Children's Museum

Shawn had a slow day of work so we decided to go to the Children's museum since it is about 10 minutes from our house.  We had a nice time just hanging out and letting the kids dress up and use their imaginations.  A great family day!  I always feel so blessed when we are able to spend some fun time together in the middle of week.  We have made sacrifices and life choices over the past 10 years or so to have some flexibility in our lives and I never forget whenever we have these moments to take a step back and give thanks for family life and how we are choosing to live it. 

 Push over and let the lady drive

 Hey Babes can you get that on the top shelf for me, Sure Bruuther

 They love the bubble room and this inside a gigantic bubble was a big hit.  

 I love this picture of my sweet Babes

Spring Break way back when

In March Symeon and Shawn took a boys spring break trip to Florida for Spring Training.   They went with Shawn's brother and his son Sam who is about a year older than Symeon and a good friend along with his son.  They  had a wonderful time and Symeon said next year the boys trip should be to Hawaii.  I vetoed that unless it is a girls and boys trips. 

 The "cool" cousins ready to hit the road

 a slide on the beach every kids dream come true

 Ready for the big game

 Digging for treasure on the beach at night using their Daddy's phone flashlight apps

Doing some gardening

Although since we just moved in I have focused most of my attention on the inside of the house we have managed to but in a few bulbs and plant a garden.

Here we are putting in our bulbs with a few friends and at this point only one bulb has started to come up so honestly I am bit worried that my sweet "helpers" were hard to keep track of so I am not sure about every bulb or their exact location:

Marin using her little watering can to water the newly planted bulbs

 Our sweet helper R who was covered in mud by the time we were done

Symeon and his best buddy A using squirters to water the newly planted bulbs.  It worked!

Okay switch to another day and we decided to plant our garden.  In hindsight I should have approached it differently because everyone once in awhile when I have a project to do my brain switches back to pre-kid days and I plan it accordingly.  I don't think about anyone needing to eat, getting tired, bored, fighting, using a hose in a manner that is damaging to young plants, husband/wife angst, the amount of sunscreen needed etc etc etc.  So you can see where I am going with this.  In the end the garden is done and we spent a lot of time together and overall we had fun and laughed a bit, yelled a bit, and lived a bit which I guess are all good.  I only took a few pictures because honestly I was a bit busy managing kids when my mind had forgotten they would be there. Sorry kiddos I love you and love the spirit and joy you bring to everything we do.  

Here is our garden and the garden helpers.  

 You can see how this  might go bad, right?!  She squirted me, he squirted me, a gigantic dirt patch in the middle of the yard is not the goal, don't squirt the neighbors in their yard, mist only, take turns, I am going to put that hose away, okay put the hose away, just a few comments made during the day.  

Almost done and we are having a great time taking care of it. 

Funny little stories

Today the  kids chained our back door with the security chain which is fine except for some reason I could not get the door to close enough to get the chain off the door.  I kept asking them if they put something in the door, could they see anything in the door, and again you are not in trouble did you put anything in the door before you closed it.  They both swore they didn't do anything so with some pushing and a bit of body weight I budged the door enough to get the chain off and I thought okay we will figure this out now.  Symeon and Marin were right by my side to see what was stuck in the door and I thought to myself like you guys don't know because last night I found a princess shoe stuck in the door so surely tonight would reveal an item as well.  As soon as the door swung open Marin yelled "oh right there it's an ant."  I cracked up laughing I mean I know they are strong but really there was nothing else but an ant. 

We decided to have a picnic dinner in our back yard tonight because today was one of those perfect spring days in the city about 72 degrees bright sun and a slight breeze I mean beautiful walk up and down the sidewalk just because kind of day.  When we have these types of days we rarely eat any meals inside so out we went.  Part way through dinner, Marin dressed in her best princess shoes for the occasion, stood up tripped backwards rolled over, dress over her head, legs sprawled in the air, and her princess shoes went flying I about choked on my food it was so funny and then she said "Woooo" and started to laugh.  After Shawn and I stopped laughing I told her heels in the grass is tricky for anyone the uneven ground will get you every time.

 

Happy Birthday Shawn

At the end of April we celebrated Shawn's birthday.  We had a great weekend together hiking, seeing a soccer game, watching some playoff hockey, and overall just hanging out.  It was so good to celebrate this amazing man who gives so much for our family.  He is an amazing father and husband.  He works hard and provides so well for  us.  He is an honest, loving, kind, shy, quiet, wonderful man.  We are truly blessed to have him in our lives.  Happy Birthday my love! 

 Symeon loves to go hiking which makes Shawn so happy and made for a wonderful birthday for him!

 The happy hikers!

 Decorating the cookie cake, Shawn's favorite!  

 The cake with the trick candles, Symeon was beside himself with playing a prank on Shawn.  

Blowing out the candles and then they were lit again they loved it.  Shawn got a kick out of it and so did we!  Happy Birthday we love you Shawn!

A rough week for Babes McGee

Last weekend we went hiking as a family and Marin had what I considered a small fall.  She told me she hurt her knee we looked at it kissed and and kept going.  She was fine the rest of the day until she took a nap.  After her nap we were going to a soccer game so we headed out.  When we reached the parking lot and started our walk to the stadium she was limping.  I kept asking her if she was okay and she said she was fine.  I asked if her leg her and she said no but the limp was so bad Shawn had to carry her.  I thought  maybe she had a blister or something from hiking.  She was not crying or complaining so I forgot about it until we tried to walk to the car but at this point she was so tired and it was so late carried her to her bed and waited for morning. 

When daylight came she would not even walk on it and she would only crawl around kind of dragging one leg.  I had to work in the nursery so Shawn stayed home with her and propped her up on the couch with ice, ibuprofen and an ipad so she would sit still not an easy task for Marin.  I left for church and when I got home she would kind of limp around and crawl some but it was sad. 

Shawn and I decided to wait one more day since it was Sunday and we could see her doctor the next day.  Well Monday brought the need to carry her everywhere and tears so I thought okay time to take her in well the doctor agreed with us and we all decided to give it a couple more days since he could move it all kinds of ways without her crying in pain.  It seemed to be only weight that caused any problems.  Well Babes is never kept down long so she soon figured out if she turned her foot in and walked on the side of it she could get around so after two days of this weird walk we decided it was time for an x-ray about 6 days after the fall. 

She was great at the hospital and really good for the x-ray and we were happy to find nothing was broken but she continued to do that weird walk for about a week and just now she seems to be using it normally.  We all guess it was a sprain of some sort which is finally healing.  She was so sweet and tough as usual through the whole thing hardly a complaint at all. 

So onto our next adventure.  Yesterday I was down in the kitchen and Marin told me she wanted to get dressed which is normal and she heads up to pick her own clothes and get dressed "all by herself" she reminds me often that she is getting big and does not need any help.  So true to our routine I kept cleaning up the kitchen and off she went well about 5 minutes later I heard a crash that made my Mom gut about wretch and I ran up the stairs.  Luckily  Shawn was working in his office just down the hall from her room and he beat me to her as I rounded the corner I heard Shawn yell and my heart was in my throat.  As I rounded the corner Shawn was picking up her dresser and all I could see were her feet sticking out flailing and her body and head were pinned under the dresser.  I helped Shawn grab the dresser and we pulled her out.  She was hysterical and bright red from screaming I carried her to our bed thinking she had to be injured  after seeing her.  Honestly it looked like the Wicked Witch of the East in The Wizard of Oz when the house falls on her. 

I checked her over, calmed her down and found out her head and arm hurt her.  I checked them both and she seemed okay which honestly seemed impossible.  Her dresser is really heavy and without Shawn home I wonder if I would have been able to hold it up and get her our.  I like to believe that the Mommy strength would have kicked in and I am sure it would.  We watched her close for awhile but in about 10 minutes she was on her way again.  I asked her what happened and she told me she was putting her clothes away and she had three drawers open and she climbed up on her box to reach something and then the dresser fell on her.  Her exact words were "the tresser fell on me and I no get out and I cried and cried."  After she was settled down and moved onto something else I sat down had a good cry of what might have been and picked up the basket from the top of her dresser that was crushed when the dresser hit it.

Life is a fragile gift and when I get going with my day to day I can forget just how quickly everything in your world can change.  I am feeling so grateful this morning for my life and the life of my family and I realize with way to much clarity that a day can bring anything with it.

  Trying to get her to rest her leg was let's say "fun"  This worked for awhile then she preferred to crawl around dragging her leg so she could do her own thing.  I had to appreciate her tenacity.  

Getting her x-ray

I took a picture of the overturned dresser but my battery camera was dead so no picture to show the scene of utter chaos that was left. 

Creative Games

Symeon and Marin are not big toy kids which is fine unless you want them to go find something to do so you can get something done.  They love art, dance parties, anything outside, and they often find "things" to do which could or could not fall into the sketchy category.  I often get a kick out of what they find to do and lately their imaginations have been in full swing which is so fun to watch.

Today was one of their sketchy games which I am still not sure about as you can see there is a small object falling and being thrown back up and the floor shows the other objects who decided to "fall" from the "building" aka the stairs.  I am so blessed that they have each other and in general they are good playmates.  They did for quite awhile today at least in kid time and although the ponies seemed a bit big and a few objects hit the walls in a few questionable throws overall it was a hit and one of their least messy "games."