On Books and Reading...

Caitlyn has come so far in her reading this past year. I am so excited for her to know how to read on her own. Both Christian and I are avid readers. We both spent our childhoods immersed in books and hanging out at the library.

While Emily reads extremely well (according to the ATOS levels of the books she reads, she reads at a 4th or 5th grade level), and she appreciates and likes books, it is difficult for me to get her to read a lot of the time. I don't know why that is...it seems kind of contrary. I guess there is just too much else that she would rather do? Anyway, I can count the times Emily elected to read more than she had to or wanted to read just a little longer because she wanted to find out what happens next in a book (where she has no other ulterior motive like getting to stay up later). The first books she read that excited her to read (that is to do her required reading for school without whining), was the Rainbow Fairies books. She was in 1st grade at the time. She got the first book as a reading incentive from school. But the catch is is that each series has 7 books. Each book is like a chapter in a regular book because there is no closure until the last book for the story. We ended up getting several sets for her at some point because they got her excited to read. It was a great introduction for her to get into what they call chapter books but after a while, it only took her 20 minutes to get through a book (at nearly $5 a book, it didn't seem like that good of an investment anymore...we had to get her to move on to something more challenging).

I go to the library every week or two to get new books for Caitlyn to read (and stuff for ourselves). We had somewhat recently discovered the Elephant and Piggie Books by Mo Willems. These simple little books are so incredible. Cailtyn adores them. I love the characterizations and emotions in the drawings. The first time Caitlyn read one, she laughed so much that she couldn't keep reading.

We searched out some of his other books and she loves the Pigeon books almost as much as the Elephant and Piggie books.

She also likes the Knuffle Bunny books but not with quite as much enthusiasm.

The Cat the Cat books are a little too young for her already. But we will definitely keep an eye out for more books from this author before she is too old for them.

I have found Caitlyn starting to pick up a book to read now and then on her own. It is so exciting to see. I've caught her waking up before everyone else and sitting on her bed with her miniature princess board books, reading them by herself (not just looking at the pictures, but actually reading them). I hope that she continues on this road because, yes, reading is a big deal.

She's not reading an Elephant and Piggie book in the picture. She's currently reading through the Frog and Toad Treasury by Arnold Lobel...also great books for those beginning to read.

Caitlyn's Birthday

Caitlyn's birthday was Friday. Her grandmother sent her some clothes in the mail. She was so excited to get a package in the mail.

She wore one of the outfits on her birthday. I baked her some mini-cupcakes to share with her class. Christian took the day off and we brought them to her together. All the kids got juice and a little cupcake. I was afraid that after all the work to make the cupcakes that a lot of them would end up in the trash but almost all the kids actually ate it. Only three kids tossed their's or part of their's.

She got a sticker and a little certificate from her teacher along with some goodies (a pencil and a treat). She also got an extra trip to the treasure box to pick out something for her birthday.

Caitlyn requested shrimp tempura for her birthday dinner again. She tasted it once on one of our trips to Costco!

It beats eating out.

We did our presents after dinner. She got some clothes, craft activity things and more jewelry supplies along with something to organize her beads. She also wanted a sword or light saber but we ended up giving her a Nerf gun and target. She was pretty excited still.

Luckily, there was enough batter for the mini cupcakes for her class as well as some left over for full sized ones for our dessert. We actually had enough to bring to a few of our neighbors as well. After her party last Saturday and the cupcakes for her class, I would have hated to have to bake yet another cake for dinner! I did make some extra chocolate covered strawberries though.

The glasses are the protective glasses that come with her Nerf stuff. I'm glad all the birthday celebrations are done...I need a break.

Easter and early Birthday festivities

We celebrated Easter on the 23rd as we had friends and family over (also early) for Caitlyn's birthday. Christian took Caitlyn to a friend's house that was throwing a major Easter egg hunt. Emily had to stay home with me as she was not willing to do those things necessary in order to go (one of those things you threaten the kids with and then sort of regret after but since you said it, you have to go through with it).

I stayed home and frantically put together our Easter luncheon and Caitlyn's birthday cake. I was still in the middle of everything when our guests started to arrive. But after a stressful morning, it all came together. We stuck with the Easter theme for her birthday since Easter was going to be the next day. We always also celebrate Christian's dad's birthday at the same time since his birthday is a little before hers.

She got a bunch of movies (the kids are all into blue-ray movies although I defy them to know the difference at their age) from Christian's side of the family. My family gives the usual red envelopes. Plus she got a new chinese outfit as she loves them but has outgrown all the ones we had from Christian's mom a few years back.

Auntie Marian got her a gigantic "Barbie" sized doll house.

But since Caitlyn likes to be well rounded, she also got a RC truck from her Uncle Mark. That's just how Caitlyn rolls.

After all the Birthday stuff, Auntie Marian hosted their annual Easter egg hunt as well...so you can't really say that Emily missed out that much. 

The girls had a heck of a day. I was a bit burnt out by the time we got home from church services on Easter Sunday. We had leftovers from the party and we didn't even dye Easter eggs this year. I don't think the girls even noticed.

RIP Rhino

Hamsters do not have a long life span. But they are supposed to live between 2 and 3 years. Ours did not last a year. Not a very hardy animal. We aren't sure what happened. It's running around like crazy as usual one night and the next morning, he isn't moving. We moved him out to the garage, telling the kids that his caged needed to be cleaned because he was smelly. He stayed out in the garage for quite a while. We didn't have the heart to tell the kids and couldn't decide whether to just go to the store to get a new one and give them the ole' switcheroo trick. They started to suspect something was wrong as Rhino seemed to be always "asleep" when they would go by on their way out to play.

They finally asked if they can take him out to play with him and we had to tell them the truth. It went better than I feared.

Their neighbor friend (Lauren) is an animal fanatic. And the girls were playing "animal rescue" in their club house (our tree house) and they were making this list of things they could do to earn money to buy a new hamster. I thought they were just playing "make believe." Apparently, they were serious. Lauren's mom made a little flyer for them and they went around to the neighbors in our cule-de-sac to sell their services. I doubt they will get much business but Lauren's neighbor thought it was cute and let them wash their dogs (a small dog and an itty bitty dog). Along with the tip they gave them, they made enough to mostly buy a hamster. So we took them to the pet store and let them pick out another hamster.

This is Bolt. Although the kids just keep calling him Rhino.

Notice they are wearing gloves...the hamster kept biting them. It actually managed to draw a little blood from Lauren's finger before they caved and put on Caitlyn's gardening gloves. It's a bit high strung...not sure if they will manage to tame him or not. Caitlyn didn't want anything to do with a loose hamster. She only likes to watch him while he is in the safety of his cage. Hopefully Bolt will last longer than his cousin Rhino.

They decided that the next time they earn some money, that Lauren will get to keep it at her house. She wants a bird. I hope her parents are okay with that. I also hope they already have a cage and whatever else it needs because Emily had to pay a bit extra from her birthday money for the balance of the little critter and we already have the cage, food and bedding for the thing. And the birds are decidedly more expensive than hamsters. I guess they will jump that hurdle when they get to it.

Sea World

Tide Pool

We surprised the girls over spring break with a trip to Sea World. Caitlyn had wanted to go for her birthday but it would not really fit into our schedule. So we took a chance that it wouldn't be as crowded as when we had gone in December over the break because of the threat of rain. And it worked out for us perfectly. We never got rained on except for a drop here and there. It was much less crowded and it didn't start raining until after we left the park. We found out that several other friends from Riverside were out there as well.

The weather was pretty nice all day, but a little too cold still for the main rides. Even though Emily froze half to death last time riding the Shipwreck Rapids at the end of the day, we still had to really convince her that it was not a good idea to do it again until it warms up (the same for the Journey to Atlantis ride). But luckily the girls are still young enough to enjoy themselves enough at the Sesame Street Bay of Play.

Last time we came, it was so crowded that we were only able to take in one show. This time we managed to see three. We saw the Sea Lions LIVE show and the Shamu Show again. Plus we took the kids to the Blue Horizons show that we tried so hard to get into several times last time but it filled up too quickly. Although the kids really loved the Shamu show, the dolphin show was their favorite this time.

At the dolphin interaction center, you can watch them feed the dolphins and watch people who pay extra to interact with the dolphins. There are always a number of people standing around watching the dolphins swim back and forth. But Caitlyn decided to stand their with her arms outstretched and a dolphin would always come and linger next to her no matter how many times she did it. When she would stand up to move, they would swim away and when she would crouch down and do it again, another dolphin or two would come by to see her. It was really cute.

The Aquarium de la Mer was pretty nice. I don't know if we've been to that one. The kids also like the Arctic Wild exhibit...but I don't know if they really like the exhibit itself or just the ride going in.

Everyone had a good time and in the end, Emily was glad to not chosen to go on the wet rides after all because she was cold enough going to dinner afterwards without being soaked to the bone as well!

Although, we did go back to the Sesame Street Bay of Play to jump on a couple of rides again before the park closed. The whole family decided to go on Abby's Sea Star Spin because I already had enough pictures and there wasn't really any line to speak of. Christian and I spun the star until we were both absolutely sick to the stomach. It was so crazy. Even the ride attendant laughed at us and said that we were going pretty fast.What's worse, was that they stopped the ride halfway through because they forgot to lock down one of the empty sea star cups and so we got to start over again and by the time we got off, we were seriously dizzy.

Spinning rides used to be my favorite, but age seems to prevent me from enjoying them as much now. I can't seem to get on them anymore without getting sick to my stomach. The girls laughed themselves silly but I think that even they were at their limit of dizziness!

The only downside was that we missed the start of the firework shows by two days. They started that following weekend. Oh well, you can't win them all.

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.