On February 17, 2014 we packed up and headed to the Houston Aquarium. We went with a bunch of kids from Andrew's preschool and friends from other preschools and had a great time.
The big attraction at the end of the Aquarium is a white tiger and this time they even had a sloth there!
The kids wanted to go on a shark train that drives through the shark exhibit.
The shark exhibit has some cool sharks and fish. The kids liked seeing them swim all around them.
Silly kids.
At the end of the train ride a shark that has been missing appears! I love how Andrew leans into Bailey and keeps his hands away from the side of the train! He was scared, but Bailey was fine. It was adorable.
Andrew's favorite thing (according to him) is the Ferris wheel. When we drive by the aquarium he asks when he can ride the Ferris wheel. So we spent a good amount of time going up and down on it.
Andrew likes to be higher than the cars on the freeway.
In no particular order, here are some random things that kept us busy in January.
The BYU puzzle that Ryan got for Christmas turned out to be really really hard. We worked on this puzzle for 2-3 hours. The helmet is it's own puzzle, and the blue part fits around it. There are many weird shaped pieces, but I must admit, it has been quite a while since a puzzle has made me think this much. The 24 piece Mickey Mouse puzzle just doesn't do it for me. It was so satisfying to put the last piece in. Hard work feels so good, even when referring to puzzles.
Andrew has been working on his cup stacking abilities. He has been proud of his towers and we caught this one as it came tumbling down.
One thing I love about our house is the area around our house. We don't have neighbors on one side and no houses behind us. We have open areas and trees behind us and an open lot (too small for a house) next to us. This is our view from our kitchen window. The neighborhood next to us is building out to us! The trees are being knocked down and I think the houses will come all the way to the yellow truck thing. (Yes my knowledge of construction vehicles is incredible. I bet most 6 year old boys know more than I do.) I'm really sad that we are losing our quiet and natural backyard to houses.
Look at the deer! There were 8 of them. It's sad that their home in the trees is being taken away. I see deer out here often and wonder how that will change with the building of new houses there.
So speaking of our side/back yards. I came outside one day to see the land next to us completely flooded. It's hard to tell in this photo, but it was like a swamp. Water everywhere.
This is why. Our sprinkler pipe froze and burst. We didn't think we'd have these problems in Houston, but yes it freezes here too. Luckily the part that was broken is easily replaced and thank goodness for facebook! I posted this photo and quickly had people over at my house to help me fix it. I was able to turn off the water, but I turned off the water to our entire house and couldn't figure out how to turn it back on. I know it sounds silly, but I was frantically turning all the knobs I could think of and didn't know which one turned our house water back on. My friend and I working on it for 30+ minutes and couldn't figure it out. Then her husband came over and fixed it within 5 minutes. Thank goodness for handy friends!
Bailey often asks for Andrew to cuddle with her before she goes to bed.
She loves shoes! Just like her mama!
Bailey started writing her letters!!! She wrote all the letters here by herself! This is the first time she wrote her name! I am so proud of this little girl. She knows how to spell her name by herself too so she practices on her own sometimes. I pulled out some of Andrew's old "learning time" books for her to use to practice holding a pen/pencil and she traced the shapes and put a happy face inside each one! Love it!
Happy birthday to my dear friend Patrice!
I love that the kids love each other and voluntarily hold hands almost everywhere we go.
One cold day we went to the mall to play on their indoor play structures. I loved how this photo of Bailey turned out.
The weather in Houston is crazy. Snowing one day and beautiful the next. We try to enjoy the park on the nice days. Andrew was being funny and asked me to take photos of him.
Andrew is really smart. He's 5. I think he's smarter than I was at 10. He knows more state capitals than I ever have. He's learning multiplication and division. He's 5! We play Rummikub and he follows all the rules. It's a great game to teach kids patterns and numbers and since you cans witch around the tiles and patterns it allows Andrew to think. He is very good at this game. I only beat him because I had a wild. He had 3 tiles left.
Andrew's friend from school had him over for a play date one day. His friend has this awesome Hummer that drives around. The kids loved it and Andrew's friend was kind enough to ride his scooter so Bailey could get a turn in the car.
Bailey started riding the bike she got for Christmas! She was too scared to ride it for almost a month and finally got on and realized that she loves it!
Andrew wanted us to take off his training wheels. I don't think he realized how difficult it would be to ride his bike this way. I tried to help him but he had a hard time balancing. He said, "Maybe I can do this when I'm 6."
Bailey found a few headbands and wanted to wear them all at the same time. That look doesn't convince me that she enjoys it.
She wanted me to wear them and she took this photo of me.
She was happy when the headbands came off.
Andrew found a little area to read his scriptures all by himself.
Bailey tried to jump over Andrew and Ryan. They are having too much fun and you know what that means? Someone is going to get hurt...and they do at the end.
We had fun at the park, but somehow my video uploaded vertical instead of horizontal. Oh well. (I recorded it horizontal.) Bailey hates being in the little kid swings, but likes to swing like this on the big swings.
