Simple Dates

The older two kids went to a birthday party

Since Mackayla is a "big kid" but didn't get to go to the party, we went to get ice cream:)

 Bubble gum ice cream is a full time mom job

and a bad idea in general

But she sure loved it

 Ben and I went on a quick date to the San Clemente pier.
We just strolled along and got some hot chocolate at the end of the pier.

 
Some fishermen caught something cool as we got there...

a sting ray!

 We went to the park one evening. For some odd reason I didn't take any pictures of the kids, just my husband on the climbing wall:)

 Costco is the only place I can coax Cody into going-mostly for the samples-and they talked me into getting a picture with the bear. It's still a major feat (shopping). Summer may be long and foodless for us:)

The kids don't get out of school until June 24th. sheesh

Mama said there'd be days like this

We went to our neighborhood water park for Memorial Day

After a while of playing Macey curled up in her towel and laid there.

I finally took her home- she had come down with a fever.

That night she didn't have a fever.

At about midnight she came in 

Fainted

Then Threw up.

and was saying strange things and walking crooked.

We were up most of the night.

Thinking she had some sort of heat exhaustion I took her to the doctor the next morning to make sure everything was ok.

(Cody had also developed a fever the day before too, but it went away and he seemed fine. He stayed home from school to be 24 hours fever free and came to the doctor with us.)

The doctor said Macey should be just fine and he wasn't concerned about any of the symptoms I described because she seemed alert and just fine today and didn't have a fever.

He checked her lungs.

Then he checked Cody's

Then he checked Mackayla's

They all have walking pneumonia.

(It's the least serious kind.)

That night, after the fifth time Mackayla asked me to take her potty in the last 10 minutes,

I got out a UTI test to check her.

I was trying to coax her to pee on a stick

--I should mention that she insists on being alone while she goes to the bathroom so it was taking a while--

then Cody head butted Macey and got blood all over her blanket and made her tooth a little loose.

Mackayla's test showed up positive.

I called the doc to see if her antibiotics would do double duty on the pneumonia and UTI, all while the kids were screaming.

Luckily Ben was home by this time.

The doctor said it should be okay-the store tests are usually wrong anyway.

All in all, everything was minor

which is awesome and I am SO grateful.

That was a scary night.

The kids have been relatively good considering~

It's almost noon and I am still not dressed but we have made a couple crafts, some zucchini bread, mini bake stuff and an egg crate alligator...

Que PBS cartoons. :)

"Colors"

This is one of my kids' favorite activities.

You need a cookie sheet to hold all the pouring spills.

Good activity to get good at pouring.

I got some little clear containers from BiMart, but I'm sure you could find them anywhere.

 And saved a bunch of medicine containers and all those baby medicine paraphernalia.

Fill a few of the containers and add one or two drops of food coloring to them.

 Teaches coordination and color knowledge.

It's actually one of Macey's favorite things to do.

 This is an awesome winter activity...now that winter is over!

Stand For Those Who Can't

Stop Fight Cure

SMA

 We got our shirts

and are pretty excited!

 We love you Benson!

 Visit Benson's Blog here.

Purple Flower Rain

These trees along our road suddenly have turned purple

and they randomly fall like rain. purple flower rain.

I made bread today and decided to just steal some for dinner.

 Pizza-or bread smashed flat like pizza- crust

goat's milk cheddar cheese

Arugula

Pear

Parmesan Cheese

400 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

Yum.

Fresh arugula looks pretty, but I actually love it piled on top fresh.

 My sister told me about her favorite smoothie ever.

1 can Light coconut milk

tropical frozen fruit mix (from Costco)

Ice

Blend together. Bam.

It is soooo good.

Three Little Favorites

Mackayla

What is your favorite color? orange

Favorite food? Corn dog and hot dog

Least favorite food? chicken

Favorite toy? Monkey (no idea what this even is), and a whale

Favorite movie? Dora

Favorite song? Shake your booty

Favorite animal? puppy

Favorite thing to do? Play in the boxes outside and inside

What are you scared of? Monsters

Mackayla - Day Two

What is your favorite color? green

Favorite food? Hot chocolate and toast

Least favorite food? Chicken

Favorite toy? monkey

Favorite movie? Dora Explorer

Favorite song? Giggo

Favorite animal? Deers

Favorite thing to do? Playing with toys, choo choo train

What are you scared of? Dinosaurs

Favorite person? Grandma

A "list" of hers

Mackayla is subtle. People don't know how sharp she is unless they make a point to notice her.

The kids have told her she is shy but I tell her that some kids know how to talk to others and some kids get to learn but she'll be just fine.

Everyday the cross guards at Cody's school wait to hear her cheerful "HI!!!" as we pass by. And she usually updates them on whether or not she has on shoes.

Because she is such a chill child you would never guess that she can chatter NONSTOP in the car. Half the time she says the cutest funniest things but I can't remember them because as I'm trying to stash them in my brain she's yelling, "OK mom?! Ok mom?! Mom!" nonstop.

She loves to interrupt the other two kids when they're excitedly telling me something.

Once she has my attention she'll repeat exactly what they said.

One of her Favorite things to do is draw.

Intricate little pictures that she explains to herself as she draws them.

If Ben isn't home she almost always asks where he is and then says, "Is he at work?" or "Is he at scouts?"

She decided to change right before Cody's baseball game.

Then at the game I realized she was flashing the whole world with her bare bum sticking out of her skirt.

She had taken off her underwear and didn't replace it:)

Luckily I had extra.

 Macey

Favorite color? Pink

Favorite food? Blueberries

Least favorite food? Types of chicken

Favorite toy? My pink dolphin with a heart on it

Favorite movie? My little pony

Favorite song? Shakeable you (from ballet class)

Favorite animal? Cat

Favorite thing to do? Snuggle with mom. Watching tv.

What are you scared of? Dragons. [But really?] Lord Garmedon? (I'm going to add: Flushing the Toilet!)

She puts so much detail and effort into every single paper she does in preschool. 

 One day we were discussing "hobbies."

If you ask me right now, I am going to require my kids to have at least one extra curricular activity to do when they're junior high/high school age. One music and one sport, depending on the dynamics of the kids and how things pan out. I don't know, I'm not there yet.

I asked Macey what she wanted to do for her hobby when she grew up.

She said "school," in this voice that sounded like it would be the coolest thing on the planet if I would let her. So ironically cute. 

Tonight she told me she had decided the earth was a boy. There is a song that talks about the earth, it's a primary children's song but I can't pinpoint it right now, and it says "she" for the earth.

But, she reasoned, the earth is made in boy colors, so it must be a boy.

This girl really wants to be understood. 

She goes to great great lengths to explain things and make sure she's understood.

Cody

Favorite color? Green, blue and black

Favorite food? Cooked tortillas with jelly and peanut butter

Least favorite food? Rice

Favorite toy? All of them

Favorite movie? Imaginext

Favorite song? Radioactive by Pentatonix and Lindsey stirling

Favorite animal? Alligator

Favorite things to do? play legos, chess, Sudoku, baseball, handball

What are you scared of? being lost.

We have hundreds of these drawings.

We always let the kids brings stuff to draw with at church and Cody fills papers with guys, beasts, volcanoes, tornadoes, sharks, you name it.

This is a school project for mother's day. First he used pencil, then crayon, then watercolor. I love it!

Cody's school talks to them about eating healthy.

They must be pretty convincing because one day I put a cookie in Cody's school lunch and he didn't eat it because it's not healthy (that's a big deal for my little food inhaler.)

The kids were discussing Cookie Monster and Mackayla said "I love cookie monster"

to which Cody answered

"Oh, he is so not healthy."