The Fourth of July

Our Independence Day was jam-packed this year! We started off with our neighborhood's bike parade and pool party. The bike parade starts at the school and ends at the community pool, so this was our first year to join in due to the four-mile round trip ride from our house to the pool. The boys are good bicyclists but four miles is still a long distance in the summer heat.  

These boys did a good job biking to and from the pool and enjoyed the morning so much that I think we'll do this every year. The pool was packed with friends and neighbors. There was a DJ, a pie eating contest, a dads belly flop contest and lots of food. We all had a fantastic time!

When we got home, we put out our American flag. We do this on all the holidays, but it's one of the requirements in Will's Cub Scout book and he is excited to get started working on his Bear badge.

After our busy morning, we all collapsed at home for a hour or so before heading out to spend a couple of hours with Nana, Pop, Mike, Jess and the cousins. The kids just played and had fun together. Our holiday ended with more friends who host a Fourth of July party each year. They have an amazing backyard with a pool, treehouse, zipline and lots of space to run, and they celebrate the day with fireworks and tons of food. It is always a fun time.

We hope your Fourth of July was fun-filled and sparkly too!

Summer Break: Week Five

Our summer adventures continued this week with a beat-the-heat theme, though in all fairness, we are having a really mild summer so far. It hasn't even officially hit 95 degrees yet!

Monday: This was our first visit to the science museum this summer. The boys chose the Sugar Land location.

 The dig pit is always a huge hit.

We also toured the Body Carnival exhibit, which was full of hands-on fun about the human body and perception.  

After visiting the science museum, we took a small detour to visit the nature preserve at Cullinan Park.  For now, it is a fairly small park but it seems like the Cullinan Park Conservancy has quite a vision for the park's future that will make it more accessible. 

Monday also included lunch at Ruggles Green in Sugar Land, a library visit, some pirate-superhero antics, and piano lessons. 

Tuesday: This was a busy day! We decided to head to Brenham to visit Blue Bell Creameries as the boys and I had never been before. On the way, we stopped at Bear Creek Park on the west side of town. Bear Creek Park is a huge park, with soccer fields, playgrounds, and picnic spots, but our main reason for visiting was to check out their aviary and wildlife refuge. When we arrived, the peacock was showing off his beautiful feathers.

Mama duck with about ten ducklings.

Goofy boys and an emu.

In all, we spent about an hour exploring this (free) park! It was definitely worth a visit.

Next stop: Blue Bell!

We got to Brenham around 11:30 and found a long line for tickets, which worried me for a few minutes. Fortunately, the folks at Blue Bell are pretty smart and run tours every five minutes, so we only had a 15 minute wait. Unlike our tour of Ben & Jerry's last summer, the production lines were running and we actually got to see the factory working, which was cool!

Blue Bell's first refrigerated truck.

The best part of the tour -- ice cream! You get one complimentary "scoop" with your tour ticket, but the scoop is really a bowl full of ice cream! It was delicious. Henry chose the brand-new Magic Cookie Bar, Will ate Krazy Kookie Dough, and I had Rocky Mountain Road.  

Our day ended with a trip to Target to get water guns and some water gun fun in the backyard.

Wednesday: Compared to the beginning of the week, Wednesday was a more relaxed day. We did dollar movies in the morning (we saw Free Birds), and then had swim lessons and a Cub Scout water gun battle in the afternoon. The boys had a blast with the water guns and it was a great way to beat the heat!

Thursday: We met some friends at the pool in the morning, which is always fun.

Gene got off work early, and we grilled out while enjoying a Mexican Logger beer from a brewery in Durango, Colorado.

We enjoyed local Corpus Christi red snapper covered in fresh herbs and garlic, grilled on a cedar plank, and surrounded by fresh local veggies. Summer meals are the best!

From water fun and ice cream to cold beer and fresh, local foods, summer has been treating us very well so far!

The Best Friends

One of my best friends, Leigh, was visiting from Seattle last week and for once, I got to spend hours and hours with her! Normally her visits fall over holidays and she and her husband are spread pretty thin, but she was in town for Katy's baby shower on Saturday and Heather's party last Thursday night, so we had many opportunities for good conversation, catching up and laughing!  

On Saturday, a few of us went wig shopping. Leigh is cute no matter what, but I love this wig on her!

Leigh, Heather and I all tried on wigs! I kind of loved the long hair.

After many laughs at the wig shop, we all went to Katy and Jaime's baby shower.

Their sweet baby boy will be here in less than two months and we couldn't be happier for them!

The four of us have been friends since 2001, when we were all moving (back) to Houston after college/grad school/jobs elsewhere. We've been through lots of ups and downs together and these ladies are absolutely the most amazing friends. They are always there for me -- always!

I love these gals! 

Baking Bread (Again)

We have lived in our house for 3 1/2 years and nearly every single day, I tell someone how much I love our house. I love the location. I love my little neighborhood. I love the friends I've made here. I love running into people I know everywhere I go. I (really) love not being in the 'burbs anymore. I love our home, and I cannot imagine moving anytime in the foreseeable future. 

That said, one of the only things we don't absolutely *love* about our house is the fact that it only has one oven. We cook and bake a lot, so one oven is not ideal. We do have a toaster oven that doubles as a second small oven, as well as a warming drawer to keep cooked foods warm, but still, having only one oven has, on more than one occasion, put a crimp in our cooking style. 

We've discussed rearranging the kitchen and moving the microwave to make room for a second oven, or upgrading the microwave to one of those fancy convection microwaves that doubles a second oven, or even possibly getting rid of my beloved warming drawer. Gene even (jokingly?) suggested building a wood-fired brick oven in the backyard. But for the past 3 1/2 years, nothing has really seemed like a good solution and we've muddled along with just the one oven.  

Until now. Now we have the Kamado Joe.

We had a working grill (albeit a three-legged one), but we knew it was time to upgrade to something that wouldn't fall apart in three years. Gene researched grills extensively, and decided that the Kamado Joe was The One. You can control the temperature, it can double as a smoker, and all the online reviews claimed it could work as an oven too. We didn't quite believe that, even after cooking delicious pizzas and beer can chickens.  

Until this weekend. Gene baked the most amazing rolls on THE GRILL.

Baking. On the grill. Who knew?

These rolls were incredible! And it seems that everything worked out just fine. Gene got his new grill/smoker, we both got a second oven, and we didn't even have to tear up the kitchen! Sure, the new oven lives outside and I have no idea how to work it. But not having to live with a (small) kitchen remodel and still lovin' this house? Priceless.