Museum Trip, Olympics, and a Baseball Game

We've had fun the past couple of weekends. Last weekend, we were stuck inside all day Saturday when we had huge storms and record rainfall. We're not in a drought anymore!! Sunday, the weather was gorgeous, and we headed out to the Museum of Natural Science. We checked out the dinosaurs and Natalie blew us away with her knowledge of dinosaur names. Then we headed out to the butterfly pyramid. Natalie got her wish and had a couple of butterflies land on her this time. It was Ike's turn to go to the IMAX, so he took Natalie and Owen to see the 3D sharks movie (Owen's favorite!). Henry and I walked around the animal exhibit and we named some animals - Henry liked the lions best, no surprise since he is a cat fan - then we headed into the gem exhibit. The low lighting and classical music put Henry right to sleep and I had some nice quiet time. That afternoon after naps for everybody, we hit the playground. Henry has learned to manuever the "big kid" section and he has a blast. He also enjoyed swinging with Ike. Natalie made some new friends as usual and Owen did his own thing.
Last week was uneventful for us, but we were excited to hear about the arrival of our new niece/cousin, Emily Grace. Congrats to Jennifer and Eric, and to Carrie for being a new big sister!
This weekend has been busy. Natalie had ballet yesterday - she got her costume for the recital and she's very excited that it's coming up in a couple of weeks. Last night, Nat, Owen, & Henry went to Rainbow Kids, and Ike & I enjoyed an evening out to celebrate Karien's birthday. We had a really good time. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera. This morning Natalie and Owen had their gymnastics Olympics. They both did a great job! They did the vault (there's a good picture of Owen running on his approach), floor routine, balance beam, bars, and trampoline. Natalie had great form on the bars. Owen had an awesome dismount from the beam. So that was fun. We had planned to all go to the Astros-Brewers game this afternoon, but Henry was crabby and needed a nap after the Olympics, so I stayed home with him and Ike took Nat and Owen to the game. They had a great time, and enjoyed their hot dogs and crackerjacks while they watched.
We have another busy week ahead. Ike has a New York trip early in the week - he's presenting at a senior leadership conference, which is pretty cool. I have a bunch of work deadlines, so I'm sure the week will fly by!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! We had a nice weekend. Things kicked off Thursday with the kids' school egg hunts. I was able to sneak a picture of Owen at his egg hunt without him seeing me - I wasn't staying and I didn't want him to be upset. I helped Henry at his egg hunt since he was one-handed - he had surgery on his thumb at the beginning of the month and he was still bandaged up. So I held the basket while he collected eggs. Although I didn't get to see Natalie at her hunt, she did bring home a basket full of eggs! After his egg hunt, we took Henry to have his bandage removed. His thumb looks great! Now we're waiting for the stitches to fall out. For those who don't know - he was born with an extra bone/cartilage in his right thumb and we had it taken off. Thursday evening Natalie, Owen, & Henry opened their Easter goodies from Grandma Phyllis and Grandpa Tom - they were very excited about those! Early Friday morning we drove over to New Orleans. I had to work on Friday - Natalie enjoyed sitting at my desk while I was in meetings, and Ike took the boys on an errand to keep them from getting too stir crazy at the office. Friday evening we walked around downtown New Orleans a little, then called it a night early since Ike had a race in the morning. He left early in the morning, and I took the kids to breakfast. Then we found a spot on the race route to watch for him. No pictures this time - it was so crowded! I didn't see him until the last minute, and the kids didn't see him at all! After that, I took the kids to walk along the riverwalk and look at the river boats and barges. Once Ike was back and had a shower, we headed to the crawfish boil at my boss's house. Natalie was the life of the party as usual, and she enjoyed holding some crawfish and even set a couple free in a pond before their counterparts were boiled. She talked about it the rest of the weekend. We headed back to Houston that afternoon, and didn't get home too late. Sunday morning the Easter bunny left eggs inside since the weather wasn't too great. Natalie, Owen, and Henry found all of the eggs (I had to tell Nat to cool it a little to give the boys a chance!), then they checked out their Easter baskets. Henry was pretty excited about his kittens book - he loves cats! Good thing Yoda is very patient with all of his pokes and "pats." I made banana muffins and banana pancakes (a theme?), then we all were pretty lazy the rest of the day. The stormy weather didn't help. So we're getting ready for another busy week. Natalie and Owen have their gymnastics olympics coming up at the end of the month, then Natalie has her ballet recital on Mother's Day weekend, so we're excited for those events.