Sean's favorite present from Santa

Happy Holidays!

First Day of School

The boys are still in Early Childhood so preschoolers again.  Gretchen is a big 2nd grader....

An End to A Summer

This summer has been crazy!  We didn't do any birthday parties but yet we seemed to be busy a lot!  A family of five makes it difficult to do anything on the cheap so we have several passes this year that we did our best to maximize:  Six Flags (of course), Brookfield Zoo, MSI and Field Museum.  So, almost every weekend, we went to one of those places!  We also went to Six Flags St Louis and camping.  One of our last (or second to last) outings before school started was our annual Cubs game with the kids.  They are getting better and better at tolerating the whole weird atmosphere (sitting in the nosebleed section) and at honing in on their taste for junk food.  Gretchen has a list of food she "needed" to eat at the park which included:  hot dog, ice cream, cotton candy and peanuts.  The boys were not as bad but they did enjoy quite a bit of cotton candy!  We have one more day off before school start so we may have one more outing left in us though I am not sure I will survive it!

The Day Has Come (Finally)

We still feel tentative but we're pretty sure... Evan is potty trained....  Sigh... It seems like forever ago that I started buying diapers and pull ups but I am so happy!  Sure he is still having an accident so nothing feels safe yet but we're not putting another pull up on him!

He is my little stinker..............................

Get the Bugs Out

Sean had his dental surgery this month.  Some of you already know the he needed a lot of dental work.  I felt so terrible for so long about it as we waited for our surgery day to fix his teeth.  Our dentist suggested we fix his teeth all at once to spare him pain and discomfort.  Sean needed 6 crowns and a few cavities filled.  The dentist was wonderful and the procedure went well.  It had to be done under anesthesia so we went to a dentist that would do it in a hospital where it seemed safer.  Apparently Sean had some "soft" teeth where the enamel didn't harden like it should so it decayed very rapidly so it wasn't entirely my fault..... He looks unhappy in the picture but he ate food hours after it was taken.  I can now sleep at night knowing he isn't experiencing tooth pain.  My poor little guy!  We had Evan checked too and he did all of his fillings in the office so everyone is finally where they need to be.  And we are keeping those teeth sparkly clean!

PreSchoolers!

My boys turned 4!  Evan still coping with the aging..... maybe that's because he isn't fully potty trained... yet!  (we're still working on it).

Camping

We survived another camping trip with the kids this year!  It was quite a trip - we went to Devils Lake State Park like we do every year.  We spent the first day at the Circus World Museum and all three kids were in the show.  This was the first time we took them on the Bluffs for a hike.  Evan re-created history by getting too close to the edge which is something Steve did to his father around 4 years old.  Our tent was right by a steep little trail that the kids ran up over and over again.  It was 100 degree weather so we showered every night and used our battery operated fans to fall asleep.  There a lot of pictures here if you're interested! 

Lover Boy

Coughing Monkey

Sean's photo was used in an internet article about whooping cough.  He didn't have whooping cough at the time but he was sick.  Here is a link to the article:  http://www.mindfulmum.co.uk/news/2012/whooping-cough-on-the-increase/

Happiness is a Warm Pool

June hasn't proved to be hot quite yet but the pool we had at our hotel in St Louis was warm.  We gave the kids a choice of going back to Six Flags or stay in the pool.  The pool won hands down... Hee

Rough Summer

Ferris Wheel at Six Flags St Louis

Sean and Evan's height difference persists and this summer it is changing some things.  Namely it is changing how we do amusement parks.  As I wrote on Gretchen's blog, both Gretchen and Sean can ride more rides now due to their height while Evan needs to grow two more inches to move up to more rides.  We have to split up a lot or find something for me and Evan to do while Steve, Sean and Gretchen are riding something exciting.  It was especially hard this month when we went to Six Flags in St Louis where there were NO roller coasters for Evan to ride.  He was a little bored but he took it in stride (I feed him lots of snacks and chocolate milk).  It's working out fine - Evan is not focusing on it too much but he's no dummy... He is going to notice and understand more clearly why I think by the end of the summer.  Pobrecito....

Can we go swimming yet?

Back in December we took the kids to a indoor water park that they enjoyed immensely.  After a long day swimming, both boys slept 12 hours straight!  We decided to take them to Indianapolis for spring break so we could visit the Indianapolis Zoo and the Children's Museum.   For a week before the trip, Evan kept telling me he wanted to go swimming in 'Napolis....  We didn't disappoint him.  Armed with a Dora life jacket, Evan was our little swimmer.  It always takes him the longest to get into it but then he goes all out once he's comfortable.  Sean also enjoyed the swimming at the hotel but he seemed most happy at the museum's library.  They had a green screen and camera to film the kids with a background.  He must have watched himself for twenty minutes.  The zoo happened to have a little roller coaster that luckily for the weather opened a few days early so we were able to get in our first roller coaster ride of the season.  Look out Six Flags, here we come!!!

Happy New Year!

The kids had a great time celebrating New Year's Eve.  The boys especially enjoyed streamers and noisemakers.  I need to post the video but until then here are some pictures....