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Rainy Cooler Days

Weekly Happenings: This past week was a pretty average one. We basically did our normal things with not too much out of the ordinary.

The Weekly Weather: It’s been a smidge cooler and we’ve had quite a bit of rain. It almost feels like fall. 😉

What Paul’s Been Up To: There hasn’t been too much out of the ordinary for him.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: There hasn’t been much out of the ordinary for me, either. We’re getting back into our daily routine with school drop off, pick up, errand running and the like.

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He’s transitioning back into school pretty well. His teacher seems really great and does some fun things with them. He gave us some fun ideas for at-home science experiments that we could do together. We decided to do the “bouncing egg” experiment where a raw egg (still in the shell) is soaked in vinegar for 24 hours. The shell is dissolved, leaving just the membrane around the egg. In this state, you can still pick up the egg and handle it (even squeeze and bounce it) even though it’s still technically raw. Joseph had a great time doing the experiment.

What Abigail’s Been Up To: She’s been letting me know that she’s getting pretty close to two this past week, haha. Opinions are stronger, displeasure is voiced louder, and we’ve even had several “floppy baby” moments. Luckily, this has all been mixed in with her sweet hugs, blown kisses, cute little “thank yous” and other phrases, and overall loving personality. One day, Abigail pointed to one of the elephants on my shirt and said, “Was’dat?” I told her it was an elephant. She smiled, took a deep breath, and then did her best elephant sound (kind of like a “raspberry” but without sticking out her tongue). She can also mimic some other animal sounds and I catch her quite often trying to say a word that I just said. Oh, and she’s gotten quite good at coming up to us if we’re sitting somewhere and asking, “Sit?”, meaning she wants to come up and sit with us.

This Week in Pictures:

I decided to put out my fall decorations this week. I added some fall leaves to my vase…

…put my fall door decoration on the door…

…and decked out the piano. Once it hits October, I’ll add all the spooky stuff.

Lovin’ on her Buc-ee (he’s the mascot for what’s probably the best gas station I’ve ever been to…honestly, y’all…Google “Buc-ee’s” to see what it’s all about).

Let’s play “Spot the Baby!” She seemed to think it was hilarious for me to drop stuffed animals and blankets on top of her. I happily obliged because, well, baby belly laughs.

In between all the rain this past week I did get to see a pretty awesome rainbow (and didn’t realize it until after I took the picture, but you can see a hint of a double rainbow if you look closely a bit to the left of the actual rainbow).

I pulled out Joseph’s old monkey hat for Abigail. She got super excited and put it on right away.

We tried for a smaller container at first, but we realized we wouldn’t be able to put in enough vinegar without it being right to the top.

We moved it to a larger glass to be safe. I knew the egg would expand in size, so having room for it to do that was good.

After 24 hours, the shell was all gone, leaving the membrane.

Bonus Video: The bouncing egg!

This is one Paul got. I don’t know what it is about it, but it melts my heart a bit to see her snuggled up looking at a book like this!

A sneak preview for the end of next month (I really just wanted to make sure it would fit). 🙂

Joseph is going to be Ash and Abigail will be Pikachu. It’s going to be great!

Joseph’s set-up out in Paul’s office. A friend of ours was moving and was getting rid of this little fold-out desk (it screws to the wall and the legs come down when it gets pulled out) and chair, so Paul said we’d take them. I think Joseph’s pretty pleased with the set-up.

Another Birthday in the Books

Weekly Happenings: This past week contained both Joseph’s actual birthday and his birthday party. In between was a regular week. 😉 On Joseph’s actual birthday, we took the kids to this place called Main Event that has casual dining and then a bunch of arcade-like games. Both kids had a blast. Then for his birthday party, he had friends come over to play, as well as enjoy pizza and cake. It was a fun day.

The Weekly Weather: We’ve gotten a bunch of rain, but the weather has stayed warm. It’s been interesting to say the least!

What Paul’s Been Up To: Not too much out of the ordinary for him. 🙂

What Sarah’s Been Up To: Not too much for me, either.

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He enjoyed getting to go to Main Event and also having his friends over. I’m glad he’s so easily pleased!

What Abigail’s Been Up To: She’s starting to speed up on her feet (not running quite yet, but almost). She’s also beginning to show more interest in playing with toys (as opposed to just emptying all the bins). Oh, one funny story: she loves crackers and loves to say the word “cracker”. She will whisper the word almost reverently when asking for crackers. Unfortunately for me, apparently any crunchy snack is a cracker. One day, I tried offering her two different types of crackers, receiving a shake of a head and the word “no” as a response. I finally offered her these other crunchy snacks (not crackers) and she got all excited and kicked her legs. She keeps me on my toes for sure!

