Spring Break 2012

Monday:

The first day of Spring Break and we are excited!  We wake up and lazily get ready and clean the house.  Daddy was getting off work at 3 so we knew if we cleaned and ran our errands before that, we would do something fun with him.  It was a gorgeous day so we were planning on heading to the park.

The kids loved taking care of Clara on the couch while I was cleaning the kitchen.  I think here they are pretending to all be babies.

The kids got Dunkin Donut gift cards in their stockings and we have one in our Walmart.  Sawyer is with me all the time and has used up most of his but Kate made a special point to bring her card to get a donut while we were out running errands.  I always make them order and pay for it themselves. 

 

After we ran all our errands and got the house cleaned up we met Daddy at the park.  Check out the temperature!

We went to the park next to the ice cream place....the only one in our town!  It was packed!  The kids played and I waited in the long line to get ice cream.  Good thing I bought sun screen at Walmart that morning!

Tuesday:

We went to the gym in the morning which was a treat for Kate.  She got to make art projects with Sawyer.  When we came home we had a picnic outside and afterwards ate popsicles.  It wasn't quite as hot as the day before!

Wednesday:

That morning I met a friend at the Aquatic Center to walk the trail.  I took the two older kids inside to the play place (Clara isn't quite old enough yet) and we had a nice walk.  Then she left and I headed in with all 3 of my kids to swim in the pools.  The kids spent the first little while playing in the shallow area with the slide while I fed Clara and then we changed Clara into her swimming suit and headed into the big pool.  Needless to say, I didn't have any extra hands for picture taking.  But I did take this one after we had showered and changed and we were eating a snack at the picnic tables.  Happy Clara!





Thursday:

We had another fun, lazy morning (are you seeing a trend here? Definitely my favorite part about Spring Break!) and then we went to the gym and then met a friend at the Montshire Science museum.  This is another place I take Sawyer during the day and Kate rarely gets to go.  They had fun playing at all the exhibits and I had fun talking to my friend.  

Friday:

The last official day of Spring Break I asked Kate what she wanted to do and she said she wanted to go to Sugarbush Farm.  I had gone with Sawyer's preschool and she had felt left out.  The kids love this place.  I think they love the syrup and cheese tasting the most, but it isn't far from me and its a fun little place to go.

I saw on Facebook that they had a new baby cow (born 4/2) that they were having a naming contest for and the kids were excited to see him.  We could even pet him!  There was also a little black lamb but I didn't get a picture of it.

 Enjoying the pretty flowers

 The sign called this a "Vermont cowch" and Kate thought that was pretty hilarious

After we looked around the farm for a bit we went inside and tasted all the syrups and cheeses and bought some.  Kate thought it was a real treat because I bought her favorite thing, the cheese spread!  We then went outside and sat at a picnic table and ate some cheese and crackers.  As we were eating one of the ladies brought out a big bottle and started feeding the calf.  What a treat!

And that is how the Kissell's spent spring break. We might not have gone to the Bahamas or Disney World, but we did something fun everyday, enjoyed the nice weather, and were just kind of lazy! I loved it! I have told Kate several times that I'm never sending her back to school but she won't hear of it! But I can count down the days until summer break!

High Maintenance

I have been fighting a war for months with Clara's skin and I'm excited to report I finally think I've won the battle! Around 3 months old I started noticing some rough and red areas on Clara's skin. She also had really bad, yucky looking cradle cap on her head. The first thing I did was lotion and change my laundry detergent to a Tide Free and Clear. Sawyer had reacted to powdered Tide as a baby so that was my first thought. Then it started to get even worse, especially her face. I called the pediatrician and talked to a nurse and she recommended bathing less frequently and using an ointment lotion like aquaphor. So that is what we did and some days her skin looked better and some days it looked worse again. So I called again and this time she recommended CeraVe and so I bought some and it worked on her legs and her face looked better...and then got worse again. Friday I just couldn't take it anymore. It was so bad...even worse than this picture here:

It was red and seeping and bumpy and so sad! My gy is right by the Dr office ad so when I got done with my class I called to see if the could squeeze me in. They said they couldn't but that they would call if anything came up. Well I had an hour before I had to pick up Kate and I didn't want to drive all the way home and get a call to come back so I just drove over there and decided to wait in their waiting room. I tried not to be obnoxious about it...but my baby needed to see a Dr! The receptionist made a few calls and got me in and I was so grateful. The Dr was so nice and supportive of me and what we have been doing. She said there are 2 common skin conditions for babies. She said one is eczema and the other is Seborrhoeic dermatitis which, in children and adults, usually presents as dandruff. So she gave me lots of "tools for my toolbox." I use the CeraVe all over, all the time. If there is a spot that is getting a little red and irritated I put on an over the counter Cortisone. If it gets really really bad (like it was on Friday) she prescribed a strong steroid. She also gave me an antibiotic because her cheeks were so bad they were infected and she also recommended Benadryl for the itching. And she said we could use all the same things on her head for the cradle cap, which was taking a back seat to her poor cheeks. After a trip to the pharmacy we were ready to go.

We started using everything on Friday afternoon and by Saturday you could tell a huge difference. HUGE. By Sunday even my friends who had just seen her the day before on Saturday couldn't believe the difference! Here is a picture of her asleep in the mother's lounge at church.

And by this time her cradle cap was gone! We hadn't seen her head look like that in months. It was so beautiful and I couldn't stop touching it. I also couldn't stop kissing her cheeks! I am just so glad this is finally under control!!
Here is a picture from today:

Almost perfect! Beautiful!! But the biggest change is in her contentment! This girl of mine was born happy. The nurses in the hospital the day after she was born kept telling me what a good, happy baby she was. And they see a lot of babies! Gradually there was a change and I figured it was just because she was getting bigger. Every now and then when I was nursing her, her cute little hand would make it up to her head and she would be scratching it. Now looking back at her cheeks, there is no way that that didn't hurt and itch and bother her! Sunday Ryan and I were just so amazed at how happy and content she was! It was like night and day. She was squealing and happy and smiling! I'm so grateful for medicine and nice Dr's who squeeze me in, listen to me, and fix everything! And I can't stop kissing these cheeks! Love them!

Easter 2012

Saturday we dyed Easter eggs

we wrote secret messages to each other

then gave them to each other and used the dye to disclose the message

Clara jumped in a picture once after waking up from a nap

Sunday morning we woke up to find our baskets

each filled with the perfect spring accessories...gardening tools! (just you wait until its warm enough to finally plant my garden! We have big plans!)

We enjoyed a little before breakfast treat...

And it was delicious...

We decorated sugar cookies, the kid's favorite dessert. I really enjoy trying out the flooding frosting technique that is getting so popular and is so darn cute...but as much as I enjoy it, I would miss out on some great things if I didn't let the kids do it the old fashioned way.

Like piles of sprinkles

gobs of frosting

and cute concentration faces

Kate even invented a new technique where you sprinkle the sprinkles on the cookie BEFORE you put the frosting on. Then when you frost them, it mixes the sprinkles in with the frosting! Ingenious!

Then it was time for the hunt.

The had cute commentary back and forth like, "Ohhh!! I found a purple one!"

and, "Look, I found a shiny one in the middle of the blackberry pokies!"

Sawyer's bucket was a little full and he was dropping his eggs and he said, "I'm having a little trouble here!"

Kate rocked her cute early birthday present from Aunt Dani, bunny earrings

Clara woke up from her nap in time to catch the end of the hunt

And the kids ended up with even more candy!

We had a great Easter. My only complaint was that it was 48 degrees. At church that morning we saw some flurries. Other than that it was a beautiful day. We got to do some family traditions and talk about the joy we have because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are a blessed family.
Now off to finish my non-tradional dinner of Cafe Rio pork salad...I wasn't feeling the ham this year!