Come on Summer!

I don't know about you all, but the Porters are SOOO ready for summer! Christopher and I have about 1 more week left in our semester. After that its just finals! We are both ready to be done with classes! I haven't asked Nickolas, but I think its a safe bet that he is ready for summer break too.

Soccer has become a big part of our everyday life. We are either planning for it, practicing it or going to a game. But, its been fun. Christopher seems to be enjoying working with the kids. As you can tell, the Spartans are a real cute team. The kids names are Tristan, Kennedy, Silas, Paris, Faith and Garrett. I used to doubt it, but it is definitely a real difference between girls and boys. The girls are calm and quiet and the boys are ROWDY!

Well, I'll leave you with the video of Nickolas doing Taekwondo that I promised in last post.

We love you all, Tamiko

More pictures!

These pictures are from Thurs. (except the last one) of Nickolas' spring break week. Most of them are of the Houston Children's Museum where we all had a blast. They had too many activities for the kids to list but you'll get an idea of a few of them from the pics.

This was our lunch spot!

The boys really got a kick out of the thingamajigs that allowed you to watch the ball go down an incline! Go figure!

Grandaddy painted the boys faces. We had to do this early on in our visit, because as soon as D saw other kids with the paint, he couldn't think about anything else!

Nickolas did great climbing the rock wall. And yes, that's Donovan in the red shirt trying to be just like big brother!

The artist at work.

Forgot the name of this....but it looked like a maze of discs. Nickolas had fun, D wanted nothing to do with it.

This is outside the museum on the way to the car. If you squint your eyes, you can see the slowpokes, Christopher and Grandaddy, lagging way behind us young folks!


This is on Friday afternoon. Nickolas put on an impromptu trumpet concert for us. I can't remember his set list exactly, but I know it consisted of Mary Had a Little Lamb and Hot Cross Buns!

Whew! I think I got most of the pictures in now! I just want to put in a video of Nickolas' taekwondo moves in the next post and then I will have covered his week completely. Soccer pictures are in slideshow in upper right corner of blog.

Love you all, Tamiko

The complete 4-1-1 on Nickolas' break week plus more pictures!

Okay, now that we have recuperated from our crazy last couple of weeks, let me give you all a rundown of Nickolas' break. Between the last, this and next posts, you will have pictures of a lot of our activities too.

• Fri. 4/3 Grandaddy flew in that evening.
• Sat. 4/4 Nickolas arrived at 6am. Easter egg hunt in the morning. Watched movies, the MSU game and relaxed the rest of the day.
• Sun. 4/5 Donovan's birthday party at Chuck E Cheese. Our neighbors, Dionte (12) and Sierra (9)came home from the party with us and hung out for a while. The kids played with Donovan's new games and toys. The step on it rocket and board games were big hits.
• Mon. 4/6 Donovan's actual birthday. Went out to dinner at a cajun restaurant, Boudreaux's. Nickolas had alligator! We also watched our beloved MSU Spartans lose very badly to UNC that night in the NCAA national championship game.
• Tues. 4/7 The men/boys ran errands early in the day, grandaddy napped and then we all went to Donovan and Coach Christopher's first soccer practice.
• Wed. 4/8 Grandaddy stayed home with the boys for a couple of hours while I did my 1pm class and Christopher went to College Station. After my class, I did legos with D while Grandaddy and Nickolas went for a bike ride and did some skate boarding (see my comment on this below). We also went to pancake Wednesday at IHOP and played board games when Christopher got home.
• Thurs. 4/9 The boys colored Easter eggs in the morning. We took Grandaddy to Hooters for lunch and then spent the afternoon at the Houston Children's museum. The boys had a blast there...but not as much fun as Grandaddy did at Hooters. Ha Ha!!
• Fri. 4/10 We said so long to Grandaddy. Watched Nickolas show off some of his taekwondo moves. Listened to him play trumpet and made a special Crabby Patty picnic (turkey burgers and fruit/veggies). We also did a double feature in the movie room. High School Musical 3 and Hellboy 2. Both were Nickolas' picks.
• Sat. 4/11 Went to Donovan's (and Coach Christopher's) first soccer game and then took Nickolas to the airport. We are always sad to see him go, but know that he had a good time and we spent lots of quality time with him.
• Sun. 4/12 Donovan, Christopher and I decided to have a rare stay in PJs and don't go anywhere or do much of anything day! It was very nice!

