The DSW Diva strikes again!!

All morning long on Saturday, Avery begged to go shoe shopping. So that afternoon we headed out to DSW. After some initial disappointment that we weren't at the shoe store with sparkly kids shoes (SRI) she quickly settled into her old routine. You may remember it from here.

She had one of the employees so tickled by the time we left, he would just laugh at the sight of her sprinting up the aisles.

Now you can't really see her shoes in this picture. But they were all of her faves...purple, sparkly and high, high heels.

But forget the shoes...look at that pose. Am I in trouble or what????

Krispy Kreme Challenge 2013

Well, better late than never I suppose. Last week didn’t go as planned and I never got this post up!  That doesn’t mean we didn’t have a blast.

After basically 12 months of hype and a few months of training, it is time!  Notice that the zero is a donut!

12 donuts. 5 miles. 60 minutes.

In the days leading up to the race, Will was all talk. When I asked him how many donuts he was going to eat, he told me he was planning on bringing extra money because he thought he would eat more than 12!!

The guys before they headed out to the race.

Us girls before we finally made our way downtown. Avery wanted to wear her shirt backwards. Honestly, since we were both in coats the whole time, it didn’t matter that our shirts matched the boys!

Avery and I made our way downtown and easily found a parking place close to Krispy Kreme.  We found a good spot to stand and got our signs already for the boys! Avery worked so hard on her sign, which included a bear for her Bubba.

Yes, Sunshine went with us. We obviously forgot her coat. I also caught a lot of grief from Avery for not making Sunny a M&M's shirt.

Here come our boys!

A few pics of other participants...

Matt & Will sit down and start in on their donuts.

I love this pic of Will and all of the half-eaten donuts. It’s like he thought “well, maybe the next one will be better”…..ha!

And then Avery has to potty. Like a minute after the boys get to us.  While we were only 100 yards from Krispy Kreme (aka the nearest restroom), there were literally THOUSANDS of people between us and the potty.  Many of them puking. It was awesome. It took Avery, the stroller and I a good 10 minutes just to weave our way to the restroom.  Avery actually had to get out of the stroller so I could carry it over people. It was a bad time!

We make it inside only to find a line. You would think the 2 gals in front of us would let a 3 year old go in front of them but noooooo……..  We stand there a good 5 minutes without moving. Finally a GUY emerges from the women’s room, all pale and apologetic.  When we finally get in there, I understood his apologies….let’s just say the toilet was clogged and I was heaving and gagging.  I am fairly certain I came closer to puking that day than Matt or Will did!!!  It takes Avery forever to do her business and wash her hands but finally we emerge to fresh air.  And a line of probably 20 women waiting.

I buy her a heart sprinkle donut and we head back out to find the boys.

Of course they have left by this point so we head to the car so we can drive to the finish line.  We are searching for a parking place at the finish line when I get a text from Matt saying they are done. What!?!?!  I honestly didn’t even think they would finish and here they have finished and I didn’t even see it. I was SO SAD. SO SAD.

But immensely proud too! Will put his mind to this truly a year ago and he did it.  So while he didn’t finish the prescribed amount of donuts, he is 6, so I don’t think he should have to. 12 donuts piled up is taller than he is from waist to head!! He did finish first in the 6 year old’s though! And he ran the entire thing except for about 1/8 of a mile where he simultaneously rode on Matt’s back/choked Matt.

Final stats:

Minutes: 73

# of miles: 5

# of donuts-Matt: 13

# of donuts-Will: 6

# of vomits: ZERO!!!

In true kid fashion, as soon as Will got in the car he asked what was for lunch. And then right after lunch, he went to a birthday party where he played basketball for an hour, had 2 pieces of cake and Fanta and Sprite to drink. Makes me want to vomit just thinking about his day.

Later than night I asked him if he was going to do it again next year….he said he might take a year off! Ha!!!

Between the race and the birthday party, Avery really missed her Bubba that Saturday.  I caught them having a few snuggles later than evening right before bath time. When she is in the mood (always questionable), she loves for Bubba to hold her. Hell, she loves for anyone to hold her!!

1st ER Visit

I never thought my first visit to the ER with one of my children would be with Avery, but it was. I figured for sure it would be with rough and tumble Will! But no, it was my precious little princess who required the first trip.

 Long story short, Avery had a little boo-boo on her leg got infected and we ended up in the Children’s ER to have it drained.  When we arrived, we were the only people in the waiting room so I was all like “Yes! We’ll be in and out in an hour; 2 hours max”. Yeah, I was wrong.  4.5+ hours later……

Plenty of folks kept parading in behind us and they all got seen first. Like 15 people.  Now of course I am very thankful that her case wasn’t urgent, but there were plenty of sick people around us with barf bags, masks, etc… and I was getting totally freaked out by the germs.  It is hard to get a 3 year old to not touch everything and to keep her hands out of her mouth!!!

Of course, when you dance, jump and run on the interactive floor for a solid hour, I can see why the triage nurse didn’t think we were an urgent case!!

Finally we were taken to the back and put in our own little room.  When I had to put this little gown on her, I almost lost it. Even she looks a little unsure of things in this picture.

The doctor came in and talked through the different alternatives for pain management and neither of us wanted to do full sedation on her if possible because the spot wasn’t that bad and the doctor thought it would be a fairly quick drainage and cleaning out procedure. We opted for a less complicated route of localized numbing, some mild anti-anxiety medicine and then laughing gas. Which turned into an hour + ordeal of searching the hospital for a mask small enough for her.

She looked so pitiful with it on. I think she looks so young in this picture.

She cried a little, especially when they did the numbing injections but overall, she was a trooper. The child life specialist who was in the room with us had her singing and talking to distract her.  The therapist had Sunshine standing up and dancing to distract Avery as well as block her view of what the doctor was doing. At one point the pain must have gotten bad because Avery jerked Sunshine out of that lady’s hands and snuggled right up to her.

But, Avery is crazy. Period. Imagine her on laughing gas.

Some of the funnier things she did….

We were singing “Wheels on the Bus” and she would yank her mask off and yell loudly at us for missing a verse (even though most of the time we had already done it!). "YOU FORGOT THE BUS DRIVER!"  She also started yelling Will’s full name at the top of her lungs.  And she kept screaming (just because she is loud, not because of pain) for the medicine she had been promised. This was well after the procedure was over and done with!

When she was recovering, she started counting (loudly…Avery is loud) and when she got to about 80, she went back to 40, jumped around a bit and then all of a sudden was at 100.  Everyone in the room was so tickled. I told Matt last night that I just knew that the doctor, nurse and child life specialist all went home that night and told someone about Avery because she brought a smile to the face of everyone single person she encountered at the hospital.  Even the staff at the check-in desk came around to the outside of the desk to tell her good-bye.

She got to have a popsicle when it was all over, which she enjoyed immensely. 

One of the worst aspects, to me at least, of the day was the lack of food.  Her original doctor’s appointment that day was at 12:20. I had told her we would go out to lunch afterwards, but I did give her a bowl of cereal around 11:00 AM to tide her over. I hadn’t eaten since breakfast. The pediatrician told me Avery shouldn’t eat or drink anything else because they might have to sedate her once we got to the hospital.   So after her popsicle, she also got a carton of apple juice which she sucked down in about 7 seconds flat. Poor little girl.  She really was famished.

But she was such a trooper…..she never once asked for food or drink the entire time. In fact, she was really quite happy the whole time. Dancing, singing, reading books and playing on the iPad. Kept telling me she was “so excited” about everything! Ha!!   Here she is enjoying some one on one time with me (and the iPad) before the procedure.

Luckily, she came home to jelly beans and a Cheerwine from her sweet daddy and loads of grandparent love and gifts. I think if you ask her, she probably thinks she had a really fun day.  The maybe 5 minutes of pain were long forgotten!

One pic of our matching bracelets. She was not a fan of hers!

Hopefully this ordeal is behind us and her leg heals with no issues. Thankfully it isn’t painful for her at all, unless you touch it or get it wet. Unfortunately she is supposed to soak it twice a day!

You know, it's funny....I was a little blue on Sunday night in a selfish way because the weekend hadn't turned out quite like I wanted. I didn't get a ton of "me" time, like a trip to DSW and more sewing time. We had several things going on that kept us away from the house and Avery especially is very into having one of us, but especially me, play with her right now. Monday was just a gentle reminder that new shoes aren't all that important right now (although momma really needs a pair of brown wedges!!) and being with those who love and need you is. You only get one shot at this, ya know.

$47

Do you want to see what $47 will buy you on the Valentine's Day aisle at a drug store?

One day after school last week I took the children to Walgreen's to pick out a few Valentine's Day gifts. $47 later, we left with this assortment. 

They were really cute, excited and actually putting thought into the gifts they were picking out. So it was hard for me to say "No".  If they were unsure of the type of treat or gift someone liked, they asked me for suggestions. There were even a few instances where they expanded on a particular item in an effort to broaden the recipient's horizon!

So they had fun picking it all out. Three days later when I went to wrap it all, I had a time trying to remember who got what!!!

Daddy/Daughter Date Night

A few nights ago, Chickfila hosted one of their awesome events. This was Daddy/Daughter Date Night. Miss Avery was giddy with excitement and was very cute in her pre-dinner conversations, including being extremely polite each time she asked if she was going to be able to play on the playground.

Remembering her wardrobe malfunction last year (FYI, big princess gowns don’t do well on the playground), she had her outfit planned out for days.  She wanted to wear her “purple pug” outfit, which is includes a tutu shirt with 2 dogs on it (not pugs). She’s grown so much in the past month, the tutu hits her mid-belly instead of at the waist but who cares.  She also didn’t want to wear it to school for fear of messing it up during the day so we had to change when we got home.

Matt came home early to pick her up.  She and I were upstairs getting ready and she was asking to wear make-up! When I got her hair fixed in her fave style (high ponytail) with a big white bow, she grinned from ear to ear. I think let her have a (very distant) spray of her perfume “Flirtalicious” and she was even more excited. Ran to the landing rail and asked the boys below if they could smell something good from upstairs!

Before they left on their date.

They had a blast. In fact, when she came home (past her bedtime!!!), she was screaming about all the wonderful things they did.  Chickfila does such a wonderful job with these events.  The cow was dressed as a princess!

She got to decorate a frame and Chickfila even printed out a picture for the frame while they ate.

She also had an assortment of goodies, including a necklace, ring, bracelet, stuffed cow, koozie, golf tees and coupons!

Will and I had our own special night, although both of us seemed tired and we didn’t do a lot of talking! He picked Mickey D’s for his dinner so he and I ventured there. We got home before the other “couple” so we played with Legos. Well, he played. I tried to clean them up. That is a whole other post in itself!!!

A few pics of my boy and me before we headed out.

Looking forward to the next event!

Lindy is 11!

This past week was Lindy's 11th birthday!! Hard to believe!

Here is a picture of my first princess on the morning of her birthday in one of her favorite places....our bed!

It was a fairly low key celebration, but then low key is her thing.  We had gymnastics that night so her birthday celebration consisted of a bite of an Andy's cheeseburger and a new bag of bones that the children picked out for her.  She loves those bones!!

But really all Lindy wants for her birthday is slightly warmer weather.....she and Stell Bell are C-O-L-D! This was them one night this week protesting a walk!

Happy, Happy Birthday, my Lou!