Tue 22 May 2012
Posted by admin under Leva
No Comments
Leva’s last day of Creative Movement I was today. While I’m glad to be done with the Monday late afternoon classes for the summer, she has so much fun while she’s there, it’s easy to see that we’ll sign her up again for next year. I think some of the same girls will be in her class again, and we can look forward to CM II (and more pinkie outfits).
Even as a cow, the kid has attitude
Isabella, Leva, and Natalia
Tue 22 May 2012
Posted by admin under Family
No Comments
Having grass means we can have a sprinkler! And a place to fall down outside without scraping knees and run in bare feet and blow bubbles and laze in the sun. It’s like being on vacation.
Sat 19 May 2012
Posted by admin under Geert, Hattie
[2] Comments
Geert helps Hattie. Sort of.
Sat 19 May 2012
Posted by admin under Leva
No Comments
Leva has officially graduated from pre-school. I honestly didn’t even know there was a graduation until the week before and Brad didn’t know he was supposed to take her to school that day before the “ceremony”, so needless to say, our act was not quite together. But we made it on time (except Leva, who was 2 hours late – BRAD) and the kids all did a great job. The teachers made a point of saying a few things about each child, which was cute, and there were snacks and cookies and a little bit of playtime afterwards.
Doctor? Really? Okay…
Leva and her teachers, Mrs. Bayer and Ms. Snell
Despite her favorite friends being Abby and Natalie and Josie, Leva only seems to actually talk about Noah. And we caught them hugging before the ceremony.
The pretty graduate
Wed 16 May 2012
Posted by admin under Family, Stacy
No Comments
Mother’s day is one of my favorite holidays. I get to sleep in an extra however long, have my coffee made for me, eat waffles or palmiers or some other delectable european treat, have darling trinkets made for me at sunday school, and avoid any type of “work”. This year we (the collective “we”, meaning Brad) finished the patio and built me a cedar herb garden that i ADORE. Leva actually helped me plant about half of the plants, which was fun until she lost interest and got tired of being in the spitting rain. “Mom, it’s RAINING! Why are we out here? We’re getting wet! I want to use my gardening pad. Can I plant the parsley?” as she dug hole after hole in almost the right place and then abandoned me, in the rain. I couldn’t help it, I was too excited not to plant, and really, i love it. And then honestly? I don’t even remember what we did for the afternoon, but we went to the North Market to pick up things for dinner, which is always a big mistake. It’s such a kitschy, over-priced, self-inflated excuse for bad food in pretty, expensive, environmentally friendly containers. The raspberries we spent $5.50 on were rotten when we got home. The prosciutto and wild mushroom ravioli with the artichoke gorgonzola cream sauce was fair. The bread was terrible. And even Hattie wouldn’t even eat her sugar cookie because it was bad. Or so we thought. Because while we had made good ole family friendly spaghetti for the kids, which they scarfed down, we paid for it at about 10:30 at night, when first Geert, and then Hattie threw up all over themselves. Geert we heard on the monitor, and no sooner had we got him out of bed, wiped up and assembled on towels in our bed, when Hattie woke up asking “Dad? Wipe hands? Daddy? Wipe hands?”. That one was COVERED and we had to bring her crying into the shower because we couldn’t get it out of her hair with a mere rag. I then grabbed a bowl and slept with Leva, thinking she was next and I could do damage control with the bowl. Instead, I stayed up all night waiting for her to throw up, or Hattie or G to throw up again, which fortunately, didn’t happen. Ah yes, mother’s day, celebrated by two loads of laundry that I had to de-chunkify with my bare hands (barfed up spaghetti noodles – bleaaaaggghhhhh). At least I got a beautiful patio and hand-made crafts to remember after the vomit is all washed away.
Wed 11 Apr 2012
Posted by admin under Leva
[2] Comments
They say you can tell a lot about a lady by looking in her purse. Today, Leva’s pre-school bag contains the following:
Her hand sanitizer on its jaunty little pink strap
An I Spy phonics fun book
A hidden picture page where she’s supposed to find 10 eggs, but has instead scrawled her name in red marker in the middle, and colored the apples
A princess bandaid (in case someone needs it)
A half eaten box of rock-hard raisins (rest are scattered in the bottom of the bag)
A happy easter M&M pack
An unsharpened easter egg pencil
A broken princess watch
A happy note for following classroom rules
2 used popcicle sticks
A weird long plastic stick
A small piece of ribbon
A self-made Now You See Me, Now You Don’t book that’s stapled together
A stencil of a tiger
A knotted up small piece of ribbon
A heart sticker stuck to the bottom of the bag
A macaroni noodle
I love her
Mon 9 Apr 2012
Posted by admin under Family
No Comments
Easter morning is a good morning. One by one, the kids joined us in bed (we still, very thankfully, have to get Hattie out of her crib – usually when she starts yelling “Mooom!! I UP!!!”), and Leva rolls over to me and says casually “Mom? Do you think the easter bunny might have come here?” “I don’t know, Le, what do you think?” “Gasp! Can we go check?!” as she’s already running down the stairs to find her chocolate bunny and gift on the counter. “He came! HE CAME!!!!! Geert, Hattie, he came!!!!”
After a relaxing morning of cinnamon rolls and coffee and juice, we look at the clock to realize that it’s 8:40, our children are covered in icing, and church is at 9:30. So the comfortable morning ends as we streak up the stairs, throwing kids in bathtubs and showers and running out the door late. We made a pit-stop at Bob Evans on the way to find Leva’s leap pad miraculously in the lost and found, labeled with Brad’s name and a description of our three kids (easter miracle), before arriving after the music had started. Lucky for us, there was a row of seats right up front (sarcasm), but we were surrounded by kids Leva and Geert know from pre-school, which made for a really fun morning. Then we piled back in the car for the ride to Springfield.
In my enthusiasm to catch all of our precious childrens’ antics, I forgot to take any pictures of anyone else. But for the record, Brad and I were there, Baba and Gummy, Aunt Heather and Uncle Pete, and Uncle Joe drove in from Maryland. Sadly, Chad/Liz and Kate are too far away now and had to stay home, but the kids got to Skype with baby Drago who cooed and swam on the floor, showing off for his cousins. The 4th annual egg hunt was a smashing success, with Hattie really getting it, and there being enough eggs to keep everyone running. Last year the egg hunt was indoors which was fun, but doesn’t provide quite the photo opportunities that the back yard egg hunt does, and my mom’s lovely garden provides the perfect backdrop. We had a delicious easter ham for dinner (first one in quite a while) and hung out eating too much candy and dessert. When we got home the kids tore into their chocolate bunnies for dinner. Ahh, it’s easter. He is risen, indeed!
Leva colors eggs while Hattie and Geert distract themselves
Zoning out before church
And it’s on!
Geert displays a proud catch
The veteran comes out on top
Hattie contemplates her next strategy
Everyone all together: Awwwwww
The egg hunters feast on their chocolate bunnies, victorious
Fri 30 Mar 2012
Posted by admin under Family
No Comments
I have a lot of very fond memories of Glen Helen, a little nature preserve near my parents’ house, from when I was a kid. We’d go there often as a family and walk the paths to see the yellow springs (and try to paint the war paint on our faces, which never really worked well), watch Uncle Chad fall in the water at the stepping stones, or try to break the swinging bridge by jumping like maniacs on it. With this precocious spring, Brad and I decided it could be a good time to get the kids in the woods, something we haven’t done with them enough (mainly due to the screaming baby in the backpack factor). Now that we are, again, the mobile Fischers, we decided to try our luck and it was even better than I expected. We could only handle about an hour of it, but the kids had a ball walking the paths, actually making it across the stepping stones without falling in – even Geert! – and petting the moss. We didn’t make it to the springs or the waterfall – because really, it was time to go, but maybe next time.
Tue 20 Mar 2012
Posted by admin under Family, Travel
No Comments
We had thought that spring break 2012 would be spent in Florida. It was a sick, long winter, and even though it was never really cold, we’d had enough and wanted to escape to a warm beach where we could relax-in-the-sand our cares away. We even looked into Disney vacations (shhh, don’t tell the kids), and were ready to drop a gazillion dollars from savings just to get somewhere warm and see a princess or five. But as the day approached and we started considering the real implications of spending a gazillion dollars, we watched the weather here in the midwest hit a a very unseasonable warming trend. The forecast showed that it would be in the mid 80’s in Florida. It would also be in the low 80’s in MICHIGAN. Pretty easy decision, and thankfully, Ross and Lynn agreed to put up with all of us for a few days on short notice. Little did we know that our horrid sick season would follow us.
We arrived Saturday late afternoon after a surprisingly easy drive. The kids got to play with the cousins and get reacquainted and not eat their pizza for dinner. Now, I’m not sure if it was a bug or if it was because Leva ate a whole bag of potato chips and a nasty fake juice drink in a strawberry shortcake bottle for a snack, followed by french fries and a shamrock shake for lunch, but around 10p, after checking on her twice for her “tummy hurts”, she said “i think i need a bowl”. I ran to the kitchen, Ross deftly pulled the family puke bowl from the cabinet and i ran back in to slip the bowl under her chin as she brought all the nastiness she had eaten all day right back up. But hey, we caught every drop (she was so proud). She promptly fell asleep, but we were awakened twice in the night for delightful explosive diarrhea (that actually had her giggling). Night 1: no sleep. She was a trooper the next day, though, and ate breakfast, so we went and spent a few hours at the fantastic beach. Seriously, it was 82F, the sand was warm, the sun was out, and all three kids played without fighting or needing anything. Heaven.
That night Hattie woke up with a 350F fever (i put my hand in da oven and den my hand on da baby and dey was both the same hot! – old fellowship joke). She threw up a little, I got some of it in the bowl (ew), and it took two hours to get her fever down to where she would sleep. Night 2: no sleep. But hey, the next morning (or really, a few hours later), she ate and seemed happy, so what the heck, let’s hit the beach! Beach day #2 was as much of a success as beach day #1. Heaven. Except that later that afternoon she spiked temps to 350F again and was acting dopey. I took her into a local urgent care that was incredibly fast, if not incredibly thorough (seriously, we got half a physical exam out of the NP, oh well), and she was diagnosed with a “raging” ear infection. But that night she spiked fevers to 350F again, even after a good slug of abx, and we were up a few hours trying to get it back down so we could all sleep again. And make sure she didn’t throw up all over anything. Night #3: no sleep.
By now we’re really tired – well, Brad and I are really tired. So we pulled the plug. We’d planned on another beach day in the morning and playing with the cousins after school, but just didn’t have it in us. Which was really too bad. The kids were ENAMORED with their cousins. Geert especially clung to Cameron and Joe and followed them (and their remote control cars) around. They enjoyed playing with new toys in a new house, and we all slept well together in the same room. And for the first time in our family history, it wasn’t Geert who caused us to abandon a trip! But it speaks well for the future. Barring sickness, we appear to now be a mobile family. This is a very big deal. After suffering through every jaunt outside of our own city, we may actually be able to enjoy taking a vacation, rather than just taking a trip. Big deal, indeed. Special thanks to the Michigan Fischers who put up with us – I really hope the next time we visit, no one throws up.
Cousins!!
Mon 27 Feb 2012
Twice per year, we’re allowed to come and watch Leva’s ballet class. It’s not a big deal, they do a regular class and we just sit in folding chairs along the mirrored wall, clap when it seems appropriate and try to keep Hattie and Geert full of peanut butter crackers so they don’t wander or scream. Leva and her class show us some of the fancy French moves they’ve been working one (which I can’t spell) and do a little program where they dance and act out a book and before you know it, we’re done! I have to say, it was a successful afternoon. Hattie yelled out “Good job, Leva!” after every move, Geert sat still the whole time, and Leva mostly paid attention to Miss Jeanine. She told me later that she was nervous having us there – I had wondered, she seemed to know the positions and moves well, so she must pay attention during class, but with us there, apparently the distraction was too much. Because she’s FIVE. And I have to brag, she did really well – toes pointed, positions correct, and then the little Leva-flairs at the end to add just the right amount of joy to the performance.
