Phoencian Market Houston Texas... May 2013

We took the most amazing adventure the other day into downtown Houston to the Phoenician Market! It was awesome!!

Here is the conveyor of pita bread!

 smelled SOOO good!

was sooo good!

the beef and potato pie was good, the lamb one not as good.

 Hookah!  Must be 18 years or older to try.. not that I wanted to.  :0)

 we had this.. .which was YUMMO.

 we did not have this.. don't know if I am brave enough.. I have had octopus before so I guess I am free from trying it!  .0

 did not get this as I saw it after we had ordered SOO much other food, so next time. 

this we DID have!  Turkish Delight on a Moonlit night!  :-)

Houston Museum of Printing... May 2013

This was a great field trip!!! I cannot believe we have never been before!  It is top on my list of field trips from now on!

We didn't have very many people sign up AND then on the day of the field trip it was torrential thunderstorms so we had people unable to make it, but those who did, benefited greatly!

We started in front of a replica of the Gutenberg Press (1450) and Matt was chosen to be Johannes Gutenberg for the day!

In 1620, the English philosopher Francis Bacon indeed wrote that these three inventions

"changed the whole face

and state of the world".

We learned HOW the press works and then got to help demonstrate it.  There is all the type to set, ink to roll, levers to push, levers to pull... it takes a lot of TIME, strength and energy for ONE print!

We each got a copy of the Gutenberg Bible that we printed!

 

Next, we moved a few years, well 300 plus years, to a type of printing press that might have been used to print the Declaration of Independence!

Each of the kids got to print a page from the Declaration of Independence!

"The printing press is either the greatest blessing or the greatest curse of modern times, sometimes one forgets which it is."

---E. F. Schumacher

"The printing press was at first mistaken for an engine of immortality by everybody except Shakespeare."

---Marshall McLuhan

Next, we moved onto a printing press that TYPE set itself, meaning you typed in what you wanted.. no more scrambling around putting all those letters, spaces, punctuation together! Lots of saved time and effort... PLUS no more levers and pulleys as this machine was powered by steam!

"Before printing was discovered, a century was equal to a thousand years."

---Henry David Thoreau

This was a hand printing press-- sort of like a personal one that could be used to

print invitation or visiting cards..

 reminded me of the printer thing I had as a child... it had a round surface with letters all the way around and you would dial to the letter you wanted and click it like a trigger and eventually you could print something out, or emboss a card?  Anyone remember that??

Anyway.. after the tour we got to watch BEN AND ME!  My favorite show! They have  small theater in the back of the museum!

It was a fabulous field trip!

All for the love of sticky rice...

Emily got this cube thing in a party bag and had taken it apart the night before... She couldn't for the life of her get it put back together.   So I was encouraging her and said "there is a way of course!" 

After she had been working a while Dave wanted to try.  I said the first one to put it back together gets Sticky rice from Kim Sons-- our favorite thing!  Dave eventually gave up.

I had asked the girls to let me sleep in and given instructions about what they could do, cereal for breakfast ect.

But, at 9:15, she couldn't stand it anymore and I could hear her sweetly calling MAma... Are you awake--- do they not understand that THAT wakes a mama up!

Anyway, she said MAMA, I did it, do I get sticky rice?  And sure enough she had gotten the cube back together!

Logic WIN!

All for the love of sticky rice...

Austin.. girls trip 2013

Back to Austin.. but this time JUST for fun!

We left on Tuesday and slowly meandered out way out 290!  We stopped to eat at Chuy's  YUMMMO, we stopped at Chappel Hill for pastries, and blueberry jalepeno jam (um, yes, please).

Next, we hit up the BLUE BELL FACTORY... because Vickie had never been!!

We were near Giddings and Kaitlin yelled out Trash to Treasure that is WHERE JUNK GYPSIES shop!!!  So we turned around headed for it... unfortunately they were closed, but we went to the shop next door and Kate found a few little treasures...

We got to the hotel and chilled, then we headed out to dinner at Threadgills.

It was SOO good.  Really it is all about the southern veggie dishes.  ALL 27 choices. 

garlic cheesy grits
Texas Caviar
macaroni and cheese
San Antonio squash casserole ( um, yes, please)
broccoli rice casserole
sweet potato fries
spinach casserole
stewed okra and tomatoes
butter beans

the list goes ON and ON... YUMMO!


