Weekending....

Another summer weekend is in the books.  Can you believe it's August already?  I feel like summer just started!  Ugh....I'm not looking forward to cooler temps yet!!!  

Our week / weekend was relatively busy.  Here goes!

Wednesday (the 31st) was Jay's birthday!  He worked, I worked, Ella was at Sara's, so most of the day was uneventful.  However, earlier in the week I attempted a new recipe for the birthday dessert.  Sort of a play on strawberry shortcake.  Okay, easy right?  Well, I had never before made an angel food cake.  I didn't think it would be a big deal.  Well....I was wrong!  Big time!  

As you can see, the cake flowed well over the loaf pan.  In my defense, the cake box stated you could use loaf pans (2 - 9 inch size) in place of an angel food cake pan (which I don't own).  So, my loaf pan is larger (technically, it would be a meat loaf pan) so I went with it, filling it probably 3/4 of the way full, as I would any other cake.  BIG MISTAKE!  That damn angel food cake likes to RISE!!  Big mess.  I spent that night cleaning the oven.  Our house smelled like a camp fire for 2 days.  Eww.  Lesson learned.  No more angel food cakes in our house until I own an angel food cake pan.  :)  I was able to salvage most of the cake (it just had to be cubed up to add to other ingredients for the dessert), so all was not lost.  :)

At Hoolihan's for birthday dinner!

 

Friday, Ella & I headed to the last puppet wagon  show of the summer (sigh).

 Then we spent some time at the park...

And got a hair cut! (complete with braid & glitter, of course!)

We also went to a story hour (no pics) and then to Annie's to see Grandma Jolyn, Baby Harrison and Keller!  After our busy morning, Ella zonked out on the car ride (less than 10 minutes) home! :) 

Saturday night Jay & I went to the Twins game versus the Houston Astros.  Kind of a boring game, but it was fun to get out for a date!  And of course we took our annual BBY sponsored pic in the photo booth! 

Ella had a sleepover at Annie's (thank you Annie!) with baby Harrison & Keller too.  They had a great time....

Let me tell you about this picture.  Ella insisted that her baby had to be in the swing, even though Annie needed to put Harrison in there.  So, Annie decided to put Harrison in there WITH Ella's baby.  HILARIOUS!  I'm sure Harrison was like, WHAT THE?!?!?

And, yesterday we finally got Ms. Ella a "big girl" bed.  We'd been holding off hoping we could wait until we move, but since we're not getting any news on it, we decided we better get it going.  Last night was the inaugural night in the new bed (and then it stormed and the power went out....so that was fun!)

 

 

Happy Monday!

Weekending....

It's been a great & relaxing weekend here at the Abbas household.  Friday morning Ella & I bundled up in sweatshirts & jeans to head to the Puppet Wagon show in Rosemount.  :)  It was a bit chilly, but we still had fun!  We hit the mall for some retail therapy (and see picture below of Ella participating in her FAVORITE thing to do at the mall - one of those 'magic" pads that kids can stomp all over and the video responds to them - anyway, she had a blast0.  :) Then we went to the library in Apple Valley for a change of scenery.  We even got to visit with Annie & see little baby Harrison.  It was a fun day!  

My little lunch date has started to "pose" for camera shots now.  :)

Friday night we headed to Kelly Park in Apple Valley (chilly yet again) to run some energy off at the park.

 Love this picture!

Other random picture from the weekend- playing with the new phone camera app....

And, last, the most disgusting thing.  We have these new neighbors in the back with a million cats (ok, I think 4 cats maybe).  Still....I am NOT a cat fan.  And these people think of these cats as outdoor pets I think because these cats are ALWAYS out.  Ewww.  And, this is what I saw on Saturday morning....

DIS....GUST....ING!

Here's to another great week, hopefully with less cat encounters. HA!

Weekending...

What a weekend we had!  Some good ol' summertime fun.  Friday morning Ella & I headed to the Puppet Wagon (traveling summertime puppet shows put on by Park & Rec) in Rosemount, and then to the Farmington library for a miniature horse presentation & story hour (yeah, that was NOT really that cool) and then we saw Monsters, Inc. Friday afternoon!  Busy day!  And not a single shareable photo.  Boo.

