Life and Times of The Johnston family: Stomach Bug and Decorating for Halloween!

So a couple weeks ago we had a nasty tummy bug go through Lizzy, causing diarrhea and vomiting, for a couple days, then Devin had it a couple days and Tony had it a couple days....somehow I managed to avoid getting it, but it made for a miserable week, and we ended up having to go into Duchesne to use the laundromat as Devin kept throwing up while he was in bed and we don't have much extra bedding at the trailer. I must admit that roomy 28 foot trailer felt so much smaller that week! And we REALLY could have used another bathroom! But we managed to survive. Last weekend we went to Sierra RV and I finally got to walk through my dream fifth wheel. It's the Heartland Gateway 3650(with the bunk room of the 3700, basically no outdoor kitchen so the closets and drawers are under one of the bunks. They are bigger since there isn't space taken away for the outdoor kitchen and they don't come out beyond the end of the bunk, thus giving more floor space.) It's 42 feet long has a bath and a half(the half bath is in the kids room and the second entry door is in the half bath, meaning if they're outside playing and need to go potty they don't have to walk all the way through the trailer, they can just open a door and be in the bathroom! It will also serve as a mudroom as there are hooks to hang jackets and such on and I'll hang a shoe rack over the half bathroom door!) The bunk room is HUGE! It will only have two bunks but that's all we need! There are two big closets and four drawers under one bunk and we'll put their toys under the other bunk, which will leave them tons of floor space to play! In the living area there's a very roomy U shaped dinette a couch with two reclining chairs and a little couch that Lizzy has deemed the "book nook". There is a peninsula kitchen separating it from the living area, with a residential size fridge!! There is TONS of storage too! The main bath has a deep BATHTUB in it!! That is so rare for RV's! There are stack-able washer and dryer hook ups in their own closet in the master, and a big closet and dresser for our clothes too. There's a nice big window next to the dresser opposite the bed that lets in tons of light which I love. There is very little I don't like about this RV and what I don't love I don't hate so I can live just fine with it(like the tv placement, not my favorite but it'll work just fine, so I'm over it!) We're going to custom order one from the manufacturer at Sierra RV, next summer! I'm soooooo looking forward to it! After we did some things we needed to we took the kids to Build a Bear and they each got a new outfit. Devin got a Spiderman outfit to match his Halloween costume and Lizzy got a super cute witch dress! That was pretty much our day. Sunday the kids insisted and begged to decorate for Halloween so we obliged then we packed up and my dad drove Tony back to the trailer. Monday I had a follow up appointment with my Psychiatrist in the late morning, I was so grateful for a kind sister in the ward for watching my kids while I went. It went very well as he was very pleased with my progress and how well I'm doing now. Then we drove to Bountiful and perused the dollar store and each of the kids found something to buy with their own money. Then we went over to Cookie Cutters and got Devin's hair cut. Then we went to my grandparent's and visited and played for over an hour before it was time to head out. We drove to Lizzy's theater class and dropped her off then Devin and I went home and packed up the van. We picked Lizzy up came back home finished gathering up what we needed I got the kids dinner to eat in the car and we drove up to the trailer. This past week was a typical week. We did decorate the trailer for Halloween as well, other than that it was just playing and school. Friday Tony's parents and my parents came and got Lizzy to spend the weekend with them and Tony's parents took her to the BYU football game. She was so excited about it!! Meanwhile Devin got to have a weekend with mommy and daddy to himself! We stayed Friday night at the trailer and ate dinner and breakfast at the G-Store....they have the best food!! Saturday morning we packed up and got home about noon. We listened to Conference the best we could on the way home. In the afternoon though we had to do our needed errands. Devin was determined to get a stuffed Sonic the Hedgehog that apparently he's seen at Target one time. So he barely survived all our other stops as Target was our last, but he hit the jackpot as Target not only still had one but it was on clearance for six bucks! It was regularly twenty!! He was the happiest boy in the world! And that's pretty much it!

The week of the tummy bug, there was a lot of "screen learning" on the computer, ipad or kindle.

Devin sometimes even falls asleep during Lizzy school time!

Sometimes it's on the floor at my feet....in my defense I did ask him if he wanted to go lay in his bed and he said no.

Playing outside

Or in Devin's case laying outside

Decorating the house for Halloween! We put on Little People Halloween music and the kids had a blast!

Decorating the trailer for Halloween!

Devin in his truck! He absolutely refuses to pedal or even get on most bikes....someday on his terms I guess!

Some of Devin's school. This is a critical thinking game called Three Little Pigs. I place the pigs according to picture in the booklet and he has to figure out how to put all the house pieces around the pigs. If there is the wolf on the board the pigs have to go inside a house.

After he completes them I let him just play for a bit.

This is a thinking skills game called Bambino, it's abstract matching, which is really good for his Autistic mind!

Practicing letters

His favorite thing is mazes!!

Cutting

I didn't take pictures of his worksheets but he does a Building Thinking Skills page and a Mathematical Reasoning page(both sides)
This is his other math that goes with the worksheets, it's call Farmland Math. I read a short passage he has to listen and follow instructions and answer questions like "three horses ate hay in the barn. Two cows ate corn in the field and one rooster ate hay by the farmhouse. How many animals ate hay? How many animals ate corn? Were there more animals eating hay or corn?

Then of course he gets to play!

Lizzy peeking at the end and then doing her school.

This is one of her critical thinking games called Smart Cookies. It's similar to Sudoku.

She usually does two.

For science this week we learned about the 3 different form of water, liquid, solid and gas/vapor.

We boiled the water to get water vapor and froze the water to make it solid ice.

Waiting for the water to boil......

We also learned about the water cycle! She watched a Bill Nye The Science Guy and magic School Bus both about the water cycle. So doing this was a cinch!

This is her spelling. She learns a concept(like bossy r's or this one was the tricky Y guy who says the E and I sound and underlines them in saying on the first page, then does copy work M-Th then Friday she writes it from my dictation. It fun though cause they're nursery rhymes and such. She's done Little Boy Blue and Twinkle Twinkle, and I'm a Little Teapot this week's was There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly.

Once again I didn't show her worksheets, she does Daily 6 Trait Writing(3rd grade) Building Thinking Skills(2/3rd grade) Jump Math(3rd grade), Mathematical Reasoning(2nd grade but they're advanced so it's more like 3rd grade) Language Smarts(2nd grade advanced) and Reading Comprehension grade 3. She does 3rd grade Daily Geography all on Monday, T-W is science, Thurs is History of the World Book two and Friday is Art/free day. Devin doesn't do formal geography or history though he is learning about castles and we do normal preschool themes that fill in those subjects. He does have a science curriculum he does once a week.

On the first day of October the kids watched a Halloweenish Magic School Bus, they go to a haunted house and learn about sound and sound waves. Lizzy enjoyed dipping her apple slices in caramel dip!