Daddy- Daughter Dance

The Hammond Police Department put on a Daddy-Daughter Dance at the Union Hall on Eva's birthday.  Since the Dads were out with the girls, the Moms went out for some fun.

 The Girls

 The Dads

 Dads and Daughters

The Moms

The Dads and girls had fun (I think the girls more so than the dads), and the Moms definitely had fun out on their own. It was a good night.

12

My oldest baby girl is twelve, one more year closer to being a teenager. Sigh.

 Ice cream cake, as requested.

 The look of surprise.

A cat purse hanger.

She got most of what she asked for, and something she wanted  but didn't ask for (watch). Her old watch broke, and David wanted to get her another one but nicer: Baby G.  She also got new pajamas (Granny), cat purse hanger (Mimi), desk organizer (Mimi), desk, chair, chair mat, lamp, trash can (David and me) and a dream catcher (Emily), Target gift card (Colorado Chalonas).

Here's to one last year as a preteen.

Mardi Gras Party

One of Eva's friends had a Mardi Gras birthday party Saturday night. They were to come dressed in costume, formal dress, or Mardi Gras colors. Not sure what Emily is doing - she didn't wear the wig or mask like she was supposed to.

Birthday/Anniversary Weekend

I surprised David with a trip to Birmingham for his birthday to see JJ Grey & Mofro at Avondale Brewing. We stayed at Hassinger Daniels Mansion Bed and Breakfast. It was a really nice historical home in downtown Birmingham. 

 We had angels in our room!

We Ubered everywhere, which was really nice.

We started off with dinner at El Barrio. The food was excellent as were the drinks. All margaritas are made with fresh ingredients, no mixers, and they had a good beer selection.  The only downside was the wait. We got there at 6:30 and there was already an hour and a half wait. It was well worth it, though.

The show was outside at Avondale Brewing, not far from where we stayed. It was a very nice evening, perfect for an outside show.  JJ Grey is one of David's favorite, and we haven't been able to make it to a show.

We had a great night, great weekend. Happy number 13!!

Eva Batting

I've posted some videos of Eva batting. All but the last are from practice. They are using a small batting machine and squishy balls that are heavier than their normal balls. Had they been using normal balls, she'd have hit them way out.  

 

This last one is from a game this past weekend (tournament). She hit it straight to the first baseman, so she was out at first. This was their first tournament (real game) as a team, and they did not win any of their games. They got better with each game, but still lost. This tournament served as a learning tool for both the players and coaches.

Their next tournament is Oct 1 - 2 in Folsom.

Back-to-School Dance

Forgot to publish this one. The back to school dance was a couple of weeks ago. I did not take many pictures, so this is all I got. Eva looked great in that dress, I wish I had a full length picture of her.

 

BFF Selfie

Birthday Party

Eva's best friend has a birthday on Aug 26. They decided to have a joint birthday party in between their birthdays - a skate party with a Minecraft cake. 

 Birthday Girls

 They helped Susan (Bailey's grandmother) make the cake. She does awesome cakes.

 (Eva is on skates.)

 Friends!

 The 'little' girls

 Moms

 Birthday Girls

 David and Matt

Seesters

Eva got over $50 in Books-a-million gift cards as well as Target gift cards and cash. We spent the day after the party shopping. 

 Lot's of Harry Potter stuff was purchased.

Silly girl.

There are more pictures, I just have to find them add them later.

School, Flooding and More

Not a lot has happened since my last post, but enough to have nothing to post, if that makes sense. Two weeks ago we had a crazy storm that dumped about 20 inches of rain in about 24 hours. It had rained pretty much every day for the last month to 6 weeks prior, so the area was already saturated. Most have heard about the horrible flooding in Louisiana, and it's still happening as the water makes its way to the gulf. Some of the tributaries are backed up, and flooding is still causing problems. 

The picture below is across the highway our street connects to (the girls' school is the other end of this road to the right).  We were actually standing on our street looking across.  That is as high as it got by us. We are on the high end of this highway. It drops in elevation as you head to the right (south).

Prior to all of this, we had a great afternoon with family watching Wicked in Houston. What a great show!

First day (13 days ago):

Today was their 2nd first day. Let's hope those storms in the Atlantic headed this way never make it here. I don't think this area can take it again.

Softball

I'm pretty sure I posted about this back in May, but Eva's spring rec softball team won first place in their division. The lost one game, the last one, and that was because 2 of their 3 pitchers were out.  They finally had an end of season party where they received their first place trophies.  Way to go girls!

She has just started playing on a travel team. Two other girls from the spring team are also playing with her. I am excited to see how that goes this fall. If all goes well, she can also play in the spring for this travel team. As long as she's on a travel team she cannot play rec ball. 

More Grand Isle Pics

Porsche Racing

David and two other coworkers were invited to drive race cars at NOLA Motorsports last week.  The other two guys did not want to drive, so David took their tickets and got to drive a bunch.  He drives and a professional driver is in the passenger seat making sure all goes well. He can also control the car to a degree so nothing gets out of hand. 

His ride: Porsche 911 GT3

Safety first!

Afterwards, David called me and the first words out of his mouth were, "Oh. My. God."  The first thing I told him he was that he was not allowed to quit his job and become a professional racer.