School. The Great Harbinger of Boredom

As The Hives are so good to tell us:

They say our summer vacation has come to an end.  
And that we simply have no more holiday to spend.  
They say no more barefoot no playing around in the pool.  
They say now it's time for us to go back to school. . . 

In what could very well be the crappiest First Day of School a tween girl could possibly have, Alayna woke up this morning with a horrifically swollen left eye.  She had been swimming in my dad's pool Sunday night, and throughout Labor Day it slowly began to swell.  We were assuming it was an allergic reaction to something she had come into contact with in the water - a bug bite, a scratch that got chlorine in it, something - but reassured Alayna as she went to bed the night before school started that it would look a lot better in the morning.  Rest assured, she was devastated when she woke up to this. 

An hour or so after waking up, shortly before Kris took the girls to school, the swelling had gone down a little, but not by much.  As a result, Alayna refused to take a traditional First Day of School picture (who could blame her.)

Abby, sans swollen eye.

In her classroom, excited to start third grade.

After school, Kris texted me this picture - the swelling had gone down further throughout the day, but Alayna was still pretty self-conscious about it.

Nevertheless, Kris was able to get her to take a sorta-First Day of School picture at the end of the day (though Alayna insisted on wearing sunglasses.)

Whatever.  I hate the First Day of School.

- Brian

School's Out for Summer

(Not gonna lie, folks, I despise that song.)

Anyway, my Last Day (er, half-day, rather) of school was yesterday (thank God), but the girls were forced to stick it out a whole full day after I got out.  Suckers.  Since the Queen of Classroom Volunteers was away at work (sucker), Yours Truly was drafted into the obligatory parental role for the day.  Two classroom parties to 'volunteer' in, and the two parties couldn't have been any more different from one another.

Gymnastics.  Again.

The second grade outdoor 'picnic' had a parent volunteer-to-student ratio of about 1:2 - there was seriously nothing for me to do, so I just aimlessly followed Abby and her friends around the playground, trying not to look bored.  It sure as hell beat standing in the shade with the 40+ soccer moms and stay-at-home dads and small talk.

(I hate small talk.)

The fourth grade party, in stark contrast, was incredibly under-staffed, and as such Col. Hough had to roll up his sleeves and put back on his battle-worn teacher pants.  Already.

All in all, though, it wasn't too bad - just a little too soon for one who's been awaiting the coming of Summer like the Second Coming of Christ.

Smurf it out, folks. . .

Abby and a couple of her friends play in the 'Fairy's House,'  a small knoll in a tree on the edge of their playground.  Their imaginations seem to constantly roar in overdrive, which means that we haven't completely destroyed this generation with screens and handheld electronics. . .

BFF and resident fairy-ologist, Larkin, arrives on the scene. . .

Losing gas. 

There were so many parents on hand at the second grade 'picnic' that I didn't feel bad peacing out a little bit early.  I dropped off a van-load of crap to the Salvation Army (and may have poked around through their vinyl section while I was at it), then stopped off at home for lunch before turning around and heading back up to the school to lend my hand in Alayna's 4th grade 'party.' 

Alayna's default camera face.  Wearing a bit thin these days, not gonna lie.

Alayna happens to sit next to one of her close friends, Noah, in class.  Not sure if that was a good idea.

Rubix cubes = all the rage in the pre-teen demographic.

Starting things off right with heaping bowls of ice cream.  F*** it - school's out.

Following their sugar ingestion, the kids were ushered outside for an hour and a half of 'field games.'

Summer plans scavenger hunt ("Find a classmate who is traveling out of state this summer," "Find a classmate who likes eating Popsicles," etc.)

Rummaging through the 'woods' for colored items (part of yet another scavenger hunt - anything to keep them busy, really.)

For this activity, students paired up and took turns dropping M & Ms into ice cream waffle cones (one student dropping the M & Ms, one kid holding the waffle cone in their mouth while lying down below.)  I had to fill in as a partner here or there, and took quite a few pieces of candy to the face.  'Cause parenting.

Alayna teamed up with her friend, Christina (who will be coming to her birthday party later this week.)

Balloon toss.  I got the feeling that this afternoon of activities was planned this morning, and they were really grasping for straws towards the end of it.  Around 3pm, teachers just kicked all the kids out to the playground for the remainder of the day, so I went home.  Kris' friend Andrea picked up the girls from school, along with all the other kids belonging to Kris' Circle of Moms, for an End of the School Year Pool Party.

I neglected to go to this (a bunch of moms sitting around and clucking about PTO stuff while drinking margaritas?  No thanks), but Kris sent me this picture of Andrea's dog and Alayna becoming better acquainted.

