Allie's Birthday Camp-out

When I asked Allie if she'd rather have a big party with her school friends or do something with our family, she picked a family camping trip. That made me happy. We had planned on going the weekend after her birthday, but Easter weekend was scheduled to be so pretty. We couldn't pass up the opportunity. We packed everything Saturday morning and arrived at Cape Henlopen in Delaware right at check-in time. The campground was pretty empty and it was almost perfect. I say almost because the bathhouse we made reservations next to was closed for renovations so we had to use the one a little bit further away.

We only had 1 mishap while we were gone. I was eating marshmellows off the roasting fork the first night we were there. Allie decided to copy me, not realized I wasn't sticking the whole fork in my mouth. It still makes me cringe...I heard the sizzle as the hot fork touched her lips. She had two white blisters on her bottom lip where she burned herself. A little ice and a few days have made all the difference and it's almost healed up.

It took us an hour or so to set up camp and then we spent the rest of the time playing. Over the 3 days, we rode 5 miles on our bikes. The kids were real troopers, especially Caden. Cape Henlopen has great bike trails....a few hills, but for the most part, easy paved paths for younger children to ride on. Any time we were at the campsite, the kids were on their bikes riding around on the rode. They never get to do that at home so it was really nice to have the freedom.

You should see Caden's training wheels. They are worn down to the rims.

We also played on the beach one afternoon. It was cool, 70s maybe, with a nice breeze. We weren't prepared with sunscreen and we all got a little pink. We played frisbee and collected shells. Caden is getting very good at throwing and catching the frisbee. The kids dug in the sand and Allie took some time out for a nap. She's so funny. She worked on her towel until it was perfect and them settled down to sun bathe.

On our bike rides, we discovered Ft. Miles, which is a World War II era base. The building themselves were open, but not too interesting. The interesting part were the big artillery guns. Caden could have happily stayed there "shooting" at things all day long. We also climbed one of the many observation towers...all 115 steps. The view was beautiful. We saw several places were people had used pine cones and pine straw to draw pictures and spell out words so we joined in and spelled JACKD (which is how I sometimes sign our names quickly - the first letter of our first names).

As if all that wasn't enough, we also flew our kites in a big parade field, checked out the nature center and took a walk on the fishing pier. I wish we could have gotten to the 2 light houses across the bay.

(Blogger is driving me crazy. It won't let me center these pictures to match the rest...sorry!)

We packed up and came home Monday afternoon. We found a creamery on the way and stopped for home-made ice. It was the perfect weekend. Thank you, Allie for turning 7 and picking to spend the weekend with us!

Allie and Alex Are Over

Allie told me that Alex said he doesn't want to be her boyfriend anymore.  She didn't seem too upset.  I'd say they've drifted apart this school year : p.  She did tell me another little boy in her class told her he'd be her boyfriend.  Oh dear!  I'm sure with Allie's personality, there will never be a shortage of boyfriend material...unfortunately.

Brownie Fun

We had two Girl Scout cluster events this week.  The first was Basket Bingo.  I don't know that I've ever played real bingo other than in school here and there.  The girls and I had a good time.  Our instructions were to bring a snack for our troop and to bring our daubers.  I dipped strawberries and pretzels in chocolate.  They were a hit and they disappeared almost immediately.  For the daubers, I went to 4 different stores without success.  At least I knew what a dauber was.  A couple of the moms said they had to google "dauber."  LOL.  Thankfully, ladies had extras and were more than willing to share.  The bingo caller was fast and the room was over-filled with women and girls.  It was hard to hear with all the chatting, but we perservered.  Unfortunately, it wasn't our lucky night.  Neither the girls nor I won a game.  We came close, but no bingos. 

 

Jaelyn was there for the fun, but Allie was very serious, very competitive and very upset when we left without her winning anything.  (her medicine is working marvelously, but one side effect we've noticed is she gets more emotional when she's frustrated.)

 

Today, we went ice skating.  I went by myself with all three kids and hoped there would be other moms there skating to help if needed.  It's been a year since we skated.  Jaelyn did really well and skated part of the time without the walker.  Allie struggled with her walker.  She kept falling.  I had a big walker I was using to push Caden and finally, I made them take turns.  I'd push Allie for 2 laps while Caden sat out and then I'd push Caden for 2 laps while Allie sat out.  About an hour into skating, Allie went to the bathroom and didn't come back.  When I went to find her, she had turned in her skates and was putting her shoes back on.  I knew she couldn't sit for an hour and watch everyone skate, so the rest of us got our shoes and headed home.  It was a fun outing and best of all, the girls got another patch for the back of the vests.  Yippee...more sewing for me!  (read that last sentence with sarcasm, please.)

