Staycation: Night 1

Friday, July 15 we were supposed to head to the beach for a family vacation. Unfortunately some unforeseen circumstances came up and we weren't able to go. Drew and I debated on other places to visit last minute but thought it would be fun to have a vacation right here at home. After a lot of research we planned a fun filled week.

Since we didn't have a long drive ahead of us Drew went to work on Friday. But as soon as he got home, the fun began! Matthew really wanted to visit a John Deere store. Knowing Matthew, we knew he wouldn't have fun doing anything else until we completed this activity. So it was our first. We headed out to a John Deere store about 30 minutes away. Everyone climbed on the equipment and then we went inside to the store...full of John Deere goodies. The boys picked out a little souvenir and everyone enjoyed our first outing.

From the John Deere store we headed to Max and Erma's for dinner. We had a very nice meal outside, complete with a sundae bar at the end. After dinner we did a little shopping then headed home to rest up for the next day!

Summer Time

Monday (July 11) there was a Kindergarten get together at a bounce place right by our house. I took all 3 kids. Andrew was so excited to see his buddies and didn't stop  moving the entire time. Matthew took about 30 minutes to warm up but once he got going, he had a blast. Molly stayed very close to me except for the last 5 minutes where she explored some of the inflatables. After bouncing the kids had pizza, then it was home for naps! It was so hot that after naps we played inside for a while then had more fun on the slip and slide.

We did quite a few art projects since it was pretty unbearable outside. Wednesday we headed to the park in the morning, then came home in time for the Women's World Cup game. Talk about an exciting game!

Thursday, Andrew had his last Pee Wee Golf. They had a putting tournament. He did great, he got a hole in one and everyone got a special prize. 

Out of the House

Friday (July 8) we decided to have an outing since it had been a while since we had been out of the house. Drew had the great idea of going to our old stomping grounds and have dinner at the Racanelli's in Kirkwood. After dinner we headed to the train station and watched a train. Then we headed to Sonic and got free ice cream with the library summer reading coupons. It was a great family outing.

 

The next morning, we headed over to John and Christina's so Drew could help John assemble Josie's big girl bed. Christina and I entertained the kids while the men worked. It was comical watching Andrew and Matthew drive Josie's princess convertible around. Everyone had a great time and Josie is a big girl!!!

Later that day Andrew and I picked up a slip and slide at Target. It ended up being a fun night of water and laughter. The pictures are worth a thousand words...

Sunday was our last Sunday dinner before my parents left for a long trip to Greece. It was a so much fun. The boys tried out Grandma and Poppa's slip and slide. They had had it since last summer but every Sunday dinner from the time they got it rained, then at the beginning of this summer the cicadas took over and we couldn't use it. They boys were so excited to finally break it in. It worked out perfectly since they had a trial run the night before. They had a blast. It was a hot night but so much fun.

Bad Virus

Tuesday(July5) I decided to take Molly in because she was still running a fever that would spike but come down with medicine. The pediatrician checked her out everything looked good so he said it would be silly for him to not check and she if she had a UTI. They send the boys out of the room and they hung out with some nurses and ate cookies while 2 other nurses came in to put a catheter in poor Molly. It was horrible because when they went to do it (men you don't have to read this part, skip to the next paragraph) she was totally shut. They stopped what they were doing and waited for the doctor to come back in. He had to reopen her and then get the sample. Oh, I felt so bad for her! Turns out she didn't have a UTI so just a virus. Her fever finally broke later that day so I felt like we were on the road to recovery.

Well Wednesday, the weirdest thing happened. She had been waking up between 6 or 7 for as long as I can remember. Well 7:00 passed, 8:00 passed, 9:00 passed and she was still sound asleep. I wasn't too concerned because she had seriously lost a lot of sleep the past several days from being up a lot at night and taking really short naps. I was actually getting stuff accomplished when I realized this wasn't normal. I called my mom and she said it would be best to wake her up and if she was okay she could catch up on more sleep at nap. So I went in there and she was completely out of it and really sweaty. I calmed her down and she seemed to be oriented to what was going on after a few minutes. I gave her breakfast (at 10:30) and the boys played. She was very clingy and just wanted to be held. I fed the boys a normal lunch and then decided to do normal naps even though I was convinced she wouldn't nap. Well I was wrong, she went to sleep at 2 and I woke her up at 6!!! I was really starting to freak out now. I mean yes it's nice everyone once in a while to have a child get some extra sleep but this was weird.

