Caution: Blog Under Quarantine

Reading this week's blog may be harmful to your health.
In which case you can be like Luis, Mason, and I. Luis was first. He came down with the flu last Monday afternoon. I was a couple days later on Wednesday afternoon. Mason got it a day later. Siena has some sort of steel immune system and still has no symptoms. Therefore she's the only one of us with any sort of a social life this weekend.

I don't know for sure whether we have the official swine flu or not. You have to be tested for that. Based on what I've seen on the news and in reports, doctors offices and clinics have seen enough of people turning up with the flu. None of us are in the high risk category and weren't showing any of the warning symptoms, so we stayed home on the couch.

I haven't had the flu in years and now I'm grateful for it. Its not the worst thing in the world but it lasts for so many days and is relentless. Today, after a rough night with Mason (related to a bad dream, not the flu), 5 days of the flu, and 4 days without leaving the house, I'm feeling pretty down in the dumps. That's easy to do when you're tired and sick and done with being tired and sick. Time to start feeling sorry for myself though before this becomes the sob blog.

We got tickets to Disney on Ice to take Siena as part of her birthday gift. However, because all of us except for Siena had cooties, we really couldn't take her. Don't think this didn't send me to the depths of despair...luckily Gloria was able to take Siena along with Joel and Tristyn. I'm truely glad they got to enjoy the show. I'm just sad that I wasn't able to experience it with the kids. It was to be our first such show.

Gloria took our camera though and took some pictures for the blog.

Siena and Tristyn were entranced by the Disney spectacle before them. Siena got to meet her idols, the princesses, before the show started.

Meanwhile, back on the couch, the movie review is back. I'll spare you reviews of the daytime movies that we watched to kill time but for the fun of it, here's what I watched: Save the Last Dance, Better off Dead, Million Dollar Baby, The Great Outdoors, Sandlot, Rescuers Down Under (can you tell that the second half was Friday when Mason was home too), Kung Fu Panda, and lots and lots of American Chopper aka "motorcycle show".

Luis and I also watched Changeling. Apologies for the fact that the best picture of the poster I could find was the French poster. I know, if I had the energy to devote another 2 minutes to looking I could have found the American poster but tough. I've got the flu.

I'm a little predisposed to going into Angelina Jolie movies skeptically, what with the whole Brangelina innundation we've been subjected to the last few years. That and my general grumpiness when sick. However, this was an incredible story and well told. The movie was based on a true story of kidnapping and police corruption to the most unbelieveable degree. Had this not been a true story, it would be unbelieveable. Jolie was really good in this and Malkovich as well played a different type of character than he usually does. This movie rates a very high A-.

Pints, Parties, and Pumpkins

Birthday weekend for Siena and Papa Ron means a entertainment-packed couple of days. I took 100 pictures. Don't stop reading yet, though...I didn't include all 100. Just most of them...

Our weekend adventures starts Friday night at Gustavs. Friday was the "real" calendar birthday for Siena and Papa Ron (hereafter known as the "Birthday Buddies"). We all love a good German dinner and Gustavs didn't disappoint.

While I've sharply curtailed my alcohol consumption of late (what can I say...I sleep better without it), I can't pass up Gustavs 25 oz of German goodness. Isn't it a thing of beauty? Lets all take moment...

Papa Ron and Yaya at Gustavs.
And Mason enjoys a wonderful German strawberry lemonade (okay, we still need to teach him about German food).

Here's the birthday girl. She was very tired by this dinner. Celebrating ones 4th birthday can be exhausting!

After a good night's sleep with which go digest, fast forward to Saturday morning. There was a lot to do to get ready for the party. Yaya helped us clean up the house while she was here on Friday. And thank goodness too. We need to maintain the facade of cleanliness and tidiness.

Luis took the kids to their soccer game while I finished picking stuff up, wrapping gifts, and baking the cake. That's right. I bake. Sometimes.

Siena's one and only request for this party was that I make a cake. Specifically that I make a "pink one". Well, who can say no to that? Not this mom.

Even the Birthday Buddies got in on the action and helped with the pink frosting. Looks a little like Pepto Bismol, doesn't it?

Papa Ron was also kind enough to teach the kids how to pull apart the opening of balloons to make a loud obnoxious squealing sound. Isn't that great?

The spread. We provided the castle. Yaya provided everything else.

The Birthday Princess! Twirling!

The finished product. Yeah, it looks homemade. It sure tasted good though!

Yaya tried to steal Siena's tiara. Siena was having none of that though!

Presents! Siena's first Hannah Montana doll. Mason is supervising the present opening process.

Sara, Dulcina, and Kendra watch Siena open gifts.

More presents! Siena got a lot of nice clothes (which her parents very much appreciate). She also got a cool sticker book from Aunt Annette and Uncle Walt which Siena very much appreciated.

More toys and presents! I think Mason approves.

Jocelyn is trying to decide what to make of all these balloons!

Time for the birthday song!!!!!! Happy birthday to you......

Happy Birthday Dear Siena...............

And happy birthday to Papa Ron too - and his Tool Guy work mat!

She's a ROCK STAR!!!!

Heidi and her niece Jocelyn take in the sights. I think Jocelyn was taking a break from her new 3 week old baby sister Rory.

The sisters - Yaya and Annette.

Berren checks out Papa Ron's took mat. Looks good for a nap!

Mason liked the mat sticker!

Birthday party + new toys + kids = Messy House.

So glad I always do that pre-party cleaning thing.

The Birthday Buddies play with Siena's new princess stamps and coloring book.

Clean up! Clean up!

Whew. It was a great party. The kids and grown-ups all had a good time. But wait! Our weekend isn't over yet!

Not only does October usher in a slew of family birthdays, its also Halloween month! That means its time to visit our favorite pumpkin patch!

We met our friends the DeCicco's for breakfast at Elmers prior to our visit to the Roloff Farm. Giada enjoyed her polka dot pancakes so much that she needed to add some whipped cream to her hair for later!

And then its on to Roloff Farms. For any of you not familiar with the Roloff's, the are the family featured on TLC's tv show "Little People Big World". Its a great show if you have never checked it out and they live not far away in Helvetia.

In the red sweater is Matt Roloff, surveying the scene with the tv camera crew on hand.

Siena poses on the big chair. Mason took a pass on climbing up there.

Everyone had fun feeding the animals at the petting zoo though.

Well, Giada's not so convinced about the animals yet...

Siena found her pumpkin! Its a little lopsided and off-colored. Really, its a Charlie Brown pumpkin. But its hers and she picked it out all by herself.

Mason was Mr. Go Big or Go Home. He picked out the huge pumpkin that's in the cart.

The girls (Siena and Giada) went for a ride on the ponies. Short video of this event below.

Mason took a pass on the ponies. He was more interested in the baby lion that was on hand.

After ponies was the hay maze. Luckily the kids made it through and we were able to take them home later.

The triumphant hay mazer!

The Roloffs, as you'd gather from the show, are very down to earth and friendly people. Amy Roloff (the mom) was on hand to greet people and pose for pictures. She was very nice and had a nice chat with the kids.

And she signed our squishy banana! We had to wrestle this away from Siena who was using it as a telephone for Amy to sign.

Other Roloff kids were working today too. This is Jeremy, one of the twins, driving a tractor for one of the farm tours.

Chillin'. This was supposed to be a cute little picture of Giada and Sharon. Siena's rock star kicked back in though so she jumped on in.

There's the other twin Zach working another tractor tour.

This was the line of cars as we were leaving. This is a popular farm!

It was a busy weekend but a very good one.

Also, good thoughts and wishes to my friend Laura who has had a rough couple of weeks. Hope your operation goes good this week and you're back at 'em soon!!!