Our Trip to Indianapolis

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(Caution, it was X-Rated day at the zoo!)

We packed up the kids and headed to Indy to spend the weekend with Grama Shari and Papa Ed. The kids had a great time at the Indianapolis Zoo. In fact, we spent 2 days there! We got to pet sharks, which their skin is like sandpaper verses rubbery like a dolphin, and we also got to feed the giraffes sweet potatoes. It was pretty awesome!

Libby was super excited to show Jason and I "the boss"chair. You can only tell people what to do if you're sitting in this chair! If I knew how to crochet, I would make a little throw that said, "I'm the boss."

The kids were definitely worn out time the days were over! There wasn't a day when they didn't fall asleep on the way back to the motel!

The Bubble Gum Experiement

Maison came up with a really great Science Fair Project this year! He wants to figure out what brand of bubble gum would blow the biggest bubble! The following is the conversation that came about in the car.

"Hey Mom, can we figure out what kind of gum blows the biggest bubbles?" Maison asks.
I reply, "That sounds like a great idea!"

"Do you think you and Daddy could blow the bubbles for me? Because I can't blow bubbles very well." he says somewhat disappoint with his bubble blowing ability.

"Daddy and I would love to help you! I bet we could find some other people to help too." I say trying to lift his spirits.

All of a sudden from the backseat, in the most polite tiny voice, we hear, "Maison, I could help you if you want." Libby says trying to kiss up.

Maison frustratedly says, "Libby, you can't even blow a bubble! I'm older and my bubbles are small!."

With her feelings hurts she says, "Na-uh, look at this."

I look up in the rear view mirror and she is blowing the biggest bubble I have ever seen! When I say biggest bubble, I am saying biggest for the kind of gum she was chewing...Orbit! It literally was almost the size of her head!

Needless to say, it was on like Donkey Kong!

The Bubble Gum Experiment

Step 1: Ask a Question
What brand of gum blows the biggest bubble?

Step 2: Do Research

My Mom and I bought as many different kinds of bubble gum we could find. We bought Super Bubble, Double Bubble, Hubba Bubba, Bubblicious, Bubble Yum, and Rainblo.

Step 3: Hypothesis

I think Bubblicious will blow the biggest bubble.

Step 4: Experiment

I gave each of my participants one piece from each brand. As they chewed and blew bubbles, I had them rank their bubbles 1-6, 1 being the largest and 6 being the smallest.

Step 5: Conclusion

5 out of 6 participants said Hubba Bubba blew the biggest bubble!

6 Months Old

This month was quite a month! We are giving her more table food. It is amazing how things change from child to child! We took all of the kids to see Monsters Vs. Aliens. She loved the action and the popcorn!

Iz is eating 2nd stage foods and more table food! We took Maison to dinner for his birthday where she ate his applesauce and some fries. She is also way more comfortable rolling over. Iz is also making more sounds...dada and blabla. My favorite is her pirate...arh.

Squiz was quite busy. She spent some time with Grama Shari and Papa Ed, still hates peaches, and had her first strawberry sundae from the Dairy Queen. You are getting so big and changing so much!

Easter Birthday Weekend

The one thing I really love about Maison's school is the fact you can "call a spade a spade". With that said, we enjoyed a great Good Friday! The kids and I spent the day together getting things ready for Easter Egg Dyeing.

As a kid, we always dyed Easter Eggs on Good Friday while watching The Sound of Music. I was extremely disappointed to learn that The Sound of Music would only be on Saturday night this year, so we had to do without. (However, it would be worth purchasing if I could find it to ensure that this fiasco would not happen again.) The kids had a great time and they even got Jason involved!

We decided to take Maison out for dinner on Saturday because Papa Ed had to head back to Indy early on Sunday. He wanted to eat "at that sweet place," Red's Ale House. So we ate a delicious dinner and headed home.

We awoke on Sunday morning to find our eggs had been hidden and our baskets filled with treats! After the kids found their eggs, enjoyed a couple of treats, and scoped out their Easter baskets, we headed over to Grama Shari and Papa Ed's house. There were treats and cards awaiting their arrival as well.

We agreed with Maison that we would have Easter in the morning and his birthday in the evening, as long as he could have cake for breakfast. Sounded like a doable compromise for us. Maison and Libby had cake and icecream for breakfast while the rest of us enjoyed a delicious eggbake! Papa and Grammy let Maison open their gift in the morning. He spent the rest of the afternoon playing "Cars" on the Wii.

We had Grammy and Uncle over for Maison's birthday dinner (Chicken and beans) and had more cake and icecream. Maison got some really great gifts. Thanks to all those that sent cards, money, and gifts. They were greatly appreciated!

Easter Program 2009

Maison's school had their Easter Program tonight. Everything seemed to be going off without a hitch...until Maison got warmed up. He must have shed those nervous bugs after a couple of songs because his inner divo was released!

