Sunday with the family.

Here's Gabe last night, laughing at his dad's haircut:  "Dad, you look insane!"  Dan had just buzzed off the tiny tuft of hair left on the front of his head so he would look goofy enough that it would be a personal incentive to finish the job before he went out in public again.

Here's Dan, minus the thimbleful of hair he shaved from the top of his head.  He did look insane.

Dad and the kids started planting seeds for the garden today.  Maya wanted the flowers.  Joe wanted the watermelons.  Gabe wanted the tomatoes.  (Max just wanted to eat the boxes.)

In this picture Gabe was griping about getting his hands dirty.  Maya, on the other hand, was perfectly willing to plant seeds in her white church dress.

Max enjoyed the sunshine and crawling around in the dead grass ...

... pulling up handfuls of it to eat.  He knows what it means when I say, "No eatie!"  But the temptation is just too strong!

This is what happens when I leave my camera someplace and Brian finds it.

Dinner at Granny and Gramps, then walking home.

Dan, carrying his usual armful of Gabe's toys wherever we go.

And me, with a more adorable burden ...

This is how we spend Sundays with our family!

The Rosehill Roundup and the Ruckus Room.

This morning we went to the Rosehill Roundup, a fundraiser carnival at Joe's school!

Trying to balance on a skateboard. (This attraction looked more exciting from afar.)

Joe made it to the top of the big wall!

You can never feed your kids too much sugar.

Daddy, Max, and Gabe (with a dot of candy apple on his nose).

Joe and Brian, before Brian hatched his plan to spend the rest of the tickets on snacks so we could go home sooner!

"Hold this, Dad."

Carnivals are the most fun for dads.

The driver of the little train was hitting some pretty high speeds on the straight-away!

Me with Max, wearing two socks.

Gabe and Joe, at our neighbor kid Dylan's birthday party at the Ruckus Room later on today.

Two events in one day.  Our kids have it so good!

Mummies: Secrets of the Pharaohs.

Gabe had to hurry and read his Bible story and work on multiplying by 5s this morning before heading off to the Houston Museum of Natural Science.  Maxie and I stayed home.

Joe also got to play hooky for this trip!

Gabe and Joe holding hands with Egyptian gods.  Dad was impressed that the boys knew their names!

Gabe standing between Anubis and Osiris, his two favorites!  (He is most familiar with Anubis from the Scooby Doo Where's My Mummy movie where Scooby is called A-Scoob-is.)  The funny thing is, I embarked on our study of history in order to teach Gabe about things that are real, as opposed to the fantasy world of comic book heroes he is obsessed with.  But the pattern that emerged is that he's not that interested real events or history at all.  Instead, he latches on to the mythology of every culture with a fierce interest!

Gabe took this photo of the ground floor label on the elevator because it reminded him of his first and last name.

Joe and Gabe with the movie they watched!  When Gabe brought back the camera it also contained a photo of probably every rock on display in the geology wing.  He said Buddy took them all.

 On their way out!  When Gabe came home he had to change his clothes because he'd laughed so hard in the truck that he spit his drink all over himself.

Thank you to Grandma and Buddy for carrying out this adventure I planned and then sneakily backed out of!

Cowboy Day.

Today was Cowboy Day at Gabe's school!  This is the best we could do for a cowboy costume on a budget. Maybe we should be ashamed to call ourselves Texans since our son doesn't own a pair of cowboy boots!  Mom bought the plaid shirt ... (Though Dan says real cowboy shirts have two pockets and snaps, Gabe can actually wear this one with another ensemble without looking dorky.)  She also donated the hat (Gabe has worn an adult-size hat since he was a small child).  The bandana is Dan's.  Ride 'em cowboy!

Max was practicing his crawling today!  He is getting really good!

I have no previous experience with a crawling baby!  Gabe always fussed too much to be put down, and he never learned to crawl until after he learned to walk.

Here's Max and his very, very attentive older brother.

Two seconds later ... Enough now!  Put me down!

One sock on, one off.  As always.

Well, tomorrow is Mummy Day!  Gabe, Joe, Grandma and Buddy are going to the Houston Museum of Natural Science to see the mummy 3D IMAX and visit the exhibits (including the resident mummy).  We're about to read another mummy book tonight to get ready for the big event.  

Unfortunately, I have decided it's just not feasible for me to bring Max to the mummy festivities.  So, Max and I will be home, sulking. (Well, I will be sulking).  So instead of taking pictures of my pouting face, I will send the camera with Gabe tomorrow and see what kind of pictures he can bring back!

And what is this horrendous-looking thing?  This is a sculpture of Osiris, one of the Ancient Egyptian gods.  Since he is not available as a toy, I am forced to use my awful, sad sculpting skills to fashion one.  Right now Gabe is ticked off that I am on the computer instead of finishing Osiris.  Maybe he will look better painted.  Maybe not.  Next comes Isis!

Behind the scenes at the post office.

Okay ... so, the post office tour was not a thrill-a-minute for Gabe.  We went to the Panther Creek post office on Gosling.  The "tour guide" was friendly enough but spoke too softly and went on and on ...

These photos were taken behind the doors at the post office, where the mail carriers come to sort the mail!  Cool, right?  Gabe was somewhat interested at first, but soon started asking, "When are we gonna go?!"  

Max was restless too, making it clear that he wanted to be put down to play.  I pulled out every object in my purse to occupy him and he threw them on the ground, one by one.  At the end he bit down hard on one of Mom's keys, hurt his mouth and started screaming.  I hurried to take him outside but couldn't find an exit to the front of the post office!  So we desperately scrambled around the postal labyrinth until we were mercifully shown an exit.

Mom put Max in one of the baskets at the post office.  More Egypt books.  Gabe said, "I've seen enough things today.  I wanna go home."

Dan worked from home today.  He had a nice "Daddy Day" break from us!

Buddy and Max.

The "Mummy Pharaoh."  Gabe invented this "good guy" character based on our Ancient Egypt study.

And here's the "Spookmaster," our Ancient Egyptian villain.

I missed the snow!

Wow, it snowed in Tomball twice in one year!  Apparently it was snowing around 5 p.m. when I was nursing Max down for a nap.  I heard there were great big snowflakes.  I've never seen great big snowflakes before!  This is my car.  

Max is a happy boy again!  Germs, germs, stay away!

Gabe went to school at The Lighthouse.  When he got home we put down a sheet and scattered Cheerios on it.  Then we sent Max on a "Cheerio hunt" so we could read some books together.  Max is not exactly crawling, but he is scooting around.  And he can put the Cheerios away!

  

Tomorrow we are supposed to go tour a post office with a homeschool group.  Thursday Gabe has to dress up for Cowboy Day at his school.  And Friday ... mummies!  Yay!

Dan and Gabe got two video games in the mail today, Borderlands and Avatar.  Good inside fun when it's too nasty to go out.

Here's the Anubis Gabe drew.  More Ancient Egypt toys are on their way in the mail!