Author: Erica (Page 35 of 269)

I am disappointed… I was doing such a good job of getting on to post every (week) day and then this past week I wasn’t able to post on Thursday or Friday.  Now part of that wasn’t actually my fault; for some reason it wouldn’t let me log into my admin panel (very strange).  But today I’m back!

But it’s probably for the best.  We ended up being crazy busy over the past 5 days.  They had Wed-Fri off from school, but I still had lessons, so that makes for some hectic days.  Then on Saturday we laid low and Tim did some work around the house (like installing a new light in the entry way–it looks AMAZING by the way!!  I’m so lucky to have such a handy hubby!) and then Sunday we had church and football friends over then family pictures and swimming lessons.

I did make an extra effort to make their days off from school special as well, so we had a bunch of little things in there:  playdates, trip to the library, pizza and DQ in the van for lunch, trip to MOA (Mall of America), trips to the park, reading books with Chloe, making brownies, walking down to the haybales, and teaching Chloe how to make pigs in blankets (all by herself!).   After all that, though, I am so ready for a nice normal Monday.  This morning was a little bit of a struggle to get everyone back into gear, but we made it out the door and even had time to spare at the bus stop.  Boo-yah.

Choe and I were big readers over break.  We have now finished (ok, she’s just a couple chapters shy, but very close to finishing) 4 books now.  We’ve read:  Book Scavenger, Last in a Long Line of Rebels, Terrible Two, and Soar.  Apparently we read the hardest one first, so the last 3 books have felt  pretty easy in comparison.  She still has 6 more to go, but I’m so proud of how she is doing. It’s definitely taking extra effort on my part to find time to read but it’s worth it to help encourage her.

Josiah was also a big reader over break.  I think he read at least 8 books.  I’ll have to double check.  He’s devouring those easy chapter books like a pro.  He is “star of the week” this week.  He was thrilled to present his poster to the class.  I took a picture of it, although you probably won’t be able to read everything since the writing is pretty tiny.  It was very important that he write everything himself on the poster.  You can tell that Chloe helped him color a bit.  She maaaaaaay have gotten a little carried away…

Madison is having a bit of a tough time this morning, now that the Big Kids are back in school.  She’s definitely a little more needy.  She really liked having them home and having someone to play with her all the time. Her most favorite pastime these days is to find anything of Chloe’s to play with.  The “off-limits” toys are definitely the most desirable.  Ha!

Levi is entering a new phase of playfulness. He’s starting to really develop a quirky, goofy disposition.  His screaming has definitely gotten better, although he has nice epic tantrums still.  I think that’s just part of being 2.  😉  He wasn’t a huge fan of family pictures yesterday.  When he is done with something, he is DONE.  So, he was nice and sat through a few, but then he was done.  There will probably be a few epic-ly (albeit humorous) bad pictures of him.  Ha!  I’m sure we’ll look back on those someday and laugh.

On Sunday we had a nice white layer of snow on the ground.  The kids were beyond excited–running around house in celebration.  I admit I didn’t believe them when they told me it was snowing, but lo and behold, I was wrong.  It continued to snow for a few hours.  Enough to cover most of the grass even.  It was crazy.  It did warm up by mid afternoon and melt it away, but a lot more collected than I expected.

I didn’t take any pictures.  Sorry.  You’ll just have to imagine a picture of snowy grass in your mind.

In other news, we have our family pictures this weekend.  I’m so excited.  I soooo look forward to our annual pictures.  I’m always so pleased with how they turn out (huge shout out to Tara!).  But before then, I need to find coordinating outfits for everyone.  Eeks!   The kids are off of school for the 3 days for Fall Break (or MEA Break as they call it here) so we’ll be heading to do some clothes searching tomorrow.

Before I go, how about a random picture?  The other day Jen came over and wanted to attempt making eggrolls for the first time.  I was intrigued since I’ve never made them before.  They were actually really tasty, and her recipe made a LOT of filling. So much that we ended up just frying that plain after she ran out of wraps.  It was delicious.  The one drawback in the process was that when she put them in the fryer they would get a huge air bubble in them.  She ended up holding them down with the fry basket, which helped them cook better, but also made them turn out pretty flat.  Hehe! So, they were tasty, but a little funny looking.

Today’s fun brought to you…. by walking around in Daddy’s shoes!

For Chloe’s Birthday gift this year, Jennifer decided to take her (and Allison–as HER gift too!) horseback riding.  Isn’t that so cool?!  The girls love their outings with Jen and there’s something extra special about getting to go together.  They went this past weekend up to a place called Changing Gaits Wild River Stables.  Chloe had a blast.  She came back full of funny stories about the horses (and their funny mannerisms) and excited to ride again someday.