Saturday though, we all headed out to Canterbury for Extreme Race Day!  It was a fun time!  Camel races and ostrich races - HILARIOUS!

Our little jockey!

 Camels are actually huge! (I never realized....)

 Pony rides!

We ended the weekend with some time in the sprinkler & playing outside!  Oh, but first we headed to Target for groceries and Jay was back in middle school trying to find the perfect new lunch bag!  HA!

And did you know Sunday was National Ice Cream Day?  We celebrated by making homemade ice cream treats! Yum!  Looking forward to another week of great weather!  (And p.s. Jay & I started a new workout program....here we go!)

The Plans Change

Update on Jay's parents and the transplant surgery:  surgery was postponed.  Yesterday, after an entire day (7 a.m.- 3 p.m.) of pre-op appointments, they read the blood work results drawn in the early morning and decided to postpone because of a higher than normal calcium level for Jay's mom.  Such a blow mentally to everyone.  Now it will be a return trip to the kidney dr. to figure it out and then back to the U to hopefully have surgery scheduled in two weeks.  It seems to be the summer of plans changing!

So, last night we decided to head out for dinner (Subway, Ella's choice - ha!) and then ice cream, to help all of us feel a bit better about the sudden change/delay of plans!

  

Looking forward to a weekend of something fun (maybe a movie tomorrow with Ms. Ella, maybe Canterbury, maybe the water park?)  Happy Friday eve! 

Weekending...

A trip to Cherry Berry after which Ella insisted on taking a picture with me.  And I find it HILARIOUS that she had to crouch down like me for the picture.  HA!

 We caught the weekly puppet show from the City of Farmington Puppet Wagon on Friday morning.  She thought it was SOOO funny.  :)

We played at the park afterwards....

And we spent some time running through the sprinkler!

This week is pretty big for the family.  Jay's parents will be having kidney/donor surgery Thursday morning.  Please keep them/us in your thoughts and prayers.

Oh July!

It's been "something" around here.  The townhome sale is dead. Can you believe it?!?!  Each time we've put it up for sale, it's sold relatively quickly and then something happens and the deal goes bad.  This time, the Buyer's financing fell through.  UNBELIEVABLE!  It was like the steal of the year for the price and his mortgage would have been dirt cheap, but whatev.  Apparently something must have happened between his pre-approval and the actual loan application.  Maybe he lost his job or something.  I'm still annoyed with him, job or no job.  We wasted ALL of June (oh lovely June) on this dude.  We can't get that month back.  Not sure where we go from here, but the "FOR SALE" sign is back out.  Keep your fingers crossed that someone will drive by with an interest, and the cash to back it up!

We spent the 4th of July at home.  We wanted to travel to see the peeps in Worthington, but with the house in limbo we decided to stick around.  We headed to the waterpark on the 4th which was a super fun time!  Spent the evening over at Annie's for the 4th.  I only grabbed a few pictures and Ella was not being very cooperative.  Boo.

 This one makes me laugh.  I have no idea what was so interesting on the ground!!!

We saw two kids flicks over the long holiday weekend.  Wednesday morning Ella & I went to a free showing of one of the Alvin & the Chipmunks movies.  She was super excited and we had a great time.  She insisted on popcorn.  At 10 a.m. in the morning.  A girl after my own heart!  :)

And Friday afternoon, we all went and saw Despicable Me 2, which was also super fun.  Lots of fun one-liners and of course those silly Minions!  Our house is now obsessed with the little yellow guys!

Ella & Jay managed to make it to the Home Depot event on Saturday morning, which was related to the Despicable Me 2 movie.  Only one cell phone pic from that crazy mess!

Overall, it was a nice and surprisingly relaxing holiday weekend!  If we'd only known what was to come about the townhome sale! 

And, for fun, here's a short video and pictures of Ella the other day.  She insisted on those flower glasses, and she picked out her own outfit, which is happening more and more and makes me FULL of anxiety!!

Summertime

There's LOTS going on in the Abbas world, but I can't really provide anything solid right now, as everything is up in the air!!  But, I'm so excited for an extra long weekend, and with news that it's going to feel like summertime throughout, I thought the above picture was perfect.  :)  Ms. Ella in her cute cupcake shorts and beach sandals.  Bring on the sunshine and cocktails (for adults)!