Carter's Birthday Party

We had Carter's 7th birthday party at The Art Attic in downtown Franklin.  Carter's birthday fell on a Sunday this year so we had his party on his actual birthday (November 15th).  One of Carter's absolute favorite things to do is art.  He loves to draw, color, paint, anything.  Carter and Rylan went to The Art Attic once this summer to try it out (I knew Carter might like it for his party) and enjoyed it.  It was a pretty easy sell when brainstorming party ideas!

I copied an idea I saw off Etsy and made these cute invitations.

Carter invited all the boys in his class and three from his class last year.  He ended up with 8 guests (plus him and Rylan).  It was a perfect number - enough to celebrate and feel loved but not overwhelming and chaotic.

The Art Attic is above a little store called "The Shop Around the Corner" and is just off of Main Street on Third Avenue.  The weather was still pleasantly warm so we were able to spread out onto the back deck when needed.

The party was from 2 pm to 4 pm so I didn't have to provide much for the kids as far as food.  I made cupcakes and had a few packaged snacks and drinks.  Carter chose Nilla Wafers and white cheddar popcorn for the snacks.

I made an art palette out of form board and grouped cupcakes frosted in the same colors so they'd look like splotches of paint.

I also made a banner based off the invitation.

Carter really wanted some balloons too so we added some to the tables where the kids painted.

Decorating was pretty simple but turned out cute!

Ms. Shannon had several options that Carter could choose from to paint and he chose to do hot air balloons.  Before the kids arrived, Ms. Shannon did a basic outline of two balloons on each canvas.

Lliam:

Ian:

Nicholas:

Charlie:

Daniel:

Pierce:

Wyatt:

Whit:

Ms. Shannon giving the boys more paint to fill in their hot air balloons ...

The boys all did amazing!  They all worked so hard on their paintings.  They were focused yet still had fun talking quietly with their neighbors.  I was extremely impressed!

While waiting for everyone to get to the same point in their paintings, Ms. Shannon got out her photo booth props for the boys to use as they finished.  It was a perfect activity for the boys to burn off a little energy and get to play together.

I passed out some snacks as the boys sat back down and they enjoyed those as they continued to paint.

Gray was at the party as well but he and Brian hung out on the porch most of the time :)

When all the boys were done painting, it was time for cupcakes on the back porch.

Carter loved his birthday party.  And I've heard from most of the moms over the last several weeks that their boys all say they want to have their parties at The Art Attic too!

Brothers

Grayson loves his big bros!!!  So sweet!!!

Brian Too!

Brian went to the doctor yesterday afternoon and he has strep throat too!!!  I'm guessing we picked it up with all our recent doctor office visits.  But that penicillin shot is awesome and I'm feeling the best I've felt in a long time today!!!

Rylan starts school tomorrow and Carter starts on Thursday.  Hopefully they are healthy enough now to fight off anything they are exposed to when they return to school!!!

Make It Stop!

My throat has been hurting for about a week and has gotten crazy painful the last couple of days.  I finally went to the doctor this morning since I was running a low fever.  And when I tried to drink water from a straw, it came back out my nose because my throat was so swollen!

I have strep.  Good news, Grayson and Rylan are just starting their antibiotic so hopefully they are safe.  Carter finished his up a couple of days ago.  Hopefully he doesn't get it!!!  I got a penicillin shot at the office - I will never make the boys do that instead of oral antibiotics.  It HURT.  And continued to hurt for about an hour.

On top of that, my tooth that has a root canal (and crown) broke off at the root.  So now I need to root removed and need to get either an implant or bridge.  According to the dentist, when you have a root canal, it makes the tooth weak and this is common.  However, it is not cheap :(

We are going to eat ramen and peanut butter for the next month as our high deductible health insurance doesn't cover anything until we meet the deductible :)

Rylan, can you hear me???

