Silly girl

Its 80 degrees and she's wearing warm pj's and needs 2 blankets!

Wordless Wednesday: Happiness

Beach

Its hot, humid, sunny and a perfect day for the beach...especially since dad is home today!

Can't catch a break

Jon and I are currently taking the Financial Peace University course by Dave Ramsey.  Its several weeks of learning how to get out of debt, how to prepare for your (and your kids) futures and how to spread your wealth wisely.  People always say that when you take steps to get yourself out of debt thats when the car breaks down or some other random thing comes up.  Well, it happened to us too.  After establishing our emergency fund and feeling pretty good about ourselves, we had the trip for two to the ER.  Then yesterday I discovered a broken window in the babies room. It looks like Zach (although I don't know for sure) took a toy hammer and decided to check out the window with it. We have a nice little hole in the center and the whole thing is cracked.  This is exactly what the emergency fund is for and I'm glad we have some money set aside, but it would have been nice to have it for more than 2 weeks!

ER

Jon and I have been joking that this will be an ER summer. I love my kids, but lets face it, Ben can be a klutz.  Sam is our wild child.  Ellie will climb on to and jump off of anything and Zach will do anything he sees  his siblings do.  We figured someone would break a bone or maybe a concussion.  Never did I imagine today. 
I was in the dining room with Ben when I heard an odd noise in the living room.  I found Ellie and Zach dumping out a bottle of Tylenol.  Poison control advised me that if they took a lethal amount, symptoms wouldn't show for about 12hrs.  At that point they would be vomiting and have severe stomach pain.  12hours later put us at midnight. They said I could take them to the ER for a blood draw.  If they don't have anything in their system, we could go home.  However, if they took something, we would have to wait for about 4 hrs to do a second blood draw and go from there.  
I refused an iv for the kids.  That meant one blood draw and if necessary a second stick.  Or 1 needle stick, but dealing with an iv.  The kids hated the hospital bracelets (and I was half way sure they didn't have enough time to ingest a lethal dose), I couldn't imagine leaving an iv in there.  The blood draw was terrible.  That is something I never want to do again.  While waiting for the results we met the social worker.  The woman who comes in pretending to be caring, but is really looking to see if I'm an unfit parent.  Annoying and condescending are 2 really good words for her.  I know she has a job to do, but this woman needs a refresher course in compassion.
After an hour of waiting to see the doctor and 1.5hrs to get the results, they decided the results weren't clear and another blood draw had to be done.  I was kicking myself for not doing the iv and the doctor did a great job of making me feel like worst mother of the year.  Another stick, another hour and a half to get the results.  Luckily, a friend works at the hospital and was able to visit and bring us some water and snacks.  The nurses were also very nice.  Jon was able to make it up there and at 5:30 we got the all clear.  
5 hours and I'm sure hundreds of dollars in copays and bills to find out they didn't eat any of it.  Peace of mind is a wonderful thing until the bill comes.  It sucks that they had to go through that, but I would have felt even worse if we didn't go and they got sick.  I'm glad we went in, but the rest of them better not even think about breaking a bone this summer!

Truck time

Lakewood Park hosts Meet the Trucks every June.  Every year, the boys are just as excited to go climb on them and get dirty!  

Tornado

Last night we were treated to an amazing lightening show. The light at the end of our driveway took away from some of the show, but you get the idea.

This went on for a couple hours until the water spout formed and the tornado warnings started and then the storm rolled though at 2am.  It was a very long night!

Nap time fail

A couple years ago, Prasti made Ben a gift.  It was a jar full of colored rice and little do dads inside like a button, a bell, a tiny dinosaur and so on.  The goal was to see how many things you could find in the jar.  It was sealed really well and has lasted a long time.  Yesterday, it died.  

I went upstairs to check the babies during nap time and this is what I found.  Rice was everywhere.  In both beds, behind the crib, under the rugs and all the way to the closet.  It took an hour to vacuum it all up and I'm still finding more rice.  

This is all that was left in jar until Sam picked it up and dumped it all  over the living room!

The reason I went upstairs to check on the babies was I heard a thud and some crying.  Before I even noticed the rice, I was greeted by Zach....the kid who is supposed to be "locked up" in the crib.  He has been in the crib for a month and he's already learned how to fall out of it!  After almost 7 years, we have finally converted the crib to a day bed for Ellie.  She loves it.  All she could say was, Ellies bed is pretty!"

This opened up the toddler bed for Zach.  Yes, the kid with no hair is Zach.  I've been telling Jon I want to cut his hair, but we kept forgetting or we run out of time.  Jon grabbed him last night and got it done.  He walked downstairs with a new baby who looks like a 3 year old.  

I was kind of surprised he went to bed so easily.  Jon laid him down and he didn't make a sound.  However, I was pretty positive that when I got them up today the room would be destroyed.  

Update: I checked on them last night to find they switched beds.  Zach got Ellies pretty bed!  The room actually wasn't in too bad of shape this morning.  The only real "damage" was the lotion that Ellie poured out all over herself, the bed and her sheet!

Bedtime music

Just a sample of the fun we have before bed time.

Swing set

Jon got Ben a metal swing set many years ago.  It was great for a 1 year old, but now the boys are bigger.  Any time they would get on the see saw, the whole set would shake, bounce and make some funky noises.  I started looking into bigger wooden sets.  The problem is that they are crazy expensive, and the reviews for many of them are terrible.  Pieces are missing, the wood splits when you put in screws etc etc.  Jon agreed to build the kids a new swing set.  Not only is it crazy sturdy, but we saved around $400!  

Jon started putting some pieces together during the week, but his dad came over Saturday and helped him get it done. It only took about 6hrs!

The boys helped "supervise" the building.  It absolutely killed them to have to stay off of it until it was done.  

It turned out great.  The kids LOVE it and have actually asked to go outside repeatedly rather than play video games.  Mission accomplished!

The falls

Jon took the day off yesterday and we decided to get out of town.  We picked a day trip to Niagra Falls.  The drive should have been less than 4 hrs.  Unfortunately, Sam picked yesterday to have the smallest bladder ever so we were stopping at least once an hour.  With a lunch and restroom stops, it took almost 5 hrs to get there.  It was worth it though.  The falls were beautiful, the weather was perfect (60 degrees and cloudy) and despite no naps, the babies were in a decent mood.  

The babies didn't quite know what to think about the water or why mom was so freaked out every time they tried to climb the railings.

The boys just had to walk the bridge.

Once on the other side, the boys just had to rest.

I don't think they've ever posed for this many pictures in one day...ever!

After checking out both sides of the American falls, many more bathroom breaks and a little exploring we headed home. Thats almost 5 hrs to get there, 3 hrs of falls and 4 hrs to get home.  Was it worth it?  Absolutely!

Distraction

7 kids + rain + running + chaos = movie time!

Wordless Wednesday: Discovering lemons

"Gross"

Beach baptisms

Cross Point did baptisms at the beach yesterday.  Corrie was one of the five who decided it was time to get it done. She braved the wind and the cold water and was born again.  We are so proud of everyone and so glad we were able to be a part of the day.