Just Chuggin’ Along

Weekly Happenings: This past Sunday, my friend Stephen (who I met in college) was able to hang out for a bit with us (he’s in town for some training for the Army). It was nice getting to see him again. The piano tuner came for his annual visit (my piano sounds sooooo good right now), we went swimming at a friend’s pool (which was really more like a mini water park), and then the boys got to go see the new Spiderman movie (and Joseph even got to pose with Spiderman, which he thoroughly enjoyed). Abigail and I went for a play date and then came home for lunch and hang-out time while the boys were gone.

The Weekly Weather: We had a crazy storm come through on Monday (my weather app mentioned the possibility of a small storm but it was essentially a monsoon). Other than that, it’s been pretty typical June weather: warm, sunny, humid, and a few small thunderstorms here and there.

What Paul’s Been Up To: He’s replaced a couple different parts on our lawnmower but has had to wait for clear weather to test it out to see if it’s working now. As I mentioned before, this morning he and Joseph headed out for a showing of the new Spiderman movie. I think they both had a great time.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: I got to watch my piano tuner tune my piano, which is always a bit fascinating. I also had fun taking the kids swimming. Other than that, it’s been a pretty typical week for me, which is nice. 🙂

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He had a blast at the aforementioned activities and has been really soaking up summer vacation.

What Abigail’s Been Up To: She’s been a ball of pure energy this week. She’s busy, busy, busy which in turn keeps my busy, busy, busy. 😉 This morning, Abigail woke up at 4:00 (I think it was a nightmare) and she and I slept on the couch until about 8:15 (well, after she finally fell back to sleep around six-ish). Consequently, she was trying to fall asleep at 4:00. When I wouldn’t let her (because, well…yeah), she pitched a bit of a fit but then she popped up, ran for the bathroom, and climbed into the tub (fully clothed), asking for a bath. When I asked why she wanted a bath, she said, “Bath and night-night.” Well…since that wasn’t going to happen (little miss smarty-pants), I decided to let her play with her tablet for a bit while I made dinner. 😏

This Week in Pictures:

I love stumbling upon Joseph’s creations. 🙂
Abigail was quick to warm up to Stephen…he was good at playing games with her.
Paul went and got Stephen from his hotel (he is without a vehicle for the training), brought him back for dinner and hanging out, and then we went and dropped him back off. It was so good seeing him!
I went to get her up one morning and was greeted with: “A-gi-gaiiiil, where ah-oooooooh?”
Then she added a: “Keep-a-boo!”
This was right after the crazy storm. We dropped almost twenty degrees in just a matter of a couple of hours.
I’m always amazed with how beautiful the sky is after a storm.
Playing the piano.
I love these two!
Abigail loves getting to push the button for selfies.
Do you remember when I said she was busy, busy, busy?
When she saw me taking her picture, she insisted on climbing up so that she could “push da button”. In her haste to push the button, she got the camera into portrait-mode which blurs the background but leaves the objects in the foreground in focus.
Swimming fun. Joseph loved getting to swim with friends. He’s in the blue and his friend is in the bright yellow.
This one had a blast, too.
She was even brave enough to lay back and try to float a bit (the water right here was only about a foot deep).
I love when there are holes in the clouds. This was after a pop-up thunderstorm.
The sun was breaking through and lighting up bits and pieces of the clouds. It looked so neat!
I love being outside when it’s all pinky-orange from the sunset.
Playing in the sunshine.
Strike a pose!
Spiderman checking out Joseph’s pose.
High-fives!
Waiting for the movie to start.

Summer is Officially Here

Weekly Happenings: We didn’t do too much this past week. The weather was rather uncooperative, haha. We went to Toddler Time at the library, hung around home, and just soaked in the air conditioning. 😉 We did scoot over to the zoo this morning to see the animals before the heat of the day set in too bad.

The Weekly Weather: It’s been hot, hot, hot and rather humid. There was one day where when I was walking around outside and found that I couldn’t even take a full breath because it was so humid (I think it was around 83% humidity and it was around 95 degrees…that’s a tough combo). I didn’t even realize something like that was possible!

What Paul’s Been Up To: I forgot to mention that this past Sunday was Father’s Day. Since we have 9 o’clock church, we weren’t able to make a fancy breakfast for Paul, but I did make one of his favorites for lunch (fried egg sandwiches) and dinner (meatloaf and roasted potatoes). For his presents, he got a new computer monitor and Joseph made him a tie (a few months ago at school and then they sent it home with him on the last day and he hid it for Paul to find, using clues) and colored a rock for him. It was really sweet. 🙂 As far as what else he’s been up to, he replaced our kitchen faucet, and is currently waiting on parts to get our lawnmower going again. I am so grateful that he’s so handy!

What Sarah’s Been Up To: I have mostly just kept the kids alive, haha. I did get to go to book club, which is a highlight of the month for me for sure!

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He’s been soaking in the extra time he has to play as well helping a lot with Abigail so that I can get things done.

What Abigail’s Been Up To: She’s adding to her vocabulary on an hourly basis it seems. She is now blurting out 3-4 word sentences on the regular now. It’s entertaining and fascinating to see.

