Feeling Crummy

It has been a really long week.  Tuesday I got a call from Isaac's school that he had a fever of 101 degrees.  So I headed to school to pick him up.  He seemed fine all night.  He and Mackenzie both were suffering from a cold and I really hoped that the fever was the end of it for Isaac.  Later that night he got sick, and then he got sick again.  Wednesday afternoon and evening he seemed fine again so I hoped it was over.  He slept most of the night, yay.  Then while I was showering Thursday morning he came into the bathroom to say "Hi" and announce that he had "puked".  He loves the word puke.  So he stayed home with me on Thursday.  He was full of energy all day, thank goodness, and went back to school Friday, the same day I started sneezing and coughing . . . Needless to say I am still feeling unwell.  I am hoping to miss the puking though.  Mackenzie seems to have gotten over the cold without moving into any flu symptons, so I am hoping to feel better by the middle of the week.

Isaac missed his swim lesson this week, but when I was downloading my pictures from my phone I found a picture from his previous lesson and it is so cute I felt like I should post it:

It makes me really happy that my kids like the water so much.

The kids are doing well and we actually had a really busy weekend.  Yesterday we got haircuts, well everyone but me and went to Imagination Station in the morning.  Then we all took a nap in the afternoon.  We went grocery shopping before dinner because the kids wanted homemade lemonade.  So today we made lemonade, along with green waffles.  We also planted some seeds, pruned some bushes, cleaned bathrooms, vaccuumed and mowed the lawn (well Brian mostly did that but Isaac rode along for a while).  So we got a lot done and had a lot of fun despite Mom not feeling well.

The kids have been getting along either really well, or really not well lately.  Today was no exception.  It is amazing how quickly they can move from playing together nicely to attacking each other.  So my latest Mom tactic has been to try and get to them before they get to the attacking stage and convince them that they want to separate.  I am successful maybe 30% of the time, but I am working on it.  This afternoon I was successful once.  Mackenzie went upstairs to play and then decided to carry all of her dollhouse furniture downstairs.  She setup a house for her Strawberry Shortcake doll at the computer desk:

She actually had three areas set up, upstairs, downstairs and outside.  She was really into it and really proud of her house.  Meanwhile Isaac was upstairs for about ten minutes and then carried the furniture from his firehouse downstairs, to literally play right next to his sister.  I truly don't understand them.  They drive each other crazy but they want to be right next to each other.  Needless to say, it only lasted a few minutes after this picture was taken before I heard a loud "Mom!" from Mackenzie.  It was a bit frustrating, but it was better for her to call me than for her to start attacking her brother.

So that was our not so fun week and our full, mostly fun weekend.

The End of Spring Break and Birthday Week

We had a very successful second half of spring break, including Isaac and Brian's birthdays.  We had a great time at Castaway Bay with my siblings and nieces and nephews.  Michael, Misty and Lexie joined us there on Thursday and my sister, Tina, ended up being able to come up with her twin boys, Thomas and Nicholas, on Friday.  Grandpa Butch actually drove over with us on Thursday and stayed with the kids and I all day.  Brian wasn't able to get off work until Friday afternoon, so he joined us then.  So there was a lot going on. 

Here is a shot of all of the kids with Snoopy:

Mackenzie went to the breakfast buffet with Aunt Tina, Thomas and Nicholas and they got to get their picture taken with Linus and his blue blanket:

We headed back to Perrysburg on Saturday.  Tina and the boys headed this way as well, but via a different route.  They unfortunately got a flat tire on the way.  The AAA guy couldn't get the spare of her Suburban so it ended up being towed to our house.  Brian managed to get the spare off before the tow truck pulled out of our driveway; pretty sad.  Luckily she had gotten her tires at Costco so on Sunday she and Brian went on a shopping spree at Costco while they fixed her tire.


Isaac's birthday party was also Sunday. It was a castle themed party and it was extremely successful, if I do say so myself.  Here is a shot of Isaac and me (and his friend Lyla) with his sword and shield cakes before he blew out his candle:

My parents made it down for the party and also stayed the night.  At one point most everyone was outside because we had awesome weather on Sunday and once when I came inside my mom was in the living room with 4 of her 5 grandchildren plus a couple of the Rogers cousins.  It was great to see her hanging out with her grandkids. 

Mom and Tina took the three boys to the zoo on Monday (Mackenzie had to go back to school).  It was great that Mom got a chance to hang out with her 3 grandsons for the day.  I left for work this morning before Brian took the kids to school and Tina and the boys left.  I have been told that when Brian and the kids were getting ready to leave Isaac refused to say goodbye to Aunt Tina because he didn't want them to go, which is a very Isaac thing to do. I am sure he is missing his godmother, but it was great that they got to spend some quality time together.

The kids loved hanging out with their cousins and they all played really well together, most of the time. The kids were sad to see their cousins go yesterday morning, but I think they all will have fond memories of this long weekend, which is exactly what we were all going for. 

Happy Birthday, Isaac!

The cake is supposed to look like a shield.  I am not sure how well I did, but it looks like a shield to me.  For the birthday party when there will be more people around to eat cake there will also be a sword, so hopefully that will help.

Isaac is very excited to be 4.  I got to take him to his swim class today and the woman sitting next to me had a baby boy on her lap.  He was probably about 5 months old.  I can't believe that my baby is 4 years old and that I will be registering him for kindergarten next year.  Part of me is very excited and part of me is a little sad.  Right now he has a blue face from eating the portion of cake I cut off and frosted for him and he is looking super cute.

