A week of fall?!

Last Wednesday/Thursday I got the virus :(  The kids and I muddled through until Saturday at which point I crashed into bed after breakfast and didn't get up for much during the day.  Sunday morning going to church wiped me out, but after a nice nap in the afternoon, I was feeling a bit better.  I've still been tired, but don't have any lingering cough or fever, so that's good.

Since last week I knew we were headed for some cool and yucky weather on Friday and into this week, we managed to go to the zoo on Thursday afternoon (since the kids let me rest for a bit after lunch).  As we were on our way, we realized that Anna hadn't been to the zoo since last fall!  It was hard to see everything that everyone wanted to see, especially since Kate and I were pretty tired to start with, but it was fun nonetheless.  Ethan, however, didn't really like the carousel ride ...

Matt took over as parent over the weekend and spent a lot of time working with the girls on their bikes without training wheels.  We've still got a long ways to go, but at least they're both excited about it.  With the cooler weather lately and lack of pool time, we've taken to doing walks/bike rides in the afternoons and evenings.  During one of the first of these, we realized that Kate has outgrown the little 12" bike so Matt's hopefully going to pick up the next size bike after work today.  We'll have to see how Kate adjusts.

Monday we were getting a bit stir crazy towards the end of the day so we planned for a field trip on Tuesday.  I took the kids to CamRock park for a hike and picnic yesterday in the middle of the day.  Matt used to mountain bike at this place and we'd taken the girls there before.  I think everyone had a good time; the girls were laughing and giggling for a lot of their play time.  They ran down the big hill a few times, went for a hike with me and Ethan (in the backpack), had lunch, played with a caterpillar they'd found, and then played at the playground for a long time.

 

You'd have thought they would have been tired, but they had plenty of energy after dinner for a run around the neighborhood.  Yes, a run.  Matt and I walked with Ethan in the stroller and the girls ran on ahead.

Here's a few snapshots of life recently.

Kate still spends large chunks of her day looking through books over and over again.

Anna received some lego sets for her birthday (ages 6-12 ones!) and spent a lot of time on Friday and Saturday putting them ALL together.  She only asked for help a handful of times.

Ethan turned 8 months on Saturday.  We figured that if he didn't spit up, he would have weighed 20 lbs. when he was about 5 months old.  Well, he still spits up, but not nearly as much, and by our estimates he's reached the 20 lb. mark.
 

Recovering

Whatever this virus was that got Anna, it really wiped her out!  The poor kid just couldn't get any rest; she was up with coughing fits several times a night for several nights.  She was so tired that she started falling asleep in the afternoons, something she hasn't done in years.  Thankfully, she's on the mend now, finally.  The fever lasted off and on until the weekend and she still has a nasty cough sometimes.

The rest of us seem to be okay, too.  Kate had a fever on Saturday afternoon and then overnight that night, but she was able to sleep a ridiculous amount, and woke up almost good as new (after having slept through church).  I've got a sore throat now, but nothing I can't handle with a little extra rest.

My mom was able to stop by and help us out a bit on her way through Madison.  She came along while I had an eye doctor's appointment on Friday morning, took the girls to a park for a little bit, and then came back for the start of Ethan's infant eye check.  Before that, she picked most of my beans for me, and then she and I snapped them all while the kids rested in the afternoon.  Saturday morning she was up bright and early weeding my garden!  My garden hasn't looked this tidy in months!  Moms are awesome :)  The whole time she was here, I kept telling the girls that when they're older, if they choose to have kids as well as a garden, and then need help weeding their garden, they can call me and I'll be there in a flash to help them out :)

By yesterday our family needed a chance to do something special, after dealing with the relative craziness of life since we got back from South Dakota.  So I took the kids on a field trip to Olbrich Gardens for the butterfly exhibit after Anna's summer school art class.  We had a great time.  The girls had lots of fun and I think Ethan enjoyed himself, too.

After dinner we did an ice cream trip to Culver's and ended up at a park to play around for awhile.  We really needed this time together.

Tonight Anna did a "show" for us out on the tower.  She never used to enjoy performing as much as she has recently.  It's hard to keep Kate focused and not giggling for these kinds of events, however.
 

Ethan makes some pretty funny faces these days.  We are really enjoying getting to know this little boy and seeing how he's going to fit into our sometimes crazy life.

