A cast can't keep my Katelyn down

Sporting her purple CPA cast, Katelyn took to the field Friday night as a Lion's cheer girl. She was one of about 50 elementary girls that cheered and danced during half time. It is always fun watching them even though they don't have an ounce of synchronization. They always have a great time though. Despite her doctor's directions to keep her feet on the ground, she couldn't resist a little cheerleader kick at the end.

Sunday we hit the zoo for an absolutely beautiful day. It turned out to be Harvest Days at the zoo. They took you back in time to see what it was like to press apples into apple cider, shake your own butter, make lamb wool into yarn and then use the yarn to weave a blanket. The girls were full of questions and interest. Katelyn even talked to the Confederate soldier about all his guns. It was time to go before we knew it and we hadn't really even seen any animals.

Should I be a witch for Halloween

Funny Owen picture and Katelyn update

Daycare posted this today and I thought it was too funny. I can just see him sitting back, stuffing himself, and then taking a long nap.

In other news: Katelyn went today to get her real cast. We thought it would just be half cast, but in an effort to mobilize her forearm bones, she had to have a full-length one that covered her elbow. She did choose CPA purple, so she is fashionably coordinated for school. Someone at soccer on Saturday had said she may be able to wrap it in bubble wrap and play this weekend, but unfortunately, she had her hopes dashed. Instead, she was told to keep her feet on the ground--no running, jumping, climbing, playing on swingsets or slides, etc. We are not sure what our active little one is supposed to do. She rarely walks anywhere, but rather bounces there. They were even concerned about her ballet/dance class--as though tapping with one foot might put her over the edge.  So say a little prayer for quick healing because it is going to be a full time job to keep her feet on the ground.

Happy Events

Today was a day full of happy events--birthdays and anniversary. Owen turned 10 months old today. He is growing so fast and is a hefty little guy. He has four teeth now, loves to crawl, and pulls up on everything. He loves to get into the cabinets and pull everything out, particularly the pots and pans. He can spend forever in the bathtub if you let him, just playing with toys. He likes to try to catch the water if you pour it out.

It is also Papa Bibelhauser's 80th birthday. We celebrated his birthday when we were in Louisville last weekend with the family. My niece, Sophia, also turned 6 today. She is in Arizona and the girls miss her. And last, but not least, it is the 10th anniversary of marriage to my wonderful hubby, Alan. I am truly blessed to have such an amazing partner by my side who works so hard and is so supportive of all that I do. He is amazing with our kids and loves us all well.

Happy 10th Anniversary!!!!!!

Cartwheel catastrophe

Katelyn has been experimenting with cartwheels lately. She can do three or four of them in a row and is getting pretty good at them. So yesterday in aftercare at school, she decided to attempt a one handed cartwheel. This was not a good idea. Her aftercare teacher brought her to me and her wrist definitely did not look right. It had a very pronounced hump in it. She cried when she saw me, but that was about it for most of the evening. With the  help of some of my colleagues, we iced it down and put it in a sling and then off to Vanderbilt we went.

For those who have not had to go to Vanderbilt Children's Hospital before, they do an amazing job. It is so kid friendly and is a well-oiled machine. We got there about 5:30 and were told right away by the intake ladies that it was broken. We went immediately to triage and then on to X-ray. Katelyn was so calm and collected. I forget that it is a teaching hospital. We saw a ton of doctors. For every doctor we saw, there was a medical student observing him. The most difficult part of the night was getting Katelyn to allow them to put an IV in so they could sedate her and set the bones. They were both bent and one looked cracked half way through. I didn't even know that bone bent, but apparently they do. They sent in a Life counselor to talk to Katelyn about it all. She came in with a little doll that had in an IV  which I found very interesting. but she still fought the nurses and pretty much freaked out at the thought of a needle. They finally got it in and then put her to sleep to set the bones. We left while they did it, but there were seven people in there either with a role in the setting or watching. Katelyn got kind of giggly as she started nodding off and when she awoke, she swore she never went to sleep although she can't remember any of it. We made it home at about 11:30 p.m.

So for now, she has a plasterish splint on, which she'll keep for about a week until the swelling goes down. Then she'll get a cast next Tuesday. Katelyn woke up this morning and wanted to go to school to show her X-ray and IV doll to her friends. She has been in good spirits and a real trooper through it all.

Yes--That's a worm she is holding

We had awesome weather this weekend as we headed to Cummins Ferry Resort Campground for Labor Day weekend. We went "camping" with my family which is code for RVing. The kids had a blast. They went fishing. Yes--that is Katelyn showcasing a big, fat worm. She is fearless, as is Ellie, when it comes to worms. Grandma Karen had bought Cane poles for them to use. Of course, their attention span was about 20 seconds before they were wondering when they would catch a fish. They kept lifting their poles out of the water to check. Unfortunately, they did not catch any fish. Notice their fashionable fishing dresses. One must always look one's best on the docks.

