February 2017

On the first day of February, Katie took the research she did for her Science Fair project (Chronic Illnesses) to school.

She wanted to explain to the class about Crohn's and Celiac.

She had overheard some kids in her class saying that she was a "trouble maker" because she didn't pay to use the bathroom (in her class the kids have to pay fake money earned doing classroom chores to use the bathroom during instruction time.  She had never paid due to an arrangement with the teacher because of her condition).  Also, 5th Grade Camp (a two-night outdoor education camp) was coming up and she wouldn't be able to eat the food the others were eating.

I was so proud of her as she stood in front of her class and delivered information to her class about her chronic illnesses.  There were quite a few questions, which she handled perfectly.

I was just there for "moral support".

I'm so happy I was.

Around this time we also received our NIMA.

The Nima Sensor can detect if there's gluten in food in about two minutes.

We put it to the test at a favorite Mexican restaurant.

Happy face means no gluten!

Yay! 

The night of the SuperBowl it snowed.  About 4 inches maybe.

They cancelled school.

SNOW DAY!

It was sticky snow.

This is Mikey holding a basketball that he rolled in it.

Being Nor'Easterners, we immediately put our children to work shoveling our driveway, front walk and the sidewalks in front of our house.

You should know that PacNorWesterner's do NOT do this.

They spend their time laughing at us like the grasshopper did to the ants in that Aesop's fable.

REALLY sucks to be them when it changes to rain, it all turns to slush and then it all freezes overnight.  They can't get in or out of their driveways.

P-SHAW!

ANYways, Mikey likes to push his luck.

This dude stopped by the neighborhood.

He was probably disturbed by the awful scraping sound produced by our shoveling.
"Who shovels?  SERIOUSLY."

It was really pack-tastic snow.

They made this huge snow man.

Cute.

It was time to go sledding.  Katie didn't last that long pulling Mikey.
We took turns pulling the kids.  They're heavy.

Ralph came too.

He LOVES snow.

He especially likes when you make a snowball, say, "Reeeadddddddy...." and then throw it in the air.
He jumps up and eats it.

All in all, we spent about an hour sledding.

There were lots of crashes and spills.

Katie was DONE.

"Can we go home now, PLEASE? I'm FREEZING!"

Mikey was ready for another hour or two, but we packed it in and headed home.

Annnnnnd, then I got pneumonia.

Yep.

Yay me.

I'm special.

Valentine's Day was up next.

Katie did not have a party, but Mikey did.

That night they got to choose what they wanted for dinner and then got to eat any candy they had gotten that day.

After dinner, a secret surprise Huzbend had worked on the evening before, was unveiled.

He had baked us a gluten free chocolate cherry cake!!

It might not have been much of a looker, but it was DELICIOUS.

Next up, the Science Fair and Art Walk.

Katie displayed her board on "Chronic Illnesses" and Mikey showed off the work he did on "Electricity".

The following week was "Mid-Winter Break".

It began with President's Day.  So, Huzbend had off and we headed to a bouldering gym.

Everyone had fun climbing.

Yep.  Me too.

I had to get creative and plan stuff for the kids and me to do for the rest of the week.

The zoo's always a winner.

Even on a cold, damp Tuesday in February.

We used A LOT of tissues.

Katie and I gave Mikey the map and let him lead us around.

He loves maps.

He did a really good job.

The zoo had been working on eliminating unnecessary brush over the winter.

I think this was the first time that I could see all the wolves together.

I even let them ride the carousel.

Crazy, huh?

Katie got reprimanded for riding side saddle.

Ooops.

I have no idea what this look is for.

Caught Katie mid-nose-sniffle in this picture.

Lunch time!

Mikey was excited.

He actually got to see his favorite animal.

They look big (and happy) in this picture.

Katie practiced her parseltongue.

"Sooooo cuuuuuuute!!!!!!!!"

(that was an actual quote)

(she has crazy eyes in this picture)

The kids communed with a baby gorilla.

He's hiding under the burlap sack.

After we walked the whole zoo, they had to horse around in the zoo playground for a bit.

I'm just going to leave these here.

We've been to the zoo before.

Gulp.

We didn't do much else on Break.

