Spring Break - Part 3

The rest of our spring break was spent at home.  We needed that.  Actually, Kate needed that.  Anna, too, to an extent, but Kate probably needed the open space and free play time more than anyone.  She's like that.

Two of the days of the week the sun came out.  That's right, two.  Only two.

On one of those days, I took the kids to Olbrich Gardens to see some of the first spring flowers, but more importantly to get some fresh air and exercise.  It worked well.  Kate and Ethan ran ahead of us, in and out of different paths, and Kate even braved the last leg over to the Thai Pavilion while Ethan and Anna took a rest.  Anna needed that rest because she chose to use her walker (!).  Way to go, Anna!  She was tuckered out by the end, but she powered her way through a 45 minute excursion along outdoor pavement.

The other sunny day we took the kids to a park in McFarland.  Actually, Kate and I rode our bikes and met Matt, Anna, and Ethan.  While there, Kate rested and watched others for awhile before she explored (the 6+ mile bike ride there tired her out a bit); Ethan played in the sand; and Anna took another walk around the playground on a sidewalk.  The fresh air and exercise was good for all of us.  Matt drove the kids home, but I got to bike home *alone*.

One of our indoor excitements from spring break was being able to rodent-sit a class pet gerbil named Ralph.  Kate's first grader teacher from last year has been allowing Kate and a friend to come and visit Ralph most days after school.  Somewhere along the way, we worked it out that Kate could take care of Ralph over spring break.

Kate was in heaven, but all of the kids enjoyed having another pet for a week.  Ralph was returned to his rightful classroom this afternoon, and we have no plans to get a rodent of our own any time soon :)

The last bit of excitement was "getting out the Legos" for spring break.  We actually pulled them all out the weekend before spring break and, thankfully, put them all back away on Sunday evening.  I just can't handle the "lego mess" for too long.

I promised the girls that I would take pictures of their creations before we took them apart and put them away.  True to my word, here are the photos.

Anna's house/jail:

Kate discovered how to make "dresses" for the women.

 
Kate's science exploration craft:

On the left is Kate's "dragon", an alligator with wings that flap ... on the right is Kate's buggy attachment for one of the horses:

I can't tell you too much about the rest of them, but I'm sure that Kate could, and probably would.

Kate was in a bad mood this morning about going back to school whereas Anna has been positively cheerful all day.  As I told them this morning, though, they only have two months left of school and a lot of fun stuff happens in those two months.

Either way, hooray for spring break!

Spring Break - Part 2

Thursday and Friday we spent some time in the Dells at Mt. Olympus.  Five years ago, Mt. Olympus was the waterpark where it all started for our family; we took the girls (then ages 4 and 2) on a "mystery trip" and tried out the waterpark.  Then we returned the next year with baby Ethan in tow, and my mom along to help out.

Since then we have been able to score good deals at the Kalahari, but nothing was popping up for this year's spring break, so we decided to try out Mt. Olympus again.  Although the kids had a good time and we made some fun family memories, Matt and I think we will try to hold out for good deals at the Kalahari in the future.  Spring Break at Mt. Olympus was very busy and felt a bit cramped for space.

Silly us failed to capture any moments with a camera, so here are a few key memories we want to remember.

The lazy river was anything but "lazy".
Kate and Ethan have hit the ages where sibling bickering can be very frustrating.  ("No, I want the top bunk!"  "No, I want to be the first one in the room!")
Waiting and waiting and waiting for tubes to go down the waterslides got old fast.
Bumper cars ... not the best for our crew right now :)
Biplane ride, balloon ride, teacups, and drop tower were all ridden more than once by the kids.
Staying in the "village" instead of Hotel Rome made for some very cold dashes to the van while wearing swimsuits.

Here are the brighter moments.

All of our kids wanted to and were able to do the tall waterslides, even the tallest!, multiple times with us.
The space was small enough that we could keep an eye on all of the kids without being right next to them.
Breakfast at Cracker Barrel worked well again, and Anna ate about a third of a pancake!
Any tears shed did not dampen people's moods for long.
The room was quiet from about 9 p.m. until 6 a.m. ... not bad for us.
We all returned home glad to be home, but thankful that we spent some time away as a family.

One more post is coming about the rest of our spring break time, and then school starts up again for an action packed couple of months.

Spring Break - Part 1

Breathe in, breathe out.  Spring break is here.

It's taken us a few days, but the kids and I have had a chance to relax and enjoy the different pace and routines of spring break.  Kate has already said that she'll be sad when spring break is over; she said that she would miss the freedom of managing her own time.  Me, too, Kate, me, too.

