Rewind: Tree House Museum Field Trip

Tonight is the lunar eclipse and "blood moon".  I've been sitting here doing a few things:

 

1) trying to decide if I want to stay up until 1:45 to see the eclipse at its peak or go to bed and set my alarm to get up when its time to go outside and take a gander

2) thinking about the Outshine fruit bars that I bought today...I really want one right now but am I more in the mood for coconut or pineapple?

3) surfing the internet, reading the news, and trying to figure out how else I can fill my time while attempting to make decisions on numbers 1 and 2

 

Whilst mulling these things over in my mind and wasting perfectly good laundry-folding time as I sit here in my office, it occurred to me that I haven't posted here since that amazing week in March when I knocked out something like four posts.  It was crazy.  When I pulled up my blog a minute ago, I thought it was strange that I had only gotten as far as Christmas in my catch-up posts.  Didn't I post about Claire's field trip that I went on in January?  Nope.  I made a picture collage for it over a month ago but didn't exactly follow through on getting it up here.  I guess it's about time I got going on that...

 

In January, I threw my name in the proverbial hat as a possible parent chaperone for Claire's field trip to the Tree House Museum up in Ogden.  Luckily my name was drawn (my girl would have had an impressive meltdown and crying fit of unimaginable proportions had this not happened) and off we went on the given day.  Words cannot express how I felt when I heard that there was plenty of room on the buses for parents to ride along and they wouldn't need me to drive or carpool with another parent.  I hate riding on the school bus.  They're made for little people...not tall people with long legs and I cringe just thinking about trying to force my knees into the given space.  It's been months since that day and my legs still feel cramped.  Anywhoooo...enough about me.

 

At the museum, we were escorted into a small theater with a stage where our guides gave us the rundown of our time there and entertained all of us with their child-friendly stand-up comedy and silly antics.  Our class then went on to another area of the museum with the funniest guide of them all to hear him tell us a couple of fairy tales from different parts of the world. Much to their delight, he involved a few of the kids in the story telling and kept everyone laughing as he told us foreign versions of Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella (one of them was a Chinese variation).

 

After our stint with the story teller, we went upstairs where the kids had a little class on how to make magic wands.  It was really cute and each of the kids got to make their own wand to take home.

 

Our final stop was back in the theater room where another guide walked our kids through a performance of Blanca Flores (Mexican version of Snow White).  Wanting to be sure that every child who wanted to be in the play could be, there were parts galore.  I was asked to help with "casting" and being ever-so-slightly biased and favoring my own child, I selected Claire to be Blanca Flores.  Other characters were an evil queen and mirror, a handsome prince and his cousin, guards, bandits (we know them as the dwarves), and a handful of other characters, too.  The speaking parts were fed to the kids as they went along and while the acting may have left something to be desired (like when my "sleeping" daughter wouldn't close her eyes and kept playing with and looking at her magic necklace), it was totally entertaining and once again, everyone had plenty of good laughs as funny things happened, mistakes were made, and general chaos ensued during some parts.  It was absolutely darling!

After our play was over, the kids had a little bit of free time to explore and play around the rest of the museum.  We were then lured back to our glorious chariot with the offer of fruit snacks.  Who could possibly resist?!

 

In spite of the less than comfortable transportation, it really was a fun day with my girl and her classmates.  I love helping in my kids' classes and going on field trips whenever possible and this time was no different.  Besides, I'm sure one day I'll wish that my kids were back in elementary school so that I could ride on the school bus with them just one more time.

Rewind: Christmastime 2013

I'd like to start by pointing out that the post for Christmas 2012 didn't make it up until early April of 2013...this time around, I'm beating time by about 3 weeks. We're talking real progress here, folks!

 

We'll just go in order and start with my trip to Zoo Lights with the kids.  The kids and I bundled up one weeknight and headed into SLC, arriving at the zoo just after the gates opened for the evening.  To say that we were in the middle of a cold snap would be putting it nicely.  We were all bundled up head-to-toe...and completely freezing the entire time we were there.  We arrived just as Santa was headed to get his reindeer and got a quick picture with him before going to a nearby building where Mr. and Mrs. Claus would be available for visiting.  We were only 2nd or 3rd in line to see them and even though we'd only been at the zoo for less than 15 minutes, we welcomed the chance to warm up inside while we waited. After hanging out with the Clauses for a few minutes, we went on to see the light displays and animal exhibits, take a few rides on the carousel (unlimited rides on my pass...awesome), and duck into buildings for warmth whenever we could.  When we were good and close to being frostbitten, we left the zoo and went out to dinner at The Olive Garden (one of the kids' favorites - the basically inhale the salad there).

