A Saturday Adventure: Pi Day and the George Ranch

Saturday was Super Pi Day (3.14.15), which only happens once a century! How did you celebrate? We started the day at the Houston Museum of Natural Science in Sugar Land for their Pi Day activities. 

We made Pi puzzles

and recited as many digits of Pi as we could (Will got to 14 digits in his first try, but got up to 28 digits over the weekend and has now memorized 49 digits!).

 Of course, eating pie was a highlight of Pi Day!

We did a penny toss and won Pi pencils.

We ended the morning with some ball tossing and touring the museum's exhibits.

Since it was a beautiful sunny day (the first in over a week!), we headed down to the George Ranch Historical Park for a visit. Gene and Henry had never been before and it was surprisingly uncrowded for a sunny Saturday during spring break. 

We started our visit at the 1830s Jones Stock Farm, a simple dogtrot cabin.

The boys followed two chickens around the yard and we learned about pioneer life in Texas.

We enjoyed a chuck wagon lunch of chili, cornbread and peach cobbler before watching a cattle demonstration. 

Will took this picture of the huge longhorn, Big Tex.

Our final stop of the day was the 1860s Ryon Prairie Homesite. We toured the home and milked a pretend cow outside.

We didn't see everything at George Ranch, but we had a lot of fun and now have a reason to go back for another visit. We ended the day with some rock candy and a little sketching.

My explorers -- always up for an adventure! 

After so much dismal, dreary weather, we were thrilled to get outside, explore and enjoy the beginning of spring break!

Safari Party

Every year, the first graders spend weeks and weeks preparing for the Safari Party program. Henry was a kangaroo this year and sang and hopped his way through the program.

Henry's grand entrance -- looking for us! 

He waved as soon as he found us.

An on stage shot.

The Safari Party is so much work for all the kids and teachers, but they did a fantastic job and we were so excited to watch Henry's performance. It's the last one they do at WUES!

A Saturday Adventure: The Houston Symphony and Craft Center Houston

We were glad to have a break from the rain last Saturday, as we were out and about, exploring in Houston!

Our first stop of the morning was the Star Wars and Beyond concert at the Houston Symphony. As always, the musicians played beautifully and my Star Wars fans especially enjoyed the show.

Doughnuts before the concert, always.  

And Henry wanted to meet some storm troopers afterwards.

After lunch at Natachee's, we headed to the Museum District for Hands On Houston at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft.

We made origami cups,

sampled six flavors of tea, and toured the Dining and Discourse exhibit. 

The rest of the weekend was spent dodging rain showers and doing plenty of our own dining (with discourse) at home! 

Lately: Exploring, Art, and School

Lately, we have been exploring Houston in the cold and rain and wishing for sunny days and blue skies! Here's a bit of what we've been up to in the past couple of weeks:

Will turned 8 1/2 and we celebrated his half birthday with Crave cupcakes. It's a fun family tradition. Who doesn't enjoy a sweet treat midweek?

Will spent much of one weekend working on his Neptune project (note three small moons on the side before we attached them!). I purchased Styrofoam balls, a stand and lots of wooden dowels, and Will carefully painted them all and made a ring. Along with his visual and five interesting facts, he also wrote a report and is scheduled to give a class presentation this week!

We ventured into downtown one evening for dinner at Phoenicia and a visit to Discovery Green to see Bruce Munro's Field of Light installation. It was spectacular!

Jorge Marin's Wings of the City bronze sculptures fascinated the boys. 

One of Will's after-school activities this year has been the Name That Book club. It's a regular book club with a twist. The kids read thirty books (the 20 Bluebonnet nominees plus 10 others) and meet weekly to discuss them. Back in December, the club members tried out for the Name That Book team by identifying quotes from different books. Will was one of the six students to make the team! I have been helping with the club this year, and I am so impressed with all the kids and their dedication to reading. They have read and reread these books and have been so fun to work with.  It's not easy to identify books from a one-sentence quote, but these kids did a great job!

The Name That Book contest is run through HISD's Library Services department and the preliminary rounds were last week. Our team did a fantastic job, correctly identifying 20 of 25 quotes, but unfortunately, one team was even stronger and beat West U by one point. Still, these kids worked so hard and I hope they're very proud of all that they accomplished.

Here's Will with our very favorite librarian and Name That Book coach.

Henry is my farmers market sidekick and last week we came home with a couple baby lettuce plants. They have joined the herbs and kale in our container garden in the backyard.

Last weekend, we visited the MFAH with our Cub Scout friends. We toured the Cullen Sculpture Garden as well as several galleries inside. 

Despite the dreary gray days, we're keeping busy during the week and enjoying our family time together on the weekends!

Happy Birthday, Nana

Nana's birthday was a week and a half ago, and we got the whole family together to celebrate. It was a beautiful day and the kids played outside.

There was a lot of football

with some frisbee throwing mixed in.

Michael is all boy. 

I especially had fun taking some pictures of little David. 

 

 He is so expressive!

 

 After lots of playing, it was time for dinner and cake. 

Ready to sing to Nana.

Happy birthday, Nana!