Not as a big a helper as he thinks he is.....

Just more of Beckett during Parker's Sr. picture photo shoot....

Dairy Days 2011

Time to have my "Mommy of the Year" medal inscribed and sent my way. The annual Dairy Days celebration rolled into town this weekend. Or, as the boys so excitedly shared with me, "the carnival is here"!!! Fairs/carnivals SKEEVE. me. out. *shudder* No need to creep you out with it here!
BUT, the boys love the whole "ride til you puke" thing. And I mean that quite literally. We bought the $20 per kid bracelet that means you can ride anything non-stop for 4 straight hours. And we came darn close. At the end they chose to ride this thing that pretty much just spun around and then tipped as it spun. We didn't think it looked like they were enjoying it nearly as much as some of the other rides, but when they got off they said they wanted to do it again. So we let them, but voted among our parental selves that trip #2 was it for that ride and we were moving on when it stopped.
Well, as they staggered off, Beckett towards Kurt and Paxton towards me, I noticed evidence of the reappearence of his last oral intake (that's RN talk for breakfast), and he confirmed my suspicions. We fell 20 minutes short of the 4 hour window with both boys agreeing that they were ready to call it a day =)

He works hard for the money....

I don't sound a THING like Donna Summer, so don't spend anymore time imagining me belting out that little ditty in the title.
No no--Parker had his Senior pictures taken today after school. (Flashback to Arielle's turn: she had at least 3 sittings and what seemed like 27 outfits---which had to be accomplished the nano-second she stopped being a Junior in HS. Parker: oh hey, we should get your senior pictures done one of these days....) We are fortunate beyond belief that FIL is a professional PHOTOGRAPHER, not even close to a FAUX-TOGRAPHER--big difference peeps! Even MORE fortunate is that he keeps agreeing to use his skills to make this motley crew look good for things like yearbooks and wedding albums.
And it's not easy! Between Parker making faces NOT suitable for publication in a book that half of his classmates will not be able to locate by 2014, Beckett tearing around insisting that he is NOT in the shot and the Mamarazzi, it's darn amazing that Grandpa doesn't self-medicate as soon as we clear the driveway!!
Anyhow, these are a few pictures of Grandpa working his magic for those he loves (and thank you Kurt for that!)

What $800 looks like

Disappointed? I'm still in the shock phase!!! Parker sees a dermatolgist for his areas of psoriasis and she is always changing up the creams, lotions, sprays, potions and miracles in a tube. We have a whole bin of these tubes. And dermatology drugs are flipping expensive!!
His dermatologist is sweet enough to send home coupons that bring down the cost of our copay for them, which is helpful to be sure. The other day my cousin who works in the pharmacy we use told me that Parker had an Rx there to be picked up (something Parker neglected to tell me). She went on to say that she was surprised that insurance paid for it and to my puzzled expression she said that it's REALLY expensive and not all insurances will cover it. Um, how expensive you ask? She said our carrier paid over $800 for it. ULP!! And he has 3 refills on it!
We did have a $35 coupon that would have zeroed out the copay, but you need to be 18 to use it and he's not quite there yet.
He IS noticing a difference, so I guess it's doing it's job!!

The Dells, Ducks and a Drive-in

Yesterday, Kurt FINALLY had a weekend off (his first 3-day weekend since APRIL, no that is not a typo) so we decided to DO something. I suggested a picnic and a drive-in movie, so that meant heading south to Iowa or north to the Dells. We opted for the Dells based on the movie, HA!
A picnic was packed and we got subs when we hit the Dells. Kurt took us to a park that he played at as a youngster (the equipment has been updated!) and the boys burned off some energy--until the sprinkling started. We decided it was a good day to ride the "Original Wisconsin Ducks". It had been several years since Kurt or I had been on them and the boys never had, and they told us several times that "this was a great idea!" Beckett did decide the water (in the Wisconsin River) was disgusting.
We hit the park again after our ride until it was dark enough to head out to the drive-in. It was actually a double feature of the Smurfs and Zookeeper, but we only stayed for the first show--it was after midnight by the time we got home as it was!
If you ask the boys, they'll tell you "it was a great day" =)

Beckett gets a library card!

Part of being in 3rd grade for Paxton means that there is reading. Like every night reading. Which he is not as thrilled about as one might think. So we've made him a deal that he can pick some of HIS choices to read from the library and that means he'll not complain when he has to read the assigned books. To make it more appealing, we went to the public library today to make train book selections. Beckett of course went along and had the courage to ask the librarian how old you had to be to get a library card. She told him there was no age limit!! Talk about happy little boy =)
So we filled out the application (I read him the questions, he answered and I wrote them down--he knew most of them!) The librarian got it all entered and handed him his card to sign. He only wanted to sign his first name though!! He was also tired of the Mamarazzi by the time we were leaving, HA! His sweet face scored him a free keychain too!

Back to School!!

Or as Kurt calls it: The most wonderful time of the year! HA! Everyone is in school all day every day this year (except for Momma, SHE graduated in the Spring!). Beckett is in kindergarten, Paxton begins 3rd grade and Parker is a SENIOR!! Everyone was pretty cooperative for the traditional first day of school photos--which is not always the case!