Picnic

We had our first picnic of the season Tuesday night. We came home from Anthony's ear check up (His left ear has a yeast infection. The doctor wants me to find Lotrimin liquid drops to put in it. However, finding these drops has not been easy. Walgreen's does not carry them. So I am going to Wal-mart tonight.) and Eric was in bed, so I packed up some sandwiches, fruit and drinks and we walked over to the park. We put our blanket down near the sand and ate. Then the boys played for an hour. Anthony can't get enough of the swing, but I finally persuaded him to play on the slides for awhile. He has now gotten proficient at climbing up the big slide at the park and climbing up the jungle gym in our backyard. He is very proud of himself.

The best part of our outing was when I told Chase we were going on a picnic. He said, "Mommy, you just made my heart happy." What a sweet expression of his happiness. I am so blest to have my boys.

We Are Almost 100%

Friday morning Anthony woke up with Pink Eye. So I took him to the Peds Walk-in clinic at 7:30am, and we are back on antibiotics. Saturday afternoon and into the night I had a terrible headache that would not go away. From there I got a temp and then the heaves. I proceeded to throw up 4 times during the night. 3am is the last time I looked at the clock, until Anthony woke up at 5:30am. Thankfully Eric got up with him and I was able to sleep for awhile.

I started feeling better on Sunday and now I am fine. Monday night Eric came home from work with the stomach flu. He went to bed at 7pm. He stayed in bed all day Tuesday and part of Wednesday. He finally felt hungry last night, and so far no repercussions. I have sprayed the house down with Lysol and using hand sanitizer like water. Hopefully the boys will be able to avoid this round.

Some Spring Break Fun

Last Thursday Chase had a dental appointment. I figured since we would be in West Des Moines, we should go over to Jumpin' Jacks and have some fun playing. I invited Delana's two grandson's who were there Ryan and Ryne to come with us too. Chase really likes playing with both of them, and they are great with kids. Both boys are 11. They were excited too, because both their mom's work at the dental office we were going too.

Chase went back for his cleaning and I stayed up front with Anthony. Then Cori came out to get me and said the dentist needed to see me. I went in and Chase has two cavities in the top of his back two teeth. I was so bummed out. We've been trying really hard with his brushing. He is using a pre-rinse that helps him see the plaque too. I told him no more suckers, until I can find sugar-free ones.

We then headed over to Jumpin' Jacks. I was worried it would be really crowded since it was spring break, but we were the only ones there at first. They added two new inflatibles since we had been there last June. The older boys and Chase ran off to play right away. Anthony wasn't sure what to think. He did not want to go in the toddler bounce house. He was more interested in the broken basketball game up front. He kept trying to shoot basket after basket. He actually made a couple. He finally wanted to try jumping once he saw some other little kids jumping. Once he was in, he loved it. There is also a slide, but he couldn't figure out how to climb up to get to it. So Ryan went in and helped him up a couple of times. He just loved it. We finally convinced him to go into a different one that Ryan and Chase could go in too. There was a tunnel for him to climb through and then a big slide for him to go down. We ordered pizza and our soda's were free with our paid admission of $6.

We ended up staying for 2 hours. By that time the boys were worn out from all the climbing and jumping. All their faces were really red. We went outside to cool off and then headed for home. Ryan and Ryne were super helpful with both boys and we all had a really fun time.

The F Word

We were driving in the car, and Chase says to me, "Mom, Lennon always uses the "F" word at Delana's." I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I asked Chase to give me an example. Chase says, "Lennon will come up to me say he farted." I just started laughing. I was so relieved Chase was referring to the word fart! Chase knows we don't let him say that word, so I got a real kick out of his story.

Nana Comes to Visit

My mom decided she wanted to drive in the daylight, so she left at 6am on Saturday, Feb. 24th for our house. She woke up to 5 inches of snow in Milwaukee. So driving was slow through Wisconsin. She flew through Illinois and then crossed the Mississippi into Iowa. She had to slow down to 25 mph. The interstate was full of ice. There were semi-trucks and cars in the ditch all over the place. She safely arrived 9 1/2 hours later. Chase was so excited to see her. He had been patiently waiting all day. Originally I told him she would be here for lunch.

Since we got a lot of snow, we ended up spending a lot of time playing board games. Chase is really good at Memory and kicked both of our butts. Since we were home and I had time, I did some cooking. I really do enjoy to cook, I just feel like I never have enough time to do it. I would rather be playing with the boys.

I made a no-boil lasagna. I made half of it with meat and cheese for Eric and Chase and made the other half veggie. I put zucchini, mushrooms, broccoli and cauliflower in it. I was very pleased with the way it turned out. Sunday I made Balsamic Raspberry Chicken breasts sauteed with mushrooms and onions. The chicken had a wonderful flavor.

Since the roads were so bad, church was cancelled. So we told Chase we would have Sunday school in his bedroom. He thought that was a fun idea. He has a devotions book for boys age 2-5 that my grandma gave him last Easter. So I found two devotions to do from there. One of them was appreciating that God made us each unique and wonderful. So after reading the scripture and devotion we did the activity. We traced Chase's body, cut it out and colored it. He really had fun. We then wanted to do the same for Anthony, but it was very traumatic for him. He started crying. I told my mom that he must associate laying on the paper with being at the doctor's office. That is the only thing I could think of.

By Sunday night we were ready to get out of the house. We wanted to take my mom to Red Robin. They have awesome burgers. We get there and it doesn't seem too busy. We go in and find out they only have one waitress. The rest of the staff didn't make it in, because of the roads. Well, we didn't want to wait forever, so we went over to Fuddrucker's. Mom and I both ordered buffalo burgers. I knew it was a drier meat, but I was really disappointed in it. The last time I had a buffalo burger was in Wyoming, and it was delicious. Maybe it was because we were eating them outside, and in front of the Grand Teton mountains!

My mom stayed until Monday afternoon, so she could spend some one on one time with the boys. They always act differently when we aren't around, which means better. We all had a nice visit and enjoyed our time together.