What a start to a great birthday!

This morning we all got up around 5:30a.m. Seriously. It was early. Now, normally we have difficulty getting Madalyn out of bed at her normal 6:40a.m.time, but today was different!

First off, we thought the kids might have a snow day. We've had snow off and on for a couple weeks, a couple snow days here and there, a couple half days due to snow, too. Yesterday was a half day. The weathermen called for 4 more inches of snow overnight. However, we may have gotten 1/2 inch. We checked the school's website multiple times this morning and there was no announcement. Rats.

So, we were all ready at 5:55a.m. - ready to head to Denney's for a free Grand Slam breakfast! The kids were soooo excited - the adrenaline was really pumping! Then, we got THE call from Aunt Stephanie. School was cancelled; we were defeated by 1/2 inch of snow. Normally we'd turn off the kids' alarm clocks and sleep in; however today we had a special mission. Off we went to Denney's - there by 6:05a.m. And we weren't the first there - apparently half the trash fleet from Allied Waste had a Denney's date for a free breakfast. Very appetizing.

Breakfast was good - the kids really enjoyed the pancakes. But their energy was drained by 6:45. They were ready to head back to bed - or at least a morning movie on their day off. We dropped Steve off at work at 7:00 and I was back in bed by 7:05a.m.

Harrison loved his birthday breakfast and is really enjoying his birthday off from school!

baking with Mom!

Gratian and I made chocolate chip cookies today...do you think she was excited? Gratian loves cooking - adding in the ingredients, trying to crack eggs, asking tons of questions. Most of all, she loves taste testing the food!

let the games begin!

Today was the first Upward basketball game for Harrison and Madalyn. Both had great games - and I think both lost. Harrison is on a 1st and 2nd grade team and you can really tell that he's played a couple years -- he's improved so much! Madalyn is on a 4-6 grade team and she's as scrappy as the older girls.

She's falling apart!

What is going on with our little girl? Saturday night Gratian had a migraine. That was terrible. Monday morning she awoke at 2:30a.m. with the stomach flu. This afternoon she complained that her eye hurt, and two hours later is was green and gunky. Yuck. So off to the Urgent Care we went; she has pink eye and an ear infection! As you can tell from the above photo she isn't too miserable, but rather irritated with her pink eye (no, she never once complained about the very infected ear!).

24 hour stomach bug, take 2

Now, it's Gratian's turn. Gratian woke at 2:30 this morning with her version of the stomach bug. She was up five times between 2:30 and 6a.m. Around 8:30 she decided she wanted orange juice (her absolute favorite drink) and pancakes; no go on the o.j. By 10:30 she was laying on the kitchen floor in the fetal position - ready for a nap.

We're now laying in our bed, Gratian curled up in her Nanny blanket and Mom on the computer. Hopefully this bug will complete it's cycle soon and she'll be back to her spunky self by evening!

The pressing question is...who will be next?

he sleeps

We received a phone call from the school today that Harrison had gotten sick. Five minutes later I was in the nurse's office getting all the details and waiting for Harrison as he was packing up his belonging's from his classroom. Into the office he came, looking as pale as a ghost. Our little man was indeed sick.

The nurse asked if he gets sick often and I told her I thought the last time he was actually sick was four years ago when he had the flu. Really - he just doesn't get sick! He has allergies and eczema (which isn't a big deal anymore), but that's about it. He had the flu when he was 3 and that was the last year he's had the flu shot!

Harrison just wanted to cuddle with his Nanny blanket (block quilt above) and his Grandma blanket (maroon and white afghan above).

The nutcracker/soldier

Harrison made his nutcracker/soldier for his December music class project. The kids watched the Nutcracker movie and were instructed to make a puppet of any of the characters. Harrison came up with this idea (along with a little help from his daddy) -- the soldier complete with moving arms. We rounded up peanut butter jars, oatmeal containers, paper towel rolls, sponges, plastic disposable cups, googly eyes, felt, multi-colored electric tape and stickers for this family project.

Harrison took the soldier to school and he said the class loved it. However, Harrison was a bit miffed because the kids all wanted to play with his creation and he didn't want the arms to come off! A lot of hours went into making this little guy and we hope to bring him out with the Christmas goodies each year so he can guard our Christmas tree. Great job Harrison!