Pushcars, Pirates and Pizza - the Perfect Playdate!

We had an awesome playdate over at our friends AJ and Sydney's house on Wednesday. There were 9 kids, ages 1 - 3 1/2, and 4 moms. I'm pretty sure that every toy was taken from the toybox and not a piece of sand went untouched in the sandbox. I also felt pretty bad about the state of Dana's kitchen when we left. I did what I could, but it was barely a dent.

The kids raced around the driveway on their little cars and trikes. There were enough that all the "big kids" had something to ride on. This was great, since we don't have a good driveway to play on, the girls are used to riding on the lawn or on the bumpy sidewalks.

A Pirate Says "Argh!"

Addie discovered that her friend AJ has some awesome dress up pieces in his toy box. She was having a ball, running around yelling "argh!" The kids and I were exhausted when we left. My legs felt as though I had been on my feet all day long instead of just chasing kids around. It was a good tired though. I love getting together with this group of friends. They're all so supportive and our kids get along great.

Swim Lessons

It's our second week of swim lessons and so far they have been a BIG-HUGE-Wonderful Hit! Addie loves swimming with her friend Eric. She does a great job floating and seems to have absolutely no fears whatsoever. It's hillarious to watch her sitting on the side of the pool waiting for her turn. She chats with Eric, she chats with her teacher, she chats with the lifeguard that is closest to her, she splashes her feet. I'm just waiting for the day that the ants in her pants get to her and she just bloops right into the water. Good thing they have pfds on!


Last week at open swim after her lessons, Addie started jumping into the water in the deep end by holding onto my hands. By the end of the 45 min open swim, she was jumping in and letting me catch her! She didn't even mind if her head went under water. She was having a blast!!

Here's how it rolls:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

Consider yourself tagged! If you play along, let me know - I love looking at these mosaics!

1.Jess 2.Chocolate 3.Boyceville 4.Blue 5.Patrick Demsey 6.coffee 7.maui 8.strawberry pie 9.nurse 10.family 11.giggle 12.knittingupnorth

Whee!

"Cowboys like us sure do have fun
Racin' the wind, Chasin' the sun
Take the long way around back to square one
Today we're just outlaws out on the run
There'll be no regrets, no worries and such
For cowboys such as us."
George Strait, Cowboys Such as Us.

Grandpa got both girls into the saddle for a ride on their horse. Lily was a little worried about being up so high, but once Grandpa tied the "seatbelt" on her, she felt just fine.

Ye haw! Geddi-up Horse!

Lily also had a high flying adventure with Auntie 'Rene. She loved getting airplane rides. She was having a really hard time getting her legs to stick out straight behind her though. I don't know if her stomach muscles just aren't back to normal yet after her surgery or if it was apprehension. However, Lily just kept coming back for more!!

One more time Auntie!

I Wanna Be a Cowgirl Baby!

Addie had a ton of fun at Grandma and Grandpa Dude's this weekend. One of the highlights was riding on Grandpa's new saddle. Grandpa just got back from saddle school at the end of May - he brought this saddle back with him (making a saddle was his graduation requirement). Despite having taken riding lessons in 6th grade, I don't know a lot about horses or saddles. Dad however, can tell you all the specifics about his custom made saddles. This saddle was made specifically for his mule and is an Old West design. I think he said it was common in the 1870's.

Ye haw!

Addie loved riding on the saddle. She thought this was a ton of fun. Lily wasn't too sure about the saddle at first. We finally got her up there with Addie. However, no one took those pictures on my camera and Auntie hasn't shared her pictures yet.

Here's the saddle before being oiled. If you're interested in a custom made saddle, Dad is the guy to talk to. He's now taking orders. You can catch him at waywest(at)centurytel(doht)com - I think you guys are smart enough to figure out what to replace to make that a workable email address. Tell him I sent you!!

Duck, Duck, Goose!

We taught the kids to play Duck, Duck, Goose this week. It was pret' near hillarious as my Grandpa would say. Addie got the rules right away and always wanted to be picked. It made me think of playing this game at a birthday party on our front lawn. I remember almost dancing bouncing up and down on my butt because I wanted to be picked so badly. The anticipation of Duck Duck Goose was enough to give a 5 year old a stroke! Lily on the other hand, didn't really understand the rules at all. Every time Addie got up to run, Lily would too. We laughed, we cheated (Adam has longer arms and it's not fair!), and we generally just had a really good time.

