Saturday Outings

Saturday was the perfect day, spent at two of my favorite spots in Houston: the farmers market and the arboretum! 

We had absolutely nothing on the agenda for Saturday morning except bread baking, yard work and a trip to the farmers market. While Gene stayed home to work on the yard, Henry (my farmers market sidekick) and I headed to the market. We are so lucky that it is five minutes from our house. We came home with five canvas sacks full of spring veggies: beets, carrots, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, Easter egg radishes, four heads of lettuce, kale, green onions, cabbage, fennel and strawberries. Fresh veggies make me happy, and I am a true locavore at heart. (It doesn't hurt that I've been reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver.)

After the farmers market, I spent a good hour and a half prepping veggies and cleaning the kitchen. You should see what the kitchen looks like after a visit to the farmers market -- veggies and veggie tops everywhere! The boys were playing nicely together and Gene was still working in the yard, so I took my time and enjoyed working on lunch and prepping food for the week. This may be my favorite way to spend a Saturday morning.

I roasted beets, trimmed and washed the beet and radish greens to saute, made a carrot top pesto, and found homes for all the veggies in the fridge. Gene thought I was crazy when I told him I was going to make a pesto out of carrot greens, but it turned out amazing, disappeared quickly, and has everyone in the family asking for more. 

Here's our waste-not, want-not farmers market lunch:

roasted beets, sauteed beet and radish greens, Gene's homemade English muffins (made from the starter you have to discard every week) topped with fresh goat cheese from the farmers market and the carrot top pesto, plus strawberries on the side. The flavors were incredible!

  

Farmers market strawberries are the best -- so juicy and sweet and red all the way through.

Will had a birthday party to attend Saturday afternoon, so Gene and Henry stayed home drawing and chatting and listening to music. Then we all met up at the Houston Arboretum for their Natural Families kayaking adventure! The arboretum is absolutely one of my favorite places to go because you can escape the hustle and bustle of Houston but still be right in the middle of the city.

Our kayaking adventure started at 3pm. The boys have kayaked at the arboretum before (in summer camp) and we all kayaked last fall at Discovery Green, so we know we love kayaking. Will always claims Gene as his partner, but Henry and I make a good, albeit slower, team, so it's all good.

All ready to go!

And they're off!

We loved our kayaking adventure and were so lucky that the rains held off til evening. After kayaking, I made the boys take photos with the bluebonnets. They aren't great with my point and shoot, but we're in Texas and I wanted to grab a few shots while we were there.

Our day ended with grilling outside -- lemon chicken, asparagus, English muffins, and green salad from the farmers market. It was a perfect day, from start to finish!

Weekend Adventures: Sugar Land and Discovery Green

The boys had Friday off for HISD's fall holiday. On Thursday, Gene's secretary reminded him that he has 12 vacation days left this year, so at the last minute, Gene decided to take Friday off and we went exploring! We had big ideas to head out of town but some of us had trouble getting moving in the morning, so we ended up just going to Sugar Land to visit the science museum.  

It actually worked out perfectly because Gene had never been before, it was completely uncrowded, and this was the last weekend to view the Amusement Park Science exhibit. The roller coaster, swings, and Ferris wheel in this photo are made out of K'Nex. It was pretty amazing! 

The Bump-O-Rama exhibit shows the action and reaction of a bumper car ride. The boys just loved slamming the rubber circles into each other!

Henry's favorite was the Momentum Machine, where he spun and spun and learned about momentum. We worried that he would get sick to his stomach, but he was fine.

Will's favorite area was the Create-a-Coaster, where he experimented with tracks to see how far he could get his ball to roll. In the end, he figured out how to lay out every single piece of track to get his ball through to the very end.  

Gene and Henry spent a lot of time building with K'Nex. The blur in the background is Will retrieving a ball from his roller coaster.  

We spent most of the morning in the Amusement Park exhibit but we had to walk Daddy through the frogs, minerals and paleontology hall. Henry loves this light play area. We had a great morning and really enjoyed the day off from school!

On Saturday, we headed to Discovery Green for the Take Me Outdoors Festival, sponsored by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. The whole idea is to get people who live in Houston exposed to nature. We already do a good job of this, but I thought it would be a fun event, and it was.

The mist tree, by artist Doug Hollis, wasn't on when we first arrived, but Henry thought it was a pretty cool sculpture!

We planted some Indian paintbrush seeds,

checked out specimens under a microscope,

touched some snakes,

waited patiently to try some target practice,

had our picture taken with an oversized bird,

and investigated the stuffed animals.  

Henry found a hill, and practiced running up 

and down, despite the heat.  

We watched part of the birds of prey demonstration, and saw this beautiful bay wing hawk, but there was a lot of talking and not much bird-flying, so we ended up heading for the kayaks.  

Ever since the boys learned to kayak at camp at the Houston Arboretum last month, they have been begging to get out on the water again. It turns out that even in the heart of downtown Houston, you can kayak! 

Gene went with Will, and Henry and I teamed up. 

It took a few minutes to get into the groove, but we had a blast

and are already thinking about when and where we can go kayaking again.  

Our weekend adventures are such a fun way to get out and explore and spend time together as a family!