I’ve been trying very hard to get back into the habit of writing on here again.  This is sort of my journal of life since we’ve had kids, and I do enjoy looking back on phases of my life that I have completely forgotten by reading old posts and looking at pictures.  I feel bad that I have been posting so little since Levi was born.  I truly feel like I’m finally emerging from the days of chaos and survival mode now that Levi is 2 and Maddie is 3.  There were some rough patches in there. And we all know the saying, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say anything at all.”  So rather than complain I chose to not post.  But here we are–on the other side!  I can’t believe Levi is 2.  It feels like a blink of an eye…

It has been VERY rainy here lately.  Actually, it’s been rainy for pretty much a month straight. There have been a few days it hasn’t rained, but it has rained a lot.  Everything is very green.  But it’s putting a big damper on Tim working.  The job that he was supposed to be at yesterday and today has become a huge pond of water.  He’s a bit frustrated.

In other news I’ve decided to try and memorize a piano song.  It’s not terribly difficult, but it feels good to engage my mind and hands again after a LONG hiatus.  It’s Sonatina Op. 55 No. 1 by Friedrich Kuhlau.  (That reference is for you, Mom, since I bet you know the song!) I’m enjoying it and have almost the whole thing memorized.  Maybe I’ll record myself playing it… maybe…. no guarantees.

And finally a random bit of useless information for you before I go:  my kids go through extreme waves of eating bananas.  (Anyone else have kids like this?)  They LOVE them for a few months and then they HATE them for a couple months.  We are currently transitioning out of a HATE phase.  But all of that to say that buying bananas can be a bit confusing.  I’ll be buying a ton for a long time, just plowing through them and then suddenly I have a ton going brown since no one will eat them.  Needless to say, I’ve become very good at making banana bread/muffins lately.  So, see?  Not a total loss!

On top of having nap issues (A.K.A. screaming tantrums) Levi got sick in the past month.  First he had to go in because his breathing was abnormal–super fast for no reason–and they said he might have a very early case of Bronchilitis.  So he got started on a nebulizer treatment and bounced back very quickly. Surprisingly he didn’t mind the nebulizer.  We think he likes the humming of the machine.

Then Josiah got sick… he got croup.  I wrote about it a few days ago.  I thought that Josiah had simply caught whatever bug Levi had.  Unfortunately I was wrong.  And, of course, then Josiah gave Levi his croup.  We tried to power through a few nights, but by the 3rd night of not sleeping I couldn’t take it and we made a late night trip to the E.R.

He was given a special nebulizer treatment and some steroids to help open his airway, and then they had to monitor him for 2 hours.  It was a long 2 hours, because it was very late, and he wouldn’t go to sleep.  Oh, and he really, REALLY, hated the heart monitor they taped to his big toe.  So, when he would notice it again he would get really mad at me that I wouldn’t let him take it off.  Most of the time we just sat on the bed in the E.R. trying to watch t.v. or snuggle.

Fast forward to today.  He’s basically all better now, just a residual cough.  Nothing much.  I am very aware that Maddie is highly likely to catch whatever the boys had, so I’ve been religiously giving her (food-grade) Catnip tea mixed half and half with Cranberry juice.  I have a friend that swears by it–and I have to say it seems to keep the croup virus from settling in their voice box.  Instead the virus acts more like a regular cold.  And a regular cold I can totally handle.  It’s the whole “not being able to breathe” part of Croup that freaks me out.  I feel a little silly that I didn’t start the boys on it sooner–perhaps I could have avoided the whole drama of these past couple weeks in the E.R.  Oh well.  I guess we’ll never know.  😉

Jen took the 2 Littles to the park the other day and she took just the cutest pictures.  We have had quite the temperature swings here in the past couple of weeks–blisteringly hot one day (80*) then down to cold and windy the next (40*).  This trip to the park was on one of the more pleasant Fall days.  🙂

I realized that I never properly wrote about Chloe’s Birthday party.  We had it early this year (back in August–so she could do a sleepover) so by the time her actual Birthday rolled around I had already forgotten about it! She chose Purple as her theme.  I thought that was a funny theme… and I was really worried I wouldn’t be able to come up with anything, but it all turned out great!

Ever wondered what a shopping trip to create one of these parties might look like?  Here’s my stash of stuff as I started to get ready: 

First the decorations:  Every party needs balloons and swirly streamers.  Chloe made the purple hanging flowers above the counter mostly by herself!  I just had to help a little with the hot glue gun.

And onto the food:  We had Jello (layered purple and clear), grapes, dark chocolate M&M’s, Mike and Ikes, sixlets, chocolate dipped pretzels, grape pop and tortilla chips.

For an activity the girls glitter spray painted a clipboard purple.  They had fun spraying the clipboards and even posed by the box we used to spray on–I love that picture.  Crazy 9 and 10 year olds!

The girls also had fun doing an elaborate scavenger hunt running around the yard and house.  Unfortunately, during that game two of the girls got hurt… I guess they were having too much fun!