Birthday Girl

My birthday was on Sunday and we had a quiet celebration at home, which is exactly what I wanted.

The morning started out with scones. Gene makes amazing orange-chocolate chip scones for me on special occasions. They are rich and buttery and never last long around here. Perfect birthday breakfast!

Our big outing for the day was to visit the Sunday farmers market, which is one of my favorite spots in Houston. The boys munched on popsicles and Gene and I enjoyed iced lattes while listening to live music. We came home with an assortment of creams and soaps, olive oil and some fresh figs. We love Houston's Sunday market! 

The afternoon consisted of a long nap for me, baking for Gene and a walk down the street to pick up birthday cupcakes. We were thrilled that Heather and Joel could join us for a special birthday dinner!

Gene barbequed ribs again, and we had corn on the cob, bean salad, grilled squash and pretzel rolls.

Cupcakes from Crave! It's our birthday tradition. This is an ice cream sundae cupcake and it was delicious!

Birthday girl

My birthday was exactly what I wanted. Surrounded by good food and some of my favorite people, it was perfect from start to finish.

Summer Break: Week Eight

It was another fairly quiet week at our house. This week, we enjoyed a playdate (five boys at the house!), swim lessons, dollar movies, and a few outings. Here are some of the week's highlights:

Superhero Henry.

My boys were both busy reading (The Beyonders series for Will, The Secrets of Droon series for Henry) before the Children's Hilltop Festival show at Miller Outdoor Theatre. We saw a version of The Three Little Pigs in which the pigs were pig scouts working on their camping badges. Perfect for my own little scouts!

Building, building, building! My boys love to build. We don't have Lincoln Logs at our house, so the boys love to play with them when we visit Gramma and Grampa.

We often see the Monster PB&J food truck at the Contemporary Arts Museum when we're in the Museum District, so we decided to stop by for lunch on Friday. 

 

Endless sculpture by Joseph Havel outside the CAMH.

These monsterlicious sandwiches aren't your standard PB&J. They are loaded and yummy and best of all, you can get them grilled! Will had peanut butter, sliced apples and strawberry jam; Henry had peanut butter, nutella and strawberry slices; and I had almond butter and sliced strawberries with the en fuego (sweet/spicy) sauce. Mmmm! 

We enjoyed our lunch across the street at the Cullen Sculpture Garden, which we pretty much had all to ourselves because it is finally getting HOT here in Houston.

Inside, we've done lots of arts and crafts. 

Henry drew this fall picture one night before bed while wearing Christmas jammies. Do you think he's ready for some cooler temps?

And finally, a picture of my snaggletoothed boy. Will's got two wiggly top teeth and we just know one is going to come out soon!

Summer is flying by; only one more month til school starts back up!

Summer Art

Each summer, the boys take at least one week of classes at the Glassell Junior School. This year, after watching Gene take a drawing class, they chose a drawing and painting class for their summer art class. Here's their art for the week.

Assignment: Self Portraits

Will

Henry

Assignment: Trees

Will

Henry

Assignment: Submarines

Will

Henry

Assignment: Abstracts (my favorites!)

Will

Henry

Assignment: Buildings 

Note: The boys designed their drawings 

to go side-by-side and make a town!

Will

Henry

I am always so impressed with what the boys do in art class.

Birthday Brew Bash

I have a big birthday coming up in a few days, so to celebrate, Gene threw me a party on Saturday night! I'm a fan of craft beer, so we decided to hold the party at Mongoose Versus Cobra in Midtown. It was the perfect location for me -- excellent craft beer in a historic building. (The building is from 1915 and Mongoose Versus Cobra won a Good Brick Award in 2013 for their restoration and adaptive reuse of the building.)

This is the invitation that Gene had my friend Ally design.

Just waiting for our friends to arrive!

Two of my best friends, Katy and Heather.

The rest of the party crew. 

A lot of our friends were traveling, but we had a really fun mix of people -- old friends and new, work friends and school buddies.  

Gene and Jonathan have been friends since law school!

Jonathan and Julie live in Austin but they just happened to be in town last weekend and it is always so much fun to catch up with them!

My girls again.

Jaime, Gene and Jonathan.

I can't remember the last time I had a birthday party but this was so much fun that I think we need to do it more often! I have some pretty awesome friends (and a pretty spectacular husband!) and am so happy so many were able to help me celebrate. 

At the end of the evening, we passed out party favors.  

We had coasters (designed by Ally)

and birthday cake cookies from Paulie's.  

What a fantastic way to kick off the next decade!

Summer Break: Week Seven

Last week was a fairly quiet week around our house. We got out for a few outings but we mostly stayed home, reading books, building with Legos and Magformers, cooking and cleaning, listening to music and dancing a lot, and watching the rain. With big storms nearly every day, it was a good week to be home!

Monday: We took Weezie to the vet for her checkup. Weezie is 13 but the vet said she's a healthy kitty! Weezie loves summer and spends the entire day outside, sleeping, chasing lizards and hanging out with our neighbor's cat, Miss Kitty. 

Tuesday: Our big outings on Tuesday were to the library and a new-to-us ice cream parlor. 

Books! These boys are always reading!

Cloud 10 Creamery is located in Rice Village. We are on a mission to try out different ice cream parlors and find our favorites. Cloud 10 has some interesting flavors, like smoked corn and tomato rooibos, but we stuck with more traditional flavors -- chocolate, vanilla bean, and nutella & marshmallow. 

Wednesday: The boys joined me for my monthly breakfast with girlfriends, and then we spent the rest of the morning out and about. We stopped by Gramma and Grampa's house and visited another library.

And then we decided to take an impromptu trip to the MFAH for lunch and a visit to the "sea of strings," The Houston Penetrable installation.

Thursday: We went bowling with some friends! 

Friday: We finally made it to the science museum. Friday features the Feeding Frenzy at the Butterfly Center, so we watched as the staff members fed the snakes and the bullfrog. 

It rained hard while we were at the museum, but it had all cleared up by the time we left. The boys love running on the hill near Miller Outdoor Theatre.

Best friends.

This quiet week was exactly what we needed!