April 27 - Dancing to the Moon

JD surprised me with Bruno Mars tickets a few weeks ago and to say I was excited is an understatement. While I'm not a big concert person (can't remember the last time I went to one) I am a huge Bruno fan so I was shocked in the best way. My friend Holly (GS mom from Jillian's troop) is also a fan so we went together last week. We had awesome floor seats and the show did not disappoint. He sang (live) and danced for 2h straight. We also sang along and danced the entire time. BEST NIGHT EVER! I made a poor shoe choice that resulted in blisters on the bottom of my heels so I had to tiptoe around the house like a burglar for a few times, but 100% worth it. If you have the opportunity to see Bruno Mars, go and sing your heart out!

Fun fun fun!

April 26 - Powderpuff Game

Seniors vs Juniors! It's the annual Powderpuff Flag Football game, where the girls play flag football and the boys are cheerleaders. Julia was #64 on defense the senior girls came out with the WIN! Julia stopped a few plays including one near the end zone where she threw the flag down like a NFL player. Hilarious! I've never attended one of these games before and it was pretty shocking how many parents, students and community members came to cheer on the kids. People made posters, there was an announcer and even a teacher "King and Queen" contest (orchestra director won king and the APUSH teacher won queen). The boy cheerleaders even did a mini half-time show. Hilarious!

Julia and Ava

Senior Champions!

Cheerleaders

April 24 - International Night

Our elementary school hosts an 'International Night' every year and Jillian loves attending. This year she asked if we could host a booth. I was already booked to go watch Julia's powderpuff game at the same time but JD said he could do it. They decided on Poland and put together a poster board last weekend. We borrowed a German dress from Tammy (close enough to Poland!), JD made some Polish keilbasas and perogies, and they were off!

They had so much fun! JD was surprised at how extravagent some booths were (especially Palestine which was 3 whole tables long next to him and they served a complete meal) but they enjoyed talking about Poland. In a total shock-they won 3rd prize and a gift card to World Market. JD said Jillian was so excited when they announced Poland she jumped up screaming, did a little dance and then sprinted to claim the prize. Love our little firecracker!

Adorable

Guinevere, Jillian & Dallas - Besties

April 21 - Senior Prom

Clear Lake Prom 2026! Prom was at Moody Gardens Convention Center this past Saturday night. Julia went with a group of friends and they had a blast. She played blackjack and danced the night away! The girls rented a house in Galveston (the tradition here, very over the top). The seniors all planned to hang out at the beach over the weekend but random cool weather and rain put a damper on that. So it was a weekend of movies and board games. They had so much fun though. 

Beautiful Jules

Prom with friends!

Julia and Kendall

April 19 - Denver and Texas State Champsionship

Denver Regional
About 2 weeks ago, Luke and the team left Houston on Tuesday at 8pm and drove straight through to Denver for a regional competition. There were teams there from all over the US as well as Mexico and even the Czech Republic. They debuted a brand new robot and finished the tournament undefeated, 1st out of 55 teams. They scored 6 RP's (ranking points) in a match and are tied for the most 6 RP matches in the world with 5 other teams. They are the first in the world in traversal RP EPA, with the only positive climbing EPA in the world. They won the Innovation in Controls Award, which is primarily a programming award (spearheaded by our very own Luke!). Teams can also earn blue banners throughout the season by:

*winning a regional or district championship

*winning a district champsionship Impact Award: the most prestigious award for any team at a competition

*winning a division or final Einstein tournament at the world championships (top 8 teams in the world)

With the Denver win, the Robonauts have the highest number of blue banners in the world. Very exciting and super proud of the team! They finished finals Saturday and then got back on the bus and drove straight back to Houston, getting in Sunday night. 

Texas State Championship

The Texas state championship was this past Thursday through Saturday, luckily here in Houston at NRG stadium. There were 90 teams competing (including one from NM!). Qualification rounds were split into 2 divisions, Apollo and Mercury, and the winner of those divisions played in the finals. The Robonauts did great. They won the Mercury division but lost in finals to Apollo. But 2nd place is fantastic!! Even though they didn't come out the win, they won the Impact Award, the most prestigious award at the competiiton. Great job Robonauts!

Next stop: world championships in 2 weeks. Go Robonauts!

April 15 - UConn

Julia and I flew to Hartford, CT this past weekend for one last college visit to UConn. We had an early Sunday morning with a 5am flight but no issues getting there. The Hartford airport is really nice and after a quick 40min drive we arrived. 

I felt like I was heading back into time into my childhood. The whole area reminded me of Charlton, NY. Two lane winding roads, woods everywhere, farmhouses and colonials from the 1700s and 1800s, huge lots. It was really refreshing to not see strip malls everywhere. We did a campus tour and our tour guide was fantastic. We went into a classroom, chem lab, dorm, ate at the student center and toured campus. I forgot that while it is technically spring right now, the area still looked like winter (i.e. barren trees). But it was 60 and sunny so even though it was a Sunday, students were out sunbathing, playing volleyball and studying. 

After our tour, we checked into our adorable bed and breakfast. We headed to the downtown Storrs area for dinner. I say downtown but it was a tiny grouping of condo type buildings with restaurants, CVS and-brace yourself upstate NY readers-Price Chopper! It was very small (makes College Station look like a bustling metropolis) but very cute. 

The next morning, we checked out and headed to Mansfield for breakfast. It was delicious and then we headed back to campus and walked around for a few hours. Great trip! 

Our B&B

UConn

April 6 - Happy Easter

Easter 2026! We started the long weekend off with an Easter party for Jillian's Girl Scout troop. It was initially planned for 1.5H but the girls were having so much fun, we went strong for 7H! We started off with an egg hunt-even though the eggs were empty, the girls didn't care. They were into it. We ended up doing 4 egg hunts total and the hiding spots got more difficult with each round. After the egg hunts, the other girls mentioned they don't dye eggs at their house. So, we hopped in the car, took a quick trip to HEB and make some hard boiled eggs to dye. After dyeing the eggs, the girls played outside on scooters for a few hours. Fabulous day with the littles!

It will surprise none of you to know that Luke was at a robotics competition all day Friday and Saturday. It was a local competition so we went on Saturday to cheer on Luke and the team. It was a nail biter and they came out with the win in finals by ONE point.

waiting for Julia to get up

Great job Robonauts! He leaves on Tuesday for a tournament in Denver and gets back late Sunday. 

Luke's one request for Easter was to sleep in. He's been pulling 90H weeks between swim, school and robotics since January so we thought this was a reasonable request. Jillian and Julia got up to find their Easter baskets and we did an egg hunt when Luke woke up. It was a pretty chill day although no suprise, Luke did spend half the day back at robotics. 

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!

Girl Scout fun

Robonauts

Easter