2nd Grade

Today is the first day of 2nd grade - how weird that our kid is old enough to be in 2nd grade?  Anyway, things went smooth this morning.  Ryan rolled out of bed at 7:15am, got dressed, and was at the table for breakfast by 7:23am - a good pace for him considering some days getting dressed takes at least 15 minutes. When it was all said and done, Ryan was up, dressed, ate breakfast, and was ready for school by 7:36am - I'm hoping this morning sets the standard for the rest of the year.  It is so much easier, and much more relaxing to have extra time in the morning versus no time.  With Ryan ready, I checked on the girls a few times and apparently neither of them were ready to let summer go considering they were both sound asleep in bed (and stayed that way until about 8:15am, well after Ryan was already off on the bus to school - so much for supporting their big brother on his first day).  With the girls still sleeping, we skipped the "first day of school family picture" and opted for some of just Ryan and a couple with Trav and I.  With one down, it's just the girls and I today - what to do, what to do . . .

Can't wait to hear all about the first day of school when the boy gets home today.

Summer wrap-up

Summer has officially come to an end, and looking back, it seems like I took the last few weeks off from writing for my final "summer vacation." Well, I'm back now, and it's time to catch up. Things that have happened in the last few weeks . . . the girls and I went to visit an old college friend out in South Dakota. The original plan was to take the two older kids and leave Ellie home with Trav, but the trip happened during one of Ryan's "rough" times (he either had strep, 5th's disease, or a viral infection - can't remember which one it was at that time, so he was left home). So it became a "girl's trip" and it was a blast!! The girls played, swam, and Lauren even did some tubing - a great little vacay! In addition to our last summer trip, we've also been squeezing in lots of time at different parks around the area. It's been fun to go online, check out a new park, and take off. It keeps "going to the park" interesting, and makes keeping everyone from the age of 1 1/2 to 7 happy much easier. We've also made a few more trips to local "swimming" ponds - they are perfect . . . sand, water (clean water), concessions, umbrellas, and the ever important bathrooms (especially when we are traveling with a very pregnant Auntie). And the best part of summer . . . playing with friends. It seems like both Ryan and Lauren have been keeping extra busy these last few weeks by squeezing in lots of last play dates. Hard to believe school starts tomorrow. I'll have plenty of "first day of school" pictures tomorrow, but for now, I'll leave you with some random shots taken over the last few weeks.

Ellie's "friends"

Here are a couple of videos of Ellie and the horses.  In the first one, she turns and yells (to anyone who will listen), "my friend, my friend."  She seriously loved that thing!  And in the second one (after about 30 mins of quality time with the horse), she finally lets her buddy go off and be with some other horses.  But lucky for her, she was only alone about 5 minutes before the other (white and brown one) horse came along and she found another "best friend."

Vacation, Part 2

Monday and Tuesday were by far the best days to be on the lake - hot, calm, and just perfect.  Wednesday- Saturday were a bit different . . . much cooler, sort of rainy (only spotty rain), and not so perfect.  So with the lake out for a few days, we had to find other things to do to keep us busy, and lucky for us, we were able to do just that.  After morning showers on Wednesday, the day cleared off and Trav and Ryan hit up the golf course while the girls and I stayed back at the cabin and had some "girl time".  Ryan loved golfing and couldn't stop talking about the really good hit he had (I'm not sure if that means he had only one really good hit, or if that hit was so good, he just couldn't stop talking about it), while the girls did their best to put on a doll fashion show, and then burn off some energy doing some tricks on the trampoline.  By the time evening rolled around, we had just enough energy to set up a camp fire and make some smores - always a tasty treat after a day of fun!

On Thursday, I packed up everyone and headed to St. Peter for the kids' gymnastics class.  Originally Ryan was only going to do the class, but after watching him have so much fun in the past weeks, Lauren asked if she could join the class as well.  I agreed to let her if she promised to try all the things the coaches asked of her - she agreed, so she was in.  And as it turns out, she might actually like it as much, if not more than Ryan!  With only two more classes left, I'm wondering if this gymnastics thing will be a phase, or if they'll actually like it enough to try it again next summer - we'll have to wait and see.  And, I'll be sure to bring my camera next time to capture some pictures of their new "skills".

On Friday, we opted to take it easy and enjoy a little time in St. Peter (we spent the night on Thursday).  We had a late breakfast of donuts and hot cocoas (who doesn't love that), then walked over to the "neighborhood" park to do a little playing.  After the kids had run around enough, it was time to head home, but becasue the park is actually at the church where Trav and I got married, I took the opportunity to show the kids inside the church and tell them a little about our wedding day.  Ryan could have cared less, but Lauren seemed genuinely interested and asked way too many questions about why we got married there, who was with you, how old were you, and most importantly, where was she when all of this happened?  I gave her simple answers, and told her she was hiding in my stomach the whole time and wasn't ready to come out just yet - she seemed satisfied with that answer.  We finished off our St. Peter stay with a quick visit to Waseca to see Grandma Erwin, and then headed back to the lake so Trav wouldn't be too lonely without us (in reality though, I'm sure he more than enjoyed having some quality alone time with just him, a bottle of beer, and the Play Station).

