Sick of Sick Kids

I used to love fall, the cooler weather, pretty trees, apple pie and pumpkin patches. Now fall seems to consist of green snotty noses, Dr appointments, sleepless nights and crabby children. I don't know why but fall seems to be the season of sickness for us. Last year Abby and Bryce started with sinus infections and ear infections in September and the sickness didn't stop until February after they each had surgery for tubes and got their adenoids out. I Really Really hope that this year will not be a repeat of last. We really would prefer to not meet our insurance deductible by January 4 again.
Bryce started out with a sore throat and fevers a week and a half ago and after an appointment to confirm that it wasn't strep throat we were sent home with the assurance that it was only viral. After last weekend we took him back in with a terrible cough. At this time they decided it had started viral and turned into a sinus infection and it was now time to treat it so we got and antibiotic. He took the antibiotic for 2 days and he didn't seem to be feeling any better but he wasn't running temps anymore so I guess it was helping. On Wednesday he woke up covered in hives and itching like crazy. Poor kid! So again we called the Dr and again we had to go in. This time they decided that he must have developed an allergy to Augmentin. Too weird! He has been on this antibiotic countless times before. This will be Bryce's first allergy, maybe he felt the need to compete with Caleb who has a list of allergies a mile long. Today he got to go to school for the first time this week which he was excited to do because it is B week and it was his show n tell day, so I was glad that he got to go back.
Caleb is usually pretty healthy throughout the fall and winter. It is the summer that makes his allergies terrible. Abby has had some cold symptoms but nothing too concerning so I thought we were in the clear, until this morning....
I was taking the boys to preschool and we were 5 minutes away when Abby vomits all over in the car. Ugh! Vomit in the car is the worst! Poor little girl had no idea what had happened and I had no idea what to do next. I decided to drop the boys off quick and then we raced home to get her cleaned up and the car and car seat hosed out. I really hope this viral thing doesn't make its way through the family as well! I guess Abby and I will spend the day cuddling. Poor girl!

Camp Pictures

My little monkeys.

Robb and the kids standing by the fish hatchery project he worked on.

Standing by the big wagon wheels. The kids couldn't believe that is what people used to ride in instead of cars.

Racing to the water

Abby playing in the sand

Camping

This last weekend we decided to try camping out for one night. Robb had a project in Calamus Ne this summer and his company had bought a camper because one of the engineers had to stay out there while the project was going on. The project was done and someone had to go pull the camper back, so Robb volunteered as long as we could use it for the night. Abby and I attempted to pack while the boys were at preschool. I can't believe how much stuff we needed for a day and a half of camping. We left when Robb got home around 1 and headed to Calamus. The kids were beyond excited! When we were about 30 miles from the campsite I had this terrible feeling that we didn't get the bag that I had packed all the boys stuff in. Robb pulled over and searched the pick up and sure enough it wasn't in there. I had packed it a couple days before and it just didn't end up making it downstairs for Robb to put in the truck. I am kind of a crazy organized packer and this situation about put me over the edge. For a day and a half trip I had packed 3 outfits, a warm outfit, swim trunks, long sleeve pjs and short sleeve pjs, underwear and socks for each kid. So having to come to the realization that we are in the middle of nowhere and my shopping options are Dollar General and Alco were very anxiety inducing. We hit up Dollar General and bought each of the boys a t-shirt but we didn't find any shorts so we tried Alco next. They didn't have anything their size so we had to improvise and get giant mesh shorts to use as swim trunks and we bought a pack of white t- shirts and 2 packs of undies. I guess it would have to do. The silly thing is that we spent about 60 dollars buying clothes that didn't really fit and that I didn't like! I guess my bargain shopping pays off!
Anyway, after that crisis we got to the camper. We made supper and had a fire that night. Of course we had smores and stayed up late too. The kids slept surprisingly good but got up early. We had breakfast and played around at the campground for a little while. It was a cool morning, which we weren't counting on because we were hoping to hit the beach so we had to find other things to do in Burwell Ne.Robb showed us around the fish hatchery project that he worked on this summer and then we went to Fort Hartstuff which I remembered going to in school. We were the ONLY ones there, it wasn't even staffed for the day so it was fun just letting the kids look around and run around. They thought some of the old guns and wagons were pretty cool.
When we got back to the campsite it had warmed up so we got our swimming stuff on and headed to the beach. The beaches at Calamus are beautiful (at least for a NE beach) they have nice white sand. Caleb and Penny chased seagulls, Bryce gathered fish bones and Abby was content to play in the sand. We had a great time hanging out at the beach.
When we got back to the campsite it was time to start packing up. It was interesting packing up a camper that isn't yours and you don't know much about but luckily Robb got it figured out and we were headed out.
I used to consider myself a camping person but after this weekend I'm not sure about that anymore. My allergies were horrible, I was tired of being dirty and having the kids be dirty and I was done with the bugs and the cramped quarters of a camper. It was nice having family time but I think camping might be a one time a summer thing.

