Thursday, March 12, 2009
Spring has Sprung in Houston!
The azaleas and dogwoods are at their peak in East Texas! To celebrate, we headed over to the azalea trail after church last Sunday. The trail is put on by the River Oaks garden club and showcases beautiful homes and gardens around the city. We chose to tour Bayou Bend, the former home of Ima Hogg, daughter of Texas Governor Hogg. The home is surrounded by beautiful azalea, hydrangea, and tulip gardens, as well as dogwood trees and the natural beauty of the soothing bayou waters. I had lots of fun running on the greens and down the paths while Mom and Dad snapped photos. The rodeo is still rocking here as well, and Mom and I have had a lot of fun riding the light rail over to enjoy the festivities. It's hard to describe everything that goes on at the world's largest rodeo. Mom's favorite part is "window shopping" all the jewelry and western wear shops. My favorite is all the great agrigultural events for the kids--like going through a typical day as a farmer. I got to milk a cow, plant some veggies, feed the chickens and gather eggs . . .then take all my goods to the farmers market where I exchanged them for money to use at the general store! There are many other activities in addition to watching all the livestock and, of course, the carnival rides. I talked Mom into going down the gigantic slide with me yesterday--she screamed all the way down! We've had fun seeing my cousin Audrey show some animals, too. She and her parents are staying with us, although we rarely see them. Preparing livestock for a show, we've learned, is very demanding. They leave around 5:30 am and don't return until around midnight. Audrey has been sleeping in my room, but I have yet to even see her in there! We're hoping they make the big sale on Saturday with either their steer or goat, so keep your fingers crossed! Last night was a special treat. Mom's attorney friend called to say she had 4 tickets to the actual rodeo and show to give away! Dad was out of town, so we called our friends Mrs. Stephanie and Patrick. They live really close to us, and Patrick's dad travels a lot too, so we often hang out with them in the evenings. They were more than excited to join us, so we headed out to see the cowboys. Turns out, the tickets were on the CLUB LEVEL, complete with parking right next to the door! Patrick and I watched it all with our mouths hung open, from the barrel racing to the bronc and bull riding, and finally the chuck wagon races, we loved it all! Unfortunately, Reba took too long getting set up after the rodeo, and Patrick and I were getting tired. We decided to call it a night and head home. I'm looking forward to showing Dad around the rodeo this weekend and getting him on all the crazy carnival rides!
Friday, March 06, 2009
Don't Cry for Me Argentina--We have a New Driveway!
So this week was full of celebration. First, Mom and Dad finally decided to give the go ahead on replacing our ruts and bumps out front with a new, white, smooth slab of concrete. I must admit, the old driveway provided quite a fun, challenging track on the big wheel, especially when pools of water formed after a rain. But the new drive is a much better foundation for cruising in and out on "Major Trouble," my big boy bike, as well as our tandem. It was definitely cause for celebration, so much so that I carved my name and date in the side! We also celebrated the Children of the World Fair at my school this week. Each year, the school chooses 5 countries, and each one is honored during the week. The kids get to learn and experience the cultures, food, language and customs through presentations put on by the volunteers. Mom served on the Argentina committee. We were all greeted on Tuesday with traditional Argentine music and Tango dancers outside the school. We learned about gauchos, the Argentine equivalent of the American cowboy. We also panned for silver and dug for dinosaur bones. Did you know that Argentinian paleontologists recently found the bones of a meat eating dinosaur larger than T REX??--and naturally they named it . . .Argentosauras!! They best part of the presentation for me, however, was the tasting of Dulce de Lece--I could definitely live in Argentina for that!
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