Don't Faint....

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's been over a year....  I just needed a year off.  I will recap the year later but for now, some videos....

Every year at the kids' school, they have Special Persons Day the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.  The students pick one or 2 special people to come to school and visit their classrooms and to watch the Music & Art Extravaganza.  I LOVE the extravaganza.  Maybe it's because I get a front row seat (I have connections...), or maybe it's just seeing my kids on stage having a great time, or maybe it's knowing that the MONTHS of hard work has paid off for all the kids.  Seriously though, I get a little teary watching them and I cannot stop smiling.  I've already watched each video a couple times.

The theme this year was Arizona's 100th Birthday.  (Just ignore the fact that it's November and AZ turns 100 in February of 2012.)

Sarah's 1st grade class took on the snakes.  They made beautiful snakes and then they sang this song.  I forgot that every year the 1st grade gets to be a band and do a little something special with the Head of Lower School.  It's at the beginning before the song and it's super cute too.  Only problem was that he blocked my Sarah.  The first graders, in my opinion (not biased at all!), took home best song of the day.  They were so animated and loud and just plain awesome.

Next up in the show were the 2 Pre-K classes.  I love that my kids got to perform back to back.    32 of the cutest kids you've ever seen marched in wearing beautiful candle shirts they made themselves honoring the birthday by singing the obvious.... Happy Birthday.  I love that Will waved at us.  He waved as he stepped down the steps too but I didn't record that.  We also got reports that he waved at all the people in the room as he walked out.  Lucky for him that the little boy behind him was WAY behind him so he had the center aisle completely to himself.  I would expect nothing less from my little man.  Take a look....

Family Pictures

Yes I know I'm way behind but super quick, some results from our family photo session.

LOVE Danielle's pictures. She gets the colors so bright and everyone looks good.

Family Pics

Ten on Tuesday - the 10 second edition

1. I'm trying to see how fast I can put this together before I have to go make cookie dough so it can chill before I let my kids roll it and cut out Halloween shapes.... yes I'm a bit nuts.
2. Sarah learned to ride on 2 wheels a week ago. YAY! She is now learning how to stop. She gets tired of riding pretty fast but Daddy is working on it with her.
3. Andy's Halloween Haunted House at school kicks off in just over 48 hours. He has an hour or so until he gets his precious Art rooms to put it all together in under 48 hours..... He's definitely a LOT nuts.
4. I made pumpkin bread yesterday and need a new recipe. Send me one if you have a good one. The one I made needs a bit more spices to it and more moisture.
5. Will has learned to talk back..... like a 13 year old girl..... or maybe am almost 6 year olf girl because that would make more sense. UGH!
6. My 3 weeks of working 5 mornings at the preschool is over. It was fun but exhausting. I am happy to have my days at home with Will back and my 1 day off back!!! YAY!!
7. I can't wait to clean up the backyards. We have the winter lawn in and I'm ready to freshen up some pots.
8. I got a Kindle for my birthday. It's kind of a weird thing. I didn't ask for it but Andy thought it would be cool. It's pretty cool. I think I will use it mostly for traveling. Do people take e-book readers to the gym???? I think I would accidentally drop it or something.
9. Will just found (as I was typing this) the GeoTrax North Pole Express in the Fisher Price Catalog that he found in my room and was looking through. Guess what I'm going to be hearing about until next year.... Woohoo!
10. On another note though, I'm happy that they are making more GeoTrax things and that it's not going away. I also like that I've seen some commercials for it. Will's Christmas list will probably be GeoTrax and Monster Jam Trucks - an interesting combination.

And I'm proud to say I threw this together in less than 10 minutes. Woosh!

The Tooth Fairy is on Vacation

Well at least at our house she is. With the first 8 teeth out, the tooth fairy is done for now. Sarah lost her 8 front teeth over the period of just under a year. According to eruption charts, these are supposed to come out over the course of a year or 2 or 3 and not really supposed to finish up until 8 years old or so. She also has 3 of her 6 year molars in. It's a bit rushed and a bit crazy. I am hoping we can take a long break until the rest start coming out.

The tooth fairy has gotten a bit creative with paper dolls and nail polish and bubblegum. Luckily it has been easy to sneak into Sarah's room and even better that Sarah likes to leave her tooth box on her nightstand instead of under her pillow. Here is our toothless girl last night just after losing her 8th tooth. She was super excited.

Holding up 8 fingers for 8 teeth.

The oh so beautiful close up of her teeth.

Finally....

Yes I know I'm way behind. There's just been too much going on around here.

So let's jump in and play catch up this week... starting with a rather normal 10 on Tuesday.

1. Are they sure monsoon season is over? I know the end of it was Sep. 30th but I don't think it ever really started until now. We finally got a decent thunderstorm today and yesterday.
2. It's official. We are killing the summer lawn. YAY! Hopefully we can get the winter lawn working this year. Coming soon - scalping the summer lawn.
3. I am starting to really dislike Halloween now but that's a whole different blog with pictures. Halloween threw up all over my house and yard and it's not going away until October 29th. Yep You read that right. This is what happens when your husband takes on a 6 room haunted house for his job on the 28th of October. He made this out of papier mache, chicken wire, and an old large playground ball.....
4. It's zoo time!!! The mornings are finally cool enough to do the zoo and do it fast. We have always loved going to the zoo right when it opens and it's empty. I am still a bit surprised that more people don't partake in this early morning fun - maybe they don't have early rising kids. The weather is cool, the kids can run and the animals are active. I think last weekend may have been our first trip without a stroller (unless you count Daddy's shoulders) and it went well.
5. We have 1 Halloween costume decision down and 1 to go. Too bad, the hard decision is the one left. Will is going to be Scooby Doo. Sarah would like to be about 20 things right now. We are going to make a final decision this week because I don't want to run around the week before Halloween. Oh and because I'm sick of Halloween. UPDATE*** Wrote that 2 days ago and now Will wants to be a bug. UGH!!! Make that 2 costume decisions to go. Maybe that will be this evening's challenge.
6. Survived my first teacher Open House and have a new found respect for teachers at Open Houses.
7. Will's brainwashing is complete....We were at a family baby shower yesterday and sitting at a table across from a large TV in the large family room with a football game on. I wasn't paying much attention to the game because the sound was off. Will was finishing his food and looked up across the room and said to Andy, "DADDY, DADDY!!!! LOOK!!! The Chargers are on TV." I then had him yelling (his own doing) Go Chargers after all the touchdowns in a room full of Cardinals fans. Cue evil laughter!! That's my little man.
8. Tried a newly remodeled Fry's Grocery Store this week. It was simply lovely. I even let Will wander the fruits and veggies helping me. The cinnamon smell that greeted me in the floral department as the doors slid open and the classical music (NOT elevator) just put me in a calm mood. We wandered for awhile in there. Will was so good and I found everything I needed. Loved it!!!
9. Steven Tyler and Ziggy Marley are going to be on the Wonder Pets in an Alice in Wonderland episode in a week or so. I'm sure Will would be super excited if he had any clue who these people were. I must admit that I do like it when famous people choose to lend their voices to cartoons. I think it must be so much fun for them. It's not like the kids have any clue. I like trying to figure out who it is when I hear a familiar voice. Some fun ones: Conan O'Brian on the Backyardigans as Santa Claus (on the phone), Alicia Keys on Backyardigans as an alien and then singing an alien song, Ricardo Montalban on Dora many years ago in The Missing Piece.
10. One of my favorite things about living in Phoenix is the storms. I love that it might be sunny in my neighborhood but that I can see the storm clouds AND the rain they are dropping only a few miles away. It's an awesome site. It can make for unpredictable storms and some difficulty with the radar. Half the time the radar map shows rain over our house and we have none.

Ten, I mean 5, I mean 1 plus pictures on Tuesday

1. School is starting....well everywhere but in this house! We have a couple weeks to go and it seems like ages away still. I'm supposed to find out this week which teacher Sarah has. Can't wait!

So... since not too much is happening this week.... some old pictures in no particular order at all: Enjoy!

Sarah's First Halloween 2005

Our boat.... yup we owned a boat called Permanent Waves.

Will - 4 months (forgot how big and bald his head was!)

Sarah's 1st camping trip - age 2 1/2

Sarah 15 months

Sarah 13 months

Will 15 months

Will and Sarah - Easter 2008

Will at 1

In a cave September 2007

Camping Snap Shots

Camping at Kaibab Lake. Game invented by a 4 year old and enjoyed for almost an hour by all ages. Hilarious. Up and down the street with all children insisting on turns at riding and pulling and pushing!

Our friends pulling the Klemmers.

Payback!

More to come soon.....

San Diego Part 3 - Time at the Cove

Due to clouds and cool temps, we didn't actually go to a full beach. Instead we spent our last 2 days at the Cove. Day 1 was just a picnic and bird chasing (Will's favorite past time) and rock climbing to see crabs!

One of the many pictures of Will chasing birds.

One of the many crabs we saw on the rocks.

Seeing as I am a bit of a klutz, I left some of the rock hopping to Andy.

Day 2, we returned to the same place but this time with bathing suits and went down onto the small beach area. The day was pretty cool and the water was colder. Sarah was BY far the bravest. She forced Daddy to take her in a bit further than he wanted to. I on the other hand, along with my parents, didn't even bother wearing a bathing suit. Even Will was brave enough to go in up to his thighs. It was a quick beach trip but the kids didn't care. We ate lunch after that and climbed the rocks some more before heading home.

We had a good time in SD and were exhausted when we returned. The heat was a novelty for about 1 afternoon. Now we watch for afternoon monsoon storms just hoping they'll dump some rain on our house.

San Diego Part 2 - Zoo and Train Ride and Down Time

We did a lot of fun things but also a lot of down time just hanging out at Gammy and Pa-paw's house. I caught the kids playing games on Gammy's computer. How sweet is this! She even gave him a kiss after I snapped the picture.

Doing some worksheets with Gammy.

Drawing fairies with Pa-paw.

There were so many good pictures from the zoo, that I just put them in a slide show. The kids had a great time. We went in the evening and had dinner there and the kids stayed up late. We couldn't fit a stroller into the car for our drive to SD so we rented one at the zoo. FANTASTIC IDEA! It was an easy stroller for them to jump in and out of. The animals were very active and the dinner place was empty. It was a VERY good zoo trip.

Our next big adventure was something that my mom and dad had talked about doing for awhile. My mom was unfortunately working, so my dad and I took the kids alone. We hopped on a Coaster train from Solana Beach to Old Town (a 35 minute ride). We ate lunch in Old Town and wandered some museums and then rode back to our car and drove home. The ride there was VERY exciting. Will couldn't stop talking. He informed the lady sitting next to us that he saw the Great Wall of China out his window. It was pretty funny.

In Old Town, lunch was delicious. Pa-paw and I enjoyed a margarita. The temperatures were cool and all was well. We wandered the stage coach and stable museum and then walked through a house from the 1850's. I quickly observed the chamber pots and a couple potty chairs. Sarah then found them in each room and we noted together the lack of a separate bathroom. How times have changed! She really enjoyed the house (much more than I thought she would) and wanted to walk through twice but we didn't have time. Next stop was the jail and courthouse. Will liked the metal jail box that was out back. You couldn't go in it but he still liked looking through the bars.

Our ride back was not as exciting. Sarah informed me that she was bored, until she and Pa-paw wandered off to bring us each a paper cup of water that's available on board. All in all, I would definitely recommend that little adventure to anyone visiting town for an extended period of time! Side note: Comic-Con was on town while we were in Old Town. Saw some interesting costumes. Next year, we might just go to the convention center and check it out.

San Diego Part 1 - The 4th, American Girl, Park at the Park and VBS

We arrived just in time to decorate the bikes for the annual bike parade. The kids love doing this. The middle school/high school marching band leads the short parade down the street and into our big park.

And of course, faces must be painted.....

As soon as we arrived in SD, Andy set up the GeoTrax in a corner of the living room. Will was in heaven and he even got Pa-paw hooked on his train set.
The 3 ladies made a trek up to the American Girl store in LA for lunch and some shopping. Sarah had a wonderful time.
We took a bunch of pictures as we left.
It may look like she's waiting to go in but we were leaving at this point! She just couldn't get enough. I got quite a bit of birthday and Christmas shopping done.

This is what the ride home from the American Girl Store looks like......
We spent a day at the Park at the Park at Petco Park to see the Padres play the D-Backs. Sarah was about the only one rooting for the D-Backs. She kept asking who was winning and switched her team loyalty based on who had the most runs.
We went with a big group of friends - a post wedding celebration for the daughter of a dear friend of my mom's. This friend's son-in-law designs hats and brought a bunch with him for the kids to have. The bag was a mix of adult sizes and kid sizes. Sarah went with this one. I LOVE it. So cute. I didn't get a picture of Will's because he kept it on for all of 10 seconds. He liked it but didn't want it on his head at the time.
There was a guy (not pictured) who comes by the Park to entertain the kids and give them prizes. He did a great job. This was about the only time Will participated. They were doing jumping jacks. Sarah stuck with it and got many goodies.

Sarah spent a week of mornings at my parents' church (my church from childhood) doing VBS. She was so brave about going there without knowing anyone. Usually, she would be very clingy but she threw herself into it and was so excited to tell us about all she was doing. It was definitely a milestone for her. I'm so proud. She also got a couple new orange shirts because her group was orange and she needed to wear something orange. Andy was very happy with this matchy-matchy outfit that she put together all by herself!

10 on Tuesday

1. San Diego pictures and blog coming later this week..... Stay tuned.
2. I walked out of the house the evening we got back and that rain smell was in the air and the Monsoon clouds were not too far away. Did we see any rain?? NOPE! I called Andy from Arizona a couple times warning him about rain on his way home. He said all he got was a wind storm one evening. What is up with the monsoon this year? Where is the rain landing? The clouds are there but very selective I guess.
3. While I was gone, Andy had the sprinkler timer replaced. YAY! He also watered the lawn.... really watered the lawn. I should have taken a picture of it but I was too intent on mowing it. It was at least a foot and a half high which makes for painstakingly slow mowing.
4. I am really enjoying this song.
5. I started pulling out the tricks for kid entertainment yesterday. 1 month to go and I think we'll be able to keep busy. ALL play doh came out yesterday - a bit messy but they loved it. We also planted our chia pet. The kids thought the slimy seeds were gross but I'm sure they'll love watching it grow.
6. In other news, our fish is....... STILL alive. (Thought he deserved a shout out)
7. Just saw that The Bachelor game is out on Wii. I admit I'm curious.
8. Catching up on TV has been kind of fun. Summer is usually the dead zone with nothing in the Tivo and this is a nice change!
9. I have decided to cut back on coffee starting this week. I'm a 1 cup a day type but I think I'm going to go for 1/2 that, like maybe every other day. Wish me luck.
10. A sneak peek of our trip:

10 on Tuesday

1. We've been doing a whole lot of NOTHING here. It's been pretty nice. The girls went shopping today and Andy spent about 4 hours watching Pirates of the Caribbean while Will played and napped.
2. It's been cold, like mid to low 60's cold. I did not throw in enough pants for us for this. This is cold for July in San Diego. Waiting for sun and warmth.
3. Our first afternoon here, it was actually sunny and warm so we walked up the street for pizza. It's the pizza place I used to stop at on half days for lunch, the pizza place we've always gotten take out from, the pizza place one of my good friends in high school worked at forever. The place has been updated but it's still pretty much the same. Nice!
4. Why is it that getting to a place to see fireworks is so difficult? I don't remember it being like this. We saw fireworks on TV and that was it. Any other place would have required us going somewhere early in the morning and sitting around until 9pm. UGH!! When I was a kid we just knocked out the light in the cul de sac and lit illegal, too high fireworks and did sparklers. Nothing can really top being able to walk a ways down the street from our house to sit on a hill and watch the Washington DC fireworks and be able to see about 5 other shows off in the distance. Love Arlington!!
5. My dad helping Sarah dress her American Girl dolls with a dog hat on his head and a Geo Trax track tucked into it.... Priceless!
6. Jake vs. Vienna interview on The Bachelorette - a train wreck that I could not take my eyes off. I side with Vienna. I don't think she's that good an actress. He was just plain creepy. Ick!
7. Toy Story 3 - Best movie I have seen in awhile. How is it that Pixar manages to do that most times???? Laughs, tears, action all in a short movie with a great story and made for adults....er, kids. I totally cried but I also laughed out loud at several parts. A couple parts were a bit intense for Sarah but over all FANTASTIC!
8. Andy stayed up until pats 11pm last night....SHOCKING. This is the man who barely makes it until 9pm.
9. Found out this evening from my mom and my cousin (who is also visiting) that my grandmother lived with her father and step-mother for a few years (?) when she was around 14ish.... above the whorehouse they ran. Crazy!!
10. We got Sarah training wheels for her new bike. We didn't realize until we put them on that they are truly "training wheels" and are a spring loaded. They give a bit to teach her balance. That's great but man, they freaked her out at first. It's easier to fall over in these than regular old training wheels. We'll see how it goes. So far, so good.

10 on Tuesday

1. I found out that one of my favorite hard ciders from back east went out of business. They were all over Boston and even on tap at the BU Pub. I always bought it in DC. It was never out West so I never got a farewell taste. Oh well. I still love Hornsby's Crisp Apple. YUMMY!
2. A note to all future taggers out there.... don't use your own name! I was talking to a neighbor who happens to be on the HOA Board. She told me that we had some kids who were writing their name all over the public areas of our development (50 houses). Easily solved since he was just writing his name. I guess there's only 1 Kyle around and he's like 8 or 9. He got a good talking to by the HOA and his parents. Seriously, if you're going to get into graffiti, shouldn't you learn lesson number 1: Don't write your own name!!!
3. Syfy is always putting out crazy made for TV movies. The titles alone crack me up. Our favorite is Mansquito from a few years ago. Right now though, they are premiering Dinocroc vs. Supergator (the follow up to Dinocroc). Andy and I make it a game to try and guess the silly name of movies after watching a couple minutes. Coming next year is the best one yet - Mega Python vs. Gatoroid (yes you read that right!). The funniest part - it pits Debbie Gibson against Tiffany. I'll be sure to let you know when it's on.
4. My kids have both developed this very distinctive cry/scream that immediately tells me that the opposite child is about to tattle. Usually I see 1 child approaching me and hear the other from another room - screech. The screech (for both kids) is ONLY heard when they are being ratted out. It actually amuses me quite a bit.
5. I know full well that berries are one of those fruits that should be purchased as organic. So for the first time, I did so. They were TERRIBLE. They tasted gross and they died within 1 day. I am so disappointed. I guess I must buy organic strawberries only from Whole Foods or something because I will not buy them from a regular old grocery store again. I could understand if strawberries were out of season but we are in the heart of strawberry season. Is this the norm with organic berries? We take many days to eat ours, with Sarah being the main consumer. I tossed over 1/2 a package of them and was at least glad that I bought them on sale and that they were about the same price as the other strawberries.
6. Andy and I are getting old and we need to exercise a lot more. That's what I've learned in the past week or so. The temperature starts hitting over 105 and we are drained. It's this unbelievable exhaustion. It makes us cranky and just want to sit on a couch in the A/C. It sucks.
7. Best New Toy Buy of the Summer Season - On sale and the kids will sit and play with it together for an hour. Sure our colors are all mixed up by now but it's great. They LOVE it. Also, it's not as much of a mess maker as I thought it would be.
8. After a month or so break from GeoTrax, Will is again obsessed. All 4 of us sat in his room over the weekend, each with a train remote, and watched them go round and round. Andy and I then decided to crash ours. Will SCREAMED. He was not happy. Note to all, if you are going to play GeoTrax with Will, be prepared to play by his rules. Hurting the trains is not an option.
9. Will and Andy went to a baseball game last week. Will informed me that his favorite part of the game was eating. That's my boy!
10. This is how summer should be - sprinklers, water slides and fun!

10 on Why not Wednesday?

1. We tried a new version of scrambled eggs - Paula Deen's. Try them, trust me. I cut the recipe in 1/2 and it was still YUMMY!
2. Will came into our bedroom the other morning whining about how "Sarah didn't do something" So I asked what didn't she do. His answer: She didn't make sense. Nothing like starting your day off with a laugh.
3. When we go on trips (big or small), I like to start early with my packing lists and piles. It seems to have rubbed off on Sarah. She started her list of "Movies to take to Gammy's House" last Saturday. I have repeatedly told her we're not leaving for a couple weeks. She doesn't care. Now she has Will thinking we're leaving any day now. Next week, with no summer activities planned, should be interesting. Who thinks we'll be packed and ready to go by Wednesday???
4. Our sprinkler/watering system is on the fritz. We replaced the solenoids but now have to buy a new timer to go with it. So... for the past MANY weeks, I have been doing it all by hand. This involves watering the front plants with a hose and manually turning on any sprinklers in the backyard. The problem now is that, since we replaced those pieces, the sprinkler controls are not behaving. They all come on at once. I actually have to turn the main backyard water control on and off to use them. It's an adventure.
5. Took Sarah to a 3-D movie (Shrek Forever After), a first for us both, not counting anything at Disneyland. It was better than I thought but so not worth the extra money. It didn't add to the movie. I think it's a bit ridiculous that all these movies are going 3-D. You should really only do that if it improves the movie - like maybe Avatar.
6. This coming week, we are going to try Parsnip muffins. I have never, ever made anything with a parsnip or even tasted a parsnip. I was watching Alton Brown and it looked so interesting that I figured it might be a new tasty breakfast or snack for the kids. I'll let you know how they are.
7. I've been working this past week. Working, without pay because I am part owner (silent wife partner) of a business that needs to fix its website so it can grow. Andy and I sat down to look at the pages over the past week to determine the best flow of the site. Then I worked on some language to update the pages. It's been interesting to say the least. This is what I did WAY back when. It seems like ages and ages ago. I have forgotten a lot but some stuff did come back to me and it was a bit fun to get back in the thick of things again. We have a phone conference this morning with the other 2 partners about what we did. We'll see what they think. I'm willing to help but Andy is trying to get me in charge of the whole website thing. I don't know that I want that. We'll just have to see I guess.
8. Father's Day was lovely. We spent it at my sister-in-law's house in her pool and eating BBQ chicken. It pretty much convinced Andy to start our gym membership up as soon as we return from CA. It's in the budget to start and the kids could use a pool. Sarah took about 10 minutes to get back into things and then was having a blast. The rest of the day, the kids were so exhausted that they watched a movie and went to bed. This was great since I gave Andy the entire afternoon/night off. I even got a big thanks from him and it was so much easier than usual because the kids were soooooooooooo tired. To top it off, I had a lovely chat with my own Dad.
9. I broke our edger. :( Or rather, I think our old extension cord broke it. The plug on it is fried. So.... I have to get a new one. In other good news, the new part for our lawn mower arrived yesterday. Time to get that fixed so I can mow this weekend. OK, maybe that's not such good news but it's better news than having to buy a whole new lawn mower!
10. I've been pretty good so far this summer conserving my gas, with some help from Andy but this week is going to kill me. The kids have conflicting classes (my own fault!) so I am doing 3 round trips to schools most days. It's nuts! The driving doesn't bother me as much as watching my gas gauge drop. UGH!!! I suppose next week's inactivity will make up for it but still....

Just Because...

No reason at all for this....

Who could have imagined that bald head would one day have so much hair on it?! So little and so cute. It seems ages ago. (3 months and almost 2 1/2)