May 2022 Recap

May was a busy month, full of end-of-year concerts, the 8th grade promotion ceremony and family time. Here's a quick peek at our May highlights:

Henry took full-time orchestra this year, which meant he played with high school students. Their final orchestra concert was incredible! 

So glad my parents were able to come to the performance!

Photo bomber Will.

Empty Bowls at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft returned after a two-year hiatus. It was so good to be back and get some more bowls for our growing collection.

And Henry finished 8th grade! We didn't get to have an 8th grade recognition ceremony for Will, so this felt extra special.  We are so very proud of this kiddo!

We celebrated Pop's 80th birthday

and took a goofy picture of the cousins that involved a long exposure and them running to get to the other side of the room. Double the trouble for sure!

Another celebration -- our 18th anniversary! We went to a farm dinner at Atkinson Farms. 

Beautiful blackberries at the farm

We have a tiny raised bed that is mostly full of herbs and milkweed.

But we've had a good number of caterpillars this year!

We pull the caterpillars inside when we can so the chrysalises are protected from wasps. 

Some random pics -- Will at a Magik draft at Asgard with a bunch of friends. 

Cuddly kitties

And sailing -- Gene occasionally takes long lunch breaks to go sail!

And now school's out and it's officially summer break!  

November 2019 Recap

November was another full month for our family. Here's a peek at what we did this month:

We were lucky to have more beautiful weekend weather, so we took advantage of gorgeous days by getting out and hiking at the Arboretum. It's always our favorite place to go when we are short on time but want to get outside.  

The Kinkaid book fair was also in November.  We found the sweet spot when the fair was empty -- 45 minutes after school let out but an hour before family night started.  

Continuing with books, my school was lucky to host Shannon Messenger, author of the Keeper of the Lost Cities series. 

Shannon was in discussion with local author Katharine McGee.  

We had a huge crowd for this evening event!

Henry's fall art show was during November as well. He had four works on display!

Best of all, Gramma and Grampa were in town and able to come see Henry's work.  

Henry also took up violin this fall as part of the fine arts rotation at Kinkaid. After his disastrous experience with violin in kindergarten, we were all surprised to discover that he absolutely adores playing the violin now!

The best part of November was spending time with family. We were so lucky this year to have Amber, Tom and the kids come to Houston for a week.  Their trip overlapped with our annual Thanksgiving vacation, but we still had plenty of time together.  Here are some family photos from Thanksgiving day.  

Two days after Thanksgiving, we went to Gene and Nancy's for our second family celebration. 

Cousins 

Family

We have so many things to be thankful for this year, but spending time with our families is at the top of the list.  

May Recap

May is such a busy month, but we found plenty of opportunities to get out and explore our city.  Here's a peek at some of what we did last month: 

A cold front came into town over a weekend so we headed to the Arboretum. It's always my favorite place to go when our time is limited but we need to spend some time in nature. 

The wildflowers were spectacular!

We haven't had much time to spend gardening, but our two eggplants from last year survived the winter and we have already harvested eggplants twice.  

Henry requested an experience for his birthday this year, and this kid is a die-hard Astros fan, so we got him tickets for a May game against the Red Sox.  The Astros lost but we had a great time cheering on our 'Stros!

Gene, Mike and Pop got gussied up and went to the opera.  

Henry is still devoted to his weekly art class, and we always look forward to Monart's art shows so we can see his work on display.

We went to Empty Bowls Houston again this year and came home with five new bowls.  It's one of our favorite events each year.  

Gene and Will had some errands to run on Memorial Day, so Henry and I took advantage of some time by ourselves to go see a few exhibits at the MFAH.  The sculptures and fountains outside the Glassell School are always worth a visit.

The MFAH's summer exhibit is "William Forsythe: Choreographic Objects" and it is phenomenal. This installation is called "Nowhere and Everywhere at the Same Time, No. 2." You walk through the field of swinging pendulums, trying to avoid contact. It's incredibly fun and beautiful at the same time. 

We also saw sculptures by Jack Whitten

and photographs by Sally Mann.

Back at home, Ruby waits patiently for someone to throw the ball with her,

and this little cat learned how to turn on the water faucets. She flooded the boys' bathroom! Fortunately, Gene did some research and invested in this flower petal water fountain that fulfills her very strong need to fresh, flowing water. She is a transformed cat now that she doesn't have to cry for someone to turn on the faucet for her (or take matters into her own paws!).

Will finished seventh grade with a mostly A+ average, took his first-ever finals, and settled into relaxing days of summer with lots of reading and building molecule models. He made me caffeine on a day when I was feeling especially tired!

And, finally, in my news, I had several job interviews in May but accepted the position as librarian at Spring Branch Middle School for next year!  I am so excited to be in Spring Branch, as the district is very supportive of their librarians. My school has a great principal and I'm really excited to get to work with middle schoolers.  And, the location is perfect -- just 10 minutes from Kinkaid and 5 minutes from my in-laws!  

May was definitely a whirlwind but in all good ways!