We had a big discussion over whether it was Goose or Gray Duck. Western Wisconsin prevailed over the Twin Cities! What's your preference & when's the last time you played?

Against All Odds...

Against all odds, the lilacs are blooming. Despite the fact that we've gotten very little sun in the last week.

Against all odds, I got the girls dressed and out the door this morning. It was touch and go there for awhile. I'm not positive that they won't hate me for this photo when they're 16, but hey, they picked it out themselves. Lily's legwarmers are hysterical. I knit them for Addie when she was about 2. It's obvious that Lily has chicken legs compared to Addie - the legwarmers just fall right down around her ankles. The girls desperately wanted to wear dresses, but when it's 40 degrees in June you want a little something covering your legs to keep off the chill.

Dear Anonymous, (& Weekly Food Plan)

Dear Anonymous,

I hope that you are not complaining about having a free night to yourself last week where you were able to eat anything you wanted without your wife worrying about your youngest child not being able to eat the pizza rolls that everyone else is chowing down on. If memory serves, this is the night that you were also able to watch whatever you wanted on television and not have to do a single thing (like pick up toys or even do your own dishes). This is the night that you were able to eat your favorite food (pizza rolls) and drink beer and basically just be alone. Because, if you were to be so foolish as to complain about a free night without wife or children at home, you may find yourself cooking dinner for your lovely family every night. SO BACK OFF BUDDY!

Sincerely,

Your Loving Wife

Now, on to our food plan for this week.

Monday- Steak sandwiches and leftover potatoes, guac salad & veggies
Tuesday- Pork & Potato Stroganoff
Wednesday- Minestroni Pasta
Thursday- Fish
Friday- Chicken Salad
Saturday- Mom and Dad's house for Father's Day
Sunday - Father's Day Grilling

Dandelion Farming

Adam dug up the garden last weekend in preparation for me (finally) getting some plants in the garden. It's been so cold that I haven't really wanted to put anything in the ground yet. However, it was beautiful last weekend and Adam felt like doing some manual labor. :)

The girls were playing outside and decided to take a break and watch Daddy work. We've had a few issues finding a sun hat to fit Addie's unusually large noggin. I think we finally found one that might work - Adam's swamp hat! She loves wearing "daddy's hat." Lily on the other hand, is still in the hat she wore last summer. I think it's a 12 month size.

Weekly Meal Plan - June 1-7

Addie's home! Addie spent a week at Grandma and Grandpa Dude's house while Lily was in the hospital and recovering. Grandma, Grandpa and Auntie 'Rene kept her very busy. She must have had a wonderful time because Addie told Grandma that she wasn't coming home and that she was going to live at Grandma and Grandpa's house forever.

So, we're back in the saddle again in regards to menu planning. I'm trying out a new website, but I'm not sure I'm crazy about it yet. More details later.

Sunday- Momma and Daddy are going out, kids get pasta at home with the babysitter
Monday- Hamburgers on the grill
Tuesday- Sesame Chicken
Wednesday- Fish
Thursday- Shrimp and 5 Bean Salad from Super Suppers Cookbook
Friday- Pork Chops on the grill
Saturday- Leftovers

As Promised...

This is Lily the first day in the hospital. They had already put in her IV (that's why her hand is wrapped) and had given her some pain medicine. I think by this point we knew she had swallowed a pin, but I thought it was a bobby pin.

Lily loved playing in the "Toy Room." It was just across the hall from us and much brighter and more cheerful than our room. The highlight was this little wooden fort. Lily loved just climbing up and down the stairs. We ate several meals (or tried to entice Lily to eat several meals) here because it was more fun than our room. This is after her appendectomy - her IV was put into her foot since she had pulled it out of her hand the night before.

Our favorite LPN Sue was taking Lily's vitals. We really liked Sue, she was with us for several days and one night. The peds floor did everything they could to keep our nurses the same from day to day. This really helped Lily feel at home.

We're home! The bright spot of the hospital stay was all the balloons people sent Lily. At one point, holding a balloon was the only way Lily smiled. She even napped while holding her balloon on Friday. The poor kid walked the halls visiting the nurses and showing off her balloons. The balloons were better medicine for her than anything else!

Thanks to everyone who visited us and sent us messages!

I Need Some Visual Aids For This One...

So... I promised more explanation about Lily. Since we woke up ungodly early this morning and are currently sitting in the family room of the hospital (Lily doesn't want to watch cartoons in our room) I'll 'splain.

