Out and About

Weekly Happenings: Things have slowly started opening up again, so the kids and I took advantage of the slightly cooler weather to go to the zoo one day this week. Yesterday I decided to take them to the Japanese Tea Gardens and then to the zoo again (I love having passes!), since the weather was still so nice. We also had a small play date with a few friends. It was definitely a more fun-filled week than the past few weeks.

The Weekly Weather: We had one day that was horrendously hot. Even though it was only 97, the heat index was recorded as being 107 degrees. High humidity and dew point makes it feel just feel gross. Luckily, the rest of the week was cooler and not quite as humid (or maybe it was just as humid, but the drop in temperature made it feel better).

What Paul’s Been Up To: He was busy at work. He also got his temporary crown on his broken tooth, so now he just has to wait for his permanent crown to be done so that he can get that put in. This morning, he went and cut down some tree limbs that were hanging over into someone’s yard (the land on the other side of the fence is HOA-owned, so that’s why Paul took care of it). He also discovered when mowing our lawn that one of our fence posts will need replacing. I guess the wind from that night that the tornado came through did get part of our fence after all. The joys of home ownership. 😉

What Sarah’s Been Up To: I’ve pretty much already mentioned what I’ve been up to. 🙂

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He enjoyed getting out of the house. We’ll need to do that more often now that things are starting to open up again. He also has figured out that he can use one of his books (a handbook of all the Yo-kai characters) to help him do better at his Yo-kai game. Way to research, kid. 😉

What Abigail’s Been Up To: She REALLY enjoyed getting out of the house. Oh, and one cute thing she said: she was looking at her pink quilt that my mom had made for her and she asked me who made it. I told her that her grandma made it. For the next few days, every time she saw it, she would say, “This is my beautiful butterfly blanket. My grandma made it for ME!” She has also started saying that she “can’t want it” when we’re asking her to do something or eat something she doesn’t want to. It’s frustratingly funny.

This Week in Pictures:

I lost track of Abigail one day and found her hiding in our new cabinet. 🙂
Playing with her toys. She really likes that she can get into any of the bins that she wants to, without having to move a bunch of stuff around.
When we went to IKEA, we got Abigail some play food and also a bunny. She was enjoying giving the bunny carrots and lettuce.
He was recording his sister. These are such fun ages.
They really do love each other a lot.
The zoo had a bunch of LEGO animals and insects. It was so cool to see!
One of those then and now pictures. It’s amazing how much they’ve grown in the past year!
A LEGO butterfly and flower.
A LEGO hummingbird and flower.
Checking out the giraffes.
We love the elephants.
One of Abigail’s favorites…
…the hippos!
On the zoo train.
I startled this guy off of one of my plants. They have such neat colors!
My mint. I love these pots. They look like wood and metal barrels, but they are resin, so they hold up a lot better.
At the Japanese Tea Gardens.
I love this waterfall!
An overall view of the gardens, The kids loved getting to see koi fish in the ponds.
We don’t always get to see all three elephants out.
Abigail loved this bird!
One other LEGO creation: a lion!
I was getting ready to vacuum and Joseph asked if he could do it…uh, you don’t have to ask me twice, kid!
It’s fun to have pretty nails every once in a while! I love these nail polish stickers. They make it so easy to have pretty nails!
This is Abigail’s pelican that she got from the zoo. She loves this thing!

Let the Good Times Roll

Weekly Happenings: We are DONE with distance learning! I’m not sure who is more excited about this: Joseph or me, haha. Other than that, our week was pretty ordinary. Oh…we did go to IKEA because it opened back up, so we got some shelves for some projects around the house.

The Weekly Weather: Well, it’s June…so it’s pretty much sunny, humid, and warm, with a thunderstorm here and there, haha.

What Paul’s Been Up To: He worked from home this week, which was nice. 🙂 He also managed to get the shelves that we bought all assembled. We got some cube storage for the upstairs (we’re switching out the train table as storage and going over to cube storage) and then we got some more cube storage so that he can build another bench to match the one that he built next to the piano. Right now, that shelf is chilling in our room until he has a chance to get the supplies to build the top and install it all. I am so grateful for his handiness! He also unfortunately broke a tooth this afternoon while eating lunch. Luckily there was an emergency dental place open. He’ll get a temporary crown on Tuesday and then a permanent one in a few weeks. Poor guy! 🙁

What Sarah’s Been Up To: I hosted both an Usborne Books (kids books) party and a Pampered Chef (kitchen supplies/gadgets) party, which is always a good time. Consequently, I was also able to pick out some fun free stuff for myself. Other than that, I was pretty much just doing the mom thing. 🙂

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He was beyond happy to be done with school. He had his drive-through awards ceremony, which was fun. He got the “Most Curious” award. Probably because he isn’t afraid to ask questions…lots of questions. 😉

What Abigail’s Been Up To: She has been quite the handful as of late. Luckily, she’s also been very cute. Here new thing is to gasp, hold up one finger, and say, “Wait! I have an idea!” 🙂

This Week in Pictures:

