A Trip To The Zoo-Staycation Day 2

For Staycation Day 2, we decided to spend the day at the zoo. Grant's mom joined us, and the kids were so excited to have their Grandma come to the zoo with them. It was very crowded, but we managed to have a great time!!!

We had some close animal encounters. It was a good day for the zoo. The weather was very warm, sunny, and breezy, so the animals were active. Many of them came right up to the glass, and the kids got to see a Scarlet Macaw and an owl out of their cages.

Mommy Elephant carried some hay over to her baby.

Grant loves bears, so he was so excited to see this guy out and about. He has been snoozing every time we go to the zoo!

The aquarium is one of our favorite places. The penguins, polar bears, and sharks are always a hit!

This penguin kept coming right up to the glass in front of Dylan and Lexie. They were enthralled!

When we were in the polar bear tunnel, one of the bears jumped in for a swim!

The shark tunnel is just amazing!

We can't go to the zoo without stopping to play!

I loved this adorable, baby deer in the petting zoo!


The beavers were snacking on some watermelon.




Dylan loves the snakes, frogs, and toads.



This little one was fascinated with my camera.

Cooling down in the misters. First picture taken at point of impact, lol!



We finished out our visit by taking a train ride and picking up some drinks and souvenirs. We all had a great time!

I'd call the day a success!

Thanksgiving Themed Picnic-Staycation Day 1

Today, we went to an end of summer picnic at my mom's best friend's house. The theme: Thanksgiving. Trust me, you'd understand if you knew her! Mary is a lot of fun to be around, and has quite the imagination!

Mary and my mom...they have been friends since I was 3!

Instead of traditional picnic foods, we had a full Thanksgiving dinner. Eaten outside. We played the feather game. Each person had to place a paper feather on their person, and had to keep their feather from being stolen. At the end of the day, the person with the most feathers won.

I just happened to be the winner. I'm sneaky like that. I worked hard protecting those feathers. My bum (what was I thinking when I put on a dress?!?!?) may or may not have been bared in search of those feathers...and the person who did it was not my own mother! I swatted many hands away from me today.

The boy cousins.

Lexie with her Uncle Daryl.

Grant sporting a feather headband.

The kids had a great time, as usual. Several cousins were there, as were Mary's grandkids who are in the same age range. Mary's backyard is like a daycare. She owns every single outdoor toy you can imagine. Big pool, baby pool, swingset, bounce house, sandboxes, ride on toys, play houses...

Dylan with his cousins.

Lexie Squared...the two Lexie's! (The other Lexie is Mary's granddaughter, who is 3 months younger than my Lexie.)



Dylan with his cousin, Brandon.





Snakes, deer, and turkey all joined the picnic. As did a stray rooster, who came over to play several times.


We all had a lot of fun! Lexie fell asleep on the way home, so Dylan and I went out to get a few things at the store. As we were coming back, Dylan told me that he loved spending time with just me tonight. Awww. I love my boy so much!

It was a fun, entertaining picnic! Gotta love the Thanksgiving theme!

Staycation

I need a vacation.

Do you ever feel like all you do is clean up messes? I'm sure you understand if you have kids, and even more so if you have kids and pets! I am so fed up with cleaning up a mess every other minute.

Have you ever seen the size of Great Dane poop? My Great Dane has a belly ache, probably from eating something she shouldn't have, and had diarrhea all over my kitchen floor two mornings in a row. Yeah. Enormous mess. I love to start my day off with a gag-inducing mess.

It's getting chilly at night, so all the spiders are coming into our house. If you have read my previous posts, you know that I save spiders. I just can't kill them. This morning, I rescued a spider out of Lexie's potty, only to turn around to clean up the above mess, and while I was doing that, Dylan yelled, "Spider!" Sure enough, there was a spider. On my daughter's leg. Lexie stood completely still as I brushed it off and ran it outside. I'd love to say she was paralyzed from fear, but the truth of the matter is Lexie loves spiders. She has been known to pick them up and let them crawl all over her. She is odd.

I'm just highly irritated today. There's always something to clean up or pick up, and that's not even my regular cleaning. I so need a vacation, preferably to the beach.

I'm not getting one this year. Our family vacation plans were ruined, and it's a bit late now. Dylan starts school in 5 short days.