Jesus and His Cyborgs

On the way home from school today, Caden and I were talking about his Easter party. I asked him why we celebrate Easter. His first response was "because it's fun." True, but not the answer I was looking for. Next he told me his version of the Easter story. I think from his retelling, you can tell he watches too many science fiction shows : p.

A Random Act of Kindness

This might be a "you had to be there" story, but Dan says I need to blog about it.  So here goes...

Yesterday, while waiting at a light, I had to sneeze.  I sneezed twice (big sneezes) and then heard "God bless you."   I looked over and the back window of the car beside me had been rolled down and some random guy was screaming at me "God bless you, God bless you."  Then he rolled up his window and the car drove off.  It cracked me up and cracked everyone else up at dinner last night when I told them about it.  So, did it crack you up?  It was just such an odd thing, to have a complete stranger blessing me by screaming loud enough to be heard through my closed window and over my radio.  Can you picture it or was it one of those "you had to be there" stories?

Brown Bear, Brown Bear

Caden likes to recite from memory read two books to us: Brown Bear, Brown Bear and Three Little Kittens. I think it's so cute. I was especially impressed with how he followed along with his finger on the last page. He's ready to really start reading!

Allie's Update

I could be totally imagining it because I want the medicine to make a difference, but I "think" I can see a change in her. We started it on Friday, so really only 2 days at school, but I gave it to her this weekend also. She doesn't seem to be so full of nervous energy. She's subtly calmer if that makes sense. She's still bouncy and energetic and I've had to tell her 3 times to do something, but she is doing it after the 3rd time instead of 5 times with me standing over her making her do it in the end. She's also eaten every meal since we started...sitting down. Normally she's bouncing all around from her bottom to standing behind the bench to on her knees to standing to on her bottom to...you get the picture. The only issue is sleep, which we knew it could be. She was awake till 10 Sunday night (bedtime at 7:30) and awake till 11:30 last night. Thankfully of the 3 kids, she does the best on less sleep. Her appetite doesn't seem to be affected, although I will say she's not begging to eat all the time like she used to. I'd call her appetite "normal."


And an Allie-funny...the other day I was talking to Dan and while I was helping her with something. I wasn't paying enough attention to her so she grabbed my arm and said "Mommy, focus!" Hmmm...I think that's what I say to her all the time. Maybe she is listening to me after all.

Caden's 6 Veggie Dinner

Caden did great at dinner tonight.  The one bite rule isn't always fun, but it is making getting food in him easier.  We had grilled chicken salads tonight - well, Dan, Allie and I did.  Caden and Jaelyn had deconstructed salads ;-).  In addition to his 5 bites of grilled chicken, Caden also had 1 pickle, 2 carrots, 1 cucumber slice, 1 spinach leaf and a bite of bell pepper on his plate (reminds me of the very hungry caterpillar.).  He ate every bite on his own without crying or gagging.  He even gave my chicken a thumbs up.  The best part had to be his spinach.  I rolled his bell pepper bite up in it like a burrito.  He thought that was fun.  He said "I liked the lettuce" and when I asked if he wanted another piece..."yes!"  Now, I know, it's only 2 pieces of spinach, but this is the incredible non-veggie eating boy!  I feel like tonight's dinner was a major triumph.

The Estuary Center

We needed an outing today in the worst possible way.  Since spring seems to have disappeared, winter came back with cold weather and wind (must be that last cold snap before Easter my Grandma Molly has always warned me about).  We bundled up and went to the estuary center.  They have a nice indoor nature center and a mile loop through the woods.  It's one of Dan's favorite places to take the kids when I need a break so I think this was only my second time there.

There's something very Flash Gordon about this log with mystery things inside (remember that movie scene???).  Caden had Dan put his arm in first before he'd do it.

We love watching the turtle cam in the turtle habitat.  One of the turtles was out getting medicine on it's shell.

Allie in a tree

Still loving her short, sassy do.  It fits her personality so well.

