Darr Family Blog – Page 95 – The place to follow the Darr Family

Easter Fun and Some Sun

Weekly Happenings: We enjoyed a nice Easter Sunday (and the kids enjoyed fun things in their baskets) at the beginning of the week. We had ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, and homemade strawberry pie for dessert. Mid-week was rather ordinary, and then the end of the week was fun for Joseph since he had Fiesta fun at school. Fiesta is a week-long celebration in San Antonio. The big part of it is The Battle of the Flowers parade which commemorates the Battle of the Alamo. The rest of Fiesta just kind of spiraled out from there over time. I kind of liken it to Mardi Gras, haha.

The Weekly Weather: We had one big thunderstorm come through about mid-week, but other than that, it’s been gorgeous spring weather. 🙂

What Paul’s Been Up To: He’s been pressure-washing everything, haha. Well, not really. After he did our driveway and walkway, he moved onto the fences. Now he’s re-staining them so they’ll be nice and protected from future inclement weather. He also bought a new light fixture for our dining room and installed it. I’m so grateful he knows how to do all this stuff!

What Sarah’s Been Up To: I’ve been relatively busy keeping the house {relatively} neat, the kids happy, my plants alive, and my piano students well-engaged.

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He’s sensing the end of school swiftly approaching (they have a little more than a month left) and is looking forward to play dates and more free time. He had a fun Fiesta party at school where they enjoyed food and extra play time outside.

What Abigail’s Been Up To: She had been fighting allergies but then, on Wednesday night she popped a random fever. Normally I wait this type of thing out for a bit (it’s usually just a 24-hour bug), but my Mom-radar wouldn’t stop going off, so I took her into the doctor on Thursday. It turns out that she had strep and an ear infection! She’s a couple days into her antibiotics and is already feeling a lot better. She also likes that she gets a cookie after taking her medicine. 🙂

This Week in Pictures:

I love seeing their reactions when they first see fun things like this.

Joseph was excited about us getting him a ukulele.

She also really liked this book. The pages slide open to show a hiding animal.

Our yummy dessert. I used a store-bought crust and then made the filling.

I then topped each slice with homemade whipped cream. Yum!

This one commandeered all the empty eggs and carried them around for a couple of days.

Coloring in one of her color-with-water books that we got her for Easter. I really love these books. They come with a “paintbrush” that you fill with water and then once they dry, you can use them again.

I told her it was time for a diaper change and she headed for the figurative hills. Yes, I do see the irony of her trying to hide from a diaper change…in a diaper box.

She crashed on the way home from the doctor’s. Thank goodness for drive-through pharmacies!

I think it works perfectly with our farmhouse table. 🙂

One more shot of the new look in our dining room. I love the coziness the new light gives the room.

This time when I made rice crispy treats, I decided to top them with mini semi-sweet chocolate chips. When Joseph saw, he told me that he would volunteer to be official taste-tester, haha.

My succulents are super-happy about the warmer weather.

My shamrocks have settled into their new home rather nicely.

My roses are happy that it’s warmer (ant that they are outside), too! I’m so glad it survived the transplant from pot in the house (Paul had gotten these for me for Valentine’s Day) to bigger pot outside.

Spring Fun

Weekly Happenings: It seems we’ve settled into spring. The weather is warmer, so it’s easier to do things. Most of the week was pretty average. I did have my friend bring her kids over yesterday for a play date in the morning (since the older kids had school off because of Good Friday). The kids really liked playing outside with bubbles, chalk, and other outdoor stuff. We went to the zoo this morning to have something else fun to do. I love going to the zoo in the spring because it’s just warm enough for the animals to be more active without it being really hot.

The Weekly Weather: As I mentioned before, it’s been mild and sunny. We did have one wild thunderstorm come through one evening, but it wasn’t too bad.

What Paul’s Been Up To: Yard work, more yard work, and a bit of tidying up of the walkway and driveway up front (he just got a pressure washer, so he’s been putting it to use).

What Sarah’s Been Up To: I had book club, which was fun as usual. Other than that, it’s been a pretty typical week for me.

What Joseph’s Been Up To: They had an egg hunt at school which was a lot of fun for him. He continues to be a big help with Abigail. I love the relationship the two of them have. He seems to be very patient with her, which is amazing.

