Last Day of School!

Yesterday was Addilyn and Asher's last day of school!

They seemed pretty happy about it.

Don't look too close at this picture; it's a little bit gross. (But funny.)

Last day as a Kindergartner (and with Mrs. Frederick...sniff, sniff).

Silly boy.

Last day of second grade. It was a bit of a rough year, with a new school and the loss of her beloved Mrs. Decarlo mid-year, but this girl still looks pretty smiley on her last day.

I'm not sure where she got this pose from but she all-of-the-sudden pulled this out.

Off to school.

Waving them off.

Watching them go one more time before summer.

Last day with Ms. Manneman.

One more pic and squeeze with Mrs. Frederick!

The traditional Last-Day-of-School cake. This year it was gluten-free but still delicious. Yay for another school year complete! Now for a fun-filled summer!!

Yet Another New Frontier

Just as we are getting past the majority of Asher's many food allergies and therefore food restrictions, we are embarking on a new set of them in this household. Addilyn has just recently been diagnosed with celiac disease. Since celiac disease is a hereditary autoimmune disorder and I was diagnosed just before Christmas this past year, this finding doesn't come as a complete surprise. It will be an adjustment to us all in some ways.

We did a blood test at our regular doctor's office which indicated that she might have celiac. To confirm this diagnosis, she had to have an endoscopy to see if there was the characteristic damage to her small intestine. For this, we had to travel to children's hospital in Sioux Falls to see a pediatric gastroenterologist. The rooms at the hospital had video games which Addilyn enjoyed trying out.

If you've seen the movie Big Hero 6, you might enjoy, as Addilyn did, the reference to Baymax. "There, there."

After her official diagnosis, we went out to eat her first gluten-free meal at Five Guys. If you ask for your burger without a bun, everything else including the the fries are gluten free. Yum!

Here she is trying some of the gluten free pizza I have been eating for the past few months on pizza nights.
While we weren't aware of how much she had been suffering throughout this school year until recently, it will be nice to see her recover and get some pep back in her step. She is understandably saddened and frustrated, but seems to take solace from the fact that she and I will be able to do this together. She is really a pretty amazing kid.
If you are interested in learning more about celiac disease and the diet restrictions that come along with such a diagnosis, check out https://celiac.org/celiac-disease/what-is-celiac-disease/

First Cookie Bar and some Milkshakes

I don't remember what they were watching but they were definitely enthralled.

I think they are going to find it! If only they would look this hard for their shoes in the morning.

Waiting for Daddy to get home for lunch.

Practicing writing.

So smiley!

It's a hat!

Reading with Daddy.

Tyler was trying to get all four kids balanced up in the air. Albert wasn't real into the idea.

Now, for what you have been waiting for... Asher's first ever cookie bar!  This is his first time trying the ever-famous cookie recipe (which includes baked eggs). He was pretty excited to finally be able to partake.

And it was a delicious as he hoped it would be!!

How about some post-soccer milkshakes?

Daddy makes the absolute best chocolate chip milkshakes. Actually all his milkshake concoctions are delicious (chocolate, strawberry choc chip, peanut butter choc chip, etc) but this is our current favorite.

Slurp.

Two slurpie boys relaxing on the stairs.

New Frontier

A couple of weeks ago, Asher completed a baked egg challenge with his new allergist.  He went to the clinic, ate something with egg baked in it, and everyone watched him for two hours.  He didn't have any reaction and he was pretty excited about it!!

After his baked egg challenge, he celebrated with Burger King. Yay?

After successfully passing this challenge, that meant he could try all sorts of new foods.  Here he is trying a cookie bar.  It's a family favorite. He was pretty excited to finally be able to try it out. Bite!

Washing it down with some milk.

Success!!
Now he is able to eat foods with eggs baked in them (cookies, cake, breads, etc).  He still can't have regular eggs or anything that has egg that hasn't been baked (French toast, pancakes, etc), but baked eggs is a step in that direction.
We have even scheduled his peanut challenge for mid-summer.  If he passes that too, next school year could be very different.  Yay!

The one weird thing about this is that he has had two reactions to baked egg: one to something at church and one to cinnamon rolls at school.  Our theories as to why he had a reaction to those things abound.  Maybe they were not baked as long or at as high of a temperature as the rest.  Maybe the eggs are different (everything he has not had a reaction to has been baked with eggs from the same set of chickens).  Hopefully, with further exposure, he will continue to build a tolerance to eggs and these problems will no longer pop up.

Positively Random

The kids were practicing punches with Daddy in his tae kwon do space.

Hey, we went to the ECC's Midwinter Conference in Denver (way back in January).  This was probably my favorite moment: Albert fell asleep on me.  The best!!

This is us coming back from the birthday trip to Omaha.  Everyone (but Tyler obviously) fell asleep.

Addilyn drew this at school.  She won fourth place in a contest with it.  Way to go, girlie!

At the end of March, we headed to Sioux City for an outing. Mmmm, Chipotle!

While we were there we got to check out this Jackson Pollock painting that was on display at the art museum. It's so big (and fascinating)!

Albert thoroughly enjoyed his ice cream and disc golf with Daddy.

The kids were helping pick asparagus.

We had to air out (and weather treat) our new tent.  It's ginormous!!

For Mother's Day, we went on an adventure.  I wanted pizza so we picked a pizza place in a town we'd never been to and set off.  Unfortunately, we got there and they weren't open on Sundays.  So we set out for another town with a pizza place.  Here we're at Pizza Ranch in Le Mars, IA.

After pizza, we got ice cream at Dairy Queen.  The kids each got their own dipped cone.

So exciting!!

Chalk Paint and Spring Soccer

For Easter the kids got these sidewalk chalk paints.

They were messy but fun.

Guess who chose the orange?

They ended up making a very elaborate track and road system.

Super fun!

Albert was throwing around this tiny soccer ball.

Daddy may have thrown the soccer ball to/at him.

Beginning in April, the oldest two kids started spring soccer.

Sometimes, we were cold.

 Cheese!

Tyler was one of the assistant coaches (kid wrangler) for Addilyn's team.

Kick!

Luckily it was warmer at the noon game.  The spectators seemed much happier.

I think Albert was giving her a kiss, or at least a head bump.

Kick again!

The herd of puppies!  I love watching the littlest ones because they move as a pack when chasing the ball.  It's seriously cute! I definitely spend most of the game laughing.  I hope the other parents don't think I'm deranged (I just can't handle all of the cuteness!).