group Photo

Official Group Photo. The official Class of ’83 20-Year Reunion group photo arrived in the mail today and I have added it to the reunion photo gallery. I also have a high resolution version suitable for printing or just zooming in. Click here for the 600dpi, 2MB version.

20-Year High School Reunion

20-Year High School Reunion. Though I took an embarrassingly small number of photos at the June 21st reunion, I have finally put together a web photo album. Click here to check it out.

Andrew’s Wax Museum

Andrew’s Wax Museum. This happened way back on May 15th, but I have finally got the newspaper article scanned in and the new web gallery software working, so here you go:

Andrew’s 5th grade class (and the 6th grade class) participated in a huge project in which they wrote research papers, prepared a museum exhibit, and finally dressed and performed as a historical figure they admired. It was very impressive and it was easy to see that all the students had put tons of work into it. The kids would stand still as statues (WAX statues) until a patron walked up and touched them. At that point they would “come to life” and give a summary of their life and accomplishments, possibly with a little dramatic acting thrown in.

This was a large enough event that it was written up in the Oak Cliff Tribune. Click here or on the image at the left to see a color photo gallery of the 5th grade kids in character.

Amazing New Phenomenon

Andrew’s Sleepover Birthday Party

Andrew’s Sleepover Birthday Party. For Andrew’s 11th birthday party, he wanted to have a sleepover with some friends from school so they could play video games, watch movies, and basically goof off. The boys had tons of fun and Michelle and I were worn to a frazzle. Having 5 computers networked for Motocross Madness 2 was the hit of the evening. The boys would’ve chased each other around on motorcycles all night if we hadn’t dragged them off the PCs. To see a small gallery of photos from the night, visit Andrew’s page at www.acesbase.com/birthday2003.

“Spring Musical” at the Kids’ School

“Spring Musical” at the Kids’ School. Both kids worked hard memorizing their songs and hand-motions. Andrew even had a small solo and was the standout voice of the show (in my personal opinion). We got the still-shot camera out a little late, but there is a photo gallery of what we did get. We may even put a video clip of Andrew’s solo on here if he authorizes it. New Bluebonnet Photos Added. On the way home from the musical, we stopped on the side of the road to take a few more Bluebonnet shots right before sunset. Click here to see them.

Andrew at the mic for his solo.

Texas Bluebonnet Photos

Texas Bluebonnet Photos. After an aborted attempt yesterday (forgotten memory card for the camera) we went over to Mountain View College this evening and took some photos among the bluebonnets. Click here to see a few of the shots.

Female Boomerang Phenomenon

Female Boomerang Phenomenon. Check out Boomsmith.com for a new article telling of Holly’s latest boomerang exploits. She’s really getting good! OK, there’s a pretty good story about Andrew, too, but Holly really was the star of the day.

Another Whack to the Head

Another Whack to the Head. Michelle called me up Saturday afternoon and said in a none-too-enthusiastic voice, “I’ll give you two guesses where I am.” I missed my first two guesses, but when she hinted that we had just spent some time there in December, my heart sank and I knew she was at the emergency room. She said it was Holly this time, but she quickly assured me that it wasn’t nearly as bad an injury this time. Her hope was that instead of stitches, the wound could be closed with glue.

It turns out Holly had been hit in the head with a putter. She was at a birthday party at a miniature golf course, and apparently one of the girls attempted a non-minigolf style tee-off, swinging her putter like a golf club. Holly got hit  pretty much in the middle of her forehead, and luckily it really wasn’t as bad as Andrew’s horrific wound. After triage and a several-hour wait at the emergency room, it was determined that glue could indeed be used instead of stitches. Strangely, they said to leave the bandage on until it fell off. Now I thought that a wound should be allowed to “breath” some, so leaving the bandage on seemed odd. And I don’t know if that was really a contributing factor or not, but unfortunately, by the time she went back to see the doctor a few days later, the wound had become infected. That is likely to make the scarring worse than it might otherwise have been. We’ll just have to wait and see.

And for all you morbidly curious folks who want to see pictures: Sorry. There’s really nothing to see since there’s always been a bandage on it when she’s been around a camera. The original wound wasn’t spectacular enough that a plastic surgeon would want it for his “memories” book like Andrew’s was. You can see in the boomerang shot above exactly where and how large the injury is, but what you’re really seeing is the bandage.

<Insert Child Protective Services joke here.>