Alex and I have been fairly regular attendants to the Tuesday morning library story hour since the kids went back to school, and this weeks story hour centered around books about kids going to the doctor. After listening to all the stories, the children made cards for Children's Mercy Hospital.
At Tuesday's story hour, we learned that September is National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and that earlier this year, Saturday, September 13th was set aside as National Childhood Cancer Awareness Day. We also learned about a local mother, who's son is celebrating his first year of being cancer free this September, who was organizing a benefit train ride for the 13th where 100% of the money collected would go to Children's Mercy Hospital Hematology/Oncology Department, where he received much of his treatment.
Children's Mercy is a special place to us, we have a sweet little friend McKensie who is fighting very, very hard to beat the cancer that is raging in her very tiny little body. And I really wanted to make it to this event in support of her and her family. Thanks to four days of rain, all soccer games were canceled, as was the fireworks show GR was scheduled to help set up and shoot that evening, so the entire family was free to go and support this event.
The train ride was scheduled to leave the station at 6pm, so we opted for an early dinner at a pizza place near the station, the kids enjoyed being able to sit at the window, and we loved the pizza, but we will never go back to for dine-in again. GR and I have never eatten at a dirtier restraunt in our lives. I was actually thankful Alex spilled his full cup of water all over the counter and floor, it gave me an opportunity to scrub it without causing a scene.
The kids had a great time riding the train. And the weather cleared up that afternoon so things weren't quite as soggy as expected.
McKensie's older brothers came with their Grandma and were able to get seats in our train car. The four boys are great friends, and spent most of the first half of the ride like this, laughing and giggling watching the world go past them through the windows.
The train ride lasted about an hour with a brief stop at the midway point where a short program was held. As part of the program, the names of area children who had won the fight against their cancer, were currently fighting, and who had fought and are now angles, were read and then 150 gold balloons were released into the twilight sky. It was beautiful and touching experience. I had such a lump in my throat hearing McKensie's name and watching my children each release a balloon for her and all the other children (and may I add adults) battling this scary and devastating 'thing' that has invaded too many of our lives, and continually hits too close to home.
This fall the kids are playing their third season of soccer, and this time around everyone has moved up to bigger fields. Sam is no longer doing Hobbits and is playing official games, Emily's team now plays with a keeper, and Rebecca is now playing 5 on 5. Today everyone played their first games of the season, and they did so well! I am really proud of how much progress they have each made over the last year.
The weather was odd for this early in September ... chilly, overcast and rainy, ... not so bad for playing soccer, but terrible for taking pictures. It was too dark to take pictures during Sam's game, we got a few during Rebecca's, but it rained for nearly all of Emily's game, so no pictures. Hopefully, we can keep the cool temperatures for future games, but loose the rain.
Rebecca as a defender.
Where you'll find me on Saturday's from 8:30-2:30:
Last year we learned about a huge field of sunflowers about 15 minutes from our house and tried to get family pictures taken out there, but completely missed the flowers by at least a week or more! This year, we started watching the field a week or so ago, and yesterday when I drove out to check on their progress, they were breath taking!
This morning we met another family at the field and took family pictures. The sun was very bright making it difficult not to squint, but I thing we got some good shots, and the kids really enjoyed talking to all the different people who had come out to see the sunflowers - some locals, some professional photographers, some tourists. If you have never seen acers and acers of sunflowers before, this is definitely a scene to put on your "must see before we leave KS" list. As GR put it, it will make your wife gitty with excitement.
We finished up around noon and went to an ice cream and burger place for lunch. The kids all ate ice cream for lunch, while GR and I ate a burger (and whatever ice cream the kids couldn't finish - cause you know that's our job as parents right?).
This morning Alex wanted to have his picture taken and was happy to pose with Anna ... she started smiling this week and I hope to capture a smile on both of them ... it didn't happen, but I do think Alex looks especially charming in this shot.
GR and his sister grew up going to lots and lots of airshows with his Dad ... GR loves them, Elspeth, despises them. So when we found out many of our friends were taking their kids to the KC Airshow today, GR jumped at opportunity to go! We decided Anna, Alex and I would stay behind and he would give the older kids the choice of staying, or going. He tried his best not to candy coat the outing, trying to give those most likely to whine the most accurate description of what the day would be like - long, hot, cool airplanes, long, hot, etc. His description did not discourage any of the older three from going, and quite honestly they were all really excited about it.
