Isaac's turn!

I'm not sure if Isaac had a good birthday or not, but he sure enjoyed opening his presents this morning. Here's a look back. . . .

And then here is the big 4 year old boy!

Happy Birthday, little man!

Happy Birthday Kalista!

Six years ago, after several trips back and forth to the hospital our precious little girl came into our lives. Today she not only turned 6. . .

but she started Kindergarten as well! She was so excited, she could barely contain herself. She had a great first day and can't wait to go back!

All packed up and ready to go!

Waiting to go inside!

Sitting at her desk.

Hanging up her backpack.

Kalista and Mrs. Cutkump

June Happenings

Okay Connie, you asked for it!!

We have been very busy since school has been out, so busy in fact I haven't updated in a month and a half or so. Here's what been up with the Roades'. . . .

We visited the new sting ray exhibit at the zoo.

The next week, Isaac and Kalista both got to participate in the zoo run for the time (a dream of Kalista's for at least the last two years!)

Later that morning we took Kalista to camp for her first year as a camper (another dream come true for her!)

By the end of that week we were in FL at Disney World for two days. . . .

Then on to a week at Gramme's where the first morning the kids were surprised with new Superhero costumes (Isaac wore his pretty much every day)

We've now been home a few weeks, but haven't slowed down yet! Both kids participated in the His Singers float in the Bridgeton 4th of July parade that had a theme of American heroes - Isaac the policeman and Kalista the librarian.

Pomp and Circumstance

Yesterday was Kalista's pre-school graduation. She took her role as graduate very seriously! In fact it was hard to get her to smile at all! Here's some pics from the night!

Isaac's New Bike

After seeing that Isaac could peddle his sister's bike, we decided it was time to get Isaac one of his own. . . He is so excited and proud of himself!

Strawberry Shortcake

Well, we have discovered that Kalista is allergic to strawberries. Many people have asked me why we are just now discovering that my 5 yr. old has a food allergy. The answer is simple. Right around the 11 month mark, Kalista started rejecting food. We suspect many reasons for this: getting four teeth at once, learning she could say no and I couldn't force her, being first time parents and not pressing the issue because we just wanted our tiny daughter to get some calories, etc. . .

So this past year our (or rather Kalista's) eating issues came to a head and we took her to an occupational therapist (see hear for a recap of what we had tried on our own!) We go to Ms. Diana once a month and she and Kalista work on different strategies for trying new foods, we leave with a homework assignment, and do our best to work on at least one new food a week. Kalista has improved so much! If you read my earlier post about this you would know that she never ate bread. Now she eats peanut butter sandwiches and grilled cheese sandwiches. Her only fruit and vegetable was bananas and apples sauce. Now she regularly eats salad (no dressing), apples, corn, and oranges. Her only meat used to be chicken nuggets and now she eats fish sticks, grilled chicken, and steak fingers.

She has tried many other things too: green beans, ham, mashed potatoes, grapes, and a bunch of condiments (ranch dressing, ketchup, mayo, bbq sauce). We are optimistic that these things will get easier over time as well. This week at Ms. Diana's they made a fruit salad with apples, oranges, grapes, bananas, and strawberries. Kalista ate two fairly big pieces of strawberry with pretty little fight. The problems arose later that night at bathtime when Erin noticed she was broken out all across her back and neck. We didn't think too much about it since she said she stated itching at preschool and I thought maybe she had some mosquito bites that she scratched too much. By the morning her rash had spread to her face and was starting down her arms, so I began to suspect that the cause was not bug bites, but something else. We got into the dr. as soon as we could and our suspicion were confirmed -- Kalista is allergic to strawberries! She did get to go back to preschool where they called her Strawberry Shortcake for the rest of the day!

It is now Saturday morning and I can report that her hives are slowly going away. The dr. prescribed allegra twice a day, and one of her preschool teachers suggested oatmeal baths to help with the itching. We are doing both along with some itch cream and it seems to be working. I guess it was a good thing she thought the strawberries were gross!

Happy Easter

We started the day off right, with an Easter Egg hunt in the back yard. The Easter Bunny left some really great prizes in the kids eggs (we don't do candy, since they get a lot at the hunt at church!) After getting cleaned and dressed we headed to church for breakfast and the kids' big performance with His Singer (the little kids music group at church). It was to be Isaac's church debut! Both kids did really well. Isaac even sang most of his songs and didn't start acting crazy until the very end. After the service, we headed outside for the annual free for all, I mean Easter Egg Hunt. The kids all got a bucketful of candy and then we headed home for lunch with the family. The cousins all had fun playing together. All in all the day was great, even though it was a bit chilly!

Spring Break trip

Last week was Spring Break. We spent the first part of it in Branson with some good friends. Erin unfortunately got sick and spent most of the weekendin bed, but the kids all had a blast playing at the playground putt-putting, and just hanging out with their best buds. . .