A Fabulous Day for Field Trips!

Yesterday was field trip day for 2 out of my 3 in school, and what a perfect day it was!  I went with Violet to the Deanna Rose Farmstead and Pumpkin Hollow, while Russ went with Oliver to the Franklin County recycling center and Forest Park (the class went on to Pome on the Range in the afternoon, but Russ had to get back to work).  

Both of Violet's wonderful paras, Miss Janell and Miss Julie, were able to attend the field trip with us! (And Daphne, Violet's friend, was in our group for the day.)  I can't say enough about these women who do so much for my Violet each and every day.  We are SO blessed to have them in our lives!

 Daphne led the way and our first stop was the one-room school house.

 Then we went down the big red slide at the playground a few times. . .

 . . . and enjoyed the butterfly garden.  There's a pretty one!

 We saw all of the animals, like this huge bison. . .

. . . this ornery pig. . .

. . . and this majestic eagle.

 

Violet took turn holding hands with Daphne, Miss Janell and me.

 When we were finished exploring the farmstead, we ate our lunch and then got ready to head into Pumpkin Hollow.  Here's Violet's class!

 These gorgeous horses took us on our wagon ride to Pumpkin Hollow.

 We're there!

Violet LOVED climbing up the hay bales to the big slide. 

 There she goes!

 She played in the corn with her friend, Ara. . .

 . . . and then found her way through the corn maze.  This corn maze is more my speed (unlike the big one the boys and I got lost in!).

 There was just so much to do!

 Violet discovered another 'slide' off of hay bales and spent the majority of her afternoon here.  She convinced lots of friends to slide down the hay with her!

It was such a beautiful day spent with my Violet!

As I mentioned earlier, Russ went with Oliver on his field trip.  And I forgot to ask him to take pictures.  Thankfully, a couple of my friends shared some pictures with me.  I'm sad that I wasn't able to be with Oliver on his field trip, but I'm thankful that Russ was able to be there and I know he had a great time!

It was certainly a fabulous day for field trips, and I'm so thankful for the teachers who plan these trips and all of their friends who make the days extra fun!

Fall Harvest

We are in the middle of October, which means the fall harvest is in full swing and these little soybeans don't stand a chance against Grandpa Denny's combines!

I love watching the combines roll through the fields. . .

. . . and it's very convenient to watch when the field is right next to our house!

After Grandpa's Gleaner caught fire a couple seasons ago, he added a big Massey to his fleet.  While the kids were watching the harvest, Scott was operating this big, newer machine and Grandpa was in the older, smaller Massey.  Evelyn looked at Russ and said, "Scott's combine is big and nice, but when Grandpa Denny's combine gets bigger, it will be nice, too." I love how her little 3-year old mind works.  I'm sure Grandpa Denny can't wait for his little combine to grow up!

We've had some pretty gorgeous weather for fall harvest!  Even though the beans went in a little late because of our really wet spring/early summer, it looks like it's going to be a great crop!

Rock Chalk Late Night

Fall is probably my favorite season, except for KU basketball season! We joined 16,000 other fans to celebrate the start of the season Friday evening at the annual Late Night in the Phog, and as always, had a great time!

We got there early and found our seats. The give-away this year were some light-up thunder sticks, which we discovered weren't nearly as durable as other give-aways in years past. We had several pop on us before the night was through.

But they looked cool anyway while they lasted!

Baby Jay found us as she made her way through the field house.

For the second year in a row, we got to watch the Royals pick up a post-season win at Late Night! There's nothing quite like chanting "Let's go Royals!" in one breath and "Rock Chalk Jayhawk" in the next. Doesn't get much better than that!

The Royals got the "W" and then it was time to get the party started!

The spirit squads always have impressive performances for Late Night and this year was no exception. They actually did stunts with Big and Baby Jay!

The place looked so cool when the lights went out.

The mascots brought some of their friends for a scrimmage. Their gorilla buddy from the Phoenix Suns could really dunk!

They unveiled their 11th straight Big 12 championship banner and we watched some fun highlights from Jayhawk basketball history.

One of their new freshmen treated us to some tunes on the piano. His hands looked so huge on the keys!

Late night is fun for a lot of reasons, but the best reasons are the ones I got to sit by!

Can't wait for another great season! Rock Chalk Jayhawk!!

A-'Void'-ing

For the past couple of years, we've been saying that Violet has a steel bladder.  She just doesn't pee very often, usually only two or three times a day.  And often, when she finally goes, it is a flood that requires a good deal of clean up. Well, when we went in for her well-child check before school started, I shared these concerns with our doctor.  She had never had an accident at school before, but preschool was only 3 hours a day, and I was worried that in full-day kindergarten this might become more of an issue.  He put in a referral to urology at Children's Mercy and we began waiting.  Meanwhile school started and we got into a quasi-routine of her waking up with a wet diaper, going a ton after school, and then possibly going once more before bed.  And then a couple of weeks ago, she stopped going after school.  And sometimes would wake up dry.  And voiding was becoming more of a once a day occurrence for my Violet girl.  Since the initial referral was sent to urology in August, I had called a couple of times to try to get an appointment myself.  I finally heard back from them last Thursday (October 1).  The nurse who called informed me that if Violet went 24 hours between voiding, that would require an ER visit to catheterize her.  I explained that she had been doing this for several days already, and was told again that she would need to be taken to the ER.  In the next breath, she said that the earliest Violet could be seen by the urologist was November 9.  Daily ER visits for 5 weeks?  Not so convenient.  So I followed orders and that evening when it had been 24 hours, we took her in.  I felt so bad for the nurses who were stuck with the task of straight-cathing Violet.  She fought and screamed and sweat and cried and finally the deed was done.  We repeated the scenario on Sunday evening (with some nitrous oxide to assist), at which point the doctor said she would admit us to the hospital if Violet was back the next day.  Which she was.  Although they couldn't admit us to Children's Mercy South (where we were at the ER) because urology doesn't see inpatients at South, so we drove downtown for admission with the plan of placing a foley catheter (which can be left in).  By the time we had completed all of the necessary admissions stuff, it was after midnight.  Violet still hadn't peed and at this point it had been 31 hours since the catheterization of the evening before.  I had warned the nurses of Violet's strength and determination when it came to the catheter and they were prepared with plenty of nurses plus some midazolam to calm her down.  Just as her primary nurse was opening the supplies for the cath, Violet wet the bed.  The timing was pretty remarkable that she would have waited for that moment to finally pee after 31 hours.  Here are the 4 nurses at her bedside laughing at the irony.

 Because the reason they admitted her was for urinary retention, the doctors felt that the foley catheter should still be placed.  Thankfully the medication had taken effect (and she had been awake for over 18 hours), so this was the easiest yet.  We didn't get much sleep at all, as she was very curious (and not so sure) about this new accessory.  

 AND she kept attempting to climb out of the bed.  I was a nervous wreck that it would get yanked out the first night it was in.

 The next day we were entertained by the heli-pad right outside our window and the helicopters coming and going.  And we watched movies.  And waited to see the urologist to figure out the plan.

 Finally she crashed which allowed me to rest for a bit as well.

 To my bewilderment and disappointment, we never saw the urologist.  Their "plan" was to send us home with the catheter until they could see us in the office.  Thankfully that date did get moved up to October 19 from the original November 9 appointment, but STILL.  So this is what Violet is walking around with for the next couple of weeks.

 The bag is pretty much as big as her leg.  I'm so thankful for the sunny disposition of my Violet girl.  I can't imagine going through all of the stuff she's had to go through with an ill-tempered child!

 Here she is saying good-bye to her nurse. . . and trying to sneak out with the tricked-out iPad that she played on all day.

I took Violet to school for half of the day today and basically stayed with her to make sure everything was going okay. (Wednesdays are my day to volunteer in the kids' classrooms anyway, so I'm already there from 8-11:45.)  She did well, but was completely exhausted when we got home.  Now we just pray that she doesn't pull the catheter out which could cause some serious damage.  She will have urodynamic studies done in radiology next Wednesday and then the big day that we get to meet the urologist on the 19th. Please pray with us that we get some answers (and ideally that those answers won't require surgery) and pray that she does okay with this apparatus until then.  Life is always an adventure with our Super-Vi, no question about it!

Cousins Weekend

Dana and Russell are in Hawaii right now celebrating their 10th anniversary (so jealous!), so we got to have a fun cousins weekend with our Topeka cousins!  It's amazing how entertaining origami can be to kids.  They made some pretty cool things!

Here's Ross' puppy before it got its sombrero on its head and tote bag to sit in.  I'm not sure how I missed getting a picture of the 100s of paper tote bags the kids ended up making -- they were definitely a crowd favorite.

Some puzzles were put together. . .

. . . and plenty of pizza was inhaled.

Lots of hide and go seek in the basement was played (Hey look, I found Grayson!). . .

. . . and movies were watched upstairs.

At about 10:30 (after the high school football game), Sydney and Jackson came over to make it a REAL cousins party!  Syd only stayed for a bit, but Jackson stayed the night.  Those crazy kids were up well past midnight.  I love that they love playing together.

Just because they were up late didn't mean anyone slept in!  They were up and at 'em early, ready to play some more.

Grayson loved the coffee cake and banana bread we had for breakfast.  He is such a cutie!!

What a fun weekend spent with cousins!  My kids are so lucky to get to grow up with their cousins.  We definitely need to do this more often!

Always Be My Baby

I did a post when Evelyn was 16 months old and included this picture:

Could I have looked any more tired in that picture?!?  Anyway, I was showing Evelyn's "ready for sleep" position: right thumb in mouth, left hand playing with my belly button.  Well, here we are at 36 months and some things have never changed!  Actually, I take that back.  She now prefers her left thumb in her mouth and right hand playing with my 'button' (It was kind of funny, but about a year ago, she hurt her right thumb and couldn't suck it.  I thought that would be the end of the thumb-sucking as she just stared at that thumb but refused to put it in her mouth.  I should have never underestimated my resourceful girl.  She managed to train herself to suck her left thumb and then never looked back.)

She still has sole ownership rights to my button.  Sometimes the pinching and pulling (I have an "outie" that she can stretch like a rubberband) drives me crazy.  But then I have to remind myself that she won't be taking my belly button to college with her.  (Or at least, I hope she won't. That would be a difficult one to explain to he freshman roommate.) Someday I'll look back and smile thinking of how mad she still gets when I wear a dress that blocks her access to my button. (I thought once she was done nursing, my wardrobe would no longer matter -- like many other things, I was wrong!)  And it's just slightly improper in public when she's reaching under my shirt to get to her happy place with my navel.  It's definitely difficult to ever get upset with this sweet face.

And as for the thumb sucking?  Ya, I thought she would be done with it by now, but I'm not going to get too worked up over it.  I figure all kids stop eventually.  Grandpa Kermit can remember sucking his thumb and so can Sydney, and I can think of no better people for my Evie to emulate!  Oliver was sucking his arm well past his third birthday and then one day just stopped.  I'm hoping a similar situation plays out with my youngest.  But for now, as I said 20 months ago, I still know when the thumb goes in the mouth and the hand reaches for my button, I'm getting ready to get some serious snuggles.  For that, I will NEVER complain.

The best part of Evelyn?  If you ask her if she's a baby, she will respond, "I'm not a baby! But I'm MOMMY'S baby."  She already knows how to make her momma super-happy.  She's my youngest and I'm thankful that she has agreed to always be my baby.