Are These Markers Washable?

Go Tacos!

2012-01-21T10:45:00.000-08:00

Emily is still playing soccer from the fall season. Her team, the Toxic Tacos, won the Area championships today! They already won their Region by winning all their games. They have continued their undefeated season in the round robin tournament leading up to the championship games today. They were both nail biters. The other team scored first in both games but the girls kept up their attack and scored 2 unanswered goals and won 2-1 each time. They play with such team work and are so supportive of each other. They are a blast to watch. Just as amazing to me is that the coaches are both volunteer college students. Kelly and Chloe have given so much of their time and talent to help a group of girls that they had no connection to at all at the beginning of the season. The girls found out that they will get to walk on the field of a Galaxy game some time and get cheered for their accomplishment. They are super excited about that!

Getty Villa

2012-01-12T10:55:00.000-08:00

Our Christmas present this year to our parents was a day at the Getty Villa. The girls got to have a "Family Field Trip" day. They walked to school then almost immediately got signed out. We got the earliest reservation time that we could and it was a good thing. What we thought would be a couple of hour thing turned out to take all day. We went on several of the tours that were offered. The docents were amazing. They knew so much about their topic and were great story tellers. They kept us all interested and taught us so much. The first tour was the architecture tour. We learned about what the different rooms of the Villa represented and the history of it. The edible garden tour was a lot of fun. John and the girls even sampled a dried berry from the garden. Emily picked the world's largest radish. We did a touch demonstration about the glass art with recreated pieces. At lunch we brought out a picnic and had gourmet sandwiches. We still had time to go back and look at a lot of the art we saw in passing on the tours and the girls got to play in the Family Forum.

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T22:25:00.000-08:00

We had a fun New Year's Eve party with neighborhood friends. What a treat to not have to drive on New Year's Eve! The Kim's picked us up on the way over to the McCarthy's. We brought our little red wagon along with all the stuff we had. Emily L and Noah had a ball building Legos. The rest of the girls did crafts and ran around doing whatever it is that 8 year old girls like to do when they are together. Since the McCarthy's have access to New York time TV, we watched the ball drop over Time Square at 9:00 local time. there was champagne and kisses for the adults, streamers and Martinelli's for the kiddos. By 9:30 we were walking home and by 10:00 I was asleep! It was a perfect night!

Merry Christmas 2011

2011-12-21T12:41:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas everyone!

Over the past year we have had many experiences that push us towards reflection. My daughters are eight and ten and getting too tall to carry comfortably. We lost a beloved pet (Skitter, a guinea pig). Emily kicked the soccer ball between my legs and nimbly stepped around me in a scrimmage, proving that her soccer skills are in the ascendancy while mine…well, it’s not polite to use the terms I am thinking of. Father Time marches on, and it’s our job to adapt.

Claire still has a wonderfully bubbly and undefeatable personality. We were out selling Girl Scout cookies door-to-door in the neighborhood when a very nice older woman opened the door. She immediately sensed our intentions (the wagonload of Thin Mints might have given it away) and was crestfallen, “I’m so sorry—I don’t have any cash.”

Claire responded, “That’s okay,” and the woman got her smile back, assuming she was off the hook, “you can write a check.” She laughed for a moment and then bought four boxes.

During Spring Break Emily and Claire travelled north to San Simeon to tour Hearst Castle with Holly and Rich. Rich took a hilarious twenty-second video of Claire up to her chin in short rib bones (and up to her eyebrows in barbecue sauce), still chewing and yet reaching for more. We have an agricultural balance among our daughters; one wants to raise livestock, and the other wants to eat them.
See the rib eating video - click here

Morro Rock

Claire played on the Lavender Lava under 10 girls AYSO soccer team, and I was the coach. We learned how to win and how to lose. Claire made many friends and is getting better all the time. I still have a long way to go in knowing what nine-year-old girls think is important—it took two days and three rounds of voting to come up with “Lavender Lava.” Yet we struggled with keeping both feet on the ground on throw-ins all year (sigh).

Emily moved up to the much bigger field with the under 12 girls, and I had the pleasure of watching her score the winning goals in two games (I can describe each one in less than ten minutes if I leave out the details, ask me). Her team is undefeated and will be participating in the playoffs in January.

