Summer Break: Week Four

This week was all about the Arboretum! Will had a morning Grossology camp there but Henry chose to hang out with me instead. 

Will's Grossology camp was awesome! The campers learned all about vomit, poop, decomposition, blood suckers and slime. They dissected chicken gizzards, went pond dipping for leeches, dissected owl pellets, swabbed door handles, urinals and trash cans for bacteria, and set out a chicken in the meadow to watch it decompose. Talk about gross!

Monday: Henry and I braved the heat every morning this week for a 30+ minute hike around the Arboretum. On Monday, we hiked to the pond, through the meadow, and on the outer loop.

Tuesday: We hiked to the swamp and saw a night heron and tons of hibiscus.

We also explored the sensory garden. It's Henry's new favorite spot.

After our hike, we headed to the Health Museum to check out the Zoom into Nano exhibit.

They also had some special members' activities.

Back at the Arboretum, this bug flew into my hair and then attached itself to Will's snack bag!

We also visited Barnes and Noble so the boys could turn in their summer reading logs and get their free books! 

  Rainbow loom is a new obsession for Henry this week as well.

Henry's first triple single bracelet! 

Wednesday: Henry and I hiked the Palmetto Trail and then saw Despicable Me 2. Dollar movies again!

Henry was really fond of the trumpet vine flowers that were scattered on all the trails.

Turkey feather fungus.

Rain drops from a heavy morning rain. It actually rained every day this week but we managed to stay dry during our hikes!

Henry had to show Will the sensory garden after camp. We found baby roly polies and itty bitty snails, plus a centipede and lots of lizards!

Thursday: This day's hike took us around the swamp (can you see the night heron?) and around the outer loop to the meadow.

Will had told us all about the decomposing chicken and we sure did smell it well before we saw it! It was covered in flies and maggots. Gross!

Orange butterfly on a purple flower -- so much prettier!

My little hiker.

One of the many lizards we saw.

Henry and I also checked out a concert by the Non-Toxic Band at the Heights Library (part of their summer reading program) on Thursday morning. After we picked up Will, we all ate lunch in the Heights and then visited Fat Cat Creamery, a new ice cream shop on 19th Street. I had read about it in the paper awhile back and was exited to try it out because they feature local ingredients. The ice cream was delicious. I especially liked Henry's Whirled Cup (vanilla with peanut butter cups, in honor the World Cup!).

Thursday ended with a beer bash for my good friend Heather and hanging out with some of my favorite friends, including Leigh, who is visiting from Seattle!

Friday: Are you tired of nature pictures yet? Friday's hike took us on different trails at the Arboretum, including the Willow Oak Trail and the Muscadine Trail. It was so pretty and Henry is such a good hiking companion!

Fungi!

Henry picked the trails and took us in a big loop around the meadow.

Here's my big boy after his last day of camp. He really had an awesome time! Arboretum camp is just super cool; they learn in a hands-on way and get to explore outside -- what could be better? And we love that they have a half day option, which is a great fit for our family. Will enjoyed it so much that he is eyeing some of their other offerings this summer.  And both boys will be back next summer for sure! 

Week four of summer was so much fun. We're looking forward to more fun outings and adventures next week!

World Cup: US vs. Portugal

It's World Cup time. Are you watching? 

We had some friends over Sunday afternoon for the US-Portugal match. Fortunately, our friends were not huge soccer fans, so they were very accepting of our divided loyalties. Note Gene's Portugal jersey and massive Portugal flag with a much smaller American flag on the right. 

We had hot dogs and burgers (with Gene's homemade buns),

potato salad, corn on the cob and a huge platter of fresh veggies.

Just waiting for our friends to arrive.

 Grill masters.

In case you didn't catch the game, it ended in a 2-2 tie. Perhaps that's the best you can hope for when you're rooting for both teams! 

Summer Break: Week Three

I truly enjoy summer vacation with my boys. Our days are full but our pace is generally more relaxed and we get to do all the fun things we don't always get to during the school year.

Summer vacation is 12 weeks long this year and the first two were spent in Portugal or re-adjusting to U.S. time, so I'm picking up with our activities from last week (week three). After lugging my big camera all around Portugal, I happily placed it in the cupboard at home and only took it out a couple of times. Phone pictures are not half as good but they sure are easier! (I didn't even break out my camera on Father's Day, which we enjoyed with all of Gene's family.)

Right after we got home from Portugal, Gene treated us to a complete Portuguese meal! We had soup of the day, broa (a dense cornbread), linguica, olives, Portuguese wine and even salt from Aveiro on the table. It was delicious and we all joked about how excited we were to eat Portuguese food before 7 pm!

The clean-plate club.

Monday was our first day to really get out of the house and the boys requested a trip to the zoo. They both had some specific animals they wanted to see, so we visited the komodo dragon, primates, elephants and sea lions. It wasn't insanely hot and we even ran into some good friends!

We love Tuesdays because they are full of cheap entertainment: dollar movies and kids-eat-free-at-Ikea. We saw Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 (despite the fact that the boys watched it four times on the airplane!) and then ate meatballs at Ikea. 

On Wednesday, the boys tagged along to my monthly breakfast with friends and then they started their first swim lessons of the summer! We're at a new swim school this year with hopes that we can continue swim into the fall.  

On Thursdays in the summer, the MFAH has activities for kids, so we got our passports and did some sketching in the galleries.

It wouldn't be summer without bike rides. On the way to the park, we first heard and then saw a hawk in a tree that was being attacked by blue jays! Of course it reminded us of our hawk from last summer.

Friday morning was our first visit to the neighborhood pool. We met up with some friends there and ran into more unexpectedly -- the best part of our little neighborhood!

Our weeks are falling into a predictable pattern of planned activities in the morning followed by a quiet afternoon at home with piano lessons, library visits, bike rides and swim lessons sprinkled in in the late afternoon or evening. Summer is always a much-needed break from the busy-ness of the rest of the year and it's off to a great start so far!