whobody had a FUN party?

Well...the day after Keaton's actual birthday, we had his friend birthday party. He invited 6 friends from Kindergarten to come and party with him. The party started when everyone got off the bus (it probably started on the bus...poor bus driver). First we had a snack of fruit....they only ate about TWICE as much as I thought they would: 1 pack of strawberries, a large bag of grapes, 2 apples, and 5 bananas. Cheers! (those girls remind me of their moms ;)
Then the kids went on a treasure hunt....it led them to every room in the house to finally find some prizes (bubbles and plastic bugs). While in Keaton's room they had a task of building a tower as tall as the birthday boy before they could read their next clue.

I noticed that the boys really weren't into this as much as the girls were. They were more interested in wrestling and tackling each other! Below is Keaton with his 'favorite' clue.

Here is a group picture of the kids with their tower!

We then played Duck, Duck, Goose. Luckily, no one even got hurt!

Then we had a heated game of ring toss.

Finally, for Keaton, we opened presents. I can't believe all of the great stuff he got! Nash very much enjoyed this part of the party.

Keaton instantly had to put on his new hat and sunglasses.

THEN...it was pizza time. I couldn't believe it, but everyone ate a TON. They all had at least one and a half pieces...not to mention the fruit an hour earlier, a yogurt, and later a huge piece of cake and 2 scoops of ice cream.

Keaton was kind of happy...

Time for some group photos!

Then we blew out the candles and had some CAKE and ICE CREAM.

Keaton couldn't have been happier !

We really had a good time and all of the kids were very well behaved. Things only got wild a few times, but I think everyone had a lot of fun. (All I could think was that this was only 1/3 of his class....Kindergarten teachers are amazing.) Happy Birthday Keaton!

Whobody had the BEST day of his life?

Nash did. This was Nash's first 'real' parade. Any other parade we have been to, Nash has been strapped in his stroller...but not this one. No, now he is a big boy and gets to stand on the street with Keaton and Lola and wave at EVERYTHING. Needless to say, he loved it.

Doesn't he look so OLD in this last picture? Now that is a cute 1 1/2 year old! By the way, he slept all night...I'm sure he had great dreams of firetrucks, goats and puppies!

Whobody turned SIX today?

Today is Keaton's 6th birthday...and lucky him, this year it fell on St. Patrick's Day too! (Only kidding, I realize that it will be on St. Patty's Day every year.) So...today before school we had french toast (with a candle in it). Then off he went to face kindergarten as a SIX YEAR OLD! He was a pretty happy boy when he got home from school. He got to wear a birthday crown all day and everyone wished him a happy birthday. At snack time he got 3 handfuls of snack and everyone else only got 2. When he got home from school...he had a little time in his room to play and then we went to Elkader to the parade. The kids had a blast and got tons of candy....*see pictures below.

Can you tell that I always tell the kids that people won't throw candy unless you wave at them?

So after the parade, we rushed home to eat supper...Keaton's favorite: spaghetti and corn on the cob! We had to finish the meal with a chocolate cupcake complete with a candle! (The kids all ate with their shirts off on account of the spaghetti...this was mostly for Nash, but the other 2 just took theirs off when I took his off.....)

Then we got ready for bed and FINALLY Keaton got to open his birthday present from us. He had been pointing this lego set out in the little pamphlet that came with his last lego set since Christmas. We played with the zoo legos for about 20 minutes and then it was off to bed! Tomorrow Keaton is having 6 friends over for a birthday party after school! (I'm sure that there will be lots to write about that one.)

I can't believe that he is already 6. He really is a good kid! (How did that happen?)

Whobody loves St. Patrick's Day?

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone...

Well...yes, today is St Patrick's Day. Lola is in fine form in her green shirt(s) and wearing EVERY single green 'pretty' we have in this house. She was pretty proud of her beautiful green outfit....and her beautiful hair. Sadly, today is Thursday, which means that Lola did not have preschool. Not to worry though, they celebrated yesterday...so she has been wearing her 'green' for 2 days! We do have a slight problem around here though. This morning, I left the kitchen window open and I think that a leprechaun got into our house!!! Check out the 'white' rice that Lola and I made for lunch...

So, today we had green rice and salmon for lunch! The color didn't bother Lola or Nash... Then after lunch Lola helped me make Keaton's birthday cake (see picture below)!!! I will write more about the birthday boy later....I didn't get any pictures of him before school.

I'm thinking that Lola might have to change her shirt before the parade.... (and I hope that it doesn't rain.) Happy St Patty's day!

whobody wants eating lessons?

How to Eat Spaghetti (by Nash)

Step 1: pick up spaghetti with hands and place into milk cup.

Step 2: Drink the spaghetti out of the cup.

Step 3: Use your hands to eat the noodles which you were not able to drink.
Step 4: TAKE A BATH!

whobody LOVES to play outside?

It is finally getting a little warmer around here...(some days at least) and the kids have been playing outside a little more. When it was very snowy they spent lots of time climbing and exploring the snow piles....now that more of the snow is turning to 'mudsnow' they are finding puddles and making mudballs (yes, mudballs....therefore we have lots of mudmittens).

Nash even got in on a little of the fun! This was the first time he got to play outside since last fall! He loves the ride in car and truck (thank you garage sales)...although so far he can only get them to go backwards! I have a funny feeling that he is going to want to play outside all of the time!

pneumonia, ear infections, adenoids and tubes, adenoids and tubes...

The title of this post can be sung to the tune of "Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, Knees and Toes". (Just got a little song in your head, didn't I?) Well....I haven't written much about Nash this winter...mostly because he just hasn't been himself! Don't get me wrong, there is nothing seriously wrong with him. It just seems like he gets hit with one thing after another! Please know, that I am not writing this for sympathy...or because I think my kid is so 'sick' because he really isn't and hasn't been. I just want to write this to keep family updated, and to help me remember because as time goes on, things just blur together! So... I thought that I should just give you a short synopsis of what his winter has been like.

The week of Thanksgiving *this is when it all started* Nash began to have trouble with his ears. We wouldn't really know that they were infected, he would just be a little "off". Then, his eardrums would rupture and they would start draining. (poor guy). We tried a 10 day course of Augmentin, and then as soon as he was done, his eardrums ruptured again. So, back to the doctor to try a different antibiotic, Omnicef. On the 2nd day of this antibiotic, Nash became feverish, stopped drinking, extremely fussy, and almost lethargic. (He was already not eating because of his ears.) I called the doctor on that Tuesday, and they said that these could all be symptoms of his ear infection. He continued to get worse, and I continued to call the doctor hearing the same thing. He was having no other symptoms of anything else! By Friday, he was sleepy sleepy sleepy and when I decided to let the Tylenol and Motrin wear off, his temp quickly shot up to 104+. So, of course we took him to see the doctor. I was thinking that there must be some other infection going on? The picture above was taken shortly before I put him in the car to drive to Dubuque. Long story short (or short story long) we took him and they figured out he had pneumonia. We were shocked because he wasn't coughing or anything...and we figured that his breathing was weird because of his fever....and whatever was in his mouth (did I mention that he had a bunch of white sores in his mouth too). They decided to keep him in the hospital overnight. So, mom and Nash stayed in the hospital..and they gave him lots of fluids, breathing treatments, and more antibiotics. By the next morning he was a totally different kid! He seemed to be well on the way to healthy! When we got home from the hospital, one of his eardrums ruptured AGAIN (even after all of that antibiotic) so it was time to make an appt with the ENT (ear nose throat doctor). He was fairly healthy for about a week...right up until Christmas. He started acting up again Christmas day and Christmas Eve...so we started breathing treatments again and that helped a lot! We saw the ENT shortly before Christmas and he said Nash needs tubes in his ears and should have adenoids out. We were leery about putting our 'baby' under general anesthesia...and taking something out of his body that the Lord put there (his adenoids)! Dr. King did say that no anesthesiologist will put him under within one month of having pneumonia so we would have to wait for a month to even set up the surgery.... which gave us time to think, and gave Nash time to have another ear infection!

This round of ear infections helped us to make the decision to put the tubes in his ears, and we decided to do the adenoids too...only because we didn't want to put him under general anesthesia any more than we had to. SO, fast forward to Wed. Feb 9th. Nash had his surgery and it went very well. We got there at 8:15 AM and left at 10:45 AM. :) In the recovery room he was more fussy than most kids when he came out of his anesthesia so the nurses gave him some Demerol through his IV. Once he had a little nap with the Demerol, he was drinking his milk and ready to go home. We were extremely impressed with his so called recovery. He was pretty happy for just having surgery and actually ate a good lunch and supper that day, and slept decent that night! THEN... :) Thursday afternoon and evening he began to get fussy. Now, keep in mind that the doctor, and all of our friends who have had this surgery done on their kids, said that the only fussy day was the first day. After that, the kids were pretty much back to normal. NOT OUR KID!!! :) Nash became even more fussy, stopped eating, and was up almost every hour at night for 3 nights... (of course this was over the weekend, so no ENT available). On Monday we took Nash back to Dubuque to see Dr. King. Turns out that Nash is in that 5% of kids who don't handle the surgery well. His adenoid bed was inflamed and sore and it was making his ears, throat, nose and head hurt. They gave him a shot of a steroid (yes, our son is on steroids) and a prescription for another antibiotic and sent us on our way. The next day when I came into the kitchen and found this:

I knew that he must be feeling better! So, since Monday he has been improving more and more every day. We are thankful that he is feeling better...although the better he feels, the naughtier he becomes. We are glad to have the little boy back who climbs onto the table, dumps buckets of water out of the bath, and picks up anything he can carry and brings it out to the living room. He is even beginning to eat again. Nothing like he normally eats, but that will take time! (don't worry, 'the moose' still weighs 30 lbs.)

Now...I understand that, in general, Nash is a very healthy kid. We are very lucky that all we have to deal with are things like this! Going back and forth to the doctor (with something so minor) I think of the parents who are actually dealing with kids who are really ill. I can't imagine having to deal with trusting the doctors and nurses with life/death illnesses. So, I have had lots of extra prayers going out for the kids and parents who are dealing with SO MUCH more than we have even had to think about! I am also more and more grateful every day that we have been so blessed with our kids being healthy and happy! Hopefully soon, Nash can start taking part in some more fun things to blog about!

the newest Panther fans...

A few weeks ago we took Keaton & Lola to their first UNI game. Jason and I are fans of the Panthers (UNI is where Jason went to college)...and we were lucky enough to go and see them play in the Sweet Sixteen in St. Louis last Spring. We decided that it would be fun to try to get the kids to a game. So, on a Wednesday after a huge snowstorm we took the kids to Cedar Falls to introduce them to the Panthers. Lucky for us, they did not have school that day so we were able to leave a little early and make a night out of it. As you can see in the pictures below, the kids really enjoyed the game!

Lola was very busy watching the dancers, cheerleaders, mascot, and the college students dressed as aliens in the student section. During the TV timeouts they would play music and then show people dancing on the big screen, therefore it became Lola's ambition to get up on that screen. Every time music played she would stand up and dance and turn around and yell at me "mom, tell me if I am on the screen". She took this very seriously. Sadly, she did not get her time in the spotlight...we told her maybe next time! She wasn't too disappointed. At the end of the game, the Panthers won (it was a very exciting finish)...while everyone was cheering Lola looks at me and yells "MOM, THIS IS THE FIRST TIME OUR TEAM HAS EVER WON A GAME!!!" Let me explain, normally we go to the Clayton Ridge Eagles games...and they haven't been very successful in the games that we have attended. I thought that was pretty cute.

Keaton (our little mathematician) was obsessed with the scoreboard and what all of the numbers meant and how far apart the two teams' scores were. It was a very close game, and therefore very exciting! He was very into the game and loved to cheer for the Panthers.

After the game, there were lots of kids who went down and played on the floor....so we took the kids down too. They didn't go out and play, but were very excited to be down where the players were. I think that they felt very important. Before they fell asleep on the way home, there was a discussion about going to college. Both kids are convinced that they never want to go to college or live away from mom and dad. So...I guess they will be living with us forever!