Tuesday, March 08, 2016

January & February 2016 - AKA Catch Up Time

 AK!  It's March already.
Yikes.
Time to catch up!

Nothing earth shattering has happened in the past two months.
Just business as usual around here.

On January 3rd, it snowed.

The kids (including Ralph) were excited.




Alas, it didn't even measure up to an inch.

But, that did not stop "SNOWMAN-A-MANIA" from happening.

"Hi, everyone.  I'm Tiny and I DON'T like warm hugs!
Really.  They'll squish me.
Have a candy cane"


The snow melted, as it always does here in the PNW, and the sun came out.
It was springish for a bit in January.

We headed out to a local park to run around.

With a Boba Fett blaster and nerf guns.


Although the kids and Huzbends game of good guys vs. bad guy ruled the playground, I'm pretty sure the parents were not happy with us.....


Right around that time in January, we went to see Monster Jam.

Mikey liked it.


The jury is still out on if Katie enjoyed it.....


At the end of January, it was time for Katie's every-8-week Remicade infusion.

Every 8 weeks we lather her up with "numbing cream" - on both elbow pits, the back & sides of both hands - and wrap those parts up in "Press n' Seal" to keep the cream in place.
Her veins are notoriously fickle.  Sometimes they want to cooperate, sometimes they don't.

She's a good sport about it.  She winces through and I distract her with talk about what Ralph might be doing at that particular moment.

After the IV is set and meds are flowing, it's about a 3 to 4 hour slog (the meds have to run slowly in case of a reaction - which could occur at any time).

Usually we watch movies, TV, she plays video games on her DS, she writes a story or does some art or we play Pictionary on the hospital room white board.

Here she is taking the time to get some homework done.


"What?
Mom?  Seriously."


Katie decided to test Ralph's sense of smell vs. Huzbend's sense of smell.


Here she is setting up the experiment.


Ralph was really good at finding the cheese under the papers.  He never picked wrong.


Huzbend.....well, not so much. 


The finished product was unveiled at our PTA Science Fair & Art Walk at the beginning of February.

Ralph won, by the way.


Mikey continued his Science Fair space topic trend and researched our galaxy.
(Last year it was the universe)


Ralph got a new Costco dog bed that:

A) Matched our couches,
B) The kids thought was super comfortable,
AND
C) was dark brown so you couldn't see the two tons of black dog hair embedded in it.



Groundhog Day/20th Anniversary came and went.
I met Huzbend at a fancy restaurant on his work campus for lunch.
Our first school-day date.

The Superbowl came and went.
Had a party at our friends place.
Good times.

Katie had her first dog-sitting job for some neighbors of ours.
A cute little french bulldog who was super sweet and super hyper.
(I helped, and so did Mikey).

And then it was.....

VALENTINES DAY!!


Katie didn't have a school party this year.  They exchanged valentines at lunch time and had a valentine box decorating competition.

Mikey's class had a party.

As usual, I provided for and manned the "Decorate Your Own Gluten and Nut Free But You Don't Even Know It Cookie Station".

I love watching the kids get so excited about putting a pound of frosting and toppings on their cookies.
This year I added Pop Rocks as an option.

YEAH!!!


Katie disappeared into her room and threw together this Lego creation.

Amazing.





She even took a selfie with it.



Huzbend came up with an idea last Valentines to let the kids eat whatever they wanted for dinner as long as they had one thing that was "good for them" on their plate.

The kids, of course, did not forget this and requested we do the same this year.

I guess it's a tradition now.

This is Katie's meal. 


And this is Mikey's.
(I believe, he had apple in that purple bowl)


"Sigh.
Accessorized.
Again."


Mid-month, we enjoyed Marvel Universe LIVE!

I have to admit, it was pretty cool.
A great alternative to the Disney On Ice fair, it was a super hero stunt show with special effects, explosions, fighting, lasers & motorcycles.

The kids, and us adults, really enjoyed it.

This was also the first of these types of shows that we bought "souvenirs" at.

An oversized Mjolnir stuffie for Katie and an Infinity Sword for Mikey.
(at least, that was HIS name for it)


Mikey wants to grow his hair like Thor.
It's pretty long right now.

I think he looks like a Hobbit.
I've taken to calling him Merry.
(in my opinion, the hobbit with the most attitude)

He also likes his hair long 'cause he can do stuff like this....


Huzbend had to move from his office to what they call a "team room".  Which means there's nowhere for him to hang his stanky, wet biking clothes.

He solved the problem by bringing a drying rack to work.



Our PTA put on a Glow Dance.

It was SUPER fun.  And really, really, really LOUD.

Katie hung with friends and danced and giggled the night away.


Mikey danced with me and as the night wore on,
he found his inner "Bieber".


 By the end of the month, Spring was springing.
The temps were getting warmer and the sun (or light behind the clouds) hanging out a little longer.

The flowers started peeking out. 


Since the weather was nicer, we tried to get the kids out for fresh air.
There's only so much Minecraft you can take.

Here's Mikey, oh wait, I mean Monkey Boy.


Surprisingly, when we are outdoors, the kids seem to forget that they annoy each other so much and actually get along.

It's really nice.

And quiet.




October & November 2023

 The next day was October 1st. We flew back home and were ready to rock October. October was a bit crazy. As I look at the calendar trying t...