For our last full day at the lake, we decided to take the kids to the "A Maze N' Farmyard".  We've gone a couple of times in the past and they always enjoy it so with a bright sunny day ahead of us, we packed up and headed out for some more fun.  There were animals, slides, bounce houses, mazes, more animals, and most importantly, lots of good times!  This was Ellie's first time being there when she could actually do things on her own, and she proved that she might just be a little farm girl at heart.  Her two best friends were some miniature horses.  She would walk with her arm around them as though they were her own pets, and even got so comfortable with them that at one point, she took one by the reigns and led him around the yard while other visitors watched - it was pretty cute!  We ended up spending about 4 hours there so by the time we left, we had three sleepy kids and two very tired adults!  Here are some pictures of the day.  I also have a video of Ellie and her horse friends that I'll try and post tomorrow so you can see the little lady in action.

The perfect end to a vacation . . .

. . . Urgent Care - yes, that's where we finished up our week long vacation.  We arrived back in Shakopee on Sunday a little after noon.  As we finished up our lunch, Ryan kept complaining about itching.  I really thought nothing of it because he had gotten some bug bites at the lake and had complained about those itching so I assumed this was more of the same.  But when he showed me where it itched, I took one look at him, and realized something wasn't right.  He had big almost welts on his butt, and around his waist.  The welts were raised, red, and hot - not a great combo.  So I immediately jumped on the internet, did a little research, then came to my conclusion . . . he is having an allergic reaction, but to what?  That's when it hit me.  His "rash" reminded me an awful lot of the "rash" Lauren got when we found out she was allergic to penicillin and because he had just finished up a round of Amoxicillin (for strep) on the Thursday, I started to think maybe he was experiencing the same thing.  The only part that sort of threw me off was the fact that Ryan had had penicillin (Amoxicillin) before and never had any issues.  So there I stood debating with myself and then with Travis as to what I should do - bring him in immediately (my first thought because the internet said if it was an allergic reaction to penicillin, he needed to be seen immediately), or wait until Monday (I think Trav would have preferred this option because Urgent Care is a bit more costly than a regular doctor visit).  When it came right down to it, I decided whatever additional cost and however long the wait would be (Urgent Care is always busy), we would do it anyway because I didn't want Ryan to experience the worst of all the allergic reactions . . . death by suffocation because his throat swells shut (I'm pretty sure that is very rare, but even having it as a possibility was enough to scare me - damn the internet and all of it's information!).  So off Ryan and I went to spend the majority of the next 2 hours waiting to be seen by a doctor to confirm what I already assumed was the case - he is indeed allergic to penicillin.  After we finally were seen, we got the prescription, went to Target, and waited some more.  By the time we finally got back home, a good 2 and a half hours were wasted (but not really because Ryan got the meds he needed to help him be a little less itchy, and hopefully, a little less "rashy" in the days to come).  Here are some pictures from today.

The rash that was on his butt and waist had disappeared, but now it seems to be spreading down the back of his leg - the steroids they prescribe only help minimize the reaction, they don't actually completely prevent it so this could go on for the next few days.  The poor kid can't catch a break, strep, Fifth's disease, and now this - can't wait for him to be 100% again!

On a side note . . . I asked if this penicillin allergy is a genetic thing (although neither Trav or I are allergic), and two doctors have told me no.  The doctor at Urgent Care however, said 2 out of your 3 kids already have it, not looking good for the other one (the other one in this case in Ellie).  So is it genetic then or not?  Ellie has never had penicillin yet so I guess we'll wait and see?

Quast Family Vacation 2012

It's always nice to end a busy summer with one last family vacation, so that is exactly what we are doing.  Trav was able to sneak away from the office for the entire week so we packed up and headed west (or maybe northwest, I'm not sure) to Grandpa and Grandma Quast's cabin for a week of fun, fun, fun!  And so far, so good.  The weather has been gorgeous, the kids have had a blast playing on the swing set, jumping on the trampoline, playing with some "lake friends", and most importantly, staying cool in the lake.  The past two days have been absolutely gorgeous on the lake.  Imagine this . . . so their we are cruising on the pontoon (another perk from Grandma and Grandpa) on a Mon and Tuesday late afternoon with our 7 year old at the wheel (yes, Ryan did a lot of driving, but it's not too hard when there isn't another boat in sight and the pontoon is just chugging along), Trav and I are sitting with the girls (we even brought out the dog one day), and the lake is, to quote my dad, "just like glass."  And even though we always made fun of Dad when he said that, there really isn't a better way to describe how absolutely perfect it really was.  We took advantage of the great conditions by doing some swimming in the "sand spot", and Ryan took a few rides on the tube (and they were rather easy rides considering there were no waves, no wind, just calm).  And clearly the kids (as well as the adults) are tired because each night, we come in, shower up, eat a late dinner, then head to bed by 8:30pm for the kids and around 9:30pm for the adults - apparently not working and having fun takes a lot out of a person!  Here are some pictures from the first two days.  Five more days to go . . . can it stay this great until then?

These two pictures were taken after Ellie pooped in her swimsuit - let's just say it wasn't pretty, but, she clearly didn't mind, it just gave her an opportunity to run around naked while I cleaned things up - oh to be 2 again and not have a care in the world!

Very true . . . .

"What the vast majority of American children needs is to stop being pampered, stop being indulged, stop being chauffeured, stop being catered to. In the final analysis it is not what you do for your children but what you have taught them to do for themselves that will make them successful human beings."
– Ann Landers