Just me and the kids and some burglars

Claire took this picture of Noel and me the other day, after we had gotten back from taking Aaron to the airport. He went to Las Vegas for the week for a conference about local government. We've had an interesting time that is for sure - absolutely no time to be bored!

Tuesday, after Aaron left, the little boy that I watch ended up sick and throwing up. I promptly called his mother and she came and picked him up. The kids and I went shopping at Trader Joe's. They had a blast running all over the store, grabbing and filling their mini carts with bananas and cheerios - or rather, "Trader Oh's". Noel has learned to have a tantrum anytime I sit him in grownup size shopping carts so he can be free to run around grocery stores. Anyway, we made it out of the store with about 20 more bananas than I had anticipated buying because I was running after Noel during checkout - to make sure he didn't run out the door and into traffic in their always busy parking lot. My heart was pounding as I got the kids back into the van - I don't know if I love or hate those mini carts.

Wednesday, we dropped some things due off at the library and went to Target to try to find a birthday present for Claire's friend. We also picked up some groceries. Then we got home in time to get in our swimsuits and head to a play date at the pool. We had a lot of fun. Claire and Noel absolutely love the water and always have a hard time going home. Claire has a suit with built in floaties and she just loves - it gives her so much more freedom than the arm floaties do. Noel has his arm floaties and he loves them and being in the water, but has to stay within arms reach of me. Anyway, we headed home and after lunch and naps we waited until Birthday party time. We past the time by painting pictures and watching Blue's Clues through the Wii from netflix.

Wednesday evening, we headed to the birthday party. It was really cute - princess party under the stars. Dinner was served and the kids made princess crowns, hit a pink pony pinata, got to dance and take pictures with a live singing princess. It was about the time the cupcake devouring began that I noticed Claire licking the frosting off hers and all of the sudden making a funny face. She looked to me as if to say "help". We walked over to each other and she threw up. I took her to a discreet corner and she threw up again. We got her cleaned up in the bathroom and left for home.

I decided to let Claire sleep with me and its a good thing. Over the course of the next 6 hours, she would through up about a dozen times. Noel woke up at midnight and proceeded to throw up four times between 12 and 4am. So all night running back and forth between them, trying to get them to throw up into an empty cookie dough container. Lights on... lights off... lights on... lights off... Finally at 4 am, the kids were able to calm their bodies down and get some sleep. I crashed.

Thursday, after sleeping in, the kids and I are feeling icky. No throwing up, but no eating either. We spent the day watching movies and playing with toys and coloring. I do about 4 loads of laundry - towels, sheets, blankets, and P.J.s, and clean beds and carpets.

About 5 pm Thursday, I ventured outside to check the mail and I noticed that the trunk on Aaron's car is open. Upon further inspection I notice that his passenger door lock has been pried apart and his car stereo is gone. I call Aaron, I call the police, police come, get finger prints, leave me with a report and I get the kids in bed.

Aaron will be back in a couple of hours. I'm so thankful for him. It's been a difficult couple of days and I can't wait to have him back. I'm especially thankful that no one was seriously hurt by the burglars that were in our driveway yesterday or yesterday evening. Now there is no way of knowing, but I can imagine that if the burglars wanted to come inside to have a look around, they would have been deterred by the whole lights on...lights off... thing.