Purging

The girls brought home so many papers and things the last few days of school. Their rooms look like a bomb filled with papers went off. Today was Operation Clean Up. As usual Emily was all in favor of this plan while Claire had other ideas. Since it was going to be a one on one kind of job I started with Emily. She and I got on a roll. We went through the papers on the floor, the boxes in her closet, her night stand and her desk. We took out several trash cans full of junk and filled the recycle box twice. I was very proud of her willingness to part with things. Her room looks habitable again. Claire lucked out and we ran out of time to get to her room today. She was not upset by this in the least. I'm looking forward to tackling her room just as much I'm just not looking forward to the resistance she will put up in doing it. Sometimes the differences between the girls is more obvious than others.

I've switched to working nights at Disneyland for the summer. So far I've been assigned to the Annual Passport Processing centers exclusively. The last few nights I've been on the California Adventure side. I've really been enjoying it. The job itself has been pretty boring. Not too many guests at this time in the year especially at night. But I've liked getting to know the people I work with better. The pass centers are pretty tight spacewise so it's pretty easy for us to sit and chat to pass the time. On breaks we get to hear the music from Glow Fest. It sounds like we are working at a dance club! The whole atmosphere is so fun at night.

Summer has Arrived!

Yesterday was the last day of school! The girls had a great school year so we were sad to see it end but it's going to be so nice to not be on a schedule for awhile. They got out of school at 12:50 yesterday so we knew we needed to do something to celebrate. We wound up at Disneyland. Technically California Adventure. It seems to have all their favorite attractions right now. We started with Grizzly River Run since it's finally warm enough. Then around to the Silly Symphony Swings (Claire is big enough for them now), Maliboomer (Emily can go and I'm the only one who can't say no to her) and California Screamin'. Emily didn't want to do Screamin' so Claire and I jumped in the single rider line and cut the 45 minute wait down to about 10 minutes total. Then they surprised me by wanting to ride the carousel. Since our ultimate goal was to see the fireworks from Main Street we started making our way towards Disneyland. Along the way we got pulled into a Glow Fest dance show. Very Bollywood meets the 80s. We finally got to Main Street with some time to spare. We had some sundaes from Gibson and the girls got to go crazy in the Penny Arcade with a dime each! Woo big spenders! The fireworks were amazing as always especially since we could see the lights on the castle, hear the music and see Tink and Dumbo flying. We were all pretty pooped by the time the fireworks were done so it was time to head home. We parked in the Toy Story parking lot for the first time and it was really convenient getting away from the park. Definitely want to try that again.

Today we activated our Soak City passes. We got to hit all the big slides that we wanted to. Claire is definitely tall enough to go on anything she wants this year so she's pretty excited. They still really like the wave lagoon the best though.

Super Readers!

One of our proudest accomplishments to date with the girls could easily be the fact that they are both good readers. Not only are they good at it they really enjoy it. Awards came home last week for AR points. Emily got invited to dinner at Claim Jumper for the kids who read over 1,000,000 words. She had actually read over 2 million! She also got invited to a pizza party for kids who earned over 100 AR points. Both girls got to have muffins with the principal for earning over 50 points and they got to participate in "Bend the Rules" Day. Fun times! But they weren't done there. Today they each came home with gift cards to Barnes and Noble. Emily was the top reader in her class in both points and books. Claire got a medal for reading the 2nd highest number of books in her class. The gift card came for having the most AR points out of ALL the first graders! She was the only first grader to get invited to the muffin breakfast. They never fail to amaze me. Just when I think I couldn't be any prouder of them they do something even more wonderful.

Bunco Night

I stress sometimes about making sure everything is just right. I knew today was going to be an especially busy day. I'm starting a 9 day work "week" today. I start day 1 (of 5) of a new hire training run. The girls were getting ready and walking themselves to school for the first time. And to top it off tonight was my turn to host bunco. So as I was tossing and turning in bed this morning there was no end to the things that I could worry about. Would the girls be alright? Do I have a sore throat and no days off to recover for awhile? Should I have tried to get a hold of more subs for bunco? On and on and on it went. But figuring that there was little I could do at this point about most of it I got up and started my day. I was doing alright until it was time to get my work stuff together and I realized that my work id was in the van... with John at his work... oh ... no!!! There was nothing to do but go to work and plead my case. I was able to get a new id and get clocked in on time but it was not the start of the day I was hoping for. Training went well. We had 3 trainees; 2 trainers and 2 trainer-trainees. We were quite the entourage walking around the Esplanade today. The girls did just fine getting themselves off to school. Sierra was left inside the house for an extended part of the day which led to its own mess but that was taken care of by the time I got home. Claire had a good play date with Robby after school. I still had bunco and was still worried that we wouldn't have enough people to play. Turns out we didn't have enough but everyone was perfectly content to sit around the table and talk drink and eat. I should know better than to stress and let myself sleep but that's just now how I am. It wound up being a pretty good day all in all.

World of Color

One of the coolest things about working at Disneyland is the little bonuses that they give us. No not money but access to things that the general public can't do. Tonight was a big one. World of Color is the new dancing water / light/ music show in California Adventure. It debuts to the public on Friday but last night and tonight were the "dress rehearsals" that the cast members and families could attend. I always worry when things are so hyped that they could not possibly live up to the hype. This show really did live up to its hoopla. It was absolutely amazing. I couldn't have wiped the smile off my face if I wanted to. Emily even turned to me at one point and said "I'm so glad you work here Mommy!" *sniff* It will be awhile before we can see it again because I'm sure it's going to be packed all summer. But I'm looking forward to it already.

Hula Recital

The girls have been going to hula classes after school most of the spring. Miss Vanessa from pre school has been their teacher. It's been really fun and they've learned a lot. Tonight was the recital. Emily continues to amaze everyone with her grace. Claire can really hold her own too. During a costume change John and I had to get on stage and learn some moves too.

Open House

Tonight was Open House at the girls' school. There was so much to see in both their classrooms. I am always amazed by the quality of work that they are capable of. We like to visit the classes for the year ahead of them to see what they will be doing next year. I always think "There is no way they will be ready to do that next year!" And yet they are and they do. It's a good thing I don't homeschool because I'm certain I would be holding them back.

Owie!

Claire got her first bee sting today. I got a call around lunch time from the school health aide saying she had Claire in the office with her. The story I got later from Claire was that she and some friends were playing with what they thought was a dead bee. When it was Claire's turn to hold it it miraculously sprang back to life just long enough to sting Claire on the thumb. She was brave and found her sister (love that) to walk with her to the office (apparently you cannot show up alone). She got to sit in the health office for awhile with ice on it until everyone was sure she wasn't going to have a reaction. By the time she got home there was absolutely no sign that anything had happened. Almost as important in Claire's eyes was the fact that while she was sitting in the office with nothing to do she finally figured out how to snap her fingers. All in all a pretty good day as far as Claire was concerned.

In an unrelated story... I got up at a completely unreasonable time this morning to be among the first in line to pick up tickets for a cast member preview of the new World of Color show at California Adventure. The still pictures we've seen of the show make it look absolutely spectacular. I wanted to be early because most of the shows are late at night. The earliest one is at 9:00. Since the girls are coming to see it with me on a school night I wanted to make sure they wouldn't be out even later. I cannot wait to see this show and I'm even more excited to see it with my Disney and actual families!