Past few Days....

On Thursday, right after Alex had eaten some milk and cookies, he came up to me crying stating that he was itchy. I noticed hives all over his body and his eyes were swollen. Not sure what was going on, but knowing that what I was witnessing was not good, I rushed him to the ER. He was given a shot and later an EKG. He was monitored for several hours and once most symptoms had subsided, he was released. The doctor had informed me that Alex suffered a severe allergic reaction to something (most likely in the cookies that he had eaten right before it happened) and that next time this happens, we need to call 911. I took Alex to an allergist today who stated that some cookies contain certain dyes that kids can react to, he suspected it was a yellow dye or a synthetic vanilla flavoring. I came home and checked the ingredients, there were 2 yellow dyes and an odd sounding vanilla flavoring in the cookies. Since Alex had sensitivities to red dyes when he was little, I believe the doctor might be right about the yellow dyes. Since allergists do not test for dye allergies, the only way we will know is when it happens again we will compare ingredients of the culprit food items. For now ,I will carry an epipen in my purse and have one in the house. Alex and the other kids have been instructed to call 911 in the future. So, for all you moms out there, if your kid eats something and suddenly looks like Alex did, call 911! (this picture was snapped on the way to the hospital, he continued to get worse until he got the shot)

Sunday I took the kids on a walk, we went to one of our favorite spots near the house, a stream where we skip rocks and wade in the water.

Today we went to the same stream further down, it has a nice little swimming hole near a train bridge....

The kids enjoyed swimming in the swimming hole....

Greg found his own little spot to play in...


Some teenagers came and jumped in from the bridge....the kids thought they were crazy, I kept my mouth shut about my bridge jumping college days! (especially the part about how the bridge we jumped from was way higher than this one!!)

One more thing I like about summer!

When I had two babies and a toddler and 2 young kids to take shopping, I didn't like it. I always like to challenge myself mentally and physically, so I would ALWAYS take them everywhere, almost for the challenge of it. I would tell myself, "this will only be a few years, and you will be stronger for it" ...now I have no babies, and no toddlers, and 5 well behaved kids. I actually find myself looking forward to our errand and shopping days together! (although they say they hate it, I love it!) During the school year I get all the shopping and errands done while they are in school, but now that summer is here, they go with me. Shawn is twelve and technically allowed to watch his siblings, but I have only let him do that if I stay within a few minutes of the house and if it is for a short time and only during the day...I know I was watching my siblings when I was 9, and even watching neighbors kids when I was nine, (which I think is NUTS!) I was also getting paid regularly to babysit 5 kids when I was 12, but I haven't really introduced Shawn to babysitting yet. And because I am finding that I enjoy my time doing errands with them, I just take them. The other day we were able to get 2 baskets of food because they helped, they help load and unload the car. I enjoy the car ride with them also. We always have such great discussions. The other day we talked about the universe and the possibilities of other life on other planets and today in the car ride to costco we took turns telling each other what we liked about each other. I know we look like an overwhelming crowd as we approach a store or a dental office, and we often times get in other's way, but I am truely relishing my time with my kids. They learn so much about life and the world from going on little errands with me, and I learn so much about them as we interact. When I took a picture of them today, they said "Mom, why did you take a picture of us?" i just said "Because, I want to remember these days" ...

The kids ride on the cart in costco, the kids in the fron have to "steer" with their feet...

Going into Shawn's Orthodontist appointment...we do get in the way of people sometimes, but I love having them with me for these little errands during the summer!

Busy week

Monday: Grocery Shop/clean house/ Do errands /Shawn's tournament Baseball Playoffs continue (we lost game one in the double elimanation tournament to one of the worst teams in the league,I was pretty confident that the season was going to end tonight and I was actually ready for it to end)

Tuesday: 6th Grade Picnic/ 2nd Grade picnic / Alex's Baseball Game/ Shawn's Baseball Game/ Cousins come to stay for a few days (Shawn wins, huh, we sure are getting lucky!)


Wednesday: Play Basketball/ hang out in pool with cousins and friends/ rained out baseball game and power goes out. enjoyed the evening with no power and hanging out!

Thursday: Kindegarten Program/ Kindegarten picnic/ 4th grade picnic/birthday party for Melissa's friend that we all went to/ Shawn's baseball game (they won again! I am actually excited to see the next game! I can't believe they are still in it!) Shawn actually pitched for part of the game! He isn't one of the pitchers, but we were playing so much that we started wearing our pitchers out so Shawn willingly filled in. I was so proud of him for helping his team out!

(David and his buddy Mason at the picnic after the program)

Friday: Shop all morning for Alex's birthday gifts and get home in time for kids! (LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!!) Cut ALex and David's hair and go to mall to get kid's picture taken to suprise Dale for father's day/ Back in time to head to Shawn's semi final game/ go to game enjoy the best baseball game I have ever seen! An amazing comeback by Shawn's team to take the game into extra innings for the eventual win, we are headed to the championship game!

Saturday: Drive Melissa to her grandmas so she can attend her cousins baptism while we attend Shawn's championship game, We watch Shawn's very tired team lose the championship but couldn't be more proud of their second place standings! We never thought they would make it that far and they did! /Clean house Saturday for Alex's baseball party/ host Alex's baseball party

Shawn batting in the championship game!

Shawn's team in the dugout after the game...his teammates were not as happy about their 2nd place standings as I was ..they cheered up after a while and enjoyed a team picnic following the game.


Alex's team also won second place in their league, what are the chances?! Alex with his trophy at the party. Dale was the pitching coach for Alex's team and was presented with a wonderful picture album from this season...I was very proud of my boys!

Sunday: Father's Day and Alex's Birthday! I made Alex breakfast in bed, then the kids helped me prepare breakfast in bed for Dale. We gave him his gifts , he loved the portrait of the kids! He went back to sleep and woke up in time for church, we all went to church. After church we hosted a father's day swim party for Dale's family. We also had cake and Ice cream and gifts for ALex's birthday. The grill is dead, but the kabobs tasted great from the broiler! (I will start shopping for a new grill ASAP!)

Monday: School is out, baseball is over and I am taking today off! Alex has a friend over and Shawn is at a friends, and I am so excited about the summer being relaxed ! I think we will go see a movie tonight or something!

More pictures from Melissa's birthday party

David jumping in....

Shawn....

Alex.............

Our trip to the Aquarium....

"We are so excited to see all the neat stuff at the Baltimore Aquarium! "......

"Hey, these are fish, Where are the sharks?"

(at the Dolphin Show)
"Greg, look at how high the dolphins can jump! Look at them play with the trainers!"

"Mom, is it over yet, I want to see sharks?"...

"Mom!! no more pictures! I want to see the sharks!"

"the sharks!!! we love the Aquarium!!!" (sorry the picture is so bad, I didn't have the flash on!)

Melissa's 8th birthday party

Everyone swimming while the weather was good (during a tornado watch!)

Melissa opening her gifts.


We have giant birthday parties for our kids when they turn 4, 8, 12 and 16. This was Meliss's big 8! My brother was taking a lot of pictures, and I was very busy, so I didn't take a lot of photos,I am posting what I was given by Karena Mcgraw( who was also very busy helping me, or should I say I was helping her!) We knew that the day was supposed to have "passing showers in the afternoon" so on the way back from the church following Melissa's baptism, I was praying for the sky to clear up since we had about 60 people coming, all ready to spend the afternoon swimming! We turned on the radio to hear the weather report, "The whole area is under a TORNADO WATCH"! did I hear that correctly??!?! Yes I did, I began brainstorming for what we were going to do with 60 people in our house, and had decided to pray again for good weather!! So we got back to the house in the pouring rain, and started welcoming guests...Dale went to get pizza, and the rain stopped and a teeny bit of sun peeked out!! I rushed everyone to the pool to take advantage, they swam for about 45 minutes, we came in and ate, then outside again while the weather was cooperating, Since the party ended at 2, I planned to call everyone in from the pool at 1:30 for cake and ice cream and gifts, at 1:26 we heard thunder, cleared the pool and the bad weather returned!! Call it divine intervention, or luck, things went very well for Melissa's big day despite the tornado watch!

So after the big event, my house was destroyed! I was way to tired to care, so I decided I would clean it monday...well...on Sunday I came home from church to find my house SPOTLESS! Karena decided that I had had a busy enough weekend and decided to clean my house for me before she left! I wish I had the before and after photos to show how bad it was! Not to mention, she had ALREADY cleaned it friday night! I can't SAY enough "thank you"s to You, Karena!