Happy Birthday, Uncle Mike!

Tuesday Nature Day--Lake Houston Wilderness Park

On Tuesdays Beck and I have Nature Days with the Shann and Halo.  Today we went to Peach Creek at Lake Houston Wilderness Park.  It was a beautiful day and so pretty out!!

 Look at these giant coneflowers in the butterfly garden!!!

 The littles both had cameras today and had lots of fun taking photos.  :)

 So I got to be in a lot of photos.  Mostly blurry ones.  :)

 There were awesome rocks on the beach, so we had a great time exploring them and collecting our favorites.

 There was a rope swing and a vine swing that the kids had so much fun swinging out into the water on!

The kids found a bunch of centipedes and made a centipede castle and village!

 And a big caterpillar:

 We had our own little island to picnic on!

 Such a fun day and we are thankful to have nature-loving pals that hang out with us and explore fun places every week!!

Around here....

This guy has allergy shiners and a bruised nose from the neighbor's dog knocking him down.  But he's tough...and still cute.  :)

 We've enjoyed watching baby titmice at our window feeder!

 Quinn finished knitting her lion at school!!

 His katydid catch:

 My niece spent a few days with us.  She loved helping me in the kitchen.  Tonging fruit:

 And we spent most of our time playing in the yard!

Books in Beck's little fort he and Daddy built:

 Hanging with the Merediths on Tuesdays....riding the trolley to the splashpad!

 Quinn has a tooth growing in crazy.  She will never wiggle her loose teeth because she is nervous about losing them (changes don't go over easily with her.)  I offered her $5 to pull it out in the next two weeks....Otherwise we may have to have it pulled.  :(

 Matt spotted a luna moth outside!!

 This silly boy....We hung sheets on the treehouse and the kids put on days of performances!!

 Sweetness at church with friends in our row!!

 Stealing some cuddles from another niece...and her new glasses!

 Making a birthday card a few weeks ago.  He is pretty into writing these days!

 Tiny chalk encourages correct finger grasp!

Beck's favorite thing now is riding his bike.  With no training wheels!  One morning he was so anxious to ride I had to sit on the curb to eat my breakfast so I could eat and watch him!  :)

 She adores playing her recorder!

 Happy pup.  Baby eating means a bit for her!

 Goldfish for the turtle pond.  Didn't survive long, though.  We'll try again!  Beck loved everything about the process of choosing them and buying them!

Kayaking Mamas

On Tuesdays, Beck and I hang out with Shann & H.  We usually try to do some type of nature-y adventure, and lately we've tried to do things that would be easier with the two kiddos, as opposed to the larger group of 4.  Today we went kayaking in the Woodlands Waterway.  It was a cool, sunny day with perfect weather.  It was a beautiful day of relaxing kayaking--we saw cormorants, ducks, barn swallows feeding their babies, egrets, herons, turtles, and even a snake!!

Best of all, the kayak had a cupholder for my coffee!!!!!!  :)

(Shannon snapped the above one)

 There were barn swallows nesting under the bridge and we could see them feeding their little babies!!

 This little munchkin kept splashing me....Which definitely kept me from overheating from all that paddling!!

 We fed some ducks.

 These two are the sweetest friends.  So many prayers are answered in that little blond-headed girlie and her sister, and selfishly, I am thankful that my two have buddies their age to love!!

Afterward we went to the library (a different one for us!) and then rode the trolley to a nearby splashpad for lunch and play.  These two are old experts on the trolley by now!!

And yes, I did spend my pennies at the Friends of the Library book sale room on this complete set of Childcrafts for my girl.  She was thrilled!!