Pool Party

For the kids' party with friends, we tried something new. We decided to have a huge party with all the kids inviting whomever they wanted. We rented the outdoor pool at our local YMCA and the kids each invited about 10 guests, plus we had family and other friends and neighbors on the guest list. We asked for no presents, and the kids were OK with that. We brought cupcakes and juice and just let the almost 30 kids swim the whole time! Here are a few pictures from the event.

 

 

 Let's swim! Excited to see all their friends and start swimming!

 Grace and Jadyn. She would probably say Jadyn is her best friend.

 

 The boys and our across the street neighbor, Ethan.

 

 Over the course of the swimming time, all the kids ended up in shallow water shooting Brian with water guns and playing catch. There were a ton of kids making a lot of noise!

 Cupcake break. It was a good thing we ordered lots of cupcakes, because most kids ate 2 and drank sugar juice. We loaded them up on carbs then sent them back to the pool.

 

A group picture. I think Dale was behind me making funny gestures, because they were all cracking up. It made for a great picture! 

The Fabulous 50's

For the kids' family birthday party, I decided to do a 50's/sock hop theme. We decorated the backyard with records, balloons and vintage soda and popcorn. The kids even got into the spirit with slicked back hair, sneakers and Grace in a poodle skirt. For dinner we had a diner menu of hamburgers, root beer floats and ice cream sundaes. There was sock hop type music in the background and the kids hula hooped! I think the kids had a great time and it was a nice evening outside, so we were all able to sit outside and enjoy the nice weather. Here are some pictures from the night!

 

The kids were super excited for the party, mostly because they got presents. They got lots of legos and building things, some video games and books. Grace got an Easy Bake Oven, which we have yet to try because we've been so busy! Thanks to everyone who came and celebrated with us!

A rough beginning to summer

Here are some pictures from the last day of school. It was cool and rainy, as it has been a lot this spring. There's a story to this, though, about poor Xander!

 

 

 

I actually did get Xander to come outside and pose for these pictures, but what he really wanted to do was lay down and sleep.

To start the story at the beginning, he hadn't really felt well since the Saturday before (the 18th). It started Saturday night (our busy Saturday, if you remember from my previous post) at that birthday party. He said his stomach hurt when we picked him up, but he had been eating junk food and running around at a gymnastics place, so we didn't think too much of it. He complained all day Sunday and Monday that his stomach hurt, and he ate considerably less than he normally does. He also would spend a lot of time laying on the floor in the bathroom near the toilet saying he was going to throw up, but he never did. Tuesday he was better and actually ate - then he started actually throwing up in the evening. So, he obviously didn't go to school Wednesday.

This is how he looked and acted on Wednesday. Pretty pathetic. He was pale and wouldn't eat or drink and spent the rest of the time crying on the bathroom floor saying his stomach hurt. It was worrying me because he was pointing to a specific spot on his stomach that hurt and he had a fever. I took him to the Dr. just to make sure it wasn't appendicitis or something like that. But, Dr. Swisher said there was nothing surgically wrong with him. He gave us instructions to have Gatorade and clear liquids and hopefully this bad case of stomach flu would get better.

 

This is Xander Thursday. Clearly not better. He spent the morning with Ellen because it was the last day of school (which he missed!) and I still had to go. When I called her on the way home, her report wasn't good. Every little sip of water he drank, he ran to the bathroom and threw up. He was even more pale and lethargic and still laying on the bathroom floor crying. So....back to the dr. we went around 2:30. We saw Dr. Swisher's partner, who broke the news as gently as he could - he needed us to go to the hospital. Xander had lost 3 1/2 lbs since the appointment the day before and he was pretty dehydrated. They wanted to get him with some IV liquids and hopefully the virus would run the course and he would be fine in a day or so.

 

So, straight off to the hospital we went. I really felt better about things at that point, because at least in the hospital we were someplace where professionals could help him. I was feeling pretty bad that I couldn't do much for him at home and he was clearly feeling awful. We got checked into St. E's, where Aunt Lisa is a nurse, and the IV got started. He was a trooper through everything, very mature! Although I think he was too tired and lethargic to complain! He rested a lot that afternoon and evening and I spent a very uncomfortable night on a chair in his room.

 

 



By Friday, he had perked up enough to play some video games, watch some movies and sit up, but he was still throwing up everything he was eating. A little puzzling. Dr. Swisher did come by and said to keep him until Saturday to make sure he could take a reasonable amount of food and drink and keep it down, so I spent another uncomfortable night on the chair.

 

Xander's stomach had other plans. He still didn't eat well on Saturday and threw up again that afternoon. So, it was another night in the hospital. By this time, I was exhausted so I made Brian sleep on the chair and I went home with the other two and spent some time with them. Also, Ellen stayed with Xander a little on Saturday afternoon so Brian and I could get away. However, it was getting a little suspicious to Dr. Swisher that he was still throwing up. So, he ordered more blood tests, stool sample and an ultrasound. All the tests were normal except for the ultrasound. There was a little "sludge" in his gall bladder. Apparently this can happen in kids that haven't been eating much, but it could also have been causing the problem.



However, he was much better on Sunday. Perky, eating more normally, and we even got him up and around talking walks around the duck pond outside. I was on pins and needles everytime he ate because I didn't want him to throw it up again. Luckily, he kept down all his food on Sunday and by about 9:00 Sunday night we were out of there!

 

Then we had to decide - we were supposed to leave for vacation right away on Monday morning, but clearly we weren't ready and we wanted to make sure Xander was going to be OK before we took off. So, after talking about it for 2 hours or so, around 11 p.m., we decided to go on Monday, but just leave a little later. We ate breakfast and lunch at home and used that time to pack. When he was OK after lunch, we took off. We abandoned some of our Monday plans and just drove straight to Valentine, NE for our canoeing adventure the next day.

 

As far as Xander's health goes, he is fine as I am writing this on June 6th. We do have a follow up ultrasound on the 17th to see if his gall bladder still has problems. If it does, I don't know what the treatment will be. Several times on vacation and today included, he said his stomach hurts and has spent some time hunched over the toilet, but hasn't thrown up. If he actually does throw up, it will probably mean a call to the doctor. If not, we'll just stay the course until the 17th and wait to see what the ultrasound says!

 

Anyway, it was a sad end of the school year for Xander. He missed his last two fun days of school and we have yet to give his teacher her end of the year gift. I also missed my last work day of school, which meant I had to go pack up my room this week after we got home from vacation. But, I am thankful for a great doctor like Dr. Swisher who really does a great job. He came in everyday we were there, including Sunday afternoon, he works hard!! Hopefully this will not be a sign of things to come this summer!

 

Read on for posts about our vacation!

Tuesday, May 28

Having finally made it on vacation, we dove right in to our adventure with a little canoeing trip down the Niobrara River in Valentine. The weather started out cool, but the sun came out and it was nice! We had 2 canoes, Brian had one with Will and Grace in it, I had the other with Xander. It was a pretty easy trip down the river, not too much rowing because the river was moving fast from all the rain they'd had. That fast rushing turned out to be my downfall...

 

At the end, we had a landing where we supposed to stop and drag the canoes in. Well, the water was moving pretty fast and I missed the landing. I panicked and started frantically rowing, only to end up with my canoe backwards in the water. I tried to correct it, but I just couldn't. I ended up just ramming the canoe into the bank about 20 feet down from the landing, well, that turned out to be a bad choice. Xander and I got dumped! Fortunately, the river is only 2 feet deep, so we were just able to stand up but sadly, my flip flops floated away! Luckily, we were right at where our car was parked and we were able to change and not have to sit in wet clothes all day!

 

 A few shots of us pre- trip. Good thing I didn't take my camera on the canoe - we wouldn't have had any pictures of the rest of the trip!

 

After a quick lunch at McDonald's we were off, bound for South Dakota. We stopped in Keystone, with intentions of going to Mt. Rushmore, but we stopped and hit the alpine slides instead, because there was a good chance of rain all the other days we were there.

The kids LOVED the alpine slides. In fact, Will threw up his arm and said "Yay! Let's do that again!" Unfortunately, each trip was $10, so we did not do it again! But it was fun once. Incidentally, Grace came down the hill at a snail's pace, super slow. What a cautious girl!

 

We walked around a little in Keystone and had dinner and got some ice cream. Then we had to drive to Rapid City to check into our hotel and rest. Plus Xander and I needed to shower after our dunking in the river!