Breakfast at 10:30

Woken up from a 4 hour nap

Thursday the same thing was going on with her sleeping super late in the morning. I decided to call the pediatrician back and see what the nurse suggested. She said it would be best to bring her in. I got her an appointment and my mom came out to stay with Matthew while my friend let Andrew tag along with them to junior golf. It was kind a nice but wield experience once we got to the pediatrician. We were called back right way and when they were trying to weigh her Dr. Bob walked by and said, oh no, you're back and she doesn't look good. He came right in because she was the "sickest kid of the hour". He was happy to see that she had developed a rash because that typically means if it's a virus it is nearing the end. He was concerned that she was lethargic but encouraged by that fact that she was responsive (she shook her head no when he asked if he could look in her mouth). He told me she was good to go and that I needed to call him first thing in the morning and let him know if anything had changed. 

Friday the doctor called before Molly woke up to see how she was doing. I told him she was still asleep and he said to call back when she was up for a few hours and give him an update. She slept late again but didn't seem any worse. I called back to let him know and he said he was comfortable with me just keeping an eye on her. It was a little bit of a scary week but ended up that she just had a bad virus. I felt bad for the boys because we didn't do much outside of the house but they were troopers. 

The ducklings are now teenagers

Matthew has a very sensitive nose

4th of July Weekend

Saturday my cousin and his family from Georgia came over for a "cousins meet and greet". Jill and Christina brought their girls over while the men played in their annual golf tournament. Drew stuck around for a few minutes, long enough for everyone to admire the outfit he picked out for his team. The cousins had a great time playing. Andrew, Kiersten and Anna Kate are very close in age and really enjoyed playing with each other. Matthew and Ryan are also very close in age. They enjoyed observing each other, joining in with the big kids and interacting every now and then. Josie, Kaitlyn, Molly and Jack enjoyed playing independently and observing each other as well. And Natalie was very busy smiling and rolling over.

Big kids on the play set

Younger crowd having lunch

Cute!

Jack keeping busy

Ryan and Matthew

The whole crew!

My aunt brought Chick Fil A over for lunch which is always a huge hit. Everyone enjoyed lunch and dessert of course. After a little more play time it was time for everyone to head home for naps. I'm sure it was a struggle keeping everyone awake on the way home since we don't exactly live close. We were thankful that every one made the trip out here and enjoyed all of our "kid stuff".  It was a very hot day but the kids didn't seem to mind.

After naps we hung out and waited for Drew to come home from golf. At which time I discovered Molly had a fever. I kept an eye on her and she seemed to be handling it okay so when Drew got home I headed out with a friend for some girl time(much needed and lots of fun). I have to be honest, I was a little bit annoyed because Molly got a fever the Saturday of Mother's Day and the Saturday of Memorial Day. And it was not the Saturday of another holiday weekend. I was just hoping it would go away and she would be back to herself by the morning. Not so much. She was still running a fever and I was started to get concerned that she had another double ear infection, only this time she didn't have any other symptoms.

The winning outfit of the Firecracker 500

Sunday we decided to go to Sunday dinner since Molly was in pretty good spirits and her fever would almost go away with Tylenol. It was nice to get out of the house and celebrate with my parents. We could tell as the night went on that she wasn't feeling well so we headed home and had a long night with a very feverish baby. Poor thing, it would just spike in the middle of the night. 

Monday, we played around the house and then went up the street to buy some fireworks. We debated all day about going to a fireworks display but knew with the logistics that go into that it would be better to just stay home and hope to see some from our house. Well we had no idea what we were in for! Last year was our first 4th of July at this house and we were not at home for the fireworks. This year, we found out that we will never be driving anywhere for fireworks in the future. Our neighbors put on an amazing display and when Matthew got scared he just went inside, when Molly got tired, we put her to bed. It was so perfect!

Sick baby asleep on mom

Buying some fireworks

WOW

Not a fan

Much happier watching from the car 

My boys

Sparklers aren't loud

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Keeping those ears covered at all times

Happy 4th of July 2011!!