Watching Paint Dry

Literally. That's what we did in the days just before Thanksgiving, when we had our house painted! It had been on our to do list, probably since move-in day, and it felt so good to finally check it off! The house looked like it hadn't been painted since it was built; the paint was very faded and peeling in several places, not to mention covered in mildew. Plus, we found a good painting crew that also did minor trim repairs, power washed and treated the mildew, and caulked the whole thing back together. To the before and afters:

The mister and I did agree on a color, which we thought was a slight miracle. Because the cream color tends to show dirt and mildew easily, we thought a darker color might be better. We borrowed some paint samples from a neighbor and found a few medium grays that played to the darker bricks in our red house. We tried them out in a few different places and picked one, but when the painters put it up in large scale, we second guessed our choice!

It looks much greener on a large wall, when our little sample looked mostly gray, so we were a little concerned it would look like a Christmas house. But the second coat helped a lot. In some light, it even leans brown. Either way, it will be good to disguise mildew and dirt! I think it's still growing on us, but it's definitely an improvement and feels like the house is at least in better condition than it was.

We also replaced a dead tree in the front yard. It was a red oak that just didn't seem to grow much, and we put another in its place with an improved watering system, so hopefully this one will be happier than its predecessor.

We had a mini-Thanksgiving on Tuesday at the ranch, in between unpacking boxes and assembling lamps for Granna and Grandad. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures, but I borrowed this one from my SIL. I was in charge of the meal, while everyone else was working, and it was a little exciting to be the first to use the oven, microwave, stove, utensils, and bakeware in a brand new kitchen. We were so glad to be there to help them "break in" their new house. The only snag was the brown water coming out of the tap... It seems there's always something.

However, on Thursday, we had our first Thanksgiving by ourselves in our own house, and it was delicious! Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Despite this insane year, we have much to be grateful for.

Dewberry Farm Fall Festival

I kept waiting for it to "feel" more like fall, but finally decided to go check out Dewberry Farms on the last weekend of their fall festival, despite temps climbing into the low 80s still. I'd heard a lot about it, and the kids missed the corn mazes of falls past. I was a little wary of crowds, but we were able to maintain our own space most of the time and wore face masks regardless. We had such a blast!

We started out in the playground area, which had a few extra diversions, like the black mamba (a long, hanging black corrugated pipe that only Hadley could crawl down) and a hay mountain with swing ropes.

Kids also enjoyed the pedal cart track! Mom tried it too, but my legs were a little too long...

Next up were the "special items", like these apple cannons. Splat! So satisfying. Of course, Owen enjoyed the paintball guns, and Hadley led the way on the gemstone mining station.

We strolled through the animal barn and pens on the way to the big slide. Our favorite was this bike pedal-powered conveyor belt feeding system leading up to the goat on a platform. We watched him climb up a ramp to get up there and wait patiently for a few groups to feed him. There was a little container strapped to the conveyor which would dump out (or he would stick his tongue out to get) food at the top. 

Finally to the corn maze! It was a little underwhelming, since we stepped in and could see a straight path all the way to the far corner, but we made it a little more interesting for ourselves, even without a map or clues like our previous experiences! At least we had it pretty much to ourselves.

And working our way to the exit, the kids took a spin on the ferris wheel. That's them at the top!

And a couple of parting photo ops as the sun was setting. It was a fun way to spend an afternoon, for sure!

Joy at the Zoo and the Ranch

The kids had parent-teacher conferences on Friday, which meant that they didn't have to go into school that day. We only had one conference scheduled for late in the afternoon and I was able to take the morning off of work, plus the weather was decent, so we decided to do something fun and out of the ordinary - the Houston Zoo! We had only been once before for the Christmas lights in December 2013, and neither kid remembered that trip. Looks like the zoo was getting ready for this year's lights display again.

We saw lots of animals, including sea lions, tortoises, cheetah, and gorillas (Hadley's favorite). This bald eagle had a wing injury and can't fly (and thus couldn't survive in the wild), so she has a secure pen she can hop around in. And who doesn't love a meerkat colony? It's like the dogs from Up, "Squirrel!", when the sentries are on watch.

The zoo also has an Asian elephant herd. The little baby was adorable, and we were totally fascinated by watching their trunks operate up close to pick up all the food from the ground. Here, mom and big sis were pointing at something together.

Owen's favorite is the reptile house, because snakes and lizards are always interesting. Kids requested their picture with this big python, as they remembered the scene from the first Harry Potter where he made the glass disappear. 

I think this was a green mamba; not sure where he thought he was going. Again, glad for the glass!

After our picnic lunch, we noticed that a lot of the animals were having naps, including this fossa, who was dead to the world (but still breathing!), and the clouded leopards, one of whom was draped over the limb like a rug. They reminded us a lot of Tibbs, the cat, at home...

All in all, a lovely trip to the zoo, and not too crowded. We made it home just in time to conference in with H's teacher for a good report. I also had time last week to visit Granna and Grandad and see the new ranch house. The building phase is now complete, and it's time to start getting furniture and home goods in place to make it livable. They should be moving in the week of Thanksgiving!

They celebrated the final walk-through with Uncle Michael and Aunt NJ. We are definitely ready to get them out of the tiny rental house they've been in for the last 8 months, but we still have quite a ways to go. Feels good to be making progress though!