Apparently now I make cakes? Like, a lot?

No, I'm not dead. I know you all were starting to think I was. I also know it's been almost a month since I posted. I'm sorry, Mom. This month has been crazy.

So Mike's back in school. Yeah . . .

Parenting done right.

Just kidding. We do things, sometimes. For example, we celebrated July 31. Which if you are really my friend would know was Harry Potter's 34th birthday. Obviously.

And yeah, I know, if you're a die-hard you know that in the book it was just chocolate with green lettering. But the one in the movie was just so much more memorable. I mean, really. (Enter comments like, "Seriously, Brittany? You are such a nerd!")

Or, in a less nerdy vein, the Saturday before Mike started school again, we went downtown to the Shedd Aquarium since it was such a hit last year. (Note: unless you pay the $40 per person to see extra stuff, general admission is NOT that exciting after the first time.) The problem was that we accidentally went the same weekend as Lollapalooza. Which, if you don't know (I didn't), is a huge concert festival with hundreds of bands and artists and occasionally super famous ones, and it lasts for like 4 days and takes over all of Millenium Park (and let's face it, all of Chicago). We're talking thousands of people trying to park downtown the same time we were innocently trying to take our little family to the aquarium. Gack.

It's cool, though. We parked under Soldier Field and walked over to the aquarium on the non-Lollapalooza side of the park. And it was cool, I guess. Like I said, we saw everything cool about general admission last time, and we're not going to shell out three hundred bucks to see a polar bear when we can see those at the zoo (which . . . we go to all the flippin' time. Let's face it). Oh! Except for the Australian Lungfish that was brought to the aquarium in 1933. Yeah. And he was still just swimming around like nothing. Holy cow there was a fish there older than pretty much all the people. (I mean, there could have been some elderly people there, but I didn't see any. The oldest people that I saw were grandmas who were still mobile enough to wrestle children.)

After that less-than-thrilling experience, we decided to walk around. There's a walkway around the aquarium that goes right along the lake (like as in, the path ends and then you fall the ten feet down into the lake) and we thought it was awesome. There were seagulls, propeller planes pulling ads, sail boats in fancy colors, and lots of wind. It was awesome. We kind of all decided that it was our favorite part of the trip. The only thing that would have made the whole day perfect was if I had broken my diet to get food from the street vendors. Oh, Chicago, why did I not know about your wondrous hot dogs and Italian beef sandwiches until now? I feel like my young-person metabolism years were completely wasted!

That's right. Giant macaroni noodle.

Oh, and also we now have proof that we actually live in Chicago, because that's not photoshopped.

And then Mike started school. So, you know, we slowed down. We went to the park a lot, went back to the zoo on one of the Saturdays, and were getting back into sort of a routine. And also I threw a birthday party for Katie's little friend Lilly because they have been super busy with lots of things recently. And I made this cake. (Don't judge, I'm not super experienced with fondant yet.) It was really fun. We did a "jungle safari" theme, and I had Mike go crazy with green streamers and little rubber lizards and snakes and all the stuffed monkeys we had in the house. It was a good time.

And then, we had some fun Emergency Room times. Yay. See, last Wednesday morning, when Katie woke up, she was covered in hives. She hadn't eaten anything different or anything, so as far as I could figure out, she had walked through lawn fertilizer on our walk the night before or been bitten by some kind of bug or spider. That afternoon, when it wasn't getting better, I took her to the pediatrician, who gave her some Atarax. And things at first started to be clearing up.

Such a trooper.

Then, the next day, she got worse. Like, way worse. The hives spread all the way up and down her legs and her face and hands and feet got all swollen, so much that she said it hurt to walk. That plus a fever made us worried, and when we called the nurse at her doctor's office, she said we should go to the ER. So we hurriedly called our friend Cindy (who is amazing! We love you, Cindy!) to watch the boys and went to the ER for 6 hours or so. They gave her some Motrin and Benadryl and did a bunch of tests, and then said it was probably a "serum sickness-like reaction" to a virus or something. And that we should just keep giving her Benadryl and it would go away. And it's true, Benadryl worked and her swelling went down and was gone by Monday. I'm kind of wondering if she had a reaction to the Atarax.

