This N That

So, we've been sick and tired for a month now.  I just realized that we've missed four Sundays at church.  People probably think we moved away.  They'll be surprised when we get healthy enough to show up again. 

During the past month I've spent 95.89% of the time in my pajamas holding Matthew.  

This is what it looks like to give the kids a smoothie.

Strawberries, bananas, milk, ice and some sugar.  Yum.

Matthew helped Brian do a little work on the computer.

Peter lounged around a lot.

Some of us are still sick.  Brian still has a cough.  And three of the little boys are trading off fevers.  Who will it be next?  Today it was Andrew again.

We celebrated Faith's birthday with a cheesecake - her choice - and some pizza and a movie.  It was pretty low-key but I think she had fun.  She got everything that she asked for - and NO BARBIE'S!

Some other things we've been up to . . .

Matthew had his first second ice cream cone.  He like it. 

But he's not sure about yellow crayons.

Andrew and Matthew Peter found some stuffed animals in storage that they had been missing.

Otherwise we've been laying low and trying to recover. 

Oh and a shout out to poison ivy ~ I get it now.  My bad! 

In other news . . . James is preparing for camp this week.  He's going as part of the Worship Team for Salvation Station Kids Camp again this year.  He's pretty excited - but we're gonna miss him. 

Happy Birthday Faith!

Today is Faith's 9th birthday. 

Here are a couple of pictures from when she was just a couple of weeks old.  

Pretty funny! 

Happy Birthday Faith!

Haircut Update!!

As I mentioned yesterday, Brian took Peter in for his first haircut EVER! 

Brian brought him back and handed me a handful of his hair for his memory box. 

I may have cried a little bit when I saw Peter for the first time.  It may be because now he looks so much more grown up - and also because I'm exhausted from weeks of sick people and poison ivy is taking over my brain.  Oh, and also because that's what moms do.  We cry when our babies get their first haircut. 

But anyway, here are a few pictures of Peter's new haircut.  I think he looks awesome!!

Here is a picture of the back. 

A little side-by-side comparison.  :)

He looks really good.  Can't wait to take him to church - no one will recognize him!

HAIRCUT

Brian took Peter in for his first haircut tonight. 

He's three now and has NEVER had a haircut. 

Here are the before pictures. 

Stay tuned for the reveal!

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day, Brian!!

You're awesome and we love you so much! 

Happy Father's Day to Grampa Berg and Grandpa Smith as well!  Hope you enjoy your day!

The Last Man Standing

Andrew was the last man standing - until today.  All of the boys and Brian had been pretty sick - except for Andrew.  This afternoon he presented himself to me with a fever and an earache.  So he joins the ranks of the sickies.  Us girls are still hanging on.  We have had a bit of a sore throat (and there's the poison ivy incident . . .)

Anyway -

This is pretty much how we feel around here.

He did give a little smile eventually.

Trying to keep the morale up around here so I made some treats over the last couple of days.

Rice Krispie treats made with Coco Krispies. 

And banana bread!  Yes, my oven needs to be cleaned.  No, I'm not going to do it anytime soon.

The kids also took the camera and did some picture/video taking.

I found this one

And several close-ups of toys that I will spare you from.

There was also this one.  I guess you can tell that they like to hang out in James' room and play with his things and take pictures of themselves while they're doing it. 

In other news . . .

I was going to put up pictures of my poison ivy rash, but that's gross, so I won't. 

Here is the vine that is overtaking the tree in the neighbor's yard that spawned the part that was climbing up our house that I took down when we were putting up the gutters.  I think that's how it happened anyway. 

Anyway, poison ivy is not fun and I'm glad that I haven't had to deal with it before now.

Slushies and Sickies

So, after our camping adventure we had some burgers on the grill and watermelon on Saturday along with more rain.  After all of that rain, I think our leaking roof is not leaking anymore.  Yay! 

Alyssa and Matthew over the weekend.

We're still dealing with several sick people.  Peter, James, Matthew and Brian are all sick.  

I made some homemade lemon berry slushies for everyone.

Ready to blend.

A plethora of cold medicine for all the sickies.

Matthew is not feeling well.

Peter is sick too, but still smiles for me! 

PS - Forgot to mention that Brian and I have poison ivy in a few spots too.  We removed some vines from the back of the house to put up the gutters and they must have been poison ivy.  So that's a first for us. 

Rain Out

We had a very eventful morning - for reasons I won't mention here - but that involved leaving something important (not a kid) at the store and a mad rush to get it back, and the lack of a packing list and some other forgotten things.  Several of the kids have been sick with coughs and there was also the impending chance of rain looming over our heads. 

Nevertheless, we hurriedly packed the van and headed out with the sun shining in Baton Rouge. 

Driving along - Andrew, Matthew and Peter all fell asleep.  James saw me taking a picture and played possum.

Getting closer. 

The entrance gate to Tickfaw State Park.

In the park.  It's really pretty.  Lots of trees.

We woke Peter up so that he would see the trees.  He was the most excited to go.  See the Peanut Butter Snickers in his cup holder?  More on that later.

Some swamp. 

A break from the pictures here because when we got to our campsites - two because of how many people we have.  There is a limit of six on each campsite.  Anyway, we decided to switch sites because there were a couple of better ones.  So we switched at the front office and then we were set. 

We explored the campsite a little bit and put up our screen tent over the table.  We decided to have the kids change into their swimsuits and go to the spray park to have the birthday party as long as it still hadn't started raining. 

Brian and the kids decided to walk the 1 mile trail through the woods and Matthew and I drove the van with the food, cake and presents. 

When I pulled up to the spray ground the kids that were already there were waving their hands at me and I heard some talk about how the water had just stopped working.  Two park rangers arrived soon after to try and fix it. 

Matthew and I hung out in the van eating cool ranch Doritos.  More on that later. 

This is when the rain started.  I began to wonder how long it would take Brian and the kids to walk a mile through the woods - now in the rain.  Then it began to pour.  Then the deluge started. 

Remember, Grampa, when you came with us when we moved and you said you'd never seen it rain so hard so fast?  It was like that.  Hard rain and lots of it. 

I closed the van door and sat on the water cooler while we waited.  Still no sign of Brian and the kids. 

Finally they arrived and headed under the large pavilion picnic shelter.  We thought of reserving this online when we made our camping reservations but it was already taken.  However, no one was there at this point. 

So, Matthew and I ran to meet them.  They were soaked!  Peter was drenched but came up to me and said "Mom, you missed all the camping fun!"  Then I heard Brian ask all the kids "Who got the most Super Camper points?"  And I was like "What??"  So, they told me all of the animals they had seen on the walk through the woods and how they got a point for each one.  Pretty funny. 

So we decided to have our picnic under the shelter - knowing that if someone showed up for a party we would have to leave. 

We had turkey and cheese on buns, chips and grapes.  Kool-Aid and water to drink with promises of birthday cake to follow. 

Wet kids.  See Peter's sandwich?  It rubbed up against the cake and got blue frosting on it.  He said "My bun has cake sauce on it!"

We ate as it thundered and rained around us.

I have a short video of the rain, but Blogger won't let me upload it.  Bummer.

Matthew

A Transformers cake.

The birthday boys.

Again, I have a video but I can't upload it.  You would have seen that I forgot the birthday candles.  So, we used matches that I had to purchase on the way because I also forgot matches.

The cake was great - strawberry filling even!

Then it was time for the presents.

Spider man wrapping paper!

Hmm.  I wonder what it is . . .

A new ball! 

Woo Hoo!  Jonathan is NOT going to let a little rain get him down.  He was out splashing in the puddles a lot and volunteering to take things to the garbage out in the rain.  His shoes are in the wash right now.

More presents!  All of that rain in the background. 

And this is when I got my own Super Camper points.  I turned back to the table where we had eaten and saw a raccoon at the edge of the woods.  He ventured out toward the shelter to eat a bun that I had thrown. 

But he didn't go away - even though we were all there he kept trying to get closer to eat more of our crumbs.  He was soaking wet too and shaking water off himself like a dog does.  I yelled at him a couple of times but he would always come back so I began to pack up our stuff quickly while they finished opening presents/cards.  Brian hollered at him once and he pretty much stayed away after that although he did circle around us on the other side before he disappeared for good. 

Peter was a little cold.

Andrew

All of our gear packed up and ready to go.

About this time is when we noticed that the right side of Matthew's face was red and swollen.  He was rubbing it pretty bad and so I took a towel and tried to wash his face.  I remembered that he had gotten a red face from ranch dressing before - this also happened to some of the other kids when they were babies with ranch dressing (although they can eat ranch now without problems).  So, we think perhaps it was from the ranch doritos.  By the time we were back in the screen tent Matthew's face was fine.

During a couple of minutes where the rain was not quite so bad, we loaded up the van to go back to our campsite.  We thought maybe it would stop raining and we could have a fire and roast some marshmallows.  At this point we didn't plan to set the tents up because it was just too much rain.

The firewood that woodn't get used (hahaha).

We sat in our screen tent and had some snacks while Andrew and James built some of their new toys.

Peter also brought along a couple of new toys that he had purchased with a birthday gift card.

The rain was just not letting up.  So, we had the kids get into the van.  We planned to visit the nature center that's in the park.  The first thing that Peter says when he gets in is

"WHERE'S MY CANDY BAR???" 

I had taken it away from Matthew and set it in the front of the van about 3 minutes before this. 

We drove to the nature center to find it had closed about an hour earlier.  Bummer. 

 

So, we packed up our soaked screen tent and headed toward home.

Where the kids had glow bracelets, played video games and "camped" out in the living room. 

We've got to get our screen tent dried out today - hopefully it won't rain. 

Also we hope to eat the watermelon that we brought with us and maybe grill some burgers and, of course, we have cake to eat! 

We've still got the firewood so maybe we will try camping again sometime!