tiny hole in the skull

I'll blame this one on our bad weather....Kennedy went outside to watch the hail storm around 8:30 and when she and Griffin started playing back and forth with the front door, somewhere on the doorhandle dug hard into her forehead. I hear Griffin apologizing and then screams from both he and Camdyn as blood is drippind down her face. I run down to see what is going on and calmly look at Kennedy while yelling at the other two to knock it off since thier cries were scaring her more than anything. It's just a tiny cut but since it was an open little wound, sure to scar I had to be sure. Emailed this picture to Todd who suggested I take her in to Urgent Care.
Two hours later (we got there at 9:30 and left at 11:40) Kennedy was all dressed up and ready to "get this over with". She did great through the shot and the stitching.
Even the Dr. was amazed at what a brave little girl she was. I offered her a late night treat on the way home and she was happy as could be.

I told her this would be our own little adventure, just the two of us. She didn't think it was going to be much of an adventure, but in the end she was pretty pleased to have a treat and get to sleep with mom. She even woke up the kids to show them her stitch.

One mans junk is another mans treasure

Dang, I wish I had taken a picture just now of my front room in the height of my "de-junk this entire house" kick. It's either move or down scale in a major way. For now I'll have to settle for down scale. I gather bags for the DI every month and still more accumulates! In my front room which serves as our office I just went through each and every drawer, pulling our papers left and right. Junk, donate and organize or rearrange. Todd hates the "mess" it makes when I deep clean. Good thing he's working the next 72 hours. He especially doesn't love it when I start going through all his clothes that he never wears. Ryan doesn't mind that part so much :>

Too bad my sissy's and aunties don't live near by cause I have some good stuff that I want out of here! I'll think about hanging on to it if mom is driving up. The last time they came I sent home boxes and boxes of clothes. That Jeep Liberty is quite deceiving!!

Does anyone suppose I inherited Annie's love for deep cleaning?? I remember coming home from school and mom would have our rooms spic and span, detailed and cleaned from top to bottom every few months. We were in charge of regular bed making and pick up but that woman happily did the rest. I even recall the times we girls would take it upon ourselves to switch rooms or rearrange when mom and dad were away. Dad would say "pick up your rooms girls!" and we'd go over to the wall and try to lift it up with our hands. We thought we were pretty clever.

Refridgerator compulsions

After viewing the post of my mom's fridge, I decided to do one of my own. It's a known fact amongst Annie's girls that we always had condiments growing up but never had milk! For some reason she must have thought the 6 of us in one household would not finish it off before the experiation date. Many mornings I'd wake to pour a bowl of cereal only to find about 1/4 cup left at the bottom of the gallon! Our outside fridge usually contains 4 reserve gallons, plus the two we keep inside. Our neighbor, who has no children, saw us unpacking our load and remarked "I wouldn't even know what to do with that much cheese!".

One of my "things", "quirks" , "compulsions" whatever you want to call it.....is a CLEAN fridge. I love to get my hands on a fridge and do a clean make-over! It's a sickness. Now, I don't keep flowers in there because unlike my mother, I have food that takes up most the room :>

BUT I can't stand crumbs of any kind or sticky messes. Pudding spills, pop! spills, those pesky dried milk crumbs that fall from around the lid, and the bits of pieces that fall from grapes or apples into the crisper. Annoying. I take my bins out often to soap them down. And yes, I do notice other people's fridges :> I also can't stand the crumbs that fall into the silverware compartments or the fact that they never get wiped down.

Spaghetti and Geese

Saturday we had the warmest day of the year. Todd got in a nice long 10 mile run, Griffin had a team soccer run on the trail and ran with Todd 5 miles, Camdyn ran 2 miles while Kenna biked. I rode/ran, Camdyn had a soccer game and then we headed out for another fun outing downtown.

Can anyone tell me who this lovely lady is? I just love all of Portland's statues. Wouldn't an Amazing race based on Statues alone in Portland be a blast? They range from Washington Park, Pearl, Park Blocks, Pioneer Square to the East Bank and all in between. Maybe I could cook something up when my Rose Festivus visitors come.

After eating at Spaggy Factory....again :> We found this new secluded beach on the West side of the Willametter river. Feeding the geese that came and took it right out of their hands was a big thrill. Played in the fountain before heading back.

Word to your mother

The other day, I'm inside (probably cleaning up after above kids) and I hear a knock at the door accompanied by giggles. I answer the door and what do I find but the neighborhood gang-stahs having a good laugh at the surprise look on my face. Can you tell from the road that once again it was a rainy day. See what being cooped inside all winter and now spring can do to a group of girls?? You can't see it but they even had fake moles drawn on their cheeks.

Just one bite?

This is Mr. Boy. He likes to crawl, drink milk bottles, and bite every once in awhile. Griffin and I have gotten the worst wounds as we tend to be around him the most. Sometimes he'll just lean into my shoulder and latch on. It hurts! I say "no bite Brody!" and put two fingers against his lips, but the kids only hear that and want him to bite them so they can reprimand him as well. Not working.

Great Wolf Lodge

I posted my pictures out of order....Scroll down for the description of where we are below........

This is part of the Beartrap landing kiddie area. Brody and Kennedy got a kick out of this area and Kennedy loved getting dumped on by the lifeguard waterfall (below). This is the way they large 4 man tubes get taken to the tippy top of the Howlin Tornado ride (up the blue conveyer belt to the right). The first time I went down was at night with Griffin. It was pitch black because the actual tube is outside. I couldn't see anything and no idea a HUGE drop off was coming, plus I was sent down backwards. I was hanging on and screaming for dear life. No wonder Camdyn started crying when I told her I wanted her to come down it again with me. One time for her was enough. I made Griffin go down again with me right before it closed since the line was shorter. He was freaked out to go backwards to....luckily a third party on our float took it for the team.

Those of us that reside in the NW know that there is not alot to offer in the theme park/water park arena. Could that have anything to do with the rain that falls 10 months out of the year? This theme hotel opened up two weeks ago and we thought we'd check it out over the break. It's called Great Wolf Lodge. Guests that stay overnight are given passes to the huge indoor waterpark for 2 days. It took only 90 minutes to get there, and was completely sold out. It's a very large lodge and carries the outdoor "wolf" theme quite charmingly inside and throughout the waterpark. There is nothing quaint about the surroundings outside the resort itself and of course anything to purchase inside the lodge is about 3 times as much. I packed up half the fridge (big surprise) since we had no idea what would be near the lodge. I made lunch, dinner and breakfast for us all (I was pretty creative with using the microwave to warm the yummy foods I'd brought from home). We did venture out to DQ for dessert ( I thought of you Jamie :>)

The first day we got there at noon and played/swam with a break for dinner, arcades and dessert, then back down till closing 10 pm.

For an indoor park I was impressed with the largeness of it all. There is a wave pool, a darling kiddie area, a HUGE 4 story tree house Waterfort (above) with 2 medium size waterslide and a 1,000 gallon Tipping Bucket. That is what is coming down on the kids above. My favorites were the double tubes we took we took the kids down in on the larger tube slides, and the Howlin' Tornado Adventure Ride.

We're glad we came during this Spring Break since the weather was crappy-ola.....But this place is not cheap and a ton can be saved by coming mid-week and not during Spring Break. Luckily with Todd's schedule that is not a problem for us :>