So we got home from the ER around 12:30 in the morning, and learned very quickly that Katie does not react to Benadryl like normal people. Rather than get all sleepy like I do, she got super loopy and started singing songs about checkered elephants. And she didn't want to go to bed because she wanted a snack and to talk all about her experience at the hospital, which was actually really cool. Seriously, if you need to take your kid to the ER in Naperville, go to Edwards. Their Pediatric ER is amazing. Katie was watching Frozen and Despicable Me 2 and the bathroom had whales painted all over the walls. But we didn't get her to bed until almost 1:30. Guess how functional her parents were the next day. Yeah.

Nerdy moment #2--I'm making a Bag End cake.

But since then everything has been a lot better. We've been to the park almost every day this week (except today, because apparently we have 6 days of thunderstorms in a row now). And, apparently my cakes have garnered attention. Because my friend's mom asked me to make her a cake for her birthday. (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) So, naturally, I had to get all creative and then today I made a practice cake. But, you know, using leftover frosting and fondant, so the colors are super boring and not correct. The real cake will look better.



So life is pretty good. I'm making a new board for our preschool, which we're starting in a couple of weeks. We're doing it with 4 other kids--only 1 that we were with last year. But I'm really excited. There are a couple of moms with older kids who are old hats at this, and we've had a lot of really good ideas. Field trips, science experiments, birthday parties--it's going to be amazing! I'm actually less stressed this year because we made a calendar of topics, so I don't have to think of a lesson out of thin air every time. Also, Katie is besties with at least two of the kids. And I'm pretty sure after the first ten minutes, she'll be besties with the other two. It's going to be great.

So now we're just moving forward. My project list (some necessary, some not) is huge, but Mike's studying all the time now, so I'll have time. I just need motivation to actually get them all done. Gack. But here are a whole bunch of adorable pictures to catch you up since I didn't blog for an entire month. Or, you know, you can just be done if you don't like adorable pictures of my adorable children. I won't say anything.

I always hear the music from The Wizard of Oz . . .

Costco trip! The only way for them to be happy is to get two straws.

Look, Mom! It's a little Screaming Hairy Armadillo!

At long last, Katie had found her kinfolk.

It got really quiet, so I went to investigate . . . and found them having a goldfish picnic in the corner together.

Yes, that is my daughter totally owning the monkey bars. My daughter. What?

Peter is a pizza-holic. Like father like son.

"Hold on, Mom. I'm going to take a selfie."

I can never find my slippers anymore.

This bench on the other side of the neighborhood is their favorite place to go on walks.

"Hey Dad! Is this a good skipping rock?" 

Mike: "Katie! Go stand in between that tree and look all pretty."

Little man don't need no stroller. He's walking here.

Happy last few days of summer!

How to Write a Novel: Acquire a Toddler

Let me tell you about my daughter. You all know that Katie is a very intelligent, creative kid. Well, her imagination is one to rival the best. So, if you were ever planning to write a novel, here are a few ideas.

*Handing me an outlet cover* "Here Mom, I found the jewel of candor."

*From under an empty plastic bin* "Mom! Mom! Mom! We've been trapped by the Man of Cotasta!"

"Mom. You need to come with me. We need to save the cup of Weselton!"

So, the other day, the lever on the downstairs toilet broke, and we had to replace it. Since I also had a couple of empty pots I wanted to find plants for, we made a family trip to Lowe's. Let me tell you right now, this is officially now our go-to hardware store.

Tell me this isn't the coolest shopping cart you've ever seen. I dare you.

Well, after we got home, Mike went in to replace the lever, and let Katie come in to watch, since she loves learning about anything and everything. And, fortunately, they were successful.

A couple of hours later, after Katie used the aforementioned newly-repaired toilet, she came out of the bathroom bouncing up and down and exclaimed, "Dad! When I pushed the button, it made a noise, and you're a genius!" Katie is so good for our self-esteem.

Other than that, we've had a pretty good week. Most of all, however, it was MY BIRTHDAY!!!!

Yeah, it was pretty chill. We wanted to go out and do something, but not anything too stressful, so we grabbed some snacks and went back to the zoo. Because, let's face it, the zoo is the coolest place any of us has ever heard of.

And now you also know how to find clean water!

I saw some other lady ride the lion with her kids and it just looked awkward.

