A Fun Finish (Halloween 2014)

We made it!!!!  A week with Doug away (after he worked most the weekend prior) with no kitchen or laundry room and with 3 sick kids at different times has come to an end.  And I believe we got through this week (by God's grace) with a lot of fun moments and not too many total meltdowns.  I mean, believe me, I'm ready for Doug to be home and you can believe me that in the few hours he is home tomorrow AM before heading back into a busy preaching weekend he will very much be on Daddy duty, but this week has gone surprisingly well.  Thank you, Lord!!

So, how did we finish off our no-Daddy week?  Well, with both Koen and Tavin not having any school.  What?!?!?!  Don't these schools know how much my kids like their school routine and the gift it is to a tired, busy momma?  No?  That doesn't matter?  Oh well, I decided to make the most of it.  We had 6 free passes to the zoo, so I asked Megan and Sky if they wanted to join us at the zoo and they were totally up for the family fun adventure, so we went for it.  It was fun to have my friends along and the boys are so comfortable with them it's like being with family and they treat Marshall like a little brother, so we were essentially one big happy family checking out the zoo on a blustery day with a chance of rain.  And, oh, let me mention that my boys wanted to try on their costumes before we left and then ended up asking if they could wear them to the zoo.  Hmmm, why not?  On a cold day like today, another layer of clothes could only help.  So, I was accompanied to the zoo by 1 goofy giraffe, 1 noble knight and 1 cheeky chicken.  Quite the entourage, but the cuteness kept me smiling the whole time that I didn't care what anyone else thought.  And the costumes did help keep them warm and cozy!  Our first stop was the tigers.  I think maybe the tiger smelled chicken in the air?

Alas, he did.  Chicken, giraffe and a little metallic mesh.

The last time we were at the zoo we decided that we really wanted to remember to go through the zoo backwards upon our next visit as we always find ourselves rushing through the last third of the zoo and miss out on some pretty cool exhibits and animals because of it.  Thankfully we remembered this strategy and enjoyed seeing some things we normally don't get a chance to enjoy.  We passed the bottom of the seal tank on this new route and as usual, the seals were totally interactive through the glass.  All 4 boys loved it.  And I loved the view of their cute costumed-backsides taking it in (well, Marshall is just baby cute of course).

We went past the petting zoo animals (stinky, but fun to see) and then headed over the alligator bridge.  This picture begs the question..."Why did the chicken cross the bridge?"

You've gotta see a closeup of this adorable chicken.  Could he be any cuter (or puffier)?

We got to see the kangaroos up close and personal.  They are pretty incredible to watch jump with the way they use their legs and tails together.  

Then we went up through the forest exhibits and saw turkeys and looked for beavers and spotted a river otter.  I had never even noticed these 3 exhibits before!

After winding through the foresty part of the zoo, we popped out at the big slides above the sea lions.  This brought to mind that we were here at the zoo almost exactly a year ago and that was the day Penn broke his leg.  Let's just show a throw-back picture from November 1st, 2013.

Penn actually broke his leg going down these big slides, so I was on my guard and accompanied him the first few times.  No need to repeat that crazy day!!

Clearly we had fun!  The knight also enjoyed the slides.

And did you know that giraffes are not only the tallest mammals on Earth, but they can also climb up rope nets?  Check out this nimble giraffe!

Had to show the poofy backside with the fuzzy tail!

Not only does this giraffe climb, he also slides (and in fleece, he goes fast!).

Ok, sorry about all the pics of the boys in the costumes, but I just can't get over the cuteness!  Anyways, from there we headed to the aquarium.  We went through underground first and saw the sharks, then we headed over to the sea otter, who was very engaging with Koen at the bottom corner of his tank.  

The polar bears weren't in their tank, so we headed up to sea level to see what we could see.  On the way I caught a giraffe and a chicken in a polar bear trap!

The polar bear that was out, was very active.  I think he was pacing waiting for his lunch.  Megan, Sky and Marshall beat us up to the top and I got some cool shots of them checking him out through the glass (they are accompanied by the knight of course).

We got up top for a closer look ourselves.  I'm just enamored by these massive creatures.  Amazing!

Next we headed into the aquarium.  The boys enjoyed checking out the sea rays in the tunnels and then just as I was peering into the tank on top of the tunnels at these creatures that I can't stand, look who popped out!  None other than my giraffe and knight amidst the sea pool!

Then we wound our way up to the penguins and then outside for a snack.  An appropriate one of course, Goldfish, while hanging out at the outdoor fish tank.

At this time, the rain started moving in earlier than expected, so we high-tailed it (no pun intended) to a few favorite last stops including, of course, the giraffes.  Hmmm, which one is real?

Penn loves the elephants, so we had to stop to see these magnificent animals.  

This chunky chicken sure does love watching these big guys move around!

With the cool rain, the animals all seemed to really be perking up and becoming more active.  We all enjoyed watching the lionesses pace around their exhibit and interact with one another.  So beautiful!

One more picture of my costumed crew enjoying our zoo visit. 

