Weekend activities…made it through

I made it through the last week pretty well.  Even yesterday, the anniversary of my mom’s untimely demise, didn’t turn out to be too rough a day.  For those of you who missed it in 2007, here’s Margot Babler’s obituary.

I spent the whole day yesterday doing domestic duties.  It took me hours to pull the house back into shape, do a few loads of laundry, vacuum, clean litter boxes, go grocery shopping, and make dinner.  I feel proud that neither of the kids sustained any serious injuries while they amused themselves and “helped” me.  Simple Mom did a post about balancing housework and parenting.  What with all my work on Althea Dotzour Photography, I haven’t focused as much on domestic work these past months.

Oh, and by the way, if you’re on Facebook, become a fan of Althea Dotzour Photography!  If I’ve taken photos for you, you can write a quick review for me here!

I’ve done lots of great photo sessions this summer, and I’m excited about getting beautiful autumn portraits over the next few months.  Should be a good time to help families get family pictures for Christmas!  I’m currently booking sessions for September-November.  If you’re interested, drop me a note!

Last weekend was chilly to cold.  It was hard to believe that it was still August!  We’ve had a cold summer this year!  On Saturday morning, Bryan and I bundled up the kids and we went to the Orton Park Festival to hear David Landau sing.

Sylvia was quite intrigued but didn’t want to get off my lap to dance. And Andrew was transfixed but wanted to sit on one of our laps well away from the singing/dancing action.  It was a beautiful morning for some playground pictures!

More pictures are available where those came from!

Shara came over to watch the kids on Saturday afternoon.  The wind had picked up, and the sky was wet and gray, so Bryan and I went to a book store, browsed, bought a new card game, and played it while we drank coffee.  It was nice to get away together.  Sunday morning we had breakfast with Sarah, Wes, and baby Charlie at the Pancake House.  It turned out to be a beautiful day, and we enjoyed a lovely afternoon picnic with Bryan’s OpGen office mates.  When we got home, Andrew and I headed down to Steve and Sally’s for the tail-end of a neighborhood picnic.  Andrew ate the frosting off four (4) cupcakes.  That night, Bryan and Andrew slept outdoors in our tent together.  It got down close to 40 degrees, but they were well-bundled, and had a sweet time.

Yesterday evening, Dad, Terry, and Tom came over for dinner. I made a meal of Bryan’s Mom’s recipes including pumpkin bread, broccoli cheese soup, and oatmeal cookies.  We ate out at the picnic table with all my sunflowers blooming nearby.  Terry leaves for another month-long driving trip today.  His engaging blog is available here. This trip he’s exploring upper New England starting with Maine.

We have no plans today.  Sylvia won’t nap and has been throwing intermittent tantrums.  Andrew doesn’t want to leave the house.  At all.  I’m coping by writing blog posts.  I’ll work on getting Andrew active this afternoon.  And work on getting Sylvia in a better mood.  Maybe a bike ride would help everyone!

Andrew starts preschool a week from today.  So this is our last week of summer!  Andrew’s buddy Alivia starts her first day of Spanish-immersion kindergarten today.  We’re thinking of her!!

Maretta called last night to tell us that she’s thinking about driving down this weekend.  I sure hope they do!  I miss that girl so much.  We haven’t seen her much over the last year!

Hope your week is off to a good start:)