Sub-freezing fun at Zoo Lights! 

About a week after going to Zoo Lights, we took another jaunt into SLC to visit Temple Square.  Going in the late afternoon/early evening, traffic and parking were great and we actually arrived prior to the lights turning on for the evening.  We started out with a stop to see the candy window displays at Macy's and walked up the block just in time for the lights to turn on.  It was bit chilly but NOTHING like the temperatures we had braved at the zoo the week before.  It was nice to be able to take our time and enjoy the displays.  We started at the Reflection Pool and then went on through Temple Square, making a stop at one of the sets of big east facing doors (a real thrill for the kids).  It was so nice to be there before the big evening crowds.  Afterwards was another dinner at The Olive Garden.  I tired for Blue Lemon and a couple of other places but they begged and I'm a sucker.  At least I knew the kids were getting their vegetables.

Temple Square and the candy windows at Macy's (top and bottom corners on the right).

 

Last - but not least - was Christmas.  We had a very quiet Christmas Eve at home.  The kids received their traditional Christmas pajamas - dog/puppy themed this year - and new slippers.  We sang Christmas carols and hymns, read the nativity story from the Bible, and sent the kids off to bed where they struggled to fall asleep.  For the first time in years, I got almost everything done earlier in the day and evening (final wrapping, baking cookies, making our Christmas morning pastry, etc.) and Max and I actually made it to bed before midnight.  It was a miracle and it felt so good!  Christmas day was also very laid back.  We enjoyed the morning and early afternoon with just the four of us and then had my little brother and his family over for Christmas dinner.  It really was a wonderful day.

Top four pics are from Christmas Eve (kids insisted on silly-faced pictures) and bottom pics are from the big day.

Well, there you go...our Christmas season in a nutshell.  I'm already looking forward to the holidays this year - less than 9 months away!

Rewind: Thanksgiving 2013

I've posted before about how much I love the Thanksgiving holiday and I would love to write more about it now but it's kind of off-season and for the sake of getting a bunch of posts knocked out, I'm going to try to forgo my usual wordiness. This year, Thanksgiving gets its own post for one reason alone: a family snapshot.

My hubby is not a big fan of the camera and we very rarely have our picture taken together as a family. As we were getting ready to leave his parents' place after Thanksgiving dinner, I made a quick move to have a picture taken. Max didn't know it but I was hoping to get something that we could use for our family Christmas card as we usually just do pics of the kids. While the background wasn't ideal, Claire had undone her cute hairdo, and Hudson had a fever (we found out the next day that he had a raging sinus infection), I was overall very happy with how it turned out. I ordered our cards from Shutterfly that night and didn't tell Max until I showed one to him when they came in the mail....and he liked them. Hallelujah!!

 

Sneaky move. Good results. Thankful wife/mom.

The Low Family - Please Read & Help If You Can

Several months ago, I started following the Low family blog. The wife, Leslie, is the sister of a great girl who once took my kids' pictures (she's married to a guy/friend I went to church with growing up). When I started reading the blog, Leslie and her husband had recently found out that they were expecting triplet boys (no invitro or fertility treatments). These darling boys were born in December and in late February, the triplets were all diagnosed with Retinoblastoma, a rare childhood eye cancer. Within days the parents and infant boys (they have another son who is 2 or 3) flew to Toronto where the triplets have already undergone various treatments and one of them has had an eye removed. It is a remarkable, heartbreaking, and faith-promoting story. If you'd like to read more about it, here's the link to their blog:

 

Low Family Blog

 

Every once in a while, something that someone is going through hits close to home, and having some sort of a connection (by whatever degree) makes it that much more real. What the Low family is experiencing right now hits close to home for me. I hurt for the parents and get emotional thinking about what they must be feeling. I worry about the babies and what they're experiencing and I think about their older brother, how his world has changed with everything that is going on. I am reminded of what a blessing good health his and I am grateful that my children are healthy. I wish I had a magic wand that I could wave to cure the boys and make everything better but there is no such thing.

