Vacation week

Feeling crummy

Evie had the week off from school last week, and at the risk of sounding like Debbie Downer, our vacation week was challenging.  It wasn't pretty.  I called Matt at work several days last week and told him that I wasn't going to make it through the day.  Many days, I'd handed out multiple time-outs by 9:30am.  I alternated between yelling and giving in to letting the kids watch way too much TV to give myself a break.  It turned out that both kids were sick, running low-grade fevers and feeling irritable.  I finally took Evie to the doctor on Thursday, and found out she had been suffering with a double ear infection and conjunctivitis!  It was a huge relief to know that there was a reason she was behaving so badly, because I was starting to wonder how we had gone so far off the rails.  

Despite the challenges, there were some bright moments during the week. The weather was nice enough to be outside a lot, we went to IBM for Take Our Children to Work Day, and drowned our sorrows in maple goodness at the Maple Festival.  We also got to have some more fun with Aunt Boo Boo before she had to leave (we miss you already, Aunt Boo Boo!).

Here are some photos from our visit to IBM (Colby got to come along, too!):

Crowding into Matt's office

The annual visit to Mommy's old office.  Colby and Evie were NOT impressed.

Everyone loves the cafeteria!

You can tell this poor girl isn't feeling so great, but her face paint is cute!

Trying their hand at packaging a chip.  Colby got the highest score of the day!

Another publication for Daddy - yay!

Noah getting some pointers from Grandpa Tom.  All he remembers is that Grandpa has chocolate in his desk drawer.

What a difference 3 years makes!!  Evie was such a peanut the first time she went into work with Matt, and now she's an old pro!

Photos from Maple Fest:

Maple cotton candy

Merry-go-round

Matt was VERY excited about the merry-go-round!  Ha ha!

We now own one of those giant crayons you see in the background

Heading into the fun house together

Noah had to get rescued by the ride operator (notice that I'm dying of laughter as he said "I need dat man to come get me!")

 Other vacation fun:

Evie helped me wash the new car

And then we celebrated our hard work with popsicles

My old elementary school playground - I remember this swing set from my days there!

Aunt Boo Boo, a.k.a, the kid wrangler

Noah has gotten very brave at the park

Dinner at Single Pebble

Funny girls

Noah only ate white rice at this dinner

Obsessed with playing Daddy's drums

Evie did so much biking that she wore a hole through her back tire!

Eating dinner outside on a nice evening...and you can get a glimpse of Evie's mood for the week

Noah actually ate carrots.  We are going to call this a win, even though you can't see the carrot under all that ranch dip!

In the midst of Evie's sickness, she came into our room one night around 3:30am and asked me to tuck her back into her bed.  I stumbled out of bed and up to her room, and as I was rubbing her back, she said to me, "Mommy, I'm so glad God chose you for my mom."  It's amazing how we get those little pieces of hope just when we need them.  Everyone is feeling better this week, and our regular old weekly routine has never looked so good!

Thank you for the beautiful flowers, Grandma Betti!