The Indoor Playground

It has been so hot here lately, so of course we are always looking for fun things to do indoors. One of the boys' absolute favorite summer spots in the indoor playground at a local church. This place is huge and air-conditioned, and best of all, it's absolutely free! It can get really crowded, but we've discovered that if we go first thing in the morning or late in the afternoon, we might have the place nearly to ourselves. This picture doesn't even show all of the playground, but you get the general idea of how tall it is! There are ramps and slides and steps and tunnels. What kid wouldn't love this place? Henry's telling me that he's at the very top. There is another level above him, but he hasn't made it up there just yet. In this picture, Will has climbed up a series of steps to pop up and surprise Henry. Doesn't the expression on their faces just say it all? Utter joy.

These three huge slides are so much fun!

And when the boys get tired of climbing and crawling and sliding, they can go play in the rocket ship. And since Henry's fascination with rockets is still going strong, this is a favorite area of the playground for them!

They fix the rocket, tinker with the controls, and even meet space aliens!

This church has cool murals all over the place, and the idea of the space ship is that the kids are traveling back in time to learn about the Bible. I'm not sure my kids quite grasp that concept, but they sure do enjoy this cool, air-conditioned respite from the Houston heat. Happy climbing!

Dinosaur Invasion

Have you heard about the dinosaurs at the Houston Zoo? A group of animatronic dinosaurs has taken over a corner of the zoo for the summer months! And if you know Will, you know that we have a serious dinosaur obsession going on at our house.

Gene was able to get off work at 4:30 yesterday afternoon, so I gave the boys three choices of afternoon activities: zoo, science museum or children's museum. Will originally picked the science museum (because he loves the dinosaur fossils there), but once he heard about the zoo dinosaurs, he couldn't wait to go there instead!

The dinosaurs have been at the zoo for about 6 weeks already, but I wasn't sure if they'd be too scary for the boys. The dinosaurs do move and grunt and roar, but they really weren't too frightful. Henry disliked some of them, but we just moved quickly by the scarier ones and everyone was fine!

Henry especially loved seeing these little dinosaur babies.

The stegosaurus is one of our favorites. Did you know its brain was the size of a walnut?

You can take the Daddy out of the office, but you can't wrestle the Blackberry from his hands!
Will loved the dinosaurs. We went through the exhibit four times, and I'm sure we would have gone through again if the zoo hadn't been about to close!

Will looks completely bored here, but he's just tired and hot.

We couldn't leave the zoo without visiting the newest addition to the elephant family, baby Baylor. He was adorable!Everyone loves the giraffes. The zoo lost a mama and baby the day before, though, so we decided the giraffes all looked a little sadder than normal.Where are the giraffes, Henry?We saw this meerkat on the way out. It was 95 degrees, even at 7pm, and he had the right idea. Dig yourself a hole, climb on in, and chill.You know, after you've had your fill of dinosaurs!

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.