Sleeping In

I don't get to sleep in much anymore. Robert is good about getting up with Sam and letting me sleep a little but you can still hear the kids when they are downstairs - at least in my small house. But this morning Robert had a breakfast meeting with a chaplain about our neighborhood Bible study so he left before 6:30. That left me in a quiet house and no alarm to get up to! What a treat to sleep to 8 o'clock in a quiet house!
And an extra fun thing was to wake up and find our pumpkin plant blooming. Now I am not a gardener. I have a black thumb. But Gabby, on the other hand, can bring home plants from preschool in a paper cup, throw them in the ground and they will bloom all summer and be beautiful. She wanted to plant some things so we did. We didn't spend much time on it, planting time got mixed in with sick Sam time, so mostly things were thrown into the ground. We were doing well on our blueberry bushes until the deer jumped our fence and ate them. We have a huge pumpkin plant now and it it blooming! That is a success to me! We also have some zinnias about to bloom. Hopefully they will still be blooming when Gabby gets back home.

Vacation is over...

Robert's classes started back up today and his break is over. We took the kids to Nashville this weekend to see my family and exchange them with Robert's parents for a week. So what am I doing this week with no children?? Sleeping first and foremost. After that, trying to do the things that are so hard with the kiddos around. Things that aren't fun but necessary.

Chicago

Robert came home from work before his break and said, "Let's go to Chicago." So we left on Saturday. Sunday we visited with a friend of mine from high school (I refuse to say "old friend") in the morning. We went to the top of the Hancock Building in the afternoon and had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory - we love that place!

Monday we went to the Shedd Aquarium. The kids and I watched a special on PBS about it one day and they were ready to see it. We had a good time and stayed till mid-afternoon. We took a water taxi over to Navy Pier and walked around for a little while and then took another water taxi up the river a little ways. We had deep dish pizza for dinner and all went to bed happy!

Tuesday we went to the Children's Museum on Navy Pier. We spent all day going between that and the pirate show out in the shopping area. Gabby loved it! They played games with the kids and she did a great job volunteering. We rode the Ferris Wheel and the Merry-Go-Round before leaving a tired crew.

We came on home Wednesday because company was coming Friday. Gabby's favorite thing was the pirate show. Sam's favorite thing was to stand in the window at our hotel and watch the traffic go by. We were on the 16th floor and across from the hospital. He learned the ambulance sound very quickly.

A big "Thank You" to all the attractions in Chicago - Robert was free on everything we did except the rides at Navy Pier and the bus. We ALL got in free to the Children's Museum. They know how to thank a military family and it made a huge difference!

Happy Fourth!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Independence Day! We took a quick trip to Chicago earlier this week and we're about to head to the airport to pick up my mom, sister and her family. They will be here a few days. Enjoy your day and I will put up Chicago pics soon.

Stat update

So both kids have been to the doctor this week - Sam for his one year appointment and Gabby for her Kindergarten physical. Gabby weighs in at 41.8 pounds and measures 44 3/4 inches. She checked out on everything and got four shots. She's ready to start school in the fall!
Sam weighs in at 23.69 pounds and is 31 inches tall. He checked out on everything and got three shots and a blood draw for the lead test and another CBC to check him all out one more time.
His iron levels were low when he was sick so she wanted to see if they had come up and that everything else had returned to normal. Most everything has returned to normal but a few things were still a little high or low, but nothing alarming. That's ok considering a virus can stay with you for two months or more. And she suggested we keep giving him the vitamins to help with the iron, which was also a little low.
Gabby thinks she won because she got four shots and Sam only got three. She isn't counting the blood draw, however, because she hasn't had it done since she was a year old and they did the lead test on her. But everyone's doing good and growing well.

T-ball

Gabby finished up T-ball two weeks ago. She had a good time playing and made big improvements on the game. Here she is hamming it up during her last at-bat and getting her trophy from her coach.

Royals Game

Amongst all the sickness, we did do some other things in the last three weeks. I will try to catch up on some pictures and happenings now that everyone is better.

Last night we went to a Royals game with Gabby's T-ball team. They broke their losing streak since we were there to cheer them on. Not sure any of the team watched any of the game but we had a good time and it was a nice evening. Gabby and Sam both were at their first MLB game. We tailgated a little before the game and then took the team's picture at the George Brett statue outside the park (Gabby's in the middle in the blue pants and hat). Inside, a big group of kids had treats galore and lots of fun. Yes, that's Sam with cotton candy. You have to know Daddy gave it to him.