Birthday Bonanza

On Saturday the 10th, we had a joint birthday celebration for the kids (Anderson's 2nd and Ava's 4th). Having a joint party made it easier for our families since they have to travel but proved to be a bit more difficult when it came to deciding a theme. Ava wanted a strawberry shortcake party sooo badly, but that is not really a great theme for a 2 yr old boy. I gave up trying to convince them to just have a neutral theme and let them choose. We ended up with some strawberry shortcake cupcakes and a Thomas the Train cake.




The weather was beautiful so we were able to play outside. The kids got several outdoor toys so they were excited to try out their new gifts.

Aunt Kari helping Anderson try out his new T-ball set.

Please pray!

Friends,

Please join me in prayer for my dear friends, the Huggins'. Read their story here:

http://kyleandchristieplus3.blogspot.com

Ocular Cellulitis

This is what Anderson looked like when he woke up Tuesday. This picture doesn't do it justice. (I took it with my cell phone) One eye swollen shut and continuous green gunk pouring from the corners of his eye. Just plain GROSS! I thought to myself, "oh great, pink eye!" We already had Dr. appointments scheduled for that afternoon for the kid's 2 and 4 year well checks, so we just hand sanitized liked crazy so it the rest of the family wouldn't get it.

After we get settled in our room at the Dr.'s office and were told no shots (vaccines) today (yay!), the Dr. took one look at Anderson's eye and said, "He's getting a S-H-O-T!" Apparently, he had some sort of eye infection that developed into cellulitis around his eyes. He drew a circle around his eye and told me to come back if the redness moved outside of the circle. They gave him a shot of antibiotics and gave us a script for "the big gun" antibiotic, Augmentin. While I am grateful that this antibiotic has kept us from having an overnight stay in the hospital, I must say I really hate it! Anderson fights me every time so he often ends up choking on it. Tonight it even came back up. yuck! And that's not to mention what it does to the dirty diaper situation in this house! Oh well. I think I can deal for ten days to avoid the hospital. The antibiotics are working very well. By the end of the day Tuesday, the swelling was mostly gone and when he woke up this morning, even some of the redness has subsided. He's well on his way to being 100%!

Anderson went around all day on Tuesday looking like this! I think he looks like that little kid from the Little Rascal's! ;)

My Bootiful earrins!

A couple of weeks ago, Ava started asking to "wear earrins like you, momma!" Dan and I explained everything to her and she still wanted to get her ears pierced. So, i then found a you tube video of a little girl having it done so she could see what it was really like. Still not changing her mind. Knowing Ava, i was sure she would never go through with it. On Friday I had to run to the mall to get a few things so I told her would could stop by Claire's. So we get there....there are 2 girls getting ready to have their ears pierced. I thought, "This is the nail in the coffin. She will see/hear them cry and we will be out the door." Nope, they finished and it was her turn. She crawled up into the chair and asked the lady, "Do you have any pink earrins?" She quickly choose the pink flower pair. She sat in the chair while they cleaned her ears and marked them...still no freaking out or tears. Unbelievable! They put the piercing guns to her ears. She sat so still. She wasn't even holding my hand or anything! She cried a few crocodile tears when they actually pierced them, but they passed very quickly when she got to see her 'bootiful earrins!' I was seriously in shock! I couldn't believe she did it. Now she loves to show everyone we see her new earrings.

My children made me do it!

This afternoon I caught Ava sitting on the arm of the lounge chair that is sitting int he playroom. We I got after her for it (she knows this is a no no!), she quickly said, "My children put me up there. They keep making me do it!" Seriously?!?



When Ava woke up this morning, she came out of her room and went to sit on the ottoman in the loft area. She was fussing a little bit, so I got up to get her so she wouldn't wake Anderson up. When I asked her what was wrong, she said her toe hurt. When I asked why it hurt, she said, "It hurts because it has had too much rest!" There didn't appear to be anything wrong with it so I told her to go play quietly in her room for a bit. She then said her legs were too wobbly for her to walk to her room. Since it was early and I didn't want to argue with her, I said she could watch a cartoon in our bedroom. She immediately jumped up and ran to my bedroom. It's amazing how a cartoon can cure wobbly legs! ;)

Cancun

I have decided that every mommy woman needs a good vacation at least once a year. And if you are a mom, it must be without your kids! There is nothing like getting lots of sleep and relaxation that can re-energize you. I love my kids, but boy was it nice to be away from them for a few days!

View from our hotel room

Dan won a consulting excellence award for his work in 2008. His company rewards the employees who win by taking them on a trip. With the down state of the economy in early 2009, the company postponed the trip until this year. So not only was this a vacation to a beachy area, it was mostly free! (We just had to pay for my airline ticket.)
While this wasn't a leisurely, do what you want vacation, we still had a very good time. Being a company sponsored trip, there were organized activities for us. We arrived on Wednesday afternoon and had a few hours to relax and explore the resort. That evening there was a welcome reception that was held poolside. There were buffet tables everywhere! Great, authentic Mexican food! There was mariachi band playing and then there was a local band that played. It was a nice evening (only chilly outside!) to eat and visit with some of Dan's co-workers. We turned in early as we had been up since 4:30 EST to catch our flight and we had a trip to see Chichen-Itza the next day (the bus was leaving at 7:30 a.m.).

We got up early the next morning so we would have plenty of time to have breakfast as I do not do well when I skip the most important meal of the day. And man, I'm glad we didn't skip! They had a HUGE breakfast buffet set up on the terrace. The buffet had everything from fresh fruit to quesadillas and refried beans with all the traditional breakfast items in between. Our bus left promptly at 7:30 and headed toward one of the 7 wonders of the world, Chichen-Itza. When we signed up for this tour, we didn't realize it was nearly a 3 hour bus ride one way to see it! I suffer from terrible motion sickness so I was not pleased when I found this out! I took my Dramamine and slept for the majority of the trip so it turned out to be an OK bus ride. Later that evening, the company had a wonderful dinner for us and brought in Cheap Trick to perform. Crazy busy day, but so much fun.
On Friday morning, Dan had a general session to attend where all winners were recognized. We had the afternoon to relax. It was too chilly to spend it at the pool/beach, so we did a bit of exploring and took a nap. I had forgotten how wonderful it was to take a nap! That evening was the big Gala dinner. We had a fabulous catered meal in the ballroom of the hotel and then Lifehouse performed. It was a night of great food, good friends, good wine, and good music!

Saturday we FINALLY had beach worthy weather! Dan and I had lunch at the beach front grill and then spent several hours relaxing in the sun and reading. I can think of no better way to spend a lazy afternoon! That night, we explored the downtown area with some friends. We found a little local taco shop in a back alley to eat. GREAT, authentic Mexican food. I am pretty sure I consumed more tomatoes in the 5 days we were in Mexico than I have in the past year! Nothing better than fresh salsa!

We woke up to anther beautiful day on Sunday. Unfortunately, we didn't get to enjoy much of it as we had to catch a plane home. Overall, a fab trip. I wouldn't choose to vacation in Cancun as it is geared toward a younger crowd, but I'll go anywhere if it's free! ;)

The funny things kids say

This was Ava's prayer before bed last night..."Dear Jesus, Thank you for the great day. I knew you could do it! Amen."

At nap time today, after she had been in her room for 15 mins, I went to tell her to go back to bed. When I asked why she wasn't sleeping, she replied, "Dolphin (referring to her stuffed animal) is yelling so I can't sleep!" I removed the noisy troublemaker from her room and then told her to get back in bed. A half hour later, I went once again to tell her to get back in bed and this time she said, "They are laughing at me and being mean!" I asked who was doing this she answered, "my animals!" So I removed ALL the stuffed animals from her room so she could sleep. She never did sleep. She must have run out of creative excuses because she just told me she wasn't tired from then on. :)