February 28 - Christine & Jacquelyn's Crazy 20H Vacation

I'm a huge fan of Harry Potter and Universal Studios. Jacquelyn (friend from diving and Orcas) is also a big fan of Harry Potter. She really wanted to go to Orlando to visit the parks but couldn't make it work with her husband and their 3 kids. When she asked me if I wanted to go, I said "YES!" We priced out different options and decided on a crazy, 1 day trip. We flew out of Houston at 6am, were in the parks from 10am-4pm, had dinner at City Walk and then flew home that evening. Long day? Yes. Kind of crazy? Yes. Tons of fun? YES!  I will say one of the weirdest things was traveling with just a small messenger bag. No kids equals traveling light. 


Oh-another great thing? I had miles for the plane ticket and I'm a season pass holder for Universal, so this trip only cost me about $30 in food. Amazing! We even got to meet Kung Foo Panda!

February 27 - Sassy Sick Toddler

Our little blondie has been sick for the last several days. She had a low grade fever Saturday, Sunday and Monday. I took her to the doctor on Monday and of course...no fever, clear ears, nose, throat and chest. $100 later they told me it was a cold. Fast forward a few hours and she woke up from a nap with a 103.5 fever. ARG! Yesterday, she was fine all day and then once again, woke up from a nap with a high fever. Today has definitely been better (she is obsessed with those heart glasses and wears them everywhere!) and her energy level seems to be back to normal. 

Okay, as I type this she has climbed up the fridge and is hanging off the drawer. Adios everyone! I need to rescue a crazy toddler!

February 25 - Technology Free Sundays

Every Sunday in our house is 'technology free Sunday' and the kids (while initially griping every week) end up having fun. Luke has been obsessed with the marble run lately as well as dominos. So fun!

February 18 - Apollo is Back!

Well, I've failed completely with my goal pf two posts a week for the blog. At least I'm not as behind on this blog as the book blog (3+ months, eek!). Let's do a quick recap of the last few weeks.

Julia
Julia does robotics after school on Mondays and Tuesdays and is still a member of the Character Crew. She's also in a school book club (we meet every other week) and girl scouts. Track is currently on Mondays and Thursdays and she swims on Wednesdays for cross training. She recently applied for the science magnet middle school (I think she'll find out in March if she's accepted) so we'll see what happens with that. She is still a total and complete tomboy/active person and wants to play outside all the time. Climbing trees, basketball, tossing the football, you name it. She wants to be moving! She did have to dress up for a field trip to the symphony a few weeks ago (you would have thought she was being tortured because she had to wear a dress and nice shoes). She loved the symphony though!!

Luke
Luke does running club on Mondays and has wrestling practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays. He's doing great in school and still wants to play video games...seemingly all the time. He has been playing outside a lot with his friend Serene and they talk via walkie-talkies all the time, sometimes even before school. It's pretty cute! Luke is a great snuggler with Apollo and his big news is.....Luke joined the glasses club a few weeks ago! He started complaining that he was having trouble reading and it turns out he is far sighted (like me and Julia). He picked out his red and black frames super fast (These are the ones I want mom. They are super cool!)  and is excited to wear them. No tears from him!

Jillian
Our crazy toddler has moved to the next room at daycare and is already potty training. I can't believe it, but she's probably about 75% pee trained in just a week.

She loves (LOVES) her Elmo undies and wears them now at all times, except for bedtime (she even refuses a pullup for naptime and will take it off if I force it on her). She's also discovered how to open drawers and walk up them to get on top of dresses. Her speech is absolutely exploding and she talks all the time. She doesn't need to nap but naps at school...and is therefore not tired until after 9pm on school nights. Needless to say, JD and I are exhausted trying to get her to bed every night. 

Apollo Radcliffe
Apollo Radcliffe continues to be the most snuggly dog I've ever owned. No joke, he just wants to snuggle all the time. In good news, he's finally done with heartworm treatment and can exercise again. Yay! We started throwing the ball for him but he's so out of shape, that he's exhausted after 2 throws. I'm sure he'll get more stamina in the coming weeks. 

Happy Monday everyone!

Snuggler