Soccer is the confirmed favorite outdoor activity of Emily and Claire, which is a relief because I secretly believe it means a lot to my wife. Just because I played and refereed for years and think it is the greatest game in the world don’t think I’m the one pushing them to play.

Other competing outdoor activities this past year included playing in the snow up at Mt. Pinos in January where I learned that repeatedly crashing your elbow onto ice will cause it to swell no matter how cold you keep it. We got some sliding discs and whiled away a Saturday—only stopping for lunch.

Wisconsin during the summer with my parents is also very outdoor heavy. Emily water-skied around the lake for the first time. We actually ate some of the fish we pulled out of Leader Lake, thanks to the deep-frying maestro, Uncle Matt Ryder. Speaking for all the girls in the family, Claire said,” I don’t really like to eat fish…unless it’s deep fried so you can’t really taste it.”

We took our annual expedition to Wilderness Walk, half a zoo for woodland creatures plus one Bengal tiger and half a collection of themed shacks (maze, tilted, jail and the like): very unpolished and very fun for us. While we were watching the wolves a passing ambulance siren set them off to howling and all the game animals got very alert all of a sudden; very fun to watch. At the end of the day the girls all had a memorable time on a trail ride outside of Hayward.

Jenn and I returned to the scene of childhood memories by taking our girls up to Gooseberry Falls, fifty miles northeast of Duluth near the northern shore of Lake Superior. We had a very nice two hour hike and played in the water; no rangers and no safety railing nearby, just one warning sign and an ethos of personal responsibility. Jenn likes to contrast that visit with the inanity of some of the visitors to Disneyland, “I didn’t know I could be hurt if I put my hand between two moving pieces of metal.” She says that something about overpaying entrance fees turns off parts of people’s brains.

Gooseberry Falls

Speaking of childhood memories, at Claire’s birthday party we resurrected a game my grandfather used to organize for my cousins, brother and me: a kind of scavenger hunt in which we would discover rhyming clues and eventually discover the grand prize. Everybody loved it and Claire’s group did too.

Back in school, Emily decided she wanted to run for treasurer but she lost to a sixth-grader: disappointing but not crushing. Now this particular sixth grader had the good sense to up and move just two weeks after the election, so Emily was appointed the post. I asked if the horse’s head she put into the sixth grader’s bed affected her decision to leave, and she just looked at me funny. Now she gets to count up the Santa-gram money. Sonny would be proud.

Jenn is moving up through the ranks at Disneyland—every couple of months she comes home talking about new training and responsibilities and yet is still in a good mood. She really enjoys it and is looking forward to more training this year.

I’m still trying to land a full-time teaching job and occupy myself with substituting.

We were just invited to go on an evening boat cruise with Ryan and Angie Balius. We cruised around Huntington Harbor to see all the lights while sipping hot chocolate and eating cookies. The electric power went out on one side of the harbor, obviously an overloaded transformer. We gleefully indulged in speculation about the owners of waterfront mansions not being able to afford that month's electric bill. After an hour SC Edison must have taken pity on the paupers and turned the power back on. This trip can put even the most convinced Scrooge in the Christmas mood.

Disney Family Chistmas Party with Jenn's parents

That’s about it. See you all soon,

The Leebs

Soccer 2011

2011-09-17T00:11:00.000-07:00

Got to see both girls play today. They both had games at 8:00 but since it was one of my few Saturdays off I had to make the best of it. I stayed with Emily and her Toxic Tacos for the first half of their game. They went up quickly 2-0 but the other team rallied back 3-2 at the half. I ran over to visit Daddy and Claire at their game. The Lavender Lava was out scored but Claire was running like a champ and got several nice touches on the ball. When their game was done I ran back to Emily's field (they are on opposite sides of the park!) where I learned that the girls were up 4-3 and that Emily had scored the winning goal! *insert proud mama here*

Wisconsin 2011

2011-08-13T00:11:00.000-07:00

We're here! It's been a long day starting with a red eye overnight with Greatmother and Uncle Henry but we are here. It was muggy all afternoon but that didn't stop the girls from getting in the lake after we took a nap. While John and the girls were setting up Bongo, a pair of loons surfaced no more than 10 feet away from them. Both humans and birds spent a moment staring at each other wondering where on Earth the other had come from. The loons didn't seem particularly worried though and kept swimming and diving near them. Eventually they kept going but it was cool to see them close up and realize how big they are! It's finally raining tonight complete with lightening and thunder. After a good night sleep tonight we can really start our vacation filled with energy!

8/ 2:
We had a pretty slow start this morning. Time change, little sleep the night before and an overcast morning all conspired to keep us in bed as long as possible. We found out that the storm last night dropped nearly 4 inches of rain!! Once we got going Emily found a puzzle that we worked on for a good part of the day. While we were working Joe and Aunt Cheryl came to visit. The girls took off to play with Joe at the beach then at his cabin. After lunch Joe came back down to the beach with his dad. Claire went fishing with Joe and Uncle Matt while Daddy, Emily and I checked out the new kayaks. We paddled down to Paddocks and passed by the fishing boat. The kayaks are a great way to see the lake. We saw the loons up close and could stop paddling at any time and just enjoy the quiet of the lake. We all played in the water, on Bongo and in the kayaks for many hours this afternoon. When we were thinking of drying off and getting dinner started Karl and Margarida showed up! They will be here too for 10 days. It's a full house in both cabins! We all had a dinner together and got caught up.

8/3
We went to Hayward today. The girls stocked up on candy provisions for the trip. They each got new tee shirts too. Claire's reads: I'd be a vegetarian if BACON grew on trees. Perfect for her! Actually we saw it in the store window and when I asked if they came in her size the guy said, "No but I can make it in her size." Sold! Emily was allowed to pick out something too. Since hers wasn't so obvious it took a bit longer to find something she liked. She wound up with a cow shirt since cows are her current favorite. Karl and Margarida were in town too and we met up with them at about this time. Karl had been looking for a shirt for Lowell and finally found it in the same shop. Lowell's reads: Finish your beer! There are sober kids in Africa. hahaha After a quick trip to Subway for lunch, we were off to Wilderness Walk. The girls visited the nursery area first. There were baby skunks there! eek! After they spent some time there we followed the trail around to see all the animals. As we passed the wolves an ambulance passed by the road out front. In response to the siren the wolf started howling. It was amazing being 10 feet away from a howling wolf. It was so loud! A little further down the trail were the red deer. They are bigger than the usual white tail deer that we see around here. The girls each got a quarter to feed the deer and we were pretty excited to watch them all get up and start coming over to see us until we realized that the keeper had walked over too and was getting ready to feed them their real meal. They weren't too particular and were still happy to take the special treats from the girls. We watched what they were being fed and realized that bagels and day old bread were part of their diet. The keeper said they bought their feed from the local store and that they threw in the day old stuff too as a treat. While we were watching we noticed a doe that was playing with her roll. She bend down and dipped it into the mud puddle at her feet. We laughed thinking she was like everyone who likes to dip their donut in coffee in the morning.

8/4
We canoed the Namekagon River today. Since Karl and Margarida were with us we could take 2 cars and 2 canoes. It make getting picked up so much easier to take care of it ourselves! And each girl got to have her own canoe. Since there has been so much rain here this year the river is the highest its been in years and certainly the highest I've ever seen it. All those places where we've practically had to get out and carry the canoe over the shallow spots were at least 15 feet across and 2 feet deep. There were a few rocks that made their signature ripple on the surface to be avoided at all costs but for the most part we just sat back and enjoyed the ride. We steered of course but it was a lazy trip. We stopped for lunch at a really pretty campsite. The girls and I walked ahead to check it out while the canoes were being pulled out of the water. After we went back to help carry the lunches and get everyone else the whole group walked back up into the woods on a narrow footpath. John was the last of the line. He asked if any of us had noticed the poison ivy growing near the trail. No one had. Fortunately we didn't touch any of it either because no one reported getting itchy later in the day. Phew! There wasn't much in the way of wild life to see and despite their best efforts Karl and Margarida didn't catch any fish. We all figured it must be because of the high water levels. After we got off the river Karl and Margarida treated us to ice cream at the Village Scoop.

