This past week held a few sort of spontaneous situations:
Situation #1: The kids started swimming lessons. I’ve been saying that we needed to get them into lessons, but the situation never felt right. Then a friend of mine, who does one-on-one lessons, opened up another session. I signed the kids up with her and it’s been so great! We’re only one week in (they have one more week to go) and they are both doing…swimmingly. 😉 Joseph has gone from being only comfortable with standing in the water (he has never liked putting his face in the water) to swimming with a bit of help across the pool. Abigail has gone from screeching like a banshee to being more comfortable in the pool.
Situation #2: since we finished paying off the car that Paul primarily drives, we have been researching vehicles to replace the family car, since it was starting to get up there in age (we didn’t want to miss the window for still getting a decent trade-in value). The problems we were running into were lack of inventory and higher APR rates. Paul watched the rates and when they started getting better, we started looking for cars. There were a couple that we thought we might get, but with one, we found out that it was pre-sold (the salesperson we were dealing with didn’t realize it). With the other, it ended up getting sold because of a miscommunication between two salespeople. Another one popped up and we talked about it briefly and then hurried down to the dealership to buy it before it got sold. It was stressful for a bit (is it ever not?), but we got it accomplished!
Situation #3: We decided to take the kids out to the Hill Country for a kind of quirky family field trip. Out in kind of the middle of nowhere is a replica of Stonehenge…along with a couple of replicas of the Easter Island stone heads. We took the kids out there to check it out. It was rather hot, so we didn’t stay long, but we did tell the kids that we might go back another time when it wasn’t so hot (there’s no admission fee, so we didn’t lose out anything there…and the drive through the Hill Country is almost always pleasant).
I never know what’s going to happen next in this house. I was in my room reading when this ball of awesomeness waltzed in and started serenading me with her party blower (a prize from her swimming teacher for surviving her lesson).We have had quite a few baby pumpkin plants sprout up around the front and back yards because there were pumpkin seeds in our compost that apparently hadn’t fully broken down. We’ve pulled up almost all of them (because they were in the middle of the yard or in other plants’ pots), but we left this one alone to see what happens (since it’s already in a spot where the grass isn’t really growing and it’s not smack in the middle of the yard). The kids helped me with dinner on Thursday night. We took a loaf of French bread, sliced it, and turned it into mini pizzas.Adding cheese to the pizzas. It was her idea to make sure she was properly dressed for the situation. At first, she was putting little tiny pinches of cheese on.She realized that was going to take a super long time, so she switched to handfuls.Putting on the toppings.Into the oven they went!A bit of steamed broccoli on the side makes for a delicious dinner!Our new ride: a Mazda CX-5.Joseph using the paddle board to swim across the short end of the pool.Then he used the paddle board to go across the long way. At the very end of his lesson, my friend had him swimming using arm scoops (so kind of like a doggy paddle, but with his face submerged). This is my kiddo who has never liked putting his face in the water or even getting splashed in the face. He has made so much progress this week!Abigail learning to glide. She struggled with putting her face in the water, but my friend kept working with her. We want her to be able to not be freaked out in case she were to ever fall into water, so submerging her face is a must. By the end of the week, she was no longer screeching/crying. It helps a lot that my friend has a small canister full of little prizes. Abigail picks her prize out at the beginning, which really helps with motivation.Learning to float. My friend will help her float and sing “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”. It would help her calm down after having to be under the water and also teach her to spread herself like a star in order to float.The replica of the Easter Island statue. Both kids got a little statue from the gift shop to bring home.Hanging out by Stonehenge II (that’s what they call it).The boys.Someday I do want to travel to England and see the real one, but this one was pretty cool to get to see.
The beginning of the week pretty much started off normally. Friday, I decided we needed to get out of the house and have some fun. We drove out to the zoo and looked at a few of the animals before it got too hot (thank goodness for zoo passes). We then got onto the zoo train for a ride. One of the stops along the trip is the Witte Museum, which is primarily a natural history museum. We got off at the stop for the Witte and explored the museum for a couple of hours. Then we walked back to where the train had dropped us off and waited for the next train (trains pass by roughly every 20-30 minutes). We just had to show them our tickets and we were able to ride it back to the depot. It was a fun time!
