Birthday celebration!

With my Dad, my brother Jeff, and his fiance Cathy all having birthdays within a week of each other, we had a celebration dinner on Sunday.
It was nice to get together and visit, and Cathy's 3 daughters were all able to make it too. The cousins were happy to spend time together too!

Happy Birthday everyone!

Renaissance

The middle school recognizes all students with a 4.0 GPA with a Renaissance t-shirt, as well as a celebration lunch, magic show, and movie. It's nice that they are recognizing the hard work these kids do! Congratulations Zoe...we are so proud of you!

St. Patty's Day...

After the week we have had, we had a fairly mellow St. Patrick's Day. We held to our traditions, and Lucky came by to deliver his chocolate coins and make use of our toilet.
Although self-conscious about the scabs on his face, Cooper was happy to go to his friend Jakob's birthday party for a couple of hours and get out of the house! Towards the end of the party, he was pretty exhausted, and not feeling all that great. So we came home and had a mellow night. We enjoyed our potato soup and homemade Irish soda bread.
We finished the night by curling up on the couch to watch Hugo. We loved it!!

He has what??

It's been quite a week for Cooper! After the carnival on Saturday, he went home with Mimi and Jax for a sleepover. Early Sunday morning I got a text with a photo of Cooper who had red cheeks and had broken out in a rash. It wasn't too bad, but we just weren't sure what it was.
By evening, the rash had spread throughout his body, and his face was getting worse. It hadn't been too itchy, but by nighttime, the itchiness was unbearable and he had a hard time sleeping. Monday morning we woke up to this:
I was very concerned at this point, and called the doctor immediately. We were able to get in early. The doctors were perplexed since the rash didn't follow any typical pattern or reasoning, but they came to the conclusion that it was most likely a severe breakthrough chicken pox case. They put him on an antiviral medication and an antibiotic due to the secondary infection on some of the rash. We also had him on constant benadryl and calamine lotion, but nothing was helping with the itching. We tried oatmeal baths and cool compresses, but nothing brought relief. Monday night was awful, he was so miserable that he couldn't stop itching or lay still. He was up until 4 am, and was only able to sleep about 2 hours. Tuesday morning came the worst of it:
His face had completely swollen up and the rash had intensified all over his body. Also, the spot on his leg that we had been concerned about also looked bad...

Needless to say, I called the doctor back immediately. She agreed that it may not be chicken pox, and got me in to see a dermatology specialist that afternoon. He quickly diagnosed him as having a severe systemic allergic reaction. To what...we aren't 100% sure, but we think it was poison oak from the hike we took. The doctor thinks it originated with the spot on his leg, and then because of scratching and possible re-exposure if it was still on his shoes, entered his bloodstream through a break in the skin. So they took him off the anti-viral medication, and immediately put him on a steroid and prescription strength antihistamine for the next 10 days.
Within 48 hours, we could really see the difference and he was starting to feel better. The itching was under control, the swelling and redness was down, and the rash was scabbing. He was finally able to get a good night's sleep too.

Thankfully, Jenny brought Cooper a new puzzle and some candy to help get through the week!
Mimi and Jax sent him some movies and a new Wii game too!

And of course, we had to keep up with lots of schoolwork, since he's been out all week.

Hopefully by Monday, we will be ready to go back to our normal routine. He needs to be his active self again. It has been a physically and emotionally challenging week. My heart was broken seeing him so miserable, especially when we weren't sure what it was. I'm just so thankful he is on the mend!

School Carnival

Tony Tobin had their school carnival today and it was a perfect weather day. I didn't take part in any of the planning this year, but was there early to set up and stayed late to clean up. Mimi came down with Jax, and Cooper's friend Michael joined in, and the kids all had a lot of fun.

The boys stuck together and did lots of games. Cooper spent most of his tickets trying to win a soda bottle!

Mimi bought them some cool new elastic shoelaces too.

And because it was such a gorgeous day, lots of sno cones were sold!

Zoe spent most of her day with her middle school friends, but she did join us for lunch. She had fun getting her hair colored too!

Although we didn't win any raffle baskets, we had a great day. The PTA works so hard on this event and hopefully it was big fundraiser for our school!

Is it summer yet?

Today sure felt like a warm summer day! After an incredibly long week, we finally got to enjoy some down time on Sunday. We spent a few hours in the afternoon enjoying some time by the pool. The water was still too cold for me, but nothing could keep the kids out of there. I was happy lounging in the chair watching and reading.
We even made delicious strawberry sorbet with Zoe's ice cream maker to make it really feel like summer! Only a few more months to go...I think I'm ready now!

Ballet Magnificat!

Ballet Magnificat! is located in Jackson, Mississippi and is considered the premiere Christian dance company in the United States. Their professional touring companies perform all over the world. After Nicole watched them perform last year (and several of her dancers attended their summer intensive), she decided that she wanted to bring them to our studio for some master class workshops and performances. The studio has been anxiously anticipating this awesome opportunity and working hard to sell tickets, work on programs, and get the community involved. Zoe was excited to be able to participate, although a bit nervous about the time commitment and balancing it with her school work.

On Wednesday and Thursday, dancers from all over Southern California took 2, four hour workshops to work on ballet technique and variations, as well as jazz. They also learned some quick choreography. Although exhausted, Zoe loved every minute of it.
On Friday, Ballet Magnificat! performed their show, The Hiding Place, which is based on the true story of Corrie and Betsie ten Boom during World War II, in the midst of the concentration camp of Ravensbruck. It was an incredibly moving performance that brought us all to tears.
Before the show, Zoe performed an opening number with the other dancers from the workshop. The girls did a beautiful job! No flash photography was allowed, so I didn't get any good photos.

On Saturday night, the girls performed again, followed by Ballet Magnificat's performance of Before His Throne...Boldly.

This was a beautiful show of moving, and inspirational worship. Zoe was thrilled to be a part of such a wonderful experience. It was a VERY long week, but definitely worth the hours of practice, dress rehearsals, and attendance!

Zippy's 4th Birthday!

Mimi, Gramps and Jax sent Zippy a box of toys and treats for his birthday! The boys had lots of fun sniffing, playing, and eating...Happy Birthday Zippy!

Walk Through California

The fourth graders had their "in-house" field trip today with Walk Through California. It is a fantastic program that gets the students involved in learning the history of our state. Zoe had done this two years ago, and had told Cooper how much fun it is. He was looking forward to dressing up and memorizing his "expert" word.
The kids were placed in teams and competed against each other for points with their knowledge of California history. Each student was given an "expert" card to memorize with a word relating to the history or geography of the state.
Cooper's word was "Precipitation", so he gave the definition, as well as the average annual precipitation amount in our area.
The students also got to participate in different skits, such as making adobe bricks, square dancing, and being different characters in history.

Students were also randomly chosen to "Go for Gold" by choosing lollipops out of a map and scoring extra points if there tip was gold.
The last part of the program dealt mostly with the geography of California and learning about the different regions, landforms, and crops.
Although the program is long, it is very well run and kept these kids very entertained. Mrs. Rogers class had a fantastic time!