Evie Kaye at the Hospital for Observation

Evie Kaye has had a reaction to each and every shot that she has received.  It didn't matter if it was a single or combined shot, leg or arm, ibuprofen or not, she had a reaction to it all.  We saw an allergy specialist in the states that determined she is allergic to the suspension that the immunizations are in.  As for now, she has a localized reaction about a 6-8 inch diameter around the injection site where her legs swell and she gets almost kind of like the hives.  He does think that it will cross over into a anaphylactic reaction after she has been exposed to it enough.  Scary!  And the oddest part is that her reaction has never shown up the day of the immunizations, it is always the next day.  So when we showed up here in the U.K. they said that she would have to receive her immunizations in the Children's Assessment Unit at the Hospital so they could monitor her for 3 hours afterward.  I tried to explain that they would not see anything that day but they wanted to make sure, and it didn't take much to convince this nervous Momma anyways.  So we set the appointment and went in.  Her appointment was at 10 am but they had a problem with the paperwork and were confused about which shot she was to get so that took a while to straighten out and then they gave her some ibuprofen to help with the reaction, which they had to order and that took some time.  Then the doctor came in and said that he would rather her have an antihistamine so they had to order that.  So finally at noon she received the shot and we had to wait until 3 pm for her final check.  Sweet thing did amazing.  We were there for 5 1/2 hours and she could have not handled it better.  They had a great little area set up with toys which she played with the majority of the time and then she snacked off and on all day and then she also got to watch a movie.  

I must say we are so fortunate that are children are so healthy and we are so blessed and this day definitely reminded me of that.  This was abnormal for our family and I am thankful for that.  This is the reality and the everyday life for so many.  My heart and prayers go out to all of them.  

So the next day, I expected the usual, a raised red welty rash on her legs that would last for 2 weeks or more and for it to be worse than the last time she had shots.  But, to my amazement, nothing.  All day I checked her and nothing!  So after discussing it with the doctor we realized that the shots she was receiving in the states were made by a  different company and so they have a different suspension that they are in.  Praise Jesus this was at least one less time that she was exposed.  She is also not due back for shots until right before we leave to go back to the states and you can better believe we will be receiving them here before we leave!

M for Money and what Jesus has to say about it!

This week we discussed money and read lot's of stories from the Bible about money.  Our favorite of course was Zacheaus and the kids loved sing the Bible song as well.  

We discussed why we have money, why we use it and that it isn't free!  We also talked about how our Dada goes to work everyday and works hard to provide for our family and that ultimately God provides it all for our family.  

We made a Needs/Wants list

We also made a coin collection book and wrote the names of each coin, how much they are worth and did a rubbing of each coin.

We also looked at and compared American and English money.

Here's a close up of the coins.  I was missing the American 50 cents piece and the dollar coin though.

Ethan Jay of course loved spinning the money!

We did money rubbings on our letter M.

We sorted money.

And our coolest project was cleaning pennies!

We even put a piece of English money in to see if it worked.

Ta Da!  Clean pennies and 2 pence pieces!

A Blanket for Baby Cayden

I decided I wanted to make a baby blanket for the baby our pastor and his wife were fostering.  I had had these receiving blankets with Ethan Jay and wanted to use them somehow for something else because we had so many blankets.  I love how soft they are and love the patterns on them, elephants, stripes and polka-dots, what's not to love!  So I choose to combine them into a quilt.  I had never quilted before but there's always a first for everything!  I used some blue and green baby flannel that I had to fill in and got to work.  I started working on it when he was born and sadly enough am just finishing it up!  I would work on it one afternoon and then it would be 2 or 3 weeks before I would pick it back up again.  Poor thing is 4 months old and I am just finishing it up!  Well, I will say, I am no master quilter, but am pleased that it is finished and is in one piece!  It looks a bit worn using the receiving blankets, but I think that is part of it's beauty.  Hopefully this little one will love it just as much!

Ethan Jay's New Friend

All of a sudden the snail population here by our house has exploded.  They are everywhere.  And Ethan Jay loves them!  He brings one in every time we go out.  Then he leaves them all over the house for me to find.  I found one crawling on the recliner as I was sitting down the other night!

He was giving it a ride on one of his cars and it decided to sneak over onto my sewing machine.

And another ride for "Snaily!"  That's what he names all of them.

A Date Day!

I had been wanting to take a drive over to a little town called Totnes for some time.  I had heard they had some great thrift stores there and there was also a few stores that carried some natural products that I had been looking for.  We got a sitter for the kids and had a great day out, just the two of us!

Look at this view on our drive over!  Just beautiful!

And when we got to Totnes we found the smallest street in London.  We were in Robert's European car and we had to make a 3 point turn to make this turn!

And we finally made it around the corner.  This is now a one way street but until just a few years ago it was still a two way street!

We enjoyed some delicious lunch at a little cafe.

And I got all of my shopping done and then some!  I found everything I was looking for, had some yummy chocolates, found some great books for homeschooling at a thrift store and even bought some Christmas presents for the kids!  What an amazing day with an amazing guy!

