Lauren's 5th Birthday

Better late then never! I am trying to catch up on posts a little at a time. 

Lauren turned 5 in July! She got to have her first friend birthday party too, which she was SUPER excited about. It was going to be a water/under the sea party, but the weather didn't cooperate much. Who would have guessed it would be a cold rainy day in July? Oh, well Lauren and all the girls had fun!

They started by making princess crowns while we waited for everyone to get there. She got to invite 5 little girls (since she was turning 5) and all but 1 were able to come. Courtney and Brady wanted to join the fun too. I made her a Mermaid cake, which took a lot longer than I expected! I made marshmallow fondant sea shapes (shells, coral, etc) to put around the cake. It turned out pretty cute, and Lauren LOVED it!

 

We went outside to play some games while Brock got the craft stuff put away. It was too cold to get wet so they just got a little wet in the rain running around. They played fish, fish, shark (AKA duck duck goose) too and had a blast.

Then snacks, juice, water, watermelon, goldfish and more games. Pin the flowers on the mermaid, which was fun. They made mermaid or mermen dolls (whatever they wanted) and then played with them while we cleaned up the table and got the cake and ice cream ready. The party went so quickly. We planned it for 2 hours (same as Brady), but the girls could have been there another hour without any problem whatsoever! Then cake and present time. All in all it was a success. Everyone had a fun time, and Lauren talked about it for a while after!

 

She also had a family party (BBQ) on her actual birthday which was tons of fun too. I didn't venture to make the same cake again though, but had a yummy chocolate zucchini cake instead, rice crispy treats, and graham crackers with chocolate frosting inside, and of course ice cream.  The food was yummy, and Lauren had fun playing with some of her cousins.

Courtney thinks it's her birthday every time one of the kids had a party:) She can't wait for her birthday!

 

 

Chris & Amy joined via Skype. 

She got her very own camera! She LOVES to take pictures with it, unfortunately her siblings do too! Her and Brady took several pictures around the backyard after the party ended.She got a pretty dress that she worn a ton, so much it actually has holes in it! She got a cute purse/wallet to match, some money to save up and buy something she really wants, and a school set!

She got girl Lego's too! She has wanted them for a bit once we saw them at Toys'r'us. They were a big hit, and now she and Brady can play Lego's together:) 

 

It was a very fun time, and busy month:)

This week will be her 2 year (well almost . . . truly the beginning of October) post chemo checkup! A very busy day filled with lab draws, Echocardiogram (to make sure the chemo didn't harm her heart), CT of her chest, pelvis, and abdomen (thus an IV for contrast and oral contrast to drink over an hour), then finally her clinic appointment. It will be a busy day Wednesday, but good to make sure everything is OK. It always creates a little anxiety, but I am hopeful she will have a clean bill of health (well, maybe not a great BUN. . .it is getting hard to get her to drink lately since she got a stomach bug a couple weeks ago, guess we will have to wait and see:)

Dance Girls!

I signed Lauren up for dance again at Miss Julie's since she had a wonderful time in the spring. Miss Julie is such a cute woman, and SO good with kids! Lauren loves dance especially because she gets to go with her BFF Mae. Courtney has been chomping at the bit to go to school everyday, so I thought maybe she could try dance. Well, once I mentioned it that was it! She was definitely going to do dance too! I bought her a little leotard, skirt and shoes (tap + ballet) and she tried them on as soon as she saw them. She could hardly wait to go to dance (too bad it was the next day;). She wouldn't let me put the tap shoes on because "they not dance shoes," but I finally got one on for a quick fitting. Once I showed her how they worked she didn't want to take them off. . .funny girl. For her first class I took her to the mom-and-me class with other 2-3 year old class since I didn't know if she would be old enough to be with the 3-yr old class. She could hardly wait! We were the first ones there. She opened the door then decided maybe dance wasn't as cool as soon as the other moms and kids came in. She acted completely different then I thought she would. She pretty much spent most of the hour on my lap. I could hardly believe it was her. . .she's not generally a shy girl (AT ALL)! I wondered if that is the class we should stay with, but Miss Julie thought she would be good in the 3-yr old class. So this week we tried that one out. At first she was timid and didn't want to leave my side until she got to see the secret surprise (Smarties) for after dance, then she was less shy. I had to sneak out because unfortunately I couldn't just stick around outside for very long since I had my OB checkup. I barely made it back when dance ended (darn BP is starting to rise, trace protein in my urine, I grew 5 cm in 3 weeks + gained 6 lbs mostly water weight . . .hopefully I won't end up with PIH. . .just the start of it for now). Anyways, when I picked her up Miss Julie said this was definitely the class for her. She did a great job and was such a good listener! Yay! I was so proud of her, and excited for her to be able to have a little fun while all her siblings are off to school.

School's in session. . .

Brady started 2nd grade this year. His teacher is Sue (just plain Sue- which is a little different. . .well A LOT! Brock hates it when a teacher uses there first name, let alone no tittle in front!). He went home sick the first day and I thought we were going to have a repeat of 'being sick' like we did last year. Thankfully that was the only 'sick' day so far. He didn't appear sick at all at the time, and the office convinced him to go back to class 2 previous times, but he did complain later that evening and didn't even eat anything for dinner, so I do think he had some sort of stomach ache. He likes school so far and has been doing reading each night, vocabulary and spelling until yesterday, now he has math for homework too. He unfortanately is in a class with only 2 other kids from previous years, so is making new friends (I hope). He still comes home with pretty much his entire lunch, and his teacher had us pack a snack for the first 2 weeks which he tells me he 'shares' each day (he names all the kids who wanted to 'try' his snack) so pretty much doesn't eat that either! I don't know how he survives!

 Kindergarten started the following week and Lauren has liked going to school so far. Although she was sick today (stomach ache) so was going to stay home, but decided she would go when we were dropping Brady off. Well, that didn't last and I picked her up just over an hour into school. Of course she has been fine since we got home, no complaints whatsoever. I do think the kids have had some sort of GI disturbance - Courtney had the worst of them all with diarrhea, vomit, no appetite for days, and now a runny nose. Lauren didn't eat much yesterday and complained late last night and early this AM, but it was short lived. . .maybe some sort of tummy cramping. Hopefully tomorrow will go better for her. She did comment how Tuesday was a short day (which it technically is short everyday, but Friday is early release and is VERY short!). At least she doesn't feel like school is long. Last night she informed me that she isn't the biggest in her class. . .Mrs. Bradley is (ha ha!). Still a lot taller then kids her age, she grows like a weed! Her and Brady were only 0.5 lbs apart when we checked last. Well, her teacher is Mrs. Bradley, and this is her first year teaching. She said Lauren is doing well so far. I picture her being very mellow, reserved, quiet, and a whole lot different then Brady:) Hopefully they both grow and learn lots this year.

Courtney is chomping at the bit to go to school. Today she got her mini Dora backpack (thanks Alyssa- she LOVES it!) and we had to pack a lunch for her. Then she got my keys and insisted we go outside. I thought she understood we could do school for 'pretends' at our house but she didn't. Nothing was OK then she got sidetracked making me pretend food until the school called. She wore her backpack to school, lunch and all when we picked Lauren up just after 10AM. She can hardly wait for school and begs to go constantly! It makes for a long morning before we get to pick Lauren up from Kindergarten. But I guess I should enjoy the begging. ..one day she may not want to go;)

Brady's 7!!!

This year was Brady's first friend party! I really wanted to do them for 'big' birthdays or milestones, like 5, 8, 12 and 16 yrs. . .something like that. But he missed out on his 5th friend birthday party because Lauren was in chemo at that time. So I guess he will get 2 parties in a row since he is 8 next year. He had a blast! I made the invitations (pictured below) they took a little bit to figure out how to make them with the Silhouette Cameo I bought a while back, but they turned out great especially for my first venture at this. It was a splash party, so we started out with a good old fashion water gun fight while we waited for all the kids to get there. We played some other games, water balloon tosses, and a super fun 'racing' slip 'n slide which was a huge hit (the grass didn't like it so much. . .we had a huge dry/brown rectangular spot for weeks after), some snacks (watermelon, goldfish, water, Caprisuns. . .water themed stuff). Then cake, ice cream, and present time. I think everyone had a blast and left soaked! They all got to take a water gun home in there goodie bag complete with Swedish Fish. It was a super fun afternoon, but pretty exhausting and it surprised me how fast things add up, definitely not cheap to throw a party, but I know he is glad he FINALLY got a friend party:)

On his 'real' birthday we had cake, ice cream, brownies and yummy homemade hot fudge sauce for his family party. He has a wonderful time playing with his cousins too! I made the same cake he had for his friend party, it was easy and turned out good. He loves Lego's, so got a few fun sets for his birthday. He got a little transformer, paper airplane kit, some snacks, star wars Madlib's (which he thinks are hilarious:), $ to save up for a big Lego set (at least that's what he says he wants to get), and  a circuit board set which he will play for hours when he gets it out, it's pretty neat to be able to make different things function (light, fan, alarm) by hooking up the wires differently. He was especially intrigued when we had a repair man come and change the circuit board to our garage door a couple weeks ago, it's hasn't been working consistently for months now so we finally got it fixed. The guy was nice enough to let Brady watch and ask his million and one questions (always very inquisitive) while he explained how the circuit board was similar to his. He loves to see how things work and to build things so these were perfect for him. He is going to be starting the 2nd grade which is super hard to believe, but will be nice to get back to a little more normalcy and schedule.  Only a few more short weeks of summer left!

Not Courtney's Week!!!

Not Courtney's best week! Bonk/bruise on the bum (fell off the stool) @ Grandma Jenny's, bonk on the head with goose egg, bruise and scuffs from falling off the top of the slide platform straight onto cement (SCARY!!!), AND now a broken wrist from catching herself wrong at the bottom of the slide:(

 X-ray findings: Left wrist AP, lateral and oblique views demonstrate a buckle fracture of the distal radius with mild post traumatic deformity. No other soft tissue or bony abnormality is seen.

Now to wait a week to cast it! It's not even swollen, but they don't like to put casts on before that just in case there is or will be swelling. So she gets to wear this splint until then! Next Tuesday will be a BIG day! 1st Courts cast, then eye appt for me to check on my healing following PRK vision correction surgery, then our ultrasound after that! I can't wait to see what it is AND most importantly to see that everything is normal.

Now she is officially a Bryant;) . . .fits right in with Nick, Taylor, and Riley's casts (yes, plural for each kid!). Hopefully this is the one and only for Courtney:)