First Homeschool Meetup!

This past Wednesday I took the girls to Huntsville State Park for our first ever Homeschool Group meet-up. We met with the Secular Homeschoolers of Houston and the Hydromoon group. Despite the distance and heat there was a decent turnout. The girls had fun.

It was hot too.

But on the bright side, there was water in the lake!

The drive up there was pretty uneventful except for the major accident on I-45. It’s after 10 am on a Wednesday and there’s a major accident on I-45. Of course there is. It’s I-45. I caught a glimpse of the wreck. I’m not entirely sure somebody didn’t enjoy the last few moments of their life before turning that car over.

Kids, don’t text and drive!

Sheesh.

So, we drove to Huntsville. I got some wise-ass comments on Facebook suggesting I take the kids to visit the Texas Sate Penitentiary. But there weren’t any executions scheduled, so….

To the park!

DesCartes might suggest that the 'gators only think they do.

Saw this sign on the way in.

Had me a bit concerned at first, but I wondered if there was any water in the park at all.

After all, didn't half of Texas burn down last year and it pretty much hasn't rained since?

So I chose to ignore the sign and pretend alligators didn't exist at all let alone in the park. I would hope that if they have designated swimming areas efforts would have been made to discourage alligator activity in that area.

Not that I have any idea how that would be done.

No alligators here.

 There was plenty of water in the lake. While it was down compared to years past (as one might expect) there was water.

And being a Wednesday during the school year, damn near completely to ourselves.

Hells yeah!

So few others, it felt a bit like a private resort.

"My feet are wet!"

I'd like to point out right now that there will be no pictures of me in this post.

Mostly it's because I'm the one holding the camera.

And let's face it. I'm not exactly "photogenic". I put it in quotes because when I'm in a photo, it doesn't look good. At all.

And it's not just because it's my unhappy mug in the picture, but because pictures hate me.

What can I say, I make better kids than pics.

Come on in. The water is nice!

Sara was a bit leery at first. But soon warmed up to the idea of swimming in a lake.

Zoey took to it like, well... a fish to water. Most of the people I met that day thought I was there with only one daughter. When she did emerge from the water everyone else must have thought she was some random wild child that belonged to nobody.

She didn't even play with the other kids until someone finally showed up with a girl more her age. Actually, I think she was three years or so older. Didn't matter, Zoey finally found a playmate!

I heard there were cupcakes...?

Wednesday was also special because this was when the group celebrates all summer birthdays.

This was exceptionally special in that Sara had turned FIVE only just the day before. To her, every day is her birthday until she has her party. Which, due to scheduling conflicts, we couldn't muster until September 10.

Today (Saturday) she even said, "Because it's my birthday, I get to pick my snack." It was like 30 minutes after breakfast.

"What?" I said. "It's like 9:00 am. You're not having a snack."

"But it's my birthday." This was the end of the argument. Whatever I had to say after that was irrelevant. 

Oh YEAH!

I have no idea what she's looking at.

It was a happy drive home.

She fell asleep 10 minutes after we left.

Overall, it was a great day. Any day that ends with Sara fast asleep, is a great day.