Watched TV, played video games, bought some clothes for the non-stop growing kids, Katie had a playdate/sleepover with a friend.  Yadda yadda.

That weekend, we went to the Aquarium with some friends.

Mikey indulged in the Touch Tank.

I think it might have been the first time ever.

Usually, Katie is the kid that has to love on the sea stars, cucumbers and urchins.

See?

Pantomiming the second half of the "oooooo ahhhhhhh" exclamation.

The kids were fascinated by the sea otters eating lunch.

Crab.

They carried it around on their bellies as they swam and ate.

After the Aquarium, our friends took us to ride

Soarin' over Washington...OH WAIT....Wings Over Washington.

Here we are waiting outside.

It actually was a total rip-off of Soarin', but showed you scenes from Washington State.

It was pretty cool for a ride not in a Disney park.

Next stop, lunch at a yummy Mexican place that had lots of gluten free options and then we detoured to Pike Place Market to get some to-go mini-cheesecakes.

The kids got lollipops.

Fair trade, right?

Although it was quite cloudy, rainy and chilly all week....

Spring began to make it's appearance.

There's hope for some sun yet!

And January 2017...a blog post by Katie

*(Katie wrote this post.  With some notations by me.

These notations will be marked with an asterisk (*) and be in parentheses.)

January was pretty uneventful.

We were either playing video games, playing in the snow, doing science projects, or looking at art. That's really all we did.

Here I am with my project that I entered in the PTA Reflections art contest, which won Judges Choice!

*(The theme was "What is Your Story". Her picture was a drawing of a bird that looked like it was made out of folded paper with a story on it.)

And here's Mikey watching my Dad play video games.

Oh and we made cookies.

*(Katie made cookies while Mikey and Huzbend were playing video games in the photo above.)

My Mom calls them "snow balls" because when they're done, you have to put powdered sugar on them.

*(We got a inch or two of snow and they cancelled school. I know. Right? Anyways, it's been an unseasonably cold and snowy winter for us in the PNW.)

Snow! Snow! And more snow! Which means sledding. We went to the mountains to go sledding but then found that they didn't allow dogs! So, poor old Ralph had to stay in the car while the rest of us went sledding!

*(It was REALLY cold out that day.)

*(I stayed in the car and kept Ralph company.)

I don't now why, but Mikey could not even walk up the tiniest hills!

*(I would guess it was laughs he was looking for....)

And then, while it was your turn on the sled, he would through snow balls at your butt!

*(Katie didn't last that long. As I mentioned, it was pretty cold.  She returned to the car with frozen toes (she had gotten snow in her boots) and hung out with Ralph while I went and took some photos of the boys.)

*(Mikey probably could've stayed for another few hours. He had a blast.)

After everyone was done sledding, we went back to the car to warm up and go to a park where Ralph was allowed. While me and Mikey were eating a snack, mom and dad went outside to walk Ralph. 

*(Ralph loves the snow almost as much as he loves water/puddles. I swear that he is incapable of getting cold or feeling pain of any sort. Maybe that's a Lab thing?)

*(It was time to work on projects for the Science Fair.)

*(Katie did research on chronic illnesses and explained Crohn's and Celiac to help inform people.)

Then there was Mikey's science project. It was on static electricity.

*(Katie couldn't remember what the experiment was, so she asked me to take over writing.

The experiment was charging up balloons so that they repelled each other.)

*(The balloons were charged similarly and so they pushed each other away. When he inserted his hand between them (an opposite charge) they were attracted to it.)

*(Of course, he got silly, as all things must in Mikey-World, and stuck them to his head and made his hair stick up)

We also went to the dentist. When they're done with your teeth, they give you 2 little tokens that you can use to get two prizes that come in little containers.

Here we put the container lids on our eye balls! 

- Katie

*(At the end of the month, Katie got pretty sick.

And, wouldn't you know it, her IV infusion was that weekend.

It was another horrible infusion appointment where she was dehydrated and her veins wouldn't cooperate.

They poked her about 5 times before finding a vein that would work.

There were lots of tears and quite a bit of screaming.

Sigh.

I guess the good news in this is that they've now marked Katie in their system as a special case.

The expert on-call "IV Team" will now always be called as soon as she checks in to get her IV started. They won't be messing around anymore.)