After the zoo and some sleeping in the car (I plead the 5th) Katie finally let me open my presents. They had all been sitting on the kitchen table for a few days, and I teased her quite a bit about pretending to open them early. She was not happy with me when I did that. I made out like a bandit. Pizza paddles! Bluetooth! More external storage for pictures! A YELLOW BELT! 

You know you're jealous.

And last but not least, Katie and Mike had picked out a rather amazing mousse-filled cake for me from Costco.

Can you tell who really made the decision of which cake to get?

I was not the only one who enjoyed the birthday cake.

Nor was Josh.

Yes, it was a good birthday. I even got free points on my healthy living chart. More on that later.

On . . . one of the other days last week . . . we went to the park! Okay, so that's not very different from normal. But because we live in the windy city, we brought along a kite!

I don't think we have any pictures where she was actually in the frame with the kite.

Peter was probably the best at it. Josh just wanted to throw the spool.

I think the one who had the most fun, though, was Mike. Even after the kids decided they'd rather play on the playground or dig in the dirt, he was trying to get the kite to stay above the trees. It was pretty cute.

Besides that, we've just been kind of being on summer vacation. Mike doesn't go back to school until August 4, so we've got Daddy available for whatever we want to do. Therefore, the kids have been climbing all over him quite a bit. In fact, there has been a significant amount of shenaniganizing going on. Here's some evidence.

I put them in their Boston jumpers at the same time, but they wouldn't  hold still together. In fact, this is the clearest picture of Peter I got that day. Sorry, Abuelo.

Josh had to be tickled to hold even this still.

Katie and Mike went on a Popsicle date to the balcony.

Katie insisted on Daddy showing her what all the pieces of the body were and where they were supposed to go.

New church clothes. Can you say extremely, ridiculously cute?

  

They both have a strange obsession with getting into buckets. They've even gotten stuck before.

This is what having a brother really looks like. I just wish I were fast enough to get pictures when they're sitting on each other's faces.

Don't you just wish you could be here to hold them off of each other and clean up their messes for me? Oh, I do.

Now lastly, I feel obligated to explain the note above about the health challenge. See, Mike and I both want to get into better shape. And, you know, be healthier in general. So we made a health challenge for ourselves, based kind of on a points challenge I did with my sisters-in-law (Hi, Amy and Kliss!) a couple of years ago. Basically, we get points for exercising, eating servings of vegetables, drinking water, and reading our scriptures. And if we eat more than one dessert per day, we lose our veggie points. It's brutal.

BUT. Besides the birthday, which was kind of a binge day for me, I've been really good. I've been doing so much Zumba I don't know how to walk normally anymore, and Mike and I are almost getting competitive about how many servings of fruits or vegetables we get every day. I'm not posting the "before" picture on here, because then I would just get all sad. But if everything goes according to plan, then by Halloween (when the challenge ends) I should be significantly more awesome. And then I'll maybe post the "before and after" pictures. If you're lucky. We'll see.

But if Zumba and my kids don't get me into shape, I have no idea what will.

No-Longer-On-Vacation Post

Yeah, we've been home for about a week and a half. Alas.

Want to hear the best Katie-isms since we've been back? I've got some good ones.

Me: Do you want to go run around Target with me?
Katie: Actually, can we go inside the Target?

Katie (jumping between rugs): I don't want to step on the wood parts. Just the hairy parts.

Katie: What does Jesus look like?
Me: Like a very nice man who loves you very much.
Katie: Well, he has a beard.
Me: Sure, in the pictures he does.
Katie: And he has eyes.
Me: Yep.
Katie: And he has ears.
Me: Yep.
Katie: And he has bones.
Me: That's right.
Katie: And he has guts.
Me: . . . yeah . . .
Katie: And he has pits.
Me: . . .

So I should probably post about what happened the last little bit of vacation (read: AWESOME and also crazy) and also what has happened since (read: not very much).

