Final Week of Summer 2015 {and another broken bone}

When we got back from New Orleans, we had a few days of fun before the serious business of 'back to school' started.

Cole spent his time getting into shoes and other stuff, as usual.

Oh, and also.... I gave Cole a hair cut. Ha! His first one, just a trim around his ears and the back. I think I did pretty good. Look at all that hair we said bye-bye too!

Working hard?

Nah. Hardly working.

I spend so much time each day going after this little toot and cleaning up! How quickly you forget the mess they can make!

Lots of fun in the storage cabinet of the media room!

Those eyes and that grin and those dimples... just so cute!

We had such amazing weather on Wednesday night, so we went down to the park after dinner. I was on one side of the park with Ella and Cole, and Eric was with Carter on the other side of the park. I didn't see it happen, but Carter was swinging on the monkey bars and fell to the ground, butt first. He put his hand under him to brace his fall and hurt his hand/wrist. Eric went to him and helped him through it, but we initially just thought it was jammed or sprained. We iced it when we got home. It still seemed a little like it hurt, but he was able to do normal things with it. He even spent about half and hour coloring at the table (his right hand-he's right handed!) without complaint or restriction. We gave him Tylenol before bed just in case. He did come down once during the night complaining of pain. Then the next morning we noticed he was holding it still and stationary, and Eric didn't like that. He's had lots of broken arms, so I guess he knows what to look for. He said, let's just take him to get an x-ray just in case. Better safe than sorry. Thankfully, Eric was able to work from home and keep the younger 2 while I took Carter to get it checked out. Here we are waiting to see the doctor and hear results of the scan.

They X-rayed both hands in multiple positions to compare, since he's still growing so fast. His left arm (L) is the healthy one.... nice smooth bone all the way down. His right arm.... sure enough, a fractured radius bone! Just below the wrist, and possibly to the growth plate.

Below you can see where it's crooked.... and you can see the separation in the center there too. So, we left with a splint, and a very nervous little boy to meet his teacher and start school with a cast. He was more upset about that than anything else. Poor guy. And we had to wait 6 days before we could see an ortho because they need to make sure the swelling is stabilized. It did finally swell up pretty big on Saturday (2 1/2 days later). That had us a little nervous, but it went down before the end of the day. So on Thursday night, he met his teacher and saw all his friends and had to answer the question, "What happened to your arm?" at least 100 times. :)

Cole's not scared of the storm trooper... proof here in him giving him a kiss. HA!

Patio progress! Flagstone is almost done and the kitchen has been started! And look how tall Carter seems here!

We went to the library one last time this summer. Eric got to go with us this time, he'd never been! Carter sat and read the whole time. I'm so proud of how well he's done this summer, keeping up with his reading. If it's possible, I think he's actually improved in his reading instead of just maintaining. I'm still shocked at how well he's done.

Ella scoped out a little boy looking at books on the shelves, and sweet talked him and his dad (and her daddy, too!) into having a tea party in the play area. How cute is this?!

Cole enjoyed the kitchen area!

and making a mess of our books!

At dinner Saturday night, Ella learned to write her name! (bottom left) I thought she did pretty good! She even duplicated it by memory a few days later. Smart girl!

Always at the gym!

We had an easy, low key day on Sunday and decided to finish the summer off right with a trip to Braum's for ice cream.

And I'll leave you with a video of Cole demanding ice cream. :)

First day of school pics to come!