Stevens in a Nutshell: It's a Spring Thing

The weekend after we moved into our home Alexander had to go in for surgery to place tubes in his ears. He hasn't had a lot of ear infections, only a few, but his hearing wasn't as sharp as it should be. It was quite the round of doctor visits. It started with a hearing test at school. He came home with a recommendation to follow up with an audiologist. After that hearing test it was recommended we needed to see an ENT doctor. Alexander was given some medicine and we had another visit to the audiologist. We were sent back to the ENT who suggested Alexander needed tubes. At this point they were 99% sure his hearing loss was due to fluid in his ears. They were talking about taking out his tonsils and something about his adenoids. I told them to just put the tubes in and we would go from there. It was actually a quick day at the hospital. I think we were there a total of 3 maybe 4 hours?

he loved, what he called, his yellow banana socks:

afterward he was pulled to the car in the wagon. He was pretty groggy.

He slept for a couple hours when we got home then was up playing, acting his normal self. Other than throwing up on the way home the anesthetic didn't effect him too much.
He thought this was all an awesome adventure.

A few weeks later we had Spring Break at school. Jake had to work but I still wanted to get the kids out for some fun. I decided to travel 5 hours and spend a whole week partying. It was a last minute idea that sounded a bit crazy but ended up being a lot of fun:

I took a lot of pictures to document all we crammed into the week:

We got to stay at my mom and dads house. We were gone from Mon-Fri and managed to do a lot:

Random pictures first:

The kids loved this multicolored fence by my parents house:

yeah for Spring time!

Our first adventure was an aquarium. I was grateful my mom was able to come with us and help me wrangle kids:

Kaleb loved the penguins most of all:

There was a whale statue in the lobby. Breahna decided she should crawl under the flippers ... help, stuck! I wonder how many kids have had this same problem.

Just before we walked out the door we realized they had 4D movies. Wish we would have seen the theater earlier because we would have gone to all the movies. At least we were able to catch the last show of the day. All about ancient sea monsters:

The next day we went to a farm. My mom has a grandparent pass to a local place that has museums, gardens and fun things galore. Every time we come we try something new. This time it was the farm:

The highlight of the farm was the horses they could ride. They wanted to stay there the whole time. It wasn't very crowded so they were able to take lots of turns:

Evelyn really loved it and didn't want to ever get off:

Thank you mom for helping me wrangle kids again!

It was a gorgeous spring day with perfect weather:

Breahna's favorite; the pigs!

Evelyn also thought they were pretty funny:

We also got to go on an old fashioned carriage ride:

Alexander was begging me to teach him how to play chess. I don't really know how. But he finally convinced grandpa to teach him:

Next day was the zoo. This time I didn't have my mom's help but the kids were all awesome:

Breahna loved the monkeys

especially the new baby:

I paid a little bit more for a train ride but it was for sure worth it:

fun day in the sun!

when we got back to my parents house grandma had a belated birthday present for Evelyn. Everyone was excited to help her open it:

yeah for books! This one was fabulous. My kids laugh every time we read it. It's about a bear who wants a pet kid:

I have gone on a few outings with just me and the kids. Even a few trips to see family but this trip helped me realize there's all kinds of things we can do just the 5 of us. Jake can work while we play and have fun. Can't wait to plan our next adventure!

Just before we left Jake and I picked out some paint at the local hardware store. With a first layer spread across the wall I was sure nervous about our bold color choice:

When me and the kids got back from Spring Break Jake had the room back together and I breathed a sigh of relief. After several coats the red looked much better and I really did like it: