Renaissance Festival and the Wench

I love that I can call someone a Wench at the Renaissance and get away with it. We had an amazing time at the festival! A huge thank you to Carol for those tickets. So awesome.
Caleb tried on every single piece of armor that he could.

And Faith got to be a Princess.

She even met a few...

It was a great day!

Except for the one Wench who attempted to mess with us. She gladly took my $20 for Faith's $2 swing ride, didn't give me change and insisted she did. No worries. We left with our $20 full refund and the business card of the Director of Renaissance Marketing who promised us tickets to next years festival. Take that Wench.
We aren't taking the tickets though. That wasn't the point. Customer service just seems to be a thing of the past and it really ticks me off. All we wanted was our change. And being able to call her a Wench with my money in hand makes it all good.

Library time

So Faith and I go to one of our many local libraries on Wednesday for story time. This particular library has an amazing librarian, Mrs. Jeannie. She is fun, patient, full of energy and patient. Oh wait... I already said patient. Can't really say that enough though.
Anyway, each week we learn a new letter. We read a book having to do with the letter of the week and then do a craft with this letter. This past week, the letter was F. Faith was over the moon that we were doing storytime all around her. Sigh.

We get to the library and to add to the excitement, they have a huge lifelike Thing 1, Thing 2 and the Cat and the Hat out front.

Faith was beside herself.

Once inside, this incredibly vocal child was telling every person she made eye contact with that her name was Faith and it started with the letter F and ended with the letter H. We were met with smiles and "ooohhh... isn't she cute" looks but I knew that this was leading up to a very disruptive story time.
I explained to Faith that she needed to be quiet during story time.

Mrs. Jeannie began story time and right away Faith's hand pops up. The first five times, Mrs. Jeannie was incredibly patient with her and entertained every comment. Faith repeated over and over that her name started with F. And then started in about how her name ended with H. She also wanted to sit on the letter F on the alphabet rug but it just so happened the F was at Mrs. Jeannies feet. Again, that woman has so much patience.

Finally, Mrs. Jeannie had to ask faith to "please wait until story time is over and we can talk afterwards". Once it was over she apologized to me and said she just "didn't know how to make her stop". And neither do I, Mrs. Jeannie. Neither do I.

But we made it through the letter F. Of course, there was the moment of pure fear when Mrs. Jeannie asked the kids if they could think of other F words. I gasped and then realized it was a louder noise than intended but soon realized other parents were holding their breath praying for kid appropriate F words to be heard. Luckily, Mrs. Jeannie realized the fear and quickly moved on to another game.

After story time, we played for a while. Ashley discovered this adorable baby and would not stop staring. And she even kissed the baby over and over again. Can't say I blame her.

And Faith read Ashley a little book.

Overall, F day at the library was a success. At least now everyone knows Faith's name.

A conversation with Caleb...

On the way home from Lacrosse, Caleb and I had a conversation. Rather, Caleb talked and I tried to not crack up.
Here is the breakdown.

"Mom. So, a blackhole is the size of a quarter. Or maybe the size of a car. One of those. Do you think that when you get sucked into a blackhole its like being sucked into a vaccum? What happens when you get sucked in? Do you think its like a porthole? Do you think its a porthole to another galaxy? Hey... wouldn't it be funny if my name was "Flower"? Then people can say 'Hey, isn't that flower pretty' and I can say 'Thanks!'. Why is the sky dark? Hey... was gas a penny back then? When you were a kid? What year were you born in?"

No kidding.... this was the first time I said a single word. I responded by letting him know that I don't believe I ever saw gas for a penny and that I was born in 1976 and I'm glad his name isn't Flower. And I let him know that once the sun goes down, the sky gets dark.

And when we got home, I took some Tylenol for my headache.

Granola Bars give dogs stomach issues

Just wanted to throw out this Public Service Announcement.
On Sunday, I made a ton of Granola bars. Very healthy snack choice for the kids and for Jamie. I packaged some of to send with Caleb to school, some for Jamie to work and put the rest in a make shift bowl I made with aluminum foil.
Yesterday, I came home and the stupid dog had gotten the aluminum foil off the counter and ate through it. That in itself makes my stomach turn. Have you ever put aluminum foil in your mouth? Yuck. Don't ask how I know that.
Anyway, the dog ate every one of those granola bars. And left a hefty mess on the kitchen floor. I was furious.

