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A Girls’ Day and Some Family Fun

Weekly Happenings: A couple of fun things happened this week. One fun thing was that I got to go to Waco for the day with a friend of mine from college who was in town. Paul was able to stay home from work and take care of the kids. It was so much fun! Another fun thing that we did was take a family trip to the zoo this morning. It was nice and cool (more about that in a bit), so a lot of the animals were out, which was nice. 🙂

The Weekly Weather: It was warm for most of the week, but then dropped 40 degrees between Thursday and Friday…uh, yeah. Today was nice with it being in the high 50s for the morning and now it’s around 70. It is supposed to get back up into the 90s in a few days. It’s really all over the place!

What Paul’s Been Up To: He’s been mainly busy with the typical stuff: work, home stuff, and his calling at church.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: I really enjoyed my outing on Wednesday. It was nice to get away (and know that the kids were in Paul’s very capable hands). I didn’t do too much out of the ordinary, otherwise.

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He had a good week at school and had a great time at the zoo today. 🙂

What Abigail’s Been Up To: Mainly just keeping us all on our toes. One morning, I set Joseph’s pancake on the table to cool so he could eat it on the way to school (now, before you get too impressed, just know that I buy frozen pancakes…it takes 30 seconds to nuke one of those in the microwave which makes for a quick breakfast for the boy, haha). Abigail saw it sitting there, went over to the stairs, and yelled up, “Joseph! Come get your diiiiinerrrr!” I suppose she’s seen me do that a few times, haha.

This Week in Pictures:

When she saw her Halloween shirt on top of her pile of shirts that I had just put in her drawer, she was insistent on wearing it.

These had been sitting on the back porch (Paul had pulled them from the garage when he put the shelves up and hadn’t thought of another use for them right away, so he set them on the porch). When Paul thought of a use for them, he pulled them in and went to get some cleaning supplies to wipe them down with. He came back to find that she had climbed up here. He cleaned all the rest of the shelves and waited until she climbed back down before cleaning the last shelf. I made sure she had a good bath that night, haha.

Waco trip: Selfie with the Silos in the background! I teased my friend about not getting her whole face in there, but she said she mainly wanted to make sure she got us AND all of the silos. 🙂

We got someone else to take a picture for us. It’s only about 180 miles for me, but it’s about 1,240 miles for Milena!

A beautiful fall display outside of the market.

I loved this column with books actually incorporated into it. Don’t worry, most of them looked to be obsolete (out-of-date law books and the like).

There were several of these painted brick signs scattered around. I loved the black-and-white contrast.

Probably one of the most delicious cupcakes I’ve ever had. It was a lemon lavender cupcake. The cupcake was vanilla with a hint of lemon and real lavender and then it had lemon buttercream frosting.

The Dr. Pepper Museum (Dr. Pepper was started in Waco, TX)! Unfortunately, the museum itself was closed for a private event.

However, the girt shop and soda fountain were still open and they had a couple of cool displays. We both also got an old fashioned soda where they first add the syrup and then mix it with the carbonated water. It was so good!

I liked this vintage sign. Check out that phone number!

After we looked at the Dr. Pepper stuff, we drove over to the suspension bridge (which I forgot to get a picture of). It was built in 1870 and was even used to transport cattle across the Brazos river. This is a cool bronze statue of a vaquero (Mexican cowboy) as well as some bronze Texas longhorns.

Across from the vaquero was the American cowboy with some more longhorns.

My main souvenir from Magnolia Market: some colored glass and some (false) foliage.

Walking home from taking Joseph to school one of the mornings this past week provided me with a breathtaking view.

Thursday night, Abigail decided it would be good to be awake from 2:30-5:15ish. Consequently, she didn’t really want to be up and have to take Joseph to school.

She also fell asleep on the way to get Joseph from school.

They seemed to really enjoy the cooler weather.

There we go! They’re both looking at the camera AND smiling!

They brought back the bronze elephant! When they expanded the elephant enclosure (which was much needed), they had to take it out. That was a couple of years ago. We were happy to see it reappear.

We have so many pictures of Joseph on this thing. It was fun to be able to get a picture of Abigail on it, too.