There have been many times over the last 12 years I've wished GR or I could call his dad and gain needed perspective on a situation and today was no different. In order to get good seats and to see all the different planes scheduled, they left the house at 8am. By 11:30 when I called to check in on them, Emily was asleep on the concrete, Rebecca was complaining about how hungry she was and Sam had asked 3-4 times to go home. When I asked GR if he had loved his first air show, of course his answer was "Yes!" ... when I mentioned this to Diane later in the afternoon, she laughed! Turns out the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. As a child, GR got just as hot and tired and bored and hungry as our kids did, but in the end, just like him, all three of them came home happy and all said they wanted to go again!
Monday was a busy but exciting day ... I had a dentist appointment downtown - which Alex was a dream for! He sat on my lap eating a grape sucker (no worries, it was a sugar free sucker from the office receptionist) watching the Olympics and the fish in the aquarium, while Gwen cleaned my teeth.
Then Alex, Anna and I popped into one of the downtown quilt shops - we had about 30 minutes to kill before meeting GR for lunch - he had a rare in town meeting for work, so we planned to met for a really good Mexican lunch. I wanted to see if they had any of Heather Bailey's new fabric line Pop Garden, or Sandi Henderson's Ginger Blossom fabrics in stock - and they did! I was so excited!
I haven't made Anna any of my signature blankets yet - she isn't going without or anything. Grandma made her an awesome pink quilt, and Aunt Mary Ann made her a fantastic yellow nuzzie, and of course I've been using the blankets all the other kids have used, but I don't have any girlie blankets. So, when I saw that the quilt shop had Sandi's fabrics in flannel, I bought enough to make two blankets for her, and two for the shop. The top fabric is Heather Bailey (cotton - and I have no idea what I'm going to make it into), the second two are from Sandi Henderson's Ginger Blossom line in flannel. I'm thinking of ordering this print to make a third blanket for Anna.
After a nice lunch with GR, the little kids and I went to check on my butternut and blue quilt. For the last year it's been in the care of the Quilting Group at the Methodist church, being hand quilted. They've been working on it one afternoon a week for 2 hours and are finishing the last column of blocks, then they have the top and bottom borders to do and it's done! They are doing a wonderful job and I'm quite pleased with how it's turning out.
This summer the public library summer reading program theme was "Catch the Reading Bug." And as we've done every summer, all the kids participated and got their name on the wall numerous times. Even this little mama participated in the adult program and got all four of her books "read" by the deadline (thanks to being allowed to count audio books!!).
As an incentive to the kids to read lots of extra books this summer, the library director, promised to eat bugs if the kids could read enough books to make a line of paper ants — representing 10 extra books each — go around the kids’ room, around the library lobby and back. Last week, while helping Sam get settled into his Kindergarten room, we got the news that the kids did it, they'd read enough books and the director was going to eat bugs at a bug banquet hosted by the library.
The banquet was yesterday afternoon and we all headed to the library to witness this feast. I think there were as many adults (library workers) as there were kids in attendance. The bug of choice, BBQ Millworms.
As you can see there were plenty, and the children were told they could try one if they wanted. Emily and Sam both tried one of their own choosing. Rebecca even took one - which floored me, my child who doesn't try ANYTHING new!, and promptly handed it right over to Alex who without even blinking put it right in his mouth. I think by the end of the program he'd eaten four or five of them, before I was able to get to him and say enough is enough.
School in Kansas starts way to early in my book ... way to early. We were home for all of two days when the kids started back to school. The girls on Wednesday, Sam on Thursday. Before leaving for MN, I got to take each of the three older ones school shopping, one on one, for their supplies. Mom really wanted me to be able to have some one on one time with each child and this outing seemed like a logically thing to do. And I was glad to see that they were each excited about going out with just mom, by themselves to choose their supplies.
Can I just make a small side comment here about the cost of supplies. We spent about $20 on each kids supplies. And this doesn't include Sam's backpack and lunch box which alone cost $25 - Becca and Emily are still using the backpacks we purchased for them when they started Kindergarten and so far, no complaints. And it's not like their supply list was outrageous or had unneccessary items on it, but wow it all adds up fast! Add to that the school fees for each of them - $126/child - and we're forking out some serious cash.
