Rain, rain, go away - A.K.A.- Spring Break '09

It has been raining, and raining, and raining in Tally. No drought problems here. Now, I don't mind a little rain, but tornado warnings and hail I can live with out. The kids love the rain, but hate staying inside. They start acting like caged animals after about two hours of indoor play, so you can imagine what four days of rain does to my sanity! I had high hopes for spring break. Hopes involving sun and sand and parks and pools. But we made the most of it and got creative.

Rain, rain, go away. We want to go outside to play!

More of the rash, of course...

I finally couldn't take it anymore. The lightening and tornadoes had passed, so opened the cage and freed my little animals...

...and boy did they get dirty...

...but it was so much fun!

This is my dirt cake!

63 & holding

After several days of rain, the sun came out to help us celebrate Papa's 63rd birthday. We indulged (on a Sunday) in grilled chicken, beer, wine, cake, and sunshine. What a perfect way to end the weekend.

Hide & Seek

(a.k.a -- from an educator's point of view -- practicing counting to 20!)

There he is! He was hiding behind the slide!

Daddy caught a lizard to show the boys (who were basically terrified).

It bit him and then it peed on him. Ha! Serves him right!!!

Papa gets a little help blowing out the candles. Mmmmm....Costco cakes rock!

F-R-E-E-D-O-M

Now that Keegan has finally decided to start eating (although he still refuses to drink), he gets to join the boys on their "outings" with Nana and Papa. So, you know what that means for us????

F-R-E-E-D-O-M!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now, if only he would wean so he could go to the "sleepovers"!

Here he is on his first outing to Winthrop Park....

"I did it!"

boys will be boys

This is what happens when you give the boys a bottle of shaving cream and let them "help clean the table".

Curiousity

Exploring their world with Papa in tow. One park at a time.

Vomiting, high fevers, and a freaky rash

Vomiting, high fevers, and a freaky rash...that's just the way the Allison's roll. I just keep telling myself it could be worse (working on my glass-stays-half-full-attitude). So, over the past few weeks, Keegan and Logan have been sick with various illnesses. Gavin, strangely enough, has managed to avoid any of it thus-far. Now if you know Gavin, you'll understand how weird this seems since he's always the one doing gross things like putting his hands all over the rim of the toilet or picking a piece of food up off of the floor and putting it in his mouth to "find out what it is".

It started, or should I say...continued about three weeks ago. Logan kept breaking out in what we thought were hives. We finally took him to the doctor just to get him checked out and make sure we were doing everything we could for him. Turns out, he has something called Erythema Multiforme Minor. Google it. It's viral, but isn't contagious...something that is beyond my medical comprehension (this is why I had to change my major from pre-med to psych -- I just don't get biology...or chemistry...). It's the weirdest thing I've ever seen. It comes and goes and doesn't seem to bother him, unless he's having a "flare up", in which case it looks like he has hundreds of bug bites all over him. Sometimes they're tiny and red and sometimes they're palm-sized pink welts. The doctor initially said it could last for several weeks when it looked like this...

But at our second appointment, he said it could last for a few MONTHS! Here's a picture of what it looked like on Easter:

In the meantime, Keegan has had some really high fevers -- up to 104.5, which is the highest I've seen in any of my children. He stopped eating entirely and stopped sleeping through the night -- two things that I've spent countless hours working on over the past 10 months. He still doesn't drink anything while I'm at work. No milk, water, juice. He just waits patiently until I get home.

Anyway, it all came to a head yesterday when Logan threw up in Ashley's car on the way home from school. Poor Ashley. She was so good-natured about it too. Much better than I would have been. So, we had a short-lived stomach bug yesterday, but Logan's back to normal today -- fooling around with his brother in his room while I type this and they're supposed to be sleeping. Keegan's also doing much better. He ate some food today and almost slept through the night last night. So, the Allison's appear to be on the mend.

Coke Party (it's not what you think)

Authentic Coca-Cola's --- Jay's most-recent obsession. What makes them special? Well, they're made with real sugar, not that high fructose corn syrup crap and they're sold in old-school bottles that look like they've been pulled out of a land fill (gross, I know). He gets them at the local Mexican Grocery Store. Yes, I was wary of them at first, but they sure are delicious.

We were so excited to have a recent visit from "Grandma Cathy" and had a Coke Party with Cathy as our Honorable Guest. Jay has been perfecting his pizzas (trying to mimic Momo's) and I've been perfecting my wine-drinking, so it worked out....perfectly.

Papa taking all the credit (while Jay's on a wine-run at Publix).

Kane/Coddington/Allison ladies

All the kiddos having pizza at the kids table.

Keegan loves him some Grandma Cath!

Master of the Coke Party

Sleepy boy

Feature Attraction

fascination

Hey, what's in here?

things I realize I must say all the time

PAPA: Happy Birthday, Logan.
LOGAN: I know! I'm growing up SO FAST!


ME: Happy Birthday, Logan!
LOGAN: Thanks! I'm five, you know.
GAVIN: Yep, and Mommy's SO proud of you!