The Weekend: Museums, Art and Bikes

Our three-day weekend was the perfect combination of busy and laid-back. Gene was out of town until Sunday afternoon and then had to work on Monday's holiday, but the boys and I got out to two museums and spent a lot of time outside, enjoying some beautiful spring-like weather.

On Friday night, we headed over to the Health Museum to check out their new Microbes exhibit during the members' preview party. My boys are fascinated by microbes so it was the perfect exhibit for them! We learned about good microbes, like yeast,

and nasty ones like germs that cause diseases. The exhibit is very hands-on, with lots of buttons to press, doors to open, games to play, and phones to pick up.

The preview party also included some hands-on activities, like looking at microbes through a microscope. The boys even rubbed their fingers on petri dishes and brought them home. The germs from their hot little hands are growing, growing, growing! 

On Saturday morning, I took the boys to the MFAH to check out two exhibits. Earlier in the week, they had Hands On Art at school, where they learned about sculptor Alexander Calder and made fish mobiles out of wire and "found" objects.  

Henry's fish:

Will's fish:

At the art museum, we checked out Calder's The Crab from 1962, which is right in front of the museum.

Inside, there were two exhibits that I wanted them to see. The first is a digitally animated wallpaper by Christopher Pearson in the Pattern Repeat: Wallpaper Then and Now exhibit. This wallpaper, inspired by a William Morris design, is projected on the wall and is constantly moving and changing. The boys loved it, as I knew they would.

The other exhibit is Antonio Berni: Juanito and Ramona, which I wanted them to see because Berni, an Argentinian artist, used found objects in his assemblages, just as Calder did (and in fact, they were contemporaries). Berni's assemblages are huge and created out of trash and everyday items.  

The boys' favorite part of the exhibit were the 3-D monsters, which haven't been displayed outside of Argentina in over 50 years.

After visiting the art museum, Will requested a trip to the library to find books about diseases -- inspired by the Microbes exhibit at the Health Museum, of course! This child is now an expert on all sorts of illnesses and can tell you your risk factors, should you be interested in that kind of knowledge.

Sunday and Monday were gorgeous days here in Houston, so we took full advantage of the sunny weather to get outside and ride our bikes. 

On Monday, I packed a lunch, and we rode way to the other side of West U for a picnic at Colonial Park. (Will specifically asked if we could ride to the farthest park from our house, and since it was 75 degrees out and sunny, I couldn't refuse!) We spent two hours outside, riding and playing and truly enjoying our day off from school.

I have so much fun with these little boys, and having an extra day off from school is always something I look forward to. The only thing missing was having Gene around for all the fun.