Nora got to go to Zoe’s superhero birthday today. I freely admit that, in dying Nora’s hair purple, we may have gone just the tiniest itsy bitsiest bit overboard on the Violet Parr (from the Incredibles) costume. Still… you’re only five once.
Posts in category family & friends
Nora & Ursula
Nora’s spring break was spent at a day camp at the Houston Arboretum with her besty Ursula. They learned about crocodiles, frogs, lizards, snakes, baby chicks, mice that can be fed to snakes, trees (that can not be fed to snakes), and lots of other cool stuff. Just get Nora started and she’ll teach you all about cold-blooded versus warm-blooded animals, how crocodile baby gender is determined by the ambient temperature, why a snake molts, and other cool facts.
After one of the days of camp, we and Ursula’s mom, Christina, picked the girls up and took them to a nearby park for a lunch and play date in the gorgeous 70+ degree weather of a Houstonian early spring.
Florida Gulf Coast University
Obviously, almost everyone here is pulling for the Michigan Wolverines to go furthest in the current March Madness sporting tournament. We hope their batsmen score many first downs with a minimum of time spent in the penalty box before they run out of injury time. We’re true fans. However, we have a certain amount of split loyalty in the house because resident monkey friend Ahkey (shown below) is, despite being a monkey, an FGCU eagle through and through. He was a gift from our friend Tami who works at FGCU and has never, ever been eaten by an alligator at work.
howdy, kitty!
Nora’s school recently held its “Go Texan!” day again (though, oddly, one week after the rest of Houston) and we went as Texan as we possibly could. Colin, our only native Texan, wore his little hat and for Nora we turned some normal rain gear and Jen’s old novelty cowgirl hat into a “Howdy, Kitty!” ensemble that was the envy of all the cowpokes.
Birthdaypartypalooza!
In a city of over 2,000,000 people, with nearly as many cool venues for birthday parties, Nora was recently invited to two birthdays back-to-back at the same bouncy castle place on the same Saturday morning in February. What is the probability of this happening?? It is 1. It happened.
Anyway, she had a wonderful time celebrating the birthday of a classmate and then had an equally wonderful time celebrating the birthday of our friend Billy (you remember Billy, surely? He of the smooth moves?) in a strikingly similar manner. There was pizza, there was cake, there was bouncing, there was joy.
park & ride with accidental new friends
We took Nora and Colin out for a late evening bike ride and stroll (respectively) in the lovely (really) Houston January weather. Along the way, Nora made a new friend named Rowan who was out for a ride with his mom. Rowan led us to a gorgeous park not far from our house that we’d never been to before. It has community gardens and bench swings and picnic tables (more on this later) and loads of
room to just run around and play and be crazy.
NASA with Drakes
Nora and I went with Ben, Rachel, and Harper Drake to NASA a few days after Christmas. Ben, more talented with a camera (by far) than anyone on the Rubberducky payroll, took some great pictures. We love these particular Drakes and only wish we lived closer so we could see them more often.
Chatting with the Toledo McGowans
Nora spent some time on Christmas Eve chatting with (and singing to) the Toledo McGowans. I took a photo of the iPad.
Christmas Program (afterglow)
After the Christmas program, there was a muffin and water reception back in room 5. Nora and Leah were typically inseperable & Colin made his own fun.
Three veterans of not freaking out in Room 4.