Darr Family Blog

Weekly Happenings: During the past week, we pretty much hung around the house (it seems to have become habit because of the hot weather). The weekend was a lot better because it was relatively cool. We ended up taking a spontaneous trip to the zoo and had a lot of fun seeing the animals.

The Weekly Weather: As mentioned before, the week was pretty warm, but yesterday was so great! I don’t think it got above 75 degrees. It was fun to slip on my sweater (even though I didn’t really need it, I just wanted to wear it) because I could get away with it. It’s a gentle reminder that fall will come eventually.

What Paul’s Been Up To: He did his last mutual activity with the 11YO Scouts (they made s’more pizza on a camp stove as part of it). He’ll have to stop doing Scouts because he has his Pathway meeting night the same night as mutual. He’s also gotten hard to work on his school work since his semester has started.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: I’ve had some piano students drop, so I’m down to seven, but they keep me plenty busy still. I’m getting them ready for our first recital, which will be in October (probably towards the end). I’ve also been asked to help out with the Messiah production in December, playing piano for the sectionals and for the children’s choir. Add all of that to my visiting teaching calling and leading the ward choir (not to mention my momma and wifely duties) and I’m keeping quite busy.

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He’s discovering, since having turned three, that he has more of an opinion of things (and is able to express that opinion in more ways than he used to). We’ve butted heads quite a few times this week, but it has afforded many opportunities for us to both learn and grow during this time. One cute thing that he did this past week was to whisper/tell me what to say while I was blessing the food one afternoon. I loved it. 🙂 Oh, and he has been learning a lot from Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood. I was visibly frustrated with something he had done or said and he asked me if I was frustrated. When I answered in the affirmative, he started singing, “take a step back, and ask for help.” It made me laugh and I soon forgot my frustration.

This Week in Pictures:

Weekly Happenings: This past week was a week of birthday celebrations. My birthday was on Monday and Joseph’s was on Wednesday. I did a previous post about Joseph’s birthday party already. It was sort of hard explaining to Joseph on Wednesday that it was his birthday but that he wasn’t having a party (since we had his party early). He was really confused. When I got him up that morning, I sang “Happy Birthday” to him and said it was his birthday. He got really excited and said, “Really?! Have party?” I told him we had already had his party. He didn’t get upset or anything, he was just confused. We ended up having friends over to play to kind of make up for it. Joseph had his annual check-up as well. Luckily only one shot to have to deal with (flu shot). Since Paul did all his yard work before the party, we were free to have a fun day yesterday. We went to the farmers’ market in Old Town Helotes, went to the zoo for a couple of hours (added Joseph to our pass since he’s now three), had lunch at a place called Chris Madrid’s (seriously good burgers), and then headed home to relax before having homemade pizza for dinner.

Weekly Weather: We’ve had a few good-sized rainstorms come through, which has been quite a blessing. It has increased the humidity levels, but I’ll take it if it means more rain!

What Paul’s Been Up To: He’s looking forward to his classes with the Pathway Program starting up in a couple of weeks. Other than that, it’s kind of the same deal with him, yard work (I never realized how much work it takes to maintain a couple of yards…I’m so grateful he is such a hard worker), working with his scout, and working at the library. 🙂

What Sarah’s Been Up To: Teaching piano, keeping Joseph happy and healthy, and trying to keep up with my church callings. Oh, and still trying to keep up with my work-out program. The other day, Joseph was watching me working on the elliptical. As soon as I stopped, he asked if I was done. I said that I was and then laid down to do some crunches. He asked if I was sleeping. When I told him no and started to do the crunches, he laid down next to me and tried to do his own, complete with sound effects. Pretty funny!

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He had a blast at his birthday party. He also loved it when he got to have friends over during the week. This introvert momma needs to plan more play dates! He has also been working hard at growing. His three-year stats are as follows: 34.2 pounds and 37.5 inches tall…and I think that his soft spot FINALLY closed. Man, that took forever!

This Week in Pictures:

 

Bonus Video: The effects of having two juice boxes practically in a row:

Joseph’s birthday isn’t until Wednesday, but we decided that since today was a holiday, it would be good to celebrate it today. We invited several of his friends over to play outside, have hot dogs and chips for lunch, and then go inside to play, followed by cake and presents. We also put together little goody bags for his friends (Paul came up with the idea of making it a “car emergency kit” that had a juice box, a fruit snack, a pair of sunglasses, some stickers, and a little matchbox car…brilliant).

 

Video: Joseph blowing out his candle: