Without further adiu...

HALLOWEEN!

Pumpkins:

Madi's version of the barfing pumpkin. Yum. If that doesnt make you want pumpkin pie, I dont know what will. Wonder who gave her that idea...???

Katelin's.

Do you see her name? Thats an original. Guess how much of her own carving she did. No really, guess.

Alissa's. She worked hard on carving hers as well. To give her credit, she did poke her own holes in it. Zack's. A striking resemblance, dont you think?
Brylee's. Cute like her.
All together now!
After having to help carve that many pumpkins, we skipped out on doing our own this time.

Costumes:

Madi the vampiress

Katelin, the 50's sock hop diva. Is it just me, or does she look too old in this picture?

Alissa, aka: Tinkerbell

Zack the Train Conductor...complete with Thomas snow boots. (:

"Fairy Princess" Brylee

Yes, we cheaped out on costumes this year. All we had going for us was the ward trunk-or-treat. Tinkerbell has definitely gotten her use from the 3 oldest. Did you recognize it? Zack was thrilled when he saw the train conductor hat, so we just went with it and added the overalls. Brylee is cute as is, so we just added a little wing action. She doesnt know whats going on anyway. Katelin was the lucky one who really got to be what she wanted. We figure that costume will get its use from the younger girls as well. Madison is excited to wear what she was really hoping for...a 50$ costume, next year, but I wont spoil it for her. You'll just have to wait and see!

That about sums it up. Anti-climatic, I know. Halloween was kind of a non-event for us this year. On the upside, Ryan got to have a somewhat normal birthday. Usually it gets thrown in with all the Halloween festivities, but this year, he actually got to celebrate his own day without sharing it with a holiday. Too bad he was sick. Guess thats what happens when you get old. Hehehehe. Love you hun! (:

Pumpkin Heads

We drive past this pumpkin patch every week on the way to church, and have been wanting to go there ever since we moved here. Well, we finally did it! Usually they are really busy and the street is lined with cars, but we went during the day in the beggining of the week and practically had the whole place to ourselves! The lady who owns this place hand paints all the pumkin heads for the characters. The kids loved them all and wanted pictures in front of all of them. Sorry to all the locals who have already been there, done that. Of course the attempt to get a good group picture is always fun. Why does someone always have to be looking away, making a weird face, or just not smiling? I quit after 4 or 5 tries. I need to learn to photoshop better. Anyway, before we left, we stopped over at the petting zoo. There was this one Llama who followed us all the way around. I finally took his picture and then he left. Maybe thats all he wanted? Anyway, we thought it was funny. We really need to go there every year. Heres what we got!

Stitches

11 years with kids and we finally experienced our first set of stitches. We would have bet that it would be Zack who was the one to get all the injuries, but not this time...it was Brylee. And before she is even 2 years old. Am I worried? Slightly. Maybe I am just less paranoid now with 5 kids. I take full responsibility for not seeing it coming. So what happened? Short version...she got cut with a knife. Long version...keep reading.

