GO BEARS!

Tale of two sick babes

Well, both Caroline and Clayton are under the weather and fall has just barely begun! Caroline has a nasty, nasty cough and Clayton nose is an absolute faucet. So - this is how I spent MY Saturday night.
8:30 Clayton wakes up sobbing, most likely because he can't breathe out his runny nose and suck his pacifier at the same time. After a few attempts of laying him back down and comforting fail, I rock him to sleep. (Yes - when they are sick, they get special treatment.)
9:30 Clayton wakes up sobbing again. Rock him to sleep again.
10:45 Clayton wakes up yet again, screaming. This time, laying him back down with his monkey and paci work and he falls asleep for the night.
11:00 Caroline wakes up and starts coughing. She coughs pretty much non-stop for the next 4 hours. I tried pretty much everything to soothe her poor little throat - from warm apple juice, to milkshake, to warm milk & honey. Ran the vaporizer in her room, switched pillows, switched her back to her crib, gave her corn syrup (a.k.a. homemade cough syrup). Finally, at 3:00 am, I brought her into bed with me. She finally stopped coughing and fell asleep for about 45 minutes. (THe first 45 minutes of sleep I got for the night!) At 3:45 she started coughing again and kept putting her feet over the side of the bed. Fearful that she would fall out of our high bed, I returned her to her own. She only coughed a little for the rest of the night and thankfully slept until 7:00 am. Oh what a night! Of course, it doesn't end there. At 4:45, Clayton awoke and did his signature loud "Aaaaahhhhh, oooooooooh, and other baby babbles for the next hour.
And as murphy's law would have it, Kevin is out of town for the weekend at his parents' lake condo.
With tired, sick, and crabby kids, it has been a long day! Hopefully there is sleep in our future tonight!

Egg allergy anyone?

As some of you know, Clayton has an egg allergy (ugh!) He loves pancakes (and I love to make them too), but all of the pancake mixes and recipes I've found have eggs in them. I adapted one of my recipes to make it egg free and it worked pretty well. The pancakes still held together reasonably well and still tasted good. I think it's pretty hard to find egg-free recipes that taste good out there, so I thought I'd share this one...

Farmhouse Pancakes (egg free version)
2 ripe bananas
1 cup flour
2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup milk
2 tbsp melted butter
and in place of the egg - (1 tbsp water + 1 1/2 tbsp oil + 1 tsp baking powder)

In small bowl, mash bananas thoroughly and set aside.
In large bowl, mix flour, sugar, 2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp baking soda.
Beat milk, butter, 1 tbsp water, 1 1/2 tbsp oil, and 1 tsp baking powder into the bowl with the bananas. BLend well. Add milk mixture to flour mixture and stir just until flour is moistened. Do not overmix. Heat griddle/skillet. Cook 4-6 minutes (depending on how thick your batter is) and flip.
THese also save well in the fridge and can be microwaved the next morning. Enjoy!

Big girl bed

After 2 1/2 years in a crib, we figured Caroline was ready for her "big girl bed".


The first sleep in the big bed...

Glory Glory Hallelujah!

After TWO MONTHS of having no washer or dryer, we finally had our new washer and dryer hooked up this morning. Praise God! I'm already on load #2. I can't tell you how awesome it is to actually be able to do laundry at our house when needed. A boatload of thanks go to Kevin's parents and my parents for tackling our loads and graciously offering up their washer and dryer this summer.

Arrrggghhhhh!

What a frustrating game! The Bears basically had the game won, and then totally blew it in the end. The Bucs ended up beating them in overtime. Arrrggghhh! We could easily be 3-0 and are now sporting a less-than-stellar 1-2 start to the season. As Caroline would say, "Mama is SO frustrated!"

Outdoor picnic

One of the last outdoor picnics of the season. Boy are we going to miss these!

Clayton explores the backyard...

Our favorite apple picking site

We haven't visited yet this year, but I wanted to share our favorite apple-picking/cider barn spot. It is in Twin Lakes, Wisconsin, right over the Illinois-Wisconsin border.
The place to get fresh doughnuts, cider, wisconsin cheese and summer sausage, etc. is called Harvest Time. Here is the site - http://www.myharvesttime.com/
They will have apple picking too, but are in the process of replanting their orchards.
There is a place right down the road that we go for apple-picking. It is called Oriole Springs. It doesn't have an official website, but here is the info on this site -
http://www.milwaukeemoms.com/pumpkins/display.cfm?ID=19

I HIGHLY recommend it. It is one of our favorite fall activities. We'll be sure to post pictures when we go this year.

First Day of School!

Today was Caroline's first day of school. We've been talking about how exciting it will be and all the fun things she will learn there for the past few weeks. I was worried because this morning she started fussing, saying "I don't want to go to school!" But when I walked her in and got her settled, she was totally fine and was excited to try the "stringing beads" activity they had out. No tears for Caroline! Yes, there were tears for Mama, but I managed to keep my composure until I was back in the car. My little baby is growing up!

Ice cream social!

We hosted an "end-of-the-summer" ice cream social on Sunday. I think we had 1 newborn, 5 one-year-olds, 4 toddlers, 5 kids, and 14 adults! The kids had a BLAST!

"Preview" of school

We had a "preview" of Caroline's preschool last Thursday. Her official first day is Tuesday. She will go Tuesday and Thursday mornings for 2 1/2 hours. I can't believe my baby is going to school! She may not cry, but Mama sure will!

Here is a picture of her classroom...

Clayton just learned to wave!

Growing with Mr. Bear

Clayton growing with Mr. Bear - 1 year

Caroline and her Mimi (bunny) and Clayton and his GeeGee (monkey)

Caroline playing dress up

Such my little girlie-girl!

A bad case of the naughties

Caroline has definitely had her two year old moments now and again, especially when tired. But this past few days, she has been downright terrible. We have never had a problem with her hitting people, but all of a sudden, she is constantly hitting her brother, and sometimes me or Kevin. She is acting disobedient and defiant on and off all day. We went to the park today. When asked to go get her bucket and shovel because it was time to go home , she threw them instead - not once but three times. When asked to stay on the grass while I put Clayton in the car, she walked in the parking lot without a hand (which she KNOWS not to do.). Then when I brought her back to the grass, she ran away down the grassy field, fussing all the way. I punished her ahd she proceeded to wail from her car seat “Woe is me! Woe is me!” over and over, all the way home. (Where she got that phrase and knew the context in which to use it, I’ll never know.) Let's hope she gets out of this little naughty funk quickly! Ugh!

Photos from our trip to Bay View, Michigan



GiGi and her two grandbabies


Once GiGi brought out the mickey mouse ears, she wanted to wear them at every meal!


Clayton on the porch


Caroline eating Kilwins ice cream - delicious!

Clayton has an egg allergy, so no ice cream for him. The poor kid had to eat leaves instead.


As you can see, he wasn't very happy about it.


Caroline LOVED digging in the gravel off the patio at GiGi's house.


It was quite a long car ride all the way up North.





For all the Bay View pictures, click HERE

Kohl's Childrens Museum

Grandma Phyllis took the girls (Caroline and cousins Sarah and Alyssa) to the Children's museum. They had a blast!
They got to paint thier faces...

play at the music displays...

go shopping in the kid-sized grocery store (a HUGE hit!)...

and dance on stage, while watching themselves on TV!