Allie's Check-up

Allie had her 7 year old check-up yesterday. I can't believe my baby girl will be 7 in 11 days, but I'll dwell on that another day. For today, the details of yesterday. Allie is now 46 inches tall and weighs 51 pounds. I need to measure Jaelyn. Just from looking at them, I'd guess Allie is 2 inches taller and I know she's 6 pounds heavier. Jaelyn is going to be a petite munchkin when she grows up.

Allie is healthy and eats well. Her doctor had only one concern...Allie snores. She also does some funny breathing things when she sleeps. These can be signs of sleep apnea so we are going to be doing a sleep study (if I can get the scheduler to call me back!). Dan's sleep apnea is treated with a cpap machine. I asked the doctor how they treat kids. Not a cpap - they do surgery and remove their adnoids and tonsils. I'm struggling with giving her meds (more in a second). I can't imagine letting someone put her to sleep and remove parts of her body. I know, I'm jumping ahead of myself and if it is sleep apnea, lack of oxygen can cause major long term problems so we'll do whatever we have to do.

My concern going into this appointment was Allie's behavior problems (which sleep apnea and lack of good sleep can cause, but I don't believe are the main cause). Allie has always been a free spirit. She's happy go lucky and pretty much does whatever she wants to do. I love those things about her and think they are positive traits for someone to have. I would love being as self confident as she is. She doesn't care what anyone else thinks. She's always happy, even when her free spirit gets her into trouble. It's been getting her into a lot of trouble in school. She's slightly below grade level in reading and in math. I think she's doing great considering she has so much trouble focusing on lessons. She has trouble sitting still and is constantly fidgeting. She's like Tigger...forever bouncing. I went into the appointment with behavior forms from all of her teachers with the "sometimes" and "often" boxes checked for most of the behaviors. Her pediatrician put her in the gray area for ADHD...maybe, maybe not. She agreed to let us try meds to see if they will help her. We started on the lowest dose of an ADHD medicine this morning. I was fine getting the prescription filled yesterday and then I read the fact sheet and all the side effects. Oh my word! A friend told me she calls them scare sheets and she's right. I'll monitor and check in with her teachers this month and then go back and talk to the doctor in 30 days. We'll continue, readjust, or discontinue the medicine from there. I don't want to change Allie's personality. I just want to help her slow down so she doesn't fall further behind in school. She's so smart. I want her to be successful and I really believe she can be.

My Day

Thank you everyone for the cards, phone calls and happy wishes for my birthday. (And thanks Jennifer for reminding me of how old we are! Ugh!) 37 used to be so old, now it feels really young. When do you start feeling like a grown-up? When your kids have kids???

I had a nice day. The kids sung to me several times and Dan took us out to dinner at Longhorn. Yum!

Time With Friends

We had a good weekend, with beautiful weather!  Friday afternoon we were so excited to see old friends.  We met Chris, Angie and Lexie when we moved here 3 years ago.  Dan and Chris worked together in the op center and Angie and I became good friends.  They were my go-to-people while Dan was deployed and I was sad when they moved last June.  Fortunately, Angie is from Maryland, so they've been back to visit.  They stopped by our house on Friday and we had fun catching up.  The kids enjoyed playing with Lexie (who's a year older than Jaelyn) and I enjoyed getting to see baby Laney.  She was a newborn when they moved so we never got to spend much time with her.  Thanks for stopping by, Angie.  If you feel led, Chris is in Iraq now.  I know they'd love prayers.

I've already blogged about the kids letting me sleep in on Saturday morning.  As a reward, we took a picnic to Annie's playground.  I don't typically go to Annie's because it's huge and always packed.  I can't keep track of the kids and with all the entrances and exits, it's scary.  Someone could grab a child so quickly in that park.  The kids picked it, so I gave it a try.  We lasted 10 minutes on the playground, but I'd had enough because they wouldn't stay together.  Allie kept leaving Jaelyn and Caden.  I took them to the smaller, but still big enough, giraffe park with 1 exit where Caden was so excited to run into his friend Nathan.  We played for an hour or so while I enjoyed the sunshine.  Ben and Krissy invited to their house for dinner so we went home to make ice-cream sandwiches from home-made chocolate chip cookies and then headed to their house.  They have a huge yard.  It was great for the kids to get to run and play.  They raced around the perimeter of the house over and over.  Jaelyn totally smoked Tyler, Nathan's 1st grade brother.  She's fast.  Dinner was wonderful as always (Ben is a grill master).  I even made everyone try a bite of asparagus.  I got thumbs down all around, but even Caden agreed it was worth it to get dessert!

