This week started out great because it was the tail-end of General Conference. General Conference is when the leaders of our church in Utah (where the church headquarters are) broadcast a conference to the entire world. The talks are uplifting and informative, we learn about progress in the church (for instance, they just announced that there would be a temple built in Austin, which is exciting because it’ll be another one that will be kind of close to us). I made cinnamon rolls to go with breakfast, the kids hung out in their jammies, and we had a great weekend. The rest of the week flew by and then Thursday was the kids’ Fiesta parties. Fiesta is a huge party in San Antonio. It’s kind of like San Antonio’s version of Mardi Gras. I didn’t get to attend Joseph’s party (it was in his classroom and his teacher let us know that inside parties still can’t have visitors), but I did get to go hang out with Abigail at her party (since it was outside on their playground). Friday was a school holiday (because there’s a huge parade downtown that a lot of the marching bands are in…attendance on parade day would be abysmal at best, so they made it a holiday), so I took the kids up to New Braunfels. At Paul’s suggestion, we visited the McKenna Children’s Museum, which was fun. I think Joseph might have been a little old for it, but he still made the best of it and I think he had fun. Abigail had a blast. We then rounded out our fun day with a trip to Buc-ee’s and Happy Meals for dinner (the kids were excited to find out that McDonald’s currently has Sonic toys). Late last night, Abigail said that her stomach hurt. I didn’t think much of it, since she didn’t have a fever, but then she threw up. She ended up spending the night on a mattress on the floor of our bedroom so that I could be right there to help her get to her bowl. She threw up a few more times during the night (with the last time being about four in the morning), but she has kept water down and has even had a couple of pieces of bread. I’m thinking it was something she ate (maybe at her Fiesta party…I got to her party a bit late, so I missed seeing what she might have eaten) because she’s acting totally normal and still doesn’t have a fever; not lethargic like she is when she has a tummy bug. Oh, and did I mention Paul is up in Dallas for a political conference? I missed my clean-up helper last night, but we made it through. 🙂 Here’s to hoping she continues to improve. I still drop everything and jump up every time she coughs, but she has assured me that they’re “fake coughs” (what she calls a cough that doesn’t lead to her throwing up).
My cinnamon rolls…yum!Getting a little quality sibling time in before Conference started. I think he was showing her something cool on one of his games.My view while watching Conference. I love where I live!I told Paul I thought the area under the bookshelves felt a little cave-like and might benefit from some extra light. He ran upstairs and grabbed one of our nightstand lamps (which we ended up not using nearly as much as I thought we would). It’s perfect! I love that it matches the decor that I have downstairs and that it wasn’t any additional money out of our pocketbook (and that something that wasn’t getting used now has a purpose and a use).Enjoying a park morning.A different park morning. At first, I couldn’t fathom what she had gotten into (my first thought was chalk, but there was no chalk anywhere around us), but then I remembered that it’s spring. In the South. Oak pollen is ev.er.y.where right now, and it’s bright yellow. She had just slid down a slide that was completely covered in pollen, haha.My snapdragons have just exploded. When we planted them last year, there were just a few (I want to say that we had 5-6 baby plants). I had no idea they’d fill in to this point. All I did was snip off the spent blossoms and drop them into the soil…hoping that the seeds would sink down and germinate. Apparently they did!Painting at her party…she ended up with paint everywhere. Luckily it was all washable, so whatever I couldn’t get off of her before we left came off in the washer (and bathtub, haha).Blowing bubbles…I couldn’t resist that cute bubble-blowing mouth.Her teachers gave each student a little plastic Mason jar with treats inside. They decorated the jar with a sombrero, a sarape, and a mustache. They turned out so cute!She had me take the hat off of the jar so that she could give it to Eeyore. 🙂Joseph’s class painted rocks and turned them into little cacti with googly eyes. The children’s museum had a big space exhibit. There was a rocket as well as a dark tunnel with a bridge we could walk through that looked like space. Joseph didn’t like it because with it being pitch black with just pinprick “star” lights and there being a bit of openness (I’m still not sure if it was actually open underneath where we were walking…or how far down it went…or if it even did that at all or if it was an optical illusion), it really looked like we were in space and felt like all of a sudden we were really high up over a big drop. It was a bit of a disconcerting feeling.My kids, the astronauts.Joseph checking out the ambulance.Abigail the paramedic and Joseph the (very patient) patient.Heading off to another emergency call. 😉Abigail loved the grocery store.Joseph was a good sport and was her checker.Silly boy with the play mustard.This was a fun log in the camping section.Even Joseph had to get in on the fun.It was a fun time! I let them both pick something small from the gift shop. Joseph picked a Rubix cube and Abigail picked a harmonica.The obligatory Bucc-ee’s picture.The golden hour.Paul got me new geraniums (since the freezes over the winter knocked out the old ones). I love this fuchsia one. The red is so vibrant!I really like the coral one, too.Spring means that the geckos are back.
This past week really was quite nice. The weather was warm (but not too warm) and sunny (yes, I wore my hat), the flowers are in bloom, and nothing too crazy happened (well, we did need to replace our PRV yesterday, which wasn’t fun, but that’s more of a house maintenance type of thing). The kids both had good weeks at school and we’re all happy the weekend is here. Abigail and I did a lot of walking. I think we walked to the park three times. The only downside to spring is that the pollen count is crazy right now, so we’re all a bit sniffly at the moment.
My shamrocks absolutely love this weather……as do my snapdragons. This one is just huge!These are the new ones that Paul got this year. I love the yellow marigolds and whatever these taller ones are.These are ones that were in the wildflower seed packet that Paul sprinkled into the soil quite a few years ago. They seed themselves and come back every year.When you find out you don’t actually have a magician’s costume (I mean, really…MOTHER!), you make due and make your own.She was pretending the play structure was a pirate ship and this was the wheel.Navigating the larger play structure. She’s getting more confident about traversing the wiggly bridge to get to the tall swirly slide.I’m pretty sure she was telling me to walk the plank in this picture.She loves these echo tubes. I think we spent a solid five minutes barking at each other through them, haha.Our walks were usually full of stops for careful rolly polly observation.Going down the tall twisty slide.New baby leaf might be my favorite shade of green.She loves getting into my jewelry (with my permission) and trying things on.Spring mornings make me happy……especially when the sun peeks through the trees.I had the larger metal flower as a spring decoration in a different part of the house, but I liked it so much I wanted to make it a permanent decoration. I took down the ceramic lighthouse pictures that were up here and put the flower there (and got a smaller one to complement it). I think they go quite nicely with my stained glass butterflies (which were a wedding present).I took advantage of the fact that all the Easter decorations are on sale right now and picked up these bunny decorations as well as the burlap flower. The burlap flower is where that metal flower was before. I also made the decision to toss my paper flowers that I had hanging up there. They had been looking quite worn (they were paper, after all…and were several years only already).I love the combination of the metal and the painted wood on the bunnies. I couldn’t resist that flower, either. It’s just the right touch of rustic.Can you spot the Abigail? I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw her: all of the couches were empty and that was where she chose to get comfy.She asked me if she could clean something. Would any parent actually say no to that?! I got her the dust mop and then went back to what I was doing. I could hear her singing to herself, “We don’t talk about Bruno-no-no-no!” which is only funny if you’ve seen the Disney movie “Encanto”…there’s a character named Bruno that is part of the family in the movie…except nobody talks about him because of some crazy things that happened…so there’s a song about the entire ordeal.I was stuck at a stoplight and glanced over to see this. Luckily the light was red long enough for me to dig my phone out of my purse and snap a quick picture. I love where we live!
This last week was a pretty typical one for the end of March. I can hardly believe we’re at the end of March. It seems like I was just tucking the Christmas decorations away last week! The weather was pretty typical for this time of year: chilly mornings and warm afternoons. The kids had a minimum day on Wednesday, so we met up with friends at a burger place that has a huge fenced in field (that’s laid with astroturf). It felt good chatting with my friends while the kids played…except we were sitting in the sun and I hadn’t thought to bring my hat. What a rookie mistake! My face got pretty pink and so did one part of one of my legs (I guess the rest of that leg as well as the other one were blocked somehow? I’m still scratching my head about that one). I enjoyed getting to be outside for my daily walks (for which I was sure to grab my hat), and the kids have enjoyed it being warmer when they’ve gone outside for recess at school. Paul had his annual work picnic this week as well. Unfortunately, it was on a weekday, so it didn’t line up to have me take the kids out for it. This morning I got to go to the stake Relief Society activity celebrating the birthday of the Relief Society. It was so fun getting to see my friends from other wards as well as my friends from my ward who I don’t get to see often because we’re busy with our callings during Sundays. While I was gone doing that, Paul took the kids to Lowe’s and came home with new flowers for the front and a cute birdbath for the back. I have a feeling that Abigail influenced the choice of which birdbath to get…you’ll see why I think that in a moment.
Once St. Patrick’s Day passed, Abigail started asking when we would put out the spring decorations. I complied pretty readily. I left up the rainbow garland (it works both for St. Patrick’s and spring), but traded the shamrocks out for flowers. 🙂This is a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson and I simply love it.Those bunnies right there were the reason Abigail kept asking about the spring decorations. She remembered them from last year. She absolutely loves those bunnies. I’ve told her she needs to be careful (they’re plaster and probably wouldn’t survive a fall from the piano to the floor), so she’ll ever so carefully stick out a finger and pet their heads. 🙂My purple shamrocks…*happy sigh*…they sure are happy with the warmer temperatures!I jokingly told her she needed to stick two fingers up for the picture (she doesn’t really know about peace signs just yet, I don’t think) and she was happy to comply. I sure love this little bug!Can you tell I was wearing big sunglasses? 😂Here’s my leg. 😬Do you see the remnants of Wednesday’s outing on my forehead? My poor face, haha. Paul got a few flowers to fill in the front (which, in this picture is on the left). Some of the wildflowers have come back and last year’s snapdragons (on the right) are back in full force. Paul also made the tree ring bigger and added more mulch. It looks really nice!Do you see why I think Abigail influenced the decision about the birdbath? Now I just need to remember to keep the water in there fresh so that the mosquitoes don’t turn it into a breeding ground. 😉