1st Day of PreK

Caleb

Bryce

New backpacks

Running down the path to school

Sitting in the buffalo chair outside of school

Bryce and Caleb had their first day of PreK on Friday. They are going to the same preschool as last year and have the same teacher so they weren't nervous at all. Last year when we sent them we didn't know if they would go to Kindergarten this fall or not, so pretty much we are repeating PreK but that's okay. I think we will be happy in the long run that we waited a year to send them. Bryce was very excited to go and Caleb wasn't sad about going he just wasn't very enthusiastic. He said he just likes to stay at home and play. It was very nice, as the mom, not having to pull crying kids off my leg as I ran out the door like some of the parents were having to do. I guess I did have to carry a crying kid out but that was because Abby was sad that she didn't get to stay and go to school. She will be more than ready to go next year! Especially if we can make our schedules work so that she can go to the same preschool as the boys did.

Lil Huskers

Go Big Red

We are from Nebraska so of course our children need clothes for game days. The boys like wearing their jersey so they look like the football players and Abby likes wearing her cheerleader outfit so that she looks like her babysitter Makenzie. On the first game day we ventured to Omaha to go to NE furniture mart. Not Robb's ideal Saturday but he humored me. After picking out new furniture for the basement and formal living room we raced home and barley made it! Robb raced in while I got the kids out of the car so he didn't have to miss kick off. We watched part of the game with some neighbor friends, and when our kids got to crazy we came home so they could play in the backyard. It was a fun day. Of course we had to have the boys game day favorite food, little pokies (aka little smokies ). We aren't ready for cold weather but we like game days! Go Big Red!

The Races

A couple of weekends ago we took the kids to their first car races. Our neighbor races sprint cars and the kids are always interested when he is working on his car in the driveway. It had been a crazy day of attending a Chucky Cheese birthday party (disastrous!) and then we spent some time with Grandma and Grandpa Mattern so we were hoping that they wouldn't be too tired. When we got there we found out it was junior race fans night so the kids got checkered flags to wave and those clapper hands to make more noise than they would make on their own. :) We sat in the family section so it was a lot calmer than I remembered it being. The kids had a lot of fun watching the races but it was REALLY LOUD! I was so glad that we had brought along earphones for all the kids. Abby especially would have hated it without her ears covered. Of course the kids had a lot of questions and Bryce was so funny, he would wait until the race started and would try to ask his constant string of questions and would get so frustrated because we couldn't hear a word he said. Caleb loved watching the cars and always wanted to know who was in the lead or why they had to slow down. The night we went they were making up races from a rain night so we ended up staying Really late just to see the neighbor guy race once. All in all a good time. Not sure I want to do it more than once s summer but the kids enjoyed it. It was fun that it ended up being junior race fan night because they also had a money scramble at intermission. They had all the kids go out on the track and they threw out handfuls of money and let all the kids race to grab it. It was pretty funny to watch!