Queen for the Day

Tuesday means preschool and the letter of the day was "Q." Daphne hosted us this week and planned something quite special...Tea with the Queen! All the kids got an invitation in the mail last week and were asked to dress accordingly. I tell you, I stand in awe of Daph's creativity! There have been many a time that I've thought, "I need to tap into that!"

Here are our princesses before leaving this morning. They picked out their own dresses yesterday and crowns, and, oh, "jewels."
Singing some songs to get the blood moving this morning. Yes, MF changed her dress as the one she originally had on was too long and she kept tripping on it.

Had to get a picture of our host. Doesn't she look great?!?! We read about the "Very Quiet Cricket" and "Mr. Quiet" and then played the Quiet Game. The kids did quite well!

Quarters were next on the game plan and we played a great game that allowed us to sort out the coins and pick them out by taking turns. They really had a great time with that. Once we finished, we set the table in anticipation of...

The Queen of Fleetwood's arrival! Molly did a wonderful job and was complete with a flawless accent. She addressed the children as "Madam Ruthie, Sir Heath" and they obliged by acting the part as well.

Tea time!

The look suits her, doesn't it?

The Queen of Fleetwood taught our prince and princesses lots of things, namely how to drink with the pinkie out.

I couldn't just post one child drinking the tea, so...

Sir Heath

Madam Ruthie

LeeAnne even joined us after her nap. She's a princess in the making, huh?

The Queen also blessed us with a story about the princess and the pea from her "Royal Library." Thanks, Aunt Molly, for blessing us with your talent!

While we had a wonderful time today, we did have an accident. As lunch was being prepared, Mary Fran somehow slipped and fell and hit her head on the floor. I thought she was OK, kissed it, and we went on to eat. After a little bit, I saw a red drop on her shirt, some red stuff on the lace of her dress, and a streak of blood in her hair. We went to the bathroom and it appeared that the cut had clotted but that's never fun to see blood on your child much less realize it's coming from their head. She's doing well, as usual, but has really been through the ringer lately!

He's Found His Feet

That's right...Ward has discovered those funny things at the end of his legs! We actually noticed this a little over a week ago but I just got a picture of it today. Isn't he growing up?

He's also discovered the wonders of the excersaucer and is enjoying it immensely! Ward is the very definition of perpetual motion...much like his older sister, Eves. He's only 4 1/2 months old so look out!
This was just taken the other day. Evie loves being a big sister!

Oh, What a Ride!

Well, we have had an eventful weekend...Friday morning after breakfast Mary Fran told me she was tired. She was sitting on the couch "reading" a book, so I told her to just lay her head down as we had had a late night a few nights prior. When I went to get her out of playtime she was laying in the crib and had not touched her books (highly unusual) and looked as though she didn't feel good. I picked her up and quickly felt that she was all of a sudden very warm. Her temp was 102-103. I called to get an appointment as I thought she might have a UTI again like she did when she was 10 months old. She told me she felt good and that nothing hurt (we went from head to toe). The first appointment was at 3:10, so I gave her some Tylenol and she perked right up and seemed fine. As soon as the 4 hours was over, though, her fever spiked back up to 103-104. Eves stayed with Daddy at his office to do some "work" for him and off we went to Blue Ridge Peds. We saw the PA there and she was really great. They pricked MF's finger and her white blood cell count was slightly elevated (signalling a possible bacterial as opposed to viral infection) so they went on and did got some urine by catheterization to test for a UTI. Her urine came back clean and since she really didn't "look sick" we decided against a flu test. Ellen told me to keep her hydrated, keep her temp down with Tylenol, and look for other symptoms. She felt it might be roseola which is a childhood viral illness that presents with a high fever and an absence of other symptoms. The fever lasts for 3-5 days and then the child develops a rash once the fever breaks.
Well, Friday night MF's temp got to 104.8 right before bed. I let her sleep with a cup of water with instructions to drink it whenever she felt thirsty and/or woke up. The Tylenol brought her fever down to 101 by 10 when we went to bed which made me feel a little better. Saturday she was pretty much herself except for her fever. We stayed hunkered down this weekend and her fever finally broke today but we have yet to see a rash. Thankfully, she never had any febrile seizures and she is back to her playful, sassy self now. Mom was here this weekend which was a big help and Mary Fran surely loved seeing her MeMe!

On a lighter note, here is how I found Mary Fran earlier last week during playtime. She loves her books!
Saturday was Big Win's birthday. We got together up at Karen and Winston's house and had some wonderful food. Since mom was here, she volunteered to watch MF so that we could all celebrate with him. We had a wonderful time and got some great pictures of LeeAnne and Ward. LeeAnne is 3 months older than Ward and it's just great to see the two of them together.