I added more details underneath each picture! Love you all, Tamiko

Nickolas always says that WhataBurger is his favorite Texas burger so we always make sure to get it for him when he's here. This was Sunday, I believe. I included this picture of D eating his Whataburger since he was wearing their super fancy crown!

On Wednesday, Grandaddy went against my instructions and got on Nickolas' skateboard when I wasn't looking! I should have been watching him closer! :)

Grandaddy and Nickolas went for a ride around the neighborhood. Grandaddy told Nickolas that he motivated him to get on his bike more in Seattle!


D and I started the tradition of going to IHOP on Wednesdays which is Kids Eat Free night a few months ago. We cleverly call it Pancake Wednesday. Grandaddy and Nickolas were able to join us that week. Unfortunately, Donovan did not get to enjoy them. He slept through the whole meal!
Wednesday night, after IHOP, was when we played the Horton game (see picture of Grandaddy in previous post). Don't father and son look just alike?


Another Horton game picture. I chose this pic so the grandmothers couldn't see the one where D is looking straight ahead. This was the day that he had allergy eye...not pretty!

This is Thursday morning. I had bought a Spiderman Easter Egg coloring kit. As you can see from this picture and the next couple, D was more interested in eating the eggs, while Nickolas was into the coloring and decorating them.

Grandaddy had D spoiled. All Donovan had to say was "Salt me please" and Grandaddy would kindly oblige him (sometimes he didn't put any on it, just pretended). This ritual was about 4 eggs long!
Here's Nickolas showing off his wonderful creations.

Playing catch up!

I wasn't able to actually participate at the Erin tribute bake sale but I did bake up a storm as did my some of my neighbors. I heard that they did really well even though there was a last minute change in location (from the Woodlands to Bryan, TX).

It will take me a few posts to catch everyone up on Nickolas' spring break week. It was busy but fun. Grandaddy (Christopher's dad) was here for the whole week too. Here's some pics from the early part of that week.

This is the day that Nickolas got here! The MSU game was that night, so Christopher and Donovan were showing me that they were already properly dressed.

Nickolas flew in at 6am. By 10 am we were outside at the neighborhood park's Easter Egg Hunt.

Last year, I had a tough time getting D to get any eggs...he would only get 3 or 4. Did not have that problem this year!

Sunday was the big Chuck E Cheese birthday party (see more pics in the previous post). Here is one of the last ones we took. The service was so bad that day that the manager tried to make amends by having the big mouse come out one more time just so D could have a picture with him.

Donovan got a Horton Hears a Who game from one of his friends. Grandaddy had as much fun playing as the kids did!

Erin's service

Yesterday, Christopher and I went to the service for Erin. She passed away last Thursday after a nearly 7 year battle with neuroblastoma. It was a nice service and very evident that Erin is loved and will be missed by many many people.

There's a bake sale this Saturday to raise money for the Childhood Neuroblastoma Cancer Foundation (CNCF). Another NB mom is making it a tribute to Erin. I'm baking for it and have several of my neighbors doing so as well. I'll let you all know how it goes.

Once I get through this week, I will be sure to add some updates and pictures of the boys. Love you all, Tamiko

The BIG 5!

Happy Birthday Donovan!

We are sitting here getting ready to watch our Spartans so I can't think too clearly to write much. Pictures above are from D's party at Chuck E Cheese!

Love you all, Tamiko

GO STATE GO!