Corn Belly's 2015

What would an October at our house be without a trip to Cornbelly's? It's been our tradition since we moved into our house back in 2011. We bought our tickets at the end of September, and then October started running away with lots of craziness.We had family in town, Michael's birthday, and then some weather troubles. We finally decided to go on October 22--but that day, Michael woke up screaming because he couldn't move his leg. He went to school with a terrible limp, and I took him to the doctor as soon I saw him limping to my car when I picked up Carpool. We did x-rays, but there were no breaks, and the doctor gave no more instructions than to just rest it. So, I rubbed his leg, we stretched it, and his limp went away. And since there were no breaks, we headed to Cornbelly's as planned (it was really our last day that we could go). We started with the maze first. The kids took turns picking which direction we would go. 

 The theme for the maze this year was The Minions.

We made sure to take Rachel and Michael's picture next to the tire tractor, since we've done it every year.  

 There were lots of slides and playsets to play on:

 There was a corn pit too. Michael dived right in. So did Rachel, but as soon as she did, she hopped right back out. She wasn't too sure about the unsteady surface.

 We went on the cow train, and Rachel giggled the whole time.

 Brian hung out with Michael in some playhouses, distracting him from the jumping pillows since we WERE trying to watch out for his leg, and I took Rachel the jumping pillows--which she didn't care for--and then on to the Princess section. She loved sitting in the princess coach

 And dressing up:

 She's really into Princess things right now. We rode another train of sorts, and ended with the Wagon Hayride.

 We stayed later than we intended--as usual--so Rachel conked out almost as soon as we started heading home.

We had such a blast! It's one of my favorite things about October.

Oh, and about Michael's leg. The next day was Friday. We didn't realize that he had P.E. that day (they only have it every other week or something), so we didn't send a note that he was supposed to be resting. He ran. He played. And by the night time, his leg was a bit of a mess. It was the day before his last soccer game. I called his coach and asked if she could let him play goalie the next day since his leg was a little bit hurt. She mentioned that at practice on Wednesday, one of Michael's friends tackled him, and right afterwards, Michael told her that he had hyper-extended his knee. The things were starting to  make sense with what she said. She said we needed to ice his leg, elevate it, and rest it--things that the doctor (well nurse-practitioner--Michael's doctor was out of the office the day we went in)--should have told us. His coach gave us a time line and more specifics for the "Rest" instructions.

The next day--Saturday, October 24--Michael refused to put weight on his leg. We didn't even bother taking him to his last game since we had to carry him everywhere. I was pretty frustrated with the whole thing, especially that the doctor didn't give us any more instruction or follow-up. My friend who is in nursing school and who has a bachelor's degree in exercise science (or something like that), came over and looked at his leg and helped Michael get walking again. She gave us even more instruction, and so between Michael's coach and our friend, we were able to help him recover. This was our first experience with a sport's injury with our kids. I found myself getting kind of mad at the boy--who is always so rough and who is my friend's son. I talked myself out of doing anything rash, but I was a little surprised to hear thoughts of suing running through my head. It's funny how crazy we can get about our kids, as if suing my friend would make things better or magically fix his knee. Michael's just fine now, and we're all a little wiser.

Michael's Birthday

Michael turned 6 this year! (I just really can't believe he's already 6). Since it's an even year, we had a friends birthday party. I asked him what kind of birthday he wanted, and he said Lego Star Wars. Due to family events and commitments and fall break, the best day that worked for the party was smack dab on Michael's birthday. It made for a busy day, but that's okay. 

There aren't a lot of Lego Star Wars specific party favors, so we had to get a little creative. I found these sweet molds on Amazon of Lego bricks and others of Star Wars characters. Brian and I made little candies with the molds, threw some on some cupcakes, 

 Throw in some cupcakes, paint an eyeball pinata to look like the Deathstar, and Ta-Da!

I wanted to come up with a game from each episode in the Lego Star Wars Game. The first game: Free the Naboo pilots. I hid a picture of a pilot with each child's name on in inside our castle. So, they had to find their pilot, and then got to play in the castle until everyone arrived. 

Try as I might, I couldn't come up with anything for Episode II. So we skipped it and went straight to III. They had to get across the hot lava without falling in and burning up. They loved this!

 For Episode IV, we blew up white balloons and drew storm trooper faces on them. We told the kids that the storm troopers had invaded my ship, and they had to defeat them.

They each got a turn trying to hit one with nerf guns.  

 For Episode V, they had to use "the force" to carry Yoda back and forth across the yard in a relay race. It was a little windy, so we allowed them to use one finger to stabilize Yoda in the cup.

