Camp - i - do

Ok, just fyi, the pictures go backwards. Next time I will know to upload the pictures backwards so that they will be in the correct chronological order. =)

Back in the beginning of August, we went to Erik and Jaclyn's wedding in Michigan. They are friends of ours from college. This was no ordinary wedding. It started on a Wednesday and went through Sunday. We of course didn't go until Friday. This would be Chali and Karis' first camping trip! The drive up was beautiful...a perfect day. We set up camp without a hitch and took off immediately to find some food. That evening there was a clown named Pink-E doing face painting, balloon animals,hats, swords and magic tricks. She was a BIG hit. That night there was an open mic up at the lodge...lots of great musicians!

So, I had a really hard time sleeping that night because of all the other campers. (Anyone that knows me, knows I'm a light sleeper.) There were also a few guys (including Erik I believe) who stayed up at the lodge until like 3am singing their hearts out. I finally got to sleep and then it started pouring, which actually aided me in my sleep troubles. However, soon after the sun rose, it began to drip slightly into the tent. Nothing too bad though. I got out of the tent and tried to get the water off of the top of the tent. Meanwhile, it's still pouring.

So Saturday we try figuring out what to do until the wedding. Boating, putt-putt, and all of the usual activites are not really an option in the sheets of rain. The girls and I ended up sitting in the car most of the morning while Austin worked on the music in the lodge. We ran into the lodge to get dressed for the wedding and literally looked like we walked in from the shower...dripping. So I just put some bobbypins in my hair and gave up, hairy armpits and all. Whatever. It was a hippie wedding. Who cares? =)

Right before the ceremony, the rain stopped and the sun peeked through. It was a beautiful ceremony! Like nothing I've ever experienced before. Jaclyn's dress was amazing! One of her friends made it! Gorgeous. After the ceremony we ate the most amazing food. All fresh, organic food from her parents farm. Oh so delicious! Then we went back outside for a dancing/drumming performance. And guess who performed? Abass...from Chali's school! Abass taught African drumming at Chali's school last year and will be again this year. Chali had befriended a little African girl named Seera. sp? who's tent was next to ours. We eventually found out that she lived in Ft. Wayne and then after that found out that she lives with Abass. I put 2 and 2 together and figured out that she was the little girl that danced in front of the drummers at Chali's performance last year! Crazy. Small world. Anyway, back to the wedding...the drummers and dancers were incredible! Lots of dancing that night back in the lodge. I do believe Chali had her first dance with a boy. Pictures below. =)

I slept better that night. I slept in the car. Haha. They made us breakfast on Sunday morning. Again, delicious food. Homemade bagels. Yummy! What a wonderful time we had. Despite the rain. It was an great experience. But I have to say, I was so very very happy to have my bed back! =)





Chali and I at the reception. I think this is the curliest my hair has ever been.



Karis with the mic. Definately her Daddy's daughter!


Chali's dance partner.


Not sure what this look is, but it makes me a little uncomfortable. =)


The lovely bride and groom!


The kids dancing with the drummers.


One of the main drummers.


Austin and Erik.


Karis was clapping to the beat, on beat, the whole time!


The incredible dancers!


Chali, chillin' outside the tent. (before the rain)


Karis in her new sleeping bag!


The girlies with Pink-E the clown.

Karis' Health

Last Friday, Karis had an appointment at the allergist for allergy testing. Oh my goodness, 3 hours of sitting, needle pricking, sitting, dr. talking, needle pricking, sitting, dr. talking, dr. talking, and more dr. talking. So after he talked to me for an hour, (I am not kidding), I walked away more confused about everything than I was when I went in. Granted, I did pick up on a couple of things, but overall, holy crap. Ok, so maybe overwhelmed is a better way to describe how I felt, and still feel.

The results...
Karis is allergic to dogs, cats, dust, molds, trees, trees native only to Ft. Wayne, wheat, milk, and a couple others that were on her arm that I had to read a few hours after we got home. I am not sure what exactly they are, but I wrote them down and they will be discussed at our next appointment, where they will have a book about Karis and her allergens all typed up and ready for us.
In the meantime, we are to unbunk the bunk beds because she isn't allowed to sleep under the top bunk anymore. Apparently all of the dust mites, skin cells, etc. breed in mattresses more than anywhere else and that is all falling on her all night as she sleeps. Ewww. Even more ewww, was listening to him explain that dust mites produce 200 times their body mass in poop which also floats around and we breath in.

