Moving: Tearful Jack.

Upon hooking up to the 'net in our TLF, I saw in my email that "I" had been tagged in four photos by our next-door neighbor back in Bellevue. I saw that the pics were of our old house covered in snowdrifts, and that our neighbor girl, Natalie, was at our door. I called Jack to the computer to see, and he was looking over my shoulder. We read the captions together:

1) Natalie wanted to show Nicole their old house. (of Natalie trudging through drifts in our driveway to get to the front door)

2) "I wish Jack and AJ really could come and play." (almost to the door then)

3) Ding dong. :-( (of her ringing our old doorbell)

And that's where Jack turned, and I spotted the tears in his eyes. Within minutes, he was full-on crying, saying and wishing that we didn't have to move. Philip and I both tried to console him, but his heart is a bit broken right now. Finally, I got him to come around by showing him a special, funny postcard that I had purchased *just* tonight *just* for mailing to our friends. He got a smile out of writing a special message on it, and we'll stick it in the mail tomorrow.

We miss our friends! :-(

Playdate with the next-door neighbors.

The boys played all afternoon (in their hats!) with the next-door neighbors. As evening approached, we had Andrew and Natalie come over for a movie, dinner, and dessert. Tonight was Jack's Choice in the meal plan, so he was super-excited to share.


Mouse-in-the-House Cupcakes.

(butterflymama3, I'll put the recipe for the Cupcakes in the comments for you.)


Jack had chosen to make Tic-Tac-Toe Pizzas. The ingredients needed were simple: pita bread (we chose wheat), pizza sauce, mozzarella string cheese, and toppings (we used green pepper strips for the X's and pepperoni for the O's).




Jack poses with his pizza.


From left to right: Andrew's, Jack's, Natalie's, and A.J.'s pizzas.


From top to bottom: Philip's, then mine.


All the kiddos before digging in.


And Jack's cheese was super-stringy!

They were watching Hotel For Dogs together (none of the kids had seen it yet), and we stopped it halfway through to assemble the pizzas. Once they were baked, the kids ate them on the floor in the living room. Once finished, they each picked a Mouse cupcake for dessert.


There were two Cupcakes with each color "eyes.")

Our boys had a great time, and Andrew and Natalie were so sweet and well-behaved. I'm sure we'll get together with them again soon! :-)

Poor Jack-a-roo.

And now, Jack is worse. He's hung over the toilet a few times, but he hasn't thrown up. Truth be told, I think his tummy is upset with all the drainage he's swallowed in the past day or so. He's had lots of clear liquids today, but little else.

He's also holding his right ear and really looks to be in pain. I'm sure he's got an ear infection brewing in there - either related to the allergies/cold blockage, or even just water backed up from all the many times he falls asleep in the tub. Poor guy.

I dosed him up with some ibuprofen and some cough syrup, and he's out. He cried himself to sleep in pain while I rubbed his back for him. He's so very, very upset because we'll have to cancel on our super-fun playdate tomorrow now, and he's been requesting these friends over for ages. :-(