This last Sunday was Father’s Day, so we celebrated Paul the best way we know how: Cute papers from the kids, steak sandwiches for lunch, gifts, meatloaf and mashed potatoes for dinner, and chocolate pudding for dessert. The rest of the week flew by, with the help of a few fun things towards the end. On Thursday, we turned on the sprinkler in the back yard and let the kids have fun with that and water guns. Friday, I took the kids to the mall and got them each a LEGO kit to build (well, I built Abigail’s). After Paul got home from work, we went to Peter Piper Pizza (kind of like a smaller, cleaner Chuck E Cheese but without a mascot) for dinner and some game play. It made for a pretty fun evening. Tonight, Abigail got to go to a birthday party for one of her pre-k friends. It was at a trampoline park and she had a blast!
Joseph 2022 My dad’s job: tech worker at Defense Language Institute My favorite thing to do with my dad: play games My dad’s superpower: to fix computers I love dad more than: video games My dad always laughs when: my sister says/does something funny I love my dad because: he is my dad and he’s a good dad.Abigail 2022 My dad’s job: he works and cooks My favorite thing to do with my dad: play hide and seek and baby frogs My dad’s superpower: he just works I love dad more than: food My dad always laughs when: doing silly faces I love my dad because: I teach him how to play deadWearing his “ties” from the kids and opening up his presents.I love seeing these two together. She sure loves her Daddy!On Tuesday, the kids got haircuts. On the way home, Abigail’s salon balloon popped. She was very sad. Luckily, I had some fun balloons at home, so when I told her she could have a fun balloon when we got home, she cheered up right away. This balloon lasted a little bit longer than the salon balloon, but its replacement is still around, I think. This kid is kind of hard on balloons, haha.I love that I can be doing stuff in the kitchen and then glance over and see these fun pictures. She said she was doing a drum-roll because Snoopy was chasing the Red Baron.I walked past the part of my walk where I had seen cool chalk art last week and saw that the artist had added some more. I had to take a picture because these two little dogs are on one of Abigail’s favorite shows (Bluey).Getting ready for their water gun fight. I think Joseph was trying to lay down some ground rules, but those went out the window pretty quickly.Running away after she’d run up and gotten him at almost point blank.Sprinkler fun!Abigail had something else in mind.The sprinkler was making the slide wet, so she decided to head down. She liked that it made her go a little faster.He was backing into the sprinkler so that it didn’t get in his face.She was fine just running straight through.Paul was working from home, but he was able to step out long enough to help fill up the yard cart with water so they had a refilling station for their water guns.They had so much fun!One last run through the sprinkler before it was time to head in to take a nice warm bath.Abigail loved this life-sized LEGO guy at the LEGO store.Getting their kits set up.Following the step-by-step instructions.I got hers put together and she was pretty happy to play with it when I was done.All done! I helped out with a teeny part of it where he had accidentally gotten some parts flipped around (which was a bit overwhelming because it meant he had to disassemble part of when he’d put together), but he stuck to it. I’d say he did 95% of it on his own.Their finished creations.Having to make room for his new creation was a good excuse to clean up the top of his dresser. 😉 He had all sorts of half-finished projects, random loose pieces, and other non-LEGO things on there.It’s looking much better now.Abigail loved this game at Peter Piper Pizza. I wish I got a better shot. It’s actually like a motorcycle that shifts back and forth along with the game.Joseph playing.Abigail decided she wanted to do Joseph’s game after she was done.There were a bunch of ride-on toys that Abigail liked a lot.She loved this dolphin one.A Ghostbusters-themed game.Abigail was out of tokens at this point, but there was an empty seat next to Joseph, so she just played along (not actually doing anything).I decided I wanted to make it so that my antique butter mold stick out more (it’s almost the same exact shade as the table). The easiest way to do that was to grab a couple of cool-looking books that were on our bookshelf and stack them underneath it.It took all of a minute to set up, didn’t cost anything (since I already had the books), and I think it makes a big difference. Now the two ends look a bit more balanced.Getting ready for a biiiig jump.This was one of her favorite spots because of the incline. She would run up onto the top (which was not bouncy) and then bounce all the way down. So. Many. Times.This was a cool trampoline. You could try to jump high enough to get a slam dunk. Abigail was a little too short to actually do it, obviously, but she still had a lot of fun trying to make baskets.This was another favorite. There’s an incline at the end, so you can run/bounce up to the incline, bounce off of it, and then run/bounce back.
