Holy Hive

We have a child breaking out into huge hives every night at bedtime. Our doctor says it is a common symptom of a virus. Thank goodness for Benadryl.

No More Pets

A child in our family has had trouble breathing since we got hamsters. We took this child to the allergist who tested to see exactly what they were allergic to. The doctor writes on your back and then with a little tool, makes a tiny scratch and drops a specific liquid into the scratch. If it reddens or becomes a raised bump, you are allergic to that allergen. Our kid tested positive for hamsters, as well as cats, dogs, and 23 other trees, grasses, molds, and weeds. The doctor called our child a poor allergic cookie. That means the hamsters are going to New Mexico to become class pets in Grandma's 5th grade class.

NYC: Staten Island Ferry

I used to go away on scrap booking weekends with my sister.  We needed to have a break from the kids and do something creative.  But lately, we don't get to be with our kids as much.  School, homework, choir, gymnastics, church stuff, scouts, blah.  We don't need to get away from the kids, we need to get the kids away.  So, my mom, sister and I decided to take our teenage kids and go visit New York City.  We went for a long weekend.  It was just two weeks after Hurricane Sandy, but the city was pretty much up and running.  We had a wonderful time.  The best bargain in all of New York City is the Staten Island Ferry.  It is free!

Here are Katie, Maddie, my mom, Peter and Kyla watching the Manhattan skyline.

Uncle Paul works in Manhattan so he met us for the day on Saturday.  He helped us navigate the subways.  He had been training for the cancelled New York City Marathon.  Boy, it was hard to keep up with him!

The ferry goes right by the Statue of Liberty.  This is as close as you can get.  The island is still closed because of flood damage from the hurricane.  We were happy to be able to sit down and relax and see the sights from the ferry.  It was one of our favorite parts of the trip.

Farrah

In an earlier blog post I mentioned that I had Farrah Fawcett hair in junior high.  Little Peter wanted to know what that looked like so I did a google image search and showed him this picture.  He was quiet for a long time.  He started to say something.  Then stopped.  Then looked at me with a questioning look.  Then opened his mouth.  Then closed it.  Finally, he said, "Mom, do you still think this is an attractive hair style?"  He was so relieved when I told him that I didn't think it was as beautiful as I remembered it.

Pumpkin Patch

We couldn't have had a more beautiful day to go to our favorite pumpkin patch, Anderson Farms.  It was crazy crowded.  I don't know if it was because it was great weather or if the word is out that this is an awesome place to play, but boy, did we have to fight the crowds.  When we were still way out on the freeway, we could see this pumpkin that had been placed high up on a silo.  Since we were so far away, the pumpkin looked pretty small.  Someone (who wants to remain anonymous) in my car asked if it were a real pumpkin.  As we got closer and our child realized how huge it was, she felt quite sheepish.  She heard no end of the teasing about it when we got there.  We kept cracking jokes like, "If someone gets lost, is there a landmark that we could all meet at?  Maybe something big and high that we could see from all areas of the farm?"  

Here is Thomas doing a pumpkin/gourd slingshot.  You can see the huge red pumpkin cannon in the background.  It shoots pumpkins a quarter of a mile!

                                    Peter and Katie pedaling the go carts!

 I told Thomas that unless he could carry it, he couldn't buy it.  He tried really hard, and even got some help from his friend, Trevor, but this ghost pumpkin was just too big.

Thomas didn't quite make it home.  He fell asleep on grandpa's shoulder.  That's how you know you've had a great time.

Halloween

This Halloween the kids all had a fun time dressing up.  Katie went as Madeline.  She found this outfit at the Goodwill.  It was a size 3T and was supposed to be a dress.  She wore it as a shirt with jeans and it worked quite nicely.  She also found the hat at Goodwill.  Score!

Peter decided to be Napoleon Dynamite.  That's what Katie was last year so Peter knew it would be easy.  He added a wig and some glasses and he was great.  Too bad you can't see his moon boots in this picture.  They were sweet.

Thomas is still really into Captain America.  Since he was the Captain for Halloween last year, he wasn't sure what to do.  So he decided to still be Steve Rogers/Captain America, but wear the WWII battle dress clothes the character wears before his iconic red white and blue costume was created.  

Thomas went all out trick or treating with a friend.  Katie and Peter wore their costumes to a party and then helped some little kids go house to house.  The two big kids feel a little too old for trick or treating, but don't want to miss out on the action. Taking little kids out helps them to get to do it all.  Plus, the kids they took out didn't like chocolate so they came away with plenty of candy!  It was a great Halloween!

Sea World

I love Sea World.  This is surprising because it was at Sea World that an 800 pound walrus once spit a gallon of water into my Farrah Fawcett hair do when I was 15 years old.  I've gotten over that and now embrace this park.  While we were in California, half of the family went to Disneyland and the other half went to Sea World.  Here we are riding Shamu in the killer whale show.  Not really.  The photographer cracked us up a lot.  He was worried that the picture wouldn't look real with so many people in it.  Really?  Who would think we were really riding a KILLER whale?

The dolphin and whale show is always a favorite.  But I don't love how Sea World tries to weave a story into their presentation.  We really just want to see the sea animals do their amazing tricks, enough of the trainers in wet suits designed to look like pajamas because this is all supposed to be a dream sequence.  Note to Sea World: These trainers are at the top of their fields in marine biology, don't make them embarrass themselves by doing dumb dance moves.

One show was like Cirque de Soleil.  Thomas was so impressed with the strength and awesomeness of these performers.

The flamingoes at the park go for a walk every day.  They looked a little confused and amused.

Katie and Maddie loved the penguin house.  It was nice and cool inside.