Weekly Happenings: It was a bit rough getting up on Monday morning after a week off for Spring Break, but we eventually got back into the swing of things. We spent most of our afternoons at the park, soaking in the beautiful spring weather (spring really is beautiful in South Texas). On Saturday, we had the annual Easter in the Park, where Joseph got to participate in a fun egg hunt.
The Weekly Weather: Cool mornings, warm afternoons, cool-ish evenings…it really was great this past week.
What Paul’s Been Up To: Mostly just school, work, and the like.
What Sarah’s Been Up To: Mostly just keeping the kids healthy and happy. I did go to my monthly book club meeting which was a lot of fun as it usually is. 🙂
What Joseph’e Been Up To: He loved getting to go to the park so many times this past week. He and his friends (we almost always ran into someone from school, but if we didn’t, he’s always been quick to make friends with kids he doesn’t know) really love playing with rocks and sticks…not to mention trying to climb the many, many trees that are there. They do still go on the swings and play on the equipment, but it’s more often than not that they’re playing in nature. 🙂
What Abigail’s Been Up To: She’s getting a bit braver with furniture cruising and has even used the little “baby walker” to walk around in the loft a bit. Maybe now she’ll start walking along when we try to hold her hands and walk with her (up to this point, she’s kind of planted herself and hasn’t wanted to walk forward). One cute thing: the other night, I was putting her in her bed to go to sleep. I handed her a stuffed animal which she promptly hugged tight and then patted its back (like I pat her back). It was pretty sweet.
This Week in Pictures:
She loves it when we walk to the school to either drop Joseph off or pick him up.One of Joseph’s “homework” assignments was to go for a nature walk and find five interesting rocks. We didn’t need to go farther than the walking paths of our park to do so.Joseph and one of his best buddies showing that they can get pretty high on the swings.Abigail enjoys the swings as well. 🙂She loves it when he pushes her and he loves to push her…we call that a win-win.I let her go explore one of the play structures at the park. It was pretty fun, except……now that’s all she wants to do, which is a bit tiring for me, trying to keep her from falling off the edges, haha.I really went out of my regular cooking routine one night and made mulligatawny. It’s an East Indian soup that has chicken, onion, garlic, curry, apple, chicken broth, and half & half. Basically you cook the chicken, onion, and garlic in butter, add some flour and the curry, and then add the broth, half & half, and apples. The flour serves as a bit of a thickener. I served it with store-bought naan (basically a flat bread). It was pretty tasty!Our little tree climber…Before the egg hunt……and during (hence the blurriness).Finally, it wouldn’t be spring in South Texas without a picture of our kids with bluebonnets! 😉
Weekly Happenings: This past week was spring break for Joseph. We didn’t end up doing too much out of the ordinary. We just sort of hung around the house, had a few play dates, and just relaxed. I had considered taking the kids to the zoo, but I didn’t want to deal with the spring break crowds. Besides, the kids both slept in pretty much every day (we just switched over to DST, so the time change made them not want to go to bed in the evening and sleep in once morning came…thank goodness it was spring break!). On Saturday, we had a “planting day” where we went to Lowe’s and got some new plants for the planters and garden (I’ll go into more detail with what we got with the pictures).
The Weekly Weather: It’s been really nice. It’s been warmer but not too, too hot yet. I don’t think we got any rain last week. We did notice the bluebonnets starting to pop out, so spring is pretty much here!
What Paul’s Been Up To: He’s been pretty busy with school (this semester is heavy on group projects amongst other things) and work always keeps him busy. He’s also having to start back up with a bit more yard work now that spring is here and the lawns are coming out of their dormant state.
What Sarah’s Been Up To: Keeping both kids entertained during the week was pretty much a full-time job. I did take some time on one of the cooler days to weed the back yard (those prickly winter weeds are the worst!).