This Week in Pictures:

  • Here’s the rock and the tie that Joseph made for Paul as well as the clues he wrote out for Paul to follow to find them.
She was totally into the story the librarian was reading for Toddler Time.
Here’s the old faucet, which had started to leak pretty badly.
Here’s the new one. I love the curve of the faucet, and I also love that it has the two separate knobs.
She sat down, looked over at me and said, “Bye Mom!”. Then with a wave, she scooted off.
Every once in a while, Google Photos will do a “then-and-now” photo. This one is so great! It’s crazy to see how much she’s grown in less than a year.
Snuggles!
She popped these blocks together and then was putting her creation up to our ears, pretending to look into them. I think this, combined with the fact that she also checks our heartbeats with her heart-shaped magnet from her Magna Doodle, is a good indicator that we need to get her a toy doctor set, haha.
The 98 degrees wouldn’t have been too bad except it felt so much hotter thanks to the humidity.
I had just gotten home from book club and realized it was still 90 degrees. At 10:35 PM. Ew.
I’ve been reflecting on how big our trees have gotten in the 7 years that we’ve been here. This was the front tree when we first moved in…
…and this is it now!
The two trees in the back in 2012…
…and the two trees in 2019. We actually get shade form them now, haha.
Joseph got her all cozied up last night and she was quite pleased.
This spectacled bear was just chilling in a tub of water, trying to beat the heat.
This other one had just gotten out of his pool of water.
Checking out the different alligators.
This koala was…less than receptive to visitors, haha.
I couldn’t help but get a picture of this squishy sleepy koala face.
One of the lions making the most of a shady tree.
I love this sculpture!
Checking out the elephants.
This cool guy wasn’t part of the zoo exhibits…he was just sunning himself on a rock.
I love walking through the bird enclosure.
Riding on the train next to the zoo.
Girl selfie!

The Start of Summer Fun

Weekly Happenings: This was the first full week of summer vacation for Joseph. We didn’t do a whole lot, but what we did do was really fun. We went to story time at the library for Abigail (Joseph brought along his tablet since the subject matter was a little young for him), Joseph tagged along with a friend to see the second Lego movie (during the summer the theater by us does free movies for kids during certain show times), and we got to go swimming with friends at the pool in one of their neighborhoods. We stayed for close to three hours and neither kid was ready to go when it was time.

The Weekly Weather: It’s been typical June weather: warm, humid, overcast for a few days, sunny for others. I don’t remember if it rained at all…I think it might have? If it did, I don’t remember, haha.

What Paul’s Been Up To: He’s been busy at work and at home as well. Today, he spent the majority of the day setting up our back yard pool. He used some wood that was left over from Joseph’s old fort to piece together a mini deck for around part of the pool so that there’s a place to get in and out without dragging in too many little pieces of wood chips. We have a corner of the yard that is squared off with wood chips, which is where Paul sets up the pool every year. In the past he’s put down a tarp before setting up the pool (so the wood chips don’t poke through the bottom of the pool), but this year he opted to put cardboard down instead. It’s thicker than the tarps, so I think it’ll be a better option.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: I haven’t done much out of the ordinary. I’ve mainly kept the kids happy, taught piano, and the like.

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He’s been enjoying his increased down time. He also finished the first book in the Harry Potter series. He’s going to be eight in less than three months and I’m trying to figure out where the time has gone.

What Abigail’s Been Up To: She’s been expanding her vocabulary (sometimes letting loose sentences that have four or five words) and her imagination. One cute thing she did was she took her heart magnet (from her Magna Doodle) and ran up to Paul while saying, “Doctor, doctor!” She then held the magnet up to his chest like a stethoscope. He was quick to catch on and made a heart beat sound. She was delighted! She then had to check me and Joseph as well. When we went swimming, she found out real quick that she will, in fact, go under the water. I had put on her puddle jumper (thank goodness), sunscreened her up, and then we were headed to the pool area. The entrance to the pool was very gradual but then had several steps that went down. Abigail took off down the slope, but missed the steps, so she ended up falling, flailing her arms, and getting dunked once before I got caught up (thankfully I was only two or three steps behind her) and pulled her up. She didn’t inhale any water, but was a little shook. After that, she was happy to be in the pool if I was holding her or if she could hang out in the splash area which only had about four inches of water. She also liked the mini fountains that were in one part of the pool area.

This Week in Pictures:

My little…astronaut?
Doing a test-fit of her puddle jumper. She didn’t want to take it off. The arm floaties are sewn to the vest, but if she slips out of them, she can’t get the rest of the vest off because it goes over her shoulders. There are other versions without the fabric over the shoulders, but I have friends who have seen their kids get completely out by slipping their arms out and then pushing the vest down and stepping out of it. I thought Abigail might be like that, so we opted for the slightly more secure version.
This is what I was met with when I told her it was bedtime.
I love sights like this.
This is not for the movie that Joseph and his friend went to, but it was a fun cutout that was in the lobby. My friend offered to take Joseph along to the movie (her son is in the same grade as Joseph), which was so great because he got to see the movie and I didn’t have to try to wrangle Abigail at the theater.
Silly geese.
This little…punk was chasing off any other hummingbirds that came up for a drink.
She was SO happy the entire time (once she got over the shock of being dunked).
Playing with the mini fountains.
Where Joseph is in this shot is where Abigail ran off. There are three steps there that she didn’t see. Whoops! Luckily her puddle jumper kept her mostly afloat until I could get to her.
My friend got this great shot of her. She was dropping these toy fish over the edge that would sink to the bottom (they are meant to help kids learn how to swim down to retrieve things) and I would get them for her.
My friend also got this shot of Joseph. He really liked playing with the pool noodles. The pool at its deepest was only four and a half feet deep, so he was able to touch bottom for most of the pool. He did also enjoy practicing some swimming techniques (kicking and some basic strokes).
Enjoying a relaxing Saturday morning.
Wearing Daddy’s hat and her boots. She’s ready to go!
Still. Wearing. Her. Boots. About eight hours had elapsed between the last picture and this one…and she didn’t want her boots off at all during that time. In fact, they are her first choice for footwear as of late. My little Texan. 😉