The Chain Gang

I have loved this summer more than any other before with the boys! With Will out of diapers and done with naps it has freed us up to do so much more than we've ever been able to do before. Which is awesome, but at this point into the summer (week 14) I'm beginning to run low on ways to entertain, educate or just wear them out. This week is a little bit of a hodge podge of activities. 

Colin and I "built" a jail a few years ago for him and he asked if we could build one again but this time one for him and one for Will. Coincidentally our new family room end table arrived this week so we had two large card board boxes just sitting around. It was great fun "designing" the jails with the kids and then letting them decorate their own cells. 

We also went bowling with friends this week, explored the Eiffel Tower, thoroughly enjoyed some unhealthy fast food, and finally saw Planes! 

Helping mommy look at new sofas.

Obviously Dusty came along with us to see Planes. 

 

Running laps! 

Oh and I also introduced the boys to a new consequence for misbehaving, i.e. yelling at your mother or brother, hitting, kicking, pushing, elbowing or generally trying to knock down your brother. Running laps! They have to run from our house to the end of the street and back four times, every single time. This is pretty ingenious if I do say so myself.

Till Next Time, 
Mamma, Toad & Frog

North Carolina Bound!

We had an amazing time in North Carolina! Having grown up driving to our summer vacations and not flying to them, there is feel of returning to the "good old days" when you load up the car with bags open and strewn about haphazardly. The fact that you don't really have to organize packing for a car trip is both liberating and infuriating for someone with a certain passion for organization. We didn't quite get out the door at 7am as we'd hoped (does anyone ever?) but rolled out about 90 minutes later and 7 hours later (that includes one stop at Chick-fil-a, obviously) we pulled into the rental house that Babs and Brent had generously invited us to stay at for the weekend with them, their precious puppy Susie, Tia, darling Naya and Ms. Leisl with her two girls, Georgia and Olivia. We also had guest appearances by the sassy Ms. Karen who taught Colin how to boogie board and Ms. Sara, Brent's fabulous daughter. All in all it was a fantastic group!

But before I get started on our fun filled weekend, I thought I'd do a quick update. We took Colin to his pediatrician for a followup appointment after his trip to the ER. The doctor thought he likely had a mild concussion given his reaction but didn't find anything on the ct scan. She did suggest that we let his eye rest which meant no tv/ipad etc. Which means for the 6 hour drive we never even pulled out the ipads. I was surprised by how well the kid did. Again, a flashback to the dark days of the early 80's when we had no ipads or car seats for that matter and somehow managed to survive just fine. Here are the boys super excited to finally get to go into the ice cream door at the pediatrician's office. They've been hoping to get this room for ages! 

I found Colin in his dad's bbq bin this morning. Like father like son!

But back to the beach! The kids had a ball playing with Georgia and Olivia and the girls couldn't have been any sweeter or more of a help with the boys. They always had an eye out for the boys in the pool and when Will needed a little distraction from his whining the girls were on call. 

Dad and Bunny enjoying a little reading.

 I don't think it will come as a surprise to anyone that knows the boys when I tell you they were up at 5:30 in the morning our first morning. After pleading, cajoling and maybe bribing the boys to go back to bed I finally got up with them at 7am and took them down to the beach. It was absolutely gorgeous! Cool, breezy and with my giant cup of coffee in hand, just perfect. I wish I could figure out how to add videos because there is a precious one of Colin getting his feet wet in the surf the first time. He was surprise and elated and giggling like a wild thing. Here are a couple of pictures. 

We made it down to the Carolina Beach boardwalk early the next morning and although it was all closed the boys had a great time exploring and we even found an arcade, naturally we had to stop. 

Happy Campers!

Case of the grumpies!

 

The best donuts in town! Apparently there is always a line out front and Mr. Brent brought
some warm donuts to the house for breakfast our first day. They were awesome!
Way better than anything I've ever had before. 

 We stopped at a near by amusement park to burn off some energy (my daily goal) and the boys had a great time on the go-carts. And naturally we had to hit the links while we where there. Colin is still obsessed with "golf" as he calls it. And frankly he is getting really good. One of these days his dad will get him a few real clubs *side eyes Jim* and take him to hit some balls. Some where around the 16th hole we had some serious behavior issues and Colin and I returned to the car. I assume every parent has had to walk through throngs of families while their child sobs uncontrollably and everyone is just staring at you? Yes? Maybe? Just me? Cause yes, its embarrassing but its better than staying while your child misbehaves I guess. 

 We stopped on our way home for lunch at the cutest little dinner, Pop's. The kids were enamored with this "waitress" (I'm not going there people) but they also seemed to enjoy the hotdog. Will had his first corn dog and after a lot of convincing arguments about it being just like a hot dog only adding deliciously fried corn meal he decided he could try it. Sure enough he deemed it "yummy!"

 I didn't get many good pictures of the kids at the beach because I was mostly in the water with them. I will say I was a little unsure how they would react to the big waves. They LOVED them! Will was slightly more timid and preferred to play in the sand along the water's edge and only go out when an adult was holding him. But we all had to keep pulling Colin out of the big waves. He boogie boarded and if we'd let him he would still be out there "jumping" the waves and giggling. Clearly we need to take him back to the ocean. 