The kids' last day was Thursday last week so on Friday morning we packed up and headed to Augusta to visit with my parents for a few days.  Matt opted to stay home this time around; this way he could have some uninterrupted time to do car maintenance on the Honda as well as some other random projects.

While at the Colbas' home, we helped a little with the maple sap collection, but it was getting towards the end of the season so we didn't have too much "work" to do.  The woods were enjoyable, whether or not we were actually collecting sap or riding in the Gator.

Inside, we played games, played with toys, read books, ate food, and slept in.  On Sunday morming, we worshiped with Grandma and Grandpa at their church in Eau Claire, also a positive experience.

The nicest part for me was that I had basically no responsibility besides managing the kids, and they are pretty easy to deal with on these kinds of trips nowadays.  (How awesome is it for me to say that after all of the traveling issues and away-from-home sleep disruptions of the last 9 years?!?!)

We got home on Monday afternoon, with only having to stop once at the beginning for gas.  This crew is good at riding in the van, too, right now.  The girls played pictionary (sort of) and hangman; Ethan watched cars and trucks.  I couldn't believe that we made it all the way home with no breaks.

The whole weekend experience was a nice start to our Spring Break :)

Conferences, Music Programs, Movies, Games, and More!

In the last few weeks we had parent-teacher conferences for both Anna and Kate.

Anna first - She has done very well this year under the guidance and assistance of her amazing team.  Her academics are on par for fourth grade.  Math is her strongest subject, but her reading has continued to improve at a great pace this year.  Her writing still needs some help, but she has made much progress this year and we have plans to help her continue to improve this summer.  It still takes Anna longer to complete/master the same learning as typical fourth graders, but her work ethic ensures that she does all that she can do.

Friendships seem to be going well, too, for Anna.  She has a nice group of friends and lots of acquaintances.  Her team did a wonderful job this year creating the right environment for Anna and peers to continue to develop meaningful relationships.

Next Kate - She is also doing very well this year academically, socially, and with regards to her confidence.  Many of Kate's teacher's observations mirror our own.  Kate has grown greatly this year in her ability to explain her mathematical thinking (a huge thing for this mom who is also a trained math teacher).  Her writing samples are again being used this year by her teacher as examples for the general writing curriculum (this happened in both kindergarten and 1st grade).  We always LOVE seeing Kate's writing at conferences, but were a bit bummed that we didn't get to take any home this time around.  But the best part is that now Kate will tell you that she likes to write!

Kate transitioned this year from just being "part of a group" at recess, to really having a go-to best friend.  It's been nice to see Kate enjoy school relationships and we are looking forward to seeing where she goes from here.

In the last few weeks, we also had the second grade and fourth grade music programs.

Kate first - Kate was most nervous this year about "everything going smoothly".  Last year one of her classmates threw up in the middle of the performance ... all over the floor in front of the risers.  Quite the memorable experience for many people in attendance.

This year, thankfully, everything DID go smoothly.  The kids did well and knew their songs by heart.

Next Anna - Oh. My. Goodness.  The new music teacher at her school did a phenomenal job with the kids.  The previous music teacher was also wonderful, but many of us were honestly impressed with what the new teacher did in his first year at Waubesa.

I'm guessing that at least 90% of the fourth grade class, which is about 160 students, were in attendance, as well as their families and some extended families.  The gym was PACKED.

Not only did all of the kids sing all of the songs, but each child was in a group that came up for a special small-group performance.  Anna told us they could choose singing, dancing, instruments, or speaking roles.  After they all listed their priorities, the teacher placed each child in a group and then coordinated all of the practices.  Wow.

The kids did awesome; they had fun; they knew their roles and responsibilities; and it was an energy filled evening for all.

Side note ... Anna used her walker the whole evening, including standing for the 45 minute performance.  As a testament to the school personnel, no less than three teachers checked in with her to make sure she was okay standing, offering her a chair if she needed one :)  She declined each time and powered through very well (although the next morning was a rough one in our house).

Moving on.

This winter we have been alternating our Friday evenings as either Family Movie Night or Family Game Night.  Since certain people in the family enjoy movies and others enjoy games, we figured this was a good way to give everyone something to look forward to at the end of the week while still trying to make sure no one's preferences were left out.

Early on we told Kate that we were going to be watching different movies, instead of just the ones we have all watched multiple times.  Even last fall she didn't like watching a movie the first time; too much unknown.  Slowly, but surely, she is getting past that fear.

