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    Simple joys of popsicles & playdates

    Choosing real summer fun over the summer camp craze: Every day can't be DisneyWorld

    Heather Staible
    May 7, 2011 | 4:05 pm
    • Sarah Gish’s "Summer Book," an extensive guide of day camps and classes forpreschool-age kids to teens
    • We see the animals in the winter and spring and the air-conditioned exhibits inthe summer and fall.
      Photo by Chris Conyers
    • We maintain our Children’s Museum membership all year because there are dayswhen you just want to get out of the house and there’s something for all kidsthere.
    • I grew up a Miller Outdoor Theatre groupie, seeing plays and ballets and gettingmy first taste of the symphony.
      Photo by Leroy Gibbins
    • We revel in consuming popsicles by the freezer-full.
      Courtesy photo

    Ask most parents and they will tell you they both love and loathe summer vacation. In my house, we revel in homework-free nights, limited structured activities and consuming popsicles by the freezer-full.

    I have the luxury of a flexible work schedule, which means I can spend all summer with my two girls. Every day. All day long. Which is great, although somewhere around the first week of August, we all get a little twitchy and I’m reminded why homeschooling would never work for me.

    It’s not like my girls are devoid of any mental stimulation during the summer, but you won’t find them involved in Latin classes or any TAKS-related camps. We aren’t at a sleepaway camp place yet, but my 9-year-old does Fine Arts Camp and my 5-year-old attends Veggie Tale camp. We are still contemplating Kindermusik, LegoMania camp, piano lessons and a Museum of Natural Science week-long camp where there may be some kind of dissection involved.

    Of course, since I haven’t booked any of the latter choices, it may not happen, and in my neck of the ‘burbs, registration for summer activities starts early March and your kids go on a waiting list by April Fool’s Day. No joke.

    My fulltime working friends have a different set of summer scenarios to deal with. Some can just easily slide their kids from the afterschool program they are in to a summer plan, which includes field trips and cool experiences with their friends. Others have to scramble to find a temporary place for their kids to spend Houston’s eternal summer and it is stressful, especially if the kids are in vastly different age groups and the sitter can take the baby, but not the second-grader except when she’s on vacation for two weeks during the summer and can’t care for the baby at all.

    And in both situations, most parents wouldn’t mind a little summer vacation themselves, especially if it means no alarm clock, hanging out by the pool and taking in a movie with the kids in the middle of the afternoon.

    We are fortunate to live in a place where there are a lot of summer resources. Since before I was a parent, I remember hearing about Sarah Gish’s The Summer Book, an extensive guide of day camps and classes for preschool-age kids to teens. The book is a godsend for parents who aren’t sure where to start looking and even though it comes every March (seriously, the March registration is the real deal) there are still options left for the summer.

    Thanks to my parents who never underestimated the value of the performing arts, I grew up a Miller Outdoor Theatre groupie, seeing plays and ballets and getting my first taste of the Houston Symphony. As a result, my girls are beyond excited for our sometimes weekly trips to MOT, although after a particularly sweaty performance of Aladdin two years ago on the hill, we try hard for covered seating during the day.

    I flip my Houston Zoo and my Houston Museum of Natural Science memberships so that we see the animals in the winter and spring and the air-conditioned exhibits in summer and fall. There is just a bit of a gap, but unless I’m only hanging out in the reptile house, I would rather enjoy the zoo when it’s a bit cooler.

    We maintain our Children’s Museum membership all year because there are days when you just want to get out of the house and there’s something for all kids there. I like to go right after lunch because I find with most museums, parents of little kids go early and leave in time for lunch, field trips are often done by lunch and working parents will hit the museums in the late afternoon.

    Of course there are some days when we don’t do anything at all. I have stories to write and laundry to do and, like I tell my kids, everyday can’t be a trip to Disney World.

    I’m sure that phrase will haunt me or they will discuss it with their therapist someday, but the reality is, summer vacation isn’t always a break for moms and dads. We have these bright, energetic kids who are used to a ridiculous amount of information being stuffed in their heads all day. Their school days are intense and even the littlest ones are under immense pressure to keep up with their peers, as well as the kids who go to school on the other side of the globe.