Then today happened. After being locked up all morning, the girls and I came home to a dog who very eagerly wanted to go outside. I then got to watch this dog have horrendous diahrrea and then got to clean him up before allowing him back in the house. I was so mad at this dog.
AND then....... I hear him struggling to get through the cat door that leads to our sub basement. A cat door. It's small. The fat beagle is not small.
I opened the door and he and I came face to face. He was on the stairs heading back up with something in his mouth. I yelled for him to drop it and out came a granola bar. Turns out this dog didn't eat ALL the granola bars. He carried them one by one to the basement and stashed them in the corner of the room. I was in shock that this dog was smart enough to do this. And amused that he made so many trips and I just ruined his late night snacking opportunity.

And mad that I'm sure I will be dealing with diahrrea from the dog for a few days yet. Gross.

Early Childhood Evaluation

We decided to go ahead and get Faith screened through our school district. We live in an outstanding district that provides all sort of fabulous services for the families. This screening is one of them. It's primarily for kiddos with health or development issues and enables the district to establish an IEP (Individual Education Plan) for the child. Since early on, we have been told by doctor after doctor that Faith would have issues and would be a child who needed an IEP. The closer we get to Kindergarten, I have felt that these doctors were full of hot air. Keeping in mind, some of these doctors were also the ones who said she most likely had cerebral palsy, would probably never walk or not walk normally and would most like always have fine motor issues. A bunch of hooey.
Anyway, Faith and I went to her evaluation today. Have I told you how proud I am of this little girl? One of the questions on the 500 forms I had to fill out was "Can your child dress/undress themself?". As we walked into the room with Faith wearing purple leggings, a pink shirt with ruffles and her blue and pink Smurf socks, I had to laugh to myself. Yes. Yes, my child does dress herself.
Once the evaluation got underway, it was evident early on that there were no issues. But after the vision screening and the hearing screening, we went into a large playroom type area with tons of toys and lots of therapists waiting to analyze her every move.
She joined a few of them on the floor and they started playing with farm animals. They had a large container with horses, pigs and cows. One of the therapists asks Faith if she sees any "horsies". She says "Yes. I see a bunch of horses." Then pulls out every one of them, lines them up by size and then pulls out and sorts the cows and pigs. She then looks at the therapist and says "There are 6 cows, 4 pigs and 2 cows." Then she takes one of the pigs and puts it on top of this brown area on the rug we were sitting on. She looks at the therapist, smiles, and says "This pig is in the mud". 
I love this kid.
So... no IEP for Faith. We will have a Health Plan on file with all her medical conditions and restrictions, but no IEP.
And I think I might write those doctors a letter. Right now the only thing I can think of to say is "Eat Faith's dust."

Today is the last day of September. Fall has definitely been in the air this week too! We've had some amazing weather and have spent as much time outside as possible. If you come to visit, you'll be able to tell this by looking at the inside of my house. Oh well. I'll get to it one day.
We've done a lot of park days, a lot of walks, a lot of bike riding and even a great zoo day. We love the zoo!! I've actually lost count to how many times we've gone this year. Hoping to get a few more visits in before Winter too. Such a great place! And this last visit seemed especially fantastic. The animals seemed to be enjoying the weather too. They were upfront and friendly with all of us. Performing for us at every opportunity. So cute!

Now the kids are talking about Halloween. Faith keeps saying she wants to be a witch. Caleb was saying he wants to be some sort of Warlock. I think we should do a theme. Faith should be Princess Leia, Caleb could be Darth Vader and Ashley should be Yoda. How cute would that be!??! Caleb excitedly added that I could be Chewbacca if this scenario played out. I didn't ask why he chose Chewbacca. But I did make an appointment to get my hair cut. Perhaps its over due.

On another note... check out Baby Girls shoes!! So cute! These came from my sister Michelle. I squeezed the Chunky into them and this might be the only time she can wear them. We had to squeeze into these jeans too. Sometimes we have to suffer to be cute. Boy is she cute!??!! I love this baby so much. 

Which reminds me... Caleb asked me which kid was my favorite. I explained to him that I love all three of them the same and how even though I worried how I would do that, God made moms and dads special so that this love just grows. It just happens. After my long explanation, he says to me "If you tell me who your favorite kid is, I'll tell you who my favorite parent is." 

Hmmmmm....... I don't know if I want to know that answer. Stinker.

Spaghetti night at our house!

Spaghetti night means....

Happy Baby!

Happy Dog....

That's right. Dad let the dog lick the baby clean. Don't worry, mom gave the baby a bath afterwards. With baby soap and water, no dog tongues. (or anti-bacterial soap) And in case you didn't hear, this is the same dog that licked poop out of Ashley's high chair just yesterday. So. Gross.