Kids Day 2013 and News

 A few weeks ago Jess and I decided that Saturday should be Kids Day.  If you remember, it started last year because Paige asked why there is Mothers Day and Fathers Day but no Kids Day.  This year it started with waking them up to chocolate chip pancakes by Jess.
This was also the morning we found out we will be a family of 6 this October.  :)  Appropriate to find out on Kids Day.  We didn't tell the kids until a few days later, and everyone else a week later, like this:

Back to Kids Day.  Next we went by the library, then to lunch at Sonic-one with a big, frightening playset.

Then on to the zoo.  We got annual passes, since it'll pay for itself in 3 visits, plus we can get one visitor in free.  So prepare to go to the zoo, future visitors!


Cason had only had his cast taken off the day before, and was still walking with his foot kind of cocked out to the side, and stepping carefully.  So Neely mostly rode in the backpack so that Cason could get in the stroller any time his leg got tired.  He walked a bit, but mostly was in the stroller.

There was a big play area, but we made the kids wait til the end for that.

We checked out the bird room first.

Our favorite by far was the Tawny Frogmouth.

They were so cute and looked really fake, like something from the Never Ending Story.  I expected him to open his mouth and talk to us, in a voice similar to the giant tortoise from the movie.

There were statues all along the paths, and the girls wanted their pictures taken on them.


Cason wasn't into that, he thought they might come alive.

Pretty soon we found a path through a "bamboo forest", where we saw the tigers.


 
 It's weird how you know about these animals but then when you're actually up close you're blown away that they are real.  God is an artist.

Most of the tigers were lazy, lying around on the rocks, but one of them was funny.  He was feeling playful, and kept stalking the others, pouncing and trying to get them to play.  They just ignored him and he finally walked off.

 They were behind chain link, but later we came across an indoor area with displays and facts on the walls, and a huge window to watch tigers in a little area with a pool.  We had it all to ourselves for a few minutes, and a tiger, I kind of think it was the playful one who had wandered off bored with his friends, entertained us.  The kids loved it until Cason found out from a picture on the wall, how tigers eat.  Then he wasn't very pleased.  He hates tigers now. 

We saw a few more big cats.

 Then the chimps, who were hilarious.  There was the cutest baby walking around collecting sticks and things.  Then this adult-walking around in his poncho.  He'd stop and adjust it if it slipped at all.  He was so funny.

Next we saw the elephants.  They had a big waterfall in their exhibit, I think they might be the favorites.

 
The baby was so cute.  Cason and Neely both fell asleep around this point,


so we woke them up to play in the kids play area for a bit, and called it a day.  On the way home we stopped for dinner, and I can't remember the name of the place, but it was SO good.  I had spaghetti pie, and the kids stole most of my food because it was the best. 

Speaking of good food, turns out we can't go get burgers at the burger joint we loved.  We went again last weekend and after we left Paige's lip started to swell a little.  We even went to the ER because her epi-pen was expired, just to be safe.  I had given her benadryl, so they gave her something for any delayed reaction, and watched her for a bit, and we went home.  They gave us a prescription for a new epi-pen and we got two from this place, instead of just one, AND it doesn't expire for a while and was cheaper.  It was really annoying to pay 100 dollars for one that expired really quickly last time.  Anyway, she was fine.  But we will have to avoid that restaurant in the future.

So yes, we are having another baby!  We planned to try around March, but in our usual style we got pregnant a bit earlier.  We are really excited.  We waited longer this time, which wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.  Knowing it might be our last made it easy to push back.  I don't want to be done so quickly.  I felt good that first week.  Then the next Friday I felt a bit weird in the morning.  I kind of thought I was imagining it, but by Saturday I definitely had morning sickness.  I've spent a LOT of time on the couch since then.  Over a week now.  :(  Jess has been awesome, doing most of the work and coming home to make us lunch.  If I manage to do a load of laundry we're lucky.  Ha.  I usually get the washer started, and then run to the bathroom on the verge of throwing up.  Then back to the couch I go.  Ha. 

More From Last Week

Never mind that last post, Paige has already sold both her stuffed hearts.  :) 

I'm having a harder time remembering what things I've posted about because of Instagram.  So here are a few more pictures from last week.

Our moon project one day was using flour in a baking pan to make a model of the moon's surface.  The kids had fun making craters with their meteor(a bouncy ball) and letting pink Yoshi walk on the moon.

We first smoothed it out with this fondant smoothing tool I have that looks like an iron.  Paige asked if she could have it and made up a cute game.  She owned a shop where she would sew blankets or iron blankets for people.

She eventually made a sign for her door and moved the shop to her bedroom.

I had to drop blankets off every once in a while for a "smoothing", and fill out a card with my name, number, and what time I wanted to pick them up.  I'd pick my blankets up and she would let me know if I was late, and then get me my blankets, which were always carefully folded in this little tupperware drawer.

Jess and I started weekly dates with each of the kids.  We used to just do them sporadically, but even though we are always with the kids, it has felt like they aren't all getting enough individual attention lately.  So we set alarms on our phones, and every week, we each have a date with each of the three kids separately.  On Monday Neely and I played with her LaLaLoopsie dolls, which she calls "Watahoopies".  Wednesday(I think), Cason and I had a game session-Iron Man Operation, 2 Spider-Man puzzles, and a Tea Party game.  :)


Paige decided for her date on Friday night, she wanted to go with me to the grocery store.  Our date didn't turn out that awesome because she wanted to try and argue some extra purchases out of me, and wouldn't give up for most of the shopping trip.  I think our next date will have to be playing together at home or a breakfast out somewhere.  ;) 

She's been quite artistic this week though, too.

Bluebird Skies

 Paige wanted to practice sewing some more today, and then decided she wanted to own her own etsy shop-called Bluebird Skies.  :)  Since she doesn't have her own bank account I told her I'd create a section in my shop for her.  She did really well, I just helped a bit with knotting thread and drawing the face on the happy heart.  So if you're interested her two creations from today are available. 

www.etsy.com/shop/CloudySkiesCreations

Freedom

Cason had been counting down the days until he could get his cast off.  On Friday morning he said "MOM!  It's zero days!"  :)

We spent our morning doing our "school" work, 

and then they played with Neely a while.  They've recently been playing a game where they get "trapped" somewhere, which usually means they just lay over the arm of the couch or something, pretending they can't escape.  They yell "SUPERWOMAN!  SUPERWOMAN!  HELP!"  Neely runs up, wearing her cape, and turns around so they can grab on to the cape.  Then she walks away with them holding on, and brings them to safety.

 

I like that last picture, she got distracted and started watching tv mid-"rescue".  Ha.

Then we spent some time out front, using chalk to mark how far we could each jump and then measuring and marking how far we'd be able to jump on the moon.  They were all amazed and had fun imagining themselves on the moon.  Neely didn't really know what we were so excited about, but she had fun jumping and watching me mark her landings. 

Then Jess came home and picked us up.  Cason was so excited for his appointment.  Jess went in with him this time while the girls and I waited in the car.  They weren't in there for very long.  I guess they took the cast off right away, and Caso wore headphones since the saw is pretty loud.  

Then they x-rayed him again, and the doctor said everything looked good.  

He told Jess Cason might be nervous to walk on it for a while, it can even take months for some kids.  Sure enough, Cason did just as he described, cocking his leg out to the side, and stepping very softly on it.  It sort of surprised me, with the way he'd been running that last week.  I expected him to be nervous without the cast, of course, but I didn't realize the extent of it I guess.  I think it's a little sore too.  He's doing really well though. 

I was SOOO happy to get him home and scrub that leg clean.  It was actually not bad, and it was never stinky like people say to expect when a kid's in a cast.  In fact, Paige's was never stinky either.  I don't know why.  But his skin was really dry and flaky and I was so glad to scrub it and lotion him up after.  He was just really happy to take a normal bath again, without his leg propped up and wrapped in towels. 

THEN we were both excited for him to be able to wear his regular pajama pants again, that were too skinny to fit over his cast before.

Last Week

Trying really hard to be a better blogger for family now that we've moved.  I actually thought I might do it daily again.  Ha!  Apparently homeschooling, eating healthier, and just trying to make lots of changes in general takes some effort and time.  :)

Early on Monday Paige got a package in the mail.  It was the seal mama and baby we told Paige she could work to earn.  As she was doing the work we realized we couldn't order it online.  :(  Thankfully Aunt Dawn came to our rescue and went to her Ikea and mailed it to us.  

I worked at moving our bedtimes and wake up times earlier each day, because our schedules are still way off.  It is fruitless so far.  I get each sleepy kid up one at a time and bring them out to the living room so they'll be awake as I make breakfast.  But by the time I come back out with another one of them, the ones I've already brought out have fallen back asleep.  So I wake them up again.  Makes me want to give up and sleep until 11:00 every morning.  Ha.

 We were on the moon unit with Paige, which I loved.

Neely spent her time exploring..

...playing with her toys...

 

...arguing with and tattling on Paige...(here she was telling me that Paige "won't share" and "is being whiny.")

 She also brought blankets and stuffed animals to comfort her brother who was freaked out by a spider that nearly walked on to his hand.

Neely also had a sick day, but seemed to recover really quickly.

Today Cason is pretty sick.  He's been burning up and coughing.  Out of nowhere a little while ago he sat up and told us "I'm not sick anymore!"  Hope he's right!

Whipped Cream Hats

Last weekend was the first weekend we felt totally free, nothing to do, clean, or set up in the house.  So Jess decided it was a good day to take a trip to see the capitol building. Neely looked cute for the day.



 

 


 It was a pretty chilly day, and windy.

Except when Neely knocked over a super heavy post inside the building that was there to protect the huge emblem on the marble floor the post fell onto.  No damage was done, but my blood pressure wouldn't come back down for like an hour.  I felt like security guards were going to tackle us at any moment.

Thankfully they didn't, so we headed to find some lunch.  We tried S and B's Burger Joint and it was amazing.



Mine was a french onion burger and rocked my world, and I tried Jess's and it was just as good.  The fries were awesome too.  They tasted like the ones at our beloved Flancer's.  So if you're coming to visit us at any point, expect to end up at this place. 

Then we walked across the street and got cupcakes.

I loved it just for being in an old beautiful house.
T

 The cupcakes were okay too.

Then we finished the trip with one of my favorite things, a drive through an old neighborhood.







It was a foggy day, which made the Devon tower look pretty cool.  Neely gets so excited any time she can see it.  She thinks it has something to do with her baby cousin Devynn.  She usually calls it "Devynn castle", probably because she assumes Devynn is a princess, but once in a while calls it "Devynn towa".  

When we were home that night, the kids begged for "whipped cream hats".

A few days earlier they were begging for a squirt of whip cream.  Jess jokingly told them "if you help me....(I can't remember what it was, probably clean the living room up or something) I'll give you whipped cream HATS."  They got all excited and we realized they thought he was serious and that having a whipped cream hat would be hilarious.  He tried to tell them he was kidding but they begged and begged.  So he said since they'd already had their baths, we could do it another night right before the baths. 

So, Saturday night when they begged, we let the weirdos have their whipped cream hats.



They were overjoyed, and then they had their bath.