Daniel loves the restaurant Famous Dave's. However, they are very expensive so the only way we can go there is if we get some free kids meal coupons. It just so happens that Daniel's teacher has those free kids meal coupons in her classroom store. Daniel has saved his class bucks up for a few weeks so he could buy five of those free kids meal coupons. Wahoo! That's where we went to dinner last Wednesday. It was nice not having to cook or clean up. Noah especially loved the BBQ sauce. When his food was gone he started scooping up the BBQ sauce off his plate with his fork and eating it straight. What a weird kid! Daniel was excited to be able to 'take everyone out' so he made sure everyone told him thank you. It was funny.
Valentine's Day came up so fast this year. Of course I did procrastinate helping the kids fill out their Valentines until the last minute. Helping the kids fill out 120 valentine's and attempting to make a valentine's holder that didn't look dumb is a big pain in the rear!! Luckily we only had to do a valentine's holder for Josh. I am just glad I didn't have to worry about Noah and filling out even more valentines this year since he is not in school yet. Anyway to celebrate Valentine's Day the elementary school let the kids do Valentine Grams. It's a fundraiser where for a quarter you can write something on a cute heart and include a pencil for anyone at the school. Daniel begged to have some money so he could do a valentine gram. I sent him and Josh with the little bit of change I had. Daniel came home that afternoon with a valentine gram. It said To: Daniel From: Daniel. Aaron and I asked him why he sent one to himself and he responded by saying, "I just needed a new pencil." What a funny kid!
Anyway, the next morning Aaron did surprise Sarah and me with some pretty roses. He was sweet enough to get up extra early so he could run to the store before work and set out the flowers for us. When Josh came upstairs for breakfast he was pretty excited for Sarah to see hers. He was so excited he went and woke her up to tell her to come and see her surprise--that's why she looks so groggy in the picture:
My pretty roses:
I had to do Sarah's hair in some sort of heart shape so this was the easiest and the fastest one I could find:
As the morning went on Matthew got on his bus and left for school. Then it was Josh and Daniel's time to leave for school when Josh came to me just panicked. He couldn't find his valentines anywhere. I started helping him look and I couldn't find them either. Uh oh! I didn't want to have to fill out anymore valentines so I was starting to get panicked, too. I even called Matthew's teacher (who was in the middle of teaching her class) to ask her to check Matthew's backpack to see if he had taken Josh's valentines by mistake. His teacher came back to the phone after checking Matthew's backpack to say there was nothing in it. I finally had to tell Josh that I would run to the store and make sure he had some valentines before his class party began--now that is motherly love right there because I have never wanted to do something any less than that!! Anyway, thankfully Daniel finally checked his backpack only to find Josh's missing valentines. Phew, crisis averted!!
At school Sarah decorated her own Valentine mailbox to hold her valentines. Sarah was pretty proud of her monster:
It was all I could do to stave off Sarah from her valentines long enough to take this picture!! She dug into her candy right after and Noah was so excited to help Sarah eat all her candy. Sarah was nice enough to share which was great. By the way I HATE those dip stick treats!! The sticky sugar powder got EVERYWHERE!! I still have blue powder in the cracks of the kitchen table that I can't seem to get out. Oh well the kids enjoyed it.
To surprise the kids and Aaron I made them all a HUGE sugar cookie with frosting and their names on it that morning and wrapped them up in a box to be opened after dinner.
When Josh and Daniel got home it was candy galore! Matthew was a little upset he didn't get to celebrate Valentine's Day in Jr. High, but that's how it goes when you grow up. I did send him with some chocolate bars wrapped with bows to hand out to his bus drivers, teachers, peer tutors and friends. He was ok with that. You can see again Mr. Mooch (aka Noah) right in the middle of the action pulling candy out of their valentines boxes when the boys weren't looking. What a little stinker.
One of Josh's valentines came with the candy Pop Rocks. Josh was nice enough to share it with everyone, however, Matthew was not a fan as you can see by his face. He couldn't spit them out fast enough:
That evening we had a fun candlelit spaghetti dinner. I can't say it was romantic (how can a dinner with five kids ever be romantic?!), but it was fun nonetheless even though we had to keep relighting the candles because the kids thought it was hilarious to keep blowing them out.
