Stitches and pins and balloons...oh YES!!

So today is our first official day of the regular old summer vacation grind. Classes for the youngers started today at the exact same time S was to get her biopsy stitches out. My aunt and uncle kindly fed the youngers a tasty breakfast and took them to class while I drove to see what the doc had to say this time. Um, shortest doctor appointment ever. Actually, I could leave doctor out of it entirely. The nurse came in, cleaned her stitched area with alcohol, took them out in 2 seconds and sent us on our way. Okay. I guess we are so used to sitting for hours at specialist appointments and having two or more doctors gawking at the mystery of her conditions that, well, a short appointment is rather unnerving. Oh well. We'll get over that. Quickly.

This afternoon we readied the house for S's first visit with her homebound teacher. Honestly, I didn't know what to expect. He visited with us briefly the day school ended for the summer, but that was it. Luckily, our house was in good shape and all of our luggage had been unpacked and put away. My sense of smell is fairly faulty, so I felt the need to spruce up the bouquet of our ambience...so I baked cookies. The man has been teaching all day, so he needed a snack. I prepared myself to not be insulted if he chose not to partake. He doesn't know us from anyone, so he may think I pulled some old treats out from under the couch cushions. True story from my social work days. Someone did that to me. I need to get that thought out of my mind, so back to the boring details of our day. The teacher came, so I was charged with the task of keeping the others from distracting the two hour school session. Luckily a happy gift arrived in the mail. I like to call them legal Disney crack. Just like with patches at Boy Scout functions, Disney has collectible pins for every possible character, event, ride, date and park. The kids got into the collecting and trading aspect when we were there. They even got to me "King Pin" and trade with him at the hotel:




The pins are not cheap, so I turned to ebay once we got home and found a few very affordable lots. The first of two lots arrived today. My gracious the kids were thrilled. If only we had a pin trading store here...no, forget that. We don't need one. They need to see the light of day at some point this break. The pins saved us from an educational incident today and for that I am truly grateful.

Tonight brought the treat of all treats. When S was sick, our friend was going to come over for a visit and entertain her a bit. She spiked a fever and we decided it would be best to postpone the visit for another more, um, hazmat suit free time. Today turned out to be that day. We have friends from church whoare some of our favorite people. G was blessed to have the wife as her second grade teacher and I was blessed to work with her at preschool a few years ago. Her husband is, among other things, a magician and balloon artist extraordinaire. They came tonight to visit and Ed told stories and made balloon creations for the children:



What a treat! The boy asked for and got a frog:



G asked for and got a mermaid:



And S got Mike from Monsters Inc.:



We had an evening full of laughs, learning and jumping(from a few popped balloons). We learned about the scrutiny magicians experience in airports when carrying on their equipment, now termed the "Frisk and sniff".

A busy but lovely day. So very thankful for all the kindnesses we've been shown through this whole process. There are no words, really....
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