Spring break - day 4

Woodlands Children's Museum day!!

Today we spent most of the morning at the Children's Museum, complete with a clown magic show the kids loved (and attended twice). 

Afterwards, we had a lovely lunch at Crust, with its cozy patio and little wooded area where the kids could collect sticks and drum on trees to their hearts' content. 

Spring break - day 3

After the busy weekend, Monday was a no-plans kind of a day, starting with a breakfast of champions at Shipley. 

We made a very important morning stop to pick up our repaired iPads, which we did not get to use all weekend long. Next stop was at the car dealership, to fix the headrest DVD players in the car - Em will happily tell you that they don't work because she dropped money into both of them. The iPads were essential for the hour-long wait. So were the chocolate chip cookies offered by the dealership!

In the afternoon we visited Daddy's office with a late lunch and of course also fed the turtles next door (the fish food dispenser was broken but fortunately we brought the stale naan from lunch). 

Then dinner with Gran and Uncle Gokul at Buca di Beppo followed by a good night's sleep. More adventures on Tuesday!

Spring break 2016 - day 2

Still in Houston for day 2, we took a very short drive to the zoo. We were delighted to discover that our darling cousins were there as well, and E and Em got to play with Sophie and Piper at the children's zoo. 

We love the zoo. Not infrequently, when I ask E what he dreamed about the night before, his answer is animals at the zoo. The kids' current favorites are the monkeys and the sea lions, and one of their favorite spots is the tunnel through the piranha tank. 

After the zoo, we headed back to the 'holiday house' and chilled, then walked over to the fountains on the corner and had a picnic of the weekend's leftovers. Then dad and the kids drove home to The Woodlands and I stayed overnight to complete my call weekend (which was very pleasant - answered a few phone calls but never needed to go in to the hospital). Monday morning, call weekend ended and the real spring break began!

Climbing the orangutan. 

Ethan and Sophie exchanging stories about their respective boo boos. Em did not at this moment have any boo boos. 

Carousel ride - all 4 cousins can be seen if you squint. For some reason E always chooses the bench. 

I love this close-up of Em admiring her cousin Piper. 

They don't always want to ride in the wagon. 

Piranha tank!

Sea lion!

Spring break 2016 - day 1

We started off spring break with a call weekend for mom, followed by a week of vacation for mom, E, and Em. Since I was on call for a hospital in the Med center, a friend graciously offered us her home for the weekend. We were close enough to walk to the hospital and also to walk to Rice U, the village, several local parks... so many opportunities for adventure! Plus, my friend has a bunny!! Toddler heaven! 

We took E and Em to mom's alma mater for the first time on a lovely Saturday morning, after brunch in the village. It was delightful to watch the kids running around Rice campus!

Climbing the vertigo-inducing spiral staircase to the rooftop parking was a highlight for the kids. 

E took this photo all on his own!

Em on the outer loop, after a colossal tantrum because E ran ahead of her. 

Maybe the first of many jogs on the outer loop?

Even the leaves are bigger in Texas. 

The kids really wanted photos with their leaves...

Dinner at Local Food then dessert at Sprinkles. Sprinkle cupcakes of course. 

A bite for daddy. 

Feeding a carrot to Bunny (aka Scarlet)

Em loved visiting Bunny. 

Errata

Some cute E and Em -isms. 

Both kids ask Siri to open apps for them. From listening to us, E has learned that you need to greet Siri. So his exchange with Siri is generally:

E: Siri, open a-- Hi, Siri. Open angry birds. 

Siri: I'm sorry, I didn't get that. 

E: Hi, Siri. Open angry birds please. 

Siri: I'm sorry, what did you say?

Mom: Open angry birds. 

Siri doesn't understand Em either. They're so cute when they try though. 

Thanks to our nanny, they have and love abcmouse, which E always calls abcmouse dot com. He chats with the mouse avatar while he plays. 

E asked for a new backpack, which he really does need. He told me he would buy it and when I told him I could buy it he cried until I agreed to let him pay - he ran to his room and brought back the handfuls of change he has saved. $2.53, to be exact. When I asked what he wanted in his backpack, he replied, hesitantly, 'dolphins?' So now I am on the search for a dolphin backpack. 

We (Sherri) are weaning Em from the binky this weekend. I was showing Em a photo of Sherri's new grandbaby Brooke and told her she could give her binkies to Brookie. She hasn't stopped talking about it since - she met Brooke and gave yet the binkies today...

 

Fustuwaded

In the car on the way home from a birthday party, E is messing with Em a little, pushing his balloon over to her side. Em is grumpy and says, 'I fustuwaded. I fustuwaded.' What, Em, what is it? E: 'Emily is frustrated.' Aha. 

My sweet boy

Yesterday we went to Sam Moon and E and Em both picked out new backpacks. Actually, Em chose a backpack for E, which he insisted was the one he wanted. It's a frog backpack. His broken backpack was a frog backpack. This one's bigger, at least. And Em then picked out about 20 backpacks for her. After much cajoling, she decided on a black Avengers hologram backpack - she say it's a boy backpack but it's the one she wants. Fine with me, since it was on clearance...

E was sure to confirm with me that he was paying for the backpack with the money he had saved ($2.53, but who's counting?) and checked all the tags for the prices. We may have gone a leeeetle over budget but he doesn't need to know that.


And today, I got this text from Sherri:

'E was so sweet... we were reading and he says... I think I'm gonna go to bed now... maybe when I wake up I can hide from mommy... I said why do you hide from her... he says cause I like to be found by her!'

Sweet boy.