8/5
Finally a quieter day. The girls played with Joe and spent a lot of time fishing with Matt and Henry. After all the fishing that had happened all week it was time for a fish fry! We all headed up to Bob and Sheryl's for dinner. Matt did the honors with the frier. We all brought something yummy to share. In all we wound up with 19 for dinner! Lowell came over for awhile and David, Magda and Natalie showed up in time to join us too. It was really incredible to have so many together at once! Joe shared his kid sized ATV with the girls - big and small. They took turns riding laps around the driveway between the two cabins.

8/6
I was gone for most of the day today. I drove down to Wausau to have lunch with 3 other moms from the March Mommies board. It was a lot of driving - 3 hours each way but worth it to catch up with the moms. On the way back I was intrigued by a sign that said "Geographical Marker". So I took a 4 mile detour to see what it was about. Turned out to be the exact location of the 45th line north and the 90th line west. Kind of a 4 Corners kind of thing but a good excuse to drive out into the middle of a corn field in an unknown little town in Wisconsin.
Meanwhile back at the cabin... It was a cousin fest. Besides Magda, Natalie, Joe and our girls, Zach and Mara showed up too. I'm not sure of the exact order of events but there was time in the lake until a rain storm forced everyone inside. There was a puzzle done. The Awesome Club was invented and all in the area were made members and given jobs to do. Sounds like everyone had a great time.

8/7
If it's even possible today was even more of a cousin fest. There were 10 of them here today at various times down at the lake. The most at once was 8 when I was able to snap a picture. Besides my 2, Magda, Natalie, Zach, Mara and Joe there were Ethan and Mikayla (Joe's 1st cousins) and Noah who is cousin Kevin's little boy. Emily was in heaven playing with Noah for awhile. After lunch Matt suggested getting the water skiis out and letting whoever wanted to try it. Claire was first up. She decided she was old enough to start learning. Her first attempt ended with the rope being yanked out of her hands. The second time she spent a wobbly few seconds mostly upright before she flopped. That was the best she did all day but I thought it was great for a first time out. Emily's first try was a classic up and over. Her second time though she was up! She held on for an entire loop around the lake. When she got back to the dock she let go of the rope and glided into the water like she has been skiing all her life. It was amazing! She floated back to us all grins and puffed with pride. She tried again later and was not as successful but she knows she can do it now and that is all that matters. David, Kelly, Magda and Matt also had good turns around the lake. After dinner we had a fun game of Michigan Rummy aka the penny game. It was all good until Claire realized she hadn't won all night. She had gotten cups with pennies but had never been the one to go out and get to collect pennies from the rest of the players. She'll survive somehow.

8/8:
A day of rest after cousin-palooza! Daddy and the girls did ATP rides, hung out at the cabin and helped with the plumbing situation at the downstairs cabin while Mommy, Greatmother and Grandma had a "girl cousin" lunch. There were 9 of us total, all related somehow at a pot luck progressive lunch and dessert. Besides the 3 of us were: Sheryl, Jill, Beth, Saralyn, Bonnie and Dea. We had lunch at Saralyn's and dessert at Beth's. There were lots of stories told and lots of laughs. It's a nice tradition that they are starting. At night we had a Michigan Rummy rematch that Claire won. Go figure!

8/9:
The 4 of us drove up to Gooseberry Falls today. We took the scenic route out of Duluth so we could stop at Emily's restaurant that we ate at 2 years ago after our Boundary Waters trip. Sadly it was closed this year. =( But we did stop at a beautiful spot along the North Shore to stretch our legs and get some pretty pictures. In Twin Harbors we stopped for lunch. We hiked all over Gooseberry Falls park. There was a lot of water in the falls this year which made them especially spectacular. Claire got a little pooped during our walk but she made the whole loop with us.

School Might as Well Give Up...

