Lately: Scouts, Soccer and More Chickens

The end of the school year is in sight, which means all of our activities will be winding down soon. It's been a very full school year for all of us and while we've enjoyed all our activities, I think we're all looking forward to the slower days of summer. 

Here's a peek at some of what we've been up to for the past two weeks:

We went to our first Dynamo game with some friends from Henry's soccer team. The Dynamo lost but we had a great time watching professional soccer players on the field.

Another first: we visited the Scout Fair at NRG Arena. It was massive! Packs and troops and other organizations from all around Houston had booths, activities, and food. We could have been there all day and not seen it all. 

Henry made a mini pinewood derby car at one booth.

Paper airplanes

Obstacle course through the River of Doom

Raingutter regatta

Boy Scout troops were cooking in the parking lot. We sampled chilis, Mexican s'mores, burgers and more, but the boys' favorite was trying the deep fried Oreos!

Last week, West U Elementary celebrated its 90th birthday! Thursday was "Dress like You're 90" day at school, so Henry donned a button-down shirt and pulled his pants up past his belly button. His teacher sprayed his hair with silver hair spray too. 

Chicks in the classroom

Each week, I spend about 30 minutes in Henry's classroom taking photos of the kids with the chickens. Six of the ten have gone back to the ranch, and we are left with Granny T, Chickmunk, Honeybun, and Lemondrop til the end of the year. They are growing so fast and are spreading their wings.

And finally, after huge storms and historic flooding in Houston, the early part of the weekend cleared up just in time for our final Cub Scout campout of the year. We traveled about an hour and a half west to Lake Somerville State Park and had a blast running, exploring, and fishing with our friends. And tending the fire, of course.

Tug of war

 

This has been Houston's wettest April on record, so spending the weekend outside at a beautiful park with lots of friends was exactly what we needed. More rain is on the way! 

Chick Sitting

It's not every weekend you get to bring three-day old chicks home! Henry's class chickens hatched last week and we volunteered to chick-sit two of them over the weekend. It was so much fun for all of us and we already miss Granny and Turken. They brought a lot of joy to our house for the past few days!

Granny is on the left, Turken is on the right. Granny hatched out of Henry's egg, and is named Granny because she's all gray. Turken is a naked-neck chicken, which makes him fairly unique.

It is so hard to stay awake when you are only three days old and cupped in warm hands.

This was their first experience on grass, and both chicks immediately started pecking and searching for seeds and bugs.

Everyone loves the chickens.

Baby chicks are just like human babies -- lots of eating, sleeping and pooping!

There's nothing like having a baby chick fall asleep in your hands.

Pics from Saturday:

The chicks get stronger every day and love to hop all over us and are starting to spread their wings.

This boy loves these chickens.

With the storms and flooding in Houston that cancelled school for two days, we got extra time with our favorite fluffy chicks.  

Gene's bar turned into a temporary chicken pen.

Henry has such an amazing teacher this year and we are so grateful for this unique learning experience with Granny and Turken!

Lately: The Animal Edition

Spring has sprung, and we have been surrounded by all kinds of animals during the last week. Here's a peek into some of what we've been up to lately:

Henry finished his massive animal habitat project on the Kemp's ridley sea turtle. 

The project culminated with a parent viewing of all the projects.

Gramma and Grampa came along too and Henry told them all about sea turtles. We also heard that the first Kemp's ridley sea turtle nest in Texas was found this week! 

Speaking of eggs, Henry's teacher incubates chicken eggs each year.  The kids have been learning all about chickens and incorporating them into all subjects from math and science to reading and writing.

The chicks started hatching this week! 10 out of 22 eggs hatched and they are so sweet and fuzzy. The class will keep four (the other six will go live on a ranch) and watch them grow for the rest of the school year. We hope to get to do some chick-sitting soon!

Chicken love

Aunt Jess also gave us two monarch chrysalises from her backyard, and we got to watch them for a week and then release them into the wilds of our backyard. This was a special treat, since I grew up in Pacific Grove, California, aka Butterfly Town USA, where thousands of butterflies spent the winter each year. We had annual butterfly parades and there were fines for harming monarchs (I remember being very distressed if our cats ever caught one!).

Last week, my photography buddy and I spent the morning exploring some of the FotoFest exhibits in the Washington Avenue Arts District. Our favorites were the exhibits of the three National Geogrpahic photographers at Spring Street Studio.

And finally, I'll leave you with more reptiles. We had a presentation by Texas Snakes and More at our Cub Scout meeting last night. 

The boys could touch and "wear" five friendly snakes!

 

Ball python

 

We do a lot of fun things in Scouts, but this was a huge hit with all the boys!

It has been an animal-filled week!