Never too early...

...for Hop on Pop.

Please pay no attention to the snotty nose, tis the season!

Happy Halloween!

School's out for the summer!

It was Little Miss's last day of school today. She had a wonderful Kindergarten teacher that will be missed.

I can't believe my baby will be in first grade next year!

Blueberries and Cherries

\We have enjoyed our strawberries at the farm so much this year. It has me in the mood for more fruits. The only other fruit the farm offers is raspberries. We are looking forward to those but we were also hoping for blueberries. I did some homework on http://www.pickyourown.org/ and found a blueberry and cherry farm just south of here. It took us about 30 minutes to drive down to Mood's Farm in Mullica Hill, New Jersey. They have a beautiful farm and we enjoyed our afternoon at the farm.

There were so many blueberry bushes filled with ripe berries, it was easy for the girls to pick. Peanut fell asleep in the car on the way down, but we were just across the driveway picking berries, so we let her finish her nap in the van. She woke up a little while later and enjoyed picking with us. I think she ate more than she picked, but I couldn't really blame her. The blueberries were excellent straight from the bushes!

After we had picked our share of blueberries, we drove over to the cherry trees. They had sweet cherries to pick and we were lucky. Sweet Cherries at Mood's sell out quick. The season opened on Monday and they were nearing the end already on Wednesday. There weren't any cherries low to the ground, but they had lots of ladders around the cherry trees. The girls loved climbing up the ladders to pick the cherries. Even Peanut did it without a problem.

 Can you see all the cherries still up in the tree? Little Miss did her best to reach all the high ones. Next year, I think we are bringing Daddy!

We even picked up some apple cider donuts and a cherry pitter while at the farm. A big thank you to Mood's Farm for a "fruitfull" day! We had so much fun! Can't wait for next year.

The girls are begging to go back to pick sour cherries when they open next week. We will wait and see if that happens. I don't know what to do with sour cherries. Any ideas??

Swim Team

Little Miss has decided to become a Downs Farm Dolphin this year. She joined swim team at our local swim club. This pleased MJ. He was a good swimmer, and Grandma J. was a great swimmer. I think it runs in the family blood line. I am looking forward to her really learning how to swim. We started swim practice last week. At that point, she refused to put her face in the water. We had a tough day of tears, we prayed for some courage, and then something clicked. She did it! She has a long way to go, but at least she's getting her head wet. GO DOLPHINS!!!
ps. this summer, practice starts at 8:15 for the little ones. So much for sleeping in...

Baby no more

It's official. My baby is growing up. (tear) We no longer have a crib in the house. We changed the crib into a daybed for Peanut. She was so excited! Miss Lexa Loo is also now without her toddler rail and now thinks she is "almost six", sleeping in a big girl bed, just like Little Miss. Crossing our fingers that all goes well tonight. They've been in there for thirty minutes and have only come out once so far. Wish us luck!

An update to the update...

Here we are a day later and a day sicker. Little Miss went to school today where her teacher told me "they are dropping like flies!". Everyone is sick. Kinda makes me want to keep her home tomorrow. We will see how she is in the morning.
I almost kept her home today. She does have a little cough, but I was the one who felt horrible. Like, didn't want to move, close the blinds, everyone needs to be quiet horrible. So for a minute or two, I contemplated calling her in sick, just so I didn't have to get out of bed.
MJ has been crazy busy at work, so there was no way for me to take a "sick day". I was worried that I had a sinus infection because my head was killing me and it felt like a ton of bricks, pressing on my sinuses, but my mucus was clear and I had only been sick since Monday. Usually you drag everyone to the doctors office, wait forever, and they tell you it is just a virus. Go home, rest, drink lots of fluids, and come back if it gets any worse. I was not going to put myself through all of that so I googled it. How to relieve sinus pressure... I tried a few of the online tricks, and after a nice and long hot shower I was feeling much better. Nowhere near healthy but at least functioning.
The rest of our afternoon was fine until about 4:00 when Miss Loo woke us all up from our naps. She had an earache. By now I know, that if she is crying about her ear hurting, she has an ear infection. I called the pediatrician and they could get us in at 8:15pm. That's only fifteen minutes past her bedtime. Great! Maybe we would get home by 9:30.
Luckily, the moms at Kindergarten pickup today were talking about a new Urgent Care Center that just opened in Cherry Hill. I called and they said to come right over!
Within an hour and fifteen minutes we had filled out the new patient paperwork, saw the nurse, and the doctor, and had prescriptions for both me and Lexa Loo. I decided it couldn't hurt to have them look at me too while we were there. A HUGE Thanks to the moms in the pickup line. I owe you all coffee or something.
Hope to be back tomorrow with a Healthy Home Post. Gonna let these drugs and some much needed rest work.

Drowning in snot

Have I mentioned that all of my girls have colds? My oldest is off to school today for the first time this week. My two youngest are still too little to take any medicine to dry up their noses. The baby hasn't eaten in two days (only wants milk) and has a nasty croupy cough. For these reasons she refuses to sleep at night for more than two hours at a time. If you need me, I will be wiping noses and getting covered in snot. Happy Wednesday to you all.