Resurrection Weekend @ Grandad & Grandmom's

I FORGOT MY CAMERA!!  The "few" (it only seems like "few" to ME, I'm sure) pictures I have, I took on my sister's camera.

We got to Grandad & Grandmom's house Friday evening.  Our heat had been out for a month, and that was not a problem, because we had been just using space heaters.  With Stephen working at home and me homeschooling, generally someone was at home running a heater most of the time.  We made efficient use of the space heaters by relocating all residents of our home, including the pets, into one room in the basement for the month of March.

Well, this posed a dilemma all of a sudden.  The night time temps were supposed to be quite cold while we were gone.  Would the pets survive. 

Janet is NOT an animal person.  But she and Dad graciously allowed us to bring our pets to their home for the weekend. 

Sherry picks the kids up so Stephen and I could pack all of our STUFF and PETS into our car.  We arrived at my dad's with 2 ferrets, 4 hermit crabs, 1 beta, an ant farm and a stink bug.  Stephen and I pull into the driveway and all of a sudden we're thinking....do we tell Janet about the ants and stinkbug?  Not trying to be dishonest, but will she get the heebyjeebies and be nervous??  This lady takes disliking insects to a whole new level! 

So we just gingerly carry them in and place them by Dad's woodstove...we figured she didn't walk back into that area much.  We were wrong.  :)  Oh well....she didn't seem to heebyjeebyish!

Dyan got there late Friday night, so the kids had the pleasure of waking up to see her Saturday morning.

Saturday afternoon we had an egg hunt.  Janet plans a really cool one every year.

The hunters in my annual jump-over-the-creek-to-get-to-the-eggs picture...
2013

 2012

 2011

Hunting...

The hiders...

Once they were down to the last few eggs, Stephen, in his characteristic manner, led an organized search&rescue  formation...

Janet also planned a greeting picture that said "Happy Easter, Bobby!" for my step-brother.  Then she simply changed the "y" in Bobby to an "i" and made it "Happy Easter, Bobbi!" for my mother-in-law.  :)

I like this picture of Grandad and Iris.  Whatever was playing on the telly...while it lulled Grandad to sleep, it obviously mildly terrified Iris!

We all went to church with Dad and Janet.  Dad, Janet, Dyan and I played a good bit of the worship music celebrating Christ's Resurrection.  It was really neat!


Here are the kiddos in their Easter outfits once we got back to the house...

Stephen and I...

He is Risen!!

Homeschool Egg Hunt

I knew we wouldn't be able to go to our church egg hunt this year, so I planned an allergen friendly ;) egg hunt for the homeschoolers in our church family.  It was so fun!  If I was faster and better with a camera...there were just so many sweet opps for pics!!

Before we left, I gave the kids their baskets...I may have gone a little over the top this year....

Lucy with her bunny...she had fallen in love with it at Hobby Lobby one day...

Iris with her bunny (which I would have NEVER picked out for her, being a baby blue puppet!) but she had also seen it and gone smitten  a while back.

Clyde and his bunny.  This boy ADORES his stuffed bunnies like you wouldn't believe...he has treasured all his bunnies he's gotten every year.  He loves this one's "soft, cuddly ears."

Then we went to the hunt!  I SO wish we had gotten a group picture!!  There were at LEAST nine families represented there!!  I was thrilled with the turn out and all the kids seemed thrilled as well.  The older kids graciously hid the eggs and the younger hunted :)

Then came examining the treasures.

We had girl egg fillers and boy egg fillers this year and that made it even more fun, instead of the weird stuff I've always used before, we got to do arrowheads, adhesive mustaches, bacon bandaids, venus fly trap seeds, etc for the boys, and embroidery floss, puzzle erasers, fuzzy stickers, slap bracelets, squinkies, etc for the girls.

There was a lot of excited trading among both girls...

and boys....

A Large Part of Us Is Missing

The kids and I all got haircuts...some more dramatic than others...

Clyde got his shorn back down.   He didn't want to, but we were mean and made him.  I think it's adorable and it's been a WHILE.

I got mine cut.  Not good at taking pictures of myself...Stephen kept saying, "Don't take it straight on."

And for the grand finale....


Lucy got the MOST length cut and seemed quite happy about it.  And though Iris cried driving to the salon, walking to it, while it was being cut, and while it was drying, BOTH girls now love their new dos.

My Sweet Geeks

One day, my husband came up from his office and announced that there was going to be a local 3D printer fair.  My kids squealed in delight.  I looked at them like they were nuts.  Why was this so exciting?  Anyway, it was.  So we all went and I took pics of the all the wonderfulness.

This is mostly what I saw there....3 little brunettes scrunching together peering into the inner workings of various 3D printers.

Iris is manipulating some gears that a printer made.

Clyde is holding a ball...withing a ball....within a ball....within a ball...within a ball...

Apparently when you blow air at this ball, the inner balls will roll.

Lucy adored the designing software.  She spent quite a while here dreaming and designing what she would print, if she only had a printer.

Clyde holding a Yoda head...

Clyde and Iris worked little printed puzzles FOREVER.

Here they are learning how 3D printing helps playground designers see how the parts will work together before spending the big bucks making the pieces from more expensive materials.

Apparently, Lucy found this 3D printed cathedral (Notre Dame?) to be astonishing.

Iris thought the chains were impressive.  I didn't have my flash on while she was twirling this one, so you can't see the links very well. 

I have a feeling will be attending any of these we find out about, so if you plan on coming to one...
expect to see us there!

Iris's Tooth Extraction

Iris has been complaining of her cheek hurting for some time.  I really thought it was a muscle problem... maybe just some weakness.  She's always had trouble chewing meat and I did as a kid, so that is to what I attributed the complaints.

But when it started waking her up and causing her to cry, I took her to the dentist. 

He found a huge hole on the back side of one of her molars.  It looked as though it COULD be infected.  He told us it would have to come out, sent us home with antibiotics, and told us to come back in a week.

I was very torn about this dental office.  I had heard wonderful things about the office.  I wasn't going back to the kids' old pediatric dentist, because he's far away and did some not so stellar work on Lu.  BUT this one was not going to let me go back with her.  BUT, most pediatric dentists don't.  BUT, they said I could go back with her for her FIRST visit (Iris has extreme anxiety.)  You see my dilemna.

But she LOVED them and wanted to go to them for her extraction even though I couldn't go back with her.

However, afterward was a different story.

The dental assistant brought her out and Iris just clung to me and whenever the lady spoke to her, she kept her face turned away and wouldn't look at her.  The assistant told me she would be numb for 2 hours, and would be fine with Tylenol or Motrin.

She had had Tylenol w/ codeine too recently, she couldn't have more for quite a while.  But they said she'd be numb for a while, so I thought I was good.  I took her out to the car, told her how proud I was of her and snapped this picture to message immediate family.  (replaced the bloody gauze for clean, first) But I knew something was wrong.  She kept holding her cheek and her face muscles were so tense.

Right after I snapped the picture, she starts sobbing. 

"Mommy, it hurt so bad!"
"Honey, I'm so sorry!  Did you tell them?"
"Yes."
"Did they say anything or give you more medicine or gas?"
"No.  And when I asked if my tooth was out yet, the lady said they weren't going to pull my tooth.  Why did she say that?  And they hurt me.  And YOU weren't there and I wanted you and it HURTS!"
"It hurts now??"
"Yes!"

So I drive to get her ibuprofen.  It doesn't help.  She's crying off and on for a long while.  I stay in the pharmacy parking lot, because I'm hoping they'll call something in for her and she REALLY doesn't want me to put her in her seat (she never does this.)  When I talked to the dental office (a couple different times) they just kept telling me she shouldn't be hurting.  Which was NOT helpful, because she was.  They didn't believe me.  Finally the dentist called and listened and informed me that she shouldn't be hurting.  Gee, thanks?  He closed with a, "Call me if you have any problems."  Hmmm.  I couldn't figure out how to help ease the pain, they gave me no advice or tips.  I went back inside to buy some instant cold packs.

Eventually she calmed a little.  Then the bleeding slowed and I wasn't changing gauze as often.  Then she got in her seat, Clyde held her hand and I got her home.

She walked in the door, got a paper towel to keep drool from getting on her clothes and laid on the couch.  She had her head propped up in a most uncomfortable looking manner, but did not want to be moved, propped on a pillow, or held.  She did not want to talk or answer questions.  I wasn't sure what to do.

I was just about to pop a movie in for her, when Lucy crawled up on the couch and started reading a book to her.  Then Clyde crawled behind her and started petting her head.

(he won't pet heads for pictures!)

After an hour of this, she seemed much improved...just uncomfortable, but no longer in pain.

Two more hours and it was like nothing ever happened.  But I do NOT believe she was not in pain earlier.  And for some reason, she does NOT want to go back to that dentist.  She insists she wants to go to a grown-up, boring dentist with no movies or toys as long as they will let me go back with her.  So we will not be returning.  I'm thankful she bounced back so quickly.  Obviously, they were correct that she would return to normal quickly, but I just felt like they didn't take her pain seriously.

Here she is showing Daddy her tooth.

Here's the tooth.  You can see the awful hole on the one side...the other side is just the plain tooth.  Look at the roots on that baby tooth!! 

A few hours ago, she ran to get ready for bed proclaiming that she was, "the happiest little girl in the world!" 

Stephen and I just looked at each other like is this really the same child?...same day?  So thankful that tooth is out of her head! 

Prospero

We got a new pet.  I know, right!  When will I learn?

Well, I needed a fish for my science class to show my kids.  I didn't want to have to do the whole air pump, filter, etc thing... so I got a beta.

He's lovely.  The kids and I love to stare at him, and feed him one pellet of food at a time, and watch him eat any gnats that land on the surface of his water, and stare at us while we eat, and, and, and....

He is now the centerpiece of our dining table.

I decided since he's so terribly lovely, he really needed a Shakespearean name.  Lucy was really rooting for "Puck."  I strongly considered "Othello" because I love that name, but he just isn't an "Othello."  Finally I decided he needed to be a fellow "Tempest" player, like myself, and named him "Prospero."

We take pet names VERY seriously around here :)

He is already much beloved.