Thursday Field Trip on Wednesday

Well, carnivals look better at night so the Thursday field trip took place on Wednesday night and Damon was able to join us. We had a lot of fun at the pretend pumpkin patch with carnival rides. The kids thought they had died and gone to heaven. After my second spinning ride I wish I had died. The rides last forever. Adam loved the big jumpy. Noah loved the fun house with the big hamster wheel and Lily loved the Strawberry ride. Damon was quite happy just taking pictures.

In these pictures Noah was walking in the hamster wheel and Adam was yelling, "I can see the freeway from here."

It was my week to teach preschool and what a week it was. My brain is mentally done for the day and I am happy preschool is only 2 days a week. We learned about Halloween and Halloween safety. We had a costume parade and made lots of fun treats. We made Frankenstein pudding, witch cupcakes, scary apple smiles and spider crackers. It was very messy. The kids were all so cute in their costumes. We had a dance off to win prizes and played lots of fun games. The kids were all tired afterwards. So was the teacher. (and the last thing to make this a really wonderful day is that my piano is being tuned right now. it really is the most annoying thing to sit through. aaaaagh)

Our real Thursday field trip was getting flu shots. Not to exciting, but the boys got to get out of school early and that made them happy. Happy Halloween everyone!!

A visit with G&G

Grandma and Grandpa came down on Saturday for a visit. We stopped by the Temple and then went over to Balboa Park. Grandma had never been there so we thought we would take her to one of the museums. We went to the Fleet Science Museum. They had a great "Grossology" exhibit that had to do with random things like the 4 cow stomach's, flies, tapeworms, poop, cat hairballs and a few other gross things. The kids loved that. We also took them into the shadow room which they thought was really fun. Growing up we used to visit the shadow room that they had at the Phoenix Public Library. We used to have loads of fun in a huge room with the shadow boxes in them. After the museum we walked around the grounds and Lily found her "Lily Pond." Unfortunately the lilies were not in bloom so it wasn't very impressive. We spent the rest of our time staring at the Coy fish in the fishpond. We had a great dinner later that night and my mom helped me find a marriage certificate in England so I can continue on in Damon's mom genealogy. I was stuck after 5 generations. I have ordered it and am anxiously awaiting it's arrival. It was a fun Saturday.

Earlier that day we had all the kids helping us clean up the backyard. The boys hate manual labor and were just trying to have some fun. They mounted their rakes as broomsticks and were riding them around the backyard. It was pretty funny to see.

A Happy Day for Mom

Well, I must say that this year's birthday was much better than last year. Last year was spent watching all of SoCal burn and having to be evacuated from our home. This year although another hot day and very windy, which is fire weather, we managed to stay in our home and have fun. Lily and I went to the beach after a session with my trainer at the gym. We had a lovely time except the sea gulls kept attacking our stuff. Lily was my go to girl as she ran towards them screaming, "roar" as loud as she could. It was pretty funny.

When we got home and "desanded" Damon was home. That made us girls happy. He came home early and then walked to school to pick up the boys so I wouldn't have to. He made a wonderful dinner and an even better chocolate cake and baskin robins ice cream. He even mixed up the numbers on my cake to make me feel better. (although I admit to myself that I can't pass for 23) He then cleaned up the whole kitchen which was a huge mess (I hadn't done dishes all day) and I got to sit and watch all the TV shows that I had recorded from the past few weeks. I also got to talk to everyone in my family and some really good friends. It was a great day!

My friend Kelly from Phoenix had these mailed to me

My friend Wendy brought me flowers

My wonderful husband bought me these babies!

It was a good day! Thanks lovely for making it nice. And to all those who forgot. Shame on you. Just kidding.

A Magical End

Well the kids weren't to pleased that we had gone to Disneyland without them so I decided to take them just one last time. So field trip Thursday was an all day and late into the evening event. The boys got to miss school as we headed off to the happiest place on earth just one last time. We had a great time. It wasn't to crowded and the weather wasn't bad either. Lily even managed to stay dry all day so that was a plus too. The only downfall was when Lily decided to get her leg wedged into a wood fence while we were waiting in line for the go coaster in ToonTown. After 5 minutes of listening to her aggravating screams these two nice gentlemen decided to help me. We ended up getting her out and no real damage was done. The boys were so excited because I let them go on Star Tours all by themselves since Lily is to little to go on the ride. They thought they were so grown up. They can't wait until they are a little bit bigger and can run all over the park by themselves. We loved the new Toy Story ride. The kids got a kick out of Turtle talk with Crush. The cars are always a personal favorite of Noah and Lily's lone request of going on Alice in Wonderland was even doable. I think I need a break from field trip Thursdays for a week.

A Small Date After All

Damon and I had a nice little escape on Friday. I arranged for our babysitter to drive with me to Damon's work and drop me off and take Lily back home. She watched the kids the rest of the day and night. Damon met me at the car where I had yummy Subway sandwiches waiting. We headed on the 5 North while we ate and Damon wondered what in the world his crazy wife was up to. I hadn't informed him of our plans. It wasn't until we hit Irvine that he had an inkling that we were headed to the happiest place on earth. It's fun right now with the park all decked out in Halloween attire.

Our passes expire soon and I wanted to get one last trip in with just Damon. We had lots of fun. We went on Soarin over California, the new Toy Story Mania ride, which was so fun, and Screamin'. Those are our favorite rides in California Adventure. After trying to get shakes at our favorite shake shop and finding out it wasn't open we headed over towards Disneyland. The place was a little more crowded than what I had hoped, but we still had fun. We went on Star Tours, the monorail, had dinner in downtown Disney at the Rain Forest Cafe (Damon met a parrot from there), walked back to Disneyland, went on Haunted Mansion, Pirates and then called it a night.

We get so tired after a while. It is funny to think that we used to be able to open and close the park and then drive the 40 minutes back to Riverside. We didn't even stay to watch the fireworks. It's nice to go there kid and worry free. We didn't tell the kids that we were going there because we knew they would complain. The next morning they woke up to some fun surprises though.

Trailer

Ok just watched it twice. So good. Go check it out http://www.twilightthemovie.com/ so so so good. the best one yet. enjoy! ok now on to the treadmill.

Field Trip Thursday

I really despise being a single parent, but tonight finds me alone conquering dinner and bedtime routines by myself. Meeting schedules don't always fit between the 9-5 workday. It is always exhausting to be by oneself. I thought I would get the blog done before I go get on the treadmill. Actually I am trying to kill 20 minutes before the new Twilight trailer is online. And I really don't want to get on the treadmill. I am so excited for the Twilight movie. It seems so silly to be this excited, but I get this way right before the Harry Potter movies come out too.

Our field trip choice was made by Noah this week and he wanted to go to the beach. Well we have been having wretched summer like weather this whole week so I thought going to the beach would be safe. The funny thing about living where we do (the east side of SD) it can be hot and sunny here, but just 10 miles away it can be cold and cloudy. And you never know until you cross the 5 freeway. It has also dropped about 10 degrees since yesterday. What we found at the beach today was sunny, with a thick marine layer threatening to close over the sun with a chilly wind. We still had fun and the wind would die down every once in a while and it was quite pleasant. The water looked beautiful today and the waves were huge and rough due to a hurricane brewing down near Baja. We had a nice lunch and dug some big holes and the kids chased the waves, or I think it was the other way around. I don't recall the waves ever running away.

Well now only 10 minutes til the trailer. It's almost tolerable.

The Next Mary Lou

Lily has been taking gymnastics for a month. It is pretty funny to watch her. She has all the right poses, heals clicked together, arms above the head and a big toothy smile. What she lacks is the discipline to focus on all the tasks and not just the ones she likes. She loves hanging on the bar. She loves jumping on the trampoline. She enjoys the hand stands. She even tolerates doing V-sits and tabletops. She absolutely refuses to walk across the balance beam unassisted and she hates somersaults. It is fun to watch her for the hour that we are in class and she tries to learn new things. My most favorite is that she usually crashes Tuesday night because she is so exhausted from class.

Conference

We really enjoy General Conference weekend. Who doesn't love staying home and watching church on TV. The only downer this time is the fact that I feel like a plane is going to land on our house every time one of the airshow plans flies over head at moch speeds. We have really enjoyed the music as well as the speakers. We really enjoy the fact that we can do it in the comfort of our own home.

Field Trip Thursday

So today's field trip was rather limited due to the fact that Damon and I were going out later. It was Lily's turn to pick what we did and she wanted ice cream. So I changed it to frozen yogurt and we drove down to Hillcrest to get Golden Spoon. We drove down there because our most favorite babysitter works there now. So we got to visit her and get really yummy yogurt. We had never been there before, but we loved it. The kids loved trying all their yummy flavors. Lily was absolutely funny. She kept leaving hand prints on the windows that Kaitlyn would clean. So they made a game of it. Adam loved his cake batter yogurt. Lily liked the chocolate, but loved the peach and Noah stuck with the safe chocolate with M&M's in them. We will definitely go again. We will probably go to a closer one though. On the way home we were able to see a lot of the planes as they practiced for the airshow. They were flying right over our car. The boys thought that was great. What a bonus!

Family Science Night

It was 3rd grade family science night at school and since I am a scientist at heart I convinced Damon that he should take Noah. I like cultivating young scientists. So they went and had a great time. They created chemical reactions using baking soda and vinegar, studied Newton's 3rd law, studied different types of sand and did a little research on acid rain. They both had a really good time, but Noah keeps saying that math is his favorite subject. I must try harder.

Just some random things

So lately I have been hearing a lot of New Kids on the Block songs on the radio. I just about die of laughter every time one of them is played. And it is so terribly sad that I have every one of those stinkin' songs memorized. Since they are on tour again I guess that means I can blow the dust of my tapes and play them as I do fabulous dance moves around the kitchen. Then on Sunday night after the football game Damon was flipping through channels and came across scenes from their tour. It was their Boston show so of course it was huge. They have changed the key of most of their songs, but they still sound the same. They still have the same dance moves. They should probably redo those. They are just so terribly cheesy. The camera would pan the audience and they were all 30 somethings in there. So funny.

Everyone knows I love to read. I really feel like it is the best form of personal relaxation. There is nothing like a good book to rescue you from reality for a little while. I think that is why I end up falling in love with so many fictional characters. Well, I just read this great book with a great, sweet, wonderful story and I wanted to share it with everyone. The story was just so simple and the author isn't to verbose. Anyway... the book is called A Company of Swans and it is by Eva Ibbotson. Go read it. It isn't even very long. 244 pages. If I were really talented and new the right people I would so love to write this into a movie. I would love to see this on the big screen. I know who I would cast as the lead guy, but he is starting to look a little old. Oh well. Enjoy the book.