Letterboxing - 1st Plant

The boys and I still enjoy finding letterboxes.  They are a great way for us to explore new parks and also something to do when we are a little bored with our normal routine.

I decided it was time we finally started contributing to the letterboxing community and plant some of our own.

First I needed to carve a stamp.  I'm not terribly creative so I decided we'd do a series that includes all the ACC teams.  First up, NC State, of course.

This was my first attempt at carving a stamp and it turned out pretty good!  Also included in a letterbox is a logbook for others to stamp with their personal stamp when they find the letterbox.

I also made us a new personal stamp.  I had been using a store bought stamp until now and we named ourselves "Pair of Monkeys", since when we started letterboxing, we just had Carter and Rylan.  Now we are "3 Little Birds".  I think our stamp turned out pretty good too!

Grayson is starting to feel better but still is no where near 100% and it was only in the 30s today.  So during this afternoon nap, Brian stayed home with him and watched football while I took Carter and Rylan to Smith Park to plant the letterbox.

The boys helped me record clues along the trail and helped me find a good spot to hide the letterbox.  We finally found a good spot near the end of the Red Trail (about 0.7 miles from the parking lot).

We filled the middle of this multi-trunked tree with rocks and set the letterbox on top of the rocks.  We also placed a rock on top of it to camouflage it. 

The boys are excited to see if anyone finds it!

I typed up the clue tonight and posted it on Atlas Quest.  Here's the link to our first letterbox!

http://www.atlasquest.com/boxes/clue/?boxId=264477

I've already done a few more carves and we hope to plant more soon!

Vandy Game

We took the boys to a Vanderbilt basketball game tonight.  We went back and forth on whether or not we should take Grayson since he's still sick but decided he'd enjoy being there more than just staying home.

I got tickets off Stubhub for about $40.  They were in the third level but you really can see fine up there.  We were in the 7th row too.  Plus, we had friends randomly sitting just a few rows behind us!  We got to catch up a little with Dana and Jason and our boys enjoyed hanging out with Silas for part of the game.

Grayson did okay.  He sat and watched the game or ate some snacks for a good portion of the first half.

Brian says I have a distorted memory, but I think he is our hardest with staying still.  I spent most of the second half walking him around.  I never did this with the other two.  He really enjoyed the stairs :)

 Dana found the boys these pompoms and they loved them!

Vandy played well and beat Alabama 71-63.

Grayson

Grayson missed the memo on third children being easy and go-with-the-flow.  He is a crazy, wild man!!!

He is currently climbing up anything he can ...

We have to keep our kitchen chairs like this right now or if I leave him for 10 seconds, he's on top of the table!!!  No Legos are safe right now!!!

And look at that crazy hair!!!  It does not do well in dry, cold weather!!!

I met some friends with Grayson at Above All the other day.  He was a little sacred of the trampolines at first but eventually warmed up to the idea of crawling on them.

When this guy FINALLY decides to sit still, this will happen.  Too bad he doesn't sit still too often!

Carter and Rylan wrestle way more than we like (actually, we don't mind the wrestling - we just hate that it always ends with someone crying because they got hurt).  Grayson is a sponge with them and copies everything they do.

We love this guy but he is wearing me out!!! :)

Ortho Appointment

Carter had an orthodontist appointment on Thursday.  His last appointment was at the end of November when he had this appliance put in.

It wasn't really doing anything at this point.  Dr. Lucas wanted him to get used to having it in for awhile.  He's really stepping Carter through everything slower since he's so young.

The appointment on Thursday was to have brackets glued to his 6-year-old molars and then wires and springs connecting those brackets to the appliance to help push back the 6-year-old molars.  Unfortunately Carter somehow bent the bracket that is attached to the appliance on the right side.  So they were only able to do the left side on Thursday.  Once the 6-year-old molar is pushed back far enough on that side so it can finish coming in, Carter will have to have a new appliance made and put in so they can do the same thing on the other side.  Right now the 6-year-old molars are coming in at a funny angle and eroding away the last baby molars.

Luckily the new stuff isn't bothering Carter too much.  It's been rubbing some on the inside of his mouth but the wax we have helps with that.  I think he was feeling a little pressure/pain for about 24 hours but he hasn't complained about that today.  The spring is really tight so I'm sure it's already forcing that 6-year-old molar to move a little already!

Carter picked pink for the rubber band on the bracket.  He says that pink is his favorite color right now :)

Carter goes back to the orthodontist in 6 weeks.

Sick Baby, Again

Poor little man is sick again.  He picked up a cough on Tuesday that didn't seem too bad.  His last day on the augmentin for his ear infection was Monday.  He was still pulling on one ear some and started running a low fever 101F.  We thought maybe his ear infection didn't clear up and were considering bringing him in.  Then yesterday afternoon he suddenly started running a temperature of 103.3F and his breathing was labored.  It reminded us a lot of how he was when he had pneumonia last month so we got in for a late appointment at our pediatrician's office.

We saw Dr. Myers which is who we also saw for Gray's ear infection a couple of weeks ago.  She said his ears were clear but his chest sounded junky.  She also didn't like his fever.  She decided to have him do a breathing treatment in the office and then wanted to listen to his lungs afterward.  She also did a strep test since Brian and I had it last week even though kids younger than 2 don't usually get strep.

Gray did not like the breathing treatment and screamed himself into a half-asleep state.  It worked well though.  When Dr. Myers came back in, Gray had a good cough and when she listened to his lungs, they sounded much better.  Also, the strep test was negative.

Dr. Myers gave Gray a dose of motrin to start bringing his fever down and sent us home with a nebulizer.  She wanted us to do a breathing treatment with him every 4 hours through the night and also give him tylenol or motrin (switching back and forth) every 3 hours.

The 10 pm treatment:

I fed Gray after this and he went to sleep relatively easier.  However, after the 2 am treatment, nursing him did NOT help him get back to sleep.  He was wide awake and ready to play.  After I continued to fail at getting to sleep, Brian took over and let me sleep as he managed to get Gray down.

We took Gray back in this morning to see if the breathing treatments were helping.  Gray was acting much better and other than the fever that would start creeping back up if we were late on the tylenol or motrin, he seemed to just have a cold.

We saw our regular pediatrician this time.  Dr. Huss said Gray's lungs sounded great.  He is guessing that Gray has a tough virus that is just hard on his little lungs (for the older boys, this would just be a bad cold).  Some of the viruses hit the hardest around day 3 and that matches up with Gray's symptoms.  Though he didn't think we'd need it anymore, Dr. Huss is having us keep the nebulizer through the weekend in case Gray needs it.  I did end up doing a breathing treatment this afternoon since we already had the medicine and he was sounding a little worse again.  But generally, we seem to be past the really bad stuff!

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!