Cute Pants Mom!

Last night I was wearing my gray yoga pants. Gracie said "Mom, when you die can I have those pants?" I said sure. Then she said, "I will be really sad when you die, but I really like those pants!"

Kids are so cute!

Smiley Faces!

I have been sick this week. Cold, fever, sore throat, really fun stuff. I think I only left the couch to change the movie for the kids or maybe feed them, I think I fed them!?! Anyway, Jacob and Allie found the smiley stickers and had a great time with them, what do you think?

And First Place Goes To............

Emma Stevulak!

A few months ago, Emma entered the school science fair and won 3rd place so she got to move on to the regional science fair. On Tuesday, March 17th, 2009 Emma and Michael drove to the science fair. At 9am they met the school advisor and she took them to see Emma's project. Michael spent a little while with Emma reviewing her project and then he had to take a seat in the auditorium. For two hours Emma had to stand at her project and answer questions from different judges. The parents weren't allowed on stage during judging. After judging they went to lunch at Panda Express and spent some time outside waiting for the awards ceremony. Michael wasn't going to stay for the awards because I had an enrichment activity and he wanted to be back in time so that I could go. Emma wanted to stay and I was okay with that. At 3:30 they started the awards and did the 4th and 5th graders first. The presenters announced the honorable mentions and then did 3rd and 2nd place for 4th grade, and then they said for Engineering and Mathematics 1st place goes to Emma Stevulak!!!! She was in shock! She couldn't believe that she had won! It was amazing, Michael had tears in his eyes he was so happy for her, and I was screaming when they called me! She got a gold medal on a blue ribbon. It was a very long day, but well worth it. Michael had to take the pictures from a mile away, so they are kind of blurry, but it's the best he could get. I didn't go to enrichment, we went to celebrate! We took Emma to Olive Garden for dinner and Coldstone for dessert, It was a great day!

There were 140 schools participating and 550 kids in 10 different categories. Michael thinks there were around 50 kids in her category and grade! This was a really big deal! I am so proud of Emma, and Michael for that matter. He helped Emma with her project while I was in Seattle. They did a great job!

Allie's Invention

It's a chair! You strap yourself in and sit!
But when you want to move, you stand and walk and your chair is right there when you need it again!
It's a hands-free ready to use chair! Great idea Allie!

L.A. Zoo

On Tuesday, Gracie and I went to the L.A. Zoo with her class for a field trip. I had Gracie, Charli, and Evelyn in my group. We had tons of fun and saw everything we could possibly see, several things more than once! We rode the school bus down to L.A. (it even had seatbelts!) We ate lunch and then tried to find everyone's favorite animal. Unfortunately the elephant enclosure is under construction so we didn't see them very well, but a very nice zoo man told us where we could get a peek, so we did in fact get to see everything! We hit the gift shop and then back on the bus to head for home, it was a lot of fun and I am glad that I could go with Gracie - Thank you Michael for staying home so I could go!

Urgent Care *%$#!

I had to take Gracie to urgent care this morning. We waited for two hours for them to tell us that Gracie in fact has strep throat. Okay, no biggie. We waited for an hour to get her medicine and then we finally went home. I gave the first dose at 2pm. At 4pm Gracie says "Mom, my back is itchy". Having dealt with two previous allergies to amoxicillan I pretty much knew what I would see when she lifted her shirt and sure enough, hives. Bumpy, itchy, red hives. I called the nurse to see if we could just switch meds over the phone, but no dice. I took her back to urgent care at 4:55, peds urgent care is open until 5pm. They wouldn't look at her. They told me I had to take her over to the adult urgent care because they were now closed. Apparently 5pm at Kaiser means something different than 5pm at my house. I took her to adult urgent care at 5pm. At 7:40 the doctor finally sees Gracie and tells me what I already know. Gracie had an allergic reaction to her medicine and needs a new one. After the doctor visit was pharmacy visit #2 and at 9:15 we finally get home and eat dinner. You may have heard this from me before, but I don't recommend Kaiser. It would have taken the doctor in peds 5 minutes to walk out her door and look at Gracie and order a new medicine, AND she still would have been out of there by 5pm. But no, why try to help a patient out and spare a second urgent care co-pay and wait time. AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Toe Nail Drama

My darling little Allie HATES to have her nails trimmed, absolute torture for the poor girl (and me). Last night she was in desperate need of serious trimming, so I tried to be clever. I thought that if I could trim the first one and then paint it (she has never had her toenails painted before) she would like it. WRONG - do you remember the backpack fit from Christmas? Well, this was just as bad. I got the first nail trimmed which she usually allows, and then I got it painted. She started screaming at me! She was sooooo mad I couldn't believe it! What little girl hates pink toenails? Anyway, I kept telling her how pretty it was and trying to calm her down to see if I could get any more done. I trimmed the second one which was a bit of a challenge, and then painted it and told her it was pretty. She didn't seem to settle down very much so I stopped with just two done, after all two was better than zero. I put the nail stuff away and started to put the polish away and she freaked out! She tried to get the polish away from me and I thought she wanted to put it away but then she sat down and pointed to toe number three and said "Pretty". So I asked her if she wanted me to paint that toe and she said "yeah!" I told her that I needed to trim it first and she went and got the clippers out of the drawer and gave them to me. After that she very excitedly pointed to each undone toe and said "Pretty" - We got the rest of her toes trimmed and polished and she very happily showed everyone in the family and said pretty over and over until bed time! I sure love that confusing, infuriating, adorable little girl!

Allie's New Dress

Thank you Grandma for my pretty new dress!

A Rumpus In The Rainforest

Gracie performed in her 1st grade play this week called A Rumpus In The Rainforest. It was a really cute play and Gracie was the Toucan. She did a great job and wasn't even a tiny bit shy, (she was worried she would be). The play was about a frog who wanted to go see the sky above the trees, but didn't know how to get up there. He asks the toucan first, but she is injured so he asked several jungle animals like the sloths, the monkeys, the jaguar, and the snakes, but no one can help him. In the end the toucan's wing gets better and she takes him to see the sky above the trees. Gracie likes to add that the frog doesn't really climb on her back they just pretend! (Which is a good thing because the frog is twice as big as Gracie!)

Michael finds razor, loses mind!

Death in our Family

We had a tragic loss in our family on Saturday. Our trampoline died! (sorry if I scared you) I know some of you laughed, but for us it is a huge loss! It has been a dear member of our family for about 6 years now and we will truly miss it! A spring popped off a while ago and it wasn't a big deal, but then another did. I told the kids if 4 popped off in the same section we had to take it down. Saturday was the awful moment it happened. The hole it created was just too big to ignore and we sadly took it down. No worries, we have every intention of replacing it ASAP!



As I was taking off the rest of the springs, Jacob was very distraught, and mad. Then he found something to entertain himself. He started to hang the springs on the rings that were hanging down from the mat. As he did this he was singing Jingle Bells and hitting the springs like they were bells! It is amazing to me the things that children come up with! He was soooooo cute!