Amber's and Carmen's birthday

Carmen had a track meet on her 15th birthday. She ran a leg of a relay towards the beginning, and also ran in the 1600 at the end, so she had to stay the entire time.

Amber and Carmen opened presents that night. Amber got herself a new sewing machine as her big present. It allows her to sew stretchy fabrics (like T-shirts, or the soccer jerseys I want her to resize for me).

She didn't want anything else, but I made sure she got some gifts like a flexible drill bit attachment, magnets, dryer balls, clear backpack, and some other random things from Temu, like a melodica and Donald Trump coin.

Amber and Carmen both got some music, also.

Carmen got a sand painting, dry erase markers, electric toothbrush, exercise bands, weights, chia pet, then my favorite, a sleep mask with built-in headphones, and Amber's genius idea, a chicken belt buckle.

On Friday, Carmen had a birthday party with a bunch of her friends.

They ate, played some games, and played handbells.

February Break - 04 - Brazos Bend State Park

The last stop on our staycation was Brazos Bend State Park. It had been over a decade since we last went. I didn't remember where we'd gone last time, but it's a small park, so we picked a parking area and started hiking.

We went on a trail through some of the more forested areas first, where the trails sometimes got pretty muddy.

We saw a few turtles, but not much else until we got closer to the standing water, then we started seeing alligators.

We think we found the bench where Amber was feeding Carmen when the alligators were swimming towards them the last time we were here.

We saw plenty of wildlife, like turtles, ergrets, cardinals, ducks, and of course, lots of alligators.

There is an observation tower that gives a good view of the swampy area.

It was right around here that we had to tiptoe around this alligator on the path.

We drove to one more section of the park then decided we'd seen enough and headed home.

February Break - 03 - Damon TX

A few years ago I discovered that there is a Damon, TX not far from Houston, and I've been meaning to take Damon ever since. This trip was the perfect opportunity.

It's a tiny town with just a few crisscrossing streets, so we drove through most of it looking for signs that said Damon. One of those places was the elementary school.

In true Damon fashion, he had to go to the bathroom, so he went in the school, and Amber talked to the principal and head of Damon ISD, of which the elementary school is the only member.

It didn't take very long to see pretty much everything, but we stopped for one last sign on the way out.

That night we used a free night from my hotel credit card to stay in Sugarland, where we had Chinese takeout for dinner.

February Break - 02 - Blue Bell Factory

Newman's Castle is not far from Brenham, so while we were close I wanted to go see the Blue Bell factory. The kids have been a few times, but the one time I went it was closed.

They don't have a tour anymore, but there is a viewing area where you can watch them packaging up ice cream. Pictures were not allowed, but it was cool to see the machines and people in action.

Afterwards, we bought an ice cream scoop in the gift shop and enjoyed some factory-only ice cream flavors.

We stopped by the info center and museum on the way out.

February Break - 01 - Newman's Castle

Olivia and Carmen went on an orchestra trip to New York City the weekend before, so for February break we decided to keep it local with a mini-vacation. We left on Tuesday, and after getting rid of our last chicken, we drove to Bellville to see Newman's Castle. The castle was built by the owner of the town bakery, so that's where you check in, and that's where we got some breakfast pastries.

The castle was a short drive from town.

We were still early for the tour, so the tour guide offered the kids some wooden swords.

We walked around the lake a few times, admiring the trebuchet and enjoying the beautiful view from across the moat.

The guide, who had an extremely thick Texan accent, then gave his spiel for about a half hour, repeating the same facts and jokes over and over, until we were finally allowed to cross the drawbridge and go in. One of the chains was broken so it couldn't be used, but this walking wheel is how the drawbridge is opened and closed. (Coincidentally, the Zills came the same day!)

We were allowed to roam and explore as we pleased. This is the inner courtyard.

One of the towers was the dungeon, which had things like a bed of nails, a pillory, and this cage.

One of the buildings is a large dining hall.

The best part was climbing the various towers.

The views from the battlements were great.

There were other rooms, like a chapel, and several private rooms. The last part we saw was the kitchen and regular dining room, where they fed us a bag lunch (and donuts from the bakery), which also adjoins the owners living quarters.

During the tour, we were supposed to be looking for dragons, and those who found a certain number could get this dragon stamp.

It was a really fun place to visit.

Chicken finale

The chickens, which had taken an outsized role in our lives, are all gone now. I will try to recap. They ate and pooped and grew to very large size. We had to make new feeders and waterers to keep up.

About the middle of January one of them got injured. We're guessing it was an owl that lives nearby and attacked through the mesh. It was in pretty sorry shape and needed to be put down. Carmen and Amber were not keen on doing it after last time, so I got to be the executioner this time.

At some point Carmen's teachers finally started helping a little and they came to help find which chickens were the best to show at the rodeo.

They eventually narrowed it down to 3 and an alternate. It had been very rainy and the chickens were all filthy, so Carmen gave her chosen ones a bath the night before the competition.

The judging was during the day on the 30th, so Carmen got all dressed up and Amber took her and the chickens to the arena.

Carmen had some friends help her show her chickens.

She ended getting 14th, somewhere in the middle of the pack, which we considered a victory for not knowing what we were doing.

It wasn't enough to get her into the auction, unfortunately, so we still had over 30 chickens we needed to get rid of. Carmen and Olivia went to New York City on an orchestra trip, and it wasn't until after they got back that the ag teacher was able to arrange for someone to come buy the chickens from us. It was kind of fun to have the them, but we were not too sad to see them go.

But the best part of the whole story is that when I got home from work that day, I looked under the trampoline and there, by itself, was one lone chicken. I called Amber, who had rushed off to take Olivia to the doctor in Kingwood, and she couldn't believe it. They had missed one somehow.

That was Monday, the first day of February break, and we were leaving on Tuesday for a little staycation in the west Houston area. The guy who bought the chickens couldn't make the drive back. We weren't interested in slaughtering it that night, so Amber finally found a local butcher shop that would take the live chicken as a donation.

We boxed it up, and Tuesday morning on our drive out for our trip, we took a slight detour to drop off the last chicken.