Darr Family Blog

Weekly Happenings: This past week didn’t really hold anything that was too out of the ordinary. This morning, though, we decided to kick off the beginning of Thanksgiving Break by visiting Bass Pro Shop. They already have all the fun games and activity areas set up for the kids for Christmas. We went ahead and got a picture with Santa (since it wasn’t too busy yet…once December hits, it gets crazier and crazier). Last year, Abigail didn’t want anything to do with Santa…that was a stranger-danger person she didn’t know. She didn’t cry, but there was no way she was going to sit on his lap unless I was right next to her…and even then, the picture captures her trying to slither out of his grasp, haha. This year was completely different. She ran up to Santa and gave him a huge hug and willingly climbed onto his lap. It was awesome. She also waved goodbye to him, saying, “Bye, Santa!” 😊

The Weekly Weather: It’s been mild, which has been nice.

What Paul’s Been Up To: He’s been busy at work. He’s taking this next week off (well, he did tell them to call him if something broke and needed fixing), which will be nice.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: Not too much out of the ordinary for me…

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He has been learning a lot about the Iroquois Confederacy in GT. He liked that they worked together to try to create peace. He even got to use beads to come up with a design for a wampum belt which he thought was pretty cool. He’s continuing to work hard in his regular class and even got to move his behavior clip up to blue. They have everyone start on green for great behavior, but clips can either be moved up to blue when they are doing an exceptional job or down to various other colors if they’re having challenges. They always get to move clips back to green at the end of each day, unless they are on blue…they do get to stay on blue. He was also excited to tell me that the second grade classes won the turkey bowl. 🙂

What Abigail’s Been Up To: She’s been her typical happy-go-lucky self. Yesterday, I was coming down the stairs when the light all of a sudden went off. I finished coming down the stairs to find her by the light switch with a big grin on her face. Then she yelled, “Surprise, Mom! Happy Birthday!” After she said this, she held up her hand as if she were holding something in it and said, “Here! Blow out the candle!” I’m telling you…it’s a daily adventure raising her.

This Week in Pictures:

 

Weekly Happenings: This past week was pretty cold (a cold front came in rather quickly on Monday). The weather kind of affected what we did, which was not much, haha. We did go out to eat on Monday since it was Veterans’ Day. Normally we can find a place to get Paul a free meal, but we were encountering crowds…who woulda thunk it…in “Military City, U.S.A.”? 😉 so we ended up just going to one of our regular favorites (who was awesome enough to give us a veteran’s discount). Other than that, we pretty much just hunkered down to avoid the cold.

The Weekly Weather: When I say cold, I really mean it. The lows were below freezing or right at freezing for a few days in a row. The highs weren’t much higher, either. We just did our best to layer, layer, layer.

What Paul’s Been Up To: He’s been busy with work and his church calling. He’s also prepping to get the neighborhood entrances decorated for Christmas (he plans it all out and then does the installation the Saturday after Thanksgiving). It’s hard to believe that we’re already at this point in the year!

What Sarah’s Been Up To: I’ve enjoyed not having my finger all wrapped up. It’s so much more convenient!

What Joseph’s Been Up To: Mainly just school. He’s got one more week of school before having a full week off…which I think we’re all looking forward to!

What Abigail’s Been Up To: She likes to pretend that her plush Pluto is a real dog who needs to sleep right next to her. She’ll carefully place him on her pillow, tell him to stay, and then pat his head, calling him a “good dog”. 🙂 She has also wanted me to play Hide and Seek with her for a good chunk of the afternoon yesterday. When she hides, it’s pretty much out in plain sight, so I have to pretend I can’t find her…but if I take too long, she comes to find me (she’s also giggling in anticipation the entire time). When I tell her to count, she usually gets to three before coming to find me (though once I heard her get up to twelve). I usually toss a blanket over myself and hid that way. Then she comes up to me and says, “Mom! Is that you?!”, uncovers me, and bursts out laughing. It’s pretty fun.

This Week in Pictures:

 

Weekly Happenings: This past week was pretty low-key. We sort of just did the things that were absolutely required (on my part at least). When I think about the fact that we’re done with the first full week of November already, I realize that the holidays are swiftly approaching…so low-key weeks like this are good because soon enough life will be hectic. 🙂

The Weekly Weather: It’s been mostly mild, but we did have one cold front come through that reminded us that it IS November. I love this time of year, though. I hardly ever break a sweat simply by walking outside, haha.

What Paul’s Been Up To: Mostly his regular stuff. He did have to take his car in to get one of the tires looked at since it kept losing air. Luckily, the shop was able to do a patch on it which only cost $10.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: The most notable thing was that I was able to get my stitches out today. Yay! My finger is a bit tender, but it’s nice not having to have to have it wrapped up.

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He used some of his allowance money that he’s been saving to buy a couple of video games, so he’s been enjoying that. He also discovered that he could download some of his favorite comic books onto his tablet, so he’s one happy dude right now. 😉

What Abigail’s Been Up To: Her imaginative play has exploded this past week. If she sees something on one of her shows, she almost immediately starts pretending to do something that the character has just done…or she mimics everyday tasks (as I’m typing this, she’s pretending that the vertical blinds next to the sliding glass door are a mailbox and she’s putting junk mail which she calls “letters” in-between the blinds). It’s fun to witness these milestones.

This Week in Pictures: