Darr Family Blog – Page 6 – The place to follow the Darr Family

This One’s About The Boy (and some plants)

This past week we had Joseph’s band concert and awards. It was awesome seeing how much he’s progressed as a percussionist since the beginning of the year. I also love how his directors have exposed him to all the different percussion instruments, not just the drums. This is going to help him immensely as he continues his percussion journey. We’re super proud of him! I’m also including garden updates and a few other random pictures.

I loved watching the precision that he and the other percussionists had during all the pieces.

I know it looks like he’s just standing there, but there’s a tambourine in his hands. I was impressed with how often he was looking right at the conductor. He would glance at his music occasionally, but he know the piece well enough to not have to keep his eyes on the music.

Watching him play bass drum was also fun. His technique for striking the drum with the mallet was impressive.

My pumpkin plant is kind of a punk. It was growing along the side of the house, on one side of the walkway. I looked out the window and noticed it had crossed over the walkway and was really close to my other plants. I suspected something nefarious and I was correct. It had started wrapping its little tendrils around the other plant. Rude!! Luckily I caught it early enough that I was able to dislodge them without hurting either plant (if it had been even a day later, the tendrils would have tightened up and would have been impossible to dislodge). I lifted the pumpkin plant vine up and placed it BACK over where it was supposed to be and told it to stay. 🙂 I should probably check on it, though. :/

These are called gypsy bell peppers. They’re sweeter than regular bell peppers.

Our regular bell peppers are doing well also.

We got word to not bring lunch on Friday because the cafeteria workers had a special meal planned. I jokingly had visions of crazy stereotypical cafeteria food dancing around in my head, but I was pleasantly surprised…and I probably should have skipped breakfast, ha. It was soooo good!

I am proud of this chair. I wanted a new chair for my small group table at school, so I ordered one. It got delivered and I decided to tackle the assembly myself. I couldn’t find the directions anywhere, so I grabbed what seemed to be the most obvious looking pieces and started at it. When I unwrapped the seat, I found the directions (they were shrink-wrapped in with it). Luckily I had done all the steps up to that point correctly, haha. I finished putting it together and can hardly wait for Tuesday (there’s no school tomorrow).

I love these anoles. They’re so petite and fast!! I can tell this one was peeking around the corner to scope out if it was safe.

These are surprisingly good. Abigail has declared they aren’t for her, but Joseph and I like them. Paul hasn’t tried them yet, but it would be surprising if he liked them. He tends to gravitate more to the chocolate side than the fruit side when it comes to sweets.

This One’s About The Girl

Looking at the pictures that were taken this past week, the majority of them are of Abigail. That’s mainly because I didn’t take many pictures and most of the pictures are from her grade-level performance or from her asking us to take her picture. There are a couple of garden pictures tossed in to mix things up, but this week is all about Abigail. Joseph does have his last concert and awards ceremony tomorrow, so I’ll have some pictures of him for the next post. 🙂

It was a “barnyard moosical” and all the different classes were different animals. Abigail’s class were the funky chickens.

She really channeled a chicken for her dance and song.

She did such a good job remembering all the moves!

This is what we’ve resorted to in order to get tomatoes to ripen on the vine without pests getting after them. It seems as soon as the tomatoes start to go from green to red, the birds or mice/rats will go after them.

Paul got this awesome picture of the miniature rose bush on our front porch. This is a plant that Paul got me years ago and it has survived so many heat waves and hard freezes (well, we do move it into the garage when it gets really, really cold).

I can’t help but laugh when I see this picture. The baby headband that she insists still fits (and that she wears that way because she says it looks cool) and the look on her face. She was so excited to see this cutout at the fast food joint we went to this past Friday and insisted that Paul take her picture. I have no idea why she didn’t smile.

She is currently obsessed with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, so she was excited to take a picture with this guy.

Playing a Little Catch-Up

I skipped doing a post last week because I was…tired, ha. I had only taken one picture and decided it could wait. This past week Abigail and Joseph both had field trips. Abigail went to Sea World and Joseph went to the Scobee Center which is a place kids can go to do space-related activities. He and his fellow GT friends each had a job to try to successfully simulate a Mars mission to look for water on Mars. It was a really neat experience for him! We wrapped up the week with Mother’s Day which was a great day. I got to sleep in, had a yummy breakfast, and got gifts from Paul and the kids.

This is what happens when your kid says she doesn’t want to have crazy hair for Crazy Hair Day but then she changes her mind literally five minutes before you’re supposed to leave. 🙂

This is what I do for my students, haha. The little Star Wars porg is Abigail’s, but I borrowed it for the day. The Vampire Teddy is mine. I promised my kids that if they could be quiet, I’d keep these guys perched on my shoulders (they have magnets) for the rest of the afternoon. It worked!

Abigail and Ms. Neel getting geared up for Sea World.

This guy has grown 3.5 inches since September.

This past week was also Teacher Appreciation Week. I got this sweet bookmark from a kiddo.

I got these fun earrings from another kiddo. I also got treats, gift cards, and more.

Years ago, we tried to grow bell peppers (in the ground) and they didn’t do too well. This time, they’re doing great!

Paul added this cloth covering to the swing set. Now Abigail can live her dream of being a pirate on a ship. 😉

She told me that she was a turtle named Leonardo that was a mutant (she’s been binge-watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles). The backpack was serving as her shell and she wore it for the majority of the day.

My Mother’s Day gifts from Joseph and Abigail. The butterfly is two separate necklaces that we can each wear.

Abigail’s magic trick!