It was a fantastic morning with my boys.  Yesterday had been a difficult day with a lot of attitude and disobedience from my two oldest, so I was so thankful for the blessing of a lovely morning together walking around outside taking in this great Pittsburgh spot and these beautiful animals.  Praise God for a fun activity for the four of us.  I needed to just have a completely happy morning with my guys!

Now, on to Trick-or-Treating.  I knew I would be flying solo, so I asked a neighbor to take the boys around for a block or two.  But before that happened I got this very enthusiastic picture of my boys ready for trick-or-treating!

Until Tav and Koen got to go trick-or-treating, they helped pass out the candy, but as soon as they were out of the way, Penn got to be master-candy-passer-outer.  He was quite the attention-getter.

He took his job super seriously.  And as you can see he was very generous.

Penn got his first piece of chocolate.  You can tell he's unsure, but don't worry, he LOVED it.

Things got pretty hectic when the boys got back from their quick outing to trick-or-treat themselves.  As the evening goes on the amount of kids that come by just increases exponentially and my boys' demands also increased exponentially!  They wanted to have some of their treats (fine) and then they were hungry and needed more real food (we had had an early dinner).  This was a little harder to pull off while overseeing the giving out of candy, but I made it fast and handled it.  Then the big boys started getting frustrating.  Not to mention my hands were pretty much numb (did I mention it was 40 and raining?).  So, at about 7pm, I decided it was time to call it quits and get these chilly buddies into a hot bath and to bed!!  That's what I did and by 7:30pm all was quiet and I finally ate dinner.  So, it's official.  We are through it.  We made it this week.  Praise the Lord!  Doug's on a plane home now.  Can't wait to wake up and have Daddy home in the AM!!

Cutest Kitchen Renovators Ever

Tav and Penn have been such troopers accompanying me on kitchen errands.  Today they had a blast at a granite place.  There were forklifts everywhere, loud machines and aisles and aisles of stones.  Tavin really enjoyed the calculator the nice sales lady let him borrow for our browse through the warehouse.  He came up with crazy prices for everything.  Hilarious.  Penn just mostly liked watching the forklifts (and the operators waved and smiled at my two cuties!).  I just had to get a picture of my pair of kitchen planners.  Pretty cute.

It's Project Time, Part III

Things are moving along here at the Melder household.  Toady was exciting because our contractor laid out the tile to look at different patterns and try to find what would suit the space the best.  Here's what he came up with and I agree that it looks really fresh, clean and simple.

So, I meant to post this picture last week, but we are still living in the same weird arrangement with our dining room packed with the kitchen parts as well as our dining area and my makeshift pantry, etc.  Just a glimpse of our casual and crazy mealtimes.

Another interesting thing that happened today is that our contractor worked to smooth out and level the sloping section of the kitchen.  They poured concrete down towards where the sink cabinet used to rest and it just kept flowing.  Definitely quite a slant!  It took about an inch of cement to level it up to the rest of the room.

Here's a picture of a few granite pieces I'm debating on top of the tile we already purchased.  Decisions, decisions!!  I hope to finish with the decisions by the end of the week or early next at latest.  I just want to pick things I'll be happy with for decades as Doug and I weren't planning on this renovation and we don't want to ever have to plan on one again!

That's it for now.  I'll keep you posted!

Through Tuesday

So, Monday I took no pictures.  Thankfully Koen was well enough to go to school, but poor Tav had to miss yet another day of beloved preschool due to his fever and terrible cough.  Unfortunately, Penn was no better either and was very out of it all day with fevers and congestion and a bit of a cough as well.  What a wreck we are!!  We did have some highlights amidst the snot and hacking though.  I had a very encouraging cabinet appointment and made headway on that major decision, so that was a good thing to check off the list!  I got lots of sweet, sick boy snuggles from Tav and Penn.  They took great naps too, which was a nice break after caring for them all morning (a bit on the needy side these days!).  Koen arrived home in fantastic spirits and he and I enjoyed some lovely one-on-one time before his brothers woke up.  Then for dinner we went to Megan, Sky & Marshall's house (and to throw in a load of laundry!  My how you appreciate your laundry room so much more when you don't have that convenience!).  I wish I had taken pictures at Megan & Sky's.  They were such gracious hosts and Marshall was adorable as usual.  But alas, Penn was super cranky and needed to be in my lap for most of the mealtime.  Oh well.  I got the boys home in the nick of time for bed and they all slept pretty well (Tav consistently wakes a few times due to major cough attacks).

Today was Tuesday.  For only the second time this school year I had to wake Koen up so he would have time to get ready and eat breakfast before the bus arrived.  Tav and Penn slept in a bit too, so it was a quiet, easy morning.  After getting them fed and dressed, we headed out for errands big and small.  Most notably we went granite shopping!!  Do you think it was too much to ask that two sick kids would enjoy tagging along on such an errand?  Well, turns out it was.  But they were troopers and the lady at the granite company was super understanding.  We managed to see everything in stock and get all our specs in for some estimates.  I decided not to drag the boys to a second granite company and instead we stopped to take advantage of the gorgeous, warm Fall weather at a park on the way home.  Of course, they perked up at the park and acted much more like their normal selves as you can see here...

