Celebrating the October Birthdays

October brings two birthdays, and no one in our family will ever say no to a birthday celebration!

David turned five in October. He still loves minions and yellow, so this cake was just perfect for the younger birthday boy.  

My big boys were getting goofy.

David and Jess

Family

There's nothing like the excitement of a five-year-old. Happy fifth birthday, sweet David!

For Gene's birthday, we just added a candle to the cake.  

And there's nothing like the excitement of a 45-year-old!

Present time.  This boy was absolutely thrilled with his new Play-Doh and kinetic sand kits.  

Pure joy

No jumping up and down for Gene, but he was pretty excited about his new vest too.

Mary made a birthday book for the two birthday boys. 

Happy birthday to our favorite two October babies!

Lately: An October Recap

October has come and gone, in a blur!  It started on the 1st with Gene's birthday and ended with a rainy Halloween. Here's a quick peek at some of what we did in October:

Happy birthday, Gene!

Gene's birthday was on a Monday, so we celebrated with a special beef tenderloin dinner on Sunday night.  It was delicious!

Our new Astros flag 

The boys got flu shots, which is always traumatic for Henry, so we treated ourselves to milkshakes from the Chocolate Bar afterwards.

The Astros made a run at the World Series again, but couldn't get past the Boston Red Sox. We wore our Astros shirts a lot, and Henry put on handcuffs and came downstairs, saying, "I got arrested for stealing second base!" Baseball humor!

We also saw our first cold front come through town.  Temps dropped 37 degrees, going from 91 to 54! Of course, we had to turn on the fire and make hot cocoa.

Speaking of heat, Henry is obsessed with the Scoville heat index, so we had to snap this photo in front of the peppers at Central Market.  I love that it's a great adventure to go to the grocery store with this kid! 

Henry really does love food. He found a spiced butternut squash soup recipe in the newspaper a few weeks ago and begged me to make it.  It was delicious -- and now it's on the menu again for this week, per Henry's request.

Our vegetable garden petered out except for our eggplants.  This was the biggest one we got all year!

Grad school life plus working full time (I started as the long-term sub in the library on October 24) has made for a busy season in our household.  We had our carpets and sofa cleaned before I started work, so I set up shop in Henry's room to keep working on school assignments.  

October also means the annual Cub Scout popcorn sales -- our last one ever!

Henry's enjoying art class so much this fall. His teacher accidentally pulled the advance art assignment and Henry drew this incredible dragon, over the course of a couple of class periods. 

It's hanging in the art school hallway now!

Another art piece -- a platypus.

We enjoyed our fall festivals -- Boo Bash at the school and Full Moon Fest at Colonial Park. Henry went with his buddy Noah to both.

We pulled out some costumes in advance of Halloween and Will was doing his homework while sporting an alien mask.  

Halloween day brought huge storms to Houston. On our way to get Will from school, a tornado warning prompted Kinkaid to shelter in place, which delayed dismissal by a good 30 minutes.  Henry and I decided to shelter in place with Pop, which was a good idea because he made us coffee!

Halloween night usually brings hordes of kids to our neighborhood, but with the storms rumbling through town, we only had nearby kids out and about.  We have so much candy left over that we need to donate!

I manned the door while Gene took the boys down the block. It was nutty -- Gene was on a work call with Australia and I was online for a class chat for my cataloging course!  Henry really wanted to wear his huge alien mask, but it can't get wet, so he opted to be a wizard instead. The skies did clear for a good two-hour trick-or-treating window, and the boys came back with enough candy to end the dreaded "candy drought." (It's a long time between Easter and Halloween and the kids are always afraid they'll run out of special treats.)

Happy fall to you all!  I hope you're enjoying leftover Halloween candy, beautiful fall weather, and warming soups.  Fall is my favorite season. 

A Weekday Adventure: Visiting The Zoo with Henry

The boys still have a number of different holidays this year. Henry was off for Rosh Hashanah while Will had Yom Kippur off, and Will is currently enjoying a four-day weekend for Columbus Day. It just means that I get special one-on-one time with each of my boys! They always pick different things to do.

In September, Henry chose to go to the zoo. We lucked out with a mild, overcast day with a decent chance of showers. We toted our umbrellas along but never ended up needing them.  

We really wanted to check out the new Black Bear exhibit, which is quite spectacular. Instead of a ditch separating the bears from the visitors, there is now a large window, which means the bears have a lot more space.

  

 The new male lion, Hasani, was prowling around 

and the silverbacks were just relaxing.

We also saw the brand new northern white-cheeked gibbons. These brothers were so active and fun to watch.

Baby Tilly was out as well, surrounded by her mother, father, big sister and the matriarch of the herd. Tilly has quite a personality!

We spent a couple of hours wandering around and ended our visit with a stop at the new nature playground. Henry's a bit big for it, but it would be absolutely delightful for younger kids.  

It was really a great day to be at the zoo -- not too warm and not at all crowded. It's even better to have some special time with just one kid, doing exactly what he wants to do.

Lately: A September Recap

Despite the lack of blog posts around here, we are keeping busy with full days and fun outings. Here's a peek at some of what we did in September:

We are all huge Astros fans, but we hadn't been to a game this season. Luckily for us, a friend of Gene's had tickets he couldn't use and we were able to spend a Sunday afternoon at the ball park. Our seats were fantastic and the Astros won!

This one isn't a huge fan, but he tolerates the game for the rest of us. 

Another evening, we went to the science museum for a members' night.

Our farmers market changed locations a few weeks back. The new spot is fantastic but we dodged rain storms the first two weekends. You can see the ominous clouds rolling in.

Both boys have a number of activities this year.  Will is doing fall volleyball and viola at school as well as a bunch of clubs that meet during his lunch period. Henry is taking piano and art and has Cub Scouts, Name That Book Club and Crossover (a 5th grade after-school program one day a week at a local church). It's a bit much for Henry but he loves all his activities and won't give any up.

Henry's Cub Scout den chose a patrol name and created a flag. They are the Radioactive Gummy Ninjas and Henry drew the gummy ninja on the flag. 

Such a cool flag!

We celebrated Henry's half birthday on September 21 at Nana and Pop's. 

 

We sure do enjoy our Friday afternoons with Nana and Pop!

Freyja snuck out the dog door one morning in September. She's done it a few times but never knows what to do when she gets outside. Silly cat! 

If you're wondering how Freyja snuck past our guard dog, Ruby was sound asleep and never even noticed the stealthy kitty.

October is here, but it's still 90 degrees and humid in Houston. We're ready for the first cold front of the season so we can cozy up with hot cider, pumpkin muffins, and fluffy blankets! Until then, we'll be watching October baseball and rooting for our Astros.