Update:
We had a special birthday dinner (corned beef, rice pilaf, beans and strawberries) and then had cake and sorbet/ice cream.  Isaac opened up his presents from Grandma Linda and Grandpa Butch and Mom and Dad.  Isaac's castle birthday has begun:

 

 

Spring Break

Mackenzie is on Spring Break this week, along with the majority of children.  It seems really early to me for Spring Break, but evidently some wise educator decided the week after Easter was the time for Spring Break.  We are having a fairly unplanned Spring Break.  I took the week off work and I pulled both kids out of daycare and we spent the first weekend at Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Mike's.  To make it more of a vacation, we got a hotel room so that the kids could stay in a hotel and go swimming in the pool, and so that Grandma and Grandpa got a break now and then and got to sleep in past 6. 

Before we left on Saturday morning we went over to Grandpa Butch and Grandma Linda's for the first Easter Basket/Egg hunt.  The kids found their baskets first and I didn't realize there were eggs as well.  So when Isaac asked me if he could eat a piece of candy out of each egg and there were only 4 eggs in his basket, I said "Sure."  Then he found 12 more plastic eggs during the hunt and had to stop and open each one up to get his piece of candy.  Lucky for me some of them had coins in them.

After we go to Midland, we went to Dow Gardens with my parents.  We walked through the gardens and saw the butterfly house.  We tried to get an impromptu family picture while we were there in front of some metal flowers:

It turned out about like every other impromptu family picture we have ever tried to take.  Here is a shot of more of the metal flowers:

 The kids really liked climbing on the giant rocks.  I think everyone else at Dow Gardens was really nervous about them climbing the rocks. This was probably for good reason, but I remember climbing the rocks and I really didn't see much harm in it.  We were all right there and the kids have fallen and survived before . . . I don't know, evidently my spidey-sense just wasn't very strong that day.

Here is a shot on the rocks with Grandma and Grandpa.  I think that Grandma really wanted this picture so that she could make sure the kids didn't fall off the rocks : )

We went over to the children's area that the kids remembered from going there with Grandma and Grandpa last summer.  Mackenzie was bound and determined to climb up onto this pig even though its back was quite sloped and smooth.  She made it . . . 

Isaac didn't get his picture with the pig because he didn't want to leave the sandbox.  He did strike a pose for a picture with the entrance sign though:

We left Dow Gardens and went to the Midland Center for the Arts where they had Grossology.  The kids thought it was pretty fun, although they didn't focus much on the learning components.  But they really liked the esophagus slide into the stomach and then the crawl through the intestines:

 

Isaac was also very fond of the faucet with a cold that had snot come out of it while he was talking, but I don't have a picture of that one :) 

 

We walked around the Center for the Arts after going through Grossology and the kids really enjoyed it.  Here is a shot of Mackenzie after she built her tower:

We went to the hotel after finishing up at the Center for the Arts and then went out to dinner at Logan's Roadhouse where the kids got to throw peanut shells all over the floor, which was pretty awesome.

We went to church on Easter Sunday at the church that Brian and I got married in, which was nice.  There is a new pastor there, so it wasn't quite the same as when Pastor Koke was there, but it was still nice and the kids did very well, especially considering there was a baptism as well as a large number of people taking communion and it ended up being an hour and a half service.  The Easter Bunny was kind enough to go to Grandma and Grandpa's house for the kids so we did our egg and basket hunt back at their house:

 

 

The Easter Bunny did very well by the kids.  After Lexie got to Grandma and Grandpa's they got to do another Easter basket hunt (this would be number 3):

Here is a shot of the 3 grandchildren with Grandma and Grandpa on Monday after Grandpa read them a new book:

Today we went to the Toledo Museum of Art with Grandpa Butch.  They had a family activity today with beads.  Mackenzie made a necklace, bracelet and a ring and also made a necklace for Isaac, since he didn't want to do beads and was playing with the toys instead.  I need to get a picture of her with her jewelry on.  They had a blast playing at the family center in the museum, and played very well with all of the other kids there.  We then went to lunch at Spaghetti Warehouse and got to sit in the trolley to eat.  Again, my spidey-sense was probably not on, because I let them walk around the trolley a lot, but there weren't that many people there, so I figured as long as they were walking and they were fairly quiet, what harm were they doing?

When we got home after lunch everyone was pretty tuckered out.  Both kids ended up napping for a bit, and Isaac actually napped for 3 hours.  So I got a chance to almost finish my project for Isaac's birthday party.  I have been working on a castle tent for him.  It is pretty much finished, except for the mat for the bottom, which I think will help shape the bottom of the castle and will keep it from spinning so much.  However, I broke 3 needles (including an upholstery needle) because I bought the wrong Velcro.  I thought I could sew through the sticky Velcro but no . . .  So, I don't think at this point that I am going to finish the mat, since I cleaned up the sewing room to convert it to a guest room this evening.  But I think it will work fine as it is on the carpeting for the party and I can make the mat for him before we move it to his room with the hardwood floor.  Here are the kids tonight in their way too small pajamas checking out the tent:

 Isaac is way too cool in his shades:

Tomorrow I desperately need to make it to the grocery store and I am hoping we can make a trip to Imagination Station afterward and before swim and ballet in the afternoon.  Then we are off to Castaway Bay in Sandusky to meet up with Michael, Misty and Lexie for a couple of days.