Howdy, Fall!

Weekly Happenings: Today’s the first day of fall! I love this time of year! Other than that, it was another average week for the books. We did take advantage of today’s cooler temps and went to the zoo today, which was a fun family outing.

The Weekly Weather: We have had so much rain this past week (all of September, really). A few days ago the news reports were saying that San Antonio has gotten fifteen inches in just September. That number is sure to go up, though, since we just had a huge storm come through last night. It’s been a bit cooler (mid-80s) but today has been really pleasant (low- to mid-70s).

What Paul’s Been Up To: He’s been busy with work and trying to squeeze in yard work between storms (we don’t want the grass to get too high because, well…critters like tall grass). He also has done some stuff for his calling at church (secretary in the young men’s presidency). We also celebrated his birthday this past Monday. 🙂

What Sarah’s Been Up To: I’ve been mostly trying to keep the kids from going stir crazy, haha. I did get to go to my monthly book club meeting which was super fun.

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He’s been having a good time in first grade. He loves doing what they call “specials”, which are P.E., art, music, and computer lab. I love that he’s getting exposed to those things each week. 🙂

What Abigail’s Been Up To: She’s displayed just how smart she’s getting. One day, I ran upstairs to grab something, leaving her downstairs. About a minute later, I thought I heard her on the stairs. I ran out of my room in time to see her get to the top of the stairs, so I quickly let her into the loft. At first I thought I just hadn’t gotten the downstairs gate latched (even though I swore I had). I texted Paul about it and he suggested I put a D clip/caribiner clip on there just in case. I still wasn’t sure if it was a fluke, so as a test, I left the clip off at a point where I could watch her. Joseph went upstairs, latching the gate behind him. She was there in half a minute and I watched her use both thumbs to pop the latch up. Yup. That D clip went right back on, much to her consternation (and another one went on the upstairs gate).

This Week in Pictures:

She kept bringing me clothing items to put on.
One of my sister-in-laws sent us some Minnie Mouses that she procured at a yard sale. It’s safe to say that Abigail was pretty happy.
I love watching these two play together.
This is the “lock” to keep Abigail from getting onto the stairs.
They were snugglin’ up, watching a show.
She was so excited for me to put these goggles on her.
Pre-bedtime antics: showing off their slippers (Joseph’s are from last winter and Abigail’s once belonged to Joseph)…
…having a dance party…
…and even a little dress-up time.
Slightly cooler weather (not to mention all the rain) made me want some comfort food. Last night I made corn and cheese chowder with skillet cornbread on the side.
The boys walking along at the zoo. Last night’s storm probably discouraged the normal crowds that would have been there on a Saturday.
Checking out fish and some turtles.
She was more interested in trying to escape than she was in having her picture taken, haha. At least she smiled!
Real life trying to get kids to pose for pictures, people…thank goodness for digital photos!
Chillin’ with the lions.
The kids both liked how close they were to the glass.
On our way back to the car, we noticed that the San Antonio river was higher than we ever remember seeing it.
Normally that area between the two bridges is a walkway between them, but today water was running freely over it.
The water coming out from under the bridges was pretty impressive, too.
 

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:

Walkin’ with Daddy.
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…
…hung up my favorite fall sign…
…and decked out the piano. Once it hits October, I’ll add all the spooky stuff.
Baby overalls!
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.
This boy loves LEGOS!
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.
Setting up the egg experiment.
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:

Trying to figure out the Mickey puzzle.
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.
“Oh, hi Mom. I’m not doing anything!”
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 loves Bubble Guppies.
She also loves seeing what she can fit inside this Tupperware pasta container.
Looking all grown up!
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).
The whole set-up.
The decorations.
Opening presents.
He was genuinely excited for each gift.
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.
His friends know what he likes!
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”.
Thinking of a good wish.
Take a deep breath and…
…blow!