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!

January Recap

Now that it's March, it's time for a January recap.  The past couple of months have been pretty busy around here! 

Back on New Year's Day, we took a First Day hike at the Houston Arboretum. It was a gorgeous day and it was so good to get outside.  Nature always makes me happy.  

We also visited Brazos Bookstore for their Yappy New Year celebration. It's always fun when you can bring your dog to the book store!

January was pretty full of book events. Author Chitra Soundar visited West U to talk to our second and third graders.  She was the third author to visit while I was the substitute librarian!

The annual Bluebonnet Breakfast also happened while I was subbing.  Henry received an award for reading all 20 Bluebonnet nominees.  

The winner at our school was Refugee by Alan Gratz.

In other happenings, Henry made some really cool art

and I cracked my computer screen 

which led to quality work time on the upstairs computer with the cat on my lap.  

Henry has been creating a dungeon for D&D.  

Henry and I attended his last International Festival at West U

and Henry also said the Pledge of Allegiance at Sorcha Landau's investiture as Justice in the Court of Appeals.  

Finally, we had a big pep rally at school for the start of the Souper Bowl of Caring. 

Our school donated over 45,000 pounds of food to the Houston Food Bank!  Fifth grade always brings in the most amount of food.  

That's a wrap for January!

Lately: An October Recap

October has come and gone, in a blur!  It started on the 1st with Gene's birthday and ended with a rainy Halloween. Here's a quick peek at some of what we did in October:

Happy birthday, Gene!

Gene's birthday was on a Monday, so we celebrated with a special beef tenderloin dinner on Sunday night.  It was delicious!

Our new Astros flag 

The boys got flu shots, which is always traumatic for Henry, so we treated ourselves to milkshakes from the Chocolate Bar afterwards.

The Astros made a run at the World Series again, but couldn't get past the Boston Red Sox. We wore our Astros shirts a lot, and Henry put on handcuffs and came downstairs, saying, "I got arrested for stealing second base!" Baseball humor!

We also saw our first cold front come through town.  Temps dropped 37 degrees, going from 91 to 54! Of course, we had to turn on the fire and make hot cocoa.

Speaking of heat, Henry is obsessed with the Scoville heat index, so we had to snap this photo in front of the peppers at Central Market.  I love that it's a great adventure to go to the grocery store with this kid! 

Henry really does love food. He found a spiced butternut squash soup recipe in the newspaper a few weeks ago and begged me to make it.  It was delicious -- and now it's on the menu again for this week, per Henry's request.

Our vegetable garden petered out except for our eggplants.  This was the biggest one we got all year!

Grad school life plus working full time (I started as the long-term sub in the library on October 24) has made for a busy season in our household.  We had our carpets and sofa cleaned before I started work, so I set up shop in Henry's room to keep working on school assignments.  

October also means the annual Cub Scout popcorn sales -- our last one ever!

Henry's enjoying art class so much this fall. His teacher accidentally pulled the advance art assignment and Henry drew this incredible dragon, over the course of a couple of class periods. 

It's hanging in the art school hallway now!

Another art piece -- a platypus.

We enjoyed our fall festivals -- Boo Bash at the school and Full Moon Fest at Colonial Park. Henry went with his buddy Noah to both.

We pulled out some costumes in advance of Halloween and Will was doing his homework while sporting an alien mask.  

Halloween day brought huge storms to Houston. On our way to get Will from school, a tornado warning prompted Kinkaid to shelter in place, which delayed dismissal by a good 30 minutes.  Henry and I decided to shelter in place with Pop, which was a good idea because he made us coffee!

Halloween night usually brings hordes of kids to our neighborhood, but with the storms rumbling through town, we only had nearby kids out and about.  We have so much candy left over that we need to donate!

I manned the door while Gene took the boys down the block. It was nutty -- Gene was on a work call with Australia and I was online for a class chat for my cataloging course!  Henry really wanted to wear his huge alien mask, but it can't get wet, so he opted to be a wizard instead. The skies did clear for a good two-hour trick-or-treating window, and the boys came back with enough candy to end the dreaded "candy drought." (It's a long time between Easter and Halloween and the kids are always afraid they'll run out of special treats.)

Happy fall to you all!  I hope you're enjoying leftover Halloween candy, beautiful fall weather, and warming soups.  Fall is my favorite season.