Good and Bad at the Apple Orchard

Fall is the season of the apple orchards here in Michigan. There are countless ones to go to, but by far, my favorite is Three Cedars Farm. They have the best stuff for kids I've found and we love going there. We went there on Wednesday and luckily managed to make it right before a big storm. I was most excited to show Christian all the little animals - the pigs, goats, sheep, chickens, and especially the bunnies.


Each is in a pen decorated according to a nursery rhyme and you can press a button and hear the story told. I assumed he'd love them. Proved me wrong. This is what every picture of Christian with the animals looks like:


Apparently these guys are terrifying!!


Heaven help us when he walked passed the lamb and it baaa'd at him! He about jumped out of his skin. His little legs couldn't carry him away fast enough. Even seeing his sibs petting the animals didn't help, so I gave up and found him some things more up his alley.


Then he was fine. :) I've never seen this kind of thing anywhere else - a sandbox full of corn. He loved it.



I also had to take pictures of Benjamin's love of jumping on hay bales. He does that every year, since back when he was so little that people would gasp when they'd see him and say, "Doesn't that terrify you!?" It just makes him so happy!



And I had to take a picture of them both on it


to compare to this one:


What a difference a couple years makes!!

Then it was Bella's turn to have trouble. I saw this funny little bench and asked them to all sit on it for a picture. Everyone was sitting and I was snapping the shot when Bella suddenly jumped sky high. So this was the picture I got of Bella getting stung by a wasp.


I love the perplexed look on Benjamin's face like, "What's up with her?!" I felt so bad for her. It bled like crazy, which surprised me. I didn't think stings bleed. But I guess when your hand is that small, that stinger can go quite deep. She cried for 20 minutes and her hand got red, hot, and swollen. We decided to call it day. Soon thereafter she stared to shiver and developed a fever of 101.7. I thought the fever was a sign she got the strep that Benjamin had had, but she didn't develop any of the other symptoms of strep, so I think it was the sting. I kept an eye on her, but luckily by the next day, everything was back to normal and her hand looked fine. She got lots of mileage out of that story in preschool the next day, though. :)

Overall it was a great day at the orchard. Funny thing - we never ate or drank a single apple product. Between the sting and the storm that started just at the same time, we went home empty handed. We'll definitely go back again.

Our Weekend

This weekend was a bit of a bummer. We'd planned to go swimming, to the park, to have a playdate with friends, and to be in the primary program. In the end, we got to spend our time at home alone and at the doctor's office. Friday afternoon Benjamin complained that he was cold. No one else felt cold, so I told him to put on a sweatshirt and come cuddle with me on the couch. That's when I noticed that he was burning up. Fever of 102.6. I checked him over to find his lymph nodes were swollen in his neck and he had white puss on his tonsils. Strep Throat. Called the pediatrician, but of course, it's Friday afternoon at 4pm, so they've all gone home. Off to the Urgent Care. They did a quick strep test but the test was flawed because Benjamin couldn't hold still and it ended up coming back negative. They put him on antibiotics anyway. So we were home bound for the next 24 hours until he was no longer contagious. After a couple doses he started to feel better and his fever started to go down. I hoped to still let him be in the primary program because he's learned his part by heart and was so excited for it. But Sunday morning he woke up at 3am crying that his throat hurt and his fever was sky high again. So we spent Sunday at home all day too while he slept most of the day away. Bella and I entertained ourselves by making the princess train - the way in which you entice a girly girl to play trains with you - tape the princesses on the train cars.


Then she started to get super whiny and snotty so I left her alone and next thing I know, I find this:


Benjamin finally ate his first bite of food at 3:30 and actually seemed to be feeling a little better. Still in his spider man pjs.


Christian joined us for our snack, but lost his food somewhere. Can you help him find it? :) He stuck it up there to be funny and then honestly couldn't get it back. He kept rubbing his hands around on his head with a perplexed look on his face. It ended up staying up there for 15 minutes or so before I stopped laughing enough to take it off. In the meantime he was thrilled because he'd gotten mommy to laugh. What a crazy kid.