I was rinsing dishes and loading the dishwasher. Brylee, being as helpful as she is...pushed over a stool to the sink and climbed up for the assist. Nothing harmful was going on at the time. She was being content just filling up a container with water and dumping it out repeatedly. After a slight slip of the stool, I decided the situation was no longer safe, and got her down. Something a good parent would do. Of course this enraged her, and she got right back up. I only had a couple more things to do, so I just allowed it. Bad parent. The stool slipped again. I barely caught her before she hit her head on the edge of the sink. I got her down a second time, and this time she was even more enraged. She was screaming and crying uncontrollably. I just thought she was really ticked with me, so I ignored it. I put the last thing in the dishwasher which just happened to be a large serrated bread knife.
Then I heard Katelin say, "Mom, what happened? Brylee is bleeding!"
I looked back at her and saw blood dripping from her hand.
"Did she cut it when she slipped?", I wondered.
I scooped her up and rinsed it off. Then I saw the source of the blood...a deep cut on her thumb. At that moment I realized...I was holding that huge serrated knife when she slipped. I must have cut her when I tried to catch her! It kept bleeding more and more. Even after I put a band-aid on it. It looked pretty deep so I called Ryan to tell him what happened and to hurry home in case I had to take her in to get it checked out. Unfortunately, he was being held up at work and couldnt leave yet. I decided at that point, that it wasnt that bad, but Ryan insisted I get it checked out after hearing me describe it. It was almost closing time for the pediatrician, and I didnt want to pay a hefty ER fee, just in case it was nothing. Bad parent again. So I went back and forth on whether to take her in. I finally decided to leave it to the pediatrician to decide. I called and talked to the nurse. Our doctor was gone for the day, but she got me in with another one in an hour.
By that time, Ryan would be close to home, so I left the girls in charge of themselves. Zack insisted on coming with me. Sarcastic, yea! After the inspection from the doctor, she decided it would need stitches, mostly because of the location. It was right over a joint, and she didnt feel it would heal when Brylee was constantly moving it. So she referred us over to the insta-care. Better than an ER fee. Its good to know they do stitches there, for future reference.
After explaining for at least the 4th time, how my 1 year old got cut with a knife without trying to sound like they needed to send the child protective services to my house, she was prepped for stitches. She was really very happy up to this point. I had to lay her down on the table and hold her down while the doctor injected her thumb with the numbing agent. I was doing pretty well, considering it was my fault she was injured and my baby was screaming in fear and pain...that is, until the nurse started tearing up! Thats right, the nurse! She just kept saying, "I cant believe he's making us do this" (referring to the doctor). Hello!? Who else is supposed to do it? And then she would go on about how cute she was, and poor baby! Doesnt help when Im trying to keep it together!
So another long wait after the injection and the nurse returned. She cleaned the cut with like a gallon of water. Just squirted it right into the cut. Brylee was still screaming, and the nurse commented on how she really shouldnt be feeling this. Brylee kept saying "owie!" so I wondered if it was really numb yet, or she was just saying that because she didnt know what else to say about it at the moment.

Heres how it looked after the cleaning. Not so bad right? It really was deep, but check out the location.

Another long wait and trying to keep the cut clean, and the doctor came back in. Time to hold her down again. Sorry baby. The second he inserted the needle she screamed bloody murder. I told him "Thats not numb!" He was surprised that it wasnt numb after the shot but after messing with it a little more, he was convinced. In came another shot. I think that one did the trick. 3 stitches and 3 feet of gauze later, she was finally done. Her happiness continued and she was back to her normal self, running around the pharmacy like crazy for the next 20 minutes. Total hospital time: 2 hours, 15 minutes. Not bad, for the hospital, but it felt like 5. So thats the long story. I tried to get a picture of her hand all wrapped up, but she was being silly and didnt want a picture taken.

Heres the best ones I got.

They had to wrap it so much so she wouldnt be able to move it. She actually got used to it really quickly and didnt try to mess with it too much. But she looked like she broke her whole hand! No hiding that parent neglect.

11 days later and the stitches came out. Hopefully it wont leave a scar. I think that 11 days may have turned her left handed though. Im hoping for ambidextrous! That would mean something really cool came out of it!

All better!

Alissa's big day

Our little Alissa is now six. Where did the time go? If you havent noticed, Alissa is a goof ball. She loves to be silly and make people laugh. On the flip side of that, she is also the most dramatic and pessimistic of the girls. We constantly have to reassure her of the positives in her life and to look at her blessings. If we compliment one of the other kids, she automatically thinks that means we dont think as highly of her. She is very hard on herself and wants to be perfect at everything. Hmmm...dont know where she gets that. Her constant attempts to be perfect have made her excel at most things she does though. She is a fantastic artist and does very well at her writing. If she does happen to make a mistake, she gets very upset about it. It just takes her a long time to build up the courage to try things, and keep trying them after a first failed attempt. Her latest proud accomplishment has been learning to tie her own shoes. It took a lot of encouragement and patience on our part to get through her frustrations of not being able to do it right away, but after all of that was out of the way, it was only a couple of days for her to get it down. Hooray!
In addition to all of that, Alissa also likes to take her time. I often call her "Snail-issa", because we are all left waiting for her to get dressed, or eat, or brush her teeth etc.. etc. She gets distracted easily and I often find her off in her own world. Maybe she's thinking of ways she can be perfect? But wouldnt it be great if we could all take more time in life? Unfortunately, I dont usually have twice the time to wait for her.
Overall, Alissa is a very sweet girl. She loves to cuddle and draw pictures for me. She is fun to play with, and Katelin has become her very best friend, which is great. I hope that sticks forever. She just requires a little extra love and attention, to know how important she is. So, without further adieu...the birthday details!
Since Alissa is now in school and making friends quickly, we thought it was time to give her her first friend party. The rule we have established in our family, is that every even birthday, you get to choose to have a party. I just cant do it every other month, so this makes it so I only have to host a part 2 or 3 times a year. Okay, so off of that tangent...

