Spring Break is here

Today was the first day of our spring break.  We had a nice day with a bit of cleaning, a trip to the Library, and a friend playdate.  I let the kids eat dinner in the living room while they watched a movie tonight.  One they scored at the library today. After I ate, I drifted off to sleep for a nap.  Which was lovely, but now I cannot sleep.  So I thought it was high time for an update on Meredith's toe.  Her surgery went great.  She came home within an hour of waking up.  She was in a lot of pain for next few days, lying in bed with her foot up in ice.  She missed school on Monday and Tuesday.  We took her to the doctor's office to get her dressing changed and got a good look at her incision.

 Mer couldn't look at it for too long.  She gets totally grossed out by stuff like this.

  I sent her to school Wednesday and she ended up staying the whole day.  Thursday she stopped taking pain medication because her stomach had started to hurt from the 2 Lortabs she had been consistently taking every 5 hours. She has toughed out the worst of it though and now only complains about it itching too much.  Tomorrow we will go to get the stitches taken out.  She has started to walk on it now, only using her crutches for long distances walking away from home.  4 1/2 more weeks and counting, until she gets the boot off too.

We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of company tomorrow.  My Mom and Dad and Sis and Bro are coming to visit for a week. We are all excited but Jack most of all.  He has put himself in charge of all countdowns.  He is always wanting to know how many days 'til grandma comes, how many days 'til Spring Break is over, how many days until Easter.  I think we need to make paper chains for his various anticipated events.

 Speaking of Jack, he really wanted to do a science fair project this year. So the weekend of Mer's surgery we had some fun studying, making, and erupting volcanoes...and mentos mixed with Diet Coke.

 I also repainted our kitchen nook that weekend.   The plan is to continue with this color throughout the living room. I'm not sure how long it will take me to get to it though.  I've been planning on painting the nook to test out the color since October.  You can see the color in this picture, but I'll try to get a better one from farther away.

I am a little obsessed with Gray right now.  We just bought new gray leather couches on Saturday.  They will be delivered Wednesday.

And I leave you now with a picture of Max and his spoils.  Max was eating Angry birds fruit snacks last month and he found a package that only had 1 fruit snack in it.  He wrote them a letter about his dissatisfaction and they sent him 2 new boxes to make up for it.  He was totally thrilled of course.

Good Night!

Spring into the Arts

It's so late and we have a big day tomorrow but I just had to post some great pictures taken this evening.  Tonight was Spring into the Arts night at school.  Everyone was part of the program.

Jack was in the 3 Piggy Opera as one of the 3 Little pigs.

 It was a totally cute, fully sung, narration of the 3 Little Pigs story!

 Jack was the smart pig who built his house of bricks.

 No Big Bad Wolf could blow his house down.

 Max's grade played a song on xylophones.  He was the only boy ribbon twirler. He did great.

 Mer sang in Chorus...

 ...and in the 6th grade Drum ensemble. (she's in front of the blue curtain).  It was dark for their performance and they had black lights on so everything glowed.  It was pretty cool.

There was some art work displayed as well.

by Mer

 by Jack

We have such a great elementary school, I'm just so grateful my kids get to go to it.

 Luke did his best at tagging along for the night as usual.

 He is a total champ. We've been in a doctor's office waiting room for at least an hour every day this week and mostly he has just been along for the ride with minimal complaints. Of course, Jetpack Joyride has helped tremendously.

Look at these handsome boys...

As a result of the various Doctor's visits this week, it has been decided that this lovely girl will need surgery to properly fix her broken toe.  We report to the Hospital at 10 am.  She is super nervous.  Please keep her in your prayers.

And now I must sleep or tomorrow I will be a mess of nerves as well.  Good night.

The Proof is in the Xray

We visited the doctor's office one too many times this week.  Unfortunately, the last trip was for a broken bone. Can you find it on Meredith's big toe??

She broke it playing soccer on Saturday.  She went to shoot a goal and collided with the goalie.  It was her 2nd week of the season.  She is a bit heartbroken since she lives and breathes soccer, but she is taking it like a trooper.  She is in a boot and on crutches until she's seen by a real doctor tomorrow.  She went to school today.  I went to visit her at lunch to give her the next dose of pain medicine and see if she was tolerating it all okay.  She said it didn't hurt at all and that she was doing fine.  I think she was loving all the extra attention she was getting there.  They play soccer everyday at school too, and she is like a little soccer celebrity over there.

As for these two... they caught whatever nasty bug Jack had last week.  Max missed 3 days of school and ended up with a sinus infection.  Luke scored an ear infection and was just thankful to have a playmate home with him in his misery.

This week I'm especially thankful for Health Insurance and Pain Reliever.   Because of these little luxuries, all is well over here.

Suess Celebration/Pinewood derby

Jack's fever finally stopped Thursday evening.  It turned out that he had an ear infection along with a nasty cold.  He missed a full 5 days of school.  We stayed busy at home and he wasn't too disappointed to have missed school, though by Thursday he was saying he really wanted to go.

Friday we celebrated Dr. Suess' Birthday.   Luke and Jack helped me decorate and we did fun crafts,and read LOTS of Dr. Suess books
.

Marshmallow/gummy lifesaver "Hats".  We also made them with strawberries and bananas.

Jack made a Lorax and we filled our walls with Turffela trees

And Hats of course.

We had an early dinner of Green Eggs and Ham

And for dessert the kids each made a Truffela tree cupcake to eat.

Then we drove off to Max's Pinewood Derby.

His car was a "Viper"

 He won 1 out of the 4 races he competed in, but the night was very exiting.

Jack made a little mini car too.

Yesterday was the first day of Soccer games. Meredith is on TWO teams, which means she played 2 games.    Both games were played against very well matched teams.  I think they ended in ties. Mer was thrown to the ground a few times and made some good plays.  She reported that her legs were sore this morning. I bet!  Doug is coaching Max's team. They had an exciting game as well. They tied it up at the end with a goal assisted by Max in the last minute of the game.  Jack sat out his first game, but he'll join the fun next week.

Quick Doug update:  He has decided to conquer his fear of public showers and pursue his body building dream.  He's has been waking up at 5:20 to go to the gym 3 times a week and then going again on Saturdays.  Anyone need a little inspiration?  It's exhausting just watching him :)  But he IS getting pretty ripped!

On to another week (deep breath)