Thomas's Real Birthday

The Longhorn's game was almost a month before his birthday, so we celebrated again with presents, food and cake at Grammy and Papa's house.





The Longhorn theme continued with his presents. But the thing he was looking forward to most was this...an electric guitar! Thomas had one lesson the week before his birthday, and than we decided to get him a guitar for his birthday (which he has wanted since he was 4)

He LOVED the guitar and even played in the winter recital two months later with his buddy William...which you can check out here





That is a "10" you are looking at...an edible 10 that he ate before heading off to school on his 10th birthday. This is a tradition we started many years ago and a fun way to start a birthday...but I can't believe he is 10!

Hook Em!

So all Thomas wanted for his birthday was to go see a Longhorn football game. Steve and I thought that sounded like fun so we started looking for tickets. Turns out, Steve had a connection through Verizon with the Longhorn Network. Score!! So off we went to see Texas play Rice.

Here is our day, in pictures...


In the car on the way to Austin, getting excited...it was a quick drive. We made it in a little over 3 hours!



First stop, The University Co-op to load up on Texas gear. Ours was looking a little bit old and warn.

This Bevo in the back lot is a favorite!



Everywhere he looked was wall to wall Longhorn branded stuff. Thomas was in heaven. We got new shirts, hats, a lunch box, a couple of bracelets and even some Longhorn bottled water in the shape of the UT tower. You have to admit, that is pretty cool!




After a long and crowded time at the CO-Op we were running a little bit behind. We hit the road looking for parking. It took us a LONG time to find a spot and it was easily a mile away from the stadium. Luckily all over Austin you can find these "rickshaws" that took us from our car to the stadium.





We made it just in time to get our dinner and some drinks provided by The Longhorn Network...



...And some balloon "Bevo antlers" for Charles. Luckily for the people around us these popped before we even got in our seat.



We finally made it up to our seats; WAY up to our seats. It was nice and breezy at the top, and what a view we had.




Charles had a blast too. I was worried he might get tired of the game around half time, but there was so much to see (Rice fans painted in blue behind us) and where else can you scream your head off and not get in trouble??



Thomas has been a huge Longhorn fan for quite a few years, but it was fun to actually show him all the traditions at the school...and amazing how little he really knew. Seeing Bevo, and Big Bertha and the Silver Spurs and Texas Wranglers all in person was great. He didn't even know the tower lit up orange when we won!! And all the "alternative" lyrics he learned to the fight song from the crowd...well that is tradition too I guess.



Our beloved Bevo on the Big Screen!



The halftime show was great! Joshua, the budding trombone player, liked seeing the big band out there. But this was my favorite part. Rice started things off with this little dig toward A&M for leaving the Big 12 to go to the SEC. Pretty funny!



We left the game a few minutes early to try to beat the mad rush (there were 101,000+ in attendance that night) and we hiked back to our car. We were exhausted but had so much fun. Thomas REALLY bleeds burnt orange now!

First day of School

Breakfast of champions!!





Picture by the Bluebonnet Bear..



Charles in his 2nd grade classroom



And Thomas in 4th, worried about being late



Joshua was still in bed...lucky him middle school starts an hour later than elementary school. I hope they have a great year!!

Charles' s (HOT) 7th Birthday

Charles turned 7 during the hottest summer in Dallas since 1980 when we were trying to figure out who shot JR. We all knowTexas is hot in the summer, ALWAYS. But 2011 was like living on the surface of the sun. In fact, here are a few interesting facts about summer 2011 in Dallas

•June 2011: 3rd hottest on record; 2/10 of a degree behind 1980
•July 2011: 3rd hottest average high on record
•July 2011 hottest average overnight lows on record: 86 degrees on July 26, August 3, and August 4: unprecedented
•These three overnight lows beat previous all time high minimum of 85 from Sep 1, 1939
•August 3rd temperature of 110 degrees highest since September 2000; ties for 7th hottest daily maximum on record
•As of August 5, 2011 pulls ahead of 1980 for hottest summer on record year-to-date by a tenth of a degree

Sooooo, what did we decide to do for Charles's August birthday? Got to SIX FLAGS.

Sounds crazy? (it was) Sounds hot? (it was, very). But, we had fun, stayed relatively cool in the misting fans and shade and enjoyed our free tickets that the boys earned for reading at school.

Sweaty boys ready to hit the rides!

We went to six flags early in August since Steve was assigned to New York for Verizon strike duty.  So when August 16 rolled around, we celebrated with cake and fun at Grammy and Papas house. Charles and his buddy James even spent the night!

The Mario cookie cake

Charles and James enjoying the pool, without big brothers around

And Grammy gave Charles this Zoku Popsicle maker that makes 3 Popsicles in 7 minutes!

This things is awesome...highly recommended!

We made popsicles for the rest of the summer...even breakfast Popsicles with yogurt and fruit. YUM!

Another great birthday, another year gone!

Winners!!

All of the Kall boys had very successful Baseball seasons this year, and both Thomas and Joshua brought home the City Champs Trophy. Charles lost in a heartbreaking semi-final game after only losing one game all season. Way to go boys and coach Steve!!



Joshua and Thomas played on the same night just a few fields away from each other. Joshua's game was over first...which he arrived late to due to his Spring band concert an hour earlier.


Celebration!!


We headed over to Thomas's game already in progress. They ended up with a big win...


And did some celebrating of their own!



This was Charles' first season to play baseball, and of course Steve was the coach. Charles loved it, and was quite a good little player.