Birthday Party Fun!

We were invited to celebrate two sweet ladies birthday's from our church by going out to dinner with them and I believe about half of our church!  It was a fantastic evening of delicious Chinese food and great friends.

I had made this homemade citrus peppermint hand scrub for family at Christmas and liked it so much that I decided to make it for these two sweet ladies for their birthday.

I love to pick up old jars at thrift stores and use to put some of my homemade products in.   This jar was a cheese jar before with the finished scrub in it.

Our pastor Richard and the sweet little one, Cayden they are fostering.  They brought him home from the hospital when he was just two weeks old and I can't believe how big he has gotten!

Evie Kaye enjoying some yummy ice-cream!

And my very big girl enjoying some of the birthday cake.

Ethan Jay with his buddy Sam and another boy that was there and they had a blast.

And the Birthday Girls, Bonnie and Kris.

Praise Jesus!

We have struggled for years with haircuts (among other things) and when I say struggled I mean down right war!  He is a boy after all and needs haircuts.  We first stopped going to businesses to get his haircut to apologize for his behavior and thank them by never subjecting the poor barber/hairdresser to that again.  So then I found friends that cut hair and thought that maybe a more relaxed home experience would be better for him.  Not so much!  We kindly thanked all of them by never returning again.  So that left Momma.  The same Momma that said she would try her hand at anything except cutting hair.  So there I was in Sally's Beauty Supply picking out clippers and hair cutting siccors.  The haircutting experience was none the better but at least I felt better not subjecting others to it.  Every few months, when none of us could take it any longer, we had an hour long struggle of physically holding him down while he screamed hysterically while I cut "butchered" his hair.  Traumatizing for us all to say the least.  Well friends, I am here to say that it is only by the grace of our sweet Lord that we might have turned a corner.  Robert told him jokes and he laughed like a silly hyena throughout the haircut. It wasn't all rainbows, but only a few tears were shed and I was left in a state of shock and amazement at the end!  Who knows what the next haircutting experience will be like but for now, I am grateful.

Geo-Park Play Date

We meet the home-schooling group at the neatest park right down by the ocean.  It was a little chilly and drizzling off and on but they still had a blast!

Look at Ethan Jay climb up that.   He went all the way to the top, I couldn't believe it.  It was soooo high!

And Emma Ann on the spinner again.

Evie Kaye climbed across all of these logs.  She didn't miss a one!

Sweet sister, helping Emma Ann up into the teepee.

Evie Kaye loved this swing.

And another zip-line and the kids loved it.  It was actually a little loose and the kids were going too fast and they were about to bounce off at the end, so some park workers showed up and tightened while we were there.

Roar!

I'm pretty sure the object of this was to stand up on this like a skateboard, but Evie Kaye loved improvised and she loved it!

They love these nest swings!

Yep, here was the guy looking at the kids about to go off the end of the zipline before he fixed it.  That's my Ethan Jay about to get slung off of it!

And this was our view from the park.  This was right across the street.

And there was this little stand with food and we got fish-n-chips for lunch.  Yum!

Easter

We did lot's of fun activities leading up to Easter.

Ethan Jay sounding out Easter egg word families.

Sorting and graphing jelly beans.  You would't believe how hard it was to find these jelly beans here in England!

Dying some eggs.

With no success!

So, we move on to some stickers.  Almost as cool!

Subtracting with a jelly bean count down.

Color the jelly beans.

And we made some super cool Resurrection Cookies.

Beating the pecans to remind us that Jesus' body was broken for us.

Our cookies are in the tomb and we sealed it up.

On Easter morning we found the tomb had been opened!

And our tombs were almost hollow (empty)!  They didn't quite rise like they should have.

A yummy ham to go in the oven before church.  Yet again something else hard to find here in England.  They have small gammons (what they call ham) but even going to a proper butcher shop they all looked at me odd when I asked for a bone-in ham.  So I found a butcher that get's all of his meat from local farmers and processes it himself and he was able to do this for me.  It was delicious!

The kids received a few gifts.

Ethan Jay received a real baseball glove!  American and all!

Emma Ann and a pony that she received.  Ya think she likes it!?!?

Interesting fact, my Momma made this dress for my cousin's daughter, Jessica and then her sister, Allison wore it and now it is on to my girls.  So sweet and special!

The kids all received a parachute and it was loved by all!

And we had a great time at Eater dinner that afternoon.  We were supposed to have a picnic outside with a few of our neighbors, but it rained all day long.  Imagine that!

Someone brought these really neat eggs that she dyed in onion peels and you matched up with partners to see who could crack whose egg with their own.  Last egg uncracked was the winner.  

Aren't these eggs beautiful!

Our Easter egg hunt.  

I realized that I didn't even get a picture of the kids in their Easter clothes!

Ethan Jay and a few friends looking at the prizes in their eggs.

We had such a great day celebrating with friends at church and then with our neighbors Jesus' great gift!