2011-06-20T22:01:00.000-07:00

It's a total loss at this point. The official last day of school is Wednesday but things are very well wrapped up already. The kids are having a ball though. Today was Olympic Day. The better part of the morning was spent on the field doing sport activities. Emily placed 5th in the 4th grade girls' marathon. She got gold in a soccer accuracy event. Claire had fun walking around with her best buddies and doing all the events. (Primaries don't get judged the same as the uppers.) After school Claire got to stay and watch "Megamind" with her classmates who had mastered their math facts this year. They put on jammies, snuggled under blankets and had a great time. From there she changed into her Brownie outfit and received some Daisies who bridged up a level. She got to be the responsible older girl for once! She does very well in that role when asked. Emily walked home after school but then got to join her Girl Scout troop at Jump U for an end of year party. They got their badges for the year and their cookie prizes. Homework was over a long time ago fortunately so that didn't have to compete for out time tonight.

It's Good Bye for Now, That's All

2011-05-09T22:02:00.000-07:00

We had to say good bye for now to our friends the Parras tonight. They are moving to West Virginia. They leave on Friday. It was good to spend time with them tonight but it makes me think back on all the other times we've spent with them over the years. We first met when Emily and Natalie were about 18 months old. It was the Halloween party for the Mother's Club we belonged to. The girls became insta-friends and remained inseparable for the next few years in playgroup. Along the way our families became friends too. Stacie and I each had another baby. We exchanged "date nights" where one family would take all four kids so the other couple could get out for the night. We spent weekends in Big Bear sometimes playing in the snow, other years just enjoying being in the mountains even without snow. The kids have done Vacation Bible School together and had countless playdates. Even though they never went to school together they have always remained very good friends. So we will miss them and write to them and phone and look forward to when they visit so we don't really have to say good bye.

Spring of 2003 ~ Claire is the bump in my belly, Caleb is still a few month away

Spring 2011 ~ funny I'm still sitting closer to Natalie!

Time Flies...

2011-04-02T21:33:00.000-07:00

We've had quite the interesting weekend. Well my weekend any way. I'm still getting Fridays and Saturdays off pretty consistently so I have to remember to shift the days for everyone else. I really needed this weekend too. I've been training to be a Lead in the booths which has been awesome! I love learning the new stuff and getting more responsibility. But it's been long hours and my brain is tired after learning and doing new stuff all day!

We had our first mini heat wave of Spring Thursday and Friday. Thursday the girls were disappointed that they didn't get to go to the beach with Magda and Natalie (visiting Grandma and Papa for their Spring Break). So Friday the three of us went. The girls have decided that they have "graduated" from Mothers' Beach and want to go to the "big beach". I liked the area of Seal Beach that I visited with the Volunt-ears (Disney group) last summer. It wound up being absolutely perfect! The waves were fun to play on but the water wasn't too deep. We brought along a kick board that they took turns using like a Boogie Board. Claire even tried body surfing when it wasn't her turn with the board. I thought the water would be freezing this time of year but once you were in it a few minutes it wasn't bad at all. Daddy joined us after he got done working (subbing at Los Al). The girls played in the sand for a little longer. We all walked to the jetty to see the real surfers. After about 3 hours it was time to head home. It was an absolutely lovely afternoon.

Today started with a soccer game for Em. She's on the Wildcats this season with Natalie P. We weren't planning on spring soccer but the P's are moving to West Virginia in June so this was the girls' last opportunity to be on a team together. So bittersweet after them being friends for so long. Emily loves playing goalkeeper but it may be the end of me. She was doing great in the 4th quarter when there was a breakaway. The girl on the other team kicked a line drive right into the goal. Emily blocked it... with her face! It bounced off her and slowly rolled into the goal. But my girl was down and in pain. It took everything not to run out onto the field. After what seemed an eternity, the designated parent went out to check on her. Apparently the ball smacked her in the jaw and neck and not straight on like it seemed. It stung but she hung in. Later that quarter there was a penalty kick so it was her and the same girl again. She didn't shy at all and made her best effort to save the goal. Penalty kicks are almost impossible to defend unfortunately. She's amazing though. At the end of the game she was feeling better from the first shot (though she had a big red mark on her neck) and not down at all about the second goal.