LeeAnne says, "OK, I'm ready for my headshot!"

"Um, I think you have a stray hair back there. Let me get it for you."

"O" the Wonderful Things O Can Do!

Today was "O Day" and we had the privilege of hosting. We learned about a mother screech owl, where orange juice comes from, and about octopuses. "Old MacDonald" also made an appearance (by way of song) at the start of the morning. We had some interesting animals visit his farm today including a bird, duck, horse, and penguin (way to go, Heath!). A video about chimpanzees seemed to pique the kid's interest during "snack time" (and nursing time!). Yes, I know it doesn't start with "o" but it is a great, fun, and informative DVD that we got for Christmas (thanks, Crooms!). Here is the pictorial of preschool... Showing off our "paper plate owls." They were so cute and were making "hoo-hoo" sounds as they were getting ready for the picture.
After reading "What Was it Before it Was Orange Juice?" we made our own orange juice. Here Ruthie is drinking her homemade juice. They all did great taking turns and juicing their oranges.

We also read "An Octopus is Amazing" which is a great book and really gives the kids good scientific information about octopuses but will also keep their attention. Then, we watched a video on YouTube showing an octopus changing colors and "inking." Of course we had to make octopuses to take home, play with, and show our daddys!

After an easy lunch of black beans and rice, all the kiddos played on the back deck with our soccer balls in the absolutely gorgeous 60 degree weather we're having! After everyone left, I found MF sitting here, on our recycling bins, "taking a break." She's a hoot!

Precious Moments

This morning we had a precious moment. Drew has been gone this weekend playing golf down at Pinehurst with his dad, brother, uncles, and cousin (it's an incredible deal!). Anywho, it's just been the kiddos and me and we've had quite a good time. This morning I was laying in bed with Ward after I had nursed him. I hear the "click" of the girl's door and know one of them, probably Evie, was going to venture across. Sure enough it was the wee Eves and I invited her to get in the bed with me. A few minutes later I hear the shuffling of little feet and Mary Fran appears at the side of our bed. Pretty soon the four of us are all laying in the bed snuggled up together...Ward, Evie, MF, and me. It dawned on me once again that we were experiencing a precious moment. In that precious moment I am able to capture our children's hearts because they are seeing that there is nowhere I would rather be than with them.

"Oh, Lord, help me to see those precious moments and revel in them. Allow me to hold onto our children's hearts so that they will see Your love through me."

The Full Story...

OK, here goes...Yesterday mom went in for her surgery. She was having this surgery because the wall in the lower chambers of her heart were thickened. This condition decreases the volume of blood allowed to flow out and makes it harder for the heart to pump (and produces a characteristic heart murmur). The velocity of the blood going out of her heart was greatly elevated and, therefore, her doctor wanted this surgery sooner rather than later. When her doctor was doing the pre-op examination yesterday he nor the other doctor could hear her heart murmur (good news). They decided to do an ECHO which showed the velocity was near normal. Then, they did the heart cath to make sure the internal readings were in agreement with the ECHO and they were. With this new information, it was determined the surgery was not necessary. Mom had taken her meds yesterday morning and her doc feels that this shows that her condition is responding to the meds which is good. If it sounds confusing, it is. However, I don't want to go into lots of extraneous details but this is good news. Mom is home and resting and will be ready to go back to work next week. Thank you for your prayers!

Update

Just wanted to let y'all know that mom is doing well. She didn't end up having the procedure as her "numbers" had vastly improved. It has been a crazy afternoon so I will write more tomorrow. Thank y'all for your prayers.

Necklaces, Noodles, and Nests, OH MY!!!

You guessed it...today was preschool and "N" was the letter of the day. Daph did a great job, as usual. We glued noodles onto a "N" drawn on paper and then made noodle necklaces. Daphne had a great number activity that you will see below. We also talked about "nests" discussing the different habitats of animals and then gluing together "houses" on paper that had each individual child's address on it (great springboard for learning our addresses at home!). Names were another "N" word and Daph had the letters of each child's name dotted out on paper that they traced and then put together to make their name using a card with their name written on it to go by. Last but not least, we talked about different noses and Daph had a 3 Styrofoam cups for each child...one painted pink like a pig's, one spotted like a cow's, and one painted yellow like a lion's. The lion's nose was not finished and we added those finishing touches to them. (Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of that but Evie surprised her daddy w/ the pig's nose on this evening. Maybe I can get one tomorrow!)

Here we are reviewing our letters (upper and lower case). The kids did a rather impressive job!
Making our "noodle N's"

Showing off our noodle necklaces

Putting our numbers in order.

On a side note, please be in prayer for my mom tomorrow. She is having heart surgery (not open heart) tomorrow afternoon at 2 pm. Thank you so much in advance!