Updates

It's been an interesting week or so, to say the least.  Here's a few updates on each member of the family (except the cat, she's just fine).

Kate - Last Friday night, just before bedtime (of course), she fell and hit her head.  There was blood.  After cleaning it up a bit and talking with the nurse on call for awhile, we decided it was best to take her to Urgent Care and get it looked at.  The doctor and nurse agreed that the cut was right on the border as to whether or not it needed help in healing, but Matt opted for treatment since they were already at the doctor's.  So Kate ended up with a staple in the back of her scalp.  She was a real trooper for the whole ordeal, got her staple out yesterday, and is as good as new.

Besides "the incident", she's doing well.  She loves playing with Anna, playing in the pool, looking at books, helping with garden things, and being silly.

Anna - She started having a cough last Thursday or Friday and then came down with a fever on Sunday after church.  The fever continued off and on for several days, spiking up to 102 whenever the ibuprofen wore off.  The cough got worse.  She had her check-up scheduled for Wednesday anyway so I didn't want to take her in before then if I didn't think it was too serious.  Turns out she just has a nasty virus; apparently there's a bad fever/cough one going around this summer.  So no antibiotics, she just needs to fight it off.  We're really hoping that no one else in the family get it!

Besides "the fever", she's doing well.  At her check-up she weighed 46 lbs. (about 60%) and was 46 inches tall (also about 60%), easy to remember.  She loves playing with her brother and sister, playing in the pool, drawing pictures, helping with garden things, and having a relaxing summer schedule.

Ethan - No stitches, staples, or fevers ... hooray!  He's still trying to get down to a real two nap schedule; I thought we were there over the weekend, but then he switched back to needing three shorter ones this week.  Oh, well.  He sleeps great at night these days so I'm not going to complain too much about his naps.  He's eating like a champ, too.  He loves his baby food veggies and fruits, and enjoys getting a taste of whatever it is the rest of us are eating.

He's still a silly boy who is happiest when there is lots of entertainment going on around him.  He's not crawling yet, but will stay on all fours for a few minutes now if we help him get his knees under him.

Momma - Last Saturday night, my cousin's wife passed away after a 6 year battle with melanoma.  Angela's faith and fight will be remembered by all who knew her.  After considering and deliberating about who in our little family should or should not make the trip to Bloomington for the funeral, we decided that it would be best if Ethan and I made a day of it on Wednesday and did the drive for the morning funeral as well as the luncheon and afternoon gatherings.  I'm glad we did.  Ethan was a great traveler for this (since he didn't have to sleep overnight anywhere else) and really enjoyed all of the attention he got from my extended family.  It was good to see my cousins, aunt, uncles, parents, and Adam, even if it was only for a few hours.

In the midst of all this, I've been picking raspberries every few days, picking and freezing 30 quarts of beans, another 4 quarts of broccoli, another 4 quarts of pea pods, and 5 quarts of freezer pickles.

Before the chaos started this past weekend, the kids and I did one of our field trips to a farm on Thursday morning and had a nice time with all of the animals.

Matt - I think right now Matt is both the rock that we all stand on and the glue that holds us together.  He took Kate to Urgent Care on Friday night, dealt with me calling him every few hours on Monday and Tuesday to give him updates about Anna's fever, encouraged me to go to Bloomington for the funeral while offering to stay home with Anna and Kate (which included taking them both into the doctor for Anna's check-up), and then cleaned the house and did the laundry while we were gone yesterday.  Oh, and did I mention that he finished the tower, rigged up a bucket and pulley system, and then washed and stained the whole thing this past weekend?  Yep.  He's awesome.

Is that all of us?  I think so.  I hope the next several days are much more uneventful than the past week has been ...

Chamberlain, South Dakota

The rest of last week was spent in Chamberlain with Grandpa and Grandma Mischnick after our visit to the Ingalls Homestead.

Wednesday was a nice day with a visit to the park in the morning,

 

picking mulberries across the alley with Grandpa,

and watching the construction equipment prepare the land for the church's new parking lot.

Michal, Sam, and family joined us (making a total of 13 people under one roof) from Wednesday afternoon until Friday afternoon.  The cousins got along great, with Anna and Seth playing lots of battleship on his video game and Kate and Ruth hitting it off playing catch in the basement toy room.

