K. celebrated in style, of course, and is now the big 4! She had a great week (apparently we celebrate the week we were born now.) How 'bout the cake this year? It has only taken me 11 birthdays (all three kids total) to make one that actually looks like it should! (It is supposed to be Diego by the way.) Thanks to all who called, sent cards, email, gifts, and to those who traveled to see the little princess. Much fun was had by all, especially Miss K.
The month of October was here and gone...and with it I hope the illness that seems to have plagued our household. We were grounded for Halloween as K. began throwing up about 12 hours before we were to drive to my parent's house for a big celebration weekend. But, what are you going to do? We did get in the pumpkin carving before the puking started, so that was a plus...and she was better by the time we went to trick-or-treat and when you are 4 that's about all that matters! K. was a ladybug this year (and yes, I made the costume...it has since fallen apart at the seams, literally, but it did the job). M. is a "recycled" giraffe and is the cutest little giraffe since K. wore it two years ago! P., once again, suckered us into two costumes. At school, he was The Scarecrow from Batman, but on Halloween night he dressed up as a football player. Not just any player mind you, but an LHS Wildcat...complete with regulation eye black and wristbands(thanks Papa!). They all looked great! The kids had a great time trick-or-treating! K. was much faster this year and made it for four blocks before she'd decided enough was enough. P. made it about 6 blocks and instead of using his trick-or-treat bag, he donned a backpack of sorts. It was full to the brim...needless to say, a lot of that loot wound up in his classroom for kids to "purchase" on Fridays. M. was in awe of the entire concept. She had practiced saying "trick-or-treat" which came out sounding more like "tick, teet", but it worked. When the big moment came...she froze; however, she looked so darn cute in her giraffe costume she scored some candy anyway. We made it home before any fits ensued, got warm baths, had a few pieces of our favorites, and snuggled up for a good night's sleep. Enjoy the pics!
Watching Papa's Wildcats on the new tv in the newly finished basement. It was too cool!
M. found her "pumpin" and was all smiles at the patch!
K. found several candidates, but finally settled on this one!
Enjoying the pizza at her first fall party.
K. is all ready for her fall party at school, even down to the pumpkin barrettes in her hair!
I was reading the last post in which I said "hope we don't get the flu". Well, we did. All three kids came down with the dreaded swine flu at the end of September. Kelsey came down with it first and two days later, Patrick and Meghan got hit with it. Fortunately, it was very mild for all three. About 5 days with a fever, coughs, aches, and a few runny noses, but that was all. We had about two weeks with no illnesses and then M. started with a runny nose and a cough. Just as she is in the middle of her cold, P. comes down with some kind of stomach virus. Again, fortunately, the vomiting part lasted about 12 hours (which unfortunately began at 10pm) so not much sleep for he or I on Tuesday night. Yesterday, K. started with the stomach thing, too. So, both home from school today and gathering their strength to be able to participate in P.'s school party tomorrow (they are on fall break next week, so we are doing them this Friday). Too much sickness for one mom to handle! We did manage to go and get pumpkins in between rounds of illness. M. loves her "pumpins", but I am pretty sure when we go to carve them she will want nothing to do with the goop inside. She is pretty particular about having clean hands. K. took FOREVER to pick out her pumpkin. She could not decide on shape, color, or size. She finally settled on a medium, round, bright orange pumpkin...in fact, it is probably the most perfect pumpkin I have ever seen at a patch...maybe it was worth all of her time to find it then! We had our first experience with a child not too keen on family time. P. wanted to play the Wii, not go and get pumpkins, so he begrudgingly chose one to add to the pile. Hopefully, he will be more upbeat when we carve them. We are looking forward to our trip to Chicago next weekend for the PSU/ NU game; lots of trick-or-treating; and K.'s birthday party with my family. This will be a great end to what feels like a very long, very ill month. Here's hoping November brings health to the Lynch household!
I realized that I can still post happenings even if I don't have any pictures to accompany the posts. P. has been in school for a full month now and he is loving it. If you ask him, he will tell you his favorite times are gym, lunch, and recess, so apparently things haven't changed much since I was in school! K. started preschool on the first of this month and she is in heaven. She has already made some new friends and she got to bring home the story bag already, as well. She only goes twice a week, but if she had her choice, I think she'd be there every day. M. has been talking more and more. One of her new words is "football" and when she says it, it is often accompanied by a belly bump or a tackle. She may be the only one in our family big enough to play the game! Soccer season is also in full swing and they have won two/lost two. P. is learning a lot about sportsmanship! K. and M. have started gymnastics once a week. K.'s class is without the mommies and M. has to have mommy there with her. She is mastering the art of walking in circles currently, but she loves to run around on the mats! K. will finish her class with a "show" and then we will get to see all that she has been working on. Kevin has the basement 98% finished (he has a few things to do behind the bar and that is it). The space is totally livable and we have been enjoying moves on the new tv and mommy likes the new toy room too. It is a wonderful addition to the house and I can only imagine that we will get so much more use out of the space as the years keep coming. Trying to keep everyone healthy this fall, too. There are a lot of kids at P.'s school with the flu...rumored to be swine flu, but I do not know for sure. Either way, we have been stressing the importance of hand washings and just hoping that we don't get the flu of any kind. Spent two weekends ago in Cleveland at my cousin's wedding and the kids had a great time. Firday night was an Indian's game and they had a blast with all the give aways and stadium food. The wedding was beautiful as was the reception. As always, it was great to see everyone. We are going to try and get to the apple orchard this weekend. We tried to go last weekend, but we got rained out, so hopefully the weather will cooperate and we can get out there. We have some applesauce and apple cakes to make!
Today is P.'s first day back to school. He is in the first grade this year and it is amazing to see how much he has changed from this time last year. We actually remembered the camera and even took pictures; however, I am not currently able to download photos to my computer. I am hoping to have this fixed tonight so I can add pics tomorrow! Keep watching. Time for the girls and I to run some errands.
After my sister's wedding (which was beautiful and soooo much fun) we took a family trip to Omaha for a few days to hit the zoo and a few spots from the show "Diners, Drive-In's, and Dives" (a favorite show in this family). The zoo was really a great zoo with tons of exhibits. The kids had a blast. They even rode the skyfari (a gondola that takes you over a portion of the zoo.) P. loved the Kingdom's of the Night exhibit that was actually underground and was full of bats, snakes, alligators, and the like. He was in heaven! He also really loved the aquarium. M. loved the butterfly house. She was mesmerized by all of the butterflies flitting around her head. K. says her favorite part of the zoo was the aquarium too, especially the tunnel you walk through and the animals are swimming overhead. The hotel had a water park and the kids (as well as mom and dad) had a lot of fun there, too! We also ate at California Taco and had some of the best tacos ever! They make the tortillas fresh as you order the tacos and they are deep fried and stuffed with whatever you want. Clearly, a healthy dining option! We ate breakfast at Dixie Quicks. This place is so off the map, that we drove right by it, even using the GPS. Needless to say, once we got inside, the food was incredible. They only do breakfast and lunch, so we shared a few of their breakfast specialties like, french toast with chocolate, almonds, bananas, and whipped cream. P.'s favorite was the egg scramble topped with cactus and black beans. M. LOVED the homemade biscuits and gravy (she ate about one and a half all by herself). I had an omlette made with apples and brie cheese. Everything was soooo yummy and well worth the stop!