The last Saturday of vacation, we decided to have a big family picture. Everybody in Mike's family was there, we all coordinated colors, and the kids were relatively happy (read: bribed). So, naturally, it was raining harder than usual for Washington. We were all set up in the front yard with my in-laws beautiful flowers and such, so we covered up the cute little bench we were using and hid in the garage for half an hour. Or maybe longer. Long enough for the boys to go inside and watch whichever world cup game was going on. Whenever it went from dumping water down to a gentle misting, we hurriedly ran out, uncovered the bench, and stuffed marshmallows into the mouths of all the children. And then when we heard heavy rain coming back, we went back inside. But I think the pictures are going to be really pretty. Stay tuned for the results when we get the pictures back from the photographer.

Besides that, there was a lot of food, a lot of staying up late playing games, a lot of cousins running around barefoot, and a lot of diaper changing. And good times were had by all.

Oh, except for that one time on Sunday morning when I slipped on the stairs and ended up breaking my tail bone. That was pretty cool. Especially because we were flying all day on Monday. Very cool.

But, you know, ibuprofen. I can almost sit down without cussing now.

And then, much to everyone's chagrin, we had to go home. I'm quite put out by this. So, we had to wake up ridiculously early (as far as vacation goes) to get to our flight, but we timed it perfectly. We got to the airport, hugged Grammy goodbye, checked in our bags, waited in line for security, then walked straight from security to the gate, where the flight was just starting to board. And since we're a family with small children, we walked straight up to the front of the line and got on the plane. And Katie watched the Lego movie, and Peter and Josh slept for at least an hour of the long flight, and everything was good. And we had a three-hour layover in Minneapolis, but that's not a big deal. We got some lunch, found the playground, and got to our gate just in time for what we thought would be boarding our flight.

Unfortunately, Chicago weather.

It turns out that there was a giant storm ripping through Chicagoland, and both O'Hare and Midway had a "ground stop," meaning they weren't letting anybody in or out of the airports because of all the crazy wind and lightning. So we had to wait for the news. "We'll be receiving our next update at the top of the hour, but please don't leave the gate area, in case anything changes." Gruaaaaggghghghg.

We ended up carrying our tired, hungry, cranky kids onto the plane rather hurriedly when the captain came and said, "They said we can go! Everybody on right now!" But, you know, three hours after we were supposed to leave. At least we were in rows next to each other and the kids were pretty good.

It took us a long time to land in Chicago because we had to go around this gigantic storm, so thick we almost couldn't see the city. And when we finally got to baggage claim (at 10 o'clock at night, mind you) they said that they couldn't get our bags out right then because they don't allow ground crews out when there's lightning, and there was definitely lightning. They even recommended people get their bags delivered the next day instead of waiting. But, you know, car seats are a little bit necessary. So we found a spot without too many infectious diseases and let our kids relax for a bit (not that they wanted to, the poor tired little munchkins) and hung out with our friend Cindy (who is a saint, by the way), waiting for them to get our bags. Luckily, they were really nice and passed out snacks while we waited, and it only took about an hour before they got the bags out.

So we loaded up, got all the kids, found all the car seats, and started walking to the parking garage. Which, it turns out, is a sadistic method designed by terrorists to drive the poor, unsuspecting American public completely insane. It took us a while to figure out where we were, even though Cindy had written down what level and aisle she parked on.

But we finally found our car, loaded up, took Cindy home, and got into our house at about 1 am Chicago time. Oh man.

The next morning, when Katie woke up in her clothes from the day before, she came into my bedroom and said, "Mom, is this our house?"
"Yes, sweetie, this is our house."
"And we're not on vacation any more?"
"No, vacation's all done. We're home now."
"Can we go on vacation again on Sunday?"

I wish, kid. I wish.

Since then, we haven't done a whole lot. I've re-stocked the kitchen, we've taken a lot of naps, and I reclaimed my garden from my friend. (Thanks, Katy! You're the best!) Oh, and we had a party with aforementioned friend and the sister missionaries for the 4th of July. It was pretty cool. I made this cake.

Inspired by Kliss's lovely baby shower cake. I had to do it.

But wait, there's more.

Oh yeah, that's how cool I am. The inside is a flag.

We had the party for lunch so that everybody could take a nap (on account of a significant amount of people at the party being under the age of four). And then, when it came time for fireworks, all the kids were way too tired to go out to some pretty fireworks show. So we put the boys to bed and took Katie out to do poppers and sparklers. But, turns out, those are less fun when it's all bright and sunshiny. So we pulled out the cars and did sparklers in the garage so it'd be dark.

