More life lessons

Morgan learned another difficult life lesson this week. For the first time (that she knew of; I'm sure there have been other instances) she was excluded from a classmates birthday party. Although she wasn't devastated by this, she was certainly upset!
The problem is that Morgan spends the majority of her social time at school with kids who aren't in her class. Morgan is camping right now with Kev, Devin, and Mark so couldn't have gone to this birthday anyways, but I know that she felt her to be excluded, especially I think since this person came to her party. Its hard when the kids that you socialize with aren't in your class.
These lessons are character building I suppose, but I wish I could shield her from these bruised feelings!!!! I'm so proud of the fact that Morgan isn't a sheep, and that she plays with the people that she wants to be with and isn't pressured to follow the crowd!

Roses

The roses are so pretty that I just had to share them! This is my new rose bush; it reminds me of England, and the Vicarage garden!

Here is Ella's climbing rose. It is really a beautiful colour this year. The blooms last year were a really pale pink, but the flowers this year are so vibrant!!!

My beautiful family!

Spark/Brownie Camp....and a new camera :)

Having the wonderful husband that I do, when the camera started to give up the ghost, he said that I could get a new one since I use it so much. So that is why I have such great pictures of the girls when we went to pick up Morgan from camp; where she had a GREAT time!!!




The Dad's taking down the tents!!


In perpetual motion....

Sparks Advancement

These are the only pictures that I got from the Advancement. I am hoping to get some better ones sent to me by her leader! So this was Morgan's last night of Sparks, and in the fall she will start Brownies!!!!

F.P.I.E.S.

So, Ella and I went to see the allergist (who was great), and they did the traditional scratch tests. Of course they came back all negative! However given the history, and the dramatic reaction he thinks that she has something called F.P.I.E.S which stands for: Food Protein Induced Entercolitis Syndrome which is very rare and very hard to diagnose. The only real way to diagnose it is to do a "food challenge" where they give her the fish in a controlled setting. They are going to do this when she is about four, because very often this allergy disappears.
So in a nutshell: it is the protein in the white fish which is causing her stomach, and gastrointestinal tract to react. This is something that is usually seen with milk and soy, not solid proteins. Surprise, surprise that Ella would have something so rare - in its rarest form!!! So all we can do is not give her white fish, and be very careful introducing soy because she hasn't had any yet. We'll go back when she is four.

RANT

I know that they say that you are only given what you can handle, but a little tiny break in the chaos that is my life would really be appreciated. It has been one thing after another since the end of March break when the pox broke out in our house. It's been big things too. But I should have foreseen something else happening. I had to go and open my big mouth when I had Ella at the pediatrician's yesterday. The receptionist and I were chatting, saying how a little break without anything happening would be really nice. BIG MISTAKE!

The kids were all in bed and asleep (which is a miracle in itself these days), and I was sitting on the couch stitching (you read right GS - I actually sat down and stitched, I even finished that section that was giving me trouble - so it should be clear sailing now), and Kev went up for a shower. A few minutes later I heard a very strange noise in the kitchen. When I went to investigate there was water dripping - well more like pouring, out of a pot light in the kitchen. After further investigation which involved the ripping of bathroom walls, it looks like we have quite a problem on our hands. Kevin is optimistic that he can repair it without gutting the whole bathroom, but being a rather old house I'm not quite so sure. BOOGA certainly springs to mind!!!!

On a happier note, the girls had their gymnastics recital on Sunday, and it went really well. I don't really have pictures to post though. The camera is about to give up the ghost I think, so I'm waiting for a certain someone to send me hers so that I can put them up.

Ella had a good appointment with the pediatrician. Nothing even to report - all is well and we go back in 3 months. We did see the allergist, but I'll make that a separate post when I get a minute as it is a long explanation.