Purrfectly Content

Oh how I wish I were a cat somedays!  Zac loves his sunshine.

Beautiful Lengths

Jaelyn started growing her hair out last year.  I honestly didn't think her bangs would ever get there, but finally around Christmas, they could tuck behind her ears.  Her hair has gotten very long in the back.  It gets tangled easily and saying she doesn't enjoy getting her hair brushed is an understatement.  It's become a long fight so I started talking to Jaelyn about cutting her hair.  I thought shoulder length so she could get it in a pony tail would be good.  She decided to go shorter.  She didn't have the 10" required for Locks of Love, but Pantene has a program called Beautiful Lengths that only requires 8".  They make wigs for adult cancer patients.  She decided last night.  I didn't waste any time for her to change her mind.  We went to Great Clips right after school today.

Before

Getting it cut

A blessings to someone in need

Jaelyn's new do!  She does short and sassy very well!  I love it and more importantly, she loves it.

After we fluffed it up with a round brush

 

Dan's Home

I probably shouldn't use him as an excuse for ignoring my blog because he slept most of the day yesterday and went to work today (mean Army bosses), but I'm going to anyway.  He rolled into bed, literally, at 2:30 am Monday morning.  The kids and I are very excited to have him home.  We'll be glad when he's adjusted to our time so he can stay up with us in the day :p!

An Expensive Day

Thursday night, I noticed that the light fixture in the girls' room had a flickering orange glow coming from inside the switch box.  If I flipped the switch on, the glow went out.  I know some switches are made to glow (like a night light), but I've never noticed this one glowing before.  Add in the flickering and I was worried.  I popped the circuit breaker (turning out the power to both bedrooms and a bathroom) and put the kids to bed with camping lights as night lights.  After going back and forth with my Dad "consulting" I decided I shouldn't replace it myself (although I really think I could have).

Friday morning I started calling electricians after I dropped Caden off at school.  For such a bad economy, electricians must be doing okay because out of 6-7, I could only get 2 to answer and they said they'd have a technician call me back (they never did).  I ended up calling BGE Home even though I knew it would be expensive, but at least they answer the phone.  I needed the switch fixed and the lights back on so the plumber could see in the bathroom to get the toothbrush out when he came in the afternoon.

The electrian was awesome (I have his card encase anyone needs one) and he fixed it and charged me the minimum even though technically he should have charged me more.  I think $89 for a 20 minute house call (of which 15 minutes was spent talking to me) is really good money.

Next, the plumber showed up.  Remember all my ramblings from February - toilet still isn't right...toothbrush still stuck!  He had this huge auger and had the toothbrush popped out in 5 minutes.  Then he proceeded to charge me $170!!!  I was shocked, but what could I do, but pay the man.  I need to find me one of those augers and go into business...Handy Help for Moms!  Caden owes me a hug and kiss for each of those dollars I spent getting that silly toothbrush unstuck!  I still can't believe he did it.

So, I'm $259 poorer, but our house isn't going to burn down and the kids can go potty in the mornings without going through my room and waking me up...priceless!

A First ~ The Day Has Finally Come

I didn't think this day would ever get here and I'm sure it might not repeat again for awhile, but today I'm in a wonderful mood because....I slept till 9:15 without being disturbed.  The kids all got up about 6:30.  I told them to go downstairs and normally I would have been up right after to referree because of fights and screaming.  Not this morning.  Jaelyn got everyone breakfast and then they watched TV.  They watched yesterdays Enurances (our newest favorite show on DKids - think Survivor for teenagers), Spririt and were putting in High School Musical 2 when I wokeup to peace and quiet on my own. I'm not sure what we'll do today, but it's going to be something fun as a reward!

SPRING

The first day of Spring 2010 is Saturday.  I think my plants are in agreement.  I wandered around the back yard checking things out while I was waiting for paint to dry (literally) and found some new, exciting things.

My iris are coming back...lots of new shoots everywhere.

A baby coreopis (from seed?) - Mommy and Daddy coreopis are not looking so good.