So what we are instructed to do...
We have to buy the allergy encasings for all the mattresses, pillows, and comforters so that these nasty little dust mites (and their poop) won't bother Karis. We have to buy a humidity gage so that we always keep the humidty between 35 and 45. We have to buy the allergy filters for the ac/heater. (did that yesterday.) He would like us to buy a hepa air cleaner. She is not allowed to use down pillows anymore, which both the girls use, so new pillows are in order. Tiara has to have a bath at least every other week. I am supposed to wash her sheets in hot water twice a week. (this one I find comical.) I am lucky to change the sheets every 2 weeks!

We were going to move the twin beds into our room (it will become a guest room when we move upstairs), and my in-laws were planning to bring a full sized bed up sometime soon, which I was planning to put in the girls room. For those of you who don't already know, the girls both sleep on the bottom bunk, which is a twin. Karis is starting to fall between the bed and the wall. They are just getting too big to sleep in a twin together. But the only way Karis will sleep through the night is with her sister. So as I told the dr. about Dwight and Zannie bringing up the full sized mattress, he begins to frown. (You must imagine, he is very "Rainman"esque anyway.) He is not too keen on her sleeping on an old bed. He would much prefer that we bought a new mattress. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? How in the world are we going to afford all of this???

So they believe that her allergies are breaking down her immune system and causing her to get more serious illnesses. I have to take her today to get blood drawn because they are going to do an immune system test to see if hers is weak. Oh, and by the way, the doctor, nurses, AND the front desk staff all said that she is the best kid they've had in years! She didn't cry, whine, scream, nothing. They said she was better than many adults they have in there! They probably poked her back with 100 different allergens and then did her arms with about 10 on each arm. What a trooper!

Back on Stage!

We have some fun and exciting news!
Last weekend, I received an email from a little theater here in Fort Wayne. It is an old fire station that they have turned into a theater now called the Firehouse Theater. Anyway, the email said that they were auditioning for Noah's Ark and needed 8 children. So I asked Chali if she would be interested in auditioning. Of course she said absolutely! So Saturday Jen and I took the girls to the theater. Now Karis saw Chali up there and wanted to audition as well, so we humored her. Then the director, Paul, asked my sister and I if we wanted to. I thought it would be good for Chali to see Mommy up on stage (even though it's been 12 years since I've been up there!) So I got up there and read a part and so did Jen.

Paul ended up calling me on Tuesday and let me know that plans had changed. He didn't get enough men to audition for Noah's Ark, so he was changing it to a musical comedy melodrama called "Wash Your Troubles Away." He said he would like both Chali and Karis to play the little waif orphans and then he offered me the lead and my sister a part alongside my character! Here's a short rundown of the storyline...

Olympia (my character) is the owner of a laundrymat in the town of Digalittledeeper. Olympia discovered while washing clothes that there were gold flecks and nuggets sometimes in the pockets leftover from the miners. So she's been saving all of this gold for some years and is now ready to retire and sell the place to Ida (Jen's character.) Well some of the villianous people find out and end up somehow killing Olympia with a heart attack I believe. Then I come back in the second act as my twin sister Ophelia. I haven't gotten very far, but from what I am understanding, there ends up being some big hoorah about who should get the laundrymat and whether or not there was foul play in the death of Olympia. Chali and Karis get to sing a couple of songs and I am so excited to see that! I was a little worried about Karis but Paul said even if she just runs around the stage, it will be fine because they are supposed to be dirty, unruly little waif orphans. Heehee! I read through a bit last night with Chali and it looks to be hilarious!

It will be showing September 11th-20th. We are so excited!

Karis and Jojo's 3rd Birthday!

Yes, yes. It has been forever since I blogged, I know. Things have been a little crazy around here. But it's looking like things may slow down a little. Although, as soon as I say that, something is bound to happen. Thought I would share Karis' 3rd birthday...

So, Karis shared her birthday with her friend Jojo. Jojo's mom, Joy, used to be Austin's assistant and is a dear friend of ours. Well Karis and Jojo have the exact same birthday and both turned 3 this year. We decided to have a joint party so we didn't have to miss each other's. Joy was a doll and provided her house for the party. She has a mini moonwalk that she set up for the kids to jump around in. She also has a few hula-hoops that Karis just loves. Check out her hip movement! (don't forget to push the play button! It's a video.)

The head movement is pretty great too. =)

We played the limbo and freeze dance!

















And sometimes when they froze, they had to make a funny face or be a certain animal. Here's Karis as an elephant.














And let me tell you, Chali is the most enthusiastic freeze dancer of all!














