Sleepover at Brooke's House

The Hays' were very brave and invited Charli and Hannah to both sleepover.  They made s'mores and watched Tinkerbell, and somehow managed to get all three girls to sleep!  Stef said she is waiting until Brooke is 10 for the next sleepover - 3 four year olds and a 2 year old makes for a challenging night!

Sports Club

Sara and Ian invited us to their swim club tonight and the sprinkler pool with water slide was a big hit for Hannah.  Ella preferred the kiddie pool with Unky Ian and told me she was scared of the sprinkler pool.  Ella is constantly telling me things are scary.  Sara says she takes after me!  Poor thing.

Nature Walk

Jordan had the great idea of taking the girls on a nature walk this morning, and Barney and I decided to tag along.  I had the not-so-brilliant idea of giving them pine cones that we found on our walk (very sticky kids!).  We also found a natural balance beam, watched fish in the lake, and ran around on the boardwalk.  Hannah got very close to nature when she realized she had to pee and we were a 15 minute walk from the house.

Happy 4th

We spent the morning at the pool with Grandma Joanie, who of course got soaked by Ella.  The girls jumped in the bounce house, went swimming, got balloon animals, rode the inflatable water slide, and ate a ton.  Hannah insisted on wearing Ella's new 2T bathing suit, and it wasn't that tight.  Maybe they can just start sharing a wardrobe.  After nice long naps (well, Ella napped and Hannah sneaked my phone into her room and watched Disney Jr.), we headed to a BBQ at Aunt Sara and Unky Ian's.  The girls bounced on their trampoline, ate, and lit sparklers (big girls only).  It was such a wonderful day!

Spring Pictures with Kelly!

We had such a fun shoot with Kelly at Linden Park!  Both girls were in great moods, and the four of us just played around while Kelly caught some wonderful family moments on film.

Ella and Family Time

With Hannah in Florida, Jordan and I got a lot of special Ella time this weekend!  We hung out around the house, Jordan and Ella went for a run (Ella filled Hannah's seat with some necessities) ate out as a family of three (I forgot how easy it is!), and then on Sunday Ella and I met Ian and Lilah at the park.  Sunday night we had Uncle Mike, Aunt Lori, and cousins Larry and Dora come over for dinner since they are visiting from Denver.  Hannah, Softa and Zaydie got back just in time to join us and Aunt Sara, Unky Ian and the girls came too.  Everyone enjoyed the new swing set, and catching up.  When I unpacked Hannah's bag from Disney, I found the sweetest card from our sitter and Ella to Hannah - see below.  Our nanny is fantastic!  Every day she brings something new to do with the girls.  Today they made their own play-doh, built a fort out of a big quilt she brought, and made chocolate chip cookies.  She is amazing.

Allergy Update

Poor Ella (and Jordan) went for a skin test for Ella last week to confirm the results of the allergy blood testing.  As you can see in the picture below, everything was negative except for the control, histamine, in the lower right corner.  What a relief!!!  We will keep an epi pen on us for a year, and at that point if there are no incidents we will assume Ella was actually choking, not going into anaphylaxis.   I wish we had known about the tryptase test which can confirm that anaphylaxis had taken place if it is done within a short window after the incident.  You live and you learn, but we will be prepared if it ever happens again.  To all my mom friends that read this, request a tryptase test if you ever think your child has naphylaxis!  You can save yourself the headache and uncertainty we have been dealing with for the past two months.