The Madness Continues

Saying we're ready for Spring is an understatement around here...  We're tired of being stuck indoors.  We've played enough games, watched enough movies, done enough puzzles...you get the picture.  We made St. Patrick's Day cookies for all the teachers at school.  Maverick was pretty quick to discover he likes m&ms...

We did a little Kindergarten registration to break up the monotony.  It wasn't as traumatic as I'd expected.  Mostly just a lot of paperwork.  We'll come back mid-May for her assessment and maybe then it'll be a bit more real...I signed up for the PTO and we looked at a lot of artwork on the walls.  She didn't want to even come in at first but I'd bet she's pretty excited about starting elementary school if you asked her about it now.

Whoooo me?  Yeah, you.

March also kicks off the birthday craze in Phoebe's class.  Magnus threw a birthday party at Monkey Joe's last Saturday.  The kids had a blast but I guarantee you most of the parents are just standing around, mentally calculating the last time things were cleaned and the likelihood that their child would walk out of there without picking up a bug or two.  Who knew that whoopee cushions would be SUCH a hit!?

Breaking for a bit of sugar before returning to the craziness.

Even Maverick stopped for a bit of cake.  He ate only the frosting while his sister ate ONLY her cake.

Unfortunately, we miscalculated our good luck and ended up with this guy getting a fever Monday night.  He was up more than he slept but in a fantastic mood.  I on the other hand, got two hours of sleep and stayed home with both kids hoping it would be short-lived.  He acted fine all morning but got a fever around 1:00 in the afternoon.  Phoebe was bored out of her mind by the time Ryan got home.  Unfortunately, she's not as in to cleaning as her little brother.  Give him a Clorox wipe and he's good to go!

Ryan stayed home with him on Wednesday and ended up getting an appointment with the pediatrician since the fever wasn't disappearing.  He came home with Prednisone, Albuterol treatments and a diagnosis of bronchiolitis.  Luckily, if the rest of us got it, it would most likely just be a cold.  Blech.  At least we had some activity in our backyard to keep Maverick entertained...

Ryan and I split the day on Thursday and were back to "normal" by Friday.  While we were out, school pictures arrived.  This one about did me in!

Our ragamuffin.

Is it obvious they don't touch up the kids' hair?

Last November, Maverick refused to take a picture with Phoebe so we've made a drastic improvement!

Saturday, Phoebe went with me to help a dear friend pick out her wedding gown.  We'll save those pictures for July but Phoebe found plenty to keep her entertained at the bridal store!

And she did SUCH a good job that she got to pick out a donut when we stopped at Fresh Market on our way home.  Saturday was sunny and right on the edge of 50 degrees...we drove home with the sunroof open and spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out with our neighbors, playing outside. 

So you can imagine our disappointment when we woke up Sunday morning to a bunch of white stuff on the ground.  Thankfully, most of it melted by the time we got home later in the afternoon.

Unfortunately, the weatherman was accurate for once this season and we got about 9 inches of snow overnight.  Westfield is pretty flat and we had a lot of drifting so that our driveway had about a foot of snow to shovel through before we could leave in the morning.  The van didn't take to the deep snow so Ryan trucked the entire family downtown in his big truck where I didn't feel quite as vulnerable.  There's not much I hate worse than driving in snow.  It's gorgeous to look at but driving in it near makes me a mad woman.

Thankfully, Easter is coming and that means family, warmer temperatures and a risen Lord - all wonderful reasons to celebrate next weekend. 

March Madness

While waiting for the weather to warm up, we spend lots of time in the basement...This was how we spent Saturday while waiting for our ovens (which have been out-of-commission since Valentine's Day) to get fixed. Apparently third time was the charm!  We are SO happy to have a functioning oven and have used it every day since to make up for lost time! 

Last Thursday was my 35th birthday.  The day before, Maverick came home with pink eye so we aggressively started drops to avoid time away from school.  We got to go to work Thursday no problem - and good thing as my boss had made lunch to celebrate that I am now closer to 50 than 20...lucky for him his cooking skills aren't too shabby!

I did however, cut out early to get Maverick to the pediatrician considering that his last bout with pink eye (a mere 7 weeks ago) was due to an ear infection.  However, we got a clean bill of health and headed home with a prescription for more eye drops.

Friday I got to take day one of a two-day course learning the basics of Excel.  The class consisted of 11 women, most of whom were re-entering the workforce and had no idea how to utilize the program.  Let's just say we're hoping this Friday is a bit more informative...

Friday night was a co-op night at our church so after dropping the kiddos off, Ryan and I headed to Harry & Izzy's to celebrate the birthday.

Let's just say they know how to celebrate!

Now that March is here, our children's birthdays are right around the corner.  Ryan has become increasingly frustrated that all our kids know in the way of toys is Target (not that there's anything wrong with that in my opinion).  So, we headed to a Toys R Us this weekend to get started on wish lists.  Of course, we couldn't leave the store without a ride or two.

This boy LOVES construction equipment.  Everytime we pass something, he yells it out.  "Crane truck!" "Excavator!" "Bulldozer!" "Dump Truck!" His vocabulary is increasing daily and it just about melts my heart at the joy he finds in talking more and more.  He's also becoming more and more stubborn - not sure where he got that from!

We continued the birthday celebrating on Sunday at YiaYia and Papou's.  Auntie Kate was supposed to come while on spring break but after an official diagnosis of ear infection, sinus infection AND strep throat, she was told to stay put in PA and we'd try again later.  That didn't stop Uncle Steve and Bevin from coming down for the day, since he turned 33 on Tuesday.  Phoebe is showing off YiaYia's latest creation - Phoebe loves headbands all of a sudden!

Mack had a great time hanging out with Uncle Steve.

Lunch preparation well under way.



Entertaining the kiddos till lunch's 2:00 start.

The Newell's joined us in the celebration feast!

Phoebe had lots of fun being silly with GGMa.

Then the birthday singing commenced, shortly followed by sugar comas.

Silly Uncle Steve.  He bought me a card that had a picture of an older couple on the front and the lady asked the man, "Did you just fart?" to which he replied, "Nope."  Then, you open the card and he says, "I pooped, too."  I can't tell you how many times Phoebe has asked me to read that card and spell those words.  I told her she can never spell them at school...

I got a new set of pots and pans and can't wait to use them! 

We had some fluke weather on Sunday with a high of 67 so we spent as much time as we could in the muddy backyard with Kali.  Phoebe loves to play hide and seek.

She also loves to put on other people's clothes.  Thanks, Uncle Steve, for sharing your fleece!

In other news, I woke up with pink eye this morning.  One of Maverick's classmates and one of Phoebe's were both sent home with pink eye yesterday so I'm just waiting for Phoebe's turn.  We also register Phoebe for kindergarten tomorrow.  Good thing I'm not wearing mascara the rest of the week, I think it'd be pointless anyhow.  She's been practicing the opening speech she gets to give at her class' graduation ceremony.  They also took school pictures last week and she wore her cap and gown in one of her poses.  I simply can NOT believe this little treasure is about to turn five and start elementary school.  Where did the time go?

What Happened to Spring?

This is what our cute almost-five-year-old looks like when she takes fashion by storm.  Outfit by Mommy, shoes and hairstyle by Phoebe.  You betcha she went into Sunday school looking JUST like this!  Her teacher exclaimed, "Phoebe!  That is so 80's!"

Here's Maverick's feeble attempt at fashion.   We worry about him.  A little.

Nana and Papa came up last Friday to celebrate Bailey's fourth birthday.  They also brought goodies for our kiddos!

Getting good use out of one of Uncle Steve's Christmas gifts, the entire Where's Waldo series.

Snuggles with Papa.

Maverick prefers guys to girls these days so Nana had to fight to get some Mack-love.  Phoebe was perfectly fine with getting the extra attention from Nana instead!

Strawberry snacking before bedtime.

Typical "let's try and pose for the camera" picture.

Saturday we headed to Kokomo to spend some time with the birthday girl before her party.  The kids had a great time playing together.

The party was at 5:30 and the girls had a blast.

Cake before dinner!?  Sure, why not!?

Maverick woke up from his nap Saturday afternoon with a fever and did NOT feel well.  By the time we got home around 7:30 he was done.  We got some ibuprofen in him and by 8:00 he was his old self and no fever since then so we're not quite sure what happened but relieved it was so short-lived.

Phoebe and Nana having serious morning conversations over coffee.

Papa-snuggles before heading back to Georgia.

 Nana-lovin', too.

The only way to cope with their absence?  Cheez-its!

We thought the dumb groundhog said Spring would arrive early.  We have YET to see any evidence of that since this was our view into work on Wednesday morning.

Maverick came home with pink eye yesterday so we immediately started drops.  Today it was his other eye so we took him to the pediatrician in fear that he had another earache.  Fortunately, he got the all-clear.  At least we're not fighting him to take antibiotics for ten days so that's good.  However, wrestling an almost-two-year old to get drops in both eyes for seven days isn't much better.

Here's hoping we're on the mend as Auntie Kate and Uncle Steve are headed to Indiana this weekend and we'd love to celebrate a few birthdays as one big happy, healthy family!