Spring Break 2011

View of over Riverside and the San Gabriel Mtns. from the Botanic Gardens

We survived spring break okay but  I'm already starting to stress out about summer. We started out the week really great. The kids were still making their beds in the mornings. They got to lie around and watch cartoons and movies in the mornings in their pajamas. We only required them to catch up a bit on their piano practice as they have not kept that up very well and to do some reading daily.

Caitlyn with a craft from the library

We broke up each day by taking them to the park, the library and the botanic gardens. The girls each got a turn to go to work with dad for a couple of hours. They love to go and do little experiments in dad's lab and come home with a couple of little test tubes and stuff. They get to play with stuff like dry ice and they get to each spend some time alone with dad. Plus, they can spend some time apart from each other. Which is really good since by mid week, they were getting a bit sick of each other and fighting more and more often.

We originally thought to take them camping since we missed out on the desert trip due to the weather. But we were all sick prior and during general conference weekend. Then Christian could not get time off work as he had a lot to do that week. So that didn't work out too good for us.

Christian did manage to take Thursday off and we drove down to San Diego to take the kids to Sea World again for the day (pictures to follow I haven't sorted through them all yet).

The Botanic Gardens is our second backyard it seems. We went to look at all the flowers currently in bloom, the kids love to play garden bingo, and they got to run around and get some energy out and climb boulders. We had to stop under a tree for a little while to escape a little bit of rain, but the rest of the time we had good weather.

They also went to a baptism for one of their good friends and a birthday party that followed. We had a full week.

Pump It Up

Misc. School

A couple of weeks ago, the kindergarten class at Caitlyn's school went on a field trip to Amy's Farm. Originally, they said that there was not enough money for them to go on a field trip this year but apparently, they were able to after all (although, we still all had to pay for the entrance fee, they had money for the buses). I didn't get to go because they wanted to limit the amount of parent volunteers or something and they had all they needed. But when we took Cailtyn in to catch her bus, they said that I could meet them there if  I wanted still. I was not prepared to leave that morning so I did not go. One of the other mom's was kind enough to take some pictures for me.

Caitlyn was excited for her first 'real' field trip. She got to going on 'walking' field trips in pre-school. She got to pet sheeps and goats, brush a pony, milk a cow and a bunch of other stuff.

The kids  always  have a great time on these field trips but they are annoying and stressful for us. We worry about them busing the kids so far and they made us bring the kids early but we end up standing around for over an hour because they know other parents always bring their kids in late and they don't want them to miss the field trip. So for those of us who keep to a real schedule, we have to stand around twiddling our thumbs. Then when I went to pick her up, their bus was over an hour late in returning. So, again, I'm sitting around twiddling my thumbs....but they must figure we have nothing better to do but sit around on our butts eating bon bons at home or something.

The school had open house right before spring break. We already learned to go late so that we don't have to stand around waiting for the PTA meeting to be over because we can never get in because it is too crowded and they don't really have enough room for everyone to go. But it still took a lot longer than we intended since we have two classes to go to for each of the kids.

Plus, we found out the the principal is leaving next year which leaves some things uncertain for our girls and the gate program for Emily next year. So I need to make an appointment with the new principal before the end of the year or during the summer to make sure that our girls' needs will still be met.

Honor Roll

The girls got their Honor Roll certificates for this last trimester on Friday.

We had planned to go on another mini-vacation that weekend. We thought that another jaunt to the desert to camp and ride dune buggies with our neighbor would be a great way to celebrate. Everything was planned out and all but packed. I even got a substitute for Sunday. We had been watching the weather reports nervously for a few days prior. Before actually packing up our stuff, we called our neighbor who had been out in the desert all week already to find out the actual conditions. It was as we suspected. Cold, wet and windy...in other words, miserable conditions to bring two little girls to camp out in a tent.

What's more, Emily had developed a bit of a cough and the sniffles over the past day or two, so we had to just cancel the trip. The girls were so looking forward to the trip. Luckily we didn't actually go as I woke up Sunday morning, sick as a dog...again (what wonderful things our kids bring home from school).

Saddest Day Ever!

On Monday, as I was trying to get the girls to cleanup their play room, Caitlyn announced that she was ready to trade in all her Little People toys because she was too "old" to play with them now and she wants to make room for all their new toys. How can this be?! She's only five! Okay, so she's almost six, but my argument still stands.

What's the matter with kids these days, thinking they want to grow up so fast? Don't they know they are breaking their parents' hearts?

Fantastic Family Fun in the Snow Day...NOT!

The day started off well enough. We decided to take the kids to the snow. We did some scripture study in the car on the way over and stopped off at the temple.

After we left the temple, the kids found a copy of Emily's baptism program in the car and started singing the songs most of the rest of the way. So sweet, huh?

As we got up to the area we would be staying,Thing 1 decided to up chuck. I had asked Thing 1 if she was feeling okay because she had been eerily silent for the last 5 minutes or so and she said that she was fine. That was about a minute before she started making retching noises.

Thing 1 got some rest and we found a place to park and proceeded to have a little picnic lunch.

The kids decided that they wanted to go sledding next. Thing 2 decided she wanted nothing to do with us after I made her get off of the sled because she wasn't listening. So we left Thing 2 to her brooding and headed farther up the hill to find a better slope for them to sled down. When Thing 2 shuts down, there isn't anything you can do to get her to do ANYTHING. She will usually join us once she has some time to snap out of it.

Thing 1 and Thing 2 fought forty percent of the time. Thing 1 whined and generally had a fit sixty percent of the time for not getting her way one hundred percent of the time (whether it was her sister, her parents or the snow not doing what she wanted).

Despite the pictures, it was not a fun day. At least not for us.

After a day in the snow, there is nothing more satisfying than a cup of hot cocoa.

We stopped our usual A&W for dinner to try to salvage what was left of our evening. On the way home, the kids sweetly sang their primary songs again as if nothing happened and it was the best day ever.

Aaah, the joys of parenthood!

Emily's 8th Birthday

I would like to make a post gushing about Emily's great qualities (for she does have many)...to have a nice fluffy birthday post about what a blessing she is (and she is), but as I begin this post, she's in the other room having a fit about having to do her homework. She's whining and crying and generally just having a fit and refusing to do, well, just about anything I want her to do.

In fact, this whole month has been pretty bad. She's been getting in and out of trouble with me and it has been the most difficult in the past two weeks leading up to her birthday. We've never thrown her big birthday parties. They are usually small family affairs with just the immediate family and grandparents (plus her Auntie Marian, of course)...and frankly, that's the way I like it...so much less stress. But since she was getting baptized this year and since her birthday actually even lands on the date she was to be baptized, we thought that maybe we would make it extra memorable for her by throwing her a big party. And it's a good thing for her that invitations were sent out and party plans had been set in motion for quite a while now, else we would have just cancelled the whole thing due to her poor attitude and behavior as of late.

To add insult to injury (so to speak), she's been home sick all week as well. I think she went to school one out of the five days before the party so it was difficult for me to do much. In fact, Christian had to just stay home to watch Emily on Friday so that I could pick up the rest of the food and supplies I needed and spend the day cooking for Saturday.

Luckily, she was on the mend though and was able to be well enough for all the festivities. I tell you, parenting is not easy a lot of the times and I'm at my wits end.

The party itself went off really well. We had beautiful weather. The rain that was threatening a couple of weeks back had all but disappeared. Carolyn, Marian's sister came out to help as well. She actually came early to go set up at the park and reserve the space while the rest of us attended Emily's baptism! It took a lot of stress off of us and saved a lot of time.

Or, let me start before that...Marian came by some time prior to her birthday to drop off an early Birthday gift. It was basically the whole outfit Emily wore on her birthday (in her birthday party colors, of course).

I'm not good at throwing kids parties (one of the many reasons I had not done it thus far). But Marian offered to take care of all the games/activities and party favors,  in fact, she even did all the invitations. All I had to do was take care of the food and decorations. I can do food so we set plans into motion for her party.

There was a tatoo station for our little guests when they arrived plus a place to enter their names for another game.

Two days before the party, I marinated 13 pounds of pork. The night before the party, I set it to cook in my slow cookers to be ready in the morning. We had bbq pulled pork sandwiches with coleslaw, hot dogs of course for the kids who wanted it, chinese chicken salad, ambrosia fruit salad and chips for lunch.

Emily had a juice box and one bite of her hot dog. She said she wasn't hungry. I caught her later eating a fruit snack out of her pinata loot. I also found out later that she had some chips. A small example and just the tip of the iceberg of what we've been dealing with.

Auntie Carolyn also gave Emily a pinata for her birthday.

Unfortunately, our nephews and niece on Christian's side could not stay long so not all the kids got a wack at the pinata. We had to let them get it open quicker than we would have preferred.

Besides being filled with candy, there were also "Emily" dollars in the pinata which could be used to exchange for more prizes later. After the pinata, Marian and her sister planned and set up a bunch of carnival games in order for the kids to get a chance to earn more "Emily dollars." They all got a certain number of tickets to play the games. Although, the older nephews fed some of the little boys extra tickets since they did not use theirs. A couple of the boys got some pretty big prizes! There was a prize redemption station afterwards for kids to redeem all their loot. Plus a penny game on the side for your leftover dollars. Unfortunately, Emily and her little friend from school spent most of their money there and we couldn't get them to stop so that we could do cake and presents! 

My sister's family and my parents had to leave before we could do the cake as well so we ended up with a lot of leftover cake. Plus there were a bunch of people that we were expecting that bailed after the baptism.

I wasn't about to bake for that many people, so we just picked up a Costco cake for her this year. I got her a sparkler to put on the cake that was the shape of the number 8. I got a great picture of her cringing away from her cake at some point (not posted). It was neat, but maybe not the greatest idea.

We got to her presents and she made out like a bandit! For the most part, the party was her gift from us but we still got her a few little things. We actually ended up holding back one of her presents because of her bad behavior prior to her party. It just didn't seem right to lavish her with gifts after all that happened.

I don't think she really feels like she missed out though because she got so much from every one else!

We also gave a little party favor to our awesome party planners as a small token for all their hard work, time and devotion.

Thank you so much Marian and Carolyn. All the kids had so much fun!

We are so grateful to have such supportive and loving friends and family to come out and share this special day with us.

Baptism

Can you believe it? My first born turned 8 today. She was lucky enough to have her baptism on the actual day she turned eight. We hope that it will make her baptism day even more memorable. We had so many family, friends and neighbors come out to support her. It was really nice.

It was a very busy day for our stake as there were at least 3 other kids getting baptized from different wards that morning and at least one more in the afternoon. We were lucky enough to get to go first though so that we would not have to have all our guests waiting too long which was important as at least a third of our guests were non-members. We wanted them to have a good experience as well coming to Emily's baptism.

I wish I had taken a picture of how filled the room was for Emily to remind her of how much love and support she had on her special day.

We did manage to get a picture of our respective family members in attendance.

Thank you to all the friends and family who helped us get to this point. And to those who were able to attend with us, thank you for sharing in our special day.