April Fool's

My plans for April Fools' day got hijacked by a trip to the Emergency Department (ugh, no offense to you wonderful ED docs, but I really don't like visiting you at work).

J-boy slipped climbing up a ladder at the playground - it wasn't terrible, but it wasn't too fun, either. We'd ridden our bikes over and met up with Heather and then Ryan stopped off on his way home from school. J-boy hit his chin, Ryan (med-student-super-hero) checked him out and drove us home while Heather rode my bike w/ her baby and K-lady back to our house. I was SO GLAD they were there! I wasn't excited about J-boy riding his bike with his chin dripping blood all the way home. :) And though my little stock of bandaids and neosporin came in handy, it wasn't quite enough!

Joseph was still at work, and (bless them!) Heather and Ryan stayed with the girls so I could take J-boy to what I thought was our urgent care clinic. Nope! Scary part of town and scary psycho clinic (literally and descriptively - psychiatric care). After chatting with a phone-nurse via cell for a while I ended up just taking him to Children's Hospital where the urgent clinic said, "Sorry we don't do stitches! To the ED for you!" Which roughly translates to "This may take a while."

(nice nostril shot, no?)

J-boy did great the whole time we were waiting. But as soon as the doc came in to start with the sutures he freaked out. Poor boy was so worn out by then (he fell around 5:00, and finally got stitched up around 9:00), and though I'm pretty sure the local anesthetic stuff worked it couldn't numb his imagination. :)
Finally we made it out - never counted the stitches since I was wracking my brains to come up with some wonderfully diverting and distracting story I could share (the only thing I came up with were stories about my own stitches experiences.... I don't think that helped). :) But he had somewhere around 8. The doctor said no bike riding or running or jumping or being-a-boy for a week while they healed. That lasted almost 16 hours, which I felt was probably long enough. After all, we had Easter eggs to hunt and zoos to visit. :) All's well that ends well!

"pasketti" night

K-lady and Joseph decided we need to have a Spaghetti Night - cloth-napkin bibs, no cutting of noodles allowed, and meatballs are a must.  I'm good with that. Friday is pizza, Saturday is leftovers, Monday is spaghetti (though after a month of spaghetti night, I'm starting to think we need to shake it up a bit - maybe fettucine alfredo next time???)
Anyway, it does make menu planning a little easier!




You heard the man - (but could you understand him?) - GET SOME PESKETTI!!!
 Do your kids turn into complete goofs when the video camera's on??

Spring Break in Jeresey!!

Get ready for a LOT of pictures (5 adults + 5 cameras + 5 days = 459 pictures!)

We decided to hit the road for K-lady's Spring Break this year -- Joseph couldn't get time off, but my sister and nephew came along to keep my children entertained so we could all meet this wonderful little man:

my new nephew!  Isn't he handsome?  Dave, Angela and their kids live in New Jersey, about a 10 hour drive.  We had such a good time visiting with them and just loving up the time we had together. 

 Dave is such a good uncle -- he even set up a tent for a camp out in the back yard one of the nights we were there.  Baby A and I opted for beds inside, but Dave and the older two slept out there all night (with the electric blanket plugged into the house).  Cousin Bailey started out with them, but apparently she was too much of a party animal and got banished to the master bedroom.  :)

We spent the first day of Spring on the Jersey Shore -- Baby A and J-boy's first time to the Atlantic ocean.  It was COLD, but that didn't stop my kids from getting wet!  :)

 My wonderful mom was there, too -- bonus!!!

 

We got to visit Dave's "office"

This little guy is such a sweet sweet baby!  And Angela is such a sweet sweet momma.

all the cousins!  It's a good bunch.

The whole crew (minus mom, who is taking the picture).  There are always a few moans when we announce that it's time for a family picture, but I never regret having them.