Lately

We have been busy lately spending time with family, working on Cub Scout requirements, and completing school projects. Here's a look into what we've been up to for the past two weeks:

Gene's aunt and cousin visited Houston! We think it had been 10 years since their last visit to Houston, and they had never met Will and Henry. We enjoyed a delightful evening with them at our house and are sad that their visits to Houston are rare.

We are also excited to have Gramma and Grampa back in Houston for the winter. They've come over for dinner a couple of times and we always break out the games when they're here. Grampa taught Will how to play bridge. Now Will cannot wait for another game night with his grandparents!

With both boys in Cub Scouts this year, it seems like we are always busy running to meetings or working on requirements, but we all enjoy it. The boys have made some wonderful friends through Scouts, and we have too! Henry's den visited the West U Fire Station last week.

I feel lucky that I have so many opportunities to volunteer at the boys' school. This year, I'm helping teach some of the Hands On Art classes and I love it! The boys learned all about repousse and metal working in their last class.

Henry's class visited the zoo on their first field trip last week. I got to tag along as a chaperone and had the best time with my group of seven first-graders!

We visited the science museum Friday night for a members' preview party of the new Samurai exhibit, which was fantastic! The boys made Samurai helmets of their own.

I snapped this picture of Gene and Henry after church yesterday. There are lots of hugs around here these days.

And with Thanksgiving week here, I snapped this picture of Will's thankful turkey at school. He wrote a beautiful composition about all that he is thankful for; family is at the top of his list.

And finally, I decided to take my own family portraits this year with the help of a tripod. We only took three sets of shots, but I'm pleased with the pictures we got. This isn't the one that's on our Christmas card, but it's a sneak peak! 

This Thanksgiving, I have so very much for which to be thankful, but I am most thankful for these three who keep me on my toes, hug me often, and fill my days with laughter. 

The Weekend

Our weekend was full and fun! We spent much of it outdoors, soaking up Houston's perfect fall weather.  

We started the weekend with a Cub Scout field trip to The Heritage Society in downtown Houston, where I used to work. We invited all the Tigers and Bears to join us to work on badge requirements, and we ended up with 30 kids plus parents on the tour.  

My boys investigated the chimney at Old Place. 

All the Scouts did a great job and learned so much about what life was like in Houston's early days.  

On Saturday evening, we joined Heather and Joel at NovemBEERfest, a homebrew festival! The beers were delicious and there were a number of non-alcoholic brews for the kiddos. The beer that Gene helped Joel brew back in the summer even came in third place.

On Sunday, we all wanted to get out and explore, so we decided to take a long bike ride through the neighborhood.

We ended up at Colonial Park for some play time.

 

 

I love these two so much!

We had the perfect weekend, enjoying fall in Houston!

October Birthdays

We spent Saturday afternoon celebrating the October birthdays a wee bit late. Saturday was beautiful and cool, so we spent lots of time running and playing outside. Will is obsessed with four square lately and we just got a playground ball so we can play all the time!

I snapped a few pictures of Henry as practice for my photography class. I love this one! Henry was grumpy but Gene was acting goofy and Henry was grinning up at him.

Birthday boy #1 

Birthday boy #2: I can't believe baby David is 1 already!

Birthday baby with his dad.

Balloons!

 

The big birthday boy got a little cake and is singing "Happy Birthday" to himself here.

Happy belated birthday to our favorite October babies! 

Halloween

Halloween on a Friday night is pretty awesome, and it was even better because the boys had an early dismissal day. The four of us enjoyed lunch out and a quiet afternoon at home before gearing up for Halloween activities!

Dinner this year was simple but fun: jack-o'-lantern quesadillas with Bloody Mary (tomato) soup! Yummy and so easy, this may be our new go-to meal on Halloween night.

Henry commented that the glistening cheese made it look like the jack-o'-lantern was glowing.  

After dinner, Gene got to work on Henry's face paint.

He did a really good job!

He even painted eyes on Henry's eyelids. Spooky!

My costumed crew with the jack-o'lantern.

They were all characters from The Hobbit: Gandalf (Will), Smaug the dragon (Henry) and an oversized dwarf (Gene).

Gandalf and the dwarf tried valiantly to defeat Smaug!

And then we were off!  

We have such a lovely neighborhood for trick-or-treating. We saw lots of neighbors out and about and met up with friends down the block.

One house gave out tricks (Chinese finger traps) and one house gave out full-size candy bars, which is pretty darn exciting for kids!

I hope your Halloween was full of sweet treats, costumed creatures, and much laughter!