Len Christmas in July, Year 2

This year the party was at my mom’s house! Katie “helped” with the party prep!

Katie loved her Anna dress from Grauntie Rose!

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The cousins being silly!

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If there’s water, the kids will come.

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Bubble wands at the ready!

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The annual by-age lineup: Katie (3), Owen (6), Aubrey (7), Gracie (9), and Nick (11). You’ll see a direct Owen/Nick comparison tomorrow. 🙂

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Everyone always complains but I think they secretly enjoy the family photo! 🙂

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Our little Santas.

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Owen was GIDDY with the bazooka Grauntie Rose got him! It’s almost like she knows him exactly like I do. :p

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Katie LOVES her Frozen magic music wand from Grauntie Marilyn.

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No snow? Grass angels!

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Ice cream face!

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Overall it was a great day—the kids all had a blast together, the food was abundant and delicious, and everyone had fun relaxing and playing games. I think it was the right decision to move our Christmas to the middle of summer!

Owen’s first sleepover

Owen’s first sleepover was tonight—and it was the first for both of his friends, too.

The kids played for a bit, then we started Fruit Ninja, which they all thoroughly enjoyed.

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It’s somewhat exhausting—and they can only really play one at a time—so then we did Crash Course which they could all play at the same time.

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Manuel doesn’t have pets, so he was ENTHRALLED with ours (you’ll see more pics later). 🙂

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Getting ready for cake!

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Time for a movie! Katie enjoyed the sleepover as much as the boys did!

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Getting the boys ready for bed about 9. They lined up for a picture, each with one of Owen’s stuffed animals—and here Owen was realizing that they each had one of the primary colors!

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Overall, it went pretty good. The boys were boys (roughhousing and such) but they are all fairly similar—very nice, polite, not too terribly rough, and they listened well. We were most worried about putting them to bed and what happened after that since neither of the boys had had a sleepover before. Of course, their parents were on call to come get them, and I had been updating them via text and pics throughout the night. So they all got their PJs on, brushed their teeth, and decided who would sleep where. We told them they could stay up and talk, but they couldn’t be too loud (since Katie was sleeping next door). I read them a story, pointed out all the night lights, told them that if they were scared at all or if anything was wrong to come get us (and we could call their parents), asked if they had any questions (no), and then turned out the lights, crossed my fingers, and went downstairs.

Within minutes, we heard them coming down the steps. 🙂 Apparently the boys were scared of the big stuffed bear, even though they had all been playing with him. But no biggie, Tom just went up with them and threw it in the guest room.

The second trip down (again with all three of them!) was because the kid who decided he wanted to sleep on the top bunk was apparently suddenly afraid of heights and didn’t want to sleep on the top bunk even though we went over that before. But no biggie, we asked if he wanted Owen to sleep on the top and he said no, he wanted to. Ooookay. Back to bed then, and we sent them upstairs.

The third trip down was to tell us that somehow the top-bunk-kid needed his bed made again (turns out he had pulled off all of his bedding to sleep on the floor). Okay, no biggie, Tom went up and got the bedding issue settled.

At this point, I told Tom we should go upstairs to our bedroom so the kids didn’t have to come all the way downstairs each time. So we did. 🙂

Minutes later (the fourth time out of bed), two had to go to the bathroom—even though they all went before getting in bed.

The fifth time, someone was scared of everything in the room. We added another night light (in addition to the three already in there).

Then we heard them talking quietly and we thought maybe that would be the end of it…but then we heard loud thumping and lots of noise so Tom went down and and found them all out of bed! They got told they could talk but they had to stay in bed. We heard more talking but nothing crazy.

About 10, we finally noticed they were really quiet. Tom checked on them and they were all out! We crossed our fingers and hoped it lasted!

Maggie’s Hematoma

On New Year’s Day, we discovered Maggie had an inflamed ear. Imagine a bubble in a potato chip but filled with…stuff. Google said ear mites or pooling blood and we determined it was likely a hematoma. Of course the vet wasn’t open since it was a holiday and Tom assured me his dogs had it in the past and it wasn’t an emergency…but I still felt awful for her (even though she doesn’t seem to be bothered by it).

We got her in this afternoon. She LOVED the adoptable kitties in the waiting room. She wanted to play with them SO badly! She was even barking (and you know she rarely barks!) and trying to get IN the cage.

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The other people in the waiting room loved her, of course. 🙂

So, we got TWO verdicts: a yeast infection in her ear and the the hematoma (possibly related but not 100%).

So we have drops for the infection and steroid pills are the recommended first course of treatment for the hematoma. The doctor has only done one surgery for a hematoma in five years (and that was for a dog who couldn’t handle the steroid pills) so we’re keeping our fingers crossed because the surgery is about $800.

As it was, with the vaccines (catching up from things due in October), tests (catching up, plus the ear stuff), meds (the above plus heartworm), and exam, it was a $400 visit. But, we were overdue for about $200 of that.

Maggie was so stressed out that she was drooling like mad and foaming at the mouth. She’s normally fine at the vet so I think it was just too much stimuli (those kittens! plus all the new smells!):

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This was her on the way home. 🙂

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And now she’s sleeping like a baby.

A relaxing end to a busy vacation.

We left Grayling a day early so we could visit and stay the night at my cousin’s house—and so the kids could play more. And we had fun… We pulled in and they said “Want to go on a boat ride?” Sure!

The kids sword fighting while we loaded the boat.

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Ready to go!

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On the boat!

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The cabin where the kids spent most of the time playing and watching movies!

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In the driver’s seat!

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Proof we were actually in the water! Yes, I’m a geek. 🙂

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When we finally got to the swimming area, Owen didn’t want to go in because he was scared. It didn’t matter that Tom was in the water, the other kids were in the water, and he could see that it was plenty shallow enough.

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So Tom took Katie in first! And she loved it, of course!

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Grilling. Off the side of a boat. Who knew that was a thing? Of course we had Timmy’s delicious brats!

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Katie was having a blast in the cabin bed—she could see out the window which was right where we were sitting!

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We finally convinced Owen to go out and he clung to Tom like a second skin. The guys were pulling the boat to a new location (trying to get in shallower water).

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Friends of theirs came and moored with us and they had brought their dogs so Katie wanted to go over to see them.

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Owen getting more comfortable in the water…

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And when he saw they had a football water toy? It was GAME ON.

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And suddenly he was having a blast!

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He told Tom he was floating just like a balloon!

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On the way home…

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It was really fun and really relaxing…and the time really flies when you’re out on a boat—we left about 1:30 and were pulling back in about 6:30! Tom and I were exhausted after all that fresh air! The cousins introduced Owen to a new video game…and Katie had to sit there, too!

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Then Owen was building with Nick’s Legos, and I heard one of the girls say that Owen builds such cool things! 🙂

Then it was time for Frozen! All the kids were enjoying it!

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Our last night at Gramma and Grandpa’s house

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After the group photo, he commandeered the tripod to use as a cannon…and then actually as a tripod and was pretending to take pictures.

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Sitting by the fire!

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Not a bad spur of the moment family picture!

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Making s’mores!

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Eating s’mores—or in Katie’s case, eating the chocolate bar off the graham cracker.

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