A little bit of life lately

Time is marching on y'all!  It's so hard to believe it's late November - in some strange way I feel like I've been waiting for this year to get started.  Such a weird feeling!

It's been a fairly eventful month at our house. One of the highlights was getting away to San Antonio for a few days; Jon scored a great deal at the Hyatt Regency Hill Country where we had spent a weekend in 2019 while he was at a conference there.  We've looked at going back several times, but it was too pricey.  I guess we can thank covid for rock bottom prices, ha.  We all feel like we've maxed out our touristy options for SA, so it was a nice change of pace to stay somewhere that felt all inclusive.  We only left the hotel once, and that was to use a gift card at Texas Roadhouse (thanks, MB!), otherwise we just hung out, playing games, hiking, and swimming.  Just what the doctor ordered.  

We recently took advantage of free museum day to visit the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. Henry is working on a persuasive speech and was tasked to choose any piece of Renaissance art, speaking on whether it has a Biblical message or not. It was fun to wander around and be tourists at the museum.  Even more fun to have Jon along since we went in the evening.

Another high of the month is Havalah was accepted into her college of choice! She submitted her application in October, had her interview, and received her acceptance letter a few weeks ago.  We are so proud!  It's a classical Christian college in Houston, and she'll be living at home to save money.  She'll major in English, and hopes to focus on her writing, trying to get a book published before she's 25.  Super proud of her and her strong direction and what she hopes to do!  

A few pics from the month...

Keeping my hands busy on our drive.  With the kids watching dvds in the back, Jon and I listened to Michael Berry on the radio.  

I came into the room and saw these two sitting together, and chewing their lip identically.  Two peas.

This sweet girl is hanging in there! She's nearly 12 and is always by my side. She doesn't make an appearance on the blog very often because she looks away when I pull out my camera lol.  I love this  scottie girl so much. 

And there's this looker.  He's the resident heart throb :)

And my minnie me - we came out of our bedrooms dressed in the same shirts, and with plaid masks :D
  

 My people! :)

Henry's Birthday Weekend

As my kids get older we pretty much give them the reigns on what they want to do for their birthdays. After much contemplation Henry elected to have a weekend in San Antonio doing his favorite things.  That included choosing our hotel, restaurant, and sight seeing activities (within budget of course lol :) On a whim last year, while in SA, we ate at the Tower of the Americas and ever since that night, he's been dreaming about their Prime Rib.  It was fun to return for his celebration :) 

Here are a few snaps of Henry's birthday weekend:

saying goodbye is hard, even if it's only for 2 days

Our weekend in San Antonio

Early on Saturday morning we piled into the Suburban with pillows and blankets (kids) and mugs of hot coffee (parents) and headed to San Antonio for part Fiesta Texas part Cube Competition.  It was my intention to document our weekend, hour by hour, but...it didn't exactly happen.  But, here's glimpse!

6:20 AM
Beautiful Texas!

7:00 AM

10:00 AM - Walking through the gates
One of the great things about Fiesta Texas is they offer free dog boarding.  Since we love to bring our  little Scottie dog on weekend trips, we love this!  However you have to be there early since the boarding can fill up fast.

6:00 PM
Fiesta Texas was previewing some new rides that don't officially open until mid May.

Can you tell it's spinning?

8:00 PM
Stopping to feed the Koi on our way out.

This shirt absolutely cracked me up!  A friend of mine and I are always joking that raising children can be a bit an emotional roller coaster, so I immediately texted her this picture.  Even more funny, when I pointed the shirt out to my kids they gave me a blank stare.  Ha ha!

Sunday 10:00 AM
The Rubik's Competition was held at the SAT hand's on children's museum, The Doseum.  It is currently housing a traveling Rubik's exhibit, called Beyond the Rubik's Cube, that has been on Henry's bucket list for a few years - so that was really, really cool.     

11:00 AM 2x2 Round one. Henry's best time was 6.17 seconds.

I didn't get a pic of Henry during his 3x3 or Pyraminx solves, but wanted to mention that he had a new competition personal best for 3x3 at just under 20 seconds.  Yay Henry!  At home he's able to get around 14.6 seconds, but there is a tad more pressure at the competitions.

Havah and I had such a great time exploring the museum.  We were able to take our time and see everything, since we were there the entire day!

2:00 PM
This was an attempt to break the official World Record for the most cube solves underwater (with one breath).  The current record holder, Anthony Brooks, with five solves, is there on the left (barely visible) in the white t-shirt.  His record wasn't broken, but it's still amazing that Mike (in the water) was able to get two and a half solves with one breath.  I mean...wow!

3:00 PM Working on the Rubik's mosaic

4:00 PM Exploring the museum with my girlie. We really enjoyed the Spy training and mystery solving. I'm a kid at heart, apparently. ;)

4:30 PM
Henry worked at the scrambling table for quite a while. The scramblers follow an specific algorithm so each cube is scrambled in exactly the same pattern.  Basically, the solver brings his cube over, sets it on his score card, it's scrambled, then delivered to the solving table, uncovered, and the solver starts the timer and solves it. Sounds, simple, right?  Not really. ;)

5:00 PM
Exploring the museum with Henry before things close for the day.

Funny!

6:00 PM
Wrapping things up - getting ready for awards. (Hi Jon!)

7:00 PM
Time for some BBQ (and pie)  And a drive home!

September at a glance

Playing catch up today!  Let's start with a peek at September!

We're back in school!  Our homeschool group, Classical Conversations actually starts the third week in August, so technically we've been in school for a few weeks.  However, once it's September we add in all the extra stuff that we do outside of our co-op.  Henry is working on his frog's habitat.

We've been reading the Harry Potter books aloud together in the evenings.  As an extra, I planned some school activities to go along with the current book.  Henry is writing in his wizard journal about his Hogwart's pet, Gimli.

 Have you met Petite?  She joined our family last June.  She's chill.  :)

Did you know that we got a new floor in our homeschooling room?? I cannot fully express how happy I am!  Every single time I walk in here I say a prayer of thanks.  We WILL continue to chip away at all the flooring that needs replacing in our home.

Oh, you know, just the usual shenanigans.

One weekend we headed to San Antonio to visit the Cascade Caverns.  On our way we stopped at L & L Hawaiian BBQ.  It was chicken Katsu heaven.

The caverns were beautiful!  Unfortunately, I don't have many photos to share from inside because it was very dark.  And cool.  How wonderfully cool!  You can read more about the caves here.

And since we were so close to the Riverwalk, we decided to stay for dinner. :)

I love him!

Ahh, this is life lately.  Henry photo bombs almost every picture.

We were given some tickets to see the Sugar Land Skeeters baseball team play. (Skeeters as in Mosquitoes!)  It was a great game and the stadium was incredible.  Several playgrounds, a splash pad and a SWIMMING POOL for the kids.  What!?

We've been sewing sewing sewing our little fingers to the bone getting ready for a craft fair, which you'll hear more about later.  But here's a sneak peak at Peter Pan Pendants!

For the first time in years we actually have our Halloween costumes ready a MONTH in advance!  Unfortunately I'm the mom that is scrambling an hour before to finish up costumes, much to my children's dismay.  I'd say we got our money's worth! :)

"How you doin'?"

And finally, we celebrated our second year anniversary in Texas!  We call this our "we did it day!"