Plans change for pink eye

We were supposed to meet a friend and do something with her and her kids today, but that all changed. Last night Alex complained about something in his eye and rubbed out some drainage. At the time I didn’t think much of it. This morning after we dropped Frank off we went to Wal-Mart. It was then that I noticed Alex’s eye was swollen and red. I stared in surprised for a moment then realized he’s not having another allergic reaction he has pink eye. So, of course, all of our carefully made plans went right out the window. Instead of a fun trip with friends we spent our time in the doctor’s office with me trying to keep Alex from touching everything and away from other kids.

Marie-Anne

Movin' On Up

Miss Sabrina has been moved out of her crib tonight following her gymnastic performance that ended with her on the floor crying. We moved her mattress into her closet, which is also her play area and blocked the door with the play pen. Though she was excited to have the mattress on the floor it took her quite a while to settle down and go to sleep.

Marie-Anne

Unschool Fridays

Alex, Frank and I decided that we will have “Unschool Fridays” in which, Alex only does homeschool he wants to do. I am not an unschooler, but I need to have a day to work on other things beside homeschool and Alex loves the idea of Unschool Fridays. (It also helps him to do his work on the other days knowing that Fridays are his day to choose activities.)

Today Alex has repeatedly watched a science DVD, played with bubbles, played with his Imaginext Castle, played with the felt board, watched a math songs DVD, arranged a fake flower centerpiece, played with his marble maze for a few minutes, played with Sabrina, and looked at a Spiderman pop-up book.

I am not an Unschooler so I set up a few of these activities where he would see them.

Marie-Anne

Sabrina's new skill

Recently the kids in children's church used stickers and Sabrina did not want to be left out. She had a lot of fun putting the stickers on the background, or more accurately, on top of one another. Last night Alex was using stickers so I got a blank page for Sabrina and she really enjoyed putting the stickers on the page. She cheered when she got one on! After she was done Sabrina showed her art to Papa. She's quite proud of her achievement.

Marie-Anne

Anniversary lunch

In honor of our anniversary Frank took the day off. We planned on going to Mount Charleston, but it is a rainy day. Instead we took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese just to play, but not to eat. (It never occurred to me until yesterday that I can go and just get tokens.) They both really enjoyed that.





After that we went to Famous Dave’s for our anniversary lunch. Then we stopped at Borders on the way home.

Marie-Anne

My scary child

A few days ago Sabrina started roaring. She will roar then I act scared. She does it over and over until she starts laughing so hard she gets the hiccups. It’s a lot of fun!

Marie-Anne

Coffee sensory tub

I thought I had blogged about this, but I guess I forgot. About a week ago I accidently dumped about ¼ of the coffee when I grabbed the container to make coffee. About half of that fell into a bowl of sequins I had for a craft. Since I didn’t want to just throw it out I put in into a shoebox sized container and let Alex play with his toy cars. The coffee grinds looked like dirt and the sequins looked like jewels. Alex absolutely loved this! (Next time I bring it out I’ll have him play on the porch because he couldn’t keep it in the box and thankfully I found the sequins on the floor before Sabrina did.)

Marie-Anne

8th Anniversary

Today is Frank and my eighth anniversary. Wow- eight years and we’re still best friends! Ain’t God great!

Marie-Anne

Phoenix Zoo

Since we were going to Phoenix for a fellowship meeting at the church we decided to use the money Mamaw sent for Christmas to go to the Phoenix Zoo. The Phoenix zoo is much much bigger than the one here in Las Vegas. (We were hoping it would wear the kids out before church.) We had a great time. Alex wanted to ride the carousel right away, but I made him wait until the end. We did not even try to see everything. Alex’s favorite part was the elephants. Sabrina liked walking and trying to run away from us.

At the end Frank and the kids rode the carousel and I took pictures. Alex rode the cheetah and Sabrina rode a wolf. Alex loved it and Sabrina didn’t.

Marie-Anne

Resort Thomas

We were invited to our friends, the Thomas' home for New Year’s so we drove to California. Their house is huge and beautiful! We were the first to arrive so we got to spend time with them for a while. Alex was thrilled that they have 3 kids. Sabrina was busy trying to sneak up the stairs, (she later fell down them, but wasn’t hurt.) When everybody arrived it was a houseful. We got to visit with friends we hadn’t seen in a long time. We had BBQ and great fellowship.

There were twin girls who shared Sabrina birthday. It was so cute watching them run around together. It was also the first time Sabrina played with kids her age. (She is starting to show interest in other s her size at story-time. She’s also the only baby at church.) There was also a lady there named Sabrina Marie- I’d never even met another Sabrina and when I do she has the same middle name too!

Alex spent most of his time upstairs with the other big kids. They really enjoyed themselves. The twins girls had twin brothers who were about Alex’s age and another brother that was a year younger- I couldn’t really tell the three of them apart. Kyler was also there- Alex adores him. So we didn’t see much of him.

Later we played on the Wii. It was our first time playing and even Alex got to play a couple of games. It was a lot of fun. We spent the night and left about noon. It was a wonderful trip.

Marie-Anne

Bubbles

I had forgotten how fun bubbles are to kids. I’m glad I got a reminder at story-time. When we got home I pulled out the bubbles for Sabrina while Alex was playing with Frank. She was fascinated by them.

Marie-Anne

New Year Story-time and crafts at Sunrise library

We went to the library for their New Year story-time and craft. Both kids really enjoyed it. The stories and songs were fun, but best of all were the balloons and bubbles. Sabrina ran up to the librarian blowing bubbles and just stared.

Afterwards both kids colored, (I had to be vigilant to keep Sabrina from eating crayons). Alex did two scratch art pictures; one of fireworks and the other of a rock. He also made a party hat.

I love these special story-times almost as much as the kids.

Marie-Anne

Lied Children's Museum with Kelly and Hannah

We went to the Lied Children's museum with Kelly and her stepdaughter Hannah. Hannah is nine and she was super excited. She was practically bouncing off the walls! I didn't even try to keep up with her. Alex was excited too, but not that excited. Alex really enjoyed dressing up as Darth Vader. Sabrina had a lot of fun playing in the baby area.

Upstairs there was an art class we attended. It was using pastels which is something I had not done before. The teacher was a real artist and we all enjoyed it. He drew something on a white board and we were to draw the same thing. He made it fun by not telling us what he was drawing. We guessed and were wrong a lot. It turned out to be a bird. Then we used the pastels and they really came out nice. (I liked it so much that I got some books from the library on pastels.)

Marie-Anne

All I Want for Christmas is my two front teeth

Alex lost his second tooth on Christmas morning.