Last Tuesday afternoon Lily started saying that her "Tummy owie." I watched her but didn't think much of it. By Wednesday, Lily didn't want to walk on her own or do anything but whimper and be held. I took her into the office for a few hours with me while I tried to get an appointment with our pediatrician. Lily sat on my lap, not saying anything the whole time we were at my office. Our dr. got us in during her lunch break (go Dr. Shar!) Dr. Shar immediately thought we should be admitted to the hospital. Now this is normally a laid back, let's wait and see sort of doctor, so when she says, "Let's admit Lily," it scares the heck out of me. I thought we were just going to get an antibiotic and go home.

Once in the hospital, the doctor and resident started the poking and prodding. They decided that this was much more serious (possible appendicitis or kidney infection) and scheduled a round of tests. We rode down to the radiology in a wheelchair, which was a huge deal for Lily. :) The ultrasound tech started saying things like, "what kind of medical device does she have in her tummy?" We discovered that she had a pin of some sort in her intestine. An X-ray confirmed it and determined it's exact location. The doctors felt that she would pass it on her own and wanted to take a wait and see approach. So... we started laxatives and an IV (she wasn't eating or drinking at all).

Thursday, another x-ray. Pin in same spot. More laxatives.
Friday, pin in the same spot. The docs decided that maybe solid food was in order (she had been on a very unappetising liquid diet). Maybe we would be able to continue the wait and see at home.
Unfortunately, after a short nap, Lily threw up her breakfast and was running a fever. The nurses called in our surgeon and he had us get another x-ray.
Pin in same spot.

The surgeon came in and asked a lot of questions about Lily's vomit and her pain. Most of the same questions he had been asking all along. Lily answered everything exactly the same way she had every day. When you ask her how she's doing, she says, "Pretty owie." The surgeon scheduled surgery immediately, thinking that the pin had perferated her bowel.

Taking her into surgery was one of the hardest things I've ever done. It was horrible and I almost cry just thinking about it. However, after about an hour, the OR called us in the waiting room and told us that the doc had removed the pin and things were looking good. After another hour, the doc came to see us.

He drew a picture something like this. The surgeon explained that the pin travelled through her stomach, into her small intestine, through the entire small intestine (we think without perforating anything!!), and through the valve into the large intestine. For some reason, instead of following the path of least resistance (and all common sense) the pin did not get passed through the comparatively large intestine. Instead it went through the tiniest possible opening into the appendix. The surgeon found the pin poking through the appendix.

This kid is truely a miracle. Instead of having to cut into the intestine and possibly having to do a bowel resection or something equally scary, the surgeon removed what's possibly the most useless organ in the body. You don't need your appendix and Lily will never miss hers!

If Lily does well and starts eating and drinking we should be able to go home. :)

Lily Update

Lily had her appendix out last night. It's a very long saga (starting Tuesday night/Wednesday morning), but the short story is that she swollowed a pin and it went into her appendix. She is doing well this morning but is in a lot of pain. I'll post more including cute hospital pictures when we are home.

Type A Anyone?

This morning Addie had her red haired fairy out. For some reason, she never remembers this fairy's name, only that she's a friend of Tinkerbell. Addie walked up to Adam and Ray and asked, "Daddy, what this fairy's name?"
Adam looked at it and said, "I don't know."
Addie: "No Daddy, what her name?"
Adam: "Big Red."
Without skipping a beat, Addie turned to me, "Momma, what this fairy's name?"
Me: "Prilla."
Addie: "Daddy, her name is Prilla."

Just so we're all clear on that.

There's a Huge Hole in My House

See that hole in the roof? It's directly above the ladder. It's a huge gaping hole that leads right into Addie's bedroom. From Addie's bedroom there is a hole in the floor that goes right into the kitchen and probably by the time I get home it will go all the way into the basement. It's a big hole. A really big hole the size of a small closet.

What scares me is that the guys who are doing it (very competent people I am sure) say they may accidentally take out part of the living room wall when they are taking the chimney out of the kitchen. That's a lot of repair work that has to be done. Please please cross your fingers that it doesn't rain before the roof gets patched today. Please pray that one of my children doesn't decide to "slide" down the hole.

Here's the vacuum hose that is sucking up all the dust and small debris.

And the vacuum truck. See those big vacuum bags on top? Pretty cool. Those bags are huge!

This is all very stressful. Not to mention the lack of water at my house. That may have to be explained another day. Oh yeah, and the fact that my dishwasher isn't draining so I can't use that (even if we did have water).