By bed time tonight Benjamin started feeling much better and his fever was down. We'll see how he feels tomorrow morning.

Photo Essay By Benjamin

This is probably one of those things that only a mother could enjoy but Benjamin took my camera yesterday and when I got it back, I couldn't help but laugh at what he'd photographed. I would title it, "Death of the Toys."






Then came my favorite. The socks were in nearly every picture, so it seemed only fitting to have a death of the socks photo too. What can I say, I'm easily entertained.

The Zoo

We went to the zoo a few days ao (my kids and Shade, the boy I tend a few days/week). I don't love the zoo for the sake of the animals, but I love, love, love taking the kids out on a beautiful fall day, spending time together, having fun, playing on the playround, riding the train, and marveling at the beauty of nature. It was a wonderful day and the kids seemed to love it too.

The first thing Benjamin wanted to do was see the butterflies. He's obsessed with monarch butterflies since they raised some in his classroom last year. He was so thrilled to find this one. So sweet to see how careful and gentle the kids were around them.


Loved this picture the best - the sign next to them says, "Please keep off the fence." That is sooo hard when you're so small! I'm bad but I never tell them to keep off. They want to see too!




Isabella was in an uncharacterically good mood too, so much so that she set aside her usual disdain for Christian and held his hand to help him down the curb. So sweet.



The zoo really is a happy place...for those outside of the cages, anyway.

Our Days in a Nutshell

It's been Groundhog Day around here lately. My kids have established a routine:

Wake Up
Go to School
Dig in Mud
Go to Bed



For three days they have spent every free minute in the mud. We have (should I say had?) a beautiful forsythia bush in the backyard. Every spring it bursts forth in vibrant yellow and every summer is provides us shade and privacy from our neighbors on that side. A week ago Benjamin decided to start digging around it to create a pit which he called his swimming pool. Ever since then it's a muddy, jumbled mess back there. Mud and torn up tree roots everywhere, piles of dirt thrown in all directions. Our neighbor came into our yard yesterday while they were digging and asked, astonished, "Where did you get all that dirt?" "From under our grass!" I replied. "Maybe you should buy them a sandbox," she replied, wide-eyed. All attempts to stop him have failed and partly I'm to blame. He's just having so gosh darn much fun! How do you stop a boy who's so delightedly playing at something which is ultimately so simple and carefree? In any case, he (and thus of course, the other two) spend their days digging, scraping, and watering their dirt patch. I've started requiring them to dress in only one article of clothing to save on laundry. I am torn between frustraton at the disaster they are making and delight at their creativity and fun. Unless they do ultimately kill the bush, I'm going to chalk this one up to "snips and snails" kind of boy fun and just let it go.

She's in Preschool!

Today was the much anticipated first day of preschool for Isabella. Since I've been taking Benjamin to this school for 2 years already, I wasn't such a stress case and I was able to remember to take plenty of pictures. Bella was soooo excited! She changed her clothes 3 times in the 30 minutes prior to leaving, finally settling on what she calls "her favorite pants" - the pants that she outgrew months ago but won't let me stash away - and her ladybug socks. She was grinning as she walked up to the building and was so proud to be the student now and not just the little sib. She had a great time and was completely unconcerned when I left. I'm so happy for her.




And finally - a picture of Benjamin getting on the bus. Mom wasn't worth a backwards glance, so I just got his back, but hey, it's better than nothing. He told me the first week that he never even thinks about me while he's at school, but today he admitted that "sometimes I miss you a little." I'm just happy he likes it so much.

He's in Kindergarten!

Benjamin officially started school last week. Would have blogged earlier, but was still struggling with MAC vs PC issues. Have solved them by sending the Mac back to it's home at Amazon. Bye bye Mac. Our relationship was a brief but educational one. You may have way funny commercials, but sadly you are not for me.