Alissa chose to go with a little pet shop party. Her actual birthday ended up being on the night of the pumpkin patch festivities, so we had to move it to the next day. That didnt mean we couldnt still celebrate a little bit though!

Alissa got to pick the dinner menu, which of course consisted of pancakes and eggs.

Then she got to open her family present. The other rule is that when you get a party, that is equivalent to your presents. They get one or two presents from the family, and the rest come from the party. Here is what she got from us this year...

She also got to open a package from her Grandma and Grandpa. It included a locking diary, a shirt, and a sticker activity book from her aunt. Thanks guys!

She had to wear the shirt right away. Then off we went to the pumpkin patch, and came back to have some cupcakes. We even added a candle and the birthday song to make it more official.

Then the long awaited day of the party arrived. The first thing to do while waiting for all the guests to arrive, was to decorate the table cover. Everyone claimed their spot and made a fun drawing in their place.

Let the games begin!
To start off was a good old fashioned game of Pin the tail...on the dog! Since it was a little pet shop party, we tried to have games that had something to do with pets or animals.

Alissa went first.

Katelins turn. I think this game was either too easy, or we had a lot of cheating going on! Look at how close most people got...with the exception of the two tails off in La La Land. They did it right! Way to go girls!

Next up, a duck race. They had a relay, where they had to put on these duck feet and race down and around a chair and back while quacking and flapping their wings.

Zack had to get his turn in too.

Then a twist on the game Duck, Duck, Goose. We played Lion, Lion Hyena. The lion had a tail sticking out of their pants (you can see part of it on Katelin), and the hyena had to get the tail.

The last game had nothing to do with animals. It was the one where they pass a present around in a circle to music, and when the music stops, the person holding it unwraps a layer. Zack got to be the lucky one who got to open the last layer, revealing the present inside...suckers!

After the games, Alissa decided she had waited long enough and it was time to open the presents. I wont show you all of them, but she got lots of things that she loved. Her favorite was an American Girl type doll that she now carries with her everywhere!

Even after all of the games and presents, we still had an hour to go. Never has a party gone that quick before. Oh well, maybe they will take a reallllly long time eating the cake...right?

Heres the cake, in the shape of a paw. Not my best cake, but it still tasted just as good. Ever since Madi's idea of putting pudding in the middle instead of frosting, we are converted to making every cake that way. Yum! Zack thought it was Blue's Clues, since it was blue. Shhh...dont tell Alissa that!

Blowing out 6 candles.

Well, with about 45 minutes to spare, we sent the girls out to play. Alissa decided she wanted a "spanking machine", so here she is on the tramp crawling under their legs while getting her birthday spankings. Crazy girl!

They just played and played until pick-up time, which was fine with the exception of a game of Red Red Rover, courtesy of Madi, who then ended up clotheslining one of the girls pretty bad. No more Red Red Rover!

Overall, I would only rate this party a 6. Appropriate for a 6th birthday I guess. I didnt come out of it feeling like it turned out great, like most other parties. The games were too quick and I didnt get the feeling that the girls were loving it. Maybe I underestimated their abilities. It seemed they were too old for them. If I knew the weather was going to be freakishly warm for October in Wisconsin, I might have planned some better activities to do outside. A pinata is always a winner. Oh well, Ill have to make it up for her 8th birthday.

A Happy Happs Happening

Yes, its that time again. Time for a trip to the pumpkin patch. Zack immediatly found this tractor and had to have a picture atop of it! Recognize this one? It was once filled with a different combination of four of our kids. Madi was replaced by Brylee this year.
Brylee was so not in the picture taking mood!

Another favorite...a truck!

The girls liked this little house.

After taking this one, Katelin said, "Ah Man, Im fat!" ...referring to raggety Anne. Still trying to get a smile...nope.

Zack in another truck with his best friend!

Woof, woof.

Hay ride time!

This happened to be Alissa's birthday, and someone had the idea to sing to her on the hay ride. Here she is clinging to me, but secretly loving it!

Brylee liking the ducks...

...but she wont admit it. Still no smile.

Why is that hole so big?

Time to go home with free baby pumpkins in hand! Yeah!

Confessions of a stolen camera!

When looking through my pictures, I noticed a few photos that were unfamiliar to me. I then realized that my camera had been "borrowed" for a photo shoot around the house. I found these amusing, maybe you will too! Im thinking there was more than one camera man involved here! Can you identify everything?