This week, I decided we’d better do a little bit of something to balance out the nothingness that happened last week. 😉 A trip to the zoo was the prefect antidote. We went on Tuesday, because Tuesday was the coolest day of the week. We made sure to go in the morning before the humidity and heat became unbearable. It got a little warm towards the end of our excursion, but by then we were on the train that winds its way through Brakenridge Park, so we didn’t notice as much.
Monday was ridiculously hot (this was at about 3:45 in the afternoon…in the shade), so we didn’t go anywhere (other than grocery shopping) on Monday.Abigail loved getting to see the bears actually out and about. The funny thing about this picture is that there were a couple of ducks that were walking around in the enclosure, right in front of the bear. They were quickly waddling along and the bear was following behind. I guess they felt confident enough that duck wasn’t on the menu.Checking out one of the Komodo dragons. This one was in the indoor enclosure. The other one was outside, but it was hard to see it because it was completely submerged in the water. They know what to do when it gets hot!The hippos hadn’t gotten hot yet, so the kids clambered up onto them so I could get a picture.Checking out the real hippos.My favorite animal: the okapi! It’s so pretty!The top of the elephant was already too hot to sit on, so she told me she’d hold onto its tail instead.Checking out the Dama gazelles. We couldn’t see any dik-diks. They’re pretty small and tend to hide under the brush a lot.It isn’t often that this statue isn’t swarming with kids, so we took advantage of it for another photo spot.On the train. Abigail had to make sure that her red panda was in the shot. 😀Riding the train is one of our favorite things to do after walking around the zoo.The train goes over the San Antonio River a couple of times. This is one of my favorite spots on the route.Our neighbors have had a barn swallow’s nest on top of their security camera for quite some time now. This week, I noticed that the babies already hatched and are now fledglings. The neighborhood birds are grateful for our birdbath.Joseph was trying to show her how to play a game.She would do a bit, get to a hard part, and then ask him to help. While he was helping, she’d give him pointers, haha. She was pretending to be a possum with a baby in her pouch.At first, she came down with that thing shoved through her regular shirt. I begged her to take it out before the collar was too stretched out to shrink back down when washed…she conceded to putting a dress-up shirt on (since changing out to a smaller stuffed animal was NOT an option…that was her BABY!).Showing me her baby possum. 🙂I still managed to get walks in this week (I just made sure to go in the mornings) and I saw this on my walk one day. Someone in our neighborhood has some crazy good art skills!I took this picture right as I sat down to do the blog. The birds seem to know right when there’s fresh water in the birdbath (Paul had just filled it up, maybe five minutes before I snapped this picture).For the longest time, I’ve had pictures of a bunch of different lighthouses in all these frames. I decided I would leave my favorite lighthouse picture (which is just out of a calendar, like the others were) and my lighthouse cross stitch (as well as my Home Sweet Home cross stitch) up, but then switch out the others for family pictures (basically some of my favorites of the kids) and pictures I took of the Japanese Tea Gardens. I like that there’s a little more meaningful art on my wall now. Below are the pictures I chose to print up:This has always been a favorite of mine of Joseph.He was so little here!Conquering the Komodo dragon!Abigail attacking Grandpa’s fish pillows.Ever so stylish!The big snow of 2021. She absolutely loved it. There was a breeze that was taking the fresh powder off the tree leaves and it was so sparkly in the sunshine. She loved seeing the sparkles in the air. The waterfall at the Japanese Tea Gardens.A view of the Tea Gardens from one of the high points.
This past week was pretty much an empty week. Paul finished up his isolation and went back to work. The kids and I managed to stay well (yay!) and with it being the first full week of summer vacation, we kind of just puttered around the house. It’s been ridiculously hot and I think that might have been one of the deciding factors to our nothingness. We basically sat at home in the AC, haha.
I’m not sure if construction or destruction was happening. 😉Texans are discovering that, even though their beloved Whataburger will always be #1 in many of their hearts, In-N-Out is pretty good, too. I’m just grateful they built one in San Antonio. Before this one was built, we used to have to come up with excuses to drive up to Austin in order to indulge.The birds are super happy to have a place to cool down right now. This one is taking a quick look around to see if anyone is looking before……jumping right into the water. Copious amounts of splashing occurred after I took this picture.While one was splashing, others were feasting on birdseed. It’s fun to see them frequent our yard.I know exactly how to get smiles out of both kids…a pan of these does the trick every time! He’s looking very…teenager-y in this picture. On the phone with a friend, playing games with said-friend. He’s growing so fast!
