Fall Break, part 4

Monday we headed to Heather's Gramma's house for the day and night. Thankfully it was just 2.5 hours in the car and we didn't have to stop at all.

Meghan loves Great-Gramma's doggies, Molly and Muffin. Meghan also liked playing with Heather's cousin Logan (I think he's going for a Beatle's look).


Before our trip Jase said that he wanted to paint with Gramma, so she had everything all ready for Jase to paint a dinosaur. Boy did he have fun!

Now Jase's dinosaur is hanging in the his bedroom.

Jase, Gramma, and Jase's second-cousin Lucy.

Jase and Meghan riding the "pretty pony"

Heather's Gramma relaxing (and not liking me for taking her picture)...

I'm an Esme...

I just saw this on a friend's blog and since I liked the books, wondered which Cullen character I am like. I guess it really isn't too hard to imagine that I am an Esme (although I really don't like the actress picked to play her role in the movie, but that is another post).


Take the Quiz and Share Your Results!

Which Twilight character are you?

PS - There is also a quiz for the male characters as well - maybe we should do it for our husbands (since I don't think they'll do it...)

Fall Break, part 3

On Sunday we had muffins for breakfast. Meghan just loved hers - see all the smiles:






We played outside and played with the Wii. We really had fun with the bowling, tennis, and boxing. Heather beat Joe 2x boxing. Jase even beat Pete.

Fall Break, part 2

On Saturday we went to a local cider and pumpkin farm/festival. The kids loved all the play things, including lots of bouncy houses and slides, a labrynith, a corn maze, a hayride, pedal tractors, sand area, and farm animals to pet. Meghan also loved the adopt a greyhound dog area.

Here is Meghan in one of the bouncy houses - this was her first time and she loved!

Jase going down one of the slides...

Meghan taking a walk with daddy - the stones look like something fun to play with...

All the kids loved the pedal tractors, but Meghan grew especially attached to them. I can already see that next summer we won't be able to get her off of the tricycle...

Jase loved feeding the goats (he really is fearless when it comes to animals). the goats even ate the ice cream cone!

Jase going down the big slide (he loved this one, but he got really exhausted climbing up to go back down).

Meghan having some fun with Bridgette in the play area...

Pete and Meghan playing in the sand...

Meghan and Mariah in a small bouncy house

Bridgette and Mariah

The whole gang (minus Heather) outside the corn maze. Meghan decided to zonk out while walking to the corn maze. In her defense, we had just eaten our picnic lunch and it was her usual naptime.

Bridgette, Mariah, and Jase on the hayride; Meghan was still asleep...


I was also able to go to an IKEA for the first time and loved it! Jase got a 5ft dragon, Meghan a hippo pillow, a matching dragon rug for Christmas, some kids plastic utensils, and some kitchen things I've been meaning to get for a while. And the best part is that it was only a couple minutes from their house! I think IKEA will be part of each visit now...

Fall Break, part 1

It is taking me forever to actually blog about our wonderful trip to Michigan over Purdue's Fall Break. We headed out early Friday afternoon to Westland, MI to stay with Heather's best friend from high school, Bridgette, and her husband, Pete. We love spending time with them and wish that we didn't live so far away. We got there around 8p, after Meghan fussing for 4 of the 5 hours on the road (the one hour she wasn't, was because we were feeding her food and snacks.) She had 3 poopy diapers (2 blow-outs) in the first 2 hours. We have come to the conclusion that she gets motion sickness, because when we stopped driving and got out of the car, the diarrhea and fussiness stopped). So, Jase and Meghan had a buddy to play with, Mariah, Bridgette's niece.

We started out with the kids eating dinner:

Meghan can really down the hotdogs - maybe she'll win an eating contest someday...

And being silly...

Here it looks like Meghan is telling Mariah something.

The kids loved the gorilla mask.

Pete with story time with the play food; the kids were really drawn in...



This night was when Meghan discovered her love of beads. Her life will never be the same again :)

Boo at the Zoo

We weren't able to attend the Madsen's 4th Annual Donut party as Meghan was sick again (sinus infection). Joe got a couple free tickets to Boo at the Zoo from his one class, so Jase and daddy headed off to the zoo.

There was a man that had a pet opossum. It even gave him kisses - yuck!

Jase held a cockroach in his hand...


Jase loved the ice carving and spent a long time watching.



Here's our little dragon walking around the cemetary

I love this last picture: the red eye of the donkey really adds to the eeriness of Halloween at the Zoo!

Meghan's first hair cut

Meghan had her first hair cut last week. Her hair was looking a little shaggy along the back where the middle was shorter than the sides (by about 1.5 inches). So, now she looks so different, almost like a page-boy cut...

Brother and Sister

When Jase and Meghan get along, it makes life so simple and happy...

Coins and Beads

Jase loves money and specifically coins. He has 4 homemade banks (tithing, savings, and 2 for money to play with and to spend). Here he is wondering where most of his is:

When Jase plays with it and doesn't pick it up, I take it back and then he earns it again - cruel maybe, but Meghan like to eat money, so he has to learn to keep it in a safe place.

Meghan was introduced to bead necklaces (think mardi gras beads). She.LOVES.them. I think we have about 9 necklaces and she usually wears them all. Here she is in all here beauty:

Sick Kids

The past 6 weeks have been a struggle with keeping the kids breathing well. First it started out with Jase's fall allergies making it rough for him to breath normally (wheezing and shallow breathing = allergy induced asthma). He had this last year for 1 week too, and an oral steroid and the daily use of an inhaler made him fine. This year his inhaler didn't seem to be enough, so into the pediatrician's office we went. Since he struggles with using the inhaler, they/we opted for the breathing machine (aka nebulizer). It comes with a dinosaur mask and a mouth tube attachment). Jase freaks out with the mask (I think because he just had his tonsils out and they knocked him out with the gas mask), but he does amazingly well with the mouth tube (aka vacuum tube in our house as it looks like an attachment to a vacuum). After a week of this (and some oral steroids), he was all better.

One week later he got the wonderful cold that is going around. And he started coughing and breathing hard again (especially during the night and naptime). So we started the treatments again. They help him so much and he loves having the treatments at school because all the other kids surround him and watch and then they want their turn...if only medicine was always this fun...

About a week ago Meghan began developing cold symptoms in addition to her molars that are coming in. Between the snot and the drool this kids face is always wet... Friday evening her breathing wasn't the best and she was quite distressed and really wheezing, so I headed to Urgent Care with her. About 30 minutes later we were home with a prescription for breathing treatments and an oral steroid. She seems to be a little bit better, but she hates to have the mask on her face, partly because she can't suck her thumb... But the screaming really helps her get the meds into her system. The first time we did this, Jase was really worried that we were hurting Meghan and kept saying "Stop! You're hurting her." What a loving big brother (sometimes) - my hopes of having him "protect" and watch out for her when they get older might actually happen...

But when Joe gives her the treatment before bedtime, she almost always falls asleep during it...


I just realized that I don't have any pictures of Jase taking his medicine...

Pumpkin painting

Jase was finally able to paint his pumpkin (Meghan's too). We decided on small pumpkins this year (partly because we had one growing in our front flower bed - we didn't plant any seeds...). Then we got another one with our CSA share a couple weeks ago. We are also so busy this month that we couldn't fit in a visit to the pumpkin farm like last year. We did go to a really nice pumpkin farm place during our visit to MI, but we didn't have room for any pumpkins to come back home with us (sad, I know).



It looks like he is growing out of his smock that I made for him 2.5 years ago. I guess I need to make a bigger one for him and hand this one over to Meghan - now just where to find the time...

Swimming

This morning Jase and Meghan started swimming lessons! Jase was super excited all week knowing that Saturday morning he got to go swimming. We arrived early and the kids were anxiously awaiting their pool time...



Meghan got quite upset that she couldn't just go and get in.

Meghan and mommy in the parent child class.

Jase in the Pike class (held at the same time as Meghan's class).

Jase had a difficult time trying to keep his legs at the surface of the water and kick and splash. Whenever he tried, his legs would out to the side...

Meghan got chilly and when we got out, her lips, hands, and feet were purple - time to snuggle and get warmed up!