Bowling!

Daddy wanted to get out of the house and do something to make some memories. I have to agree that it is time and money well spent. Hunter got a coupon for free bowling at a place in Fairfield. We didn't go to that one, but the idea and Hunter's excitement was enough to get us out and into some other stinky rented shoes.

Garrett is absolutely BALL CRAZY!!! I think he was a little frustrated that he couldn't pick any of them up. Poor baby!

Times have gotten so technologically advanced! We were able to make the bumpers pop up when it was the kids turn to bowl. So who won? Elle, of course. Followed by Hunter, then Ethan then Momma and dead last was Daddy. He came off with a few strikes at the end, so I think he was holding back just to make sure one of the kids would win. And I'm sure bowling with Garrett didn't help his score any. What a good Daddy!

Movie night

Every Friday night it has become our family tradition to watch a movie and eat dinner in the living room (what a treat!). Dinner has evolved to be a regular: homemade Pizza. On this particular night we had at least four families. Ours, Jeremy, Denee and their kids, Alisa (Kirk had to work overtime) and their kids, and my mom and her three overnight childcare kids. I've had a fun time getting movies that I enjoyed as a child. Annie, Last Unicorn, Dark Crystal, Neverending Story, etc. We've also had fun watching the newer kids movies that come out. This paricular night we were watching Wall-E.

Halloween 2008

Halloween this year has been lower key than usual. We usually go to the Pumpkin Patch and do pie afterward. We didn't go this year. Most of our energy has been spent on Prop 8 stuff and other drama. We took this picture at the Ward Halloween party on Wednesday. Elle is supposed to be a tiger, but when I went to put the face paint on she freaked out because she didn't want to get any in her eyes. I started putting it on to show her that it didn't hurt. Her response was, "That's stupid, mom" It turns out that Elle and her friend Ella both were cats. They look so cute together with their curly hair.

Once we got to the party, there was a face painting booth. I tried to convince her to wear whiskers and had them put some on Garrett to show her. No luck. Ethan was Mummy. It's a homemade costume cut from a bed sheet. There was some trouble keeping the bottom together, but for the most part he looked really good. For the trick-or-treating I did his eye makeup to look Egyptian. He got a lot of compliments. Hunter wore a store bought Captain Hook costume from two years ago when we did the Peter Pan theme. It is super flimsy and kept coming apart. Before we went out on Halloween I re-sewed the Velcro on the back of the shirt piece so it wouldn't keep falling off like it did at the party. I actually had to go hunting for it at the end of the party when I saw Hunter running around with the jacket flapping open and no shirt piece.
Ethan and his friend Nate were both Mummies. There were a pair of Jedi's who were also very good friends. I'm starting to think the kids planned to match one another and the adults find out the collaboration merely by chance.

Before Trick-Or-Treating I made a bunch of very healthy kid favorites. Grilled chicken, steamed broccoli with melted cheese, Caesar salad, and homemade rolls. We encouraged the kids to eat as much as they could so that once they had their haul of candy we could let them gorge without worrying too much about it. Micheal set up the pull out bed and let them sleep downstairs and watch a movie. Netflix had a "very long wait" on the Charlie Brown's Great Pumpkin movie, so instead they watched Cars.

Barbie Movies and crack

Barbie movies are like crack for 3 year old little girls. SERIOUSLY! We have pizza and a movie night on Fridays. Since Michael went to the temple after work and wasn't home yet I had the kids watch Fairytopia. I knew Michael wouldn't tolerate sitting through a Barbie movie. He barely made it through The Last Unicorn a few weeks ago. The other option was Nancy Drew. We'll probably save that for next week. Elle couldn't even eat her pizza she was so mesmerized by the screen. Half way through the movie I noticed she still hadn't touched her pizza. I had to remind her to eat.

Michael called when he got out of the temple to tell me he was on his way home. Elle realized it was him on the phone and excitedly said, "DAD! You're missing it!"

Her whole world is princesses, friends, clothes, doing it herself, helping mom, loving babies and of course...her hair. She gets complimented on it daily now. I combed her hair in the bath tonight and after I got all the tangles out she walked around gently stroking her hair saying, "So pretty". She insited that nobody mess up her hair.

Scottish Games 2008

We went to the Scottish games today and took TONS of pictures. I posted the best pictures on my Facebook account in an album. Feel free to look!

The Scottish games has been a family tradition for at least 16 years. Now my kids are going. Rather than visit all the for-sale booths like in previous years (once you've seen it...it's pretty much the same stuff year after year YAWN!) we went and saw the good stuff.

We visited the children's glen first to give Garrett a chance to nurse and the boys ran around and played all the games. With their winning tickets they each bought a squirt gun which turned into a rousing water fight that lasted pretty much all day long.

We set up camp at the MacBean booth and re-connected with "cousins". Ethan was absolutely thrilled to meet a cousin about his age. And while I couldn't pin-point exactly how they were related, I assured them that they were related somewhere down the line so they rather enjoyed built in playmates.

We made the rounds to see the dancing, throwing stuff, bagpipes & drums and when the kids got tired we'd swing back by the booth to recharge with lunch, snacks, shade, sitting (or running around with squirt guns and cousins....whatever the case may be). It was a very full and productive day as outing days go.

People got all decked out in their best Scottish garb, my mother included. One man who was walking by had a very impressive sword and full outfit. He was obliging enough to take a picture with the boys. The older boy is "cousin" Andrew. If you look closely, the boys are wet in the pants area. Apparently that was the funniest place to squirt each other during the water fight.

We visited Michael's family booth and took pictures. They offered us their cooler and when the kids discovered they had bubbly water inside they kept going back for more.

Elle was quite the attraction with her sun dress and big curly blond hair. Her favorite part was meeting a "princess". She told the lady in waiting that she was pretty. In return, she taught Elle how to courtesy. Hunter took pictures with the "princess" too, although I think he liked her for entirely different reasons. (...Ahem...)

She told Hunter, "You're a little young for me" ....and he actually looked disappointed!

She continued "...maybe in another two years, then we'll talk." Later Ethan referred to her as Hunter's girlfriend. My, my...I didn't expect this so early.

Parade

Uncle Daniel came over before the parade to give the kids a private performance in his Jack Sparrow Pirate costume. He parked in the parking lot next door and came over for a dramatic entrance. Elle got scared because she didn't recognize him and slammed the door shut on him and then peeked out the window.

I came down and let Daniel in. Once he took the hair off, Elle knew who he was and was OK with it.

The kids had made a fort in the living room, which to the untrained eye looks very much like a tornado passed through. Uncle Daniel had to leave shortly thereafter to get his makeup done and get lined up for the parade.

People in town set up their chairs and claimed "spots" a full day in advance of the parade...despite signs saying not to do exactly that. Michael was doubtful that we would find anywhere to sit and didn't want me walking too far. He dropped us off at the end of first street (the end of the parade route) where the crowd was thickest. Hunter and Elle were with me. Ethan was participating as a Tiger Scout in the parade.

Amazingly enough there was a little section of bench that was open and perfect for us to sit. I felt very blessed! So big and pregnant and THERE'S A SPOT FOR ME!!!

Uncle Daniel was the first to come by. Hunter was very excited to see him. Daniel looked right at the camera for the picture, but later told me he never saw me in the crowd. It just worked out that way.


Denee came by next doing the Jazzercize routine. She became an instructor and taught classes right up to the end. Durring the length of the pregnancy she didn't put on any weight until the very end when she finally gained 10 pounds. It was amazing to watch her get slimmer everywhere else and her belly just started popping out. The judges on the bandstand commented over the microphone, "Look at all those ladies with those slim waists...except for that ONE." The other guy jumped in with "Leave her alone, she's pregnant!" Then over the loud speaker the first guys says, "Where's the Daddy!?!?" Denee said later that it distracted her to have them talking about her so she felt like she messed up. I didn't notice.
Ethan came through next. He looked sheepish waving to the crowd. By then we were ready to go, so we met up with him and Grandma and called Michael to come pick us up.

Belated Easter

Since all the kids had been sick I didn't have time to prepare for Easter morning. So...we had a belated Easter. Early on Monday morning I ran down to the store and bought the last Easter baskets at both Raley's and Safeway...at half off!!! The kids didn't mind that they got their baskets a day late. I think that we might just continue that tradition so the Easter bunny gets a huge price break and Easter Sunday can focus on the real reason we're celebrating.

Although we do participate in Easter bunny, Santa Claus and Tooth Fairy traditions the kids understand that it's pretend, but still fun to play. I believe if you tell a child that Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny are real and then teach them about God and Jesus, it creates a sense of confusion that is hard to overcome when they learn that their innocent childhood faith in make-believe was founded on a lie.

After Ethan lost his first tooth he came up to me and whispered, "I know who the tooth fairy is!.....YOU!" I whispered back to him, "Shhh...don't tell, OK?"

It's more fun to pretend when you have a firm understanding of reality and truth.

Tuesday Ice Cream with Grandma

Baskin-Robbins used to have $1 night every Tuesday. Grandma thought it was a great opportunity to spoil her grandchildren and take them out. Unfortunately they canceled it recently, so Grandma, not to be foiled bought cones and a 1/2 gallon of ice cream and brought her goodies down to the house last night. Grandma is making herself a favorite around these parts, not only with her ice cream, but weekly one on one trips to story-time.

I told Elle that she was going to story time today and she promptly began jumping up and down shouting "YEA! Gra-ma! Stoe-time!" Grandma calls it her Snoopy Dance.

Decorating for Christmas

Pumpkin Patch 2007

As a family tradition we have made a yearly pilgrimage to the Pumpkin Patch. I suppose you could say it kicks off the holiday season for us. We go to the Pumpkin Patch in Dixon and every year it gets better and better. They have hay rides, free wagons to go out into the field and pick a pumpkin, a little playhouse village for the kids to run around and play, a haystack castle specifically to climb up and play on and a corn maze that won the Guinness Book World Record for largest Corn Maze in 2007. Michael's brother went through a smaller version a couple of years ago and it took him two hours to find his way out again. Perhaps when the children are older we'll venture inside, but at this point I'm afraid we would never see Hunter again. Everyone (i.e. the children) got to pick their own pumpkin and we got one extra, a big one to carve for Family Home Evening.

This year we went in the early afternoon instead of after dinner. It was light out, which was nice and we made a day of it rather than just an evening. As part of our tradition we go out for pie afterwards. We made the 2 o'clock meal lunch and dinner. Everybody got to pick a slice of pie which we all made little samples of and we got two whole pies to take home.

Since we had so much time we went to the Nut Tree Family Park and got the wristbands to go on everything. All the children loved the Merry-Go-Round, Ethan indulged me with a ride on the Roller Coaster and Elle even got to ride on the balloons. Grandma went with us. I think she had a good time, too.