These pictures are from March 23-April 8, and mostly consist of three very busy weekends all in a row. But first a couple of random shots.
Above-Tanner and Dallin had a lot of fun with some stamps I brought home from work one day. Below- Dallin is so independent! When he wants a snack, he usually gets it himself, which I love (most of the time). Here, he made himself his own PB&J sandwich. I was really proud and grateful for him doing it all by himself.
On Saturday March 25, I helped plan a music event for kids at the Hormel Historic Home. A special flute quartet performed for us, and I created movement and learning activities that related to their music. Here is Dallin playing his "flute" during one of our activities.
After the performance, the children got to meet the flute players and their instruments. Tanner liked moving the keys of Erin's flute. There was also a music scavenger hunt throughout the historic home, where I hid instruments in different parts of the house. The event was very succesful (over 45 people came!). Best of all is that my kids loved it, which made me happy because they are the main reason I got into planning the whole thing in the first place.
Jeremy helped Tanner with some of his clothing issues. We realized Tanner has a ton of pants, but he only wears a few of them because of different tactile preferences that he has. (The joys of SPD).
Then, Jeremy took Tanner to the store to get a few more clothes that he'll actually wear. Tanner was pretty excited to come home with more comfortable clothing. He was especially stoked about this ninja turtle hat that he bought with his own money!
Jeremy did some type of product sampling at work. He's been super busy on a bunch of projects with Hormel Natural Choice Lunchmeat.
I got really sick with 103 fever for 4 days, and then was just super weak for several more days. I thought I was well enough to lead some music activities at an event at the library on Sat April 1, but my body decided to April fool me about getting healthy. I came home early from the event, and crashed. I didn't get up for the next 7 days, except to pee and take a couple of showers. I looked like this the entire time.
It was hard taking care of myself (Jeremy helped a lot, but still). I was really diligent with using lots of oils, drinking tons and tons of water, and avoiding fever reducers so that my body could fight off the bug. I think it paid off because most everyone else in town said that after their fevers hit, they got terrible stomach and digestion issues. Luckily, I didn't. But even then, I was SO weak. It was really hard to just lay in bed doing nothing, but I simply had no energy whatsoever. (And I had rehearsals with Seussical that I missed, and the Spamkids Fest was in less than a week, so it was hard to not freak out about stuff, but I did a really good job just sleeping and not stressing!) Our house became a disaster, but I didn't care until after I was feeling better. Those first few days, I'm not even sure what my kids did. Somehow they got to school and back, I think Jeremy took them. I was a literal zombie!
All three of my boys went to the CIRUCS in St. Paul with Riley and Kristen. It was a neat experience for the boys. Thanks to Riley for getting them in for free!! Then, they went out to deep dish pizza. I was really jealous.
Playing outside while I was sick.
I got a glimpse of Tanner's ninja turtle game one day.
While I was sick, Tanner made some Easter Bunny ears and whiskers for me to wear on Easter, haha.
An outing with Jeremy?
As soon as I felt better, Dallin got hit with the fever. He went through the same thing I had! Poor kid. So even though I was finally well enough to go to work, I stayed home.
We managed to make it to the Spamkids Fest at the Hormel Historic Home, and good thing since I was a co-planner of the event. We were able to go during the special needs hour, which was really helpful for Tanner. A lot less commotion.
We enjoyed hambowling, where we knocked down spam cans.
And a plinko game where we won a prize.
Sir Can-a-lot
Bubble room.
Water bead trough
Cookie Monster and Spam Scientist presentation. Once again, Jeremy was the puppeteer for cookie monster, and did a super job! His cookie monster voice is spot on!
Here's us watching cookie monster.
Spam Musubi making station.
Craft room.
We came across a little piggie.
Some short plays were featured, too! One was Stone Soup, where they put Spam in the soup. And the other play was one that I wrote, all about Lilian Hormel. It was really neat to see the story come to life from my own words on paper to a little production on the pallet stage. It took a lot of rehearsals and team work with these great actors to make it happen. Someday, I want to try self publishing the story on amazon. The best part was that my boys loved both plays!
It was really fun to see my kids enjoy the fest. My boys really, genuinely LOVE Spam. They could have stayed at the fest another 2 hours, but both Jeremy and I were volunteering at the fest, so we had them go home with a babysitter. I spent the rest of the day taking groups of kids through the home with our new Shaping History tour. I wore a fun lab coat and shape hat.
The event was very succesful, but I found myself really tuckered out by all the work leading up to the event. This next year, I am going to put my volunteer efforts toward some other family events at the Hormel home that won't be so taxing of my time and energy.
A special thank you to the SPAM Brand team at Hormel Foods for sponsoring the event. A big hug and thank you to ALL the volunteers who helped run the event, many of whom were my personal friends. And a big thank you to our team of volunteer moms and the director at the Hormel Historic Home for the many months of time, creativity, skill, and energy that it took to plan and host this awesome day for our children!!
