Wonder Boy and Wonder Girl

Wonder Boy is doing better.  The blisters on his hands looked the worst this morning, but by dinner time were receding.

New park and a Leo update

For the first time in 30 years, the city of Sunnyvale has opened a new park.  The ribbon cutting was on Saturday so we went today.  It was hot and crowded and lacking in sufficient shade.  My friend had a busy morning of errands so I took her daughter with us, which was fun.  

 Red, sweaty girl.

Leo was still having throat pain and I could see little dots on the roof of his mouth.  He said the bottom of his foot hurt too.  I figured his shoe must have rubbed him wrong.  After barely touching his dinner (it hurt to eat), he went to bed but got up to tell me his hands hurt the same way as his foot.  I looked at his hand and it had the same little dots as his mouth.  Poor kid has hand-foot-mouth disease.  It's probably what Serafina had, but she only had it in the mouth.  He's contagious so instead of doing my friend a favor by taking her kid to the park, I exposed her to a painful virus that she can easily pass to her brothers.  I feel bad about it, but that is life with kids.

Leo's turn

Well, Leo has now developed the same throat problem as Serafina.  Thankfully, Serafina is on the mend.  Leo is in the thick of it with a fever on-and-off all day, and a red, painful throat complete with sores on the roof of his mouth.  Poor guy.  It is tough to feel bad on the first full day of new bike ownership.  He went from bursts of energy and activity to this...

I tried to keep him mellow and resting for most of the day, but it wasn't easy.  I hope he gets over it quicker than Serafina.

New bike

Leo got an big(ger) boy bike today.  He needed an upgrade and it couldn't wait until his birthday or Christmas because he looked like a circus performer riding his old tiny bike.  

His new one is big and has gears and hand brakes.  It makes me a little nervous, but he is so happy on it and I know he'll get use to it fast.  

Serafina is getting a bit big for her bike too but we told her she needs to wait until she's older.  

Throat update

Well, poor Serafina's throat still looks and feels awful.  She tested negative for Strep at the doctor's office this morning, so we just have to ride this virus out.  

She was mostly in a good mood today, but when the pain started to get to her, she was pretty fussy.  She was happy playing with these new fairy paper dolls though. 

I'm hoping she starts improving soon since it stinks to see your kids in pain.

Summer days

Sometimes summer days can be a little boring.  I don't always book playdates or outings, so we wake up with nothing on the agenda.  We need those kind of days too.  Today, we didn't have any plans so we just took it easy and headed to our local park.  It was good we had nothing scheduled because Serafina spiked a fever right before lunch.  She saw the doctor last week because of a viral infection in her throat, so we'll go back tomorrow since the pain in her throat is worse and the fever is a new symptom.  

Despite the fever and pain, she was still smiling.  

She was up to having a picnic dinner in the front yard.   

 Leo had some tomatoes from the garden to go with his egg sandwich.

Camping at Salt Point State Park

Since Tom had the whole week off leading up to the the Forth of July, I told him to plan an adventure for the family.  Of course, I kind of hoped the adventure would include room service and a hot tub, but he decided on camping.  It really is a favorite activity for the kids, so we packed up Thursday morning and headed out to Salt Point State Park.  Our friends the Thomsens, who we share the ski house with during the winter, met us there for some back-to-nature fun.

It is a beautiful spot on the Northern California coast about 3.5 hours away from us.

If you want to see more pictures, you can view them here.

Here's a little video of Serafina on the beach yesterday showing off her knack for physical comedy.

Since the kids were good during the trip and especially tolerant of the long drive home, we took them for ice cream today.

 Leo slept great while we were camping.  He was the only one since Serafina squirms a lot in her sleep which makes sleeping in a sleeping bag difficult for her.  Tom and I had to help her throughout the night.  But last night back at home, Leo fell victim to his usual night time fears (it's a problem we've been having for several weeks now) and was up in the middle of the night.  Guess the loss of sleep caught up with him because he decided to catch a few zzzzs after an afternoon swim.