Martha Stewart eat your heart out!!

Today is Abby's birthday & she wanted to take cupcakes to school for her birthday treat. Her school doesn't have the NO homemade goodies rule, so I decided to make cupcakes. Butterfly cupcakes to be exact.
I saw them in a cupcake cookbook & thought I could totally make those. Well it turns out I can make those, but I'm not real sure I will be making them again anytime soon. The butterflies took FOREVER & once they were done & I had to place them on the cupcake. Talk about scarey, I had spent hours on these butterflies & now I had to pick them up & put them on the cupcake without breaking them. And don't even get me started on the antenna! Well with Derek's help (I love my husband) we were able to finish the cupcakes. FYI-Real men do make cupcakes!! Now the only problem was transporting them to the school & then getting them distributed to the class without breaking them. I drove to school like I had a new born baby in the car & was happy when I arrived & the butterflies were all still in tact. Lindsey helped me with the doors to the school & we made it to the office, were we have to wait for Abby to come pick them up & take them to class. Her school has a pretty strict policy about parents walking the halls of the elementary. So, I can only pray that my butterflies made it safely to her classroom & that there were no accidents on the way there. As for now I have my fingers crossed & am waiting to hear if the cupcakes arrived safely.

Exciting Day

Friday was an exciting day, Abby was able to get her cast off. Yeah!!! No more plastic bags in the shower, no more plastic bags around her arm at the beach & hopeful plenty of time in the sand box & the swimming pool this summer. I think I was more excited to get her cast off than Abby was. Having cast really didn't slow her down to much. She is so ticklish, she was laughing the whole time the doctor was sawing her cast off.


If you have a keen eye, you will notice her cast changed color. The piece that goes between your thumb & pointy finger broke off a few weeks ago, so we had to go back to the doctor. Instead of putting a new cast on, they just wrapped a few new blue layers (Abby chose blue)around the existing cast & in between her fingers. Poor thing her cast was so thick, it looked like a big club. She could have used it as a weapon.

Our New Friend

We have a new friend here in Gurnee, his name is Simon. He loves cantaloupe, strawberries, Doritos & nuts.

Bye Bye Big Round Mounds

Derek & I had been talking about updating our front yard. We were tired of the big, round bushes in front of our porch & we thought we needed to add a little color. Well when Derek makes a decision it does not take long for that plan to go into action. Last Wednesday he worked from home & watched Lindsey while I had a fun filled day with my friends. When I left that morning our front yard looked like this...When I got home that afternoon our front yard looked like this... Bye Bye big round mounds...Hello cute little bushes with color.

What the kiddo's have been up to

Since a lot of you don't get to see my kiddo's on a regular basis, I thought I would show you what they have been up to these days. Grayson is very much into reading, pokemon anything, he is over Baukugen & now loves these little men you can trade called Crazy Bones, and his new passion is drawing. Whenever we go to the bookmobile or he goes to the library at school, he is always checking out how to draw books. Here are a few examples.
He was really proud of this picture. This was a page in a book he was reading that he wanted to try & draw. I love that he put his name & age, makes it easier for me when I put it in his keep folder. As you can see he also wants to make it clear that he did not trace this!!
Abby is doing really well with having her cast on. She misses gym & being able to run around at recess. She is such an outside girl, she loves to climb trees, ride her bike, & play with her friends. Since she can't do any of those fun outside things with her cast she has found inside things to do. She loves to play & collect Littlest Pet Shops, listen to her ipod & sing Karaoke!
Lindsey is my shadow during the day & Abby's shadow after school. Lindsey loves to play with Abby & her friends, & they are very good & including her in most things. Lindsey loves a TV show called Hi-5 & watches that every morning (I cannot stand to be in the same room as that show), she also loves to play Littlest Pet shops, sing karoake, play go fish, snorkel in the bathtub & play Barbies. This girl loves her Barbies!! Her new thing is to play American Idol. Please meet...Randy, Kara, Paula & Simon.

The official cast

Abby wanted to make sure a picture of her with her sling made it on the blog. On Tuesday we went to the orthopedic specialist to get her "official" cast. They didn't have red with pink hearts, so she settled for hot pink. Of course that was after I told her she couldn't have the fluorescent lime green. I know...I know...I should let her get whatever she wants, but seriously lime green doesn't match anything she owns. She did excellent while getting her cast on. I could tell it hurt pretty bad when the doctor was squeezing her pliable cast to set the bone back in place, but she was a trooper!! When she got to school of course her whole class had to sign her cast. Unfortunatley, they didn't sign it with a permenant marker so most of their signatures have either rubbed away or been replaced by those of us smart enough to sign with a sharpie. I think that is the official marker of cast signing.
Even though she is loving all the attention having a cast brings, she is finding that there are some not so great things about having a cast. She can't ride her bike, it's harder to write, she can't play in the sand box or dig for worms, most of her shirts won't fit over the cast (this is more me complaining than her)& you can't take a bath & splash around in the water. Today she counted & there are only 34 more days until she gets her cast off. That's right, the poor little girl is already counting down!!

Abby vs. the Swing

Abby & her friend were swinging on Saturday evening, her friend told a funny joke & when Abby went to cover her mouth while she was laughing...BOOM she flew off the back of the swing & landed on her back & slammed her head on the ground. Derek was outside working & I was outside chatting with a friend when we heard her crying. We all went running over to her & she was freaking out, writhing in pain. We got her inside & I still couldn't get her to calm down. I tried all the usual thing to get her to stop crying. I tried being nice & rubbing her head, Lindsey tried rubbing her head "because that's nice to do when someone gets hurt", I tried the mommy voice, "Abby you NEED to calm down, it is only making your head hurt worse", I put her in the tub (her favorite place to find her CHI)to try & get her to relax...that didn't really work either because now I just have a hysterical child wet in the bathtub. Finally I asked Derek to come in & help me & about 40 minutes later we got her to calm down. She said her back, head, wrist & legs hurt. Well, what do you do when everything is hurting? You eat a bowl of cereal, take some Tylenol & watch cartoons. This seemed to help immensely. Sunday, Abby woke up & said her back & wrist still hurt, but mainly it hurt to move her wrist, so we decided to put an Ace bandage on it. WOW when you are 6 everything feels better with an Ace bandage. She was pretty excited to get to wear that to church. Later that night Derek asked her to color & write, & she seemed to be doing okay. This morning when she woke up she said her wrist still hurt, so we figured we should probably take her to the E.R. to get her wrist checked out. Lindsey had gymnastics this morning, so Der said he was able to take Abby in to see the doctor. (Derek being able to take her to the E.R. is a miracle in it's self. He has had the craziest schedule since we have moved to Illinois.) Well around 9:45 I got a text...BROKEN WRIST!!! Now I ask you what kind of parents let their poor daughter go 2 days with an ace bandage around a broken wrist? Yep us that's right Derek & Heather do!! On the bright side, Derek said Abby was beaming when the doctor said her wrist was broken & that she was going to need a cast. She has already decided she wants a red cast with pink hearts. So tomorrow morning I'll take Abby to the Orthopedic Specialist for her cast. What do you think the chances are that they make a red cast with pink hearts? Here's hoping.
One of her x-rays.