mmmmm applesauce!

Our little darling refuses to let me feed her! She MUST do it HERSELF!

So I can either cry or take photos right?

Luckily, applesauce washes right out of clothes!

We are gearing up for a fun weekend! I am taking all the kids except Colin to KSU Swine Day tomorrow.

Jim is taking Colin to sub-district wrestling.

Everyone is excited to get to go someplace - but Preston is hands down the most excited because he has been told that we can venture to Call Hall for ice cream while we are at KSU! He is so excited he can hardly stand it! Cameron is hoping to run into Frank Martin so that he can give him some pointers before the NCAA tournament starts!

Colin started track practice today. He is not sure what events he wants to try out for, but he is leaning toward some distance running. Of course, since it was the beginning of the season, I had to go to the obligatory parent meeting tonight. These meetings are one of my (many) pet peeves. I just don't understand why I have to have someone tell me that if my kid does drugs, or drinks, or misbehaves at a meet, they will kick him off the team. And if he is ineligible then he will not letter. These things seem like common sense to me, and I do not like to have to sit in a meeting for common sense! They also mentioned that the track uniforms should NOT be ironed. Yep, that was crucial information for me - considering I have no idea when the last time I used an iron even was - although I suspect it might have been 1984 when it was cool to starch/iron your shirt collar so it stood straight up.

Curly

Cameron had a part in the 5th grade musical tonight. He was one of the judges in a trial, and the judges were the 3 Stooges. The Stooges were wearing robes - because they are judges - get it? He thought it was hilarious!
He has practiced, watched old Stooges movies, learned the finer art of nuk nuk nuk, and woob, woobing, and was super excited to present the musical tonight!

I have to say, as 5th grade musicals go, this was really good! And Cam was extremely animated, and all the practice he put in was very apparent!

We did have to come home and cut the rest of his hair tonight though. I took the kids to Mass at 7:00 am so that we would be free this evening for his performance. When I dropped him off at school, the secretary was going to write him up for having an "extreme haircut" she let it slide ONLY because it was for the musical...but she said he had to cut it and not come back to school with it like that on Thursday. I bet there are plenty of old men in the world who would take exception to it being called "extreme"!!!!

It was totally worth the haircut warning, to see my guy do such a great job!

This was overheard this evening -

Mallory: QUINCY! Don't say that, you are very inappropriate!

Quincy: Well YOU are very short!

Yea, she is going to take over the world!

Today was the first day in a very long time when my Harper girl seemed back to her happy, sweet self! She played, ate and was independent of my shoulder! It was absolutely wonderful! I had been very worried.

Also going on in our lives, my grandma Shirley is very ill. Cancer is winning the battle. She is not going to take any more treatments and I don't believe that she has a lot of time here with us left. I am sad for us, it will be a huge void in our lives. I don't want her to suffer, and I know that grandpa will be very happy to welcome her home.

50 years

Jim's parents celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary yesterday with a little party. I think they had a good time, and it is nice to see that people can stay married for 50 years this day in age - a nice thing to be able to show our kids.

If we sit here and stare at the cake long enough, someone will surely let us have a slice right?

Jim and his brother.

Quincy even got to drink from a glass! (brave folks they have there at Alvamar!)

Harper was better enough that we felt ok taking her yesterday, but she mostly laid on either Jim or me...but at least she wasn't crying all day! Today, she seems much better! She has not randomly thrown up for a few days now and even though she has a runny nose, I really think that is from cutting more teeth. She was cheerful and playing today, so I take that as a sign that she is on the mend! At least I hope so because we never seem to stand still for very long!

Cam's last b-ball game

Cameron had his last game of the season this morning. His team played for the Championship - and they ended in a tie. Having Jim's highly competitive nature, this went over like a lead balloon! I do think that they had a great season, and Cam scored 16 of the team's 24 points today, so he really played well! He is pretty hard on himself, and could not see that he was not solely responsible for them not winning! I also think that Jim did a great job with these kids and had a good time!

Harper is still sick. She has not been randomly vomiting for a couple of days though, so I think that we have a bit improvement! We have discovered "clementines" and all the kids really love them. She has not been eating very well, but she did eat these little oranges - which I think is good - vitamin C? She has really been very clingy the past couple of days, and just wants someone to sit in the chair with her and her blanket! I hope we see improvement soon because I think we are now caught up on movies for the past 5 years! I am thankful that Madison and Mallory were willing to sit in the chair with her so that I could get a hair cut and watch Cam's last game this morning! I hated to miss that!