 Then, before I could stop them, (there were 13 kids!) they started attacking the "stormtroopers". And I thought, you know what? Why not. They were destroyed within 2 minutes, but they had a blast doing it.

 Lastly, for Episode VI, they had to destroy the Deathstar, once and for all. It was not an easy thing to do.

 I finally just had to toss them candy from the hole they were able to put into it when they knocked it off the string. Brian said I looked like I was feeding chickens and had to take a picture.

 Next, Michael opened his many presents, loving all of them.

 And then we sang Happy Birthday and had treats.

After the kids left, we took Michael out to eat. He wanted to eat at Cafe Rio, and we sure didn't argue!

I can't express enough how much I love this boy. He came crashing into our world and into our hearts, and we have never been the same since. He is smart, inquisitive, and soaks up everything around us. He constantly amazes us with his enthusiasm and zest for life. He is frustratingly independent sometimes, but he has one of the sweetest, kindest hearts. We live for his giggles. We laugh at his antics and creativity. And we melt with his hugs. Mostly, we're grateful and in awe that he is our son.

September

September flew by---and dragged at the same time. It was boring; it was fun. It was lazy; it was crazy! But mostly, looking back now, the details are a little fuzzy. 

 Both kids took a turn being sick. Rachel started it, and Michael got sick while we were in Idaho for Labor Day. I have to say, Rachel is the most pathetic sick kid around

 We had a Regional Broadcast for church one Sunday, which meant we got to go watch it at the building in our neighborhood--within walking distance of our house--and not at the building 10 minutes away that we normally meet at. It was a welcome luxury. (Technically, I think we were supposed to meet at a different building, since this one isn't in our stake, but we didn't. It was just too nice going back to our old meetinghouse.)

 We fed Rachel's sweet addiction--probably a little too much:

 The kids started swimming lessons (more on this later). It was a bit of a love/hate relationship for them. They both love the water, but lessons were a little exhausting.

 We carried on our tradition of a dinner date when Brian has his release night. Here we are at Kneaders:

 And of course, it wouldn't be a month at our house without some projects. I made this cool apron for my neighbor Sam's birthday. You can't tell from the picture, but the black and white fabric says "Sam I am" all over it. I saw it months ago and had to get it for her. I washed it and it was sitting in my laundry room forever waiting for me to think of something to do with it. Her birthday gave me a deadline and a push and this is what I came up with:

 And Brian made some shelves for our furnace room. Now we just need shelves in our cold storage and we're all set for storage room shelves! Yay!

Brian's Birthday

This year, Betty Crocker gave Brian a great birthday present: She brought back Rainbow Chip frosting so I could make Brian's favorite cake:

He was pretty excited, but I think he wasn't as excited as I was since I know how to make a good substitute. 

For his birthday, we went out to eat and then we went to see Ant Man. Brian really likes that movie, and he knew that his birthday was the only way he was going to get me to go see it in the theater. It wasn't as bad as I was expecting, and I must admit, I did enjoy it. Other than that, it was a pretty chill birthday. 

Despite the chillness of the day, I have to say that it can never be overstated how grateful I am that he was born. He is my best friend, my partner in crime, and my hero in so many ways. I can't imagine my life without him. He knows all about my shortcomings and flaws, and somehow overlooks them, making me feel like I can do anything in the world. He is smart, but more importantly, he is kind. He makes me want to be a better person. His super power is making others feel completely at ease around him. Thanks for being born, Brian. Thanks for coming to BYU. And thanks for picking me out of all those girls. I love you! 

Of Mice and Men

Not too long after school started, I noticed something kind of funny and adorable on Michael's homework:

My first response was to laugh out loud at the name which he had inadvertently started identifying himself. Also, I knew it needed to be addressed---it's an important distinction between a C and a K in this case. Our conversation went something like this:

Me: (showing him one of his papers, and pointing to his name) What does this say to you?
Michael: Mike.
Me: I thought that is what you were trying to write. Do you know what this actually says?
Michael: No
Me: It says "mice". It's one of those cases where the C makes an "s" sound. If you want to write Mike, you need to spell it M-I-K-E. Why are you writing Mike? I really don't like Mike. I didn't think you liked Mike either.
Michael: But my name is SO long. 

The next day, I started seeing this:

I pleaded my case about the Mike thing again. "You're Michael, not Mike! Everyone will start calling you Mike if you keep writing your name as Mike. It's only 3 more letters. You need to write Michael."

My brother, McCallan empathized with him on the lots of letters thing. He had to write 8 afterall. 

Michael's such a good boy. I haven't seen Mike for months.