Two Wheels and Shirley Temples

Will has been asking to try to ride his bike without training wheels for a couple of weeks, so yesterday, we went over to Nana and Pop's, took off those training wheels, and set Will loose!  

He did great! Just a few wobbles and tumbles, of course.  

But he really got the hang of it!  Will still needs some more practice but he's on the way to riding on just two wheels.

And are you at all surprised that Henry also wanted to try riding without training wheels? This was his very first go. He's a natural.

Go, Henry, go!

By this time, it was after 4 o'clock and Pop declared it cocktail hour. Will and Gene had been listening to an NPR program in the car about cocktails, so Will immediately starting asking about them. Pop led them to the bar and proceeded to make the boys their very first Shirley Temples!

Mocktails for my boys!

They know real cocktails are only for grown-ups, but they sure enjoyed their Shirley Temples in grown-up glasses.

What a fun way to celebrate riding without training wheels!

Arbor Day 2013

We celebrated Arbor Day yesterday at the Houston Arboretum. As always, we had a fantastic time hiking around outside and learning about nature.

One of the highlights was getting to meet Johnny Appleseed. Henry's class learned all about Johnny Appleseed in the fall and he has been slightly obsessed every since. It was a huge treat to meet him in person! He even gave us acorns to plant.

We met some local woodworkers and came home with a block puzzle, and then we made pinecone bird feeders!

So simple. Just coat the pinecone in peanut butter or shortening and then roll in bird seed.

Voila!  

Will and Daddy left after making the bird feeders to head to a birthday party, but Henry and I stayed and played at the playground.

The rope bridge is always a fun challenge.

The absolute best part of the day was getting to see the birds of prey flight demonstrations by Sky Kings Falconry. They brought four birds. This is Jake, the Harris hawk. The birds weren't tethered, so they flew freely around three perches set up on the Arboretum's front lawn. Amazing!

The barn owl, Widget, was beautiful but definitely had a mind of her own and didn't always follow instructions.  

This vulture, Igor, was very smart. He was walking all around us around looking for food!

This little bird, Cricket, is a falcon. The handler had her flying in a simulated hunt. She literally flew just inches from our faces. It was an amazing experience!

We learned so much about birds of prey, and Henry got his picture taken with Widget at the end of the show.

We love the Arboretum and really enjoyed Arbor Day 2013!

An Afternoon with Henry

Can you guess where Henry and I went yesterday after school?  

Hint:  it's one of his favorite places!  

We went to the art museum, of course! You just never get to see the original entrance because it's now the back of the Law Building and is locked up tight. It's beautiful, though, isn't it?  

Henry really loves the art museum. From pointillism and Picasso to Calder and cubism, he really digs art! We hadn't been behind the Law Building before, so we checked out the sculptures back there. This is Song of Strength by Eduardo Chillida.  

This is Magari by Mark Di Suvero. The welded steel makes me think of my grandpa, who was a welder.

And it wouldn't be a visit to the art museum without some lunch at Cafe Express. 

I love these afternoons with Henry. He is so sweet and earnest and inquisitive and sincere. I need to savor every one of these days because I know I am going to miss this next year.

Getting Ready for Soccer

Look who's getting ready for some spring soccer!  

Henry agreed to play on the condition that Daddy coach his team and that we try to get as many friends to play with him as possible.  

Daddy is all signed up to coach (and he's coaching Will's team too!).  

Check out Henry's new yellow cleats.

What a kick!

We are ready for a fun soccer season! 

Snapshots from the Week

We are back in the groove of the school year.  Christmas break was fun but routine is good too! Here's some of what's been going on at our house.

Will reads the comics daily, so our mornings look a little like this:

Henry adores his new shoes, so getting ready to go anywhere looks like this:

Will is so efficient with his homework these days, so afternoons look like this:

Some of us into yoga, so a Saturday morning might look like this:

Others of us are into bread-baking, so Saturday afternoon almost certainly looks like this:

I get lots and lots of love from my three guys, so nearly every day looks like this:

I love the special things we do as a family but I also love our predictable everyday routine.  It looks good to me!

A Sunday Adventure: San Felipe

We have been having so much fun lately exploring nearby state parks, so on Sunday, we packed up the car and headed west to San Felipe, the colonial capital of Texas and the home of Stephen F. Austin.  

At the San Felipe de Austin State Historic Site, we walked around the site of the original township and ventured into a replica of Austin's log cabin.

Will read the monument about the town hall. As a former teacher of Texas history, it is so much fun for me to visit these places with my little Texans!

Then we drove on to the Stephen F. Austin State Park for our hiking adventure.

We saw cardinals, vultures and hawks everywhere in the park.  

Our first short hike took us down to the Brazos River.  

Can you just imagine the Texans scrambling to cross the river during the Runaway Scrape?

We brought a picnic lunch. Yum!

Our second hike took us on the Cottonwood Trail, Raccoon Bend Trail, and the Opossum Loop.

We looked for wildlife at the Wildlife Viewing area but we didn't see anything (we are not exactly quiet!). Later, we found deer tracks, leafcutter ants, and many more cardinals.  

We all found lots of mud, Gene found a huge leaf,

and all three boys found walking sticks.  

The bigger the boy, the bigger the stick!

It was a beautiful day to be outside, and the four of us are already looking forward to our next hiking adventure.