This May Be a LONG Post

I seem to have had blogger's block lately. It's not like I haven't had anything to write about, I just haven't been able to get what I want to write about to form into a worthy blog. Anyway, last weekend we went to Minneapolis to visit family and had a really fantastic time. So I think that instead of trying to write about it, I am going to try and let my pictures do most of the "talking."

The ride up was uneventful. Great day!

There must have been a ton of rain there lately because a lot of the roadsides looked like this:

Overall it was just a nice and normal car trip.

When we arrived at Andy, Marcie and Mason's house we had some steam to blow off. Ant in our pants if you will. So we played outside for a while.



It was fun. Mason is adorable. He loves his books-which, of course, I think is the bee's knees!

Matt and I brought up a 300 piece Star Wars puzzle for all of us to do. We thought it might be a fun activity that the boys would like. Yeah- tad bit harder that we thought. It took the four adults almost 3 hours to complete it.

And we are quite proud of it. We had fun!

The next day, Marcie got out a 100 piece puzzle. Much more manageable for the boys.

We hung out a while.

And then went out and about.

At one point during the trip some of us may have gotten a little crazy with the syrup...

But it was ALL GOOD!!!
Andy and Marcie live close to an arboretum so we decided to check that out as well.






It was a really wonderful trip! We love spending time with Andy, Marcie and Mason. They are wonderful hosts!! We can't wait to see them again!! OH! Last night Matt and I discovered a video that Alex made for Mason on our car trip home. It is pretty long but the video is mostly so Mason wouldn't forget him. He also sang Mason Elmo's World to make him happy.

On a side note, I didn't do 7 days this time either. Not only have I had blogger's block, but I seem to have this crazy creative block too. I think I have been really creative in my classroom- maybe I only have so much creativity in me and I am using it up there. Or maybe it's because my camera is dieing and it's making me mad to take pictures. Who knows?!? However, if I did do 7 days this would have been a great shot for it I think:

To end our wonderful trip, on our way home we stopped at The Mall of America. Ok so here is what I don't understand- we spent 4 hours there and I feel like I didn't really get to shop at all. I think I went to 3 stores! WHAT?!?! That just seems wrong if you ask me!!! I did get a really cute purse though. So I guess it wasn't a complete waste! :)

We did however may have accidentally terrorized our boys a bit by taking them to the Rainforest Cafe. At first they loved the atmosphere. The monkeys hanging from the ceiling, the cool fish, etc. But then the fake thunder and lightening came and they were no longer amused!

Lesson learned! :) Well this blog seemed to flow ok. Maybe this post will break the block! Fingers crossed!

Try Again....

This past Thursday, both Josh and Zach had eye surgery. A couple of years ago, they had the same surgery done. Unfortunately, they started to cross their eyes again. So after trying various things to correct it (like patching), our doctor suggested that we do surgery again to correct it. We have a fantastic doctor and trust his judgment so we went ahead with it. We are just keeping our fingers crossed that it will work this time!! There is a 91% chance that it will work- fingers crossed!!

I can not say enough nice things about Children's hospital and how wonderful they were to us! They put us in adjoining rooms so we could all be together. That was a concern of mine. I wanted to be able to be next to both of them. And they made that possible for me. The nurses explained EVERYTHING to the boys (and us), showed them pictures of the operating room and what the doctor and nurses will look like with their masks on, etc. to help calm their nerves. They even showed them their masks to put them to sleep and let them touch an IV. So wonderful!!

Zach was cracking everyone up. He kept telling everyone that he was Josh. He is such a goof ball. They have discovered the advantages of being identical!! Look out!!!

Surgery went well. No complications. And the boys did great. The doctor and the hospital each gave them a stuffed animal. So they got two stuffed animals. Very exciting!! Here is Zach with Stinky the skunk and no name teddy bear.

They were both light sensitive so the hospital even gave them sunglasses to help with that. Like I said, the hospital and the staff were beyond wonderful!! Josh chose a pumpkin and named his teddy bear Mr. Teddy but didn't name the pumpkin. After surgery, they slept a couple of hours and then were ready to go home.

Zach and Josh were wheeled out in a wagon. They weren't supposed to walk out of the hospital. They thought it was pretty cool. I thought it was pretty cute.

Now onto the real challenge! They are supposed to do VERY little until Tuesday. sigh. If you know of any ways to keep 3 six year old boys clam and do nothing- I am ALL EARS!! :) After Monday, they can go back to school but can't do recess or PE or sports of any kind for 2 weeks. I feel a little guilty about the sports thing. They are playing soccer and will miss a game and 2 practices. Considering my boys make up almost half the team....yikes. But what can I do? I am not going to risk their recovery for it.

So I have been trying to come up with ideas that are fun...but not too dirty or that require much physical activity. Yesterday we "made" crayons. It was fun. I had them pick some colors they wanted their new crayon to be and peeled off the paper.

We broke up the crayons and put them into a muffin pan and melted them down into their new crayon.

Then viola! A new crayon to color with!!

They thought it was cool. Not the best craft I have ever done with them, but it was fun none the less.

We have watched movies, built things out of legos, colored, worked in our kindergarten workbooks, read books and played games. I have to admit this is all getting old- for them and for me. I thought it would be safe to take them out to the farmers market and grocery shopping this morning. But they ran, jumped, and skipped their way around the market and store. Needless to say, I don't think that we will leave the house until Tuesday again. :) It is hard because they feel normal and don't understand why they can't act normal. Plus with this BEAUTIFUL weather who wants to stay inside? Oh well, there will be more nice days coming up right? So here is to making it to Tuesday without going stir crazy! :) hahaha

On a side note- since surgery Zach doesn't want to wear his glasses anymore. The doctor did say that is a possibility and he may not need them. We will find out for sure in 6 weeks. Josh wants to wear his glasses but looks over the tops of them. So I don't think he needs his anymore either. Good luck to everyone to try and figure them out! hee hee hee