Happy Birthday Party!

Nick had his first school-friend birthday party!

He decided that he wanted to go bowling for his birthday.
This is something that he can do (with a ramp) and has fun.

Not all of the kids had been bowling before, but they all had fun

We had 3 different teams

It was a little complicated trying to decide who would be on who's team. But I think everyone was happy in the end. (And there wasn't any crying like at Katheryn's bowling party)

We had an hour of owling, and then an hour in the party room for cake and pizza.

This is Nick's Star Wars Rebels birthday cake. I think it turned out great!
And he really wanted a Star Wars Rebels Birthday

All of the kids had face masks in their look bags. So we got a group photo (lots of kids wanted to be Storm Troopers)

The birthday boy was very happy!

He got a little bit nervous when everyone sang happy birthday

But I think he also liked the attention

His friends were so cute, everyone wanting to show him what they got him.
I think that everyone had lots of fun. They each left with a loot bag with Star Wars goodies (and their face masks) and some token for the arcade (there was no way I was going to be in charge of 10 kids in there!

We spent a little bit of time in the arcade afterwards. Kyle and Katheryn had a fooz ball game

And somehow the kids talked us into going to Boston Pizza after the party

Nick said he had a great birthday party and can't wait to come back!

Bowling with cousins

Nothing like a spur of the moment bowling night!

 

The boys tried using the force to get more points

 

Gwenny wanted to help

And Jamie had a blocker

Great time out with the cousins!

Summer Fun

Nick had a follow up orthodics appointment.

Have a mentioned how much I love our orthotist, Eric, and his passion for the job. And his job is support Nick in getting him up and moving to the best of his ability.

 

 

We have appointments every couple of months to make adjustments as needed.

While we wait we are in a giant playroom. The kids love it.

 

 

They find new things to play with every time we are there.

Because they can do all of their adjustments right in-house we are usually there for a couple of hours. But the kids have more fun waiting

 

Afterwards I thought we would put our bowling coupon to good use. The kids have free bowling through the summer thanks to BowlingGivesBack. We got free bowling last year (and I upgraded it to a family account last year and we never went). So this year I wanted to get some bowling fun in!

 

And we all had fun

 

Even if some of us were not very good

Katheryn had this pose every time she shot!

And she really liked getting Nick all set up for his shot as well.

Katheryn has turned into a little bowling shark!

Of course we all used funny names to play. Nick was Cap, Katheryn was Hera (a character from Star Wars Rebels) and I was Ms Marvel.

I think the kids had fun, and even though we can mark it off our bucket list, we hope to come back again!

But Katheryn and my day wasn't over yet.
Katheryn has been begging us for a haircut. She wants to cut it all off. We did get her hair trimmed before her first communion and I told her if she still wanted it shorter after a month, then we will do whatever she wants.

This is the before...

Katheryn knew exactly what she wanted. She wanted it very short, above her shoulders and closer to her chin. I had a hair appointment (which takes 3 hours to get the purple in my hair), and so we scheduled Katheryn in the middle of it.

Overall we had a great day!

Bowling!

The kids went bowling for the last day before school restarts!

 

I had nothing to do with this, and our daycare provider Jennifer Daviau is the most amazing person ever! She organized and took them, and took pictures.

At first I thought "oh Katheryn will have fun, but how would Nick be able to bowl?". and how?

 

There is a whole contraption for Nick to just push the bowling ball.

He had so much fun! When I got home from work he was excited to tell me how he was bowling.

 

The kids love the bowling app on our tablet, so they get the concept, I just thought they were still too young.

Guess I was wrong.

 

I know a lot of parents have had concerns and problems finding daycare for their kids who have additional needs. We have not had a single problem with Jennifer and that has just reduced significant stress from when I had to go back to work.
Need to learn how to cath - no problem.
Need to drop off Katheryn early/stay late for appointments - just tell me when
Need a last minute drop off because we are heading to emerg - we actually dropped her off in the middle of a bus-run.
Becoming accessible, using the walker, AFOs, (and now the KAFO), latex-free, symptoms of shunt failure, medications the list goes on and on and we haven't had any problems.

It has been great to have someone who does not see spina bifida as holding Nickolas back. They go out on all the day trips, things may be adjusted for Nickolas but they are still done.