First day of school, revisited

Since Steven would have nothing to do with photos on the first day of school, I captured him on spikey hair day. It was spirit week to raise money for the United Way so we gel'ed and hairsprayed but nothing really helps to make a buzz cut spikey. However, he was happy with the result so I snapped the photo and sent him on his way!

By the way, did you notice how his backpack strap strings are tied around his waist? Montessori is awesome. He comes home everyday with a new skill - tieing  is his new focus. And, can you believe it, he told us the continents the other day! WOW!

Concord Grapes

I love our CSA (community supported agriculture). Betty from Peacock Farms is our farmer and she always has something in our basket each week that proves to be fun and exciting for the family. This week we got a bag full of concord grapes.

They weren't so good to just eat - the skin is tough and there are seeds - so I decided to try Betty's suggestion of making jelly. Since I've never done it before I went to the trusty internet and found some recipes. Quite easy, it seemed, and with the help of my sous chef, Steven, it ended up being very fun and simple to accomplish.

We squeezed the grape meat out of the skin, then chopped up the skin and boiled it all together. Steven then helped me to stir it all together before we did the final mixing and straining. His concentration was amazing. He followed directions and helped with every step. 

My biggest fear was the canning process. I'd done some canning the week before (pickled okra, I love you Tommy) but I still consider myself a novice. It didn't really matter if the canning process worked with this batch because I really only had enough for one jar and I knew it would be gobbled up right away. But, I wanted to try to see if I could do it. So, I boiled and sanitized, sealed and popped. It worked but like I said, the jar got opened two days later because I have a family addicted to sugar!



Four years ago today

Our lives changed forever when our son arrived in the world!

What a wonderful time we've had during these four short years.

Steven's 4th Birthday Party

Steven had wonderful ideas for his birthday party this year. He wanted four presents, swimming, baseball, transformers, superheroes, cake, ice cream, etc. etc. etc. 

We finally settled on a swimming party at the YMCA followed by games and cake. His friends came, their parents were good sports and swam with us, we played pin the badge on Diego (without the blindfold covering their eyes) and tried to do a fishing pond but it was a little complicated for the crowd. We finally just set up the pole so that the kids could reel in their prize from across the room!

It was a lot of fun and he is so excited to turn five next year! I can't wait to find out what he will want to do for his party.  

Labor Day at Watkins Mill

After our plans to visit the zoo with friends were dashed by virus striken children we had low hopes for anything fun this Labor Day Weekend. We expected a horrible night with Steven's coughing and wheezing but we were pleasantly surprised. He had a couple of episodes early on in the night but after midnight he slept with only a few coughs through the night. Tommy and I didn't sleep so soundly since we were anticipating a few more disturbances but we'll take staying snuggled in our bed half-awake instead of calming a screaming child at 2am.

We woke up to two kids who were ready to go. We were out in the yard by 7:45am blowing bubbles and playing baseball. The weather was gorgeous - we actually had to wear jackets! By 8:10am I was at the park with the kids. We went on the swings, on the slides, found treasure rocks, then Tommy came down and we decided that it was probably okay to take them on an adventure as long as we could keep our distance from other people (so as not to infect).

We drove north to Kearney to visit Watkins Woolen Mill. It is a huge state park where they have preserved the homestead and mill run by the Watkins family. I wish our kids had the attention span to go on the tour and watch the movie but we didn't push our luck. When they get a little older we'll be able to learn more about the history. We did get to see the heritage sheep and chickens, walk around the heirloom garden and peek into the house and mill. It was such a beautiful day and I am so glad we got to do something fun despite our sickies!

Sickies

I never thought of us as a family of sickies but it seems like every fall and every spring we go through a round of illness that just lasts forever.

Lyla came down with a fever last Sunday. We kept her home on Monday and took her to the doctor because they had strep at her new preschool (Steven's old school). Diagnosis was a virus and we ended up keeping her home for two more days with a fever. Funny thing was, she was fine. She was happy and played hard all day but still had a fever that made us keep her home from school.

Finally Thursday came, both kids at school, parents full day at work and plans to go to Science Night at the zoo. I picked up Steven and all hopes for ending the week strong were cancelled. He had a fever of 103.5. Fortunately earlier in the week Tommy's director had granted a free vacation day on Friday, so neither one of us had to take another half day from work.

Steven's fever continued on Friday and Saturday. Saturday night he woke up several times with a barking cough and wheezing. At one point I took him in the bathroom to steam him but he wasn't having it. Sunday morning I called the pediatrician and they ordered us to bring him to urgent care that afternoon.

Urgent care resulted in a chest xray and blood work to measure his white cell count. He did great with the xray; they gave him a little lead apron to wear to protect his lower half - he thought it was hilarious. The tech had to take about six shots before he figured out how to stand still. Then came the blood work. I made the mistake of telling him what they would do in the waiting room. He was screaming bloody murder by the time they sat us in the chair. But immediately when it was done he stopped, got 7 dinosaur stickers and happily returned to the exam room.

Resulting diagnosis ... virus. Argh. Can't we just get something to stop the coughs and wheezing?

Creative lounging

I'm not sure how one can consider this position comfortable but she stayed there almost the entire episode of Micky Clubhouse. Oh, to be 2 and flexible!