More Buggy Fun

I love summer days. The kids don't have school, but we sure manage to fill up our time with lots of entertaining activities. From Gymboree and Kindermusik classes to museum visits and lunch out with Daddy, there's not a whole lot of room for boredom at our house!

One of our favorite haunts this summer has been the Houston Museum of Natural Science. What could be more perfect than a place that has dinosaurs, minerals, bugs, and rocket ships all in the same building? There's even a train right outside. The boys get so excited to visit the museum, and since we're members, we can go whenever we want!

We spent Friday morning at the museum. Our first stop is always the dinosaurs fossils. They also both love to go up and see the minerals. But we spent most of our time Friday in the Butterfly Center. It was super crowded with kids from day camps, but the boys did find some games to play. In this one, they're matching the insect mouth with the tool it most resembles.

Henry got a close look at some cockroaches in the "Roach Dome."

Will found a tarantula buried deep in its own web.

The hands-on area is their favorite spot. The kids can pretend they are bees. The pollinate the flowers by matching up blocks and dropping them in the correct flower.

Will likes to fly like a bee.

Henry's favorite thing is to "fly" off this ledge in the hive. Doesn't it look like he has bee wings on here? After the museum visit, we went to the Downtown Aquarium for lunch with Daddy. I think we were all feeling a little bit goofy by that time.

Oh, what busy days!

The Little Engineer

Gene got the boys their first Lionel train set for Christmas last year. It mostly lives in a box in Gene's office, but every now and then, the three boys get it out and spend hours playing choo choo.

Will is such a good little engineer. He can run this train completely by himself and only occasionally needs help when something gets off track.

Will takes his job very seriously!

Henry mostly watches the train, but he loves it too, especially when he gets to sit with Daddy.
What could be more fun than spending the morning as a train engineer?
I love watching my little boys (and their big daddy, who is a little boy at heart) play trains!

Why is the Fourth of July?

For most people, the Fourth of July means remembering our forefathers, honoring our service men and women, and being thankful for our many freedoms. Independence Day is all those things for me too, but I cannot celebrate this holiday without remembering my grandparents and lazy summer days in Wisconsin.

The Fourth of July always reminds me of my grandpa. Every year he would say, "Why is the Fourth of July?" My sister and I would try to answer his question by discussing our independence, but really, my grandpa was making a statement, not asking a question. It was his favorite little joke, not a question at all, because "y" is the fourth letter of July. So now every year on the Fourth of July, I think of my grandpa.
I'm not sure how many times I actually was in Wisconsin for the Fourth of July, but in my memory, it was quite often. I can taste the juicy red watermelon and see my grandpa sitting in a chair in his huge backyard, spitting out the seeds. I see the fresh-picked zucchini piled at the side of the road with a sign saying "FREE" because his garden was so bountiful. I hear the loud rumble of the train as it roars by their house. I see and hear the fireworks exploding over the river, with a great view from my great-uncle's backyard. And I feel the warm embrace of my grandma. I wish my grandparents were still around to see these little boys. They would have adored them, and I would have loved to introduce Will and Henry to the long, lazy summer days in Wisconsin.

Instead, we'll make our own Fourth of July memories, like marching in the Fall Creek parade, rain and all.

Or eating a flag cake. Or watching fireworks and marching bands on TV a day late because the little ones were too exhausted to stay up til dark.
But even if some things change, I have no doubt that one part of the tradition will stay the same, because every year on the 4th, I wake up and say "Y is the Fourth of July," just like my grandpa always did.

It Almost Rained on My Parade

Fall Creek's annual Fourth of July parade almost didn't happen this year. First it was canceled due to lack of volunteers, and when it finally got back on the schedule, rain almost did away with it! It rained in short, heavy bursts immediately before the start of the parade. Everyone got wet but we all huddled under the tents to try to stay dry. Nana, Pop, Mike, Jess and little Mary all braved the weather to come out and march with us!

My good friend Liz and I worked with our neighborhood's Social Events Committee to pull of this parade. It was a ton of work but so worth it in the end! We had a good turnout, despite the weather, and everyone had fun. The one benefit of the rain was that it wasn't blazing hot!

