Seven Years Old

Here's the Birthday Boy! His cake at home. I found this recipe in a Martha Stewart Kids' magazine - it's a layered Rice Krispie cake with a chocolate marshmallow layer in the middle. The chocolate marshmallow layer was a little too soft when we put in on the bottom layer and kind of ran off the sides. But it sure tasted delicious! Caleb and I decorated it with Smarties and string licorice.

Daddy and the baby's.

Joshua was thrilled to get his birthday ice cream complete with "fireworks!"

The "twins" :) They've been getting more twin comments again lately. In fact, this morning, a man asked if Andrew, Joshua, and Caleb were triplets!

More "fireworks" for the birthday boy!
Wyatt hangin' with Dad. He's been sleeping better at night now that he has his own room. Hopefully things will only improve!

Joshua - 2, Caleb - 2

In the last week, Caleb has lost two teeth! Yes, these are the first two teeth he has lost. Joshua has already lost two, too. Wyatt doing his "side plank". A rather awkward picture, so I included this other one too, with Natalee trying to get in on the camera action as well!

He'll turn his head up and look all around. I am very impressed with his core strength and balance.

Sitting!

Yesterday, Wyatt sat by himself a couple of times! The Chicken Pox are not bothering him and I don't think he has any new spots today.

The Many Faces of Chicken Pox

Caleb and Andrew got their Pox on the same day. However, Caleb lay on the couch for nearly three days, and Andrew only had two extra naps over those same three days. Chicken Pox is DEFINITELY easier the younger they are!

Wyatt's sucking on his toes here. You can see a few of his pox popping up on his hips.

Natalee was the second of the children to get CP. She looks horrible here, but really she hasn't complained at all! No fever, no major itchiness, no emergencies in the middle of the night, unlike the others. She had about 3-4 pox under her right eye and it looked really bad on Saturday. It looked like she had a black eye. I started putting my magic medicine (breastmilk) on her eye twice a day and today her eye looks so much better!

Andrew...

Caleb napping...he had a pretty tough time of it on Saturday and the oatmeal baths and Tylenol weren't working, so I made a quick trip to get some Benadryl for him. That seemed to do the trick! I was thinking it would be nice if I could provide a breastmilk bath for him! :)

On Monday, Caleb was starting to feel like his old self again. I noticed he had some pox around the inside of his lips, and together with his loose tooth (his front left), he kinda looked like a freaky Leprosy guy!

Wyatt showing off his Pox. He had a fever Saturday late afternoon and slept most of the evening, but woke up Sunday feeling better but with more spots. It seems that when they have fewer spots (like Joshua, Natalee and Wyatt) the spots tend to be bigger, and with more spots (like Caleb and Andrew) there were no really huge ones.

Almost looks like the mosquitoes went to town on him! All of them got lots on their scalp too. That must be super annoying.

We enjoyed some nicer weather outside yesterday. The latest fun thing to do is give Andrew a double around the block on the "rainbow" bike. Andrew calls it his motorcycle ride.

Although it hasn't been too bad, I'm still glad we only get Chicken Pox once. The worst of it is being stuck at home with pox-y children. Especially since Joshua has had more than enough energy lately...between the itchy, cranky kids and dealing with over-exuberant Joshua, Mike & I are pretty wiped. Hopefully we can now have a few weeks of sick-free children.

Chicken Pox, Canada Day, & Camp

Joshua missed the last day and a half of school because he suddenly broke out in Chicken Pox on Saturday, June 27th. The worst of it lasted about three days, and by Tuesday he was feeling like his old self. We found that the best remedy for the itchiness was TV. Here he is on Canada Day in his new t-shirt:Natalee climbed into her shopping cart...(her red t-shirt didn't last long, it got dirty before lunch time!)

And the kids were thrilled that we ate lunch outside for the first time this year! It's nice for me when these little things make them so happy.

Wyatt in his Canada Day t-shirt. It was actually Andrew's from when Andrew was 1 year old, but it did the job for Wyatt.

On Friday, July 3rd, we drove out to Camp Nutimik to pick up Mike who had been helping in the kitchen for the week. By the way, the children and I had a great week together. There were a few moments when it was a little hairy (but that's totally normal anyway, at least in OUR house!), but all in all, I think we did really well and enjoyed ourselves.

They have a cool Fort there. Here is Caleb inside the fort.

Down by the lake. They all got wet.

On July 4th, we headed out of town to attend a wedding of my friend, Cindy. We asked someone to take our picture as we were heading out of the church, as the last *good* picture of us was taken nearly two years ago.
Natalee was exhausted after the last two days of driving and no normal nap schedule.
Caleb & Joshua have been big into Lego lately. This is their latest combined effort.