Summer Break: Week Three

We had a lot of rain in Houston last week! We can't complain too much because it kept the temperatures down. 

Here's a peek at some of during our third week of summer break:

Indoor running because there was too much rain!

 The boys and I went to an ASCII art class at the Looscan Library. This summer program for tweens taught them how to use code to create ASCII art (art with symbol). This program also counted toward my field project for my grad school class. 

Will's ASCII art

We also checked out books, clearly! I had requested this one for me, but Will confiscated it because it's epistolary and he loves that style of narrative. I'll read it when he's done and then hopefully Henry will grab it too! 

All the rain made this one a bit goofy! 

But he did make me a flower out of bendy sticks.  

Finally, on Thursday, we got out of the house (for something besides library visits and art class). We decided that it was the perfect day to visit the zoo because it was very overcast with a decent chance of rain. We grabbed our umbrellas but it didn't rain on us AND we had the zoo pretty much to ourselves.

Our first stop was the Big Bugs exhibit.

The zoo always has fun summer exhibits -- this year, there are giant animatronic insects!

The bombardier beetle sprays water, so Henry tried to fend off the attack with his umbrella.

The animals were so active, maybe because it wasn't too hot.  

The chimpanzees and gorillas were out and moving.

And we got to see the brand-new baby elephant! Tilly was just five days old when we saw her!

Henry's art class work

On Friday, we visited the MFAH. We had to stop and show Will the Cloud Column sculpture outside the Glassell School.

The fountains outside the school were pretty cool too.

We really wanted to see the Big Bambu installation.  

The installation, This Thing Called Life, is made up of over 3000 bamboo poles and towers more than 30 feet in the air. Bamboo is the strongest natural building material. This installation is really impressive!

After walking through the installation on the ground level, we went upstairs and walked across this bridge to walk on the structure.

Summer in Houston may be hot, but our cultural institutions do a phenomenal job bringing exciting and unique installations to our city during these sweltering months. 

Summer Break: Week Two

Since we didn't get out and about a ton during our first week of summer break, we made an effort to do more on week 2. Beyond our usual library outings, here's a peek at some of what we did:

We finally visited Eveyln's Park in Bellaire to check out the new Alice in Wonderland sculpture by Bridgette Mongeon. It is huge and so fun!

Next, we visited the Water Wall, Designed in 1985, this 64-foot water wall spills water down both front and back sides. We'd never taken the time to visit before, but it was well worth a trip!

Henry's face says it all!

 

We also decided to finally visit our own local candy factory. Kegg's Candies has been making chocolate candies right here in Houston since 1946! The candy is actually really delicious.  

Kegg's candies offers a glimpse into their factory whenever they are open, but it turns out that the summer months are slow and there was no candy-making happening on the day we showed up. We were able to go back two days later to tag along on a group tour and actually see how the chocolates are made. 

 

Samples were a bonus!

The tour price included their homemade ice cream or Italian ice. 

The boys also took three days of cooking classes at Central Market during the week. They learned so much and got to eat everything they created. 

Henry has also been busy this summer with two art classes at a local art school. He is continuing with the Drawing Fundatmentals class he started in March and has added a Comic Creation class. Below is the beginning of his title page for his comic.  

On Friday night, my wonderful book club met at my house. We were supposed to meet at another friend's house, but her a/c was out, so everyone came over here instead. We've been meeting for a little over two years and I am so lucky to have found such a wonderful group of friends who love to talk about books just as much as I do! (We are actually a group of 10 but a lot of us were traveling this month.)

While book club was happening at our house, Gene was on a plane coming home from his 12-day trip to Singapore and Australia, so the boys were spending the evening at Nana and Pop's house. Nana and Pop snapped a few breakfast pictures to share with us.  

Gene made it back from his trip in time for Father's Day! We were all so excited to see him!

We spent the afternoon of Father's Day with Nana and Pop and all the cousins. What fun!

And finally, I'll leave you with a couple of photos of Ruby. Her monthly Bark Box came and it makes her so happy! 

This is Ruby's spot -- where she waits patiently for us to take her for a walk or give her pets. 

Now I'm off to see if we still have any of that Kegg's candy left or it the boys ate it all!