Woodlands Children's Museum

When my parents were here, Joe and the boys went to a football game one Saturday. Since we were left behind, we decided to go to the Children's Museum in the woodlands.  It was not nearly as nice as the one big Houston one, but it was pretty much empty so the kids had a great time at every exhibit.  We had nothing better to do and 3 adults to 2 kids so we could just relax and let them enjoy it all.

 My dad found a place to sit and read, until Ellie decided he should play checkers with her.  He really seems into the game.

 One of their favorite things to do was to put on the fireman costumes and play around.

This next picture seems about right- Grandpa is King, or at least he thinks he is.

Trading Down

Those of you who know my husband know that he LOVES to buy and sell things.  He tells me it is okay because he buys things with residual value and he can resell them as needed.  Really it is still spending money, but whatever.  About a month after he got his Porsche, he realized that although it was fun to drive, it really wasn't the car he wanted to keep.  He then went on a big car search- test driving Acuras, Lexus, BMWs, and looking up stats on many more.  He finally decided on the car he wanted:

 Yes, he sold his Porsche for a new diesel Volkswagen Golf.  He likes the spaciousness inside (!) and the gas mileage.  I think what was the real deal clincher is that after he sold his Porsche (back to the same dealership that he bought it from), he got a nice big check.  He then used that money to buy this boat:

It is a 19' dual console, outboard motor sea worthy boat.  There are a lot of other details he can spout off about it, but the real deal is that it can go in the ocean, is good for fishing AND skiing and can easily seat 9.  I'm excited because when we go out on the lake I won't feel like I am about to sink into the lake, he is excited because of all of the above.  He did sell his redneck boat, so really it was an upgrade.

On the way back from buying the boat he informed me that in the next few months he was going to upgrade his tractor. Its a good thing he still has money left over from the Porsche/Golf transaction.

Harvesting Honey

A couple of years ago, Joe got a beehive.  The bees did well at first and then they got a disease.  Over the course of the next year, they battled the disease and got better.  Last year, we were too busy to harvest honey.  This year, he finally got around to doing it.  The first step is to get the part of the hive that you are going to rob.  Then after you get it out of the hive, and get the bees out of it (Joe did this last part by driving down the road on his 4-wheeler with the piece of the hive on the back).  Then you pull out the frames where the honey is stored.

 You cut off the top of the honey comb to expose the cells underneath.

 Then you stick the frame into the extractor.  You crank the handle to centrifuge the honey out of the frame. You have to do this for each side of the frame.

 Then you drain out the extractor into a filter.

 This shows how Joe transported his hive on his 4-wheeler.

We were able to harvest 1 1/2 gallons of honey. It is a very rich dark honey that tastes delicious!

Grammie and Grandpa's Visit

Grammie and Grandpa came to visit at the beginning of September.  They decided that they wanted to drive out.  When they showed up, they had brought cookies for all of the kids:

 They stayed for about a week and a half.  Mom was even brave enough to try out the zip line.  Well, actually she didn't go off the platform, but she went partway down it.

Grammie also finished Nate's big boy quilt.  He wanted fishes so she made him a quilt that is all fish.  Unfortunately, he still sleeps in a crib converted to a toddler bed, so the twin size quilt is huge on his bed.  He doesn't mind, every night he gets in under and disappears.  He loves it.

We had a great visit, and can't wait to see them again.

Its good to be Queen

...even if its only make-believe.

Children's Museum

My parents came to visit last week. While they were here, we got a chance to go to the Children's Museum downtown. I hadn't gone since Ellie was a baby, but since then they have totally redone it and my boys have grown into the older kids exhibits. The kids had a blast!

They had some phones you could talk on and see the other person. Look next to Michael, you can see Adam.

A pulley system connected to a seat...

Here we are building an arch out of stuffed blocks:

They had the best human size Lincoln logs. The older kids built a house around Nate.

The captive:

They also had a really neat climbing structure that fit neatly into a stairwell.

Water works outside, luckily, it wasn't too hot.

One of their favorite exhibits, they had a kid sized town. The kids could explore the town. Their favorite part was the HEB store where they could buy food and pay for it with money and then play cashier and check each other out.

They could also make Lego cars and race them down a track.

We definitely have to go there again.

Rodeo Day

Only the second week of school, but already we are having "Rodeo Day." We scrounged through our closets and this was the best we could come up with. I really wish I had an extremely large belt buckle, but do you think any of the kids would be brave enough to wear it?