Weekend Adventures

Henry was all set to go on on his big 4th grade field trip to Austin (driving up and back in one extraordinarily long day) on Friday, but on Thursday evening, he came home from his after-school art class, went upstairs to lie down, threw up, and fell asleep for 11 hours. Needless to say, he did not get to go to Austin. 

Poor kiddo! He had been excited to go on the field trip, but there was no way we were sending a kid with a turbulent tummy on a long bus ride.

Henry woke up feeling so much better on Friday and drank some peppermint tea at breakfast. 

Early morning Sorry! Check out the board: all Henry's green pieces are out and all my blue pieces are still at Start.

But it's Sorry! and I managed to pull off a win. 

Because Henry was feeling better and I felt awful about him missing his field trip, we decided to head to the zoo with Gramma and Grampa. It is close by and the chance of infecting others was slim since we weren't in close contact with anyone.

Henry asked to do the African Wild Winds chamber and it was $2 well spent as he proclaimed it "the best thing ever!"

Monkeys at the zoo!

We used some of our train tickets to ride the train in Hermann Park and then had lunch at Picnic before heading back home to rest. Gramma and Grampa came over to stay with Henry and play Scrabble while I did the afternoon carpool run. Henry ended up having a really good day, even though he wasn't on his field trip. 

On Saturday, we met up with Gramma and Grampa again for an art-filled day. We first stopped at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft to see their "Light Charmer: Neon and Plasma in Action" exhibit.

What a neat exhibit!!

It was also Hands-On Houston and the craft was neon-inspired wire sculptures. Grampa made a prickly cactus and Gramma made a heart.

The boys made their initials. Hands-On Houston is always so much fun!

After lunch at Mai's, we visited the Cherryhurst house to see Ripple by Havel Ruck Projects. My mom and I read about it in the paper a few weeks ago and I knew it would be a huge hit with the boys.

The artists used drill saws and other tools to literally cut out, remove, rearrange and layer pieces of the house to create a ripple effect. It was absolutely incredible and unlike anything any of us had seen before. The artists have more projects in the works (including an installation in Sam Houston Park this summer) and we can't wait to see what comes next.  

It was cold enough for us to turn on the fire that night! 

On Sunday, we headed up to Wood Duck Farm to go strawberry picking. 

It was only 46 degrees when we arrived at 11 am and we were the only brave souls in the strawberry field. The strawberries were beautiful and we managed to pick 14 pounds in about 20 minutes!

We always bring a picnic lunch, but this was the first year we ate it next to a bonfire!

The boys played on the playground before we headed back in to Houston.

On Monday, it was back to school for everyone, but we ended the day with a special visit from Gene's cousin who was visiting all the way from Michigan! We don't get to see him very often and were so excited he was in town for a bit.

I hope your weekend was free of stomach bugs and full of fun adventures!