A walk in the autumn woods

 

Typical BB-Lucie dynamic

 

Short trip to Louisiana

Lucie and I made a short trip to Louisiana to say bye to Papa-T.  Here are a couple of old pictures I dug up from the blog.  He was always so sweet to my girls and it always amazed me how quickly my kids became comfortable when around him (even when they hadn't seen him in a very long time).  When I find my box of old pictures, I'll post some additional pics of Papa-T.

Though bittersweet, the trip enabled Lucie to get some 1-on-1 time with Gran and Papa, which she manipulated masterfully into several "grocery shopping trips" with Gran (see below) and many hugs and kissess.

Here's a video of Lucie in the airport on the return trip - giving you a glimpse of the silliness we have to deal with on a daily basis.

First day of 2nd and 6th grades

***Note the Jackets.  It was in the 50s this morning.

Maggie also got braces on Tuesday!

 

A few recent videos

Although these are a couple of months old now, I took a couple of videos of Lucie dribbling the soccer ball.  She is actually pretty coordinated for a 3 year old.

BB is now much better on her bike, and she's even willing to risk life and limb to try and pull off a few tricks.

Lucie does a lot of this around the house.

Finally, BB just had her 7th birthday.  We celebrated with rainbow cake and friends.  As you can see in the video, Lucie just couldn't wait to get to the cake, so she quickly ushered us into the birthday song.

Camping trip to Bon Echo park in Ontario

Me and the older two girls took a 3-day trip to Bon Echo park in Ontario.  It can get get kind of buggy this time of year, so we didn't bring Lucie along.  The mosquitos were bad in places, but nothing that a little Deep Woods Off (or anyone whose hunted during teal season on the Gulf Coast) couldn't handle.

The park surrounds Mazinaw Lake (the second deepest lake in Ontario).  There are actually quite a few Algonquin petroglyphs on the mountains that go into the lake, but you can only see them by canoe, and we were unable to rent canoes due to COVID-19.

Nevertheless, the water was refreshing, so we swam quite a bit.

The chipmunks at Bon Echo were also very friendly.

The girls used the fallen timber to practice their balancing skills.

Maggie was a little more daring.

Fallen logs also present a good opportunity to practice your jump-kicks.

The girls braved the mosquitos long enough to go for a few nice hikes around some of the many lakes in the park.

Maggie also crafted this colorful bouquet out of the wild flowers.

And of course, dad found time to enjoy some scotch by the camp fire.

Lucie in the crab apple tree

Playing

Playing at the park

Playing with fire

Playing with bugs

Maggie training Lucie to act like a dog

Bea Skating Videos

I apologize for being extremely derelict with my blog posting.

Bea has been continuing with her ice skating and has improved quite a bit.  She was selected for the "development team," which allows her to get more direct training at a more advanced pace.  She's the one in the pink pants and purple jacket in the following videos.  All the other girls are wearing their red "development team" sweaters.  BB has her own red sweater, but she insists on being different.

Bea was also practicing on a routine once a week for a competition, but the practices and competition were cancelled when the coronavirus outbreak occurred.

Overall, she had a great season, and is looking forward to skating again next year.

More X-mas pictures and videos

Video of BB catching a catfish.

Here's Maggie piloting the tractor.

Here's Lucie (recklessly) piloting her kiddy bike.

Maggie on the Beach in Corpus Christi.

Lucie with Buckee!

Sailing on Corpus Christi Bay

Kids being cute.