After some fresh air, we returned home to get a few things done (well, me) and play (well, the boys) before nap.  Again Penn and Tav both slept all afternoon.  This is a doozy of a virus.  It just keeps knocking them out!  Koen was in good spirits when he got home, but once the little guys were up he got a big chip on his shoulder and was quite a challenge for the rest of the evening.  I wish I could get inside his mind and understand what he's thinking/going through because I just don't get the mood swings sometimes!  Thankfully we had a nice distraction in playtime outside with our neighbor friends for over an hour.  I tried to snap some pics, but the boys were having way too much fun running around to get a good one.  I'm so thankful for our friends.  Doing life with others is so much better than doing it alone!!  We got home after 6, so it was a sprint to get dinner ready in our haphazard temporary kitchen/dining room situation.  Once we got through that debacle, it was a dash through the bath and shower for the boys and off to bed.  Phew!

Sunday Starts the Week

So today Doug left early for his workday, but also to fly off to Colorado for the week for a conference.  So that means today started a week where it's just me and the boys.  And can I just mention here that I was supposed to go on this trip to tag-along and get some just us time, but with the events of last week (you know kitchen setbacks, kids with the stomach bug, then getting sick myself and other various signs from above) we decided it just no longer could work.  Anyways, here's how I started this week with the boys.  First of all, we went to the 9am service.  Then after the service, Tav got to head home with Uncle Nate and Aunt Megan for a change of pace and to give me just two out of three boys at home for the remainder of the morning and afternoon.  Unfortunately, Tavin is still not 100% after getting hit hard earlier in the week.  Oddly though, this present issue seems completely different and comes in the form of a crazy, ugly, almost non-stop cough.  Poor guy!  He still wanted to go and Nate & Megan were gracious enough to still have him.  After church they went and fed ducks at a park in the North Side.

Meanwhile, Koen and Penn and I ran a few errands at the Waterfront and then had a little walk along the river there before grabbing some lunch.  I had to take some pics.  This one was a mistake though...too sunny, Mommy!

We found a shady spot and that worked much better!

We had a little gift card to Eat'n Park.  I'm pretty sure I haven't been to Eat'n Park since Koen was a year old.  It was definitely Penn's first trip.  He was enamored with the Smiley Cookie statue near the door.

We had breakfast for lunch and it was OK.  It was packed in there and hot and Penn was cranky.  I felt he was feverish and thankfully in a stellar mom moment realized I had Tylenol in my bag.  He perked up a little with his scrambled eggs, but was definitely a wreck by the time the check came.  Totally felt like a Mommy fail at this point with my ill kid out at a restaurant that was just taking way too long to get the job done!  Koen was a trooper though and sort of just took in all the hustle and bustle.  After we got home, Penn perked up for a few minutes of play and then headed to a long, hard nap.  Koen and I went into project mode.  I painted the old HVAC vent traps in the kitchen (I wish I took a before picture because they look so nice now...such a transformation from a can of spray paint!).  I think I might do the other few like this throughout the house tomorrow.  

Koen had an assignment for school.  I guess this week is Red Ribbon Week?  Apparently it's really about saying NO to substance abuse, but for the younger grades they more talk about making good choices in life.  There's a poster competition and Koen has not stopped talking about it since he found out about it.  This is what he (well, a little bit of we) came up with.  It was so cute talking with him about his plan.  He took this so seriously.  Good job, Koen. I hope you follow your own advice and make good choices in these practical ways your whole life!

After naptime/project-time, I got Koen and Penn out the door and off to Nate & Megan's to pick up Tav and join them for dinner.  Tav took a 2 hour nap there (yay, Tav!), but when we arrived a little before 5pm, Nate had the boys all out in the backyard, so we happily joined them there.  The boys had a blast in the perfect Fall evening together.

Around 5:45pm, we headed in for dinner. Megan made salad, garlic bread and spaghetti and meatballs.  Such a feast for us after the lame meals I've been managing to create at home without a kitchen.  Thank you, Megan, for your labor of love!  Koen LOVED her meatballs and said they were the best he ever had!  After dinner we headed back outside and Nate whipped up a fire and the boys got to have S'mores for dessert!  They were so excited.  You can also notice that while inside they totally raided the costumes and so we had quite an interesting crowd partaking in the S'more roast!

Penn and Andy had matching little camp chairs.  Too cute!

Despite his rough cough, Tav was a happy guy after a day with sweet friends ended with a sweet S'more treat.

Penn was a trooper all night.  He had fun despite the fact he has something like whatever it is that won't leave Tav alone.  

Thanks so much to Nate and Megan for caring for Tav and giving him a special day away and giving me the margin to spend some extra time with Koen this afternoon.  And I'm praying you don't get any of our germs.  I'm so sorry.  I had no idea we were such a mess when we headed out the door this morning with this plan!  

PS - Douglas has arrived in Colorado safely.  I definitely cried for about a half hour this morning about not getting away with him as the reality of it set in about the time he drove to the airport.  But I have to say I know this momma is needed at home this week.  Love you, baby.  I hope this week is rejuvenating for you, but I sure hope it goes quick and you are back before we know it!