School, Soccer, and Splits

Maggie was so proud to finish the first project for her gifted class at school. She and Tuttle were accepted into the program a few weeks ago, and they both are loving all the challenges.

It is almost comical now, but school was cancelled two hours after it started on Wednesday due to a water main break in the district. Jacob had a doctor's appointment to recheck his ears, so I hauled all three to the office.

We have battled Jacob's ear infection since November with four rounds of different antibiotics, and they are still not clear. We are headed to to ENT on Tuesday for our next step. We are thinking tubes are in our future. I decided Waffle House was necessary after that news. :)

Run Club started for Tuttle this week as well as soccer. Most of team came back together for the spring season, and Tuttle's karate buddy joined the team, too. 

The newest Baldwin, Grace, made her appearance at the game. Maggie could not get enough of the newborn snuggles!

Immediately after the game we loaded up the car to drive to Athens for a Gym Dawgs meet. It was the last home meet of the season. The college makes the experience so much fun with prizes thrown into the crowd, cheerleaders, and the band all making an appearance. Jacob lasted about half the time and then had to spend the rest of the meet running around the lobby area. Daddy and I took turns chasing him. It was no surprise when the Dawgs took home a WIN!

Today has been filled with a lot of lazy time. The rain insisted that we stay home in our pajamas all day. :)

Dr. Seuss Week

The kids celebrated Dr. Seuss's birthday with Read Across America Week at school and daily spirit days inspired by favorite Seuss books. 

Monday's theme was Fox In Socks with crazy sock day.

Tuesday was Green Eggs and Ham, and the students wore green clothes.

Oh, The Places You Will Go was read on Wednesday, and the students wore clothes to represent their favorite college. I was just excited to go get doughnuts after school. :)

I missed a photo on Thursday because the kids received mustaches at school to read The Lorax.

Friday's book was Cat and the Hat, and Tuttle and Maggie wore stripes!

I dealt with my own animated story at home while Jacob committed to the terrible 2's with a lot of tantrums. I am in uncharted territory here because Tuttle and Maggie never threw fits.

Jacob knows how to balance it. Right when I think I am going to give up, he just shows his extra sweet and adorable side.

I somehow managed to finish submitting my items for the local consignment sale, and it has been my most profitable season yet. It ends on Saturday, but I am already so happy that I participated!

We were also able to support our sweet friend, Caroline, with her fight with brain cancer at Ihop's National Pancake Day fundraiser. Free pancakes and the chance to help children like Caroline was a win/win for us!

We are geared up for another week, and the kids are adding more sports to the mix: Run Club and soccer. Say a little prayer for us as we adjust to our new crazier schedule!

We are already a little nutty at the Thorne home. :)

Athens Girls' Weekend

My much anticipated girls trip to Athens did not disappoint. A group of my mom friends and I took advantage of every minute (Daddy worked from home, so I could leave early Friday morning!), and we ate too much food and stayed out way too late for three days. We may be old ladies compared to the rest of the Athens crowd, but we can still celebrate a weekend away! :)

Friday evening we tried out a new restaurant called Seabear Oyster Bar, and we spent the rest of the weekend talking about how delicious the food was! We split the meal and ordered almost everything on the menu. I could not get enough of the raw oysters and crab and shrimp cakes. Yum!

We ventured downtown after dinner and tried a couple of spots that brought back so many college memories for me. While an 80's style bar occupied a lot from my college nights, it has been replaced with a 90's bar now, and we all danced the night away both nights. 

Our lazy Saturday morning resulted in a late lunch downtown and some shopping before returning to the house to get ready for dinner at Last Resort. It is a requirement to eat there if you come to Athens. We sat outside on the patio and clearly had the best time chatting because it was 3.5 hours before we got up to leave. 

I am so lucky to call these girls my friends. Most of us have been close since our first babies were born over 7 years ago. Although we are all at different schools now and schedules have us all over the place, we always pick up right where we left off. I cannot wait to make more memories soon. Hopefully a beach trip is in our future!

Sunshine

We have finally experienced some sunshine and warmer temperatures this week, and it was just what we needed after our weeks of sickness. We are soaking up all the weather and praying that it lasts.

I am leaving tomorrow for a girls' weekend away in Athens. While I will miss my babies and Jay, this getaway will be so refreshing! Jay and I have really made it a priority to give each other time alone each week, and we both have noticed a difference in our moods. Every parent deserves time to regroup. :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

We loved celebrating Valentine's Day with parties and dances. I look forward to these sweet memories every year.

Jacob's preschool party was a day early since he does not go to school on Wednesday. It was optional to bring in cards to share, but I start planning their valentines weeks in advance, so it was an easy choice for us! 

Jacob had the cutest little party with his friends. I caught the sweetest moment with his favorite girl, too!

I was in charge of the Valentine's Day dances at the elementary school this year. We decorated the gym on Tuesday afternoon, and the lower grades attended their dances on Wednesday. Maggie's class was the first group to arrive while Tuttle's class wrapped up the day.

Maggie asked this handsome boy to be her valentine, and he agreed. She spent most of the time trying to dance with him. He was the only boy interested in dancing with the girls and had a group of eager ladies ready to groove! :)

Jacob was SUCH  a trooper. We had arrived at the school at 10:30am that morning and did not leave until 3pm. He had to skip his nap and was completely exhausted by the end.

While Daddy and I do not make a big deal about Valentine's Day, we do love celebrating with our baby valentines. It is easy to participate in a day where we get to declare our love even more!

I am so very thankful for friends that are willing to step up and help out. I started running a fever on Wednesday night with a terrible cough. Fearing it was the flu, I asked for back-up to run the older grades dance on Thursday. Our parents never let me down, and our final dance was a complete success! Luckily I felt much better by Saturday and now only have a lingering cough. 

Success!

We made it through an entire week with everyone in school and no sickness! Hooray! Daddy and I were even able to squeeze in a date night. 

We are now looking forward to a week of Valentine's Day celebrations, including the school dance that I am organizing. I look for any excuse to show some extra love to my family! :)

And It Continues...

Ugh! I wish I could report good health in the Thorne home, but we dealt with even more baby sickness this week. We rarely get sick, but we have been hit HARD this winter!

Jacob and I started off last Friday with a trip to the zoo with Aunt Peach, Holland, and Piper. It was the girls' first time visiting the animals, so we were thrilled to be a part of it! I was cautiously optimistic that the weather would cooperate and the animals would be active since it was still so cold, but it was honestly one of the most successful adventures to the zoo ever! It warmed up just enough to be comfortable, and all the animals were out to play, especially the gorillas.

There were four bigger gorillas with their backs to the glass in the viewing room. Our favorite started to interact with the kids. He would turn around and put his hands on the glass. Jacob enjoyed a few high fives. As we were leaving the sweetest baby ventured over to check out the commotion. 

Grandmommy and Grandaddy's birthday gift of the zoo membership to Jacob is going to be perfect for the upcoming year. Thank you!

Sadly Jacob woke up with a fever on Saturday morning. Daddy and Tuttle already had plans to go shooting, and Maggie had a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. A friend saved the day and took Maggie to the party, so I could stay home with our sick boy. 

I thought it was a short lived fever because he seemed fine on Monday.

Because we cannot catch a break, the fever returned Tuesday along with pink eye AGAIN for Maggie! We still had eye drops left from last week's infection, so Maggie was treated immediately and was able to return to school on Wednesday in time to celebrate the 100th day of school and dressing like she was 100 years old.

I took Jacob to the doctor, and she confirmed a raging double ear infection, thrush, and the end of Flu B (she cleared him to return to school since he had been fever free for 24 hours after a brief fever Tuesday morning). Jacob was prescribed two new medications and HATES taking them. I swear that Jacob has grounded me so much as a mother. He has already had the flu, HFM, thrush, and ear infections that will not go away. I never dealt with any of that with Maggie or Tuttle.

We are trying to lay today. I just pray that we have a week of calmness and routine sometime in the near future. :)