After the game the girls and John headed to church immediately to start getting ready for Living Pictures. I got to watch them in the premier show. They did great! Emily and I kept catching eyes and she would smile at me =) It seemed like each of Claire's scenes she had her back to me. John was threatened with having to dye his hair but in the end he prevailed. They stayed for the second show but I came home to get dinner ready. As I was finishing up Emily walked through the kitchen and said she thought Skitter might be dead. I thought she was kidding because he hasn't been acting funny. John went out with her to check and sure enough, no more Skitter. She burst into tears as John grabbed a bag to pick up the body in. We gathered Claire so she could say good-bye too. More tears. Tomorrow will be the burial under the tangerine tree. We watched "G Force" in honor of Skitter tonight. RIP Skitter.

Lots of highs and lows in two days. I wouldn't trade it for anything though.

Emily hits Double Digits!

2011-03-13T23:42:00.000-07:00

Emily had a great 10th birthday celebration. On her real day we got the family together at Grandma Wendy and Papa John's house to celebrate. Emily got to choose the menu... Italian. I got to choose the cake... Angel Food. My mom made it and covered it with sliced strawberries. Yum!

Later that week we celebrated 5 birthdays with the Parras. We met up after soccer practice at Red Robin. I'm not sure they totally believed that so many at the table were having birthdays but they brought sundaes and balloons anyway.

Finally Emily got to have her party with friends. She invited girls from school over for a slumber party. They played at the house and at Garden Park (where they ran into even more friends from school). We went out to dinner at Mimi's Cafe and watched "Alpha and Omega" (Romeo and Juliet of the wolf/dog variety). After the movie I turned the lights out and told the girls they were allowed to talk for awhile. Emily decided at some point that she was done with the talking and wanted to sleep. So she slipped downstairs and went to bed in her room. Since Sierra sleeps at the foot of the stairs and the rest of the girls were not interested in finding out how friendly she is in the middle of the night, they left Em alone. But she was up bright and early and went right back upstairs to join her friends. We had breakfast and did manicures while we waited for the parents to arrive. It was a perfect low-key party for Emily.

Girl Scout Cookie Time

2011-02-05T22:06:00.000-08:00

Going door to door with Claire... lady says no because she doesn't have any cash. Claire doesn't miss a beat "That's OK. You can write a check."

Kid Space Museum

2011-01-08T22:17:00.000-08:00

So I had a Saturday off but John had to meet all day at church so the girls and I decided to meet Grandma Holly in Pasadena the the Kid Space museum. None of us had ever been so we weren't at all sure what to expect. We were very pleasantly surprised by how much there was to do and how long the girls stayed engaged in the activities. On the way there we were all pretty excited to find ourselves along the Rose Parade route. The girls practiced their princess waves to the long gone crowds. We beat Grandma to the museum by a few minutes so the girls got to play at the park next door. Emily finally got to show me her "flamingo" move on the bars.
Once we got inside it was hard to decide what to do first. Everything looked so interesting. We figured out that the main theme of the building was bugs. Everywhere we looked there were real bugs to look at (in boxes of course) or bug activities to do. The girls favorite was the two climbing structures that took them 2 stories above the floor in tree type fashion. I even got talked into joining them. It was a tight squeeze through some of those twists and turns!

Outside there was even more to check out. The girls very quickly met a new friend, Jane, who they stayed with most of the day. Here they are acting like orangutans:
There was a trike roadway to play on. Emily has gotten to the point where she is too big for some of the activities. When she was riding, her knees kept hitting her chin and she wound up being one of the slowest trikes on the road. We called her the "Little Old Lady in Pasadena". She still found a way to participate:
Back inside at Bugsy's Diner:
I called this the Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Roaches
On the spider web climber:
Rock walls are always a hit now
Later in the day we were in the "Research Room" and kept seeing point values next to different rocks and shells. We found out that there were scavenger hunts that the girls could do to earn points and the items. The girls were all over it. They ran around outside following the instructions and finished the scavenger hunt in no time. They wanted to do another one but the museum was out of age appropriate hunts for them. The guide put together another project for them so they could earn more points. They turned on their best student faces to do some research. At the end of the day they each walked away with a bag full of pretty shells to show for their hard work.