So, we're having a staycation. Grant took the four days after labor day off, so we have 9 days together. We have a lot going on during that time. A picnic with my family, haircuts, a hike, visiting a nearby lake, a labor day picnic, going to the zoo, going to the children's museum, celebrating our 9th wedding anniversary, Dylan's first day of school, a baby shower, camping, birthdays...

Although I wish I were able to escape to the beach (escape from reality), I am looking forward to our staycation. We have a lot of exciting things going on, and it will be a great way to end summer.

Happy (hopefully mess free) Staycation!

This Rash is Grass

We got some interesting news at Dylan's doctor appointment today. Apparently the hives he has been getting for the past two months is an allergy...

...to grass!

Yes, my son is allergic to grass.

I really do see humor in that! It is rather funny.

"What are those spots on your son?"

"Oh, he's allergic to grass."

Come on, laugh with me! Really, it is kind of amusing, if I overlook the PITA factor. I have to laugh and joke about things. If not, I'd go insane! Life can be funny!

For instance, my kids are hardly ever sick. When they do get sick, it's short lived and very minor. As in, a runny, stuffy nose for a few days. But they keep us on our toes with mystery rashes and mystery diarrhea. I'm going to jinx myself by saying that. Our third child will probably get sick once a month with these normal, childhood illnesses.

Okay, back to the grass.

It really makes perfect sense now! I suspected he was allergic to something outdoors. Every time he went outside, he would end up covered, head to toe, in hives. When he stayed inside, his skin cleared up.

He probably had it last summer as well. He had hives on top of his Papular Acrodermatitis, but the dermatologist just assumed it was a reaction to the meds he was on for it, or just general irritation to the rash.

The good news is, the hives should be going away soon. The allergic reaction starts to show up in early July, and if it goes the same as last year, they will be gone by the middle of September. The doctor seems to think that it flares up because of the molds that are in the grass this time of year.

The doctor said that it is possible that he will grow out of it. I sure hope so! There's not much we can do right now to prevent it, other than keep him inside. But...

He's a boy.

He's 4 1/2 years old.

He loves playing outside.

Translation: Not. Going. To. Happen.

It's a good thing that he only has a few more weeks left of being a red, spotty, itchy mess. Thank God for Benadryl and Hydrocortisone cream!

An online friend mentioned that we should take him to an allergist and see if they would give him allergy shots, so he won't have to suffer. We will definitely be doing this next year if the hives show up again.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he will outgrow this allergy! As for now...

Hello. My name is Stefanie. My son is allergic to grass and my daughter can't stop pooping.

Tuesday Tidbits

I'm not adequately prepared for this week's Tuesday Tidbits post. In fact, I didn't even realize it was Tuesday until about a minute ago.

I can't even recall anything funny that my kids have said this week, but I'm sure there were many things. I spent the past week hunched over, trying not to cough out a lung or vomit on myself mid-cough, thanks to a nasty case of bronchitis. I wasn't very attuned to what my kids were saying.

On top of that, I have no pictures of the little things to share. You know, since I just remembered it was Tuesday...

Okay, so I lied. I do have a few things that quickly came to mind.

My recently potty trained girl says the same thing every time she climbs on the potty. In a very stern voice, she tells me, "Pee on the potty. NOT on the floor." What can I say? That first week was a difficult one. That was my mantra!

Dylan and Lexie are very close to my parents. Every time my dad leaves, Dylan says, "But I miss you so much, Papa," before he even walks away. It's incredibly pitiful. Lexie took notice, but doesn't quite get it. She happily squeals, while watching my dad's car pull out of our driveway, "I miiiissss you, Papa! I miiiissss you, Nina! I miiiiisssss you."

And now for some photographic evidence of the little details that I want to remember. I'm dipping into my stash of old(er) photos for this post!

Lexie loves shoes. She loves wearing other people's shoes and shuffling around the house.

Her two favorite pairs of "play" shoes are her crocs. She has a pink pair and a purple pair. She loves them so much, that she has actually fallen asleep with them (more on that coming tomorrow). She can never decide which pair she likes better, so she just picks one of each.

Perfect, darling. That *is* a fashion statement. We're currently working on putting her shoes on the right foot. Apparently she didn't learn much...she has TWO right feet!