Kitchenaids and Beetlejuice

This is my wonderful Mother's Day present.  We had priced kitchenaids of different sizes and watts the month before, but I had decided not to get one.  I wanted one with more watts for dough kneading and a bigger bowl.   We had seen one at Costco that after doing some additional pricing seemed to be the best deal.  But, with some other expenses we had coming up, I told Jared that I would wait until another time instead of settling for lesser quality.  Unbeknownst to me, he ordered this one from Costco.  I have used it mutliple times already and LOVE it!!

Stop reading here if you are squeamish.  The following pictures are NOT pretty.

Around Thanksgiving, Jacob had some random bumps appear on his skin.  Jenny told us what they were and said they should go away on their own.  They do in most cases, but they did not with Jacob.  The doctor referred us a dermatologist.  While I was on the field trip with Bella, Jared took Jacob to the appointment. She explained to Jared that it was a 3 stage treatment.  She applied a African Beetle Juice to his skin and explained that the juice would cause the skin to blister.  I don't think any of us were prepared for the end result.

This is just one side of his body.  He had the same thing on the other side.  If you look closely you can see them in his armpit.  They were so big he couldn't comfortably lower his arm.  He walked around with the arm above his head most of the day.

By the time I got home he was miserable.  He was sobbing that he was going to die.  It was heartbreaking.  I just wanted to comfort him, but he didn't want anyone to touch him.  Jared said the dermatologist said we could drain the blisters to help make him more comfortable.  Jacb did NOT like this process.  He did make him more comfortable but I'm afraid its going to cause him to have permanent scars and almost wish we hadn't done it.  He did allow us to lay him near me on the couch to watch a movie.  He was asleep pretty fast.  I need to take him back tomorrow for Stage 2 but I am really dreading it.  If you are ever in Africa- stay away from beetles!!!

This is what it looked like after we drained the blisters

Pittsburgh cousins

The day before Mother's day we went to my cousin Asha's house.  She lives north of Pittsburgh.  We had planned a BBQ but it was chilly and dreary.  We still had a blast though.  She was a little girl Lailani (in the picture before) and a little boy Kai (who was sleeping when I pulled my camera out). The girls love little Lailani and she loves them.  She was crying when we drove away it was so sad.  Asha and Shane had the house built and it is simply gorgeous! 

Pittsburgh Zoo

The Friday before Mother's Day, I went on a field trip with Bella's 2nd grade class to the Pittsburgh zoo.  The second graders tie-dyed shirts for the trip so it would be easy to located our group.

Bella and I on the bus- can you tell I was in desparate need of a haircut?

 Bella and I were assigned to a group with one other girl, 2 boys, and one of their moms.  The boys wanted to walk with another boy group and the girls wanted to walk with another group of girls.  I knew the girls would not be happy being with all boys all day and vice versa. We had been told to stay in our groups and 5 years ago when Katy was in 2nd grade, I never would have dreamed of doing anything other than the instructions given me.  However, 5 years later, I didn't hesitate to suggest to the other mom that we split up.  She took the boys and joined another group of all boys and I took the girls and spent the day with Bella's close friend Mya's group. Mya's mom is one of the few parents I know from the new school.  We had a wonderful time and I am very glad we made the decision to split off from our group.  I really liked the zoo..maybe not as well as St. Louis's, but it is definately one of my favorites.

We were supposed to have rain all day and thankfully we did not. I had taken raincoats, ponchos, and umbrellas and didn't need any of it.  Better safe than sorry though.  In fact, we didn't have any rain until we were on our way home.  The trip home was quite an adventure.  First we got stuck in horrible traffic trying to leave Pittsburgh.  I think we were on the bus for an hour and had only travelled about 9 miles from the zoo.  Then while we were stopped under an overpass in stand still traffic the storm hit.  We knew it was coming.  It had hit Wheeling about 1 hour beforehand.  We had all gotten texts from our husbands warning us.  Apparently Wheeling had hail, horizontal rain, and crazy gusts of winds mixed in to the torrential downpour.  Since we were stopped under an overpass it didn't seem nearly as bad when it did hit us.  However, we soon heard the sound of multiple emergency vehicles passing the traffic in the burms, and we didn't start moving again for quite some time.  When the rain stopped and we finally got out of the city I was more than ready to get home.  I groaned internally when we pulled off at a rest stop.  Apparently, the bus driver had to use the bathroom.  She obviously either really had to go or didn't realize that if you stopped with 2 buses full of 2nd graders you would suddenly have 60 kids who all needed to use the rest room!  She quickly ran in, but by the time she got back, the damage had been done. So, we all piled out and into the rest area building.  While we were in there, part 2 of the storm hit with all of our rain gear sitting on the bus.  Running back to the bus, we got completely drenched.  It was a long, cold ,wet drive back to Wheeling.  Our busses were over an hour later, putting us back at the school after 6pm!  I was glad I wasn't one of those parents waiting and wondering where the bus was.
 In a moment of rare foresight and planning ahead, I had made taco soup the night before in addition to the meal we had Thursday, so I wouldn't have to cook after the field trip.  I had rolls in the freezer that Jared had pulled out and baked.  When Bella and I walked into the house after a long day, it was wonderful to be met by the smell of fresh baked rolls and simmering soup!!

Oglebay Zoo

Jacob and I decided to check out the Oglebay Zoo.  It was hard for me to buy tickets since I thought it was way over priced for a tiny city park zoo.  Especially coming from St. Louis which is the best zoo I've been too and is FREE!!

The upside was that they had a dinosaur exhibit with moving dinosaurs.  Jacob thought they were real.  I know I should have used it as an educational moment to tell him dinosaurs are no longer alive, BUT I didn't.  His reaction was too cute.  I didn't want to burst his little bubble.

Jacob and his friend Wyatt

 It was a beautiful day, we saw 8 turtles in one pond sunbathing

 Our first glimpse of a dinosuar

 

 The kept their dinstance from the T-Rex

 I love how he showed no fear near the "real" dinosaurs but is shrinking back from the little bird

 He really wanted to feed the birds but when the zookeeper brought the bird near him he chickened out.  After watching Wyatt feed a few birds, he decided to go ahead and give it a try.  He also fed a Llama but I was helping him and forgot to take a picture

 Boys pretending to sling their webs like spiderman

 We finished the adventure by riding the zoo train

 

Miss Alexandra turns 10

Sunday after church before Mima and PopPop left, we celebrated Alexandra's Bday.  Her B-day dinner request was ribs, fruit salad, asparagus, and brussel spouts.

 

 For her cake we tried a copycat recipe for that delicious mandarin pineapple cake from Marilyns bakery we had for Katy's bday.  It is actually very good and not difficult at all

 The following Friday, she had a friend bday party.  We went with a pink and black fabulous theme

 After the girls arrived they could use nail polish, lip gloss, bracelets, sunglasses and rings on the table to get their "bling" on.

 I had not planned for any specific games and was going to just let them have a dance party but the night before Xandy asked what games we were going to play.  So, we quickly put some together starting wih "hot potato"

 We then had a crazy game of musical pillows.  Actually we played about each game 2-3 times per the girls request

 The cupcakes ended up doubling as both decorations and pin the candle on the cupcake.  The girls each decorated a candle while getting blinged.

 We then moved on to the presents and cake.  Xandy had seen a cake in on of my cookbooks that was chocolate and pink.  She thought it would fit in good.  But when I looked at it, it was peppermint.  She's not a huge fan of peppermint, but it got the wheels in my brain turning.  I ended up making my own cake up.  I used my largest spring pan to make 2- 12" chocolate cakes.  Then I made a cream filling with vanilla pudding mix, coolwhip and strawberry sauce.  I should've added food coloring to keep it pink.  The strawberry sauce color was very diluted and almost ended up pale orange.  The fillinf went in between the two layers.  For the top, I made a chocolate ganache.  Pink candy beads and sugar crystals were sprinkled on top.  She was really happy with the way it turned out.  I must say it was incredibly delicious!!!