I can always tell when it's been a successful outing when they are asking when we will return before we have even left. I think a spring or summer return will be perfect. There were lots of water features that would be really fun to investigate too. The signs all said that swim suits and sandals are acceptable attire for a visit.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T22:43:00.000-08:00

We went to our friends house for New Year's Eve. The kids ran around and played while the grown ups played games. We toasted the new year on East Coast Standard time so we could be in bed at a decent hour. (Darn 7:00 start time for work on New Years Day!)

After we got home the girls decided they really did want to stay up until midnight. They started a movie and I fell asleep on the couch. Just before midnight they woke me up. I thought they wanted to watch the ball drop or at least yell Happy New Year again. But no they were just tired and ready for bed. We listened to fireworks around the neighborhood just as we were drifting off in bed again.

Christmas 2010

2010-12-25T21:54:00.000-08:00

Snapshots from our Christmas this year:

Walking the neighborhood in Fountain Valley with all the lights

Making Gingerbread houses with Grandma Holly

Going to the Nutcracker ballet

Going to Peter Pan

Hosting Christmas Eve

Singing in choir at the Christmas Eve service

Our tree

Big gift - an MP3 player

Big gift - a DS

Garden Park Everglades

2010-12-22T14:35:00.000-08:00

BeforeSplish Splash

How can you say no to this face?

After

So it's been raining here for 6 days straight now. Not just a little rain here and there but our yearly total of rain in less than a week. I'm so over living in Seattle. Oh wait that's NOT where we moved. Anyway there was a small respite this morning. It was brief and we even saw some blue patches in the sky. We were thrilled to be able to be outside. The girls wanted to go to the park next door and run around for a bit. They knew the blacktop would probably be the only surface available to them so they brought some balls to throw around. We ran for a bit but the lure of the giant puddles in the field was just irresistable. So we went home, put on grubby clothes, picked up Daddy and went back. Worried about pneumonia and neighbors calling the cops for child endangerment, we couldn't stay long but man did they have fun sliding in the puddles, kicking water at each other and giving Mommy big hugs while dripping wet. Emily claimed it is a new tradition any time we get rain like this. Fortunately by the time we get another series of storms like this she'll be taking her own kids.

After getting home, taking a warm shower and eating a hot lunch everyone was cozied up watching a little TV. When Daddy was done eating he was ready to head to the grocery store to buy what we need for our Christmas Eve celebration. Claire characteristically did not want to go. We told her that it was fine to stay home but the TV was turning off either way. Daddy said he didn't want to get home and find Claire staring at the TV. He did his best impression of a slack jawed, mesmerized, lost to the real world TV viewer. Claire took one look at him and said, "I don't do that! I keep my mouth shut!" That girl.

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-17T09:57:00.000-08:00

Christmas Letter 2010

Merry Christmas all!

The Leeb family is soldiering on, in the face of stiff opposition. John’s plans for a quick transition to a new career has taken an unwelcome turn, but after a year at JC Penney, things are looking up recently. Jenn continues to work at Disneyland and loves it. Recently she attended a breakfast commemorating her first year anniversary. Around the dinner table that night, she explained her chagrin to discover it consisted of only a glass of orange juice and a Danish in a wrapper. I mentioned that hot breakfast is really the way to show someone you care. Claire took it one step further, “Here’s how you make breakfast,” she paused dramatically with one hand poised over the table, “first, you kill something!” and she performed an air karate chop. We all started laughing, so she amended quickly, “Not just anything…whatever you want to eat.” We’re not savages after all—killing things in some early morning ritual to appease our pagan gods. “Then you cook it and eat it. That’s how you make breakfast.”
One of our daughters is nearly a vegetarian. Claire is not that daughter.

In April’s Easter break, Holly took Emily and Claire to Utah so the girls could get some snow time with Uncle Paul and Aunt Kim. They snowboarded, ice-skated and played in the back yard snow. Emily woke up one night to watch the snow fall, decided it was worth waking up Claire too, and they pressed their noses against the window just like they’re supposed to.

We’ve spent the last year enjoying Disneyland. With Jenn working there, the price is right. Emily loves the thrill rides (especially if her shorter sister is not allowed) and so we have spent a lot of time at California Adventure. My parents also purchased Knott’s/Soak City passes for all of us and we made the most of it during the summer.