We didn't win any prizes for our "float." As you can see, our decorations didn't fare so well in the rain. I actually had a lot more planned, including cute hats for the boys, pompoms to shake, and Sousa marches to blare out on my iPod. But it just didn't happen this year. The hats turned into little lakes that the pompoms floated on, and we hid the iPod dock so as not to ruin it.I didn't get any photos of the parade, but my sweet mother-in-law took a bunch. Thanks, Nancy! You can see from this picture that I was a bit preoccupied, calling out the raffle winners (including Mike!) at the start of the parade. The parade marched on, despite the weather. Hours and hours of hard work, and it was all over in a matter of minutes! So, in the end, it didn't rain on my parade. But even if it had, we all would've been out there marching anyway.

Busy Days

Our weekends are always busy. Even days like today, when we have nothing planned, they still seem to fill up with activities. This afternoon Will and Gene got haircuts and played at the pool while Henry and I did the grocery shopping and cooked dinner.

I think this is the first picture I have of Will getting his hair cut! Gene said he did really well (you never know, really), but he still doesn't like the clippers.

After dinner and baths, the boys came back downstairs to watch a show. As you can see here, Henry has a love affair with pillows. Seriously, he has every pillow in the living room piled up on the sofa!
Gene was tired after his long day. And since Henry had every single pillow in the living room on his sofa, Gene had to take his rest on a big ducky. Busy days mean tired boys!

A Bug's Life!

Will is fascinated by insects and spiders and all things creepy-crawly, so we read books about insects, visit the Museum of Natural Science to see butterflies up close and in person, and study Will's insect flashcards incessantly! Yesterday's bug "lesson" got a little more hands-on.

Gene and I found this cicada shell stuck on the side of a building after we had lunch yesterday, so like any good parents of bug-loving children, we scooped it up into a plastic bag and carried it home to show Will!

I didn't tell Will about the cicada right away when I got home. Instead, I pulled out Are You a Dragonfly? by Judy Allen and Tudor Humphries and we read it together. Dragonflies molt just like cicadas do, and this book has some awesome drawings of dragonflies pulling themselves out of their skin. It's written for preschoolers, so this series of bug books is just perfect for Will. Then we pulled out his insect cards and found the one of the cicada so he could see what an adult cicada looks like. Then I took the bag with the cicada shell in it outside and Will got to really look at it closely. He loved it!
Weezie was curious too!

Next Will had to pick up the cicada shell and compare it to his picture of a cicada.
When we came back in (with our cicada shell carefully preserved in a plastic box), we looked up pictures of cicadas online so we could learn about the molting process. If you don't know much about cicadas, here goes: the nymphs live underground for up to 17 years (depending on the species) and eat tree root sap. When a cicada nymph emerges from the ground, it attaches itself to a upright support, splits its skin, and molts. Then it looks for a mate, which is why we hear their loud buzzing or clacking mating songs in the summer. Interesting fact: adult cicadas do not eat! I found a cool set of photos showing the cicada molting process at http://emlado.com/cicada.htm. Check them out!

So, that was Will's impromptu bug "lesson" of the day, but it didn't stop there because Will turned into the teacher himself. Once Henry woke up from his nap, we climbed in the car to run errands, and Will wanted to take his bug cards with him. During the whole car ride, Will held up a card to Henry, told him what it was and a little bit about it. For example, Will held up the termite card and said "Henry, this is a termite. They eat wood. We don't like termites." Henry would look at the card and either say, "Mine don't like termites" or "That's mine favorite one!" Henry has lots of favorite bugs. And so does Will. Actually, it appears that we are just one big, bug-loving family! Who knew?

Again

Henry loves to do the same things over and over again, whether it is reading the same book four times before bed or repeating the same circuit at Gymboree.

So on Father's Day, Henry invented this little game and played it over and over again. He was pretty proud of himself! First, he pulled out the stool from the powder room, climbed up and over the sofa, and tumbled head first onto the ground. And then he did it again...and again...and again!

Henry's recipe for happiness: climb, tumble, giggle with your grandmas, and repeat!