This Week in Pictures:

I just switched out all of Abigail’s clothes up to 2T stuff. The 18 month stuff still had room in the waist, but the inseam was getting to be too snug. Thanks to what I saved from Joseph as well as what I’ve gotten from friends, the only thing I needed to buy was new jammies. I am noticing that boy shorts and girl shorts are totally different, though. These “shorts” that she’s wearing are an old pair of Joseph’s. Ha! For the record, they are up around her waist…it just looks like she’s saggin’.

Checking to see if the bows on her shoes will come off.

Abigail wanted to do everything that Joseph was doing.

We didn’t actually pay for her to play…we just let her sit and push buttons. She had as much of a blast as Joseph!

Joseph’s teacher posted this on the class app. He told his teacher that he built a destroyer ship. 😊

Joseph was getting a mini-Momma-cuddle and Abigail wanted in.

This book is one of her favorites. It’s called “Moo, Baa, La La La”.

Apparently I’m a comfortable addition to the couch.

She also loves seeing what she can fit inside this Tupperware pasta container.

Inside the pasta container is an empty spice container. On top is a plastic (disposable) cup. Inside the cup is a small plush polar bear. I’m not even going to pretend I understand this.

The top of Joseph’s cake. I found the figures on Amazon, so that just left the background and the small details, which were super easy. I just used a box cake (baked in two pans and then stacked) but to make it a bit tastier I subbed milk for the water, added an egg, and doubled the oil. It was pretty tasty.

The side of the cake (hence why there was a vine for Donkey Kong and a Triforce for Link).

I waited until right before the party to add the candle (I baked the cake the day before).

He was excited because this gift came in a cool bag from one of our favorite gaming stores.

He got a lot of Pokemon cards but they were all different. I had no idea there were that many out there. It’s sort of crazy.

I love his expressions in these pictures.

He also got some cool Pokemon watches from Uncle Jason, Aunt Saira, and Luna.

He was super excited that they sent two different styles.

Listening to them sing him “Happy Birthday”.

Back to the Grind

Weekly Happenings: This week ushered in the start of school for Joseph. It’s been sort of nice to get back into a routine. We didn’t really do too much out of the ordinary, otherwise. This morning we zipped out to the zoo as a celebration for my birthday.

The Weekly Weather: School may be back in session, but Mother Nature sure is reminding us that it’s still technically summer. It’s been sunny, warm, and humid.

What Paul’s Been Up To: He’s been enjoying having his evenings back, has been busy with work, and has done a few things around the yard (mowing, edging, dismantling the pool) as well.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: I’ve been working at getting back into having to keep track of time (it would not get me any Parent of the Year awards if I forgot to get Joseph from school), haha. I also enjoyed opening my birthday presents: a new phone case, new cooking utensils, and a new hat (of the baseball variety).

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He had a great first week back. He’s loving his new teacher, excited to be back with his school friends (and was happy to introduce the few church friends in his class to his school friends), and he really enjoyed the fact that I brought mini cupcakes in yesterday for his class to share. Since his birthday falls on Labor Day this year, there won’t be school on his actual birthday. He did have a bit of a hard time waking up in the mornings, though. One day (I think it was the second day in), he told me that if school wasn’t created, he’d be good. 😀

What Abigail’s Been Up To: She’s getting used to Joseph not being around during the day and gets excited when I tell her it’s time to go get him from school. She has also introduced the word “choo-choo” to her vocabulary. She will ask me for “Gickey choo-choo” which means she wants to watch the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episode called “Choo-choo Express”. It’s amazing to watch the transformation from baby to toddler occurring. It can also be interesting in other ways. The other day she insisted on closing the front door but then immediately got upset because she wanted it back open (it had latched when she closed it) so that she could watch Paul mow the lawn.

This Week in Pictures:

Showing off a cute dress that a friend of mine passed along for her.

Not an ounce of personality in this one, eh?

At his desk in his classroom. He was excited that he’d get his very own desk (instead of a spot at a table, like in kindergarten).

I hadn’t had a chance to get Abigail new church shoes since she outgrew her last pair (she’s just been wearing her sandals), so I took the opportunity to do so this week. I couldn’t resist these when I saw them.

She couldn’t resist them, either. She wanted them on as soon as I got the tags off.

Bonus Video: Abigail and a hula hoop: