A Day at the Farm with Kids on the Move

This week we got to a free day at the farm at Thanksgiving Point curtesy of Kids on the Move. I hadn't taken the kids to anything at Thanksgiving Point yet, so I was interested to see what there was to do there. The farm was great and the kids had a blast.

Here's my little man meeting a goat.

The fence is blocking the horse a bit, but here is Cailey with a horse

They both got to ride horses for the first time too. There were several horses set up as a live carousel. Cailey did really well, but about a minute into the ride she cried for me to come hold her hand as she rode. Jason is still too little to ride alone so I held him on but about halfway through his ride he wanted to get off the horse.

Here's Cailey riding her horse

Here's Jason, he wouldn't smile for the camera, but doesn't he look so cute in his overalls?

The high point of the trip was getting to ride the wagon. I took the kids on a wagon ride around historic Charleston, SC a year ago but they both passed out a few minutes into the trip. 

Here they are just snoozing away, I think they were both worn out from a busy week and the sway of the wagon rocked them to sleep. This isn't the best picture but I was trying to get one with both of them in it while I had Jason in my arms, a rather tricky feat.

Here is the wagon at the farm at Thanksgiving Point. Cailey was so excited she was jumping up and down when it pulled up. She is at such a fun age, well other than the fact that she asks 40 'why' questions an hour. :)

Posing on the wagon

I am going to add the Facebook style pic too because both kids have great smiles.

Family Project: Making a Piñata

About two months ago we were outside playing at the neighborhood park, while we were there a group was hitting a piñata for a birthday party. Cailey was so excited since she had never seen a piñata before. Then when it broke open and she found out that there was candy inside she was in love...she asked me if she could have a piñata. So I told her that we could make our own piñata together.
We started collecting the ads we got each week in the mail, very quickly we had a huge stack of paper.

The conditions were perfect, we had the paper, we were taking a break from the pool for mr. Jason to avoid infection (check previous entry for details), and I needed some fun activities to entertain little girls on a play date. So I decided to go ahead and make the piñata even though it was not anyone's birthday in our family.

I had Cailey and a friend of hers rip up the paper we needed for the piñata. Does that count child labor?  hmm...

Here's a picture of the little workers, apparently Cailey was really excited about ripping paper

They decided to make princess crowns with the paper

Once the paper was all ripped up I made some paper mâché the recipe is
2 cups flour
2 cups water
1 tablespoon salt

Mix everything together.

Next we dipped the strips in the paper mâché and put them on an inflated balloon. I thought for sure
Cailey would be all over this, but she didn't want to touch the paper mâché and get messy. Ben helped
out with the paper mâché. Jason I am sure would have been happy to help out too. But since we didn't want him to "help out" (eat the paper and the paper mâché) we put him his high chair with some pudding. By the end of the evening our living room looked like we had hosted some frat party! We did 4 layers of paper. We waited a couple of hours in between each layer to allow it to dry.

Here is a picture of the fam' diligently working on our piñata.

Here's the little man covered in pudding

I hadn't picked a design for the piñata yet, which is mistake I should have chosen first and then made the balloon the shape I needed for the design, eh you live and you learn right? I googled piñatas and found a really cute beehive piñata which was perfect for our piñata shape. for those interested..."Traditional piñatas are made with a clay pot reinforced with glued paper (nowadays old newspapers). 7 cones made of cardboard are added representing the 7 capital sins of Christian faith. This gives the piñata its traditional "satyr" look." (Wikihow)

We painted the piñata once the paper was dry, here is my little worker diligently working. 

We cut a hole in the piñata and put the candy inside. Then we decorated, I just used crepe paper, I found the bottom to be to difficult to layer so I cut a circle of yellow felt and then worked my way up slowly. I also noticed the more paper I used the better it looked. I know the lines aren't even but it did end up looking pretty cute. We made bees by wrapping black pipe cleaners around yellow Pom poms.

Here is the final product.

We had the neighborhood kids come help us break it open, most everyone was surprised that we 
made a piñata just for fun. I guess it was kind of random, but it was super fun and totally worth the 
effort Cailey loved it. 

Don't Be Cross With Me: Adventures in Congenital Esotropia

Do any other moms out there feel like they have learned a ton of medical terms since having kids? Phrases like torticollis, plagechephly, epigastric hernia, and congenital esotropia all become a part of your vocabulary because every doctor you see wants a medical history of your child. I sure have learned a lot of new phrases over the past couple years, one of those phrases is, congenital esotropia.

Congenital esotropia is a condition amoung infants where their eyes turn inward or are 'crossed.' Jason has had it ever since birth, he interchanges which eye he crosses. Since he has had it ever since birth and since he crosses both eyes his ophthalmologist decided that eye muscle surgery was the best way to correct the problem.
Even though surgery always feels scary. Ben and I felt it was necessary for his development. We had noticed that he would try to reach for things without looking for them, he would just feel around until he felt it. Also we had noticed that he struggled to pick small pieces of food out of a hand, he was often off by a bit. So it was clear his crossed eyes were affecting his vision and also his development. We met with a vision therapist last week who said that crossed eyes often causes gross motor delays in children. Which could explain the delays he has had.
We had his surgery this morning. It went perfectly, he was in and out in just over an hour. For those that don't know Jason personally he is a tough little boy. It is very fitting that is named after Jason Bourne. He has been in a bit more pain from this surgery than from the hernia surgery but he is still doing much better than I expected. Right now his eyes are red in the corners and will be for the next 2 weeks. He is doing great, and that we are thankful for your prayers.

This picture is a few months old but it shows how he crosses one while looking straight forward with the other

Here is another picture with his eyes crossed. That's a picture of him moments before he went in to have his eyes corrected. 

I got a good picture of his eyes. They are still red in the corners. I will post another picture once the redness goes away. The doctor said that it should take about 2weeks for the redness to go away.

Farewell Grandpa Sutton

My grandpa, Jay Sutton passed away recently I was able to attend his funeral for which I am thankful. It was great to hear so many great stories about my grandpa. He had a great sense of humor and he knew how to make everyone laugh. After the funeral I thought of another story about my grandpa.
A couple of years ago my grandpa gave us a scare, he was in the hospital for a few days and when he was released he came home with an oxygen tube. Ben and visited him after he got home from the hospital and when I came into the room I kind of stumbled over his oxygen tube. So this is the joke he told me. . a man was asked to speak in church, not knowing what to say he decided to visit his friend in hospital hoping for some inspiration. As he stood by his friend's side his frail condition grew worse, and his friend motioned frantically for something to write on. So he handed his friend a pen and piece of paper, and he used his last ounce of strength to scribble a note. Then his friend died. He thought it best not to look at the note just then, so he slipped it into his jacket pocket. At church that Sunday the man got up to speak in church and said that not knowing what to say in his talk he visited a friend for advice. Then unfolded the note saying, this is the note he handed me a note just before he died. I haven't read it, but knowing my friend I'm sure there's a word of inspiration there for us all."

He unfolded the note and read aloud, "You're standing on my oxygen tube!"

I loved my grandpa and I am going to miss him so much. He always found a way to make everyone laugh. Even though I going to miss him tons, it is good to know he won't be held back by a failing body anymore. I love you, Grandpa.

Adventures in Spanish

Dora the Explorer and I have been teaching Cailey Spanish the past couple of months, and while we are still working on the pronunciation on several phrases I am quite pleased with how much she remembers. Also I think it's hilarious when Spanish phrases come out at the supermarket at an almost shouting volume. If anything, we are entertainment for our fellow shoppers right?
Some phrases that she says on a fairly regular basis are:
Grapido instead of rapido
Pecado instead of cuidado- be careful
Espera-command to wait
Largo- long
Corto-short
Santa instead of salta-command to jump
Amadillo instead of Amarillo- yellow

There's more, but I have one's she says most often down.  It is especially funny when she says grapido to have me push the shopping cart fast. We have gotten quite a few odd looks with that one lol.  She is getting better with her pronunciation and she is picking up more words all the time. I don't have any plans to teach her Russian right now. I don't want to confuse her, that's why I waited so long to start teaching Spanish. I wanted her to get English down well before we start adding Spanish to the mix. I just feel like trying to keep multiple foreign languages straight is difficult, well it is for me anyway. I know it is pretty standard to speak at least four languages in Europe. On a good a day I am barely able to do three. To my European friends, you have my respect and admiration.  When I was in college I had a Russian class right after a Spanish class, oh boy that was confusing! Part of the class assignments was to get up and teach for a few minutes in the foreign language. I often accidentally used Russian words in my Spanish class and vice-a-versa. I feel like trying to study multiple languages is like doing brain push-ups!
In fact those that speak a foreign language have a delay of the onset of Alzheimer's by an average of 5 years. Also, according to the New York Times, speaking a foreign language forces the brain to resolve internal conflict, giving the mind a workout that strengthens its cognitive muscles. Bilinguals, for instance, seem to be more adept than monolinguals at solving certain kinds of mental puzzles. Here is the link to the article if you would like to read more on the subject.  There is also the added benefit of being better at your native language as well. So here's hoping that teaching her (and Jason when he is ready) Spanish will not only give her the advantage of knowing a second language, but it will help math and English come easier to her as well. Drop and give me 20 brain push-ups Cailey. :) 

Jason's First Haircut

This past week a number of people commented, "wow Jason's hair is getting so long!" It kind of made me smile because his long hair sort of snuck up on me. Since his hair was so long, we gave him his first haircut yesterday.


Here is the before picture, now that I look at I definitely see that it was pretty long :)

Here a video of getting his haircut. Ben did the honors, and he did a great job! He liked the razor at first, or at least he didn't mind it. I don't know why he is sticking his leg up but it is pretty cute. But he quickly started crying.

Here is the youtube link for those that are unable to view the video.


Here is what I was talking about earlier. It took about a minute before he decided that he didn't like the haircut one bit, but it was worth it. He is such a stud.

Here is the after picture. Now the boys have the same haircut. :)

Here he is coming home from church looking like a stud. 

Inchworm Song

Cailey's favorite song has always been "Twinkle Little Star," every night before bed we sing her Twinkle Little Star." In fact it is quickly becoming Jason's favorite song too because if ever he is fussing Cailey quickly runs to his side to sing him "Twinkle Little Star."  She is such a sweetie :) but I think I need a little variety in my life. So when I came upon the "Inchworm" song I quickly memorized it so I could start adding it into our routine as soon as possible.

I think the "Inchworm" song is fantastic because it has a nice soothing tune, but I especially like it because I think it has a nice moral too. Here is the link to the song if you would like to listen to it. The phrase "measuring the marigolds" means to me the things we have to do in our everyday life. I am a stay-at-mom so I am going to apply it to myself but this song could easily be applied to anyone. It is so easy for me to think of all the things that I have to do in a day i.e. potty breaks, diaper changes, meals to be made, physical therepy excercises, dishes, getting kids dressed, doctor's appointments-the list goes on and on. That is me going about just "measuring the marigolds," but as the song suggests, I need "to stop and see how beautiful they are." They truly are beautiful and I am so blessed to have them. Of course the day-to-day tasks still need to be done but it is still very important to stop and reflect and count your blessings. I know you all still need to "measure your marigolds" but don't forget to "stop and see how beautiful they are."