What Joseph’s Been Up To: He’s been soaking up all of the free time that spring break provides. He may have a bit of a rough time tomorrow morning…
What Abigail’s Been Up To: She’s been her normal happy-go-lucky self. She’s starting to cruise the furniture more adeptly, bounces along to music playing, and has become extremely proficient at taking her shoes off and throwing them (usually in the car). Last night, she was fussing a bit, so I asked her if she wanted to take a bath (it was about that time anyway). She stopped mid-fuss and started clapping. She shrieked with sheer joy when I started the water. That girl sure loves bath time! She also loves mandarin oranges. I hadn’t given her any until quite recently (I wanted to wait a bit due to the acidity), but once I did, there was no going back. She’ll polish off an entire fruit cup’s worth in less than five minutes.
This Week in Pictures:
I came upstairs to find them playing dress up. They were both having a ball.The grass is starting to green up. The trees are also losing their old leaves as the new ones pop out and push them off. Spring is coming! Yay!Joseph modeling my new succulents (alas, the aloe vera bit the dust when I forgot to pull it in during our freezing temps a few weeks back).A close-up of my succulents. It’s my first time grouping them together, but I have several friends who have started doing this type of thing and can thankfully give me pointers.Joseph checking out the new garden plants. Instead of tomatoes this year, we’re doing two different varieties of strawberry (the front two plants) and a zucchini (the one in the back).We wanted to fill up this bare space next to the wildflowers, so we opted for some mint. We know it will take over that spot rather quickly. The wildflowers are really thickly established, so I doubt the mint will choke them out. If it does, I’ll just prune it back.The wildflowers in the front are starting to come back and bloom. Paul did toss in a couple more flowers (the purple pansies) to fill in some of the space.Sporting their green for St. Patrick’s Day.Swinging after dinner. While I don’t love the mechanics of the time change (mainly getting my body used to it), I do like that it’s still light after dinner.
Weekly Happenings: We practically lived at the park this past week. The weather was so nice that we went almost every day after school (and some mornings with just Abigail and me). We also got the new living room furniture that we ordered (our old stuff was still structurally sound, but the bonded leather was starting to delaminate, which made it start to crack and peel). We ended up giving them to someone who really needed them and didn’t care about the cracking. We found these great couches (and a chair) that are microsuede, but look like leather. We’re really happy with them. We also purchased a new microwave and Paul installed it (I would like to say I helped, but all I did was help hold it steady a couple of times, haha). Some of the number buttons on our old one had stopped working which was starting to make using it rather frustrating. I’m so grateful that we’ve been blessed with the means to make these purchases!
The Weekly Weather: It’s sort of reminded me of Southern California as of late. The mornings and evenings have been cool while the afternoons have been warm. It’s been so nice!
What Paul’s Been Up To: School and work as usual…as well as the microwave installation.
What Sarah’s Been Up To: My regular stuff kept me pretty busy. I also walked to the park and back with Abigail a couple of times. It’s a 3 mile round trip, so it’s a good workout for me and a fun time for her. 🙂
What Joseph’s Been Up To: He had Field Day at school, which he said was really fun. He’s looking forward to this next week which is spring break.
What Abigail’s Been Up To: She’s continuing to show us new things every day. She’s really into playing peek-a-boo (where she puts something in front of her own face to do so) and has also learned how to blow kisses. 🙂
This Week in Pictures:
She’s definitely in the “roam the halls” phase at church. Paul took her into an empty classroom and let her pound on the chairs, haha.This one LOVES the swings.Where’s Abigail? At the car bin, of course!Driving through the galaxy.They BOTH love the swings!Our new living room furniture.The love seat is stationary, but the couch has two recliners. The chair (which is actually a rocker) reclines as well.Enjoying the new furniture.Daddy-daughter fun.We went to Dairy Queen on Friday for a little treat.This one kept me busy by constantly taking off her shoes and socks.She looks really sorry about it, doesn’t she? 😉The new microwave. Luckily, we were able to use the mounting bracket and hardware from the old one, which made installation a bit easier. Paul put two Rubbermaid storage bins on either side of the stove to rest the microwave(s) on during park of it which really saved his arms.