After all the other people left, and it was just us, Chali decided she was going to torture everybody with the hose. But they loved it! =)


Jojo loved his Spiderman. Karis liked her gifts as well, but I think she preferred the hula-hooping. =)

Proud Mama & Daddy

We got our first "note home" about Chali a couple of days ago! I was checking Chali's backpack Wednesday night and found a little blue note from her afterschool care teacher Miss Denise. The note said "Chali was talking back today and not listening. Especially during the tornado drill when we were suppose to listen to the instructions." We asked her what this was about and she started crying. We told her she was not in trouble we just wanted to talk about it. Well, through many devastating cries she told us that she was not the one talking during the tornado drill. She was extremely upset and said that the teacher was lying about her. However, she kind of owned up to the talking back, even though she couldn't remember what she had said. So we explained to her that we would call Miss Denise to ask her about the not listening part because we didn't want anybody lying about our little girl. I called the teacher yesterday and left her a message to see what had happened and see if we needed to take any other action with Chali, since she was having a hard time remembering. She called me this morning and explained that she sent several notes home that day. For some reason all the kids seemed quite rowdy. During lunch Chali and another boy were talking and not listening when they were suppose to, then the little boy started saying inappropriate things and Chali was feeding off of it. So Miss Denise moved them to different tables, and when they were suppose to be moving Chali just stood there and said, (you can imagine the sass) "Well WHERE am I suppose to go?" Denise said she was shocked because she had never had any problems from Chali, especially.

BUT, you will be proud to know that first thing yesterday when she got to afterschool, Chali pulled Miss Denise aside as soon as she walked in the door and said, "Miss Denise, I need to talk to you." And she apologized to her for the way that she acted...all on her own! Proud Mama & Daddy!

Our deal with our 2 yr old

Karis started noticing that Mommy and Chali and Jee, and just about every other female (Daddy as well though) all have earrings. So for the last couple of weeks she has been asking if she can get her ears pierced. Of course, we had no problem with that just haven't had the time. So in our battle to get rid of soo-soo (pacifier) I came up with the idea of letting her get her ears pierced if she threw away her soo-soos. I told her big girls get their ears pierced and big girls don't have soo-soos. She agreed whole heartedly. So we began the soo-soo disposal...

That was yesterday. As you can imagine, there was no nap after that. =) Bedtime was in Mommy and Daddy's bed and I laid down with her until she fell asleep which was in about 10 seconds. But no fuss. I moved her to her bed and she slept through the night. She woke in the morning yelling for soo-soo, but we quickly changed the conversation. Chali told me "Hey Mom, I have something to tell you. I found a soo-soo behind the bed and I almost kept it because I was gonna give it to her if she woke up in the middle of the night." Haha! Chali didn't want Karis to wake her up.

So, we met Daddy today at lunchtime and Karis got her ears pierced!

Of course, again there was no nap today and she whined for soo-soo a few times. She told Jee and I "No I want my ears pierced anymore. I want soo-soo." Whenever she puts no in front of I want, it means I don't want. But we showed her that soo-soo was in the big trash can and she'd could wave goodbye to them again, but they weren't coming back out. She seemed to be ok with that. Tonight at bathtime, she told me once again she didn't want her ears pierced anymore. But after bath she said "I wanna see my pretty headband and earrings in the mirror." So I picked her up and held her in front of the mirror. She cocked her head and said, "I keep my earrings. I like them." Put her to bed with Chali and she asked for soo-soo a couple of times, but after kisses and hugs didn't say anything else and went right to sleep! Yay! Night #2...let's make it through!

Funnies

I have some Chali funnies to tell that have happened over the last couple of weeks. First, we were in the store the other day and she found a shirt that she liked a lot. She just kept talking about how cute it was and how much she loved it and then she comes out with, "It looks so good, I just wanna dunk it in my coffee!" Now you have to imagine this little girl talkin' "hood" (I don't want to offend anyone here) with her head rolling from side to side on her little neck. SOOO funny I stopped in the middle of the store and busted out laughing. I asked her where in the world she heard that and she said "Madagascar 2." Geesh the things they soak up in one time.

So, I have been trying to get Chali to stop sucking her thumb. (All suggestions would be quite welcome here. Also, soo-soo's (pacifiers.)) She really wants the Camp Rock cd, so I told her that if she would not suck her thumb for 2 weeks, I would get her the cd. She agreed whole heartedly. I was gone last weekend though and of course on Monday she was sucking her thumb. So I said, "Chali I thought you were working on the Camp Rock cd. But you are sucking your thumb and now we have to start over." Smart little grown up thing says, "Yeah, you know, I think I'll just stick to my allowance." I can't win! =) Little stinker!