Last Day of School

The kids had their last day of school on Thursday.  They have a week break and then they move on to their classroom for next year.  They both had great years!  I was beyond thrilled with both of their teachers.  I will miss Logan's teachers tremendously.  They have both been huge cheerleaders for him and I really really appreciated that.  Isabel's lead teacher will be Logan's teacher next year (yay!), but this means that his classmates will not be in his class as they all have a different teacher.  I think this was the best decision for him.  Because he already knows the teacher and room I feel like it will be an easier transition on him.  At least I hope so.  We will miss his friends, but honestly, it wasn't a very cohesive group.  I'm excited to see what this year has in store for Logan!  We're still waiting on his AISD evaluation and to see if he will go into the PPCD program.

I'm so pleased and excited about Isabel's teacher for next year.  I've heard great things about her and I'm so excited that Isabel will be in her class!  She is very sweet and has a masters degree in early childhood education.  She has had children in her classroom with peanut allergies, so it's not new to her.  She was very receptive to the letter we gave her to pass along to the other parents in the classroom about Isabel's allergies.  We also printed out the snack safely list that I printed out online.  She was happy to have that information and hand it out to the parents as well.  Isabel was excited to demonstrate the new Auvi-Q epinephrine injection trainer.  She nailed it again!  I know we (obviously) can't rely on Isabel to inject herself, or know when to inject herself, but the fact that she knows how to do it and hopefully will not be as afraid if we ever need to use it on her.

I'm currently writing lists and then more lists trying to prepare for our Montana/California adventure.  There is a lot to think about.  We packed and sent a suitcase ahead in the RV, so I'm trying to just take carry on luggage.  I'll have a car seat, carry on luggage and both kids to wrangle with a 37 minute layover in Denver.  Oh, and I also have to try and be really nice and ask the passengers around me to not open peanuts during the flights. At least Frontier doesn't serve peanuts during the flight.  We'll have at least 6 auto injectors of epinephrine with us.  We also need to carry on our nebulizer and all of our liquid xopenex.  It's not huge, so that's a plus.  Just lots to strategize and organize.  I'm really really excited though!  Isabel has been talking about going to GGBs house and the trail she pained with chalk last year.  Can't wait to see my brother and sister and nephews!  We all miss Tank too, so it will be nice to see him again!

Ethan, Joanne and Gramma come for a visit

After much begging, we got Aunt Joanne, Ethan and Gramma over for a quick visit!  Joanne and Ethan were feeling super fresh being just 2 days off of a quick 17 hour plane ride from China.  No big deal, right?  Sunday the girls minus Isabel went to San Marcos to the outlets in search of wedding shoes.  We left Logan, Isabel and Ethan home with Brian.  Ethan is a super easy going little guy.  I think fun was had by everyone.

Brian said it was pretty much gang up on Logan day.  Poor Logan.

He can't get any cuter.

Except Tank.  I'm pretty sure the food Ethan sneaks Tank doesn't make up for the hair pulling!  I'm sure Tank is thrilled to be in Houston waiting to go on the RV with everyone.  Just thrilled.

Monday we got up and were either headed to Sea World or the Children's Museum in New Braunfels.  Since it was supposed to be 100 degrees we decided to stay indoors and go with the Children's Museum.  I had heard fantastic things about this place, and while it was fun, nice and clean, it was nowhere near the caliber or San Jose and Houston.  San Jose is still hands down the best Children's Museum.  One day we will go back!  We did have a lot of fun.  Isabel pretty much stayed like this:

She lifted the veil to check out the baby crocodiles

 

 

 

Check out this adorable little astronaut!

According to Isabel it was raining and we needed to seek shelter.

Just a little camping in the wedding dress.

We went a little crazy and decided that Isabel could have a sleepover in Logan's room.  I was fully expecting her to end up back in her room in her bed with Gramma.  But, those two talked for a bit and actually went to sleep!  Isabel woke up once form a leak and Logan woke up once just because, but other that that it was great!

I peeked in to get a picture.

Wish Lucas could have been here!

Joanne captured this pretty picture with her fancy new camera.

Isabel is pretty smitten.

The kids had fun, ate some lunch I packed and then had some more fun before heading back to Austin.  I was a great hostess and had no food in the house.  At all.  It was food or clean sheets.  I think everyone appreciated the clean sheets.  So I made the fun trip to the grocery store on a Sunday afternoon.  We made some delicious fajitas and relaxed.  Monday the group saw where Isabel and Logan go to preschool and then were back off to Houston.

New Allergist and an IMAX

I went in for Isabel's appointment with a new allergist yesterday.  I wasn't anticipating a long wait as it seemed they had wide open availability when I called to make the appointment the day before and I wasn't actually seeing the allergist, but her nurse practitioner.  We ended up waiting about 30 minutes.  30 minutes is a long time for a 3 and 4 year old.  Logan was doing ok until we all had to go to the bathroom.  Then the nurse rounded the corner and startled him and he had a full on meltdown.  It took a long long time to calm him down.  Once he was finally calm Isabel went to do some testing and the nurse took note about what has been going on.  The nurse practitioner came in and was great.  She was very understanding and receptive of my fears and anxieties, especially about our upcoming trip.  She renewed all of our prescriptions and gave us a prescription on prednisolone to take just in case (something our old allergist wouldn't do) and a prescription for the newest epinephrine auto injector, the Auvi-Q.  It talks!  Isabel took the trainer from me and listened to the directions and injected herself the fist time correctly!  I was very impressed.  Hopefully we will never have to use it, but it's good to know she understands what this is all about.  That is, as well as a 4 year old can understand.

I'm excited to meet the new doctor.  She trained at National Jewish Health in Denver, the leading allergy and asthma hospital in the US.  A friend recommended her very highly and the NP said I was going to love her.  :-)

Today we packed a picinic lunch and ate on the grounds of the state capital.  There are tons of trees and shaded spots to pick from.  We ate quickly and headed over to the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum to see an IMAX film!  We saw 'Rocky Mountain Express.'  It was all about the trans Canadian railway and it was so good!  I don't think Logan had the full perspective when he was sitting in his own seat, but as soon as Brian put him on his lap his little hands went crazy!  He was shaking them and his feet any time a shot of the moving steam engine came on the screen.  It was really cool.  I could have spend the entire 43 minutes just watching Logan watch the IMAX.  Isabel fell asleep about 2/3 of the way through.  I think the Benadryl kicked in and she couldn't resist it's sedative forces.  The scenery of Canada was stunning.  Seeing a restored steam train make the cross country journey was pretty spectacular.

She had to try on brother's 'conductor' outfit.