Colin attended wrestling camp today too...it must have been hard because he came home exhausted! He is getting ready for post-season tournaments. From now on, he will have to place in the top 4 in order to keep wrestling. He goes to sub-districts next week.

The conversation of the evening with Princess Q:

Mom, is Madison's cat a beast? Mom, why are the guys on tv drinking beer? Hey! I want a dog, (breath) I want to wear my fancy shoes to church in the morning, I drank 7-Up and it makes me belch, I am going to sleep with Madison, I have to put on lotion, hey! Dad is snoring on the couch!

That about sums up the evening!

Things...

Things here have been flowing along. Harper is still sick. She has croup, and I am worried about her random vomiting. So today we went to see our favorite guy - the pediatrician. Harper is now on steroids and antacids so we will see if we can get her feeling better. I hope so because I am concerned that this has gone on way too long!

We have all been enjoying the warmer weather. I hope it is here to stay!

Mallory and Madison have sore legs from softball practice! I was laughing at Madison as she reported to me that feeling like an old lady sure does suck! :)

Colin will start track practice next week. He is looking forward to this for reasons unknown to me!

I am looking forward to the weekend. I could use some down time! Wait a minute - weekend mean down time???? - nevermind back to reality!

Manic Monday

Harper is learning to wink. I spent the past 2 days trying to get a photo of it because it makes me laugh! She is so ornery!

Several weeks ago, Cameron applied to be a Kansas Jr. Beekeeper. He thought it would be an awesome 4-H project. He found out today that his application was selected! He won the chance to learn from a licensed Kansas beekeeper, he gets a hive, the bees, all the safety equipment and they will mentor him and teach him to safely take care of his hive, collect the honey, and how to care for and learn about bees. He is super excited about this opportunity! If he takes it seriously and completes all the requirements for the training then he gets to keep the hive and the bees.

I had a dentist appointment today, Quincy stayed with grandma. She helped with grandma's orphan calf! She has apparently decided that she is going to be a farmer AND a princess when she grows up! She says that princesses need lots of baby cows to take care of!

It is funny to me how you can go along day by day with just normal routine stuff going on, and then one day will just explode with things to do! Tonight was Mallory and Madison's first softball practice, but Mallory was home today not feeling well. Practice was followed up with their pep band playing at sub-state basketball. Colin had his first quiz bowl meet in Hiawatha. His team came in last but he said it was a lot of fun! Mallory and Madison were supposed to have a fundraising meeting for CWF tonight too, but they can only be so many places at once, so Jim filled in for them!

Not fun but necessary!

Mallory and Madison worked very hard at their CWF concession stand today. It was not fun, but necessary to keep moving on the fundraising for their trip! They served up homemade biscuits and gravy, Mallory made awesome chili, and they had a ton of baked goods for sale! It was a very, very long day, followed by a long clean up, and a long discussion about how to divide the money they made among the kids who worked. I honestly don't mind the work part....just the rest that is cumbersome! Thank you to those who came out in the nasty foggy drizzle to support these 4-Hers. I know that today was not very fun, but when the girls are living it up in New York and DC, it will be worth it! (at least I hope so).

Jim also had a very strange day, as he got a phone call that the water tower had a cracked leg. I am not sure what all occurred, but the tower north of our house, did indeed have a bad crack. They had to evacuate people, and then they drained the tower and got someone in to stabilize it. They will have to do more work on Monday, and I am sure it will be a long process of insuring public safety. For now, everything is ok!

Speaking of matters of public safety, while Jim was out with the tower problems, and I was helping the girls, we left Colin in charge here at the house. He did a wonderful job of watching his younger siblings (with a lot of help from Cam). However, he did make a phone call which cracked me up....he called me to say "mom, when you come in Harper is covered in red Jell-o NOT blood!" I feel better knowing he thought to call ahead to warn me! Of course, with the water tower issues, that meant there was little to no water - which meant cleaning up after feeding Harper jell-o was not really possible! Luckily, we now have water so I was able to put her through the bathtub!

Tomorrow has now become the big catch up day! Not fun, but necessary!