Fun Times with Friends

The kids have been so patient waiting for playdates to resume while we organized the basement and laundry room. Of course, the kids had their siblings to play with, but while the house was so crazy, we couldn't have friends over. I promised them that when we finished up, we'd set things up with their friends. So we have, and its been so fun!

Greenalicious!

A few months ago we had a "Pinkalicious" birthday party for Caroline, a theme we adopted from her favorite book by the same name. Everything at the party was pink, and since that is her favorite color, Caroline LOVED it. So, a few weeks ago, Caroline and my mom were making plans for my mom's birthday. They decided that since my mom's favorite color is green, that they should have a "Greenalicious" party.

Today was my mom's birthday! We had everyone over to our house, and we did everything GREEN. Green decorations, green clothes, and LOTS of green food. My sister, a family friend and I made guacamole, artichoke dip, a green veggie tray, green grapes, a green onion cheese ball, pickles, olives, corned beef sandwiches on green bread, green jello, shamrock cookies, and a green velvet chocolate cake. Yum. You would not think that a menu consisting entirely of green foods would be good, but surprisingly enough, it was.

It was a fun day...Love you all, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!

Caroline catching a nap before the big party

Enjoying the green smorgasbord

Happy Birthday, Grandma!
"Yum! This was the best cake I ever had, Aunt Karen!!"

And for those of you familiar with the book, Pinkalicious, and therefore worried about our copious intake of green food...Don't be concerned, my mom brought the antidote...lots of PINK COOKIES!

Ah...this takes me back...

...to my square dancing days in elementary school. I can remember feeling such anxiety even leading up to the unit, and especially each day before gym class, fretting over which boy I might be assigned to dance with, and hoping that I would be assigned to dance with one of my girlfriends.

I never heard that from Henry. And here's why...he got to "dance" with his good friend, Andrew. I use the word "dance" loosely because I don't think that was all that was going on here :). The term "full-contact sport" comes to mind.

What a great time, though! A couple of nights ago, at the school's open house, Henry's third grade class was able to showcase their talent in singing, dancing, and playing musical instruments. They even taught their parents a square dance. I won't be showing you a video of that...

The Book Fair-y

After the open house last night, we bought some books at the school book fair. Because Caroline stayed home with Evan and Dave, Henry and Seth chose some books for her (Purplicious and Tinker Belle, perfect choices, boys!). On the way home, Henry came up with the idea that the bag of books could be from the Book Fair-y (get it?!). So as soon as we walked in the door, he addressed Caroline's book bag, and set it on her pillow. He told me that he couldn't wait for her to wake up in the morning. Sweet boy! When Caroline woke up in the morning, she came running into our room and showed us her new books. Henry showed her how they came from the Book Fair-y, and she said excitedly, "I think that she gave them to me because I'm learning to read!"

Were you wondering how much this boy loves popsicles?

Alternate title: How many times can a young boy and his mother say "popsicle" in one clip?
How much does he love popsicles? Just count the number of times he hooves the floor. He loves them THAT much.

Are you ready for some FOOSBALL?!

The deal was, if we cleaned out the basement, we would set up the Foosball table that my parents offered us. So, Dave put it together tonight, with the help of three very excited kids. (Henry was at a friend's house.) Looking forward to many big games!

Seth is doing better, although I'm not absolutely sure that he's going to school tomorrow. We'll see. The doctor told us to watch the other kids carefully, as strep is pretty contagious. At dinner tonight Caroline said that her throat hurt. I immediately thought, "Oh oh, here we go." We're not really sure if she was really sick or trying to get out of a less than stellar dinner. Her list of maladies was a little odd, and included not only her throat, but also her shoulders, wrists and knees :). We shall see tomorrow morning.

Seth is Sick with Strep...

This poor boy. He's had a slight cough for the past couple of days, but until he came home from CCD yesterday, I didn't think that it was anything more than a little cold. However...as soon as he walked in the door and his eyes met mine, I knew he was sick. His eyes just didn't look right. He told me his head was pounding and his throat hurt. I told Dave right there that we'd probably need to take him in to the doctor for a strep test in the morning.

Poor thing...he had a rough night, despite taking regular doses of Tylenol. So, I got all the kids in the car at 7:30 this morning (no small feat) to head to the doctor's office. After looking at Seth, and hearing his symptoms, he almost confirmed that it was Strep before he even did the culture. (Seth told him that he felt like he had a bee in his throat...OUCH!) The test came back positive.

So, we dropped Henry off at school, and headed over to the grocery/drug store to pick up Seth's prescription. We stocked up on chicken noodle soup, popsicles, yogurt, and juice as well as three movies to keep Seth resting happily. He was so funny. He wanted the soup right away when we got home...at 10:00. I set him up. It was fun to pamper him. :)

The kids, even Evan, watched the movies together (although on seperate couches, of course). Having the day where we had to stay home, I actually got a few things done. One of the things that I was going to do was to look up the number for the local food pantry, as I had a lot of food that I had cleared from our pantry that we weren't eating. I had loaded the food in the back of my van, and then sat down to dinner with the kids. Lo and behold, the doorbell rings. It was a few girls from the high school basketball team. Guess what they were collecting? Would you believe food for the local food pantry?! Now that is efficient, young food pantry fairies coming to my door. Isn't it amazing how things work sometimes?

If you build it, she will come...

Our darling daughter made the sweetest tooth fairy pillow at preschool today. She was thrilled to bring it home, and carried it around with her most of the evening. She is convinced that any minute now, one of her teeth will become loose, and had me check her teeth no less than 5 times today. Poor thing...there was nary a wiggle. Unfortunately, despite the fact that Caroline "built" the pillow, she and her fabulous new pillow won't be getting a visit from the tooth fairy for the foreseeable future.

On another note...it looks like all her stuffed animals are quite comfortable on her pillow, leaving no room for her sweet head. Pillow hogs! Some nights I'll check on her when she is sleeping and I am surprised she still fits on her bed with all of the stuffed animals in her bed with her.