Aubrey's volleyball team ended up District Champs, so they got shirts to commemorate the occasion. They took this picture with their shirts and team trophy. Aubrey had a fun season with these girls and really enjoyed getting to make new friends while developing her volleyball skills. Her coach this year was Coach Mendoza and Aubrey really liked her. She will be their coach next year as well. Coach Mendoza was also Abby's coach when Abby was at Hornedo. Both girls liked having the same coach and Coach Mendoza loved seeing Abby when she came to their games this year.
Franklin played Pebble Hills at home. Abby played well and they won. She served a lot and her sets were great. She had some great saves including a diving save off the court.
The next week, Abby's team played against Montwood. They won that game too although it was a little stressful. They only had one line judge, so there were some questionable calls; but they pulled out the win.
Whenever the marching band asks for help from the students, Tessa tries to make it. When they sent out a request for help when the band props got delivered, Tessa and I showed up. They had to get the prop equipment from their portables and move them all to the band hall. The pieces were heavy and the portables are far away from the band hall, so we loaded the cars with the equipment. My van was the only big vehicle, so the large metal frames only fit in my van after putting down the seats and maneuvering them just right. Once the frames were in the van, all of the kids piled in the empty middle space so they didn't have to walk to the band hall. We thought it was funny, so we took a picture of all the kids squished in the van. You can't even see JD who was underneath the frames in the front of the van.
During the two week intersession of school, the kids hung out at home and tried to find things to do. We couldn't travel anywhere because Tessa and Abby still had games and Tyler still had work, so we had to be creative to keep the younger girls entertained. They talked me into taking them to X-zone, an adventure park meant for kids ages 12 and under. It was the middle of the day, so it wasn't very busy and the girls had fun climbing, swinging, sliding, and exploring. I took some pictures of them on the rock walls and climbing and swinging off of the columns. They probably wished they had some friends there with them, but I like when they have times like these when they have to play together. They really did enjoy it, so it was a win for everyone.
Once a year, the high school band invites the middle school band students to join them for a football game. One of Abby's middle school years got rained out and one of Tessa's middle school years got cancelled because of Covid, so we were happy to have it happen this year. The extra fun part was having Tessa in the high school band and Aubrey in the middle school band. The middle schoolers get to sit with the band in the stands, play some songs, and perform with them on the field during halftime. Aubrey had so much fun sitting in the front row with the rest of the flutes. Tessa's flute friends from the high school band made sure to say hi to Aubrey and talk to her, so Aubrey had a great time telling everyone she was Tessa's sister.
One of Aubrey's flute friends is Hailey so they sat next to each in the stands. After the game, I was able to get a picture of Aubrey with some more of her friends, Allison and Bella, who both have older siblings in the Franklin band too.
Tessa thought it was fun having the middle school percussion kids interspersed with her section in the stands. She knew most of the Hornedo percussion kids from when she was there last year, so she had fun showing off on the bass drum in front of the kids she had played with last year. All of the band kids marched out onto the field and played some songs together. Aubrey was in the front and she was easy to pick out since her jeans were so light colored. I liked this picture because you can see Aubrey and Tessa in it together, just barely.
Here's one more picture of the bands all playing together. Besides Hornedo, Brown middle school students were there as well. Both of those middle schools feed into Franklin and the high school tries to do as much as they can to keep those kids excited about band so they'll choose to continue playing in high school. Franklin also performed their regular marching show during halftime. We really liked this performance because the props we helped put together were finally ready and they made the show a lot more spectacular. They added a lot more visuals during their show as well, so I took this picture while they were all doing a squat visual.
Tessa's cross country team ran a race during the intercession, but only some of the open girls participated. None of the varsity kids raced, so the seven girls who wanted to race were placed in the varsity category. Most schools didn't have varsity kids racing, so it was a smaller race, but Tessa and the other girls from her team were still excited to race.