    There’s also dance, soccer, art classes, baseball, student council, homework and super-involved school projects that keep them in a perpetual state of motion, so after the novelty of sleeping past 7 a.m. has passed, then what? Parents are faced with kids who have a lot of get-up-and-go, which isn’t a bad thing at all, except for when mommy hasn’t had her coffee yet.

    It can be a challenge and while 98 percent of the time my girls and I really like to be around each other, it’s good for all of us to get a break too. I’m a better mom for it and it’s good for them to experience life without mom sometimes.

    The way I see it, summer should be about playing in the pool, checking out books from the library, staying up past your bedtime, riding bikes at dusk, eating breakfast for dinner, going to the beach, sleepovers with friends, watching television, playing Wii and making snow cones with the Snoopy Sno Cone machine.

    If there’s a camp or a class your kids really want to do during the summer, then go for it. My kids may be there too, but if not, we’ll be in the backyard with the sprinkler on, wiping out a box of popsicles.

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    Movie Review

    New Superman movie forges into the future while honoring the past

    Alex Bentley
    Jul 11, 2025 | 3:30 pm
    David Corenswet in Superman
    Photo by Jessica Miglio
    David Corenswet in Superman.

    When the character of Superman was invented in 1938, it was perhaps easier to see the world in good and bad terms. Fascism was already on the rise in Germany under Adolf Hitler, and the idea of an all-powerful superhero who stood up for people in need was a welcome one. In the nearly 90 years since, though, the world and the character have undergone multiple evolutions, and the thought of someone who is purely good is often met with cynicism or worse.

    The new Superman, written and directed by James Gunn, puts the superhero (or metahuman, as the film calls him and similar creatures) squarely in the midst of the modern world, with geopolitical conflicts, mega-corporations, and social media all combining to make the altruism of Superman/Clark Kent (David Corenswet) questionable. That skepticism even extends to his coworker/girlfriend Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan), whose knowledge of his exploits puts her in a tricky position personally and professionally.

    Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) is out to dominate the world and take down Superman, with his eponymous corporation and vast group of underlings dedicated to doing both. Superman is generally a one-man fighting crew, but he’s occasionally aided by a group calling themselves the Justice Gang, comprised of heroes many have never heard of like Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion), a version of Green Lantern; Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced), a flying metahuman; and Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi), who knows all kinds of technology.

    One of the best things about this new version of Superman is that it mostly dispenses with introductions, putting the audience in a world where Superman is already a well-known quantity who’s adored by many and hated by some. Gunn has used his new position as co-CEO of DC Studios to honor the past of the hero and take him into the future. With the 1978 John Williams theme song echoing throughout and Corenswet giving off Christopher Reeve vibes, it’s clear Gunn wants audiences to feel nostalgia while still getting something new.

    He also appears to want viewers to fight against the negativity that the modern world can bring. The plot involves manipulation of the public, usually at the hands of Luthor, through bombastic talk shows, political theater, and social media, the latter of which — in a great joke — comes to involve hundreds of typing monkeys. The film could be read as a rebuttal of many real-world ills as, despite Luthor’s machinations, many choose to continue to believe in the goodness of Superman.

    There is a lot going on in the film, but somehow it never comes off as overly complicated. Superman’s relationship with Lois Lane and Luthor’s attempts at taking him down are given the most prominence, with everything else supporting those two main things. The Justice Gang is a fun addition, with Mr. Terrific becoming the breakout hero of the group. The addition of the (CGI) dog Krypto provides levity, poignant moments, and unexpectedly great action scenes. The only part that gets somewhat short shrift is the crew of The Daily Planet, with everyone besides Lois and Jimmy Olsen (Skyler Gisondo) getting little more than face time.

    Being the new Superman is a lot to live up to, but Corenswet is completely up to the job. He, like Reeve, plays the character as someone who is earnest but not naive, a quality that comes through even when he’s in the middle of fight scenes. Brosnahan is also fantastic, providing a nice balance to the relationship while also proving the character’s own worth. Hoult makes for a great new version of Luthor, and Gathegi nearly makes the case that Mr. Terrific should get a starring film of his own.

    Just as he did with the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy, Gunn has shown that success can be found through making characters people want to see. Not everyone in this Superman will be familiar to viewers, but in the end a group of people working together toward a goal that serves the common good is one worth watching and cheering for.

    ---

    Superman is now playing in theaters.

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