Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Thanksgiving, etc.

We don't actually get to the library as much as we used to be we still love it! And we try to go to as many of the programs as we can. In November, we went to a Fall Crafting event.
They decorated cornucopias, made turkey puppets, and made Cheerio corn stalks...not to mention had lots of fun!







In November, the kids were invited to a Minion-themed bowling birthday party for Max's old friend Bryce...Max and Bryce were buddies at babysitter Tammy's house.
Talia came over to play for a bit before the party and the kids had fun with her and loved bowling!








We had another birthday in November - Ellie turned 2! She had a Minnie birthday party!


These cousins had such fun celebrating Ells - it really wore them out!

The day before Thanksgiving, I got a call from Max's school that he wasn't himself and they suggested I come get him. He didn't have a fever but he wouldn't eat or interact with anyone. By the time I got him home, I noticed a rash on his hands and knew right away he had hand-foot-mouth! I called the nurse line at his pediatrician's office to discuss how long he'd be contagious and whether he could go to Thanksgiving gatherings.
They told me that he was really only contagious while he had the fever...but my guy is tricky and never had a fever at all. Since we go to my Granny & Grandpa's house for Thanksgiving - along with lots of other little kids - we decided not to risk it and to keep him at home. Lucy and I worked on our special turkey cookies and made sure to do it while Max was napping so he and his germs wouldn't infect our treats.

By later that day, Lucy mentioned that her throat too...we looked inside and sure enough, she had sores and was clearly infected with the hand-foot-mouth, too.
Max had a couple of sores in his mouth and complained a lot while eating plus he had the hand rash but never a fever and besides mealtimes, he didn't complain much. Lucy's case was even milder - and no fever for her, either - but we knew we'd better keep both of them away from other kids...and to be safe, we also sadly threw away all of the turkey cookies we'd made :(

I ended up going to my grandparents' house on my own to eat (and make Dave a plate!) on Turkey Day while the rest of my fam stayed home and played in the backyard.


Happy Thanksgiving!
Because of the sickness, we didn't get to spend any time with Grandma and Troy for Thanksgiving, either. We typically have a feast with them the Saturday after but just before Thanksgiving this year, Grandma had broken her arm and was having surgery on it on Black Friday! We kept our germs away from her too...the holiday was a bit of a bust this year, that's for sure.
But the hand-foot-mouth was mild, we still had some time of school & work and Grandma's surgery went well!

We did get to hang out with the Stallkamps on the Sunday after - the h-f-m breakout was cleared up so we got to go to the pizza party and luckily the kids got a chance to wear their turkey shirts I'd ordered (hoping the still fit next year, too!).




Maxy managed to do a number on his shirt with red icing but it all came clean in the laundry!





November was failry warm - Lucy had a hiking field trip with Girl Scouts and Lucy & Max got in a park day across the street!





We were also still able to begin decorating for Christmas as usual on the day after Thanksgiving...bring on the Holly Jolly!
Posing as Christmas trees in the space we'd cleared to put the actual tree...

So cozy!

New festive pillows for the couch!


Lucy always gets to put the angel on top of the tree!



In matching pjs with her doll, Isabelle!
Unfortunately, these pjs actually bled onto the doll a bit
and gave her some pink-ish red marks on her neck, feet and arms.
My mom and brother and I tried several remedies to get her clean and no luck so far...
Uncle Jeff said maybe she got hand-foot-mouth, too...or maybe a sunburn...
Lucy's not amused...

Cuties on the couch, snuggled up in Christmas pajamas on Christmas pillows
with Christmas blankets while watching a Christmas move (
Elf)

Tuesday, January 2, 2018

So much Fall FUN! Part 3

The final chapter of of Fall 2017 fun -
Maxy's school shares photos on Shutterfly once a month (and sometimes on FB, too!) and I LOVE it!
He tells me a little about his day after school but I love seeing these visual aids:



 


They got to carve a pumpkin in their classroom, visit a pumpkin patch (and choose a pumpkin to bring home) and one day a firetruck visited their school and they got to climb aboard for a tour!




More October fun - getting GranJan in on the rock-painting fun - she did a Paw Patrol rock for Max and a Vamparina rock for Lucy before the kids feasted on cookies Donna sent over.


Maxy doing some decorating and Lucy trying on a Rainbow Dash headband at the Halloween store:



Another Halloween tradition we've come to love - Trunk-r-Treat at Lucy's school. Lucy stuck with the Wonder Woman costume and again, Max pulled something from his costume bin - the Melissa & Doug doctor dress-up.



The night of the trunk-r-treat was unfortunately also the same night as the Girl Scout Halloween dance. We tried to go to both but only made it to the last few minutes of the dance. Max got the most bang for his buck by shoveling in tons of popcorn!



I didn't get picked to chaperone Lucy's Halloween field trip to the Aronoff to see Pete the Cat but I got to go to Maxy's classroom party! By this point, he'd completely abandoned the idea of being Spider-man for Halloween. He enjoyed playing in the Iron Man costume out of GranJan's collection of dressups that she got on sale at Bargain Hunt and asked if he could borrow it and that's what he wore to school that day. Funny enough, there is another kid in his class named Max and he was dressed as Spider-man!



My guy with
A PJ Mask, Rapunzel, Mickey, a Power Ranger, Marshall from Paw Patrol,
Elsa, Spider-man, & Ariel

Later that night, we went to Aunt Terri & Uncle John's house to trick-r-treat with friends:

I brought the Spider-man costume along just in case but Maxy stuck with the Iron Man costume all night - and continued to be a good sport about getting lassoed by his sis!






The kids wanted me to wear a costume so I dug out my witch costume - and we were all excited to see that GranJan wore her witch costume, too!


 

Happy Halloween!