Rylan has been sick for awhile, like the other boys.  But he's the only one that's had a consistently runny nose of thick gunk.  Also, for about 2 weeks, we had to almost yell for him to hear us.  And it was not a case of selective hearing - he really couldn't hear us.

After trying Flonase and saline drops (in his nose) to try to clear some of the congestion in his ears, we were about ready to take Rylan in to get his ears checked.  But then on Friday morning, yellow goo starting pouring out of his left ear.  Yay - another ruptured ear drum!  Luckily, unlike Carter, the pressure didn't build up in the same painful way before rupturing.  However, Carter's fluid was clear and thin (more like water) while Rylan's is more like snot.  Here is a totally disgusting picture in case you're curious - haha!

Carter's ear drum ruptured on Christmas Eve and luckily our pediatrician's office was open.  Unfortunately they were closed on New Year's Day (as were most urgent cares).  We made a judgement call and since Rylan wasn't in much pain (Motrin relieved any pain quickly) and he wasn't running a fever, we waiting until yesterday morning when our pediatrician's office was open for a few hours in the morning.

Rylan was diagnosed with a ruptured ear drum (obviously) and put on Augmentin (the same antibiotic that cleared up Carter).  I asked the pediatrician to also take a glance in Grayson's ears because he'd been pulling on them and acting a little more cranky.  He has another double ear infection.  She decided to also put him on Augmentin.  She believes they've all been fighting the same bacteria and since Grayson got another ear infection after being on amoxicillan and a Z-Pak, he needed to try what worked on Carter.  And all of this probably stems from them all having RSV.  Please, please let this finally make everyone healthy!!!

And by the way, Rylan's ear is still leaking 30 hours after first rupturing - I just took the picture above!

Rylan's Christmas Program & Party

Both Carter and Rylan had their Christmas parties on the morning of Friday, December 18th and both were expected to leave for the day after them.  Luckily Brian was able to take a few hours and attend Carter's party so I could go to Rylan's Christmas program and party.

Rylan's program was the two kindergarten classes singing about a dozen Christmas songs (some of which were new to me!).  They did a great job!

This is mostly Rylan's class.  Both classes have 20 kids.

There were movements even to go along with most of the songs.

I love Mason's santa hat that sticks straight up!!!

Here are a few videos of the kids performing:

At the end of the performance, there were a pair of special visitors who came to say hello!

Then it was back to the classroom for the Christmas party.  The party was simple - yummy snacks and giving Ms. Melissa her gift.

The only kid in Rylan's class I knew before he started school is Keegan.  Keegan's mom was Rylan's speech teacher the last two years.  The boys didn't know each other but they've become good friends.

Rylan got to visit with Mr. and Mrs. Claus and tell them what he wanted for Christmas.

The entire class contributed money and we did  Disney-themed set of gifts for Ms. Melissa.  She is going to Disney with her grandkids in 2016 so we gave her a monogrammed Mickey shirt, a Disney photo album, a Mickey Christmas ornament with her grandkids names on it, and a mini Disney suitcase with $400 in it.  She was very surprised and may have shed a few tears :)

We love Ms. Melissa!!!

Door Decorating

Carter's teacher asked if a few moms would volunteer to decorate the classroom door this year.  It was still covered in Minions from the start of school so I volunteered to do a winter-themed door for her.  I assembled it all at home since I had to bring Grayson with me and had to decorate the door during the time the kids were at music.  Luckily all my measurements were right and it fit (I did forget about the door handle but luckily I could easily move one of the snowflakes!!!).

According to Carter it was still holding up after 2 weeks when winter break began!

Carter decided he needed to decorate his bedroom door as well ...

Mini Me

Lots of people tell me that Grayson looks a lot like me.  No one has ever said that about the older boys!  I have to agree though.  I have a few pictures from when I was about his age.  What do you think?

3 Boys in a Wagon

I cleaned out the garage last week while all the boys played in the driveway.  Carter decided he wanted to pull Grayson in the wagon and I somehow got roped into pulling all three around for a bit - they are HEAVY!!!