Phone Update

I have an iPhone now (thanks to my mom) which enables me to usher in the 21st century and takes lots of pictures when I don't have my camera readily accessible.  I have had the phone for a few weeks and already have over 200 pictures.

Left to right, top to bottom.

1.  Jack gets a new umbrella. I asked him to pose with the umbrella and he put it down next to him.
2.  Lilly loves scarves and likes to wear them in many elaborate folded ways. Incredible fashion forward thinking from that girl.
3.  Breakfast.
4.  Lilly and I taught Jack how to jump into piles of leaves.
5.  Jim and I went to see a play, Moon Over Buffalo, in Bloomsburg, It was a great play and we had a great night out.
6.  Jack likes to wear his hat even in his pajamas.
7.  Jack dancing with his hat and no pants.
8.  We (Jim) raked up the leaves and stuffed them into trash bags to be picked up the next day but Jim and the kids turned them into leaf beds.
9.  The children begged to bring the leaf beds inside but I declined.

The Pumpkin Patch

The story of our pumpkin patch visit must begin 24 hours earlier at the mall.

I was shopping with Jack at the mall when he found the most darling fedora hat.  I have ALWAYS wanted Jack to wear a fedora, so when he grabbed it off the shelf, tried it on, and declared it was HIS hat, I bought it for him! Hurray!

He wore the hat all the way home from the mall (40 minute drive) and then left it in the car before he got out.

The next morning our family went to the pumpkin patch.  I had dressed Jack in cute jeans and a warm shirt since he refuses to wear a sweatshirt or a coat.  Just as I was about to close the doors of the mini van he screamed "Hat!" and he jumped back in the car and grabbed the fedora hat.

It was at that instant that I realized my 2 year old was dressed as Freddy Kreuger.  Minus the claws and creepy face.

I texted my sister the picture of Jack dressed as a monster and she texted back the following picture:

From that point on all the pumpkin patch pictures were slightly tainted by my two year old dressed as a classic 80's slasher icon.  Luckily he is really adorable, so it was still okay.

More upstate New York

Jim and my dad ran the Mighty Niagara race along the Niagara river.  While I was waiting for them at the finish line the kids and I checked out the shore of Lake Ontario.  I have no recollection of seeing a great lake before and it was quite impressive.  Since I lived in Buffalo, NY as a child I am sure I have seen a great lake before but this was the first time in recent memory.

Lilly didn't believe me that it was a lake, since we couldn't see the other side of it she was convinced it was an ocean.  She had a good point, it did look like an ocean. It was very impressive.

Jack really enjoys throwing rocks, whether it be into water or not.

Here I am with my children.

Jim and my dad ran a great race, it was a pretty exciting day.  Thanks for the great trip Dad!

Winners!

Zoo

The weekend after our Niagara trip my mom took the children to a very special breakfast at the zoo for Smithsonian members only.  She bought tickets well in advance and planned to take her grandchildren by herself for a special morning at the zoo and she documented it on her iPhone.

They had a fantastic time and from what I hear my children saved all their good behavior for Grandma.

Only a Grandma would stand in a face painting line for 40 minutes to get the best face painting EVER.

According to my mom, Jack was the darling of the zoo.

My mom bought them those stuffed animals at the zoo and they have each become attached to their respective animals.

Jack insists that his stuffed cheetah is a tiger and he calls it "Roar."  He sleeps with it at nap time and bed time.  It took a few times of him asking for "Roar" before I figured out what he meant.

Stuffed Panda.

Real Panda (below).

Thanks Mom!

My cool sister

My sister helps me to keep me aware of any new popular things I should know about.  Like the new Korean song "Gangam Style."
She introduced me to the song and I watched it on you tube after 400,000,000 other people had already watched.  My sister posted a video of her son dancing to it, so I had to do the same here.
My children LOVE this song.  This is the first time they are hearing it:

Niagara Falls

We went to Niagara Falls a few weekends ago for the Mighty Niagara half marathon that Jim and my dad ran.  Before the race we went to visit the falls.  It was a stormy morning, and a little cold and rainy.

Then we went on Maid of the Mist and Jack was furious that we put a plastic poncho on him.

That's Canada behind us.  We don't have passports so that was as close as we got to Canada.

Then Jack cheered up.

Then the boat came to pick us up.

Lilly and Jack weren't crying but they weren't thrilled with the boat ride either.

Then the sun came out and we could actually see the falls.

Below are the American Falls. It wasn't as sunny in America.

More boat pictures....I don't want to spoil it for anyone but no one vomited on or off the boat. Win!

The other side of the American Falls.

More pictures later...

Pinkeye

I still have two weekend trips that I would like to post about, but it is taking me longer to sift through pictures than I anticipated.  In the mean time I would like to give you a glimpse into the past two days at my house courtesy of my phone pictures.

Tuesday afternoon Jack woke up from his nap with a fever of 102, out of the blue.  Wednesday morning Lilly and Jack woke up with fevers and various pains, including but not limited to a suspicious swollen/pink eye.

(At the doctor.)

I took them to the doctor and the doctor explained the diagnosis in complex medical terms.  It sounded to me like a complicated head cold accompanied with pinkeye for Lilly.  I didn't really believe she had pinkeye, look at her eye, it's really not that bad. However, I canceled piano lessons and music classes and stayed home in bed watching cartoons ALL DAY.

Thursday morning Lilly woke up with zero puffiness, no visible pink to her eye, and no fever.  I took her late to school but Jack was still sick so I canceled more piano lessons and we watched more cartoons in bed.

While Lilly was at school I found rotting squash and zucchini in my cupboard that I had forgotten about and spent 30 minutes cleaning and disinfecting and trying not to vomit from the rotting flesh smell. Meanwhile Jack REFUSED to take a nap so we watched more cartoons.

Lilly came home from school and told me that her eye was hurting all day.  She then asked if she could paint her own nails by herself without my help.  I decided to allow her that freedom and not interfere.  Also, Jack and I were still busy watching cartoons.

We then spent 30 minutes cleaning up nail polish, which was a very difficult thing to do.  Side note- I did not get angry at all about the nail polish and we laughed the whole time cleaning it up.  This was a superior parenting moment that I am bragging about.

While we were cleaning up the nail polish Jack was screaming for milk and I told him he needed to wait which made him very upset.  Once I resurfaced from the bathroom I saw that Jack was either trying to help or acting out in anger because he didn't receive his milk.

After I put the children to bed Lilly called to me that her eye was hurting and I went into to check on her to find her eye super pink and puffy and she had a fever.  Glad to know I sent her to school thinking the doctor was wrong about pinkeye.

This morning Lilly woke up with more eye pain and a fever.  Jack woke up super congested.  Hence we are home for the third day in a row.  Someone might go insane.  Hard to say who will be the first to crack.

On the upside we got 2 new windows installed this morning.  I love getting new things installed and it makes me want to have everything new.

One new window in the kitchen...

As you can see through my beautiful new kitchen window, it is a sunny and lovely fall day outside. Not the best day to be home sick.

One new window in our bedroom to replace the previous rotting window.

The window in the kitchen is the most exciting.  I didn't take a before picture, but imagine a window from 1972 with rotting wood and holes to the outside that allow in bugs.  Actually imagine that for both windows.

New windows are very exciting and give me hope that the children will be healthy soon and we can rejoin the outside the world again.