The kids all sing songs songs together, then they break it up into rooms (k-3rd and 4th-8th), then by grade levels where they recite their memory work. As you can see by Maison's group, there are only 4 2nd graders.

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Who's Who Among the Allen Kids

Please cast your vote in our poll. Look for our poll on the right-hand side of the page. Good Luck and have fun!

Fabulous: Part 1

Grandmere' Mary and Papa Dan came down for the weekend to watch Libby's dance recital. She told me she was a little nervous because Grammy and Papa had never seen her dance before. All in all, the girls did a great job! They have two more shows: The Spring Show and a pregame show for the Cedar Rapids Kernels!

Rollerskating Party

Maison's school had their annual rollerskating party tonight in Wellman, IA. The kids had a blast. Last year we bought Maison rollerskates for his birthday, and he's been practicing ever since just for this night. Libs didn't do too shabby either. No broken bones, but a few bruises.

SURPRISE

Click the play button for some birthday party fun!

5 Months Old

This has been a busy month! At the beginning of the month Iz loved playing on her side. She would be able to roll over if she would just lift her head! Her entire body is on her front except her head.

She is still eating her baby food. The thicker the better! She absolutely hates peaches! Will not no matter what eat them! We'll try again at a later time.

Maison and Libby went to Rolfe for Spring Break, so it was just Sqiz and I. It was a rough week without my great helpers. There was no one to entertain her but me and I got boring real quick! I had all these great notions of getting some long over due things done, but that never happened. Some days I never even got a shower. It was all worth it! We had a great time just playing!

Iz rolled over the day after my birthday and scared herself half to death! She can do it, but isn't quite sure because she can't get back over.

So Jason and I are watching one of our programs that we record Sunday evening. During a commercial break I decide to use the restroom. As I was walk back toward the bathroom, I step into something wet. I immediately blame the dog and assume she peed on the floor. If it was dog pee, man, she must of really had to go!

After some exploration, we discovered water all over the basement. Jason opened the storage room door and we were greeted with a quarter of an inch of water all over the floor! What the...?!@#* Of course it had been raining all weekend! After some further investigation, Jason discovered that the outlet the sump-pump was plugged into wasn't working. (We had some wiring done for free and the breaker in the box was labeled wrong!).

With the help of our neighbor Jeff, we began taking pictures and sucking up as much water as possible as well as moving everything to higher ground! I called the insurance company as well as Service Master. What a racket!

Service Master said they would be at our house at 7pm. They didn't so up until 10:30pm and wouldn't even tell us the rough pricing of anything. It was...do you have insurance?...and ...sign here. Needless to say when the insurance adjuster came the next day, we crapped! We were looking at $5500.00 at a minimum! That's right FIVE THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS! What the...?!@#* We (by we I mean Jason) took matters into his own hands and began doing most of the work himself. Thanks to Jason's awesome handyman skills and his cousin Tyler's connection in flooring we are looking at about $3000.00. $1997.81 to dry our carpeting and remove 5 garbage bags of padding, and the rest in new padding, relaying of the carpet, and tile flooring. Hard to believe the drying cost more than the padding and tile!

We got lucky in the storage room because Jason was in the process of turning that into the toy room, so we actually didn't have anything in there! We caught it soon enough to get everything to higher ground, so none of our things were damaged. VERY LUCKY!

Happy Birthday Grama Shari

We celebrated Grama Shari's birthday tonight at our house, complete with pizza, presents, and a Dairy Queen icecream cake! Just for the record, my Dad's present to Grammy is in the Santa bag! Squizzy had her first bite of icecream cake. After the first initial sock, she was grunting for more!

Big Girls Don't Cry: Part II

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Part II of this recital was originally scheduled for Friday February 13! There was a freak snowstorm and the show was canceled! What do you expect for a Friday the 13th?!

Unfortunately Daddy and Papa Ed were unable to attend this show :( Libs was a little sad, but was cheered up instantly when her brother gave her a flower!

Their new dance they are working on is Fabulous from High School Musical 2! All of the girls need a purse and a pair of sunglasses. I wonder which of Libby's 10 million purses she will choose? (That girl has more purses than anyone I have ever seen!)

Jurassic Pack

Tonight was Maison's Blue and Gold Banquet for scouts. The theme this year was Jurassic Pack. The boys had Dinosaurs all over our tables. It was really cool. Everyone in Maison's Den received their Wolf badge for completing all of their Achievements. At the end of this school year he will graduate to a Bear. I have lots of patches to get sewn on his shirt! I am behind the ball! They also had an official uniform inspection and Maison received a 100%! He was the only scout to have official Cub Scout socks! I should get a gold star for my efforts as well! Below is a picture of Maison making his best wolf face! Pretty scary!

4 Months Old

Here's our little Izzy McSquizzy. She is such a good baby! (All of our kids have been great babies! We've been extremely lucky!) I was somewhat disappointed when I took Iz to her 4 month check-up. Don't get me wrong, she has been great and super healthy, but I really was thinking she has been our chubbiest baby to date. Maison was 2 months early and still doesn't have an ounce of fat on him and Libs is exactly the same. Izzy on the other hand actually has baby fat. Her skin actually folds over her socks and it is hard to tell where her chubby legs end and her butt begins. It's pretty cool. She is not fat by any means, but I was hoping around the 50th percentile. Masion wasn't really ever on the chart for weight and Libs always hung around the 2% to 5% for quite a while.

I was quite optimistic, but that was soon over. She took her weekly poop, which was HUGE right before her appointment! :( She ended up only being in the 25th percentile for weight even after I had the nurse weigh her twice! She is officially 25 1/4 inches long (75th percentile), 12 lbs 6 1/2 ounces (25th percentile) and her head is 16 1/4 inches (50th percentile). In other words, perfect.

I looked back at the other kids at their 4 month birthday. It's kind of interesting.
Maison: 13 lbs 24 in
Libby: 12 lbs 25 1/2 in
Izzy: 12 lbs 6.5 oz 25 1/4 in

It just doesn't seem possible! We'll see if Iz keeps putting on weight. Looking back at Libby she was the same weight for quite some time until she hit one year when she weighed 17lbs.

(Just a side note, her hair doesn't always stick up, but Daddy loves her little curl on the top so I don't try too hard to comb it down! That will be our little secret.)

Valentine's Day Party

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Libby had her Valentine's Day party yesterday at school with her school friends. Both of the kids worked very hard this year on their Valentine's. We bought sticker kits that had to be assembled. They looked like little postcards. Libby received lots of cards and lots of candy! (Mommy hid all of the candy, but not well, because I noticed the bag is holding much less candy than it should. Soon it will be empty.)

Maison had his class party today at school. Libby and Izzy were both invited to attend his party as well. At school, Maison had been studying the food pyramid and choosing 5 or 6 servings of fruits and vegetables everyday. So as part of their party one of the parents supplied a heart shaped meatloaf and the students provided the fruits and veggies. It was an awesome turn-out and they had a fruit or vegetable from each color: red grapes, strawberries and apples; orange carrots, cantaloupe, and peaches; yellow pineapple; green peppers, celery, beans, grapes, and honeydew; blue berries; purple grapes; white mashed potatoes and bananas.

I was in charge of organizing the class party which also included an activity. We first had everyone make airplanes out of Smarties (the body of the plane), Big Red (the wings of the plane), Lifesavers (the wheels), and a rubber band (wrapped through the wheels and over the gum to hold everything together). We finished the party by making tissue paper hearts.

Maison and Libs had a great time with Maison's school friends. Izzy even got lots of attention from mostly the girls as well! All in all it was a great Valentine's Day and weekend!

Windmill Point

Maison's school went to Windmill Point today to put on a little show for the residents who live there. They sang a few songs, passed out Valentine's cards, and helped make tissue paper flowers with/for the residents. It was a lot of fun and the residents really enjoyed having the kids there. Maison was a little apprehensive at first, but ended up having a great time. Izzy was a hit with the little old Grandma's. Her cheeks were quite red after all of the pinching.

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The Discovery of Sponge Rollers

The other day at the store, we were walking down the shampoo isle when Libby says, "When I'm a mom like you will I have curly hair?" I smile and tell her probably not because her hair is very straight. She is instantly sad and disappointed because she now thinks she can't be a mom. I zip over to the comb isle in search of sponge rollers. I actually find some! I tell Libby she can have curly hair like me if we put these rollers in her hair. Spirits are lifted and she becomes extremely excited.

I make her wait the entire day until after her shower to put the rollers in her hair. She stands very still and is very helpful holding hair and handing me curlers. Right before bed she is bound and determined to take them out. However, I explain that we have to wait until morning. I thought she was going to explode with anticipation!

Morning arrives and right away she is ready to take out the curlers! I talk her into some breakfast, so while she snarfs down her cereal, I begin removing the curlers. She no more than takes her last bite and off to the bathroom she goes to get a look.

I follower her down the hall to discover a most peculiar look on her face. I ask, "What's the matter Libs?" She replies, "Do you think my school friends will think I'm a stranger?" I assured her that her friends would recognize her cute face!
Her school friends really got a kick out of her hair as well as everyone else that ran into her that day. She was feeling pretty proud of herself!

Just Eat It

Click the Play Button to See Izzy Eat for the 1st Time!

We bought Iz a new seat called a Bumbo. It's absolutely great! Jason decided to try it out tonight a feed Izzy some cereal for the first time. I don't know what was funnier, watching Izzy trying to eat for the first time or watching Jason trying to feed her. (He was opening his mouth every time Izzy was suppose to open hers, he even went as far as sticking his tongue out like her!) She seem to enjoy what cereal she managed to swallow!