Owen received lots of Grandma love along with the aunts. Unfortunately, he was sick on Saturday. I am thinking it was not a good idea to give him the free Soy formula that I received. But he rebounded to his usual cheery self on Sunday and Monday.

I think the wildest part of our trip was when we went out on paddle boats one afternoon. You would think it would be pretty calm, but somehow the only one available was infested with spiders. So we found ourselves out in the middle of the lake with spiders crawling up the sides. Ellie about jumped in the water trying to get away from them. Quite a few met their demise that day as I slipped into my Mama Bear persona to save my little cubs. Alan motored us out to a small waterfall which the kids found amusing.

It was a great campground for kids. They had karaoke (way to go Janine and Katie).  They didn't have much Hannah Montana or Taylor Swift for my kids to have their debuts, although I am not sure they would have gone up there if they did have it.  They also had a quarter find. They had two big piles of sawdust and dropped $100 in quarters in it and let the kids search for it. Believe it or not, it kept the kids occupied for a long time. Katelyn found $7 and was very excited. She has a determined streak in her and didn't want to give up if there was a chance there was still money in there. Then they let the adults search. It was quite amusing to see grown people digging around on the ground for a handful of quarters, but I won't show those pictures :D

Soccer Princess

We had a busy day today as soccer season kicked off. Katelyn's team remained undefeated. They moved up in age groups which brings with it a larger field and more players. They were exhausted by the end, but seemed to have a great time.  I think the final score was 8-5 and Katelyn scored two of the goals. We are excited to see her aggressive nature return on the field. She has been a little hesitant this last year, but she was a force to be reckoned with today.

After the game, it was home for a quick shower before heading to the mall. Katelyn was asked by a friend to be in a fashion show at Dillard's for their fall clothing. She was in heaven. She was asked to pick out three outfits to showcase. Of course, hers were all dressy and fancy ones at that. I call her my soccer princess. There was a whole crew of CPA girls modeling clothes, half from first grade I believe. Of course, she wanted to buy them all (we did not). Not sure where I got such a girly girl.

Bellhop meets Island Fire Dancer

Alan and I had a rare date night last weekend thanks to Aunt Sherry. We went to the JCC's Murder Myster Luau. When we received the emails telling us who our characters were, I about fell out of my chair. I was an Island Fire Dancer. Me? They must not have known much about me because that is about as out of character as I could get. Alan was a bellhop. Luckily, our Fine Arts Department had a bellhop outfit for us to borrow. Who would have thought they would have 65 of them. Unfortunately, I was on my own for Fire Dancing. I improvised and you can see the photos below. That was one lucky Bellhop to be dating a Fire Dancer :)

Football has begun

Week two of CPA football proved to be victorious. Here are the girls and Sherry last weekend at the CPA game.

First Day of School and Owen turns 9 months

Today Katelyn started FIRST grade. She was so excited when she awoke this morning. She got up by herself, dressed and was ready to go. I had to go to work early because my high schoolers started today as well, so Alan took her to school. I popped in to see her class and new teacher when Katelyn got there. She has four kids from last year's class again this year. When I picked her up, she said she had a great day and a lot of fun. I was glad to see her excited to start school again.

Owen moved up at the JCC to the Toddler Room. He is the youngest in there, but they seem to adore him. They say he is so funny, which to me, is funny to hear about a baby. Ms. Tamelyn was Katelyn's teacher when she started at the J and Ms. Renee was Owen's teacher when he first started in February. I am expecting him to have a great year! He turned 9 months old today. We got his pictures taken. The outfit we used came from Grandmom Marilyn. It was Alan's when he was that age. He was christened in it. Unfortunately, we do not have a baptism date set yet and my little chunk was going to outgrow it before wearing it, so we used it for his 9 month pictures. You can see them at www.searsphotos.com.  Session Number: 106212  Password: TGGPC

Ellie is staying in Room 6. She moved up at the beginning of the summer. Some of her friends are back that took the summer off. This is a big year for her as she has to master many of the basics to be ready for kindergarten next year. I know she can do it.

Vacation time

I took a vacation from blogging while we were on the road this summer, but I wanted to take the time to catch everyone up on our summer happenings.

Owen met his Calhoun cousins for the first time when we went up North to Cape Cod and Boston. My sister-in-law was lucky enough to grow up on Cape Cod and we were fortunate to be able to stay with her and her family up there. For those who have not been to the Cape, it is beautiful. It has beaches for the kids to play on and a magnificent biking trail. I got to spend a morning with Alan, biking the trail down to Woods Hole. Unfortunately, we received our only rain of the trip that morning, but it was beautiful nonetheless. I would say the part of the trip we enjoyed more than anything was watching our kids play with their cousins. Ellie was in heaven following Rebecca around and Katelyn tried to emulate all that Susanna did. They even put on evening shows for us with the older girls choreographing the dances.