Anyway, back to Benjamin. He loves school and his teacher and the bus. He couldn't be happier. I, on the other hand, have needed a little more adjustment time. The night before school started, he slept like a rock and I was up until 3:30am stressing over catching the bus on time, remembering to make a snack in the morning, and a thousand other things which now seem really silly but seemed tantamount in the middle of the night. Then this whole week I've been struggling to remember that school is EVERY day now. You mean I have to drag all the kids to the bus stop EVERY morning? You mean I have to pack snacks and organize a backpack EVERY day now?? I got way too used to the M,W,F schedule of preschool.

That first morning, I sent him on the bus (so stressed and sleep deprived that I forgot to take a picture of him getting on the bus!!!), and then jumped in the van with the other kids and followed it to school. Wasn't until I was driving that I remembered the camera, so this is the picture I got of the bus that day! :)

Wanted to take a pic of him getting off, but the parking lot was so crammed crazy that I never found a spot. He got off the bus and I was still driving around. I finally parked up the street a 1/2 block and ran with with stroller and the other two all the way back. By then he was completely lost, wandering around the building with the look of a kid about to lose emotional control. I hurried up to him and led him to where he needed to go (why weren't any teachers helping poor little Kindergarterners who were getting off the bus for the first time in their lives?!!?!) and noticed he didn't have his backpack. He'd forgotten it on the bus! So we raced back to where the buses were, but it was gone. His nerves got to him and he started clinging to my leg and sucking his fingers like a toddler. I pried him free and assured him that he was going to be okay. After that we snapped a quick picture sans backpack and made it to his classroom.

Once his teacher started class, he seemed better. Still a bit dazed and shell-shocked, but fine with me leaving.

After the first day, things improved. He got his backpack back, he never left it on the bus again, he learned how to get to class on his own, he went to music class and the library, had snack, etc. He has made a couple friends and has found that he likes the "cozy area where you can sit and read books" the best. I'm excited for him. I'm still floored that they have 26 kids and 1 teacher in there. You can barely even identify him in the swarm on the carpet! But don't get me started on the problems with public school. It's what we're doing for now and we'll make the best of it. He's very happy and his teacher seems really great. We're excited for a wonderful year.

As for my darling preschooler - Isabella has been so much fun lately. The older she gets, the more of a fun personality she develops. I don't know how to explain the transformation, but she's simply less of a snotty two-year old and more of a mature, fun, witty preschooler. (She starts in 2 days!) I love hanging out with her. This past week she started ballet lessons. She's been waiting anxiously for months. On the way to class a conversation that so perfectly illustrates my kids' personalities occurred.

Benjamin: Are you nervous or excited for your ballet class?
Isabella: I'm excited!! (as she bounces in her seat, barely able to contain said excitement)
Benjamin: I'd be nervous.
Isabella: Why?? I LOVE ballet!

I have never seen Bella so happy as she was in that class. She didn't stop grinning the entire time. She was absolutely in her element amongst all the girly girls in pink, twirling around. Her teacher is one of those pure ballet beauties whose every move seems fluid and choreographed. Bella was smitten. She stared at her teacher in rapt amazement and followed her every move. I could have watched her all day too. She was fabulous with the kids too - clearly the teacher, but also really girly along with them, giggling over their new tutus, etc. The hardest part for Bella is waiting a whole week to have another class. Hopefully next week I'll be able to get better pictures. Took a lot, but none really turned out well.

Some other funny Bella pics:Bella after she snuck into my private stash of non-washable markers, but before she realized they were non-washable. (So sad I didn't get a pic of her reaction when the purple on her face didn't wash off!! Two days of purple mustash and tatooed arm.)

Bella enjoying the last few warm days of Summer, using the slip and slide in her own way.

Bella in the boat in her daddy's hat because she forgot her sunglasses.

Can't wait to get some pics of Bella on HER first day of school this week!