The cute shirt I got from the Dr. Pepper museum. I’ve found that as I get older, comfort is a really important quality when it comes to clothing. If I find something cute AND comfortable, I’m pretty excited.

Bring on the Spooks!

Weekly Happenings: I am so excited that it’s October. I love the approach of the holiday season, I love that the weather is finally starting to cool down, and I love Halloween and all the fun things associated with it. I added the Halloween decorations to the fall ones that I already had out and Abigail once again has her beloved pumpkin buckets (she also loves Halloween, apparently). It’s so fun seeing all the holiday fun through the eyes of my children.

The Weekly Weather: It’s cooled down a smidge, but it’s still rather warm. I’m looking forward to the end of next week where it’s supposed to legitimately cool down to the 70s. 😀

What Paul’s Been Up To: Work, getting adjusted in his new calling at church, home life stuff (the lawns aren’t going to mow themselves), and the like.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: Pretty much my typical things: kid chauffeur, house-tidier, keeper of kids’ happiness, piano teacher, and chef extraordinaire (ha!).

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He had another great week at school. He loves telling me stories about what his different teachers do or say (art, computer, PE, music, etc.).

What Abigail’s Been Up To: She has been her loveable self this week. There were a couple of nights where she woke up and I ended up on the floor in her room (well, one was her waking up at 4:30, so we were just up for the day and she ended up crashing for a bit in the early afternoon), but I think that what we thought were allergies was really a cold because just as she started feeling better (less sneezing and congestion), Paul and I both started feeling poorly. *sigh* Luckily we’re all almost better at this point (it didn’t seem to hit Joseph…maybe that germ-factory of a school he attends has boosted his immune system, haha.

This Week in Pictures:

I love this countdown sign that I added to my decor this year.

This sign board has been super fun to update. This is the same quote I used last year for Halloween, but I just love it so much!

I’m also loving this metal jack o’lantern door hanger and haunted house that I found at Walmart.

It’s always fun to cobweb up the bookcase.

I finally found a place for my witch broom that Abigail couldn’t reach!

She asked to watch Charlie Brown Pumpkin…I was happy to oblige.

When one decides to wake up at 4:30, one also crashes at noon.

Abigail’s new boots. I was looking for boots for her and she has (as of late) started to show an affinity to purple over pink and she loves the show that features this little girl vampire. When she saw these shoes in the store, it was game over for looking for anything else.

She wore them until it was time to take them off for a bath at the end of the day.

I love when my photos app does mash-ups like this. It’s amazing to see how much she’s changed in such a short amount of time.

Some Home Improvement

Weekly Happenings: This was a pretty average week. We didn’t really go anywhere or do anything out of the ordinary. I chose the title I did for this post because Paul and I updated the throw pillows for our couches and Paul also put up another shelf in the pantry to give me more room for storage. Rather mundane “adult” things, I suppose, but it’s strangely exciting. I suppose that’s the stage of life we’re in right now. 😉

The Weekly Weather: It’s been teasing us, really. It will say that it’s going to rain, but then whatever storm it is either passes us by or completely disappears. Oh well…at least it’s been a bit cooler (and by that I mean low- to mid-90s).

What Paul’s Been Up To: As I mentioned before, he added a shelf to the pantry. He also bought some more peel-and-stick reflective material to put up in the office to cut down on the heat some more. Oh, and he was called to be the ward clerk at church. He helps keep track of church attendance and several other things.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: I hosted my monthly book club meeting, which was a lot of fun as usual. Other than that, it’s been mostly just my regular stuff.

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He has settled into school (his favorite subjects are computer lab, art, and GT). He also continues to be a huge help watching Abigail while I teach piano.

What Abigail’s Been Up To: She has thrown us for yet another loop. The past two nights, she’s woken up in the middle of the night, upset. This means that I drag the extra toddler mattress into her room and snuggle with her until she’s ready to go back into her bed. Then I wait for her to fall asleep and sneak back to my bed. I’ve got my fingers crossed that she’ll sleep tonight…I don’t know if I can do a third night in a row.

This Week in Pictures: