Five

It's my baby's birthday. Yes, I know she isn't a baby any more. Yep, mom is brooding about her birthday again. She has grown 3 inches in this last year. She might be moving into her third clothes size change before the end of the school year. It's not fair. They grow too quickly.

There is something very wrong about it.

Emily is almost up to my shoulder. She barely turned 7 a couple of months ago. *sigh*

Caitlyn is our quiet and contemplative one. She is wonderfully imaginative and has taught and challenged her sister to develop her imagination as well. She has a natural grace. I'm not sure where she got it from. She is so good at sharing with her sister. She is so very easy going most of the time but every once in a while, her temper flares and she just kind of shuts down and is unresponsive (especially if she is overly tired). It is very aggravating when it happens because you just don't know what to do to help her or she won't let you anyway.

But alas, she is 5 years old now.

Pretty soon, she'll be driving and moving out on her own.

Disneyland

Christian's mom was visiting from Hawaii and wanted to take the girls to Disneyland. So we made plans to meet up at the Del Taco close to the park this past weekend. We told the girls that we were going to Del Taco. They didn't know about what was going to happen afterwards. Now, our girls have never been to Del Taco (in fact, we don't go out to eat too much at all). They've been to Taco Bell once as a part of their summer reading program so I would assume they had an idea of what a Del Taco would be like. But our deprived kids were happy to get out of the house and had some suspicions that there might be more involved but had no idea of what that would be. But in keeping it a secret, we were able to all sleep the night before and the kids didn't get to drive us batty from the anticipation of what was to come.

The last (and only) other time they went, Caitlyn was just a baby (not yet 3 months old) and Emily was not quite 2 1/2. Grams took them then as well. Emily has some vague memory of a ride or two but was mostly excited from looking at some of the pictures we took of her there.

Emily was about to burst when she really realized where we were going. She didn't find out until we were about to get on the tram. Caitlyn was a bit overwhelmed with everything at first and it took her a while to process all that was going on about her.

Emily couldn't stop jumping up and down. There were a lot of people there but luckily, it wasn't too crowded yet and the weather was fairly nice and not too hot.

Caitlyn was too shy to take pictures with any of the characters. I guess we should have expected that after the whole ordeal with Belle. But the strangest thing was that while we were in Tomorrowland, they had a demonstration of some music instruments and asked for volunteers. I was trying to get Emily to volunteer but she didn't want any part of it. To our surprise, Caitlyn raised her hand and got picked. She played the keyboard and got a button for participating. We were so excited for her.

The girls got to take turns picking rides (which kind of took us back and forth across the park all day).

Caitlyn's favorite rides were the Dumbo ride (which was what Emily's favorite was the first time she went), the little roller coaster in Toon Town and It's a Small World. She didn't like the rides that were kind of dark and scary to a four year old...like Pinocchio. That put her off so that she didn't want to ride Pirates or Splash Mtn. But honestly, she's kind of a roller coaster junkie. She even liked the Thunder Mtn Railroad.

Emily's favorite was Thunder Mtn and Splash Mtn. We all got pretty wet on Splash Mtn. Unfortunately, the sun was starting to go down by then and we didn't dry off very fast. She also liked the little roller coaster in Toon Town. We didn't take her to Space Mtn. Emily loved to look at the Disneyland map and figure out where she wanted to go next.

We barely managed to get dinner that night as all the restaurants close at 9:pm even though the park doesn't close until much later. We wanted to eat right before the firework show. Christian's brother managed to beg them to let him in to get us some food while we took the girls to the restroom.

By the time the fireworks were over, Caitlyn was about to pass out. She was already tired at dinner though. She was complaining that there was no bed for her to sleep in. She's not used to being up so late without a nap. Dad carried her and she passed out on his shoulders.

He managed to carry her up there so that she could take a quick power nap. It worked good enough for her to be able to get to Small World and ride the railroad around the park before we called it a night.

We ended by going to the Penny Arcade to let the girls smash some pennies.

Grams spoiled them some more by getting them a bunch of souvenirs along the way.

We all managed to have fun but didn't get home until 1:30 am. Christian and I didn't get to bed until 2:am. We were exhausted. Good thing we have afternoon church this year.

Spring Break - Part 3

On Saturday, we took the girls up to the mountain. We were hoping that there would still be enough snow to play in. We watched and hoped that the weather system would move in sooner but alas, it got delayed until Sunday night/early Monday morning. Little good that did us.