On the 4th, we watched the local parade in the morning,

spent time at the pool in the afternoon,

had a picnic at another park in the evening,

and played with some of the firecrackers the kids got at the parade in the morning.

A few of the grown-ups stayed up for fireworks, but the kids (and this mom) all crashed early.

Our girls did not sleep well until the third night out, whereas Ethan slept horribly until the fifth night out, so staying up until past 11 to watch fireworks was not on this particular mom's agenda.

Friday morning was another relaxing time with the cousins,

and some more construction watching.

Saturday we got to have Grandma and Grandpa all to ourselves :)  Matt and the grandparents took the girls to the Akta Lakota museum in the morning while Ethan napped and I worked on gathering all of our paraphernalia.  Then Grandma got out a slip n' slide in the afternoon and fun was had by all during that activity.

We opted to go to church on Saturday night so that we could drive the whole way home on Sunday instead of staying for Sunday church and then having to do another hotel on Sunday night.  The thought of this smiling boy in a hotel another night was not appealing to his parents.

We were making fabulous time driving on Sunday until we were about 100 miles from home.

Then we hit holiday traffic and construction.  Those last 100 miles took a LONG time, but we made up for it with a stop at Culver's for dinner and ice cream.

We came home to a garden explosion ... peas, raspberries, more broccoli, beets, cucumbers, blueberries, and the beans and zucchini are gearing up, too.  Yikes!  At least I don't have to buy any vegetables from the store for a long time now :)

DeSmet, South Dakota

So you've never heard of DeSmet, South Dakota?  Well, that's the location of the Ingalls family homestead and the first leg of our journey on our trip out to Chamberlain to visit the Mischnick grandparents.

This year we decided to do a bit of sightseeing on our trip to see family.  Since we've read through almost all of the Little House books with the girls, we thought it would be a fun experience to visit the Ingalls Homestead.

We took a leisurely drive out to Souix Falls last Monday, with a few longer and more relaxing stops than what we usually take on the long drive.

This first day will be forever remembered as the "potty stop day"; we're so thankful we threw in the little training potty before we left.  It came in mighty handy when there were no exits in site when someone said "I have to go potty". 

We got to Souix Falls in time for dinner at the hotel and a walk down to Falls Park.

After the first rough sleeping night for Mr. Ethan at the hotel, we headed to DeSmet on Tuesday morning for our day at the homestead.

What an awesome place for our family to visit at this point in our lives!  There was a nice mix of activities and information for kids and adults alike.

Here's a sampling of the experiences the girls had.  They played in a covered wagon,

explored a dugout replica

and an actual claim shanty,
 

filled a bucket of water from Pa's well using a hand pump,

explored a replica of Ma's Little House complete with a period sewing machine, pump organ, and cookstove,

practiced doing laundry the "old fashioned way" with tubs, a washboard, and a ringer,

rode ponies and drove a pony cart,

took a covered wagon ride (taking turns driving the team) over to the one room school house

where they had a taste of prairie school with their new friend, Sophie,

visited the outhouse at the school,

and made some corn cob dolls and their own rope.

Whew!  A good day was had by all.  Well, Ethan kind of got carted around, but he seemed to enjoy parts of  that day. too :)

Birthday Party

Anna chose to have a strawberry theme for her birthday party this year and also wanted to invite all of the girls from her class.  Up until now, our birthday parties have simply included a few friends and families from church and the neighborhood, but this was the first one where it was going to be a kid party, with the parents just dropping the girls off.  A bit of a change for this mamma.  Thankfully, one of the moms chose to stay and helped out by taking lots of great pictures; otherwise we wouldn't have such a great picture record of the fun day :)

The party was really fun, in spite of the rain during the first half.  The girls made cereal necklaces, played a balloon popping game, played dress up, participated in "bobbing for strawberries", ate cake, planted their own strawberry plants, and then played around outside.

Anna had a good time and I'm pretty sure the other girls did, too.  My favorite memory (besides all of the silly game ones) was when the girls were hiding behind the garden shed and then Anna organized them all to charge at Matt and Ethan.  She ran at the head of the pack across the yard yelling "Charge!" with a huge smile on her face :)

One of the coolest things for Anna was that she chose (without too much encouragement) to have her friends bring money for a donation instead of gifts.  She chose to give the money to Ombeni Foundation, an organization providing basic needs to children in a village in Tanzania; the founder attends our church.  What a great kid Anna can be!