February Recap

Blogging keeps slipping away from me!  February was a full month -- I finished subbing in the school library, Henry graduated from Cub Scouts, Will started baseball and more.  Here's a peek at some of what we did in February:

Henry was my helper in the library, checking in and out books!

Henry also finished his time in Cub Scouts. These two pictures are from the Arrow of Light ceremony.

The next week was the Crossover ceremony, where the boys cross over from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts. 

Henry still also loves art and is always drawing!

February was a big month for Henry.  He was on the Name That Book team at school and the first round of competitions was at the end of the month.  The kids worked so hard and I was so proud to help coach them, but they came in second in the preliminary round to T.H. Rogers.  

Will has been busy as well.  He started baseball at Kinkaid, and while it may not be his favorite sport, we are already seeing some improvement.

He is also doing really well at viola and even made second chair this year!  We went to a concert at the MATCH to see his viola teacher play with her ensemble group.  

We had a lot of really gray, rainy days in February, so we took advantage of a rare sunny day to get out and hike at the Arboretum.  

Henry had to make a bento box for a school project. This is what he and Gene came up with:  three birds (strawberries), a birdhouse, seeds for the bird, and, of course, an egg in a nest. 

We had lunch out with Henry after his final round of middle school testing and interviews. Applying to middle school is tough!

I was trying to clean up the playroom one day, and Freyja was "helping" me.   

We had a very low-key Valentine's Day celebration with heart cookies from a family friend in Michigan.  

I hope your February was full of heart cookies and big smiles too!

Thanksgiving and Beyond

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday! This year, we spent Thanksgiving day with Gramma and Grampa, enjoying turkey and all the fixings.  

And then, the day after Thanksgiving, we spent the afternoon with Nana and Pop and the cousins. The kids (and Gene) ran and played hard.

Jess brought chrysalises and we released monarchs that had emerged that morning.

Climbing trees

Dodgeball -- Gene vs. Will, Henry and Michael 

Gene lost 10-1

For the rest of our break, we did some work on projects

and Gene took the boys on a circuitous errand-running path that included a super secret stop at Shipley's for donuts. 

Gene also took the boys to the grand opening of the Weiss Energy Hall at the science museum (while I went to book club). The boys gave it a big thumbs-up.

The boys and I saw A Charlie Brown Christmas at Main Street Theater with friends, and the play was just as cute and funny as the movie.

Now that we are firmly into December, the boys are counting down the days to Christmas while we're trying to fit in as many of our favorite holiday traditions as we can!

Name That Book

One of Will's extracurricular activities this year is the Name That Book club, and it has been such a big part of our year so far that it deserves its own post! The club members read 30 books (the 20 Bluebonnet titles and 10 others), meet weekly to discuss the books, and then try out to make the team in December. In the spring, practices are twice a week for team members, and it culminates in competition at the end of February/early March. The six team members compete against other HISD schools and are given a quote from a book, and then have 45 seconds to discuss and "name that book!" It's a really fun program for kids who love to read, but it's a tremendous amount of work and takes a lot of dedication to read and reread those 30 books!

Will made the team for the second year in a row, and I have been incredibly lucky to work with our school librarian and another mom to help coach the team. These kids all love to read and it's so fun to work with a group of kids who talk about books constantly. 

Our preliminary competition was Wednesday morning. Last year, we didn't make it past the preliminaries, so our fingers were crossed this time around.

Ready to go!

Our team did a fantastic job and won the preliminary competition against four other schools.

After prelims, the kids enjoyed lunch on the library's courtyard.

And then it was off to finals on Friday!

There were ten schools in the finals; they had all won their preliminary competitions and these kiddos knew the 30 books inside out. Competition was intense! Our team was flawless through the first four rounds and then missed a couple of quotes in the very last round. They ended up coming in second (after a sudden death elimination) and we could not have been more proud of them. They worked SO hard!

The trophy will be added to the collection in the school library.

After competition, the kids and coaches celebrated with lunch out at Little Matt's. 

Winning second place was amazing, but what's even better is that the kids don't want the book club to end now that competition is over. Our librarian has decided to keep the club going and we'll start reading new books and discussing them after spring break. What a wonderful way to encourage a love of books and a community of readers!