After dinner the kids got to unwrap their Valentine's cookies from mom and dad:
Aaron got to unwrap his cookie from me. For whatever reason, though, I didn't get a picture of it.
Saturday we decided to do something different. There is a museum up in Brigham City that is running a special Bison exhibit so we decided to check it out--plus it was free which is an extra bonus!! They had some games set up that the kids checked out:
They had a bison tail you could touch. Sarah thought it was a wand and kept flipping it around. Luckily, her brothers stayed clear of her until she put it back down--smart boys!
Noah was fascinated with the horn and Josh wanted to try on the moccasins.
They had a pioneer woodworkers shop set up with real tools you could try out. It was interesting to see how time consuming wood working was before electric saws came about.
They had a shoe repair shop set up as well. Daniel and Sarah tried their hand at nailing a heel on a shoe.
They had a carriage seat set up with the big iron spring shocks so you could actually have a feel for what riding in a wagon felt like in pioneer times. Sarah decided to be the horse to help pull the wagon.
Tuesday Matthew and Josh had an orthodontist appointment. Matthew got his bottom braces put on and Josh got something called a Herbst appliance to help pull his jaw forward and decrease his overbite. Josh has been so excited to get started on the path to braces. He would give me weekly updates as to how many more days it was until this appointment. Here's the beginning of a metal mouth for Josh.
I must say he wasn't so excited about it after it was put in his mouth, though. He was formed quite the canker sore where the screws rub against his cheek--poor boy. In six more weeks he will get his top braces on.
It has been specialist week at our house this past week!! Jeez, it seems everyone in my family except for Noah and me have a specialist they have to visit. It was Matthew's turn to visit the psychiatrist for some medication management earlier in the week. Then Wednesday Sarah got to see the Cardiologist for her post Kawasaki echo cardiogram (ultrasound of the heart) to make sure there was no damage done by the Kawasaki disease to her coronary vessels. She was the perfect patient. All they had to do was turn on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and she instantly went into couch potato mode and didn't even move. I think the world could have imploded and she wouldn't have noticed because the TV was on. She is definitely Josh's sister!!
Thankfully they didn't find any aneurysms or any other problems. The cardiologist just said that Sarah is anemic (which is common in Kawasaki disease) which is why she tires out so easy. Other than that she is perfect. Sarah was in heaven because she got to pick out some crayons and a coloring book from the prize box which she quietly colored in while waiting to see the cardiologist. Have I mentioned how much I love Primary's?! Anyway, since Noah was a good boy and sat through Sarah's echo cardiogram really well he got to choose a prize as well. He, of course, chose a hotwheels car and happily played with it the whole rest of the visit with the cardiologist.
On the way out of the clinic we passed through the hospital where Sarah showed Noah the fish she got to see while she was a patient in the hospital.
As we were walking out of the hospital I jokingly asked Sarah if she wanted to have another sleepover in the hospital and she emphatically told me, "NO!!"
Today Aaron got to follow up with his neurologist for a check up and a new year long prescription for his epilepsy. Thankfully, he has been seizure free for 15 years so if it's not broke don't fix it, right?! Besides if he did want to try weaning off his medicine it means he couldn't drive for at least 6 months which would be too hard right now while we have so many kids that have to be so many different places at so many different times.
Anyway to continue with specialist week Josh gets to see his pediatric neurologist tomorrow morning just for a check up and prescription refills. He has been seizure free for a little over a year and a half and we are thankful for that. If he can go two years we might attempt to wean him off his meds again, but the last two times have been horribly unsuccessful. Who knows maybe the third time will be the charm. Anyway, he is good for now which we are so glad for.
In a few more weeks Daniel gets to visit the allergist for the skin prick test to see if he has outgrown any more of his allergies. We also get to see how his asthma and lung function is doing as well. It's crazy trying to keep all these specialist appointments straight and followed through with!! All I can say is thank goodness for modern medicine, appointment reminder calls and for health insurance!!
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