A couple of Tessa's teammates took an early lead and led the way for the entire race. We watched Tessa as she came around the final bend and saw her cross the finish line. My parents had come into town for the football game the night before and for Tessa's and Abby's sporting events, so they were with me to watch Tessa race.
Tessa ended up 5th place and was so excited because it was her fastest time yet and her highest place earned. They didn't have medals since it was a last minute race, so that was sad, but Tessa was still excited to be in the top 10. And she was happy to tell anyone who asked that she was 5th place in the "varsity" category, even though it wasn't against true varsity kids. We took a picture after the race with all of the girls from Tessa's team. They have become such good friends. My parents and I thought this was a pretty funny picture because Tessa actually looks pretty tall in this shot. Some of her cross country teammates are really short, but it's funny knowing that Tessa isn't really tall, but she looks like one of the tallest ones on her team from this picture.
After Tessa's race, the entire family traveled to the SAC on the east side of town, which is a huge district-wide football stadium. They had their UIL marching competition that day, so the entire family went to support Tessa. We saw them perform and Tessa was so excited that Grandma and Grandpa Black got to be there to see her. When we called to see if they wanted to come visit us, Tessa made sure to tell them that she really wanted Grandpa to see her march. Once we told them that, we knew they'd make the trip.
We stayed to watch all of the bands that performed after Franklin and to hear the results. If they earn a 1, they get to move on to the next level and perform at Area. We waited to hear the results and Franklin got their 1! Tessa said they were so nervous, all holding hands while they waited for the announcement. Once the 1 was announced, the band was screaming and cheering so loudly. We were so proud of them. I took a picture of all of us in the stands as we watched the bands. It was a fun day.
Taryn turned 10 on October 14th. We made crepes for breakfast since that was her request. She was ok not having a huge party, but she did want some friends to come over and hang out. She was going to just have Teagan and Malerie come over, but Malerie ended up waking up with a fever, so she wasn't able to join our birthday festivities. Taryn wanted to go shopping and she wanted to shop specifically for pop-its. I took Taryn, Teagan, and Aubrey to the outlet malls and we hung out there for awhile.
There were some fun picture spots and I made them stop at all of them so I could get some pictures. We didn't realize that the stores didn't open until after 11am, so we got there a little early, but that gave us plenty of time to wander around and get some cute pictures. They had this fall display set up, so we had to get a picture there.
They have kiddie rides spread throughout the mall, so we had to stop at every one. They didn't even need to put in money for the rides to move; they were find just sitting on all of them and getting pictures. The horse ride was broken, so it was constantly moving. The kids each took a turn on that one and I took this cute picture of Taryn while she rode off into the sunset on her wild horse.
There were also cute murals around the outlet mall, so we stopped at this one since it said El Paso. I really liked this picture. After they had walked around long enough, we headed back towards home and stopped by a Starbucks to buy the kids cake pops with some gift cards that I had. We were going to get drinks too, but it was too hard to try and figure out how to order drinks without tea or coffee in them, so we just stuck with the cake pops.
We stopped next at a store for the kids to pick out their own pop-it toys and then we went to Walmart to shop for a few treats. They talked me into buying them pumpkins since they were such a good price. They each picked out the biggest pumpkin they could find, and we went home to do some carving. They had fun making their own creations and scooping out all of the guts. Abby wanted a picture with Taryn for her Instagram post because she's always telling people how Taryn is her mini-me. I love this picture because you really can see all the similarities between the two girls in their faces. Same eyes, same nose, same cheeks, same everything. I love these girls.
After Tyler got home from work, we celebrated Taryn's birthday with dinner and presents. Her favorite gift was the little dirt bike she had asked for. She was so excited for the pink one. Sam and Teagan both have one already, so she was happy to be able to race around the neighborhood with them on her pink motor bike. She requested a four-tier chocolate, chocolate cake, so I made her cake and it was huge. We had cake for days. She loved it after she saw it and she was happy to blow out the ten candles on top. Happy 10th Birthday Taryn!
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