Emily has a good friend with Leukemia (complete remission) and decided to donate ten inches of her hair to Locks of Love. A week after the cut she dressed as Amelia Earhart for a report at school. For this kind of planning I get no credit--she takes after her mother.

I was asked by my good friend Karl Bertain to perform a wedding service for him and his new wife Margarida. My utter lack of credentials seemed to bother neither the couple nor the state of California. A Universalist church was happy to take my $8 and send me a wallet-sized card saying I could perform weddings. It was a brief but lovely ceremony among the pines in the Sierras above Bishop. We made it a weekend camping trip and visited the Bristlecone pines, thousands of years old.

My brother and his daughters, Magdalen and Natalie, came to visit in July. They went to the beach and Emily said afterward, “It’s like having cool older sisters.” What more can you ask for?

Jenn’s high school reunion was in August. She found it hard to imagine that so much time has gone by and wondered if it would really be worth attending. The answer was absolutely yes! She got to spend the day with her 3 BFFs reminiscing as they looked at yearbooks, old letters (yes the handwritten type) and photos.

The tyrant mouse wouldn’t let my wife have two weeks off during Disneyland’s busy summer season so we went to Wisconsin without Jenn. Frogs, deer, tubing, canoeing, picnicking and all-purpose adventuring. We especially enjoy the time spent with Michelle, Jason, Zach and Mara.
Since Garden Grove Unified starts the Thursday after Labor Day, we had two more days of summer vacation than most and elected to visit the Getty Museum. We stayed about three hours, or two hours more than I thought the girls would tolerate, and they said they want to return to see more.

I had two fatherhood dreams come true this year. I coached Emily’s soccer team, the Fighting Flamingos, to a fantastic season (but a less than stellar record). Claire developed very quickly on her team, Pixie Dust. Soccer was great fun for us all. Also, we went rock climbing in Joshua Tree over Veterans’ Day. Good friends, stories around the campfire, star gazing, scrambling and hiking. We set up a rope on a steep slope and had fun struggling up and rappelling down. We even saw a desert tortoise! I lived in Yucca Valley for 2½ years and never saw one, but we spotted a juvenile alongside a trail to an oasis.

Emily chose to learn the violin at school and has already performed in a group recital about two weeks ago. Mary Had a Little Lamb is rarely played by a string section of forty: sounded good though.

If any of you have ever asked for directions to our house, you know the last phrase has always been, “You can see our five palm trees from a half mile away.” That is no longer the case. We have had them cut down—a thrilling and terrifying, and strictly vicarious experience. The tallest was 85 feet and this guy climbed up with three-inch spikes on his insteps and a harness with a loop of chain attached. Then, once he was at the top, he would haul up the chainsaw, start it, and the bombardment would begin. First surprisingly heavy palm fronds, then sections of trunk that THUNKED into the yard so deeply we felt it even while standing on the driveway. Once the wind picked up and the trees were swaying five or six feet, they decided to hang it up each day. There are large pieces of the bases left. If you know anyone who needs 300 pound sections of palm tree trunk, let us know. We won’t deliver, but we can help lift.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The Leebs

Weekend? What weekend?

2010-12-12T21:45:00.001-08:00

'Tis the season... when no one get to stop and there are so many fun things to do! Just a quick run down of our weekend. Not too many details or I will be here forever typing.
Friday:
The girls started off their weekend with Bend the Rules at school. The last hour of the school day is dedicated to doing all the things that would normally be no-nos. There is candy, soda, toys and fun for all the students who met their reading goal this trimester.
It was also report card day. No complaints here! We are always so proud of our girls.
Dinner was at Grandma Wendy and Papa John's house followed by our annual walk around the neighborhood with the overly decorated houses. It's fun to see our favorite decorations year after year. This year Claire was especially interested in making sure each heard of reindeer had at least one Rudolph present.
Saturday morning we finally got to see Tangled. Once a movie has been in release for a few weeks, Disney employees get to see it for free. It requires standing in line for awhile but the price is right! The girls and I left straight from Downtown Disney to drive up to Thousand Oaks. Grandma Holly had a full agenda for them there. There was a New England lighted house village to set up, two gingerbread houses to decorate and a super secret shopping trip to do. