Where A Kid Can Be a Kid

That's right! We did it today - Chuck E Cheese to celebrate Kayla's birthday! Kelsey stayed home with my dad because she had a fever, so hopefully she will be better tomorrow and no one else will get sick! Of course I was nervous to take Brooklyn along but we planned it for today because all the school districts were back in school after spring break and we figured it wouldn't be too crowded. Aannnd, we were right! It was great! We were the only ones there. A few other people came in about half way through our party and it almost felt like they shouldn't be there because we had the whole place to ourselves. :) If you think about Chuck E Cheese, you of course think of germs. I know I do. But I also think of my kids faces and how it is their favorite place on earth. And Brooklyn hasn't gotten to do stuff like Chuck E Cheese for a long time, so I wanted her to be able to go and just have fun. I want her to be a kid. We all want our kids to enjoy their childhood and not grow up too fast. Sure, there are times when we look forward to the day when the kids can get dressed themselves, feed themselves, go to the bathroom themselves, not cry about every little thing - but we also want them to cherish the time when they don't have to worry about the concerns of the world, about paying bills, about what others think of them, about someone in their family getting sick. We want them to be innocent as long as possible and that is part of the reason I wanted Brookie to be able to go today. Her blood counts have been good and she's been feeling great, so we felt confident with her going. I thought it would be a little bit of a "defensive mechanism" if she would wear her gardening gloves when she played the games to protect her from germs and she was great with wearing them.

She had the best time. My mom came with us since Mike is still out of town and she followed Brooklyn around and helped her play the games. She was most excited when Chuck E came out. She chased him all around the restaurant and kept giving him high fives, just like she did with the mascot at the baseball game we went to a few weeks back. It was so good to see all the kids having so much fun. Brooklyn has been sleeping really well lately, but last night she woke up twice crying that her feet hurt. It helped her when I rubbed her legs and she eventually fell back asleep. The leg and foot pain is a side effect of the chemo, but she hasn't had any trouble with it since that time when she couldn't put her heals down a couple months ago. Hopefully it won't be a problem for her again. Mike's mom's surgery went well yesterday. She came through it with flying colors and found out that the cancer hadn't spread to her lymph nodes, so we are all so thankful for that. We so appreciate all of your prayers for our family and feel so surrounded by love and support.