Some of the movies we have watched are The Iron Giant, The Wizard of Oz, The Secret Life of Pets, Tangled, Annie, one of the Muppet Movies, and a few others I can't remember right now.

Last Friday was a game night.  Ethan offered to grab a game from the girls' closet and a moment later came proudly out with Wack-a-Mole.  This was not the same caliber of what we usually choose, but turns out it was just the right game for the night.  45 minutes later, everyone wanted to keep playing instead of going to bed :)

The rest of the weekend was spent dealing with the firewood that was piled in the yard.  Since the weather was cold enough again that the ground refroze, Matt decided to rent a log-splitter for the day on Saturday so we could deal with all of that firewood without tearing up the yard.  He started working at about 8 a.m. and didn't return the equipment until 6 p.m.  I helped stack when I could, but the rest of the stacking we did on Sunday afternoon, before a snowstorm came and dumped about 5 inches of snow on everything.  Needless to say, we were very sore on Sunday evening, and all day Monday.  But, after neglecting to supply our firewood consumption needs for the past few years, we are set again for the next couple.

The kids and I headed out of the house on Saturday evening (while Matt continued working) to go to the BCCN spring art party.  The kids all painted on small canvases, ate a tasty dinner, had their faces painted, and then we rounded out the evening with dancing and playing in the DJ room.

Painting, food, music, and dancing ... what more could you want on a Saturday night?  We are not heavily involved in the BCCN activities at this point, but some of the events just work very well for our family right now.

Currently, everyone is counting down the days until Spring Break.  I think there are enough positive things going on most days to keep each kid going until then, but they are all looking forward to a change of routine.  So am I!

Books, and other things

Last summer Anna and I were invited to participate in a "mom and me" book club with some other 4th graders and their moms.  Some of the families we have known for years while others were new to us.  Every month or two, we all get together at someone's house, discuss the most recent book (as much as a bunch of 9 and 10 year olds can) and then disperse to play and/or chat.

The experience has been very good for Anna and me, for a whole host of reasons.  One of the things I have enjoyed most is having an excuse to read some good books with the girls (or family, if we happened to read the books on a car ride).  Once both Kate and Anna became independent readers, we kind of stopped reading with them before bed.  Now this gives us an extra reason to read some great children's literature together and talk through it with family and friends.

The following is a list of books we've read in the last year or so.  The starred ones are those for book club.  (This list is mostly for me to remember, but I'd recommend almost any of them.)

*Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
*The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket
*Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary
*Eight Keys by Suzanne LaFleur
Wonder by R. J. Palacio
*James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims by Rush Limbaugh
Rush Revere and the First Patriots by Rush Limbaugh
*Magic Marks the Spot (Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates) by Caroline Carlson
*Fish in a Tree by Linda Mullaly Hunt

On to some different topics ...

This past week we had a few of our trees cut down.  The pines behind the garage were languishing after years of being shaded by the large elms which used to live in the back yard.  Then a few years back one of the pine trees was struck by lightning and it just hasn't been the same since.

Unfortunately, the large sugar maple in the front yard had also been dying for years and there wasn't anything we could do to help it.  This last summer we were finally ready to have it taken down since it kept dropping limbs on the driveway, regardless of the weather conditions.

The crew we hired was amazingly fast, in and out in right around two hours.  We asked them to leave the wood so we could use it in our fireplace, but they were still remarkably efficient.

Ethan and I had a great time watching the process from start to finish.  This weekend Matt worked to chunk up the wood and stack it in a more convenient place.  Then Ethan helped clean up all of the sawdust.

We start them young in our house :)

The favored toy of the weekend in our house was the tub of train supplies.  This crew made a few pretty epic train set-ups in the course of two days.

And last but not least is Kate, sporting one of Anna's eye patches that she uses for her exercises.  Everything turns into a toy with this child.

 Now it's on to another week!

Stories of life

It's been too long since this blog has included silly stories and random life happenings.  This post is meant to fill in the gaps caused by the last few weeks.

Ethan and I have our standard lunch options that we both enjoy (pb and j, quesadillas, fruit and yogurt with granola, wraps, etc.), but one day he thought it would be fun to try a peanut butter and jelly wrap.  Although it was tasty, it was very messy.  We haven't done that one again.

The "big legos" came out into circulation recently, even though everyone can handle the little legos; the little legos just make way more of a mess :)  Ethan has enjoyed making all manner of creations, while Kate brought out her little animals to have adventures in and among the legos.

Stuffed animals in the basement have also been high on this winter's play list.  One afternoon, I stumbled upon this scene on my way downstairs ... a dozen or so stuffed cats all in capes.

Other basement play recently has involved diving onto or over different therapy balls, this is a relatively new skill for Anna.

Ethan thinks that it's extra fun to line the red exercise ball up right behind the yellow peanut ball and then dive across both of them.

Ethan has also discovered how to twist up the trapeze bar so that he can spin at ridiculously fast speeds.  It takes a lot to make this child dizzy.

Not only that, but Ethan has also learned recently how fun it is to jump from the third or fourth stair, through the banister, onto a beanbag.  Pure joy.

On a slightly different note, Kate is continuing with the piano lessons we began in January, although we have decided to postpone Anna's until summer.  We all decided that her schoolwork and daily eye exercises were more important.  Back to Kate ... she is doing fairly well by my observations.  Granted, I've never taught piano lessons before, but I've known Kate all of her life and this is one of the few activities we have placed in front of her (besides imaginative play and reading) that she is willing to continue and even seems to enjoy.  Hooray!

Random side story about Kate.  Last Thursday morning she announced that she only had one of her gym shoes in her backpack.  What?!?!  Up until this week, she has been wearing her snow gear and boots to school, packing along her shoes to wear once she arrives at school.

But it's kind of hard to participate in gym when you have only one shoe.  Since we learned of this issue about 5 minutes before we had to leave for school, we told her to grab some other shoes from the basket and look for her missing shoe at school.

Apparently, Kate's feet have grown and the spare shoes no longer fit, so she borrowed a friend's boots to wear for the day at school.  And she couldn't find the missing shoe.

Thursday afternoon we looked and looked, inside and outside, but couldn't find that crazy shoe.  Kate tried on a handful of other shoes we had, but they were all either too tight, or just a bit to big.  She wore the too big ones on Friday and then Ethan and I tried the lost and found bins, because it's not really lost until Mom can't find it, right?

By Friday night I was realizing we would need to make a trip to a store over the weekend for some new shoes for Kate.  This was not in the original plans for the weekend and no one was looking forward to it.  I will admit that I was probably the grumpiest about the whole ordeal.

Matt offered to make one more sweep of the yard on Saturday morning in the off chance that Kate's shoe fell out of her backpack on Wednesday after school while she was wandering around the yard.  You know what?  He found it ... behind the play kitchen on the other side of the sandbox.  True story.

The relief and joy I felt at not having to take Kate in to buy new shoes is indescribable.  Instead, we had a wonderfully productive and fun Saturday, which included these three goons playing with rocks, sticks, trucks, plastic animals, and who knows what else on the patio, plus an afternoon family trip to a park to enjoy the beautiful weather.

Speaking of the weather, we have had some record warmth here in the last week.

Enjoyable weather, but crazy stuff, too.

This weather is even rivaling the unusually warm spring we had five years ago, when we lost a good portion of our fruit crop.  I have been out checking our fruit buds almost every day.  Today was supposed to be the warmest and then the forecasters are predicting more typical February weather again this weekend.  We would be incredibly sad if our fruit trees didn't produce this year, especially after the amazing harvest we had last fall.  At this point we just have to wait and see.

All the canned fruit stored in the basement is still holding up, but we are on the tail end of our frozen vegetables.  In fact, I just brought up the last of them this week.  The peapods and freezer pickles have been gone for awhile, but we are going to miss the butternut squash, corn, beans, and broccoli when they are gone.  We still have plenty of sweet potatoes, beets, both canned and frozen, and pumpkin, both whole and cooked.  We also have a good supply of tomato products as well, thankfully.  The family much prefers our salsa and spaghetti sauce to store bought ones.

I'm glad that we made it this far with our veggies.  However, no matter how much we put up in the summer, we always seem to run out in February and March.  These kids just keep eating!

One of these days I'll try to include a few videos of some of Anna's therapy work and maybe even Kate's piano progress!

Appointments, communication, and paperwork

The last week and a half has been dominated by appointments, communication, and paperwork.  Not my favorite things, but certainly something that has to be done.

I'm making a mental and written note to myself that for the next few years, August and February are going to include a lot of appointments.  Everyone is due for dentist check-ups during those months.  Anna's MRIs will continue to be in those months for the next couple of years, which means her neuro-oncology clinic visit is also at that time as well as her pre-op physical.  Then there's the random extras, like registering Ethan for preschool (ahhh!), Kate's grandparent project presentation, the girls' music programs, and a busy week for Matt at work which included visits from the global team (read this as early mornings and late evenings with a very mentally fatigued Matt at the end of the week).

But the sun has been shining more than it hasn't, and the weather is actually hinting at spring.  So we will continue to be thankful, and enjoy the days when we are all in a good place at mealtimes.

Here's a brief overview of the medical appointments Anna has had this week.

Neuro-oncology - All is good.  Scans are stable.  Most professions we saw are still pleased and impressed with Anna's progress.  We had two main questions/concerns for the team this time around.  First, Anna has had some headaches in the last few months.  Nothing serious and not related to growing cancer or hydrocephalus, but we wanted to make sure there was a record of these.  This kid has a lot of things going against her in terms of potential reasons for headaches, including a family history of migraines.  Now we have a plan in place in case the headaches become worse.

Second, we wanted to speak with one of the hospital social workers in regards to funding for Anna's summer Advance program. Without going into all of the details, just know that the insurance piece of life has taken a bit more time and mental energy than it has in awhile.

Ethan came along for the neuro-oncology appointment since the family he was scheduled to be with had been experiencing a nasty virus.  We made it work, but 2+ hours in the small exam rooms are long for Anna and me.  It was extra challenging for a four year old.

Moving on ...

Dentist - Surprisingly all is good for Anna.  We made the decision to switch to a pediatric dentist for Anna since they tend to have more experience with kids who have gone through cancer treatments.  Sure enough, instead of spending several minutes with a dentist explaining to them Anna's specific treatments and those problems for which she is at risk, this dentist was able to explain things to me.  Hooray!  We love finding new experts.  At this point, Anna has zero cavities and her overall oral hygiene is good (thanks in part to the fancy, shmanzy electric toothbrush she has been using).  All of her adult teeth (minus the wisdom teeth) can be seen on a panoramic x-ray and they all look to have developed relatively normally.  The only concern at this point is thin enamel on her six year molars, which still haven't fulled erupted.  And that overbite she developed because of the 4+ year thumb sucking habit.

Vision Specialist - Not as good, but still with potential.  We decided to take Anna to a vision therapist in addition to the ophthalmologist she has seen for the past three years.  Nothing was getting better with regards to her double vision, so we wanted to give vision therapy a try.  We figured that there is no harm in trying.  The therapist officially diagnosed Anna with "sixth cranial nerve palsy" (which I think I had heard before, but never as clearly explained).  Basically, the nerve that triggers the muscles to pull Anna's left eye outward was damaged.  The therapist said she has seen and successfully treated adults with this condition.  However, Anna's is pretty severe and she has lived with it now for three years, so the potential for success is lower.  The good news is that Anna has some control of those muscles, just limited.  In the next 8 weeks, we are going to try some targeted eye exercises with Anna to see what, if any, improvement happens.  Then we will all decide if more therapy is worth pursuing.

And then we pounded through our taxes on Saturday morning.  Believe it or not, but we have not yet qualified for a medical deduction in any of the years since Anna's diagnosis.  You have to hit a ridiculously high number before it's considered worth itemizing the medical expenses.

In addition, in each of the last two weekends, one or the other of the girls has had an extra amount of work from school, whether from absences, preparing Valentine's, or just because.  It's no fun for anyone to spend a few hours on a Saturday doing homework.

But ... we have a new nephew in the family!  My brother and his wife are the proud parents of a beautiful baby boy.  I will hold off on any other details or pictures until I am authorized to share them on this blog :)

Time for Prayers

Thanksgiving
Please give thanks that the new nephew arrived healthy and to happy parents.
Please thank God for all of the billing/insurance people working with us, and behind the scenes, in the last three years.  We have had very, very few issues with our insurance company up to this point.
Please give thanks for all of the experts in their fields, whether it be oncology, neurosurgery, therapy, educational, dental, etc.
Please thank God that our family is in a stable enough place to weather weeks like the last few with grace, patience, and flexibility.

Requests
Please pray for Adam and Jess as they begin their journey of parenthood.
Please ask God to give us clear guidance about the direction our summer should take.  I don't like uncertainty, so I need some extra peace and patience right now :)
Please pray that we are able to find creative ways to encourage Anna to do her eye exercises.  So far we have a few ideas, but they may get old fast.
Please ask God to continue to grant Anna the perseverance and motivation to work as hard as she works.
Please pray that Anna sees the results of her hard work, her wisdom, and her kindness.

Thanks for putting up with our random blog entries :)