With three of them now in school all day, we're making a valiant effort to make lunches everyday (one of GR's many tasks in the AM with the kids). They are none to happy about not being able to buy their lunches, and so far the explanations of health and cost ($2 x 3kids x 5 days = $$ Mom would rather spend on other things) while tolerated, haven't been fully embraced. So we're working on coming up with a few compromise that will make everyone happy.
Rebecca - 3rd Grade
Emily 2nd Grade - she has a different teacher than Rebecca did last year and while I'm a little disappointed - we really loved Mrs. L - I'm excited to see how Mrs. V works out for Emily. The same thing happened with 1st grade (Emily got a different teacher than Rebecca) and it worked out really well for her.
Sam - Kindergarten with Mrs. C.
Alex and Anna on their first day having the house all to themselves ... what are we going to do with ourselves?
We spent August 1-10 in Minnesota. GR's parents rented a cabin (aka house big enough to sleep all 7 grandchildren and their parents) on a lake in Brainerd, MN. We had a fantastic time. We flanked our trip with some fun adventures in Minneapolis, one of the highlights being a wonderful visit with friends we haven't seen in two years! I haven't gotten all our pictures gathered together from the different cameras and memory cards, so my posts about this vacation adventure over the next few days, etc., are going to be done more by adventure rather than timeline.
One feature of the "cabin*" the kids loved was the fire pit down by the dock. Each night we'd build a fire, and watch the sunset while roasting marshmallows enjoying an endless supply of s'mores.
* The locals say, "we're going to the cabin this weekend," ... dont' be fooled by this modesty, I never once saw my idea of a "cabin," something the size of my neighbors shed.
Today was Anna's first day at church. Don't you just love her little socks (made by Trumpette)? My brothers super sweet girlfriend Katy sent them for Anna and I love them! Last week a little package from my Aunt arrived, a little bundle of mary jane socks made by the same company in a rainbow of pastel colors. Anna has been wearing a different pair every day!
Today is also Alex's birthday ... so more pictures to come our turning 2 celebration.
Sam's birthday party this afternoon/evening was a success. Three of the five boys he wanted to invite were able to come and they had a blast playing in the water. GR asked one of the young men from church to come and help him out in the pool. This worked out perfectly! Our 15 year old helper had a really good time playing with the boys and swimming, GR's stress level was slightly reduced and thankfully/amazingly, everyone stayed safe!
I think we did a better job this time around at actually keeping things really simple. Sam wanted to have a water birthday party and a piñata. We threw in some bake-at-home pizza's, fruit salad and baby carrots capped with huge black olives - viola, a simple dinner 5 year olds will eat. Add cupcakes, 5 sparkler candles and bag of ice cream cups and you have yourself one successful party!
*NOTE: I've been wanting to make a "Birthday" banner for a while now (top picture). I had hopes of getting this one made for Sam's actual birthday, but quickly realized that wasn't going to happen. I used this template, and once again I made this one a little more complicated than necessary and consequently it took forever - so gone are my thoughts of possibly selling them - no one would be willing to pay what I would need to charge to make it worth while! Despite being a much more involved and time consuming project than I had first anticipated, I LOVE how it turned out and it should last us for lots of future birthdays!
(I opted to keep the back side plain - all the bright colors, but no letters - so I could use it for occasions other than celebrations.)
So a few of you asked for more details about the freezer paper stencils I used on the onesies.
There are a couple of crafty mama blogs that have good tutorials:
Celtic Mommy, Angry Chicken and Soule Mama has lots of good inspiration for this project.
I used clipart from Microsoft Office, filled an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper with different designs in varying sizes so I could see what would work best on the onesie, traced it on freezer paper (about $2.50 for a huge roll at the grocery store), cut out the design using a craft knife, and ironed it into position on my onesie. Iron a second piece of freezer paper to inside of the shirt where you are going to paint to keep the paint from bleeding through.
I used regular craft paint - although I saturated the area with paint. I did look at the craft store for a medium you could mix into regular craft paint to make it more permanent for fabrics, but I couldn't find it anywhere and didn't want to buy all new paints when I know they hold up just fine to repeated washes.
So there you have it ... the cutting out of the stencils is what takes ages ... on one blog where they needed to make multiple shirts with the same design, they stacked up the freezer paper and cut multiple stencils at once. Another site said they were reusable. I haven't had a chance to try this out yet, but want to. I think these little onesies would make cute baby gifts paired with a few color coordinated burp cloths.
Good luck ladies - I'd love to see your finished Ts ... wouldn't this make a fun summer craft project with the kids?
Sam's birthday started out with Grandma Mum's tradition of chocolate iced donuts, with sprinkles and balloons being delivered in time for breakfast. This tradition is something the children always, always look forward too!
Knowing we'd have a 5 day old baby at home on his birthday, we've had lots and lots of conversations about what he wanted to do to celebrate. Typically the fifth birthday is celebrated at home with just our family, but last year his birthday fell on a Sunday, and we didn't do a friends birthday party, and so we decided to allow a small "low key" friends birthday party this year, which we'll do next weekend.
So tonight we celebrated as a family. Sam requested pancakes for dinner. GR asked if he wanted to go to IHOP for pancakes, and he said no, he wanted Grandma Mutti to make them because she makes the best pancakes. So we pulled out all the stops and made a full course breakfast for his birthday dinner again this year.
Sam also requested a red ice cream cake. So we made our first red velvet cake (not so hard now that Duncan Hines has a red velvet cake mix I could easily doctor up), cut the 10" cake in half to make 2 layers, added a thick layer of vanilla ice cream, and then covered the whole thing in a simple icing of powdered sugar, cream cheese and cool whip. It turned out perfectly!
ETA: He's really excited about all his gifts and has gone non-stop since Tuesday night making the rounds with each and every gift he's opened. Mom made the comment that everyone nailed their gifts so perfectly this year that we'll be hard pressed to live up to it again next year. That's the great thing we're learning about boys at this age ... you simply can't go wrong with anything that winds up, shoots, flies, or has a remote control - and that pretty much sums up everything he got this year.
We have just about a week and half before we repeat this all over again with Alex ... and given how he's taken to following Sam around wanting to do exactly what Sam's doing with each of his gifts, he'd be extremely happy if we really did repeat Sam's birthday.
I realized while in the hospital that I forgot to put a little "on vacation" slowdown message on my Etsy shop ... after a second of "what if I get a sale" panic, I calmed myself down with a reminder that the likelihood of that was very, very, very slim.
Today I decided to check things out on Etsy, looked over my shop, added my vacation announcement for August, and discovered this. A very sweet spotlight of my shop on the EtsyKids Blog. I immediately emailed Stacey at Daisy Designs, the gal who wrote it, thanking her and apologizing for just noticing the write up. Explaining that Anna had come just a few days before. She replied with this message "It was a really easy choice on who to spotlight. :) I have always admired how you welcome shops to the EtsyKids forum."
I'm not a huge presence on EtsyKids, I guess you could say I'm pretty low profile, and on many occasions I've felt like no one knows who I am ... I promote and promote and promote others, and I would periodically look through the forums and welcome new shops (especially those without any comments yet), but because the group is so huge, I have asked myself many times if it was worth the time and effort. Anyway, it was sweet to know that this isn't entirely true. And the exposure is defiantly nice to have!! She also asked for our address so she could send Anna a little gift. What an incredibly sweet and generous offer. She has a three year old girl, I'm thinking I'll need to return the favor with a cute girlie pillowcase.
We aren't short of any holders in this family. GR said Sunday during primary Rebecca announced to the entire room that she and Emily "hadn't been allowed to hold Anna yet, but that Sam had (see yesterday's picture)." Apparently more than one person took her at her word and gave him quite a friendly ribbing for it after church ... what is it that we're all told when our children enter Kindergarten ... the teachers all promise not to believe everything our children say, if we promise to do the same... :)
Here is pictorial proof that Anna and her older siblings are taking lots and lots of opportunities to passed our sweet bundle back and forth along the couch from one set of arms to another. Anna loves it. She was a bit of a flincher and was very easily startled in the hospital, but here at home, she is perfectly content with all the familiar sounds of our active, mildly chaotic, rarely quiet home ...
