Lately: Celebrating

The month of May brings many, many celebrations! The school year is almost over and if that isn't a cause for celebration, I don't know what is.

Yesterday was my last day to volunteer at Cunningham for this school year and I got lots of hugs from my kiddos, teacher, and librarian. I love working with kids and helping them learn to love books.

Our weekends have been a bit nuts lately so we spent a fairly quiet Mother's Day morning at home working on Will's last school project before heading off to an afternoon soccer game. Henry picked two recipes from his Chop Chop magazine to make for me. These are eggs fried in bread crumbs and they were surprisingly delicious!

Gene and Henry made a very healthy fruit crisp with fruits from our farmers market run for dessert.

Soccer season ended on Mother's Day this year!

We stopped by Ben and Jerry's last Friday night for some "just because" ice cream.

 Saturday was a whirlwind day. Henry's first communion was at 10am.

All of Gene's family was there and it was a lovely Mass.

Afterwards, we came back home for a super-quick lunch and then Henry passed the family's Portuguese Mass book to Mary, since her first communion will be next year. 

We had to gobble our lunch because the boys' piano recital was at 12:30 pm, but the whole family was able to come.

Henry played "Indian War Chant" by William Gillock and "Perfect Balance" by Dennis Alexander.

Will played "Alouette" by Alfred and "Minuet No. 1" by  Bach. Both boys played so well and we were all so proud of them and their hard work!

We had plans to head out Saturday night, but some big storms rolled through Houston, so we stayed in, ate pasta, played chess, and snuggled with Ruby. 

Sunday morning was cool and breezy, so we took Ruby to the dog park. She was in dog heaven! 

There are only six more days of school but many more end-of-the-year celebrations to come! 

The Weekend: Hermann Park, Bingo and Two Carnivals

We spent much of the weekend outside, enjoying fall in Houston! We kicked off the weekend Friday night with a members' preview party at the new McGovern Centennial Gardens in Hermann Park.

We have been watching the progress on these gardens for the past year and were so excited to finally get a sneak peak. The gardens aren't quite finished just yet due to rain delays, but it was fun to get inside and explore a bit. What we saw was spectacular!  

This is "The Mount," a 30-foot tall hill with a spiral walkway to the top

and a cascading water feature.

View of Miller Outdoor Theater from the top of the Mount.

View of Centennial Green from the top of the Mount.

We enjoyed St. Arnold's beer, tasty nibbles and some Michael's Cookie Jar cookies for dessert.

And then explored more! 

There are winding trails in the Woodland Garden

and on the Tudor Family Pine Hill Walk.

The pagoda was moved to a corner in the park near the new rose garden.

The new Centennial Gardens in Hermann Park are beautiful and we cannot wait to go back again and check it out once all the work is completed!

Saturday was our school's annual Boo Bash Carnival. I worked two shifts and the boys played games, ate cotton candy and explored with Gene. I caught with them in time for lunch and a round of jousting!

In the afternoon, the boys went off in search of Halloween costumes and we ended the evening with a few rounds of Bingo at church! We've never been to Bingo before, but it takes place (along with a fajita dinner) the night before the annual Fun Fest carnival. We didn't win anything but we sure had fun! 

Our church's Fun Fest carnival is always the same weekend as the school carnival, so we've never done both (mostly because I am carnival-ed out by the time Sunday afternoon arrives!). This year, everyone was up for Fun Fest at church, so we spent some time exploring and playing games. 

All three of my boys tried their hands at the strongman high striker game. Gene rang the bell on his very first try!

Our weekend ended with a few more hours outside, roasting beer can chicken on the grill and finally setting up our outside Halloween decor. Happy fall, y'all!

Will's First Communion

Will's first communion was Saturday afternoon. He has been working hard towards this milestone all year.

We had lots of time before Mass to wait so I took pictures and we played rounds and rounds of "Rock Paper Scissors" and sticks.

The first communion Mass was lovely and Will did a great job. Here he's singing a song with his group at the very end. 

All done! So big and so proud!

Will carried the missalette that Pop carried during his first communion. It's part of the family tradition; Gene and Mike carried it and Henry will carry it next.

We had a small reception at our house afterwards. 

Nana and Pop, Mike and Jess and their kids, and Katy and Jaime joined us for cheese, crackers and a lemon dessert. The cheese board had cheeses from Houston Dairymaids and Gene's homemade baguette and olive oil crackers. 

 Contemplating the gifts.

First communion was lovely and we so enjoyed celebrating we good friends and family.