Joseph teaching Abigail how to play the Pokemon card game. 🙂This girl loves to play with Play-Doh!She had some googly eyes from her build-a-monster kit (she got it at the school trunk-or-treat last year: it was a small container of Play-Doh with some pipe cleaners and googly eyes) that she used.I think the purple cow is my favorite, haha.She wanted a Lunchable, but we didn’t have any. I decided to cut some lunch meat into circles (using my biscuit cutters, of all things) and cut a stick of string cheese into chunks. I put those onto a plate with some crackers, strawberries, and tomatoes. She was one happy girl!While Joseph was at Primary Activities, I took Abigail for a frozen yogurt date (Paul had a meeting).The sky on Friday morning was so beautiful!Abigail specifically wanted to see the toucans and the amphibians. First stop: toucans!I can’t remember what type of frog this is, but I thought he was really cute. Joseph pointed out that a lot of the frogs looked like they were smiling.I loved the speckles on this guy.A Panamanian golden frog.There was this fun cut-out for them to take a picture with.A king vulture.In front of the Witte.There was a model of a quetzalcoatlus at the entrance to the museum.The kids loved the dinosaur fossils.Abigail said she liked that they were “roaring” at her.They both liked seeing the sea turtle skeletons.Using paint brushes to uncover a “fossil”.Checking out a bison. Abigail really liked feeling the square of bison pelt.Painted pebbles that were made by the people of Pecos (Native American tribe in the Texas area).Arrowheads. These were Joseph’s favorites.It was cool to read about how to shape an arrowhead.The museum had an exhibit about Fiesta. It had a bunch of gowns that different Fiesta Queens have worn over the years. Those triangles on the wall are the trains for the gowns.I love the bejeweled horses on this gown. I also thought the crown was neat.Looking through the microscope at tiny things.They loved this sand table. So, so much.It had a projector above it that projected lines onto the sand. The lines made it look like a topographical map.The lines would move around as the kids made mountains and valleys.I didn’t see an informational plaque for this sculpture, but I really liked it. I wish I knew the story behind it.We found this area of the museum that was all about the human body and different fun things that kids can do to stay active and healthy. This station measured heart rate.He was “riding” the Mission trail (a bike trail that goes past San Antonio’s five colonial missions).They had to use the rope to pull themselves up. Joseph got all the way as high as it would go.Abigail got up about half a foot. 🙂Joseph checking his heart rate.Checking out an exhibit about Texas settlers.The kids were excited to see signs saying they could get up on the saddles.Yee-haw!!An old truck. 🙂She saw these elephants outside and had to pose with one (and also had to make sure that her new binoculars made it into the shot, too).This is the shirt she wears when playing with Play-Doh or anything messy. I love seeing it because it’s a shirt that either my mom or dad would wear when they would go see one of my marching band shows when I was in high school. 🙂This is what an early morning walk followed by a zoo trip, a museum trip, and regular every-day activity adds up to. Whew!We ran to the mall so that I could go to JC Penny’s too look for some more shorts/capris. While I was looking for that stuff, Paul took the kids to the LEGO store. Abigail was excited to see that this guy was still there.
It was a good week. We kept busy doing regular things at the beginning of the week and then we finished off with some fun things. On Thursday, some friends invited us to meet up with them at Landa Park Aquatic Complex out in New Braunfels. We had a lot of fun. We definitely need to go back again when Paul can come with us. Today we decided to take the kids to Peter Piper Pizza to have lunch and play games. It was a pretty fun couple of days!
A three mile walk, followed by plant watering and grocery shopping adds up! 10,000+ steps and 5 miles before noon.I got me some new eyeball art. 😉I love the design on them.Abigail requested m&m cookies. They were quite tasty! I love my stackable cooling racks. They allow me to have a lot of cookies cooling without taking up too much counter space.Wearing Joseph’s old Shazam costume.She told me I needed to pretend that I was Shazam’s biggest fan and that I needed to act super excited when meeting Shazam.Joseph was happy his Miles Morales Spider Man costume still fit.This was the time of day I decided it was time to put my feet up.I discovered a new apple that is super crisp and tasty: Cosmic Crisp apples. They are so good!Joseph getting ready to get into the water at Landa Park.Abigail getting ready to head in.It’s a spring-fed pool. On one side of the pool, water is coming in from a river. On the other side, the water leaves. It was pretty chilly getting in, but it felt good because it was a really hot day. They have a really big slide over there made from a tarp. That went into a really deep part of the pool, though and was meant for adults or bigger kids. There is also a rope swing over there that bigger kids or adults can use to swing out over the pool to jump in, as well as a large float that people could climb up onto.This side was more shallow. It’s perfect for younger kids. It has a water slide and then the twisty brown slide that empties the kids out into the water.Abigail going down the water slide. I think she spent the majority of her time going down this slide and the twisty brown slide.Joseph floating in the slightly deeper part of the pool. There is a ledge right on the edge of the pool that is only a couple of feet deep (the ledge is what the handrail is screwed into) where people can sit or walk. The part where Joseph was is about four feet deep. One thing we discovered was that the bottom of the pool was covered in algae, which made it really slippery. I was holding Abigail, trying to get her out a bit further and lost my footing several times. This made her freak out (even though she was wearing her life jacket). She would then cling to me and try to climb me…which would push me under. Miraculously, I always managed to catch a breath before going under, so I never did swallow lake water, haha. I did get to practice swimming the sidestroke while carrying a kid, though…because that was what it would take to get both of us to the edge of the pool. Any time I tried to take more than one step, I would slip on the algae. The first time, I was trying so hard and going absolutely nowhere. It was like a cartoon, haha. She did go out with me a few times, though…as long as I was holding onto her.Abigail playing a racing game at Peter Piper Pizza. I had to take the picture from this angle because she needed me to push the gas pedal down for her.The carousel played “It’s a Small World”. Playing Guitar Hero. She asked for my help to push the buttons and then got bored halfway through. I think she thought she was going to get to play the actual guitar.One of the prizes she chose was a set of sticky mustaches.Joseph and his pixie stick prize.Hammin’ it up. Abigail opted for three smaller prizes: the mustaches, a parachute guy, and a bracelet. Joseph opted for a bigger prize (a popper key chain) to go along with his pixie stick. The pool noodles are from our stop at Walmart on the way home. I think they’ll come in handy the next time we go visit Landa Park (we definitely want to go again before summer is over).Joseph and his prizes (and his pool noodle, haha).Abigail tried to get Joseph to wear one of her mustaches and he declined…so she gave it to me. I figured a picture was required. 😀 She has one more mustache, but she wants to save it just in case they have mustache day at school (she might be in luck…they seem to have an obscene amount of dress-up days throughout the year).After years of using trash cans, we got a fancy compost bin. It’s going to be so much easier to stir things up now!