What Abigail’s Been Up To: She’s adjusting to her no-nap schedule really well. She has had a few rough nights, but I think they can be attributed to other factors (an allergy attack that has lasted a few days, for one). I think it will be a good thing for her. One thing I’ve discovered is that if I don’t belt her in when I try to put her into a shopping cart (at various places), she doesn’t flip out and throw a ginormous tantrum. This is something we’ve been dealing with for months, so if that’s all it takes, I’ll do it. We still need to try it at a few more different places, but I’m optimistic, haha.

This Week in Pictures:

She has been big on picking her footwear this week. Good thing we live in Texas, haha.

She wanted him to dance with her and he was very patient.

I have several spots in my house that just make me smile. This is one of those spots. I love the pottery (both are pieces my brother Gary made), I love the plants (the two darker green ones are succulents and the other one is an air plant that just needs to be misted with a spray bottle once a week), and the family picture captures our personalities perfectly.

She really liked pulling these stickers off. I love that In-N-Out gives the kids these sticker sheets instead of a trinkety toy.

Posing with the eagle statue at the zoo.

The Komodo dragon is right above his head. 🙂

Abigail likes climbing on this thing just as much as Joseph did at her age (and still does).

She was excited to see the “big kitty” (caracal).

It wouldn’t be a zoo trip without a stop at the hippo statue.

My favorite animal is the okapi. They seem like such a hodge-podge of characteristics.

They seem a little bit zebra, a little bit deer, and a little bit giraffe.

This is when Paul was half done with power-washing our driveway.

I love this silly little goose who has discovered she can reach the piano decorations if she hauls herself up onto the window seat.

Another “Firsts” Week

Weekly Happenings: The beginning of this week was pretty average. It wasn’t until the end of the week that we did some fun things (an egg hunt in the rain and haircuts for both kids to be specific).

The Weekly Weather: It’s been warm and dry until this morning when it decided to start raining right before the neighborhood egg hunt at the park was supposed to start, but luckily it let up enough for us to still go (with a delayed start) and now it’s just gorgeous, with blue skies and big, poofy clouds.

What Paul’s Been Up To: He’s really attacked the weeds and bugs in our yards this week. He also has made some helpful posts on our neighborhood Facebook page about yard care (which a lot of people have really appreciated…our next-door neighbor even brought him a gift of a really nice hose that he’s been wanting to get because he found out that Paul had also treated the weeds in his front yard as well as ours).

What Sarah’s Been Up To: Between kids, piano students, housework, and Relief Society planning, I’m quite busy, which is great!

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He lost another tooth, had a great time at the park for a play date mid-week, and really enjoyed the egg hunt today.

What Abigail’s Been Up To: After several episodes of “wake up in the middle of the night and just want to be awake for 3-4 hours” that have happened over the past couple of months (and two in a row this week), I’ve decided that she needs to stop napping so that she’ll sleep better at night. So far, it seems to be working. She occasionally starts to fall asleep on longer car rides in the afternoon or evening, but that’s to be expected. She also enjoyed the egg hunt (I think she liked getting rained on as much as she did gathering eggs). She even found a golden egg which garnered a set of outdoor/indoor toys (so think Frisbee, ping pong paddles and ball, and some other assorted items) that are Mario Bros.-themed. She and Joseph are enjoying sharing that fun prize. Finally, we took her to get her first haircut today. Nothing major…just a bang trim. She looks so cute!

This Week in Pictures:

She was hiding from me because she didn’t want to go to bed yet.

I found some really nice artificial plants to go in my hanging buckets in the kitchen. I think they are the perfect addition.

She and Joseph were pretending to go camping and were “sleeping”…until she noticed me sneaking in with my camera.

Yet another tooth gone (to the left of his two front teeth). He was brushing his teeth and it fell out.

Chilling at the park. He really liked this forked stick he found…and he always loves finding cool rocks.

She discovered that she could climb the steps and go down the slide all by herself. She did it over and over again. It was pretty great (and much better than what she was doing right before this: gathering handfuls of wood chips and leaves and throwing them up in the air).

When we were last in California, Paul ended up with my dad’s old yard hat, which he gave a good washing. Abigail loves it whenever it makes an appearance.

She loved getting to pick up all the eggs. She just said, “Egg, egg!” over and over again.

Joseph also got a haircut (though it’s definitely not his first).

There’s some serious cooking going on in here. The red glow is coming from the burners on her play stove, which light up.

Our beautiful front yard after all of Paul’s hard work battling weeds. He also pressure-washed our front walk. It looks so great!

And here’s the backyard. It’s hard to believe that a week ago there were a ton of weeds back here. He’s really worked hard to irradicate them!

Bonus Video: Abigail playing peek-a-boo with the Easter Bunny at the park.