It was sad to say goodbye, especially to Ms. Barbara and Mr. Brent's sweet Susie. The kids loved her and Will even asked me the morning we left if we could take Susie home with us. So we may be on the path to our own puppy dog soon, or at least I can hope! 

A little snooze in the car after a trip to Cracker Barrel for lunch! 

Till Next Time, 
Mamma, Frog & Toad

Frog's Emergency Room Visit

Best apple juice ever!

Sunday night turned out to be much more active than I'd expected. Will couldn't sleep so he crawled into our bed and keep me up from about 1am till 3am. Thanks little guy! The silver lining of his late night shenanigans was that I was up to hear Colin crying when he hit his head. We're still not sure if he fell out of bed or hit it on the edge of his desk but needless to say it hurt! And to top it off he started throwing up every 15 minutes... for the next four hours! After a quick, though probably unnecessary confirmation from our pediatrician we headed to the emergency room to get Colin checked out around 4am.

 I wasn't thrilled with the idea of putting him through a second CT scan but there really wasn't a better option so into the donut hole we went. Thankfully, they let Wilber get his "picture taken" in the big machine too.  Both Colin and Wilber were champs and after Colin's second round of anti-nausea meds he finally, finally started to feel a little better. I think the apple juice did wonders for his spirit as well, after all it'd been 5 hours since he'd been able to hold down anything!

The results showed no damage to his brain, thank you sweet baby Jesus but they did find that he had acute sinusitis. Which, is basically 100% blocked sinuses and could have caused the vomiting or perhaps Colin just reacts to a head injury by vomiting. They just aren't sure. Nothing like unanswered medical questions to make a parent feel safe. As for me missing the sinusitis, well hey, Mother of the Year! I knew he had the sniffles but other than reminding him a thousand times a day to blow his nose and not sniff I hadn't thought much about it. 

I can't say enough how much I appreciated the doctor and nursing staff at INOVA Alexandria! Despite it being the last few hours of their night shift they were all so kind and went out of their way to make Colin comfortable. One of the nurses actually told us they didn't want to discharge Colin because all the nurses were in love with him. 

After picking up his meds we headed home around 9am just in time to see daddy off to work. No surprise Will slept in after being up much of the night and woke up right about the time we got home. Again, thanks little guy! We all laid low watching movies, napping and reading books for the rest of the day. 

Oh and Will wanted me to add a picture from his trip to the dentist's office on Tuesday since I was doing a whole post on Colin. So here is Will looking cool in his zebra shades with our sweet dental hygienist Hannah. 

We're off to North Carolina tomorrow morning and we are all so ready to see Tia and hit the beach!

Till Next Time, 
Mamma, Frog & Toad

Busy Little Bees

We stayed closer to home for the rest of this week but kept up a busy pace with oodles of things to do, not to mention calamities that only two brave super heros could resolve! 

After a morning spent learning about dolphins at science "class" the boys spent the afternoon hitting the links! We took our darling little neighbors, Channing and Lyla to the near by mini golf course. I don't need to tell you how much the boys like mini golf, I know but Colin was giving Channing *8 years old* pointers. It was hilarious. We usually only play 9 holes at a time so playing a whopping 18 holes was exhausting for these little ones, thankfully Mamma was a sucker and bought everyone ice cream popsicles to boost moral. 

This is my favorite picture from the day. Four kids in four directions, pretty much sums it up! 

Thursday we were off to the National's game. We really have our routine down at this point. We arrive an hour early so that the boys can run roughshod on the kids' zone playscape. Then meander up the "escamalator" as Colin calls it to begin the gorging of ballpark food! This trip is was popcorn, peanuts, hotdogs, french fries and cotton candy. Oh and a vanilla milkshake to kick things off, natch! We got to see a few friends who stopped by to say hello which was fun and as always, we hung out with the best usher in the park, Mr. Mike. I didn't get a picture with the boys and Mr. Mike but that's a must for our next game. He is so sweet to the kids and even bought them both boxes of crackerjacks last game! 

Mr. JT comes to visit while Jim is getting drinks.
Will told him, "you're in my daddy's seat." Nice welcome.  

Friday we hosted an 80's dance party in the morning for Channing and Lyla and then headed over to the pool for lunch and a lazy afternoon. Later that evening we held our first family movie night with pizza and popcorn. The boys picked Wall-e which was a new movie to all of us. I must say, I feel like the boys miss out a little but just downloading a rental instead of roaming the aisles of blockbuster narrowing down the seemingly infinite choices. 

Saturday we had some fun friends over for a bbq. The boys husked their first corn! I'm a little embarrassed I haven't made them do it before now. Will whined about it (shocker I know) but all in all they did a great job!

And of course a little Saturday afternoon baseball practice before fall baseball classes with Coach John start back up!

We're off to North Carolina later next week for a long weekend with Tia (Colin's godmother) and Naya and Babs & Brent! We are all super excited for one last get away before school starts. I'm sure I'll have a million pictures upon our return. 

Till Next Time, 
Mamma, Frog & Toad