Oh so proud...

Michael was beaming when I picked him up from school...He got quiet a few awards for the First 9 weeks of school and also all A's and one B on his report card, WOOHOO!!

We are so proud of him!!

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He got a certificate for Perfect Attendance and a Free Icee and he was tickled!
You have to understand that Michael and I are both addicted to Icee's or as we call them Frozen cokes, Yummy!!
What a GREAT Friday! Hope y'all have a wonderful weekend!

Autumn in South Texas...

With that little bit of rain we had approx. 3 weeks ago the wildflowers are popping up. While Fred shredded/mowed this past Sunday I walked around with the telephoto lens and this is what I found...(Some of the photos I used overlays and textures on, I was bored and wanted to play around a bit with the photos.)

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Sand/Grass burr with fly
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Bull Nettle
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Yucca, I've finally got it through Fred's thick skull not to mow these down. When we get the house built I plan on using them for part of the landscaping. I think what changed his mind is when I showed them how much it cost to buy these at the nursery!
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Monarch in flight
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Painted Lady
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Bee in flight
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It was a beautiful day and the flowers and butterflies were enjoying it!

Happy Halloween!!

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Our Jack-O-Lantern!

Hope all that celebrate had a Spooky Halloween!!

Halloween Party - Saturday night

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We were invited to a Halloween party Saturday night at my friend Helen's house...

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Brain food
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Deviled eye balls and spiders!
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Lots of good company!
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The kids loved the silly string, it's always a big hit!
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Helen was Ms. Autumn! Some really great costumes!
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Pudding cups!

We had a great time and Helen (our party girl) always does such a great job!

The finished project...

Saturday we finally finished our project, woohoo!!

I will now have some shade at the property during mid-day and I love it! It also gave Fred and I more experience building and we realize we have our work cut out for us when it comes to a house, ekk...This would have been nice this summer but money wise we had to wait. Most of the wood came from friends and the screened in shelter, lounger and table we got on clearance at the end of the summer season, yes! It's small but it will work and I am just tickled about it!

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Michael liked it and had fun playing with the zippers, lol. He had it all zipped up and then wanted his photo taken, silly boy!
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He looks mighty comfortable?
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I can't believe he jumped in the pool, the water temp. was 68 degrees F., Brrr to cold for me! I did jump in Sunday with my wetsuit on, much better ;o)
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Of course he jumped in, swam to the otherside and then jumped out, lol...CraZy!!

Michael's Halloween costume...

It took most of the day Thursday but I did it, made my son a tank for a costume. I decided no to the transformer starscream and asked him if he'd like a tank. This wasn't quiet what he was thinking but he likes the turret for a headpiece, he's blown me up several times, lol...

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Target Lock on, bye-bye Mom!
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I wanted something he could walk in while trick or treating and I think this will work. His headpiece now has a ribbon on it, to tie it around his chin, and after running around the house in his costume everything has stayed in place, yay!

Trip to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge

Michael had Monday off from school and I decided we needed to run over to the refuge as we hadn't been in awhile. My friend, John, warned us the mosquitoes were going to be bad. They are bad here at the house so I kind of knew to take the bug repellent, they weren't just bad they were swarming BIG time!! The truck was covered when we stopped at the front office to sign in so we sprayed ourselves even before we stepped out of the truck! Imagine having thousands of soft BB's hitting you, it was awful...anywhere where there wasn't spray they got you! Imagine trying to take photos, ugh! But I did manage a few...

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I stopped the truck at the Rail trail and jumped out to see if there was anything interesting in the canal there...I spotted this approx. 10ft alligator. Michael had already had enough of the mosquitoes so he stayed in the truck, I went back and got him so he could see the Huge alligator. We were both awed at his size and how close he was to the small bridge going over the canal. He was hidden fairly well too...

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The reeds/grass were tall, over 6ft and made seeing anything difficult.
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A closer look at the gator...
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Love this grass, not sure what it is but I love the seed head and it's soft feathery appearance.
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He's not dancing...
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He's swatting at the mosquito's and running for the truck, ekk!! Hurry Mom, Hurry!! Taking photos was going to be difficult.
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We then headed down to the fishing pier across from the picnic area. I knew we might be able to enjoy checking out the bay waters from the end of the pier without being swarmed by mosquitoes, there was a slight breeze out there and it helps to keep the mosquitoes at bay!
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There were lots of gorgeous wildflowers. These (I think) are called Bachelors Button and are not a native to Texas but escaped to the wild.
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My little bird-watcher, I love him! We had thought we saw a alligator floating off the beach on our drive to the pier but whatever it was we couldn't see it from the pier. We did see quite a few birds and Michael was prepared with the binoculars in hand.
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We noticed a lot of Jelly fish up near the shore, this one was one of the larger ones we spotted. Michael insisted on walking down to the shore and I told him if we walk through the grass the mosquitoes will swarm us but he didn't care, ugh!
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Looking towards Dagger point, it was approx. 8:30am at the time.
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Off on an adventure...
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The wildflowers were amazing and I sure wish the mosquitoes hadn't been so bad so I could have slowed down and took out the Macro lens.
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Looking back towards the rail trail...
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Love the designs of the Oak trees, they are shaped strangely due to the winds coming off the bay...
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Deep in thought studying the water below...
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A jellyfish propelling itself in closer to shore, we enjoyed watching it for awhile! There were lots of raccoon and bird tracks in the water too.
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A member of the Aster family and very pretty!
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Wildflowers with love bugs attached!
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A Turkey vulture sunning and drying off his wings.

We drove 70 miles and probably spent 30 minutes at the refuge. The mosquitoes were not worth fighting and the refuge had a lot of construction and closed trails. We love the refuge and understand it probably has been effected by the governments budgets cuts as it just isn't what it use to be, hopefully that will change in the future. I will still buy my yearly pass and try when I can to support the refuge it's a great place to see coastal nature at it's best.