And that's how the Houghs wrapped up the 2017-2018 School Year, America.

- Brian

A Spring Fling

Hey, America.

I get a lot of anxiety over all these trivial events my kids participate in through the community.  Whether it's a school play, a soccer game, a church program, etc. - I stress over getting a good seat, having the right lens on my camera, and whether or not I have enough battery on my phone to video record everything in the event I need to.

Now, the last couple times my kids have been in a musical at their school (a play, a concert, whatever the hell you call these things), I've arrived early in order to sit relatively close to the front of the assembled crowd in the gym.  I always find myself sitting in the second row, towards the middle of the aisle, which, as it is, is a pretty decent vantage point considering that the first row is always reserved for teachers and classroom aides.

At least it should be.

Here we have a great shot of the back of Jabba's head. . .

The bane of my existence are those people (see here) that waddle in late, and help themselves to an empty seat right in the very front row.  Frequently teachers are needed elsewhere and don't utilize their reserved seats, subsequently leaving a few empty seats, so these latecomers come in and plop themselves down DIRECTLY IN FRONT of those of us who were smart enough to arrive early and nab supposedly good seats.

I guess I was raised differently, but if I came in late to my kid's school thingy, and was forced to pick a seat in the very front row, I would NOT pick the seat directly in front of the guy holding an SLR and three different camera lenses.  Call me crazy, but that guy's there to take pictures.

Also, I'd be more careful about the food I eat - you gotta take care of yourself.

Anyway, here's my kid's stupid school thingy:

Alayna and her friend, Alaina.  The 3rd grade classrooms came into the gym to watch the 1st grade performance.  I had wanted to take a half-day for these concerts, but Abby's was at 10:30am, and Alayna's was at 2:30pm. . . which meant I was forced to take a full day off of work.

First Graders (Abby's in the front row, all the way to the right.)

Abby's BFFF (the extra 'F' stands for 'fairy,' so I'm told), Larkin, and Jackson, our neighbor from down the street.

After the concert, Kris and I ran a few errands before returning to the school for the Third Grade concert in the afternoon. . .

Warming up

Our seats were about the same as last time, except for this concert Alayna was at the opposite end of the stands, a few rows back.

Some genius decided it'd be a good idea to block Alayna and her two friends - both of whom are just about as short as Alayna is herself - with a bunch of monster-children that are nearly my height.  The result was that we got a pretty solid look at Alayna's forehead for the duration of the concert.  Which, as you can imagine, was pretty rewarding.  Definitely worth taking the time off of work.

Alayna and her crew, walking back to class, following the program.

Nice job, forehead.

- Brian

Pumpkins, Parents, and Princesses: Part I

Howdy, gang.

I don't know what the hell's been going on lately with our house and its apparent lack of caring in regards to all things 'Holiday.'  We're usually knee-deep in costumes and decorating by this point of the year, but so far we haven't so much as set foot inside a costume store.  I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that my parents - Dad and Cindy (also known by their stage names as 'Papa' and 'Nana') - are flying down to Orlando for a weekend of pre-Halloween festivities and Disney exploitation.  While in town, we're going to hit up Disney's Magic Kingdom and take the girls to the Bippity Boppity Boutique, so seeing how so much money is being spent on turning into them into princesses and everything, we figured they could just reuse the outfits for Trick or Treating later in the week.

Makes sense, right?  Of course it does.

Still, it feels weird this year - Halloween kinda just crept up on us real fast, and I don't feel ready for it.  Rest assured, this weekend is going to be chock-full of Halloween craziness, so stay tuned for a ridiculous amount of pictures from the Houghs.

With that being said, here's Batch One - illustrating how the Hough gals celebrated All Hallows Eve at Sunchild Academy.

Enjoy.

Since the girls haven't received their new princess dresses for Sunday's Bippity Boppity Boutique outing at Magic Kingdom, we just had them wear some of their old play dresses that were lying around the house for today's costume parade/Halloween party at Sunchild.

Both girls went as Disney Fairies from the Tinkerbell spin-off movies - Abby as Periwinkle, Alayna as Silvermist.

I took the day off of work so I could go and take pictures and video of the girls' activities at the school.  I rarely complain about days off.

The Cannonball and some other Sunchild alumni, now part of the After School Club.

Kris, reading her class some Halloween book during Circle Time. . .

The Cannonball spots Yours Truly. . .

Abby, awaiting the Costume Parade

Alayna's class strolls through Abby's class during the parade

Abby's class finishes their lap in the parade.

After a quick wardrobe change, it's block time!

This shit is heroin for little kids. . .

- Brian