Yellow Stripe

Wesley has been in karate for nearly two years and he'd been doing a good job of putting off testing for a new belt. Finally sensei said it's time so Wesley studied and studied and tested for his first belt (yellow stripe). He passed! Go Wesley!

Old Time Field Trip

Greta's third grade class took a field trip to a museum about life in the 1870's. It's an entire town set up to reenact that time period. They have everything from the main street with a bar, stores, a hotel and a working farm. They hire people to dress up in era clothing and work the stores and such. The kids love it and we get to wander around seeing things at our own pace.

This is the scale for weighing harvested crops. The tour guide has the kids jump all at once to register a weight.

Tummy Troubles

My sushi girl. We love a girls day out with sushi.

Back in January Greta started getting stomach aches. These were almost daily and went on for months. We visited the pediatrician a few times and she prescribed an acid blocker that she was on for 2 weeks. It didn't do anything. So after three months and nearly 2 weeks out of school we went back to the doctor to see if we needed to do or try something else.

The doctor wanted to take some blood and run some labs to rule out an ulcer, IBS and food allergies. Greta wanted nothing to do with blood work and broke down crying in the doctors office. We left and went to lunch down the road where I talked to her about what a blood draw was like. I explained what the nurse would do and what it would feel like, trying to calm her nerves. I knew this was the only way we were going to get answers to her constant tummy aches.

She was warming to the idea and I decided to bribe her with a toy she'd been wanting. She was immediately on board once she heard about the toy. So back we went down the road to the doctors office where she was quite the trooper and let the nurse pull three vials of blood out of her arm.

They sent off the blood and the results came back with a sensitivity to wheat, eggs and dairy. I was so happy to finally have an answer! I knew eliminating these foods wasn't going to be easy but Greta and I were both willing to try. We immediately took these three foods out of her diet and overnight her stomach aches disappeared. It was amazing!

I wanted to see if all three foods were the culprit of if she only had a sensitivity to one so we introduced dairy back in with no problems. Then a week later we tried egg and she got a stomach ache. Same with wheat. So we've eliminated eggs and wheat now for several months and she's been tummy ache free.

There has been a learning curve on baking gluten free and egg free. Most commercially prepared gluten free breads at the grocery store have egg in them so I joined a gluten free vegan group on facebook and learned a whole lot about where to buy the right breads and rolls along with cookies and crackers. She can basically eat the same foods as she did before which is wonderful.

We are hopeful that she will outgrow this sensitivity at some point but in the mean time she is doing great.

VBS

This is the third year that I've participated in Vacation Bible School at our church. It's the third year I've been in charge of the arts and crafts....you'd think I'd know what I'm doing by now. Nope! It's pretty chaotic and we kind of learn as we go. We sure have fun though and the kids seem to enjoy it, and that's all that really matters. Here are a few pictures from the week.

Bubble art: bubble juice + food dye + straw. Just blow.

Wesley aged out of VBS this year so they put him work as the puppeteer. He did great!

Abby hard at work decorating a sun catcher.

Prayer boxes & night lights.