Summer Break: Week One

Our first week of summer was full of fun outings and lots of creative time at home.

Will and Henry love the Children's Museum but the crowds there make me nuts! Will suggested that we visit last week before the suburban school districts got out for summer in hopes that it would be less crowded, and it was a great suggestion because it wasn't busy at all. 

Grocery store clerks

Ambulance driver

Rock climber 

Movie director

Will's first stop motion film:

Shocks and Jolts is the current temporary exhibit and the boys loved it. The luminglas disks are a combination of kinetic energy and light.

The musical bench shows that you're conductive!

On Wednesday, we headed to the zoo. It wasn't hot and it wasn't crowded and we had a blast.  

The Houston Zoo is helping save sea turtles.

We sang to the kookaburras and they laughed at us. We sing nearly every time we visit but it's been a long time since they've laughed back. 

Chickens at the zoo

We were excited to explore the animatronic dinosaur exhibit that's here for the summer. 

The last dinosaur sprays water at you. Perfect for a summer day.

This has been an extremely wet spring for Houston, with rain and floods throughout our city. We got more torrential rain at the end of the last week, so we hunkered down at home. The boys entertained themselves by writing, directing, acting in and filming a movie, Henry the Spy, which is still in the editing phase. They also read a ton, played games, and had a rockin' night party in Henry's room.  

We also discovered that we have three bottles of ketchup in the house, so did an impromptu taste test (with blindfolds and everything) after dinner. Will liked Sir Kensington's (tangy and less sweet with a bit of spice), while Henry preferred the Heinz variety (very traditional and simple).

For us, summer is all about reading. We're signed up for three summer reading programs so far and the boys and I have been visiting libraries several times a week and devouring books. We turned in our Barnes and Noble reading logs on Sunday when Gene was sailing. 

We have lots more fun planned in the weeks ahead, but so far, summer 2016 is off to a fantastic start!