An Early Taste of Fall

A delightful September cool front came through Houston over the weekend, and it was beautiful outside with low humidity and sunny skies. We spent as much time as we could enjoying some early fall weather!  

Backtracking to Friday night, we took the boys to dinner at Mia's Table. Even though this family-friendly restaurant has been around for a few years and is ridiculously close to our house, we had never been before. The food was tasty and the boys loved the free ice cream cones. We'll definitely visit again!

On Saturday morning, the four of us headed to the MFAH. We had to park a couple of blocks away, so we walked under the huge oak trees in the Museum District.

At the museum, our first stop was making some shadow monsters, of course.

We all wanted to see the Hapsburg Splendor exhibit before it closed. The boys especially loved the suits of armor, swords, and paintings based on Greek myths.

We enjoyed lunch at the museum's pop-up cafe

before walking the labyrinth at St. Paul's across the street.

Back at home, we played in the backyard while Gene smoked ribs. Dinners outside always seem to taste better!

Saturday's menu was ribs with four-bean salad, crusty bread and a Belgian farmhouse ale. On Sunday, we enjoyed grilled grouper with blistered tomatoes, roasted zucchini, green salad, crusty bread and a crisp Chardonnay. Mmmmm!

My favorite way to celebrate the first cool front of the season is with a picnic lunch in Memorial Park and a hike at the Arboretum, so after church and CCE on Sunday, we piled into the car with a picnic basket full of goodies and enjoyed the beautiful cool weather.

Hiking at the Arboretum

Summer is coming back this week, but fall is just around the corner and we can't wait! 

Open House

Open House was last Thursday evening. We always enjoy visiting the boys' classrooms and seeing all their hard work.

Because our school is so big, Open House is split into two groups -- K-2 from 5-6:30 pm and then 3-5 from 7-8:30 pm. For us, that meant a break for dinner between visits to the two classrooms.

First up, Henry's second grade room. All the kids brought in favorite t-shirts and made mini-students at their desks.

Mini Henry in his Notre Dame t-shirt.

All the kids wrote postcards about their summers. Henry chose to draw the picture of the house we rented in Vermont, complete with apple orchard in the background!

2nd grade goal: 250 AR points!

Another classmate wrote this about Henry:  

 I love that Fort Ticonderoga is the best place he's visited!

Can you tell what Henry is leaning on? It's a clawfoot bathtub!

Henry and his sweet teacher.

After dinner at Skeeter's, we were back at school to visit Will's classrooms. This year, he has a homeroom, where he does language arts and social studies, and then switches classes for reading, math and science.  

This astronaut was a project for science.

Henry's classroom has a bathtub, but Will's has a cool reading couch.

Will's sweet teacher

We so enjoyed visiting the classrooms at Open House last week.

Here's to a super year!

Labor Day Weekend

We are back in the school routine around here, but we all enjoyed having a long three-day weekend to relax and spend time with friends. 

Here's a quick snapshot of my boys after school on Friday. It was College Colors Day and they were decked out in their Notre Dame shirts.

Another Friday highlight was the arrival of new magazines. Will especially loves Muse.

On Saturday, we went down to Galveston for the afternoon and evening to spend time with our good friends Jonathan and Julie and their kids. We splashed in the water, made muddy holes in the ground, watched shore birds, and most of all, enjoyed the company of old friends.

Gene and Jonathan have been friends since law school! There's something special about old friends -- even though we hadn't seen them in over a year, we just picked right up where we left off. We had such a great time with them and the kids played so well together that we are already looking forward to another adventure in Galveston with them!

 

On Sunday, we had another set of old friends over for dinner. Candice and Andy and their crew came by and we were so busy cooking and catching up that I never managed to get my camera out. It was a fun time as always with them.  

Monday was a very relaxed day. We cooked and read and played games. The boys played a rousing game of wiffle ball in the backyard. It was the King Crocs (Henry and Will) vs. The Flours (Gene). Team names at our house are always based on the t-shirts worn at that particular time.

After a lovely pizza dinner in the backyard, we broke out the Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. The boys have been so anxious to try them! Will's container was full of the most disgusting flavors -- vomit, ear wax, dirt, earthworm, soap, rotten egg and pepper with only a handful of tasty treats like candy floss and green apple.

 

I hope your weekend was full of sweet adventures!