 

Emily, the sister that I know, set up a site for fundraising to help the family.  All funds received will be used for expenses as they have to travel for the boys' treatments and pay for food, lodging, airfare, etc. and anything else that comes their way as they care for all four of their boys. If you'd like to help out financially, you can click below:

 

Low Triplets Fundraising Site

 

If nothing else, please pray for this family and keep them in your thoughts. They need every ounce of support they can get whether it be spiritual, emotional, financial or otherwise. Everyone has an hour or time of need...this is theirs.

 

 

Happy March...1st Post of 2014!

Happy New Year, Happy Valentine's Day, and Happy St. Patrick's Day (tomorrow)! I seriously cannot believe that I haven't posted since November and that this is my first post of the year.  Okay, with my amazing procrastination skills, it's totally believable. But when I last wrote, I sure didn't think that it'd take until now for me to post again. Here I am, though, and I'm hoping (for the billionth time) to be back in the swing of things.

 

Right now I'm just knocking this out really fast before I get on to bigger and better things. Over the next couple of weeks, I'll be cranking out posts for things we did at the end of last year and the beginning of this year. I wouldn't mind getting back to some actual writing/musing like the lists I used to write and such. We'll see what my sometimes-functioning brain comes up with.

 

That being said, I already know that tomorrow's post is the most important one that I will write this week (possibly this month, this year, etc.).  Today's writing is really just what I hope will be an attention getter for people to come back tomorrow.  Please tune in and read...

My Well-Mannered Girl

My Claire is chock-full of great one-liners.  Over the years we've had several good giggles over some of the things that's she has said.  Last week she added another one to the list....

 

She was sitting at the bar/island in the kitchen on Tuesday afternoon doing her homework.  I was cooking or doing something as she worked away.  Without apology or an "excuse me" afterwards, she very audibly passed gas.

 

Me: What was THAT?!

 

Claire: That was just for you.

 

I had the hardest time stifling the laughter that was building up inside.  I gently scolded her for her lack of manners and then hurried to the backyard to turn on the grill and giggle in privacy.

Halloween 2013

It's almost been a month since Halloween (better than several months since, right?) so I figured I should knock out a post with pictures before Thanksgiving hits us this week...

 

The Saturday before Halloween, the kiddies and I went to the home of my oldest brother and his family for their annual Halloween party.  Hudson was a banana, Claire was Belle (from Disney's Beauty & The Beast), and not having any kind of costume on hand, I threw together my best attempt at a goth-inspired look in the 24 hours before the party.  We had a great time at the shindig and I'm already excited for next year.  I just need to put my thinking cap on now for a better costume next time around (though I did get comments from a few people that they didn't recognize me...not too shabby!).

 

 

 

 

 

I don't know why Picasa has chosen to hate some of my iPhone pictures from the night of the party and not others. I would have made a collage but most of the pics weren't showing up in folders like they should have.  Whatever, Picasa.  Above you can see my Belle and Banana, me with brothers and with my sisters-in-law, my pirate nephew with Claire, my cute pirate niece with my oldest brother, my baby bro with his wife and their darling baby elephant, and a selfie of me as the kids and I were leaving home for the party.  I was SO not meant to have bangs.  My favorite costume of the night was my 6'7" brother in lederhosen...those shorts were extra special.  I'm not including the best pic of the night (which may or may not have shown him pulling up on the leg of his shorts) for the sake of his keeping some sort of dignity.

As for the big candy-begging night the next week, I didn't get as many pictures as I did in past years but I got a couple of good ones of my kids in their costumes so I'll just offer the best pre-trick-or-treating shot I got on our front porch:

 

Claire obviously opted out of being a princess again and was a super hero.  Hudson LOVES his banana costume and stuck with it for the big night.  We had a great time zipping around our neighborhood and the kids came home with WAY too much candy.  After allowing them to slowly consume it over the past few weeks, I allowed them to select a few final pieces last night and confiscated the rest.  We'll have plenty of goodies this week with Thanksgiving and in the next several weeks with the Christmas holiday.  Oh, the sugar comas!

