Festival of the Little Hills

We always look forward to going to St. Charles for the festival of the little hills. We usually go down with a bunch of friends.  It seemed to be a busy weekend for a lot of our friends.  We were glad Becca and the boys could join us to walk around for a little bit.  It was really busy down there this year because the weather was beautiful!  It is normally really hot but it wasn't to bad to walk around and look at the different booths.  We walked around and looked at all the things.  We always enjoy getting some yummy food down there. The kids each picked something different to have as a treat.  Nolan got a snow cone, Lucy got a funnel cake and Garrett picked fried Oreos.  We walked into a store we like and Lucy found a fun snap bracelet to spend some birthday money on.  I think it is really cute, you can get different snap buttons to change out on the bracelets.  She picked out a jeweled basketball and a "L" snap.   It was fun to spend time together down there looking at all sorts of things.   

Nolan's First T-ball Game

We signed Nolan up for t-ball, he has been looking forward to it.  This is the first team sport we have signed him up for.  JJ signed up to be his coach.  When he came home this week with the uniform shirts Nolan was so excited.  He has been talking about it all week.  They don't have practices just games on Saturday morning.  Most if not all the boys have never played so they had a short practice before the game.  Most of the boys didn't know the concept of running the bases and how to hit the ball.  They were so cute trying to figure it all out.  Poor JJ got hit with the bat twice while the boys were practicing.  When they started playing their game it was so fun to watch them try to field the ball.  Everyone on the team no matter what position they played ran to get the ball.  In one big heard sometimes all falling in a big pile over who gets to get the ball.  Nolan had lots of tears, he always wanted to be the one to get the ball.  It is a hard concept to learn.  He loved being up to bat.  He always chose the green bat, green is his favorite color.  He had some good hits and took running the bases seriously.  JJ had a fun time coaching and Nolan had a fun time playing.  He can't wait until his next game.   

Friday after dinner we went to Quail Ridge park to do some fishing.  We have had very pleasant weather and it was a beautiful evening.  Lucy has been wanting to use her new pole that she got from Grandma and Grandpa Rahm for her birthday.  She already had her lure on her line ready to go.  We stopped at Quick Trip to let the kids get a slushy drink.  We didn't have any luck fishing.  I was the only one that had a few nibbles.  Garrett had a turtle that wanted his bobber.  He had fun trying to see if he could catch the turtle.  It was a relaxing evening.  After the kids went to bed JJ and I started a movie on Netflix. 

 

First Day of School

At our house we were excited and ready for school to start back up.  We had a nice lazy summer, did fun things, swam a lot and enjoyed playing with friends.  It was time to get back into a routine and have more structure to our days.  The only thing that makes me sad is the end of summer means actual summer is coming to an end.  I love beautiful summer evenings and I enjoy the sum being up until bed time.  I am sad to think that fall is around the corner.  We got up nice and early to make sure we would be back in the routine of scripture reading before the bus came.  JJ wanted to add also singing a primary song before scripture reading.  One of the things he felt impressed by during the recent broadcast.  The kids got on the bus and were excited to have a great day.

 

 

 

 

 Nolan and I are excited to be together again. I always enjoy the special one on one time I get with each of my kids.  I miss my days with just Nolan when the big kids are home. I had to remind myself over and over at the gym to not forget him in the child care room.  I don't take the kids to the gym with me during the summer.  After the gym we made a stop at Sam's club and then a new park in Wentzville.  It is called "Jakes field of dreams".  It is a really fun sports related playground.  Nolan loved it.  He was so sweet and you could tell he was thinking about and maybe missing Lucy and Garrett.  He said to me that we will need to come back and show them the cool playground.  It was much warmer outside then I thought it was going to be.  We were all sweaty when we left.  We ate lunch and decided to go to the pool.  We swam together for a while, the water was a little chilly but Nolan didn't mind.  Some friends showed up and swam with us.  We had a busy day together!

 We were excited to have the big kids come home and tell us all about their first day.  Lucy said 6th grade is SO fun.  She loves rotating classrooms.  She said she has a friend in every class!  She did get hungry since there is no snack time.  I told her to keep a snack inside her zipper binder and she can eat a little in between classes.  She was cute getting her zipper binder all organized.  Garrett loved his day too.  He said is teacher is so nice and he has lots of friends in his class.  Both are looking forward to their school years.  After dinner we headed down to the clubhouse in the neighborhood.  They were having a free ice cream social.  We all picked something yummy out and the kids played on the playground for a little while.  We got the kids to bed nice and early.  They were exhausted after a long day.  JJ and I headed to sand volleyball that night.  They were all in bed and maybe even already asleep before we even left.  We had a fun night playing, we played great and won 4 of ours games.  That placed us in 4th position so our team will be in the tournament.  It was a fun late night for us.  Our games ran late and we got home late and still had to shower before bed.    

Allergy Testing

Ever since Garrett was a toddler he has taken some sort of allergy medicine.  I have mentioned his allergies to our pediatrician but she has never really seemed concerned.  She has prescribed different medicine for him and we always hope they will help.  Nothing has seemed to help him, he is constantly sneezing and always sounds congested.  Last year when he started speech with Ms. Tori she really noticed how congested he was.  We really cracked down with his daily dose of Claritin and Flonase.  His most recent well child visit I again talked with the pediatrician about his allergies.  She prescribed him Singular.  We hoped that that would help, he would still do Claritin, Flonase and now singular.  After some time we realized he was still congested, nothing was helping.  I also started to really think so much of his speech, not all, was related to his congestion.  It was hard to hear the correct sounds he was making.  I was talking with some people and decided I needed to find an ENT.  I got a recommendation from a friend and made an appointment.  The Dr. was very nice and suggested we do allergy testing.  He said everything looked fine so allergies were a good start.  We made an appointment for the following week.  He had to stop all his medicine for at least 5 days.  This made him miserable!  Poor kid could barley breath.  The morning of the allergy testing the nurse called and offered us some numbing cream for his arms.  Previously I didn't completely understand the test and thought maybe we could do it without the numbing cream.  She made it clear that most kids do much better with it.  If the test becomes to painful for them they have to stop and we would need to come back another time.  She called it in and gave me specific directions of when and how to apply it.  Once I applied it I had to wrap his arms in saran wrap.  The nurse that did his testing was so nice.  She was very calming and was so sweet.  They first did the scratch test on his forearms.  They had to sit for 15 minutes.  I brought a book and his tablet to play with while we waited.  He did fine with that test.  We didn't get any results from the scratch test so we did need to do the shots.  The only ones from the scratch test were mold and dog.  She did the shots on his upper arm.  There were 39 total shots.  Thank goodness we did the numbing cream.  He liked watching her do the injections and it didn't bother him at all.  I think without the cream it would have been a different story.  We only had to wait 10 minutes for that test.  She came and measured those when the time was up.  If they had expanded a certain amount it meant he was allergic to it.  He had a lot of mild allergies, which compile to cause problems.  Since he had so many mild ones that is why they didn't show up on the scratch test.  He had 20 allergies out of the 39.  Mold and Dog were the biggest reaction.  He has allergies in every season as well as several dust mite and mold allergies.  So that is why he is congested year round.  We had a nice meeting with the Dr. after the test were done.  He did a great job of explaining the results and the treatment options.  I liked that he talked to Garrett and asked Garrett if he had questions.  We are going to be starting the sublingual allergy drops for him as soon as possible.  It will take several months to see if the treatment is working.  Meanwhile we will continue with the Claritin and Flonase.  We hope we are on the right track for Garrett.  I can't imagine what life must be like for him to be constantly congested.  I am thankful he did well with the tests and has a good disposition with everything going on.  I am slightly disappointed in my pediatrician for not helping me pursue this earlier.  I feel bad that it took me so long to have these tests done so I can help him.  I am thankful for the inspiration to do it on my own.        

Meet the Teacher

Tuesday evening we went to the school for meet the teacher night.  It always nice to be able to meet the kids teacher and see where their classroom is.  We dropped off Garrett's supplies in his room.  He has a really nice teacher.  He was glad to see he has some friends in his class.  We then meet all of Lucy's teachers.  They recently moved 6th grade back down into the elementary schools.  They still rotate classrooms but don't have lockers.  I am glad Lucy has one more year in the elementary school.  She meet all her teachers and got a better understanding about how all the rotating will go.  They are looking forward to starting another great year of school.

Science Center

I told the kids we should go on one more big outing before school started later in the week.  We talked about a few ideas and the picked the Science Center.  Monday after lunch we headed down.  The kids really liked this statue out in front of the science center, it looked like the man was covered in tin foil.  We explored the science center for a while.  We looked at every exhibit!  Garrett went there for his field trip this past spring.  He was excited to have us do a few things and show us something he liked.  There were a few new things since the last time we were there.  There were lots of area's that cost money, more then I remember.  We did everything and it only took us a little over a hour.  I was surprised that there just didn't seem to be a whole lot that kept my kids attention.  We decided to head over to the History Museum and see the kids area there.  It is fairly new but we haven't been in a while.  We got there and found out it closed at 4, we only had 11 minutes to go inside.  We went in and looked around.  I mostly wanted to see if it was something worth coming back for another time.  It seemed geared toward younger kids.  We decided to head home from there.  I am glad we went to the science center, the kids enjoyed going and getting out.  They always appreciate being taken someplace fun. 

 

 

Corn Maze

Sunday after dinner we headed to Brommelsiek park for a walk.  It was a beautiful evening and we felt like getting out of the house.  I had read that Brommelsiek had a free corn maze.  We found it over by the garden area.  We had a fun time doing the corn maze together.  The kids would run ahead and direct us which way to go.  They loved it.  It didn't take us very long, it was perfect.  It made me happy to have a fun little outing.  Everyone was smiling, laughing, joking and having a fun time.  It was also strange to be doing a fall activity on a summer evening.  I told the kids we will have to come back and do it again.  After the corn maze we looked around at their garden.  They had a cool way of growing small pumpkins over an archway.   

 

Elmore Swim Party

Our friends the Elmore's just moved into a beautiful new home.  They are now just around the corner and down the street from us.  Sadly they are still in our old ward.  They hosted a fun swimming party for our sand volleyball team Saturday afternoon.  A little last minute we had been given tickets to the PGA golf tournament that was in town.  We also had several church meetings that morning and evening, some regional broadcasts.  We were trying to figure out how to juggle and make attending the PGA tournament possible.  When the Elmore's sent out the invite we were happy to give away our tickets and hang out at their house.  It made sense and I felt much happier about not trying to cram so much into the day.  JJ attended the auxiliary broadcast Saturday morning.  We then headed over to the Elmore's for lunch and swimming. They ordered Sugarfire BBQ and we all brought food to share.  It was so good, we were hungry after a busy morning.  We had a really enjoyable time hanging out, visiting, swimming and just taking it easy.  It was the best way we could have spent such a beautiful afternoon.  We left feeling happy and blessed to have such great friends.  It truly was a perfect afternoon.  We left just in time to change our clothes and head to the women's broadcast that evening.  Lucy and I had a great time at the broadcast together that evening.  We enjoyed the talks and time we were able to spend together. 

 

Bahama Bucks

The kids earned free Bahama bucks with the summer reading program at the library.  I also had a full punch card.  The kids have been asking to go for a while.  We went as a family Friday night, apparently it was some sports fundraising night so it was busy.  The boys all got the airhead extreme, which was sour.  When they got down to the ice cream they mixed it together.  Lucy got the cream soda with ice cream, probably the best.