Week of 8/31 and the next one too ;)

Noah & Nick at Dr

This last week has been nothing like I expected it to be. I decided earlier this year to school 6 weeks on and 1 off. This week was our first week off. I had planned on letting the kids enjoy their time and spend time with free reading after visiting the library :) On Thursday we were suppose to leave for Georgia and visit some of what we had been studding in history previously.
   The first part of the week went pretty well. I cleaned and got things moving in the right direction. Monday 4 of the kids had dentist appointments which went well :) NO cavities!!!

just before surgery

   Tuesday was more Dr appointments :) Noah had his check up and all was well there too. After the doctors, Brie and Noah had TKD and we came home to a sick daddy :( This is where our nice-fun weekend turned a tad ;). Wednesday night we thought Big Tony had a stomach but, but by the morning we realized something was really wrong. He had pain in his lower abdomen that just continued to grow. By Thursday morning his mom took him to the ER. Since his pain was in the lower part of his abdomen I thought it may be his appendix, and it was. That evening he was headed to surgery to get it removed.  Thankfully, he already had Thursday-Monday off for vacation because we were suppose to leave on the following day. Unfortunately, after all the planning he did, he didn't get to go :(
   Thankfully the surgery went well and he is recovering nicely :)

Amber!!!

    Since our family "vacation" actually had a purpose to it, (Mimi had to go to French embassy in Atlanta, GA) we still had to leave. That was probably one of the hardest things I have done, leaving my dh behind, but my parents took care of him and he got some great quiet time. Also, my friend Amber was able to come with us so that was nice having a little extra help ;0)


   So, since we went to Atlanta, we had a great time ;) It was also my mother-in-law's b-day during the trip ;) Since it was a quick trip I took the kids to a park downtown while she was out then we went to Lego Land!! The kids had a blast here. There was a great big play area for babies/toddlers that the little ones enjoyed, a 4-D movie theater, rides, and all the legos you could play with :) It was a great adventure. Thankfully we are home now. Tony is doing better. We did unfortunately have a stomach bug go through our house the following week, but plan on having a nice and normal school week this coming up week and Tony should (fingers crossed) be going back to work :) I have loved having him home, but ready for some normalcy to return to this household :)

Play Dough

     I confess I had never heard about making play-dough yourself until I started Noah in his K year of school. Part way through the year it suggested you make salt-dough. This was okay, but texture wise was gritty and messy so I thought maybe I could make play dough, and yes you can :) Okay, so many of you already know this and have done this, but for you who haven't done this yet here is the quick and easy way.The only ingredient you may not have on hand is cream of tartar which is said to be optional, but I haven't tried it without so I can't tell you how that will turn out. 

     First grab all your ingredient

• 2 c all purpose flour
• 1 c salt
• 2 c water
• 1 Tbs cream of tartar
• 2 Tbs vegetable oil
• optional coloring (we used Kool-aid)

    Once you have all your stuff together mix it up over the stove on a lower setting like this...

It will eventually harden up and turn into a blob of play-dough like this. Just plot it out on your counter to cool for a few minutes. If you didn't add in the coloring while you were cooking just divide up your play-dough and make a bunch of different colored balls by folding in food coloring. We try to avoid synthetic food colors so I used a Kool-aid mix that didn't have those. 

    Once you make it, it is hard to go back and buy the it:) My tots love this stuff!!