These two are the best of buddies (most of the time).
She wants to be with him at all times, haha.
Fort building.
Making modifications. Yes, he’s on top of the table…I didn’t notice it until after I took the picture and he had already hopped down…whoops, haha.
Inside their fort.
I had to take her upstairs to play after building the fort because she started playing Big Bad Wolf and Joseph wasn’t ready for the fort to be blown down, haha. She changed gears pretty quickly and organized a sleep over for all of the Little People.
Then she started prepping a meal…
…she told me that we were roasting marshmallows over a campfire.
Finally, she was a cowgirl. Yee-haw!
I suppose this could count as his “last day of school” picture. I took this for one of his last assignments that he had to do for school.
She’s really into dressing like the characters she sees on the TV.
Things that make me happy: memories of Magnolia and some beautiful ceramics that my brother Gary made.
Sometimes it’s a two-fuzzy-blanket morning. I have no idea why she chose the floor, though.
With his teacher to get his award.
Gotta get myself onto here sometimes!
When she saw me take a picture of myself, she needed one, too.
Little ham, haha.
We were snuggling on the couch and all of a sudden, I felt her hand wiggle into mine. 🙂
Wearing her “poofy” dress.
A cool garden buddy. These guys are nicknamed zipper spiders. Any guess as to why? 😉
Bring Your Bear to Breakfast Day…which is almost every day, haha.
She was scooting him around the house like this. Silly goose.
We went from having everything stacked in and on top of the train table to this cube storage. I love how much less cluttered it is!

Where Are My Ruby Slippers?!

Weekly Happenings: This week started off with a bang. Sunday evening, both my phone and Paul’s phone went off with an emergency alert. The only one that we have activated is tornado warnings, so we checked and sure enough, there was a tornado warning for our area. The National Weather Service had caught the rotation starting on radar. We gathered the kids (and their tablets/electronic devices) and hunkered down in the only place in our house that is on the first level without a window, the bathroom. Abigail thought it was a party, but Joseph was a little more concerned. We talked him through it and told him to play his games as a distraction. Paul checked outside a few times, said he didn’t like the look of the clouds, so we stayed there for about half an hour. Paul looked outside one more time and said the sky looked better, so we came out of the bathroom but stayed downstairs for a little while longer. The warning expired and we got the kids to bed. The next day, they confirmed that an EF1 (winds topping out at 100 mph) did, in fact, touch down very briefly (the officials said they saw a path that was about half a mile long) a few miles away from us, in another neighborhood. There was damage to homes (some missing parts of roofs, holes in siding from debris, and the like), but no injuries that I’ve heard. We were very, very lucky. Then on Wednesday night, we had a hail storm that dropped marble-sized hail on us. It was just crazy! Miraculously, our home, fences, and trees all seem fine. We are definitely saying prayers of thanks right now! Other than all of that, not much else happened this week. Well, except for today. Today, I happened to see a post just in time to get it set up so that Joseph and I could watch the launch of the Space X rocket today. He thought it was pretty cool to be able to see a launch live, with real-life astronauts. I thought it was pretty cool, too!

The Weekly Weather: I think I’ve said almost everything I can about this already, haha. We had a couple of lesser thunderstorms move through and give us a bit of rain, but it’s mostly been sunny and warm.

What Paul’s Been Up To: Mostly just work. Not really much else to report on that front.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: Mostly just keeping up with the tail-end of Joseph’s school work (he now only has four days left…yay!).

What Joseph’s Been Up To: Just cranking out those last few assignments and mostly playing with LEGOs, Pokemon cards, video games. He’s also been devouring some new books I got for him.

What Abigail’s Been Up To: She has perfected her loft-trashing technique. She can make it look like a toy store exploded in a rather surprisingly short amount of time. Luckily, I have pretty much perfected my put-away technique, so it only takes me a little bit longer to put it all away (with her help, of course…because I’m a mom, not a maid). Assuming she hasn’t squirreled any of the toys in odd places, which sometimes happens.

This Week in Pictures:

One of Joseph’s assignments for school gave him the option of choosing between a few different projects. One project involved a challenge to build a few things with LEGOs. He jumped on that one, for sure. He chose to build a robot (pictured here)…
…an airplane (I love that he included a pilot)…
…and a maze that a marble could navigate. He had a ton of fun doing it. I love that his teacher provided some out of the box assignments.
My basil, that was so little after I had to trim off the infected bits (it only had three little leaves left on it) has really come back!
She said she was tired and asked if she could play with her tablet. She then climbed into bed with it. It’s hard to tell, but in this picture, she’s also wearing her puppy backpack. In fact, she wore that thing all day that day.
Between the tornado and hail storm, I feel a renewed gratefulness for my covered patios. Paul said our tomato had tipped over a bit (not the whole pot…just the cage…I think), so he tied the cage to the post.
Abigail has loved watching these go from green to orange to red. She loves to eat them!
I’m grateful these are under a covered patio in the front. They would NOT have fared well during the storms.
Living the best 3YO life: snacks, a drink, and a favorite show on TV.
I know it isn’t June quite yet, but my Mondays are rather busy, so I thought I’d update both the calendar on the fridge and the quote board.
Just hanging out on a lazy Saturday.
The rocket taking off!
It was so cool to watch! It was also cool to hear the cheers from Mission Control in the background.