On our last day, we went down to Woods Hole and walked around. We ended up doing a Discovery boat ride. Katelyn was chosen as the chief scientist to document their findings. It was a very interesting little cruise. They measured the temperature, color and visibility of the water. They pulled in lobster cages and touched the sea creatures. They didn’t think twice about holding lobsters. It was a great way to expose them to nature and give them an appreciation of the ocean.

We ended the first part of our trip with a sleepover in Boston at the Calhouns. The girls wanted to see where their cousins lived, so we stopped in for the night. As morning came, we headed to Alan’s mom’s and Kit’s in Pennsylvania. While we have been there often, we have never really done the touristy things, so we decided to see the sites this trip. We visited the Steamtown Train Museum which had restored train cars and cabooses for the girls to climb on. We even went on a short train ride—SHORT being the key word. Ellie was orbidly fascinated by the stories of the train wrecks. She kept wanting to know if they were ok, what happened, is the train still running, etc. Her concern was astounding. She displays such empathy for someone so little.

Our next stop was the coal mine. It was a working mine which now gives tours. We took a train car down to the bottom. It was a very eye-opening experience as to how the miners lived back then and still to this day. To see the 18 inch crawl spaces that they spent 10 hours a day in was humbling. It made me reflect on how fortunate I am to have been born when I was in an era where I am not faced with such a job prospect.

Some of our stops were a little more upbeat. The girls spent a fun day at Costas Fun Park where they rode Go-Carts, Bumper boats and water slides. We also took a trip to Camp Netimas—the sister camp to Camp Shohola. Katelyn was in heaven. She is made to be a camper. We visited some of the activities and saw Cabin 1. You can go to the sleep-away camp at age 7 and Katelyn wants to sign up for the whole summer. We may agree to two weeks since her Grandmom is so close. As it is, she comes home from day camp every day singing camp songs. I can’t believe she is almost old enough to go and that I actually may send her so far away for two weeks.

We ended the week doing some tubing on the lake. The Bargers have a magnificent lake house. The girls loved tubing. And at dusk, there are a plethora of deer to watch. Ellie and I counted eight one evening on the side of the road where we stopped.

Owen turned 8 months old this week. He is crawling everywhere and trying to pull up. I give it a day or two.

Look what I can do

Owen started crawling yesterday. Right now he only shuffles a foot or so, but he is gearing up to keep me on the run.

4th of July parade

The girls were super excited this weekend to decorate their bikes and ride in the neighborhood 4th of July parade. Being the girls they are, notice the roses that they added to their bikes to make them girly girly.

Had a wonderful weekend spending time with friends (Thanks Crowell family), swimming hours at the neighborhood pool party and playing with fire.

Summer cuts for the girls

After trying for a couple of weeks to grow out her bangs again, Ellie caved in and got them cut. What surprised us all was that Katelyn also decided to cut her hair. She wanted a short bob like Ellie's. When they got home they traded clothes and pretended that they had changed places to fool us. Katelyn would only answer to Ellie and Ellie only to the name Katelyn.

Already tough being a boy with two sisters

I walked in to Owen's room where he was playing with his sisters and here is what I saw courtesy of my two girly girls.

Tubing on the Cumberland

We hit the water on Sunday!!!!!  Sherry's boyfriend, Eric's, sister, Meg, has a boat and offered to take us out on it. We had a great time. The girls loved tubing, especially Katelyn. Ellie enjoyed it with her daddy, but not so much with her daredevil sister who kept giving the thumbs up to go faster. It was  beautiful day to be out in the water.

Owen taking it all in. 

He missed his nap and wasn't too happy, so we thought water might cheer him up. We were wrong. 

Thanks so much Culler family for letting us hang out with you guys for the day. 

Alan parties it up

Alan's birthday was yesterday and there is nothing my kids like more than to have parties. For a week they have been talking about his birthday and what to do for it. So we sneaked around buying party supplies and the girls decorated the house before he got home yesterday---streamers, balloons on the stair banisters, sign in the yard and hats for all. I think it turned out to be an excellent birthday and Alan seemed to enjoy the love pouring out of our two children. It didn't hurt that the USA soccer team won that morning to start his day off with a bang.  In lieu of birthday cake, the girls decided on making their own sundaes. Wow, they were good.

 OK, so there comes a time when party hats look a little weird on adults---the things you suffer through for your kids. They even planned for candles in his sundae.