Welcome to Spring

Our family is so excited that Spring is officially here! The weather is gorgeous and the kids can't get enough of the outdoors. This week we met our sweet friend Molly and her little girls at the park for a picnic and play time.  Grafton and Anna (Molly's older daughter) are in the same Mothers' Morning Out class and Grafton just loves to play with her.  James has a blast too- he thinks he is just as old as Anna and Grafton and tries to do everything they do! He has also taken quite a liking to Molly and immediately finds her lap when she sits down.  Here are a few pictures from the day at the park.

A rough Spring Break

Next year we are going to have to take a trip during Spring Break in order to not have the same experience we had this year!  Spring Break '12 started off with a trip to Urgent Care when James woke up Sunday morning with his eye swollen shut.  The doctor never could determine what was wrong, but the antibiotic he perscribed did the trick and made him better in no time.  Then Tuesday night Grafton came down with a 105 degree fever what would not come down regardless of a lukewarm bath, tylenol, or cool drinks.  After taking her to the doctor on Wednesday, she was diagnosed with an ear infection and mild case of the flu (even though we had the flu shot already!).  After one day of medicine, Grafton was back to her happy and normal self, playing and laughing like usual!  Then for the finale...on Friday, Grafton was twirling around at a restaurant and fell into a brick column, which ended up cutting her head open so badly that we had yet another trip to the doctor!  Grafton had to get staples in the back of her head.  It was a very scary and traumatic experience for both Grafton and myself- I felt what it was like to beg God to take away my child's pain and somehow give it to me instead.  Grafton was so scared and didn't know what to expect, and I felt helpless hugging her and promising that she would be okay.  It was all I could do to fight back the tears as they were putting in the staples.  In the end, Grafton was okay by the time we left and even went to the baseball game that night and had a blast!  Thank goodness God made children so resilient!

So, after 3 trips to the doctor, I am sure our health insurance is on high alert!! We go back tomorrow for the staples to be removed, and I pray that it isn't a bad experience.

We did have a few good moments mixed in with all the rough stuff though! We had picnics in the park, fun with friends at the playground, a cookout at our house with some precious friends, and cookie baking with DeeDee to make some Easter treats! I don't have many pictures from the week, but I do have several from our cookie decorating.  Both kids had a fun time, and I was happy to continue on our holiday cookie tradition!

Party at the zoo

Grafton had been asking me for weeks what kind of birthday party I was going to have, and finally I told her that I was going to have a party at the zoo! She has been sooooo excited all week to get to go to the zoo- she talked about it nearly every day! Of course, the party at the zoo only consisted of my family, but we all had a blast.  The weather was just perfect, and the kids had such a fun time seeing all of the animals. At the end of the day Grafton told us that her favorite part was the train ride, the carousel, and the camel ride! As you can see from the pictures- both kids had a really fun time with Uncle Scott. Grafton always adores him, but James REALLY took a liking to him at the zoo and pretty much wouldn't let anyone else hold him!! He would just hug on Scott and lay his head on his shoulder- it was precious!! Thanks, Scott, for being such a big help to us on Saturday!! I can't wait to take the kids again soon.