Pretty Flowers

After our weekend away, we arrived home to this beautiful bouquet! Interestingly, in the same colors as the bridal shower ;)

The kids were happy to discover a bag full of LEGOs on the table too! It turns out Buck's store was the top LEGO seller in the region, so LEGO (this is a lot of LEGO references) gifted the store manager with a bag of goodies to say thank you. The store manager's children are college-aged, so he sent the bag home with Buck for our kiddos. Bonus! :) There was a little Duplo set inside, and G wanted to run them over to a little buddy in our neighborhood who had just knocked his head into a door and come out with a few stitches. Little did I know, we'd be joining the neighborhood stitch club today! But, I thought it was sweet of him to think of his little friend :)

 

Tough Day for Doodles!

So, after karate this morning, we walked in the house. I sat down at the computer desk to send a message to a former hometown gal who is moving to our current town. Little did I know, I could soon add an emergency room recommendation to my list of "things to know" about where we live now!


I heard crying, and Buck said, "Jess, can you come up here a minute?" There was Gabby, in tears :( Poor kiddo; she and big sis were playing a game in their room, when Gabby I guess knelt down on the floor  . . . and found the sewing scissors that were already occupying that space. I don't think they poked her; it's more like she caught them open somehow? Ugh :(

I called the pediatrician's office, knowing that our pediatrician no longer works there (she sent a letter a week or so ago). They said they don't have any doctors in-house that stitch, but I could take her to either of the ERs in town, or I could take her to the neighboring state where our pediatrician will be affiliated in the future. We decided if it was ER regardless, we'd just go where our records were already in the system from well-child appointments.

I was feeling mommy-shaky on the inside, but Buck said I remained very calm :) Gabby did well, too. She said it really didn't hurt after Buck wrapped her leg up with some gauze and tape (the ER nurse thought he did a very good job, btw :)

The doctor (I think she said she was a physician's assistant, but I was a little distracted) normally works with a wound clinic--she said she loves procedures and does this sewing up of people all the time. Gabby got a little nervous waiting for them to return with the things they needed to patch her up, but she was brave when they returned. The doctor dripped a little of the medicine into the wound before she used the needle to numb the area--the pre-numb seemed really smart! The nurse told Gabby (as I had while they were out gathering supplies) not to look at the needle when it went in, but she had no problem looking at the stitching process. The doctor was great about talking with her and explaining what she was doing; the nurse shared pictures of her daughter (she was commenting on Gabby's dimples and said her little girl had dimples too). They kept it light and relaxed, and that was calming for Gabby--and her mother ;)

She ended up with four stitches, a seven day break from karate, and a story to share with her siblings. Whew! I hope we never have a broken bone or something serious . . . if so, I may have to send their dad :) I don't like to see my *babies* hurt! (but who am I kidding, I'd be going nuts at home!)

A Little Bit of This, and a . . .

Little Bit of That :) We've been hiding out from the heat, mostly, so I don't have any big events to post about, but here are few little bits and pieces of our week . . .

 

I got a new phone . . . technology. My husband is a selfie pro, so I decided to practice ;) Since I don't appear much on the blog, here is sunny me.

 

 
Before the heat knocked us to the air-co and fan-filled house, we ventured out to a nearby park and discovered gardens and gardens we'd never seen before (and bears . . . gotta take pics with bears :)

 

 

This is our very own, backyard park . . . my cousin always posts pictures of deer he's caught on his trail cams . . . well this guy just wandered through our world, so I thought I'd get a couple of his visit :)

 

 
Little Buddy wiggled another winner loose . . . Gab has pulled two or three in the last week or so, 'tis the season, I guess :) (Oh, and the really wild front tooth is that which was hiding beneath the tiny baby tooth he recently had pulled . . . we're hoping its neighbor joins today's loss and gives that poor, crooked adult tooth some room to come in properly!)

C designed this dress out of toilet paper . . . no wait, Kleenex. No wonder we can't keep tissues in stock around here! It's a very pretty doll dress (she'll just have to stay in out of the rain :)

 

This sandwich is one I've been fondly remembering since a baby shower more than 20 years ago (gasp!) I decided to try to build it myself. It's not as pretty as I remember the original, and maybe not quite as tasty either, but I'm glad I tried to build the ultimate, calorie-laden, cold-salad sandwich cake, lol!

If you've ever read Mary Poppins books, you'll know that (well, first, she's straight up mean!), and second the children go on trippy adventures that Mary vehemently denies participating in, even though she is inevitably behind the whole situation! I think this page explains what's really going on . . . she gives the children crack! ;) Oh, Mary!

Zippy

Jumping over June to July

Yesterday, we planned to go to church . . . we were all asleep when it was time to leave for church, half of us were asleep when church started, and the littlest was STILL asleep when church got over! Impressive, little man . . . impressive! This is in part due to our super fun Fourth of July celebrations, but also in part the recovery process of a lengthy June vacation . . . it would be a monumental challenge to catch all that jazz up on the blog, so we'll just scoot on into July :)

We were excited to discover a 4th brunch invitation hidden among our held mail. When we read "regrets only" by the 27th (as we read the invite on the 29th) we thought, "Well, shucks . . . guess we'll have to go!" :) The party took place at the home of our small group leaders, who also happen to be the kids' favorite *here* babysitter's parents. So they got to see Emily too!! (She went to college this winter and they missed her!)

Before I discuss the activities . . . let me just mention the food. I've never seen so many baked goods in one place! Cherry coffee cake, blueberry crumble coffee cake, cinnamon rolls, dessert breads . . . Karen made it ALL the day before. She said (upon being interrogated by me :) she started at 7:30 a.m. and Emily turned on the casserole crock pots at midnight. That's a full day of food prep :) She sent us home with a 9x13 sized tin of goodies, and a foil-wrapped sheet of cinnamon rolls. Good gravy, Marie!

The kids quickly fell in with kids they know from church, other homeschool families, and small group littles. Within minutes, most of them were up a tree already decorated with about eight other brave climbers. Tough tree! Buck and I sat with our neighbors' good friends, who were also in our small group, and got caught up on the summer so far. It was funny that later (muuuuch later) when we returned from hanging out with our other neighbors, this family was outside our house going through firecrackers with our next door neighbors (are you keeping all these neighbors straight? :)

Anyway, we talked til about noon, and then headed home--too full for lunch, but just right for naps :) Somewhere mid-afternoon the doorbell rang; Buck answered it and said there were two tiny girls with a glowing fire stick and arms full of firecrackers looking to "make friends." They wanted to know if our kids could come out and "play" . . . ummm? No parents? Fireworks? Probably not, little ladies! Instead a late lunch happened, then Buck took the G's to work for building checks. He only has this one round this year, which is nice! They were gone a long time though; they decided to try to find a fireworks stand (because it's legal the next state over to purchase them).

 

 

 

 
 

 


When they returned home, we signaled our church-friend-about-to-start-homeschooling-too neighbors, and we off we went on our next adventure! I couldn't figure out why they wanted to wait for us . . . yes, it was their family's party/property, but we had the address and our GPS . . . lol! We never would have found it! Our GPS instantly said it was an hour drive . . . less than 30 miles, but an hour drive. Then as we followed them, the arrival time slowly clicked backwards (in all it was maybe 25 minutes?) We drove dirt roads (in the freshly-washed-by-the-dealership-after-it-was-repaired van, which made our neighbor ask aloud if we'd purchased a new one--that's how often the van gets washed :) We drove through a field . . . a winding path through a corn field; we could have picked corn by rolling down the windows! Minutes later we arrived at a nice-sized pond (1/2 lake size) with a cute rustic cabin (used in previous years for camping . . . our neighbor has 5 siblings!) and lots of picnic grilling going on!

The kids wanted in the water, but we held them off long enough to get some food. The dock and diving boards are hand-built, like the cabin, and the zip line tower by our neighbor's dad. Super handy guy! Our kids were also thrilled to see kayaks, a canoe, and a paddleboat--just like the days of we three siblings on Grandma and Grandpa's Michigan lake . . . ahh memories! They splashed and JUMPED (did you see that child flying through the air?! She said the landing hurt a little :) until someone said, "HEY, we've got dynamite . . . let's blow up a truck!" Sure, why not? So off we went to another field and watched the "Boom-poof" of smoke and rusty truck. No mythbusters-like fireball, but fun anyway :)

Next it was zip-line time! Our neighbor went first, Buck was next in line; the kids followed him up the three? four? flights of wooden steps to see the seriously beautiful view! Rolling hills, the pond over the ridge, terraced fields of growing things, such a shout-out to the Midwest! This is why people love it here :) My husband returned via 4-wheeler (it was a pretty long zip!), and asked if I wanted to try. Well, duh! Of course! I've always wanted to zip-line :) The kids were super excited . . . this is when I realized I was wearing flip flops. Oh well, kick them off! Throw them from the tower (and then stand on tippy-toe because I was quite a bit shorter than my husband, and clipping the carabineer and harness on the handle-thingy seemed pretty important to me :) The ride was high, super fast, and fun! The ending  . . . a little sketchy. I knew I probably wasn't going to hit the tree to which the other end was anchored, but nobody had really talked a barefoot me through the process of landing :) The ground proved fairly soft, and with a bungee-like jerk (I think I may have covered bungee-jumping in this same ride :) I came to a wild stop! Buck picked me up on the 4-wheeler and we returned to cheers . . . cheers, AND my about-to-be-fellow-homeschool-mom strapping into the harness! She said watching me gave her courage, so off she went, zipping through the trees . . . also barefoot, also with no warning about the looming tree at zip-line end :)

After we'd impressed our children, we returned to the picnic pond and watched the crowd set off fireworks over the water. Some were pretty impressive in loudness . . . sparklers and kid-friendly fireworks also happened, and our kids were so bummed to go! Buck hadn't brought any of the fireworks he'd purchased earlier in the day, so when we returned home and found our next door neighbors still outside . . . it was on :)

I think showers at 11 p.m. (laundry still wasn't done, so not all undergarments were available at this late hour . . . not much I could do about that!) were the latest on record. Hence the sleepy heads the following morning. Graysen said, as the kids do every year, "This was the best Fourth of July ever!!" And it seems like we always do *stumble* into fun, fellowship, firework activities--with no planning on our part! I'm just glad I had a free watermelon in the fridge to contribute :)