 

Her Mother's Daughter

We had SEP (parent/teacher/student) conferences at the kids' school this week.  Both kids are getting along just fine in terms of grades and making progress in their education.  At the same time, both kids had a couple of things to work on when it comes to behavior.

 

Now, neither of my kids misbehaves at school.  We seriously scored in that department with our kids...no child is perfect but ours are pretty dang good.  That being said, Hudson needs to work on focusing on and retaining what the teacher says, remembering to buckle down and complete tasks, etc. These are things that don't come as a surprise to us.  Having a very active mind, he and his thoughts are often off someplace else while the world (and therefore his class and teacher) continues to go on around him.  We'll keep him, though...

 

Then there's Claire.  The kids in her class each did a self-evaluation about how they're doing in different areas of behavior.  Her paper was marked with "always" as the answer on just about everything.  This included things like:

 

I keep my desk clean so I can find things.

I start my work right away and I use my time to get my work done.

I try hard to get along with others in class and at recess.

 

There were a few others but you get the gist of it.  Claire's little self-evaluation looked marvelous with all of the word "always" circled.  We were discussing this when Mrs. W asked her to think about this one:

 

I try not to visit too much during work time.

 

Pause...flashback 30 years.

 

I may or may not have had a slight problem with being a chatterbox as a child (and as a teenager...and now).  In kindergarten, my buddies Scott, Brian, and I would talk too much.  Mrs. Murphy would punish us by sending us to different corners of the room.  I can very clearly remember sitting up in my corner and smiling at, waving to, and whispering (read: audibly saying) a "hello" to Scott and Brian in their respective corners. Corners were not an effective tool.  What my teacher should have done is adorned me with earplugs in my ears, a blindfold over my eyes, and duct tape over my mouth.  Once properly stripped of my ability to see, hear, and talk, she could have spun me around several times in order to disorient me and then seated me in an empty room or closet far from our classroom. That might have solved the problem.

 

After kindergarten, I totally shaped up.  I no longer got sent to the corner for talking.  Instead, moving desks pretty much became a hobby of mine and it lasted all throughout my schooling years.  I didn't necessarily have a lot of friends in any given class but everyone that I sat next to in school had EARS and I wanted to be sure that they were put to good use.  My teachers were very smart individuals and would always move me next to someone who they knew either a) wasn't a friend of mine or b) wasn't a talker.  I'm sure you can guess how much good those moves did.  If someone wasn't my friend, I did my darndest to make them one, even if it was just for that period of time each day when we were seated next to each other.  When I was parked next to a non-talker, I made up for their lack of communication and did enough talking for the both of us.

 

As an adult, I'm not too much better but lucky for me, there aren't teachers following me around and chastising me for my verbal prowess.

 

Okay, now....back to Claire.

 

Claire was very quick to admit that this isn't her strong point.  She picked up a pen, changed her answer to "most of the time", and promised to work on keeping quiet during work time.  I couldn't help but smile.

 

Poor girl is in for a lifetime of this.

Finishing Up Summer: Claire's Birthday & 1st Day of School

After our long break from reality, we took it easy the last few weeks of summer.  I did put the kids back in swimming lessons for one last session and let them have plenty of free time and time playing with friends while they could.

To top off the months of freedom, Claire helped us celebrate getting back to school and real life by having her 6th birthday....Happy Birthday, Claire! She opted for a party with a nice group of girls who were all going into 1st grade together (different classes but all the same year in school).  She chose a palette of teal, lavender, and pink for her decorations and I loved how the back patio turned out until the wind kicked up...it took a few balloons for a ride up into the sky and kept tossing some of the decorations that I had hung up onto the roof (and over to the other side of the yard).  The girls enjoyed eating a pizza lunch, making necklaces, having their faces painted, going on a "scavenger/treasure hunt" wherein they were required to do different physical (aka tiring) activities before moving on to the next step (end reward: party favor/goody bags), and of course, cake, ice cream, and the opening of presents.  Claire had a very happy day indeed!

Just a few short days after Claire's birthday was the 1st day of school for 2013-2014. Both kids were so happy to get back into the swing of things.  No, I'm not kidding...back at the end of June, Hudson expressed that he missed school and wished that they were already going back. It's so nice having kiddies who love learning! As mentioned above, Claire is in 1st grade this year and Hudson is in 4th.  I absolutely love their teachers this year.  Claire has the same teacher that Hudson did in 1st grade (she's our favorite!) and Hudson's teacher is fantastic...no complaints coming from our house!

I wish I had better pictures from that morning but we were rushed getting out the door (somebody has a chronically hard time getting going in the a.m...ahem) and I didn't have the time to coax and force the kids to endure a longer photo session.  Maybe I'll be up and going and do better on the last day of school next May...

Summer 2013: A Nutshell of Photo Collages

Alrighty, folks...trying to keep it simple as I promised.  Here's the rundown of our summer months:

 

1. Spent a week at Marriott's Newport Coast Villas in Southern California.  Minutes away from what I still consider my 2nd home: Balboa Island (spent 2 weeks there every other summer growing up). We spent time walking around the island (as much as I could on my poorly-timed broken toe), eating Balboa Bars, enjoying the sights on and around the island, relaxing and swimming at the villas, playing on our favorite beach: Corona del Mar, going for a cruise around the harbor on Duffy boats, spending a day at LEGOLAND (1st and last time) and more than anything, we enjoyed spending time with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Walks around the island with family, time with cousins, and most importantly, Balboa Bars from Dad's.

 

 Amazing gardens and sights on Balboa Island.

Cruising in the Duffy boats.

Corona del Mar: my little brother found a seaweed super hero mask, my oldest brother showed the sand who's boss, Hudson and Grandpa had fun in the waves, and I discovered that buddy taped toes and sand don't jive...at least my nail polish rocked. The wide pic at the top is of my dad, two brothers, my bro-in-law, and a niece all a ways out from the beach waiting to catch waves (body surfing and body boarding).

LEGOLAND with my little brother and his family, my kids and I, and my niece, Becca.

2. After Newport Coast, we headed to Northern California for some quality time in my hometown of Los Gatos. We took my niece with us for some extra time with my kids (didn't hear one complaint from any of them).  We stopped at Harris Ranch and Casa de Fruta on the way up.  I was an amazingly awesome mom/aunt and paid for the kids to ride the double-decker carousel a the latter.  My childhood self wishes she could have ridden it.  While staying at my parents' place for over a week, we enjoyed going to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, visiting the Monterey Bay Aquarium, spending time with friends and extended family, going to the park, doing a little bit of shopping, and more than anything, we had a great time being at Grandpa & Grandma's house.

The three cousins together: at The Boardwalk, Casa de Fruta, Harris Ranch, and G&G's backyard sandbox.

 

Happy 4th of July: The kids spent a good chunk of the day riding scooters in the backyard. They were having fun hamming it up for the camera and Grandpa had fun photo-bombing a totally unsuspecting Hudson.

 

Day trip to Monterey Bay Aquarium: Hudson got to pet a Bat Ray, we all pet sea creatures in the tide pool exhibits, a saw Bottlenosed Dolphins swimming a ways off the main observation deck (a real treat...they're rarely in the Monterey Bay). The jelly fish exhibit is always a favorite...the one picture shows Hudson's hand with a teensy jelly swimming on the other side of the glass.

Swimming with friends and playing with 2nd cousins.

3. Next up was a trip to my sister's in El Dorado Hills, CA, where we spent the last few days of our trip.  I was thrilled to have the opportunity see two of my dear lifelong friends who live in the area.  One made the long-ish drive with her cute daughter to see me at my sister's and my kids and I went to visit the other friend and her family at her parents' home near EDH (extra special treat as I hadn't seen her parents in over 20 years!).  Aside from visits with friends, my sister and I made sure to fit in some sister time, complete with a yummy lunch at one of our favorite digs, Jack's Urban Eats.  The kids spent their time playing with their cousins and swimming in the neighbor's pool.

 

When we drove home to Utah, my sister and her kids came with us to spend almost 2 weeks out here.  One of the highlights of their visit here was our day spent up in Park City where we took the kids on the Alpine Slides (my 1st time ever!) and Alpine Coaster.  I didn't get many pictures of our other activities here but I'm pretty sure that only my sister and I would truly appreciate looking at photos of every eating establishment we went to and the foods we consumed at each place.

A glimpse of our days in EDH and at the Park City Mountain Resort.

Now, that was better than my usual wordy self, wasn't it?  It was wordier than it could have been but far less wordy than I'm capable of.  You're welcome.