More fall celebration pictures

We redeemed a free ice cream coupon on Samuel's birthday. He ALWAYS chooses chocolate. Luke and I shared a nutty coconut ice cream.




Jack-o-lantern pancakes (whole wheat of course). Samuel was so enthused he wanted one for every child in his class. I hope the parents weren't too weirded-out to find a pancake in the take-home treat bag.




Spiderweb cookies were fun to make. Last year I scored all kinds of free tube frosting at post-holiday sales and this was my chance to use it.



Samuel's idea of how I should cut out his Halloween costume.







This angle shows the shark fin in the back.

Happy Birthday & Halloween in one shot!

Turning 31: A Lame Blow

Samuel sings and I almost drool on the super cool Chocolate Eclair Cake. One of the best things about this cake was no leftovers, until I later realized that I really wanted leftovers.

Memorial Day

Samuel playing with Scott's disassembled fish mobile while Joseph got the bikes down.

Ready to go! (Though Samuel's about grown out of that helmet. )We biked on the Braes Bayou trail and discovered that it comes out at Hermann Park. There were huge fish in the bayou and Samuel went fish crazy. Since we were near the zoo we considered dropping in just to see some more fish, but the line for the zoo wrapped around the parking lot (one of the 5 free admission days of the year), so we just looked at the fish, ducks, and turtles in the park pond. We stopped at Kroger (and bought a bunch of close out stuff) and then another park visit on the way home.

Looking at fish and turtles in the pond.

Almost home, but Samuel wanted to stop at the park.

A few weeks ago I had a spill on the bike with Samuel in the bike seat. We were both uninjured, but it was very scary. Amazingly he didn't even cry. I thought he'd be scared and not want to ride the bike again, but he's been fine.

Camping

There are two times a year that it's actually nice to go camping in Houston. Early spring and late fall. We took advantage of the cooler weather in April and set out for Huntsville State Park just north of Houston. Stacia did all kinds of prep work such as shopping, packing the cooler, getting all the gear and food ready - so we could send out right after I got off work. It was a quick drive to the site, and what a beautiful place.

After we got the tent set up we started on dinner. Stacia is the camp director for our ward so she is an expert on alternative cooking methods. We used the box oven to cook some enchiladas Stacia had made during the day. After getting some charcoal nice and hot we simply put the enchiladas on a raised rack under this box with tin foil stapled to the sides. 30 minutes later we were eating hot and spicy enchiladas. Way to go Stacia and girl's camp cooking!

We started a small fire after dark and did the required roasting of marshmallows - the real reason Stacia wanted to go camping.

After a nice night sleep (air mattress) in the tent ("castle"to Samuel) we had an exciting day ahead of us. We made pancakes and eggs for breakfast, but all Samuel wanted to eat was a donut.

We set out for the nature center after we had cleaned up camp to take in a demonstration on alligators - which included an overview on how they act in the wild, how many are in the park, and a touch and feel event at the end where Samuel got to touch a live baby alligator's tail. How cool!

Before leaving we spent time in the hammock, went for a walk to the lake to see the fishermen, and saw an alligator hanging out in the lake. It was a great trip - and we can't wait until late fall to go again!

Chocolate Marshmallows

I celebrated Easter by making homemade marshmallow eggs. My mom sent me the recipe and I was motivated to try it by Grandma's reminiscing of how inferior store bought marshmallows are compared to the real thing. I was also motivated by the fact that I didn't need to go to the store - I already had all the ingredients.


Well, they were the real thing -the the best Easter candy I have ever tasted... that is, until the chocolate hardened. With the humidity it was taking forever to set, so I accelerated it by putting them in the fridge. The chocolate became crumbly and the texture was horrible. So much for using Ghiradelli's. I will definitely try this again using different chocolate and more patience (and hopefully less humidity).





I thought I was too messy spooning it into the flour mold and the eggs wouldn't be perfectly shaped. But after it set, I just trimmed the shapes down with scissors.


For my first foray into this sphere of candy-making, it was a success!



Samuel agreed.

Samuel's Dyed Eggs

Four used to be the jilted number when Samuel counted, but now it's five that gets the shaft.

Easter Egg Hunt

While Joseph and I played soccer, Grandma Mumsie took Samuel with his cousins to meet the Easter Bunny. Results below.





Here's a close up of the bunnicula-induced terror.






The egg hunt was much better. He's at the age where greed plays no part, and it's just a delightfully strange sight to have colored eggs all over the grass. Only later did we discover there were lollypops with sawed off sticks in the eggs. Later he lined up the eggs into a train.

Zoo with Mumsie and cousins

I tried to back out of the zoo excursion at the last minute because I am so far behind with G&A work, but then G&A had a power outage and I couldn't access the network. I regret that such a drastic sign was needed to get me to go to the zoo.

It was idyllic. The children all got along without any tantrums or tears and Samuel actually ate a PB&J sandwich. Bill's brother Jared and family and his sister Melissa drove out from VA for spring break so there were 6 children and 7 adults. We all rode the carousel twice and generally had a lovely time.

Samuel looking at the okapi (Ethan's favorite animal) and Samuel attending Charlotte's meal.

Mumsie, Samuel and Nate

Me, Samuel, Nate, and Sarah Brown holding hands.

Activities this week

1) Houston Children's Museum: We got a membership from my parents for Christmas. We went for the big ball drop on New Year's Eve at high noon. Too bad there's not a larger-than-life dancing turtle there all the time. Samuel loves mascot-style costumes. His other favorite hang-out is the VW Van in Little Mexico section.

2) Eating salt or having a major breakdown when prevented from eating salt.

3) Monster Trucks! Samuel's cousins are into Blue Thunder, so we made a night of it as a family. What's so appealing about trucks smashing cars? Shockingly, a man in our row collapsed during the show. His legs were under our feet as CPR was performed. He appeared totally lifeless and was turning blue after several minutes or so. It looked like they knew what they were doing, but I heard someone say he had regained the pulse which I thought was impossible without a defibrillator, so he either didn't lose it, or they were mistaken and didn't find it the second time either. When the police arrived he was moved him to the concourse so I'm not sure what happened after that. Stopping the CPR would have endangered him further. The few who went with him returned shaking heads and looking grim, so I'm sure he was dead, though the police couldn't say. My CPR certification expires in a few months and I need to review it. Joseph and I could have been the ones doing the deed-we just didn't notice the initial commotion because it was next to us, not in front of us. At least he was on the aisle so they could lay him on the stairstep, but otherwise it was a very bad place to accommodate life rescue with the crowd and the noise.

Samuel's 2nd Birthday

We had a yellow school bus cake to celebrate not the first day of school, but Samuel's birthday. He just happens to love school buses and it wasn't too ambitious of a cake to make after a busy day of apartment hunting. We had a small celebration with cousins Nate, Ethan and family. He got puzzles from Mumsie and Grandpa, and a New Testament book and some pictures for his self-loading picture album from Grandma and Gramps. We will be getting him a zoo membership once we move down into the new apartment which is near the zoo. We were proud of our little Simonsen boy who very properly displayed his new book for everyone to admire. Grandma Mumsie would be proud. We didn't even have to coach him opening his present.