School Photos 2016-2017

A little brightness for your day.  School photos came in and the boys win again for most photogenic! See below for solo photos and class photos.

Notes on Noel's class photo
- Jack: in the denim jacket and Timberland boots - Jack is here for 2 years from England and you can see the mischief in his eyes.  The other day I asked why he was dressed so sharply and he told me he'd entered a hip hop dancing competition and won second place.  When I relayed this story to his mother she let me know there was no such competition.  I loved how Jack gave himself second place to add validity to the story (anyone else would have gone too far and said 1st place)
 -Sid (to Noel's left): adorable to boot and a total nice kid all around
- Theo: totally looking longingly into the distance

Notes on Ethan's class photo
 - Abe (back row, glasses):  the sweetest kid on earth with the voice of man who smokes a pack of Marlboro reds every day
- Fabiana (front row): Love her one leg up jeans look and will forever be the girl who got kicked in the face by her Capoiera teacher ("Aw, Fabiana got kicked in the face....)

Soccer, 2016 - Undefeated Ghost Raptors!

Catching up on old posts -  we gathered a group of boys together for a soccer team not knowing how things would go.  Bruce was head coach and I was Assistant Coach.

Bruce has a long history with team sports and great Project Management instincts.  He was great and keeping the boys on task, supportive of each other and led us to an undefeated first season!!

There were a few weeks, though, when Bruce was out of town, leaving me in charge.  And unlike Bruce, I have a long history of one individual sport (with none of the skills translating to soccer) and am easily distracted - you can imagine 6 boys and a manic coach - chaos was certain....

However, Bruce and his PM skills came to the rescue.  Before he left, he handed me a piece of paper that I simply had to follow - complete with team rotations and timely reminders to give to the boys throughout the game.   The Ghost Raptors' first season was undefeated (stay tuned for a recap of the following Spring 2017 story - SPOILER ALERT - the boys got a nice dose of defeat).

Oh - and about the team name - we asked all of the boys for some name suggestions and many were thrown out.  The Milams rallied for the "Dino-mites" to make a comeback from their first team in Dallas.  A few others were thrown out (The Snow Leopards, The Tigers) - however, when Abe suggested the Ghost Raptors, all other names paled in comparison and there was no turning back - the Ghost Raptors were born!

Fall 2016 Ghost Raptor roster (L to R) - Keaton, Ethan, Abe, Sid, Noel, Jack)

The coach included

Getting crazy after their last game

Coach Pai wrangling the herd of kittens while Bruce was gone.

And some photos of the Ghost Raptors on action: