Sick

Annika has her first ear infection, poor girl. April has not been a good month for us health-wise. We've been to the doctor's office 3 times and Children's ER once. Here's to better health in May and for the summer.

Sharing

A rare occurrence around here, it seems as of late. :P

Annika got this bead set in her loot bag from the birthday party she went to on Saturday (and I didn't have to stay with her, despite the fact that the only kid she knew there was the birthday girl!) and I think this was the first time she let Emmett touch it.

Yum

We had our small group over this evening for a pancake supper. It was delicious and the company was great!

Yellow

Goodbye yellow trench coat. I love you, but you're too big for me now. I hope you find a good home at the clothing exchange tonight.

Time for a change

Lately I haven't felt much like blogging, which you've probably noticed from the lack of posts.  I actually had to force myself to sit down and blog about our birthdays, because I knew I would want to look back at those posts later.  The last few weeks have been kind of tough for me, with a lot going on, terrible weather (so thankful that it's finally starting to warm up!), fighting children, sicknesses (nothing serious, but enough to make everyone a little crabby) and just general "blah" feelings.  The last thing that I've felt like doing is writing.  And I still don't feel much like writing.  So I've decided to make a bit of a change to my blog.  So I'm going to try (key word - try) doing a photo-a-day blog for a while, and see if that suits me better for the time being.  Now with my iPhone it should be much easier to take pictures and quickly upload them and just write a few words.  I thought about starting a new blog for it, but honestly, I'm too lazy for that, so I'm just going to keep using this blog.  I may still write other blog posts from time to time, but I'm going to focus mainly on pictures (and I'll try to make sure they're not just the same pictures that I put on Facebook and Instagram).
Here's the picture for today.

 

Annika has her nightgown on because it's "pajama day" at preschool today.

And a few MORE birthday pictures

This is the last one - promise!!  Yesterday evening we finished off our birthday celebrations with dinner with Carey's family.

How cute is this kid?

BLOW!!!

Emmett sneaks a taste.

I requested a Dairy Queen ice cream cake.  Annika requested a lady bug cake.  Win-win.  (She looks a little disheveled because we had just come from swimming lessons).

More Lego!!  And a neat scrapbook kit that Annika absolutely loves.

Handmade by Grandpa for her dollhouse - bunk beds and a car.

Just my size. ;)

Emmett even got a little present (his own Lego!), so he wouldn't feel too left out.

And now we're done with birthdays for a while.  This year was not as crazy, since we spread the celebrations out more, but it's been a very hard week with the kids.  Emmett is crazy jealous of all the presents/attention Annika received and Annika does not want Emmett touching any of her new stuff.  Fun.  Emmett has also been asking if it's his birthday soon (makes sense - it was Annika's, then it was mine, so it should be his next, right?).  Sorry kid, not for another 8 months. :P  I'll be glad when all the fuss dies down and we can get back to normal life.

A few more birthday pictures...

A few more pictures from our birthday celebrations this past weekend.  Some of these you may have seen some of these on Facebook or Instagram already, but I just wanted to put them on here too.

Birthday supper at my parents' place on Thursday evening.

Is it just me, or do we have almost the same expression??

Annika put this Lego set together all by herself.

Rainbow fruit kabobs for preschool snack on Friday.

Getting ready to assemble the loot bags.  Annika helped pick out the treats for her friends.

Annika decorated the loot bags and packed them herself.

Birthday breakfast (the cinnamon bun looks a little sad without its icing on yet).  The crown she got at preschool.

"Pink lemonade" cupcakes for Annika's party.  Very happy with how these turned out.

The camping Lego set we gave to Annika.  It kept her and Carey busy all morning on Saturday, which was a good thing because it kept her from asking "how long till my party?" over and over.

Annika's favorite thing at the Museum - the big slide.

Annika's request for her birthday supper - farmer sausage and cottage cheese perogies!

We have one more birthday supper coming up on Thursday.  It's sort of nice to spread out the celebrations a bit this year, so it's not quite so crazy!

My birthday

Today was my birthday.  We didn't do anything overly exciting, but it was a good day.  We went to church in the morning, and then to Boston Pizza for lunch (Annika and I were both sung to, and got birthday brownies).

Then we came home for a nap (everyone but Annika napped - I don't usually nap, but for some reason I woke up at 5:15 this morning and couldn't get back to sleep, so I needed one today).  Carey and Annika put together the Lego set that she got yesterday (she wanted Lego for her birthday this year and she got it!  4 sets!!).  Then we dropped the kids off at my parents' place and Carey and I went to Smoke's Poutinerie for supper.  We had never been there before, and a few months ago I bought an online deal coupon for there, so it was a good reason to go.

I had the "Hogtown" poutine - fries, cheese curds and gravy, with bacon, sausage, mushrooms and onions.  It was delicious, but a bit much for me - I couldn't finish it.  Then we drove around for a little bit before going to pick up the kids and take them home to bed.  Now just a quiet evening and then bedtime for this 31-year-old lady!

Happy birthday Annika!

Today was Annika's 5th birthday.  5 already!!  

Since Annika loves the Children's Museum, we went there for her birthday party.  The Museum offers a birthday party package, but it's pretty pricey and it's for up to 20 guests.  We just wanted to keep it small, so we skipped the package deal and just took 4 of Annika's friends there for the afternoon.  It actually worked out really well, since the entire eating area was empty when we wanted to have cake and open presents, so it was almost like having a private party room.  The kids were really well-behaved (I'll admit, I was a little nervous about keeping track of all the kids, even though it was a small group), but I think I'll still be counting heads in my dreams tonight.  We were there for 2 hours, which was almost a little short for the kids, but it was enough for me!  It was really nice, though, having her party away from the house, so we could come home and not have any mess to clean up, especially since it's my birthday tomorrow.

And on the way home we stopped at the mall and I got an early birthday present -- an iPhone!  Happy birthday to me! :)

What a week

Yikes.

After Emmett was finished with his illness on Wednesday, he passed it along to me (or some version of it) and I spent Thursday on the couch (or in the bathroom).  It was not pretty.  Thankfully it was a lot shorter-lived than Emmett's version, and it seems to only have been a one-day thing (fingers crossed it's all done now).  Unfortunately Thursday was the kids' first day of swimming lessons.  Carey took Annika for her lesson, but Emmett stayed home with me (he's in the parent/baby class, so one of us has to go in with him).  Then the 3 of them went to my in-laws for supper and I stayed home and ate saltines and watched TV reruns till they came home.  There's never a good time to get sick, but this really wasn't a good time for me, since my Y Neighbours fundraising sale was coming up on Saturday.  Thankfully I already had done my baking for the bake sale, and all my stuff for my table was already sorted and priced.

On Friday I disinfected light switches, door handles and remotes, cleaned bathrooms and washed all the towels (again) in the hope of ridding our house of all the yucky germs.  I wasn't totally back to full-strength, but I was feeling a lot better.

This morning was the sale.  I was sharing a table with our YN group donations table, and I was able to get rid of a lot of stuff (mostly clothes).  It was a long morning, but I felt okay once I got going.  I found a few "new-to-us" things for the kids too.  The shoes are actually brand-new, but it will be a year or two till they fit Annika.  I really liked the dress, but I was quite disappointed when I got it home and removed the price sticker to find a stain underneath. :(  That's just shady dealings, if you ask me.  It's fine if something has a stain, but at least be honest about it (and then price accordingly).  Emmett loved his new boots and new shirt.  He currently has an orange, long-sleeved shirt that is his absolute favorite (he asks to wear it as soon as it's through the laundry), but he's almost outgrown it (and hopefully sometime soon we won't be wearing long sleeves anymore!), so when I saw this one, I knew that I had to get it.

Looking ahead we've got a busy week coming up.  Tomorrow we have an extended-family Easter gathering.  On Monday evening I'm helping host a bridal shower (I'm doing the games - I love doing shower games).  Thursday is swimming and our first birthday dinner (that's right - it's almost mine and Annika's birthdays!).  Friday I'll be bringing snack to preschool for Annika's birthday.  I'm planning to make these "pink lemonade" cupcakes for her birthday party on Saturday, but for school we're not allowed to bring in any home-baked treats (too many allergies) so I'll be making some rainbow fruit kabobs.  Saturday is Annika's birthday and we're having her party at the children's museum, and then supper with just our family at home (she's requested perogies and farmer sausage, which is also what I made for her 2nd birthday supper - some things don't change!).  Sunday is my birthday, and Carey and I are planning on going to Smoke's Poutinerie for supper to celebrate.  Then one more birthday supper the following week (trying to break up the celebrations a bit this year).  Let's hope we all stay healthy for all this!

2 days, 2 trips to the doctor

That's right.  We were at the doctor yesterday and then again today.  Yesterday was Emmett, today was Annika (thankfully her appointment was just for a scheduled check-up, not for any illness).

Emmett has been sick for the past week.  I'll save you the gory details, but he has rotavirus, which is not pretty.  It's been a rough week, but he seems to have turned a corner and so far today there hasn't been anything coming out either end. ;)  The skin on his bum is still pretty red, though, but hopefully that will get better soon too.  And it will be nice to get back to using our cloth diapers again.  It's been disposables for the past week, and we've gone through quite a few!

Annika had her 5 year old check up today (her birthday is next Saturday).  She had to get 2 needles today, and she did really well - no tears at all.  The doctor said everything else looked good - she's a healthy kid.  She weighed in at 39.5 pounds and is 43 inches tall.

So hopefully now we'll be staying out of the doctor's office for a while!