Katie is the sparkler queen.

 So, you know, that was cool. And successful, I guess. Happy Independence Day.

Since then, what have we done? Hmm. . . the boys had their 15 month check-up. Turns out they've lost weight since they crawled on the scale while I was weighing our luggage to fly home. I think having a nasty stomach bug with explosive diarrhea may have had some negative effects. But Joshy's 22 lbs, 10 oz, and Peter's 18 lbs, 9 oz. Pretty skinny boys, even if it doesn't feel like it when you lift Josh. But they're 32" and 31" tall, so they're not exactly shrimpy. Mike's super tall genes are coming into play, thank heavens.

Besides that, we've not done much. We've changed a lot of poopy diapers, taken some naps while I still have Mike home from school, and tried to be slightly more healthy in our eating habits. Oh, and we went to the zoo today. Surprise.

That's totally Nemo and Dori in that tank right there. I'm not even kidding.

"Dad, can we go see the zebras now? Where are the zebras? NOW can we go see the zebras?"

Emus are hilarious.

And now, some random pictures of my life, for your enjoyment and sympathy.

"No, it's my binky!"

There is no diaper in that pile of wipes. No diaper at all. Little houdini right here.

"Mom, can you please come get the brothers? They're bothering me!"

I know you're jealous. My kids are flippin' adorable. Cheers!

Vacation Post #3 - When Hooligans Collide

Guess what? We're STILL on vacation! Unfortunately, we are in the home stretch now. Sigh . . .

On the up side, we're having a crazy family reunion party with all of Mike's sisters and their families here now. There are a lot of people. And you know what? My kids LOVE it. Mike's sister Kliss and her adorable family got here Monday, and little Bryce has been Katie's little BFF all week.

They've been running laps outside the house, chasing each other, riding the swings, playing play dough, and basically causing as much shenanigans as possible. And boy howdy, they are definitely cousins. They are both skinny little nuggets with way too much of a sense of humor for their own good. Also, Bryce is a dinosaur like Josh, so they're basically all kindred spirits.

On . . . Tuesday? . . . we went to a "bouncy house" with a whole bunch of safe and kid friendly, squishy playground stuff. All four kids went CUH-RAZY. I think they loved it.

In the back room, they had a little carnival going on with games, crafts, and prizes, so not only did they get to play all over some crazy stuff, but they got to come home with cheapy little prizes! What could be better?

Josh and Peter even got excited about a little slide they had there that had water running inside it, with a tunnel underneath. So nobody got wet, but the water running inside a clear slide was quite captivating.

We definitely wore out all of our children. Besides that, we've pretty much just been hangin' out, all super-cool-like. The little kids seem to think that 70 degrees is super great swimming weather, so we definitely have been playing outside a lot.

On . . . Wednesday . . . I think . . . we needed to get out of the house and it was decently warm, so we all went for a few minutes down to a park that had a whole bunch of sprinkler stuff for kids to get all soaked in. Let's just say, they loved it. Until Peter got cold, and Katie got sprayed in the face by one of the many big kids turning on one of the sprinklers when she was right next to it. Then Peter and Katie loved it less. But Bryce and Josh still loved it.

Bryce has no fear.

Then, yesterday afternoon, Amy and her family got here, to add to the loudness, enthusiasm, and hilarity. And oh boy, are those kids hilarious together. Katie and Abby are almost exactly the same age, and when we got them together, they didn't even miss a beat. It was like it hadn't been a whole year since we last saw them.

 

And despite Spencer's best intentions, Bryce was a little bit too tired to hang out very much. I guess that's what happens when you're two.

 And now we only have a few more days before we have to fly home. (As in, AAAAAAAAAAGGGHGHGHGHGG WE STILL HAVE TO FLY HOME?!?!?!?!?!!) How big of an awesome adventure do you think we can have in one weekend? Stay tuned for more shenanigans!

A Story from Katie

Once upon a time there was a little mouse. And then a polar bear came by and tried to eat the mouse! But it ran straight to the castle. And a princess said, "here, polar polar polar!" And then, there was a big, scary monster, and it was a nice monster. And it was very, very, very scary. But it had pieces of pie, so it was a good monster. And it got caughten. and then they all lived happily every after. The end.