The first bud on my hydrangea

Along with the plants, I also noticed this

It's a hole - either the kids are getting the ground ready for some seeds or they are trying to tunnel out ala Hogan's Heroes style.

Sorting, Updating, and Organizing

I love to be organized.  I feel happy when everything has a designated home.  It makes picking up so much easier.  About a month ago, I came across this in a magazine for $5.95.  I can never find a remote.  I have a set place to put them, but no one else in our family can seem to do that.  I bought this handy dandy remote holder and we are all using it.  I hardly ever have to hunt for a remote anymore.  Yea. (Kat, I bought it thinking how proud you'd be of me!)

Another thing that has been driving me batty is the girls' stuffed animals.  They've been using a pop-up bin from Ikea.  It's great to throw things in, but the problem comes when the kids want to get something out.  They dig through it, pitching animals left and right until they find what they want.  A struggle usually ensues when I tell them to put everything back.  Our Lowe's is redoing their closet section and had a bunch of their floor models clearanced.  I bought a shoe storage rack for $5 to store stuffed animals.  It's perfect.  The smaller animals go in the shoe slots and the bigger animals get piled on the shelves.  Every animal can be seen...no need to pitch animals around the room to find what you want.  Well, that's my hope anyway.  We'll see.

I was actually at Lowe's to buy new lamps for our bedroom.  We've had Tiffany lamps for about 10 years.  They are dark and low for reading by and honestly, I've been tired of them for several years.  Dan's has actually been cracked for the last year or so.  One of the kids knocked it over and broke out a few pieces of glass and cracked a few other.  We've continued to use it by turning the broken part to the back.  No more.  It's going on Freecycle and I'm giving mine to Caden. 

I bought the part to rewire the lamp so it would have a pull chain to turn it on and off rather than a little knob to turn.  I'm game for trying anything, but I've always been leary of wiring and electricity.  I carefully read the directions and followed them step by step.  Caden was so proud of me when we plugged it in and it worked.  He's excited about his new lamp that he can turn on and off easily.  I think the lamp looks very pretty on my Great-Grandmother's dresser.

And finally, my room.  I bought our old bedding six years ago with my birthday money.  I've been hunting for something new for the last 6 months.  I ordered a set from Penney's, but when it came the colors were totally wrong.  I went shopping yesterday with my coupons (thanks, Mom).  I bought a new quilt that I love.  I actually bought the same quilt after Dan came home from Iraq, but returned it when he bought something expensive on the same day.  He'd tell you I'm silly.  I'd tell you I pay the bills and would rather not spend all of our money.  I'm too practical.  Anyway, I used my birthday money this time so I don't feel guilty about spending so much.  I bought new lamps today and I'm so happy with our room.  The colors are similar, but it feels fresh and clean now.  The other just felt old to me.  I am still waiting for my new dust ruffle.  Who knew it would be so hard to find a queen ivory eyelet dust ruffle.  Not me...

before...

after...

A Glimpse of Generosity

Jaelyn can be mean at times.  The other night as I was rocking Caden, he said "Mommy, I wish God hadn't made Jaelyn as mean."  Dan would tell you she takes after me :-p.  And like me, she also has moments of generosity.  She came home from school to tell me she wanted to go to Five Below (a local store where everything is $5 or less - think the dollar store only nicer stuff) and that she would give Allie and Caden each $5 so they could buy something.  They've both spent all of their Christmas money, but Jaelyn still has money from selling her Barbie house.  It was a really generous offer.  I should probably tell you that she's been asking me to take her every couple of days and my response is always the same...."I'll take you by yourself as soon as Daddy's home because Allie and Caden don't have any money left.  It wouldn't be fair to them to take all of you and them not get anything."  My reponse has apparently been stewing around in her head and she finally came up with a good solution...share her money.  She did it for a selfish reason, so she could buy herself something, but she didn't have to do it.  She could have waited 5 more days for Dan to get home.  I'm proud of her. 

Wondering what they bought?  Caden bought a new set of handcuffs (metal this time, not the cheap plastic ones), Allie bought a new hippity hop ball, and Jaelyn bought 1 smencil and 3 Japense erasers.  Encase you are wondering, a smencil is a pencil that smells yummy...hence the name, smencil!

I also did some shopping today and spent some early birthday money.  Thank you, Joanie.  I'm redoing my bedroom.  I'll share when I'm done.