 The girls had so much fun with the games that we only had about 5 mins for a dance party.  We've had some parties were the kids were so out of control I couldn't wait for the party to end.  Not this one, it went so fast and the girls were all so polite yet still were having lots of fun.  I definately like her friends here.

Oglebay Adventues

After getting into some crazy Pittsburg traffic for a Saturday and a intense gas "situation" we finally made it home from the Superhero Race.  We quickly changed our clothes, grabbed a bite to eat, and headed up the road to Oglebay. This time PopPop was with us.  Our first stop was the boathouse.  We were lucky and 4 boats were available since all the kids wanted to paddle.  We put one adult and one kid in each boat. After paddling for awhile Jared wanted to now whose idea it was to do paddleboats on the same day as a 5K.  I think he had it a little harder than the rest of us since Jacob couldn't quite reach the pedals.  The kids wanted to get sprayed a litte by the fountain but a couple boats had the misfortune of the wind shifting on approach and ended up drenched.  Bella and I happened to be in one of those boats.  Good thing it was warm!



 

 

After the boats we went on the hike to the waterfall.  This time the kids decided to explore under the waterfall.

One the way back Jared and the kids crossed a log to the other side of the creek.  They ended up having to do some off trail slope climbing to find another spot to cross back over.

 

 We ended our day of fun with a little DQ.  The girls and I tried the peanutbutter chocolate pretzel special of the month.  I always regret deviating from my usual order, but this was really good.

Our gas "situation" for those who are curious :  We needed gas in the van after we left the race, but we had fuel perks at a station near our home of  $.50/gallon off.  Since we don't drive the van much here, we wouldn't need gas again until after the perks expired.  Jared calculated our miles back home and put 2 gallon in when we stopped.  I had asked him to put 3 in to be safe but he insisted we'd get home on 2.  When he tuned the car on the GPS said we had more miles to home than the car said we had gas for.  He joked that it was mostly downhill home so we could coast, but I was not amused. To make matters worse, our GPS took us home a different way than we came.  A way that went straight through Pittsburg right before a Pirates game.  We were not moving at all at some points.  I was freaking out.  I was sure we would run out of gas.  The traffic was already putting us behind schedule and I didn't want to have to hike for gas or pay to by a new gas can just because he refused to err on the side of caution.  Conversation got a little heated in the car.  Jared will even admit that he was pretty nervous at the end.  We must have ridden in on fumes.  I will probably never live down the fact that we made it, but it was probably only because of the prayers of Mima, the kids,and I that we wouldn't run out on the highway!!

Super Hero Run

The last weekend in April we ran in a Superhero Run north of Pittsburg. Yes, the entire family ran a 5K. Jacob had seen pictures of the race and wanted to run it. He liked the idea of running while dressed in a superhero costume.  He borrowed the spiderman costume from his cousin Weston.  Katy already had her shirt and Bella was batgirl for Halloween so she was set.  Xandy ended up wearing Jacob's superman cape that his friend Tyler Weston's mom made him years ago.  That just left Jared and I.  I scored Jared's shirt clearanced for $2 at walmart and mine was 50% off at Kohls. There was a 1K and a 5K, I signed us all up for the 5K.  Mima and PopPop were in town so Mima came along and took some pictures.  Poor PopPop had to stay at home for an online class he was taking.

 

 

Having fun posing before the run

 Here we are before the race. 

 Katy started the race with us but grew bored at our slower pace so I let her run on her own. I stayed with Bella and Xandy.  I was a bad mom and didn't realize Bella wore her twinkle toe shoes that are too small.  She had blisters by the end.

 Jared ran with Jacob.  Jacob ran the entire time but about half way through told his dad that he wasn't sure the race had been such a good idea.  He's a cutie and quite a trooper.  He stuck with it to the end.

 Little Miss Katy running to the finish line

Bella started taking parts of her costume off as we went by the end my simple t-shirt had aquired some of her costume pieces for my outfit.

Katy finished in 28 mins.  I wonder what she would've had if she hadn't stayed with us for the first part.  The girls and I finished in 32 with Jacob and Jared finishing in 34 minutes.  It was great family fun!!!