Weekly Wrap-up (9/27)

 This week has flown by!  Monday we took Hobo to the vet for a check up and to make sure he was not microchipped.  We were all excited to find out he wasn't!

 Tuesday was full of appointments and errands and Wednesday was more trips to the storage unit--accompanied by Hobo, who loves to ride.

 The rest of the week was filled with classes and the park and getting ready for this, which happened last night!

 Today we went to the zoo!

 We had a birthday party for our favorite 2 year old!

While we were there, we ran into some scary creatures!

Now we're frantically trying to finish up the last few things before people start coming to see the house!

Hobo

 

Last weekend a dog showed up at our house and the kids were attached within five minutes.  Tuesday night I posted this picture on Facebook to see if anyone wanted a dog, and people started commenting that we should keep it.  Highly amusing, since we're about to put our house on the market and move into town--with a stay in an apartment in between.  And the fact that we are. not. dog. people.

 There weren't any takers, so much to the chagrin of my children, I started calling shelters.  In the mean time, the dog (which we started calling Hobo) and Boris met through the window with no real drama.  And after I had talked to two shelters that had no room and was waiting to hear back from another one, Jay called and asked what I thought about the possibility of keeping him.  That's probably the most surprised I've ever been.

 

 

 After a couple of days of thinking it over, we told the kids on Friday night that we would keep him.  Our neighbors have been so nice to let him stay in one of their extra kennels while we're not out with him and have even taken down part of their fence so the kids can go back and forth easily.  This is really nice since we're on a busy road and don't have a fence around our yard!

 He's been sleeping in the shed at night and does a good job of not barking or tearing the place up.

 We're slowly getting used to the idea that we have a dog.  As I told my friend, it's kind of like waking up and finding out the sky is actually purple.  This is just so weird.

This morning the kids and I took him to the vet and he is not microchipped, so he's officially ours!

 

Welcome to the family, Hobo!

Weekly Wrap-up (9/19)

 Most of my pictures this week were from my phone, because that's the kind of week it was.  Monday night we met at a restaurant with our realtor to sign all the paperwork to get out house officially on the market.

 Alice was bored by all the business talk.

 After our trip to the aquarium on Wednesday, we stopped by one of Jack's favorite parks.

 He is always happy when he's here!

 Yesterday we stayed home (more on that this weekend), but today we went swimming and out to lunch.

 Then it was on to the first meeting of a little co-op, where the kids did several fun activities, including a science experiment.

 They had to use different substances to see which one (or which combination) would get the pennies the cleanest.

We also started PE again this week, and of course, if you're on Facebook, you've heard a bit about this guy.  More about him soon!

I hope you had a great week!

Aquarium Time!

 Our free tickets to the aquarium expire this week, so we headed across the river for our annual visit.

 I have a hard time taking good pictures at the aquarium because it seems like there's always a glare or a reflection, but I was able to get a decent shot of the little octopus without me in the background.

 Alice loved the Amazon exhibit!

 We were able to see the workers feed several of the animals.  This is an electric eel eating shrimp.  There is a voltage meter in the tank and whenever he ate, it got really loud.

 They put krill on the side of the tank and these archer fish would shoot it down with water.

 The kids tried feeding some turtles.

 They gave them carrot peelings with a clothespin and sometimes the turtles would bite the clothespin and get pulled along with it!

 I really like watching the turtles.  These two kept trying to make it up the waterfall.

 Feeding time for the beavers!

 And of course, you have to see the sharks!

We also always get a picture in the photo booth!

The Week in Review

 

 I'm not sure if I'm going to try to do Friday posts again this year like I used to do or if I will do something weekly, but right now I'm just trying to get by.  In addition to school and getting the house ready, we've had lots of other stuff going on.

Last Saturday we went to a Food Truck Festival downtown.  It was rainy, but the food was yummy and we had a good time.  We spent the rest of the afternoon running errands and taking Jack to a party and I made one last run to drop stuff at the storage unit in the evening.  As I pulled into the driveway, I noticed the tire pressure light had come on, which isn't too unusual because it is really sensitive.  When I got out, though, I heard a whooshing sound and found all the air was leaving my back tire.  I spent Sunday morning getting new tire, but considering the fact that Jay was able to get the kids to Sunday school and USAA sent a guy to put my spare on for me, it wasn't too terrible.

 

 Monday morning we took Jack in for xrays on his arm.  He fell out of the tree house last week and it was still hurting, so we wanted to double check it just in case.  Thankfully it wasn't broken and the pain seems to be lessening.

 Monday we also made more than 100 salt dough minifigures.  More on this later...

 Tuesday we went with my mom and dad to take their cat to the vet.  She did really well and I am wishing that Boris was that good at getting in the carrier.

 Today we went to see Dolphin Tale 2 with friends.

Afterward we stopped by Chick Fil A for a milkshake since it was National Chocolate Milkshake Day!

In other big news this week, as of yesterday we are officially owners of a lot in town!  I'm beyond ready to start building, so hopefully we'll sell this house soon and get started!

 

The First Week

 We made it through our first week of school!  We celebrated Waffle Week at breakfast!

 After our busy first day, we actually got to stay home all day on Wednesday and it was perfect.  I am all about the margin and really hoping and planning for some this year.  We read and played outside in the morning before it got too hot!

 We even made a tie-dye cake!

 Thursday we went to do some paperwork and errands and got to have lunch out with Jay.  (None of which you can tell by this picture, but we did take this at the restaurant.  Trust me.)

 Today we went to see the Monet exhibit at Philbrook.

 A nice guard turned the floor on for us!

After some (really hot) play time at the arboretum, we headed to Joe Momma's for lunch.  The kids thought it was awesome to make shadows on the screen.  When you eat lunch at 2:30 and no one else is there, you get to do that kind of thing.

We're hoping to have our house ready to put on the market in about a week, so I imagine next week is going to get a little crazier!

The First Day of School: A Soft Start

 Today was our first official day of the school year!  Usually we start earlier, but we did school through most of the summer and have been working hard on the house, so I opted for a later start this year.

Really, I wasn't completely ready like I wanted to be.  In fact, I don't know if I've ever felt this unprepared--including my first job, where I started in the middle of the year in a classroom with no heat in a winter so cold we ended up getting out of school due to the temperatures.  But I'm good at winging it, and really, even the public schools don't jump right into all of the hardcore academics on the very first day. (Anyone see the music video the high schoolers made?!)  So, as Elizabeth Foss was saying on Facebook the other day, we're calling it a soft start and going for it.

 After some academics, it was time for swimming lessons.  I was so excited to get this slot since it coordinates well with our other activities for the year.  I've stacked our week differently this year so we could actually get three days at home in a row if we really wanted to!

 Then we had lunch--not at a bar, even though this picture kind of looks like it.  (And how cute is the lunch picture from last year's first day of school?!)

 

This year could be a pretty crazy one, but I'm glad to get to spend it with these two!