We had a really full and fun Easter weekend.
On Saturday, we took advantage of the not-yet-searingly-hot temperatures and went to the Hermann Park for a picnic lunch. It was windy, but very pleasant in the shade.
Long entry follows...
We ate our at a picnic table, only once or twice being visited by yellow jackets. We saw squirrels, pigeons, Starlings, and at least one male House Sparrow while eating our sandwiches.
From there, we went to the pedal boats. Although the area in which the pedal boats are allowed was small, we still enjoyed seeing (and feeding) the ducks and fish. The fish were surprisingly aggressive to the bits of bread we would drop in the water, usually beating the Amercian Coots to the food. The wind was so string that when we stopped pedaling, we started moving with the wind almost right away and had to continually adjust our position if we wanted to stay in one area.
After that, we walked over to the reflecting pool and then to the Japanese Garden, where we saw several families of adorbale ducklings. It was hard to believe those cuties came from the ugly Muscovy ducks (the ones with red bumps all around their face).
We then walked over to the playground to let the girls have a brief stop at a more traditional play area. We didn't stay long, though, since we were all tired and hot. We rested on the way back along the pond to feed some pigeons with the remainder of our stale bread. We got some great looks at some pretty Black-Bellied Whistling-Ducks.
[I'm not particularly adept at identifying birds, but I found an easy way to use the internet to look these up. I found a page that lists the results of many backyard surveys in Texas. This lists the common birds around here. Assuming no rare species would appear in an urban Houston park, I could use this list to quickly identify the birds we saw. The one I needed help with was the female house sparrow. Donna actually pulled out a book to help me with this one.]
We also went to a book store to try to get a book signed by Donna's favorite English professor, but the paper had the incorrect location. So instead we stopped at Marble Slab and had some ice cream.
The next day, Easter, was just as busy. After a morning church service, we came home to get ready for our Easter dinner. Ray and Kathy came over, and we had a wonderful dinner of roast pork, peas, rolls, apple/beet slaw, and cake for dessert. But before the cake, we had an Easter egg hunt in the front yard. The girls had a fabulous time, squealing frequently as they discovered a new stash of eggs. As far as I can tell, we collected all but one egg, which I found later that day.
I think all the excitement and sugar tired them out. Amanda crawled up onto Donna's lap around 3:30 PM and did not wake up until 5:30 AM the next morning - 14 hours later! Elena had some quiet time to herself around the house without her sister around, and she enjoyed that change of pace. She slept late today (until about 8:00 AM), so she got her rest, too.