Mom, You're Driving Us Crazy!

One of the girls favorite things to do lately is climb out of the car through the front seat. They take great joy in climbing over the console and climbing into "Mommy and Daddy's seats." Lily is so funny about whose seat is whose. She is convinced that Mommy should be the driver. I'm not sure if it's because I'm always the one to take them to daycare and back every day or if she just likes Mommy's driving better. Since Daddy sometimes is goofy while driving, I'll choose the latter!

Oh yeah, that one's going to be a terror once she starts driving! All she needs is her cell phone in one hand and her Diet Coke in another!! I always thought that Driver's Ed really should teach the skills necessary - driving with your knees while eating, driving while someone in the backseat is styling your hair, driving from the passenger seat... you know, all the things that get teenagers into accidents.

Lucky Number 200

It's my 200th Post today!!

We are taking out the chimney next week, so to prepare for that, Adam needed to take out one of the walls and drawer units in the kitchen to expose the chimney. This is what my kitchen looks like....

There's still plaster over the chimney because Adam is afraid that if he starts chipping away at the plaster the whole thing will come crashing down.

It's never a good sign when you come home to this! We ended up ordering Mexican food last night and going to pick it up. I suspect we're going to do a lot of grilling over the next week or so!!

The happy destruction team!

Even Lily helped out with the ripping of cabinet away from the wall. She held the Phillips screwdriver. :)

I Scream, You Scream, We all Scream for Dairy-Free Ice Cream!

Can it really be May 6 and only 46 degrees F? Despite this, I'm really looking forward to a warm summer. Hopefully not a humid summer, just nice and warm. We took the girls for a walk the other day - they walked beside us all the way to Culver's (7 blocks). Addie and I split a dish of Cookies & Cream and Lily had the slow melt Popsicle I had stashed in one of the strollers. As we walked and chatted, I thought about Lily and if I was going to have to stash Popsicles for her for the rest of her life. It made me mad to think that there isn't a lot of options for people who want non-dairy ice cream. Sure, there's Soy Delicious and Tofutti, but there isn't anything in our area for people who just want to go out for a quick ice cream cone. Or enjoy something when their entire family goes out. Culvers has Lemon Ice in the summer, but they haven't rolled that out yet. Plus, I get a little nervous giving Lily anything from the land of Butterburgers.

I think it would be amazingly cool to open up a dairy-free ice cream place. Heck, make it dairy-free, nut-free and gluten free too. However we live in the sticks and I think that dream will have to wait. So... anyone know of any good ice cream recipes I could try out? Anyone know of a good ice cream maker to try?

Weekly Meal Plan - May 4-10

Look Mom, I'm a Princess Cowboy!

Sunday- Grilled burgers and hotdogs, coleslaw, chips and salsa, and strawberry shortcake... mmm...
Monday- Hot Turkey sandwiches with mashed potatoes- I'm emptying my freezer this week to make room for an 1/8 of beef coming soon.
Tuesday- Lasagna - some we've had stored in the freezer
Wednesday- Fish Tacos - I'm just going to brown the fish (sprinkled with a little cumin and chili pepper) in a saute pan, serve with shredded cabbage, tomatoes, salsa and cheese for those of us who can eat it.
Thursday- Turkey Noodle Soup - it's a big turkey!
Friday- Baked Teriyaki Chicken (or possibly grilled) - Our grocery store has a sale on chicken legs and thighs this week. Since there is nothing that my girls like more than "chicken on the bone," they should be happy campers!
Saturday- leftovers

I just have to say that I love my local grocery store. I've requested several "Lily-safe" products over the last year and every time they get what I request. Last week I spoke with a manager (who just happened to ask me if he could help me find something!!) and asked if they would please stock some dairy free cheese. He pointed me in the direction of their soy cheese and I explained that they all had dairy in them to make them more "cheese-like." He was pretty surprised to hear that! I expect to see Vegan Gourmet soon!

Hula Into Spring!

We finally had a nice warm day yesterday. We went to the park, tried to ride Addie's bike and worked in the yard. Then after a nice long nap for the kiddos, we had some friends over for a cookout. Our first chance to eat outside this year! The kids loved it. Plus, I got the chance to see how boys wrestle and fight... boy am I glad I had girls! I was sure someone was going to crack their head open on the granite blocks surrounding my garden. Their mom just said, "It wouldn't be the first time." Yep, glad I have girls. :)