Taken just before the kiddos headed off to church with Grandma and Grandpa.
GR and I are packed and headed to the hospital as soon as GR steps out of the shower. I just checked my parents blog and Daddy posted some excellent pictures of the children enjoying some of the sites in Nauvoo, and I thought I'd share them for those interested.
I'm terrible at announcements, you should know that by now ... I've thought about it many times ... contemplated exactly how to announce the upcoming birth of our fifth child ... nothing seemed right. Instead, I posted pictures like this, although that wasn't very helpful.
So here are the details.
We're having a baby - Thursday! My due date is July 20th, but as with the last two, I'm being induced 10 days early. My OB originally wasn't going to let me go that early due to new hospital insurance concerns about the babies lungs not being fully developed, etc. but he's going out of town the 11-20th, I'm measuring 2 weeks ahead of schedule, and the boys were good sized healthy babies following this exact same "birth plan."
At my doctors appointment earlier today, he said, the baby's in position and I've dilated to a 2+, which is all good news. If the baby weren't thinking about delivery at all, they wanted me to come in Wednesday night and I really, really didn't want to do that!
This pregnancy has been the most physically demanding of all, except maybe the beginning of Rebecca's pregnancy, being pregnant at 32 is so different than being pregnant in your 20s. And it's a little daunting to think about having F.I.V.E. children, five in this slightly cramped house. As I told a friend last week in an email, it would be one thing if I were a Jenn B., or a Kathy G., or a Shelley; but Wonder Mom, I am not. But we're exciting and I think with one more day of preparation, and a few more prayers for peace and reassurance, we/I'll be ready to bring this new little spirit into our family.
I seem to have a knack for having a baby in conjunction with some big family trip. In the past that hasn't stopped me from attending ... I took Sam, 10 days old, to a family reunion at Bear Lake, Alex was about the same age when we went to DC to visit with GR's sister. But this time, it wasn't in the cards.
At the end of this month, on July 27th, my grandparents would have celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary. Grandmother quietly passed away Memorial Day weekend. And thanks to an extremely supportive husband and mother-in-law, I was able to fly out and attend the funeral with my siblings and many of my cousins.
For the last year or more my father and his siblings have planned a 70th wedding anniversary celebration/family reunion in Nauvoo July 5-11. I had hoped to join them for at least the first few days, but my legs simply won't allow it. If I sit for more than an hour in the car (or on a plane), they swell to the size of elephants and it takes me days to get them back to normal. Add that to the fact that there is NOTHING remotely close to civilization between here and there, and I reluctantly stayed behind.
Saturday, GR drove the kids, along with my parents and Grandfather (who came in town to watch GR's fireworks display - more on that later, I hope) to Nauvoo. The kids are staying with my parents enjoying all the festivities and time with cousins, and will come home about the time we come home from the hospital. It's worked out nicely. GR came back late Sunday night, and I've been able to catch up on some rest, do a bit of fun sewing and crafting, and of course lots of cleaning and hopefully a little big of organizing too. The children are settling in. The weekend was a bit rough on them, there were lots of tears when they left without me, and then more tears when Papa left. Sunday and Monday I got numerous phone calls from them, just wanting to talk and hear my voice. Today the phone has been surprisingly quiet. Hopefully that's a good thing!
So be sure to check the blog Friday morning for baby news!
We have really been enjoying our libraries special programs for "Catch the Reading Bug" summer reading program. We've made it to most of the programs so far this summer. One the kids really enjoyed was a free outdoor concert by Jim Crosgrove, aka Mr. Stinky Feet. This was our first introduction to Mr. Stinky Feet, and I think everyone really enjoyed the music and performance - it's fun and interactive without being too childish. I think we'll be downloading his CD for $6 and adding it to the car playlist.
The concert was sponsored by LearningQuest. Apparently, 20 lucky libraries in the state of Kansas were selected by LearningQuest to bring Mr. Stinky Feet, to perform a free concert. If they haven't been to your area yet, mark your calendar and go. If he has already been to your area, he will be at the new Plaza Library location in Kansas City on Saturday, August 23rd with other Kansas City area kids bands doing a free concert. My kids have already requested to go, so maybe we'll see some of you there!
