May, Oh My!

May has gone by so quickly and has been full of wonderful adventures as the schol year has drawn to a close


Angela finished her year of Joy School. She's pretty bummed that she still has to wait a whole year to go to preschool like Natalie, but hopefully we can get a group together with some of these kids and do it next year! 

Enjoying a fresh cotton candy sample while sitting in rocking chairs as we watch the crowds entering mainstreet, USA. We tried to squeeze in a few last trips to Disney before the weather crowds got too bad. This week, we're hoping to drop by for one last visit to check out a new attraction based on the world of Pandora from the movie "Avatar", then it will be no more Disney until August!

Emerging skills

 Angela opening birthday card from Grandma, with some intrusion from her older sister

And this is what Angela bought with the rest of her birthday money- a baby dumbo!

Jealous of Angela's money, Natalie decided to see what she had in her piggy bank and pulled out enough to buy dippin' dots next time we go to the pool!

Centerpieces I made for a funeral recently. Crazy successful and awesome guy in his mid-50's from our church dropped dead from a yet-unknown natural cause last week. It was pretty shocking and devastating. 

These shots were taken immediately before The Incident. You can see a bit of redness on her cheek in this shot. After I washed off the frosting, I noticed redness on her wrists as well. Then little white bumps began to pop up on the red areas. I rushed her into the bath to wash off whatever was on her skin that was irritating, but she just began to break out worse and worse. We got her out of the bath and she started to wipe her hand in her mouth and complain of feeling "spikeys" on her tongue. The rash and hives were pretty much all over her body, so Micah ran her to the urgent care. She got antihistamines and steroids ad was prescribed an epipen. The company that makes epipens has been under scrutiny lately for their inflated prices. It was gonna cost $300 for the generic version after insurance. There is this tricky way to get an injector made by a different manufacturer for only $9.99, but you have to have a prescription for the exact product -"generick epipen" wouldn't work, it had to be for the "adrenaclick" and so we had to call our pediatrician back a couple of times. First, the doctor looked at the report from the urgent care- which said that she had a local rash on her knee- and said that she didnt really need an epipen. We had to go in to explain that the situation had been much more serious. She did not recommend allergy testing because it is very expensive and often inconclusive, especially since we have no idea what allergen set it off. But we did finally get an emergency injector, which had to be from a CVS pharmacy, which we would not have intuitively gone to, since our insurance doesn't work with them. But, thats the only place that has a deal with the adrenaclick company to offer it affordably- at the pharmacy through Micah's employers' medical center, where our perscriptions are usually least expensive, the adreniclick was was $490. The whole process was very irritating and reminded me that the pharmaceutical industry is just a giant ripoff and that the health care industry, in general, is screwed up beyond repair because too many people are making too much money off of it. Angela continued to break out every time the antihistamines began to wear off for about 36 hours and since then she has been okay. We may never know what caused the reaction, but I'm glad that we're prepared in case it happens again and escaletes more severely.

The girls have done their first month of swim lessons. Natalie is mostly remembering the skills she learned last summer and following instructions. There was one incident where she was jumping off the diving board and was supposed to wait for the instructor, who was helping the previous student to the side of the pool, when she yelled, "HEY, MOM, WATCH THIS" and ran and jumped into the deep end. Fortunately, the instructor got back out quickly to help Natalie to the side.  Angela, this being her very first time doing swim lessons without me in the pool with her, is learning to blow bubbles with her nose (precursor to actually putting her head underwater, which may take all summer to achieve), kick her legs while holding onto the side and hop up and down. She has already scored her first major ear infection and I think pool water may have been the culprit.

Angela is learning to pedal and always begs to do bikes any time we pull into the garage.  

We bought $13 cups from the local gas station that we get to refill for free with slurpies, soda, lemonade and such through the end of July. I'm pretty sure we've already gotten our money's worth. It has heated up dramatically and it doesn't take much for me to agree to a slurpee run. Also, it's hard to turn down kids wanting to go to chicfila, where the air conditioned playplace provides a substitute for outdoor play.

We too a couple of days at the end of last week to visit a beach about 90 minutes south of us where there is good snorkeling, cool tide pools for the kids to explore, fishing and more. Natalie was so excited to go fishing, she was practicing casting her line for days beforehand. When we actually got out on the dock to fish, she was interested for about 15 minutes.

2 days at the beach and we were pretty exhausted. The sun really takes in out of you!


One of those moments that I wanted to capture to show some future prom date or fiancee or something, but my camera is dying from abuse from kids in spite of continuous pleas not to touch it. It struggles to take a clear picture anymore. 

This was our fun activity for this afternoon, our first day of summer break that we found ourselves sitting around the house with nothing to do.

Natalie with her preschool teacher. Their end-of-year program last wednesday was adorable and I am so grateful for the amazing program she has been in- she has learned so much and loved it. She scored 99% on the kindergarten readiness screening and is less afraid of going on to kindergarten that she was a couple of months ago.

And here is a cute photo that Natalie took of Angela with one of her primary leaders with my Expensive Camera.