Wednesday morning we woke up and had a great breakfast... I love omelet stations!

We headed to the Capitol because Vickie had never been in it before and of course it is a must!

next we headed to a few food trucks!  We tried Dosa this time, sort of like crepe filled with Indian good.  Good but spicy!

We headed to a few of the shops on South Congress...

This was the Big Top Candy/ Soda Shop... they had some cool stuff! 

Sunday Sum Up: Week 25-26 2013-2014

BTW... yes, I know it is NOT Sunday and I know I am late and I have not gone quite insane.. YET.  I just wanted it posted BEFORE next Sunday's was due!  :0)


{144-153}

Okay, so I was supposed to buckle down and hit the books with the kids... AND I did, well I attempted.  Does that count?  We got back from Austin and I had a VERY major migraine Monday- Wednesday  and I had a lot of trouble with the kids both weeks with getting their work done each day.  So we have had three different "DISCUSSION" or pow-wows and I think we MIGHT all be on the same page.

1. you actually HAVE to do your school work.
2. your school works actually needs to be done.
3. doing your school work is mandatory.

Did you get the message?

YEAH... does this look organized to you?  It is I PROMISE.  :0) 

Well lets hope the kids did!

It is a BAD week to test it out seeings how I will be gone Tuesday- Thursday, but at least they will still have assignments that ARE non negotiable and next week will be full steam ahead!

I have let them know that our finishing date is now the second week of JULY!!! 

hmmm. SOMEONE's Latin book left aside the pool.  At least the page was completed...  :0)

Dave and I had about four additional pow wows with Emily and it seems that SHE understands that her option is basically to do her school work.  Because the other option is truancy.  :0)  We talked about a few "problem areas" and came up with some solutions to try and implement.  I will let you know! 

Riley, slightly confused as to why the kids are banned from playing with her at the moment... You know because school must be done.  #dogsdontdoschool

Day wise.. we have until the 2nd week of June to hit our mandatory day count.  AT that point I am going to be VERY irritated for every day past that... because half of the reason is simply THEM NOT getting stuff done.. I will take all the days "LIFE" happened days, but the rest is on them!  Last summer we did a three day school week and had two COMPLETELY free days off, I LOVED it!  I had hoped to do that this year too, but it is looking less and less like that will happen.   REMIND ME to never again take 6 weeks off at Christmas!

I was cleaning off my camera SD card and found this...

 

 

I have no words.

May choir concert 2013

 

 

I somehow DELETED the picture I had of her doing her SOLO!!!  I do have it on video, but it is not mine to share unfortunately.  She did wonderfully (there was a little timing issue with the other soloist, but Kaitlin fixed it and went on and I am so proud of her for that!)

 

She is so beautiful.

 

Dragon Boats 2013

We were going to the Dragon Boat races last Saturday to support Kirsten, who was supposed to say the Pledge of Allegiance, as Little Miss Wheelchair Texas.  However, on our way to the races, Amy called to say Kirsten was very sick and could just not make it... so we continued to the races so that we could explain to Eve the director that Kirsten would not be attending...  ENTER EVE... who was by the way, great, amazing!  She was so sad to hear Kirsten was sick and unavailable, but of course she needed someone to fill the spot.. SO Kaitlin did!  (Dave and I stood having convulsions whilst she sat on stage a few people down from Al Green.  (((uggg))).  Anyway.. she did great, minus holding the wrong hand over her heart! 


Don't they all look excited to be saying the pledge!?! 

In the bottom right hand picture they are brushing the dragon to awaken him to lead everyone in good spirits during the races (or something to that effect!)

There were dragon dancers, Tae Kwon Do Doers, Vietnamese dancers.... it was great!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As the races started.. Eve came running up to Kaitlin and said we have space on a boat and need another pumper (paddler) do you wanna do it?  Kaitlin looked at me and I nodded "YES" and she broke out into a huge smile!  We ran after Eve (who was RUNNING!!!) and signed release (yes, because the currents are so strong that the dragon boats actually crash into each other sometimes-- I heard this AS she is starting her race). We got her into a life jacket and onto the boat!  There were a few instructions... and she was off!

The did not win the race.. but she had a GREAT time!

We stayed to watch a friend, fellow home schooling mama.. who was on another team's meet.. Her team was AMAZING and won all three heats!  They were so fast!  The Hybrid Dragon Team!