But we managed to find enough patches of snow that they were still able to do a little sledding and have snow ball fights with Dad. There was not enough to make a snowman and the snow was too compacted to make snow angels.

The girls were pretty good all week but they went a bit nuts by Saturday. They were totally unmanageable. They just went crazy and would not listen to a thing we told them. Christian and I were just frustrated and did not have much fun.

The girls didn't let that stop them from having fun though...they were ignoring us anyway.

Afterwards, we had hoped to take our annual picture of the girls at the temple but unfortunately, it was still closed for maintenance. We also usually take the girls to A&W afterwards but it was filled with unsavory characters and Christian and I didn't have much patience left so we decided to just call it a day and go home.

The next day, Christian and I started to feel sick. The girls were even more unruly and fought all day with each other. To say that we couldn't wait for school to begin again was an understatement.

Caitlyn woke up a little after 7:am every day since the break started (that is her normal time during school) no matter if she got in a nap or not. But of course, when Monday morning rolled around, I could not wake her up for anything...how very predictable.

I fear for summer.

Spring Break - Part 2

On Thursday, we had an appointment at the cannery to work on our food storage. That was a goal that we set for ourselves this year and so far we are doing pretty good. We aren't quite where we would like to be yet, but we are a lot closer.

I forgot to take my camera so I didn't get a picture of the girls with their little hair nets and aprons on. They were really cute. And again, the girls were really good about following directions and helping. The people at the cannery complimented us on the behavior of our girls and it was really nice to know that all our hard work is paying off.

We also did some spring cleaning and brought a bunch of stuff to DI afterwards...of course we always end up picking up a thing or two while we are there so we end up just trading things really.

Friday was back to business as usual. Christian had to go back to work but the girls had a birthday party of a friend to attend anyway. Then later that evening, we were invited to watch the opening night of Beauty and the Beast.

I managed to make both of the girls take a nap before the show. The girls had a great time. It turned out really well but the show was longer than we had expected so it was a good thing the girls had a nap. Plus it was fun to see our friends performing in the show.

Emily even got a picture with Beauty. Caitlyn was either too shy or too tired to comply (maybe a bit of both). I wish we could have gotten a picture of her dress in the shot but I had only brought the long lens for my camera and could not get far enough back from them to take the picture.

My only complaint was that the lighting was not quite bright enough to get all my pictures to turn out as well as I would have liked.

Spring Break - Part 1

Spring break went by pretty quickly at first. The first couple of days kind of just flew by. I even managed to get Emily to do some reading and both girls got in a piano lesson.

Christian took a couple of days off to spend with the family. On Wednesday, we made a trip to the Santa Rosa Plateau to do some hiking. We haven't gone this time of year before and were interested in what kind of wild flowers would be blooming. We made a day of it and packed a picnic. It was beautiful.



The girls were pretty good little troopers, hiking a little over 5 miles with us. They could not do too much exploring though as the poison oak was growing rampant. And normally, they like to pick flowers or collect little odds and ends for their collections, but as this is an ecological preserve, we thought it prudent not to let them indulge in this past time here.



They were pretty good about being respectful of their environment. In fact, they were also really good about being considerate of each other and helping one another. It was really nice to see.

Easter

The Saturday before Easter, the girls were invited to an Easter party at a friend's house. They had a big Easter egg hunt.

We didn't let them get too many eggs. In fact we, made Emily (as one of the older kids at the party) get all the difficult ones that were higher up so that she would not end up with too many. The smaller baskets kind of helped them stop as they could not fit any more even if they tried. They had a lot of fun playing with their friends though.

When they were done playing, we had to run home to get ready for another Easter egg hunt. Every year since they could walk, their Auntie Marian has done an Easter egg hunt for them.

So don't think that we were mean making them save more eggs for the other kids at the party. They certainly got their share.

They each ended up with a bag full of candy, not to mention a bunch of other toys and goodies. Then we had a big Easter dinner with Marian.

We were wiped out by Sunday and stayed in our pajamas to watch General Conference.

We took breaks now and then for lunch and to dye those Easter eggs in the previous post. The girls did pretty good. They like working in those conference pamphlets. It keeps them semi quiet and busy.

Easter Eggs

In preparation for Easter, I decided to take the girls on a little field trip of our own when Emily got back from school last Friday. I took the girls to visit our old chickens. We gave them to a friend from our old ward because there are too many predators where we live now (coyotes, foxes and racoons). Apparently, our 5 little chickens started a semi obsession for her because she got a bunch more. She even has new chicks that were a week old. I knew that Emily would want to see the new chicks since we don't have our own anymore.

Caitlyn was too timid to hold them but she thought they were pretty neat still.  She was pretty young when we had our last ones and probably does not remember them at all. Our friend was kind enough to give us some fresh eggs to take back with us. They are naturally all different colors already. These really are natural Easter eggs (not the ones merely dyed with onion skins and red cabbage).

But the girls were not content just to have eggs of different colors and wanted to do their own.

Caitlyn had the best egg. It is the pretty blue and green colored one.

Preschool Field Trip

Last Friday, before Spring break, Caitlyn's preschool class went on a field trip (to the park). They had a bunch of games planned for the kids and a picnic. The kids had a lot of fun.

This was not their first field trip though. Last month they got to go to a bakery down the street from the school. The people who own it have a kid in Caitlyn's class. The children were told a little bit about how to make bread and shown how to make cookies. Plus they kind of got to help make the cookies...a little. Then they each got a cookie to take home. They also got bread samples at the bakery. I forgot to bring a camera!

But Caitlyn was so excited about it. She's been playing "bakery" a lot lately. I don't know if she had been playing that much with those toys in a while and I love seeing her do it again. Caitlyn actually got an extra cookie at the bakery because she answered a question and brought it home to share with her sister. I got a baguette of french bread for being the first to be able to say what four main ingredients are in bread...hey, it's not cheating, just because I know!

Anyway, at the end of Caitlyn's field trip to the park, they all got a "prize" for participating in all the games. They called it a "skill" day because they were to participate in games to demonstrate a physical skill and because it was still part of a school day so they had to do something of that sort!

Here is a picture of Caitlyn's class.

Who's award is it anyway?

Last week, Emily's school had their honor roll assembly. Because it is the last Friday of the month, it was also "have lunch with your child day." I've gone a couple of times, but usually not because it is such a madhouse. You usually can't park within the same block as the school. If you do manage to get a parking space, you'll be lucky to be able to leave at your convenience. Everyone disregards the parking rules and just plain common courtesy by double and sometimes triple park so that you get trapped and can't leave until it pleases them to move. Plus, all the kids are running around and screaming so it's not like it is a pleasant visit; but I want to go to support her, meet her friends, and find out what she does during lunch.

But I digress... Since I was going to Emily's award assembly, I thought that I would surprise her at lunch by staying.  On Thursday (the previous day) while she was at school, I whipped up some cookie dough and set it aside. I had planned to bake them that night after the kids had gone to bed so that I could surprise Emily with the treat. Unfortunately, when Emily came home from school that afternoon, it became apparent that it was going to be "one of those" homework days. She literally did not finish her homework until it was time to go to bed. It was four measly pages. She took an average of 1 hour per page to complete it. Then she had to do her 30 minutes of reading as well. She had been doing a bit better the past couple of weeks but she fell back into her bad habits.

So after all the humming and hawing and whining and hair pulling to get it done, did I want to then stay up baking cookies for her? Not likely. She's lucky that I had already made the dough and had to bake them anyway or else I'd say, "forget it!" What a nightmare.

Then I had to get up the next morning a little after 7:am to get dressed and get Caitlyn dressed and off to school. Since the award assembly was at 9:10 that morning, I thought it was best to just stay and volunteer in her classroom for an about an hour instead of driving back and forth and losing my precious parking space. Then I ended up having to help set up chairs for the assembly because they were no where near being ready and parents were starting to arrive. But at least I was able to reserve a front row seat for myself.

After the assembly, I went back to Caitlyn's classroom to help out again and sat with her for her lunch for another hour. After her class was over, we walked to the park in back of the school (again, so that I wouldn't lose my spot!).

We returned to school after about half an hour at the playground to find Emily in the melee, and sat with her and with her friends for a bit while they ate. I broke out the cookies for her to share with her friends. I didn't bring lunch and hadn't had so much as a drop of water since the night before so Caitlyn and I had a cookie, but it is difficult to have sweets when you are starving for real food or just some water.

I didn't get home until nearly 12:30. I was tired, thirsty, and hungry.  I was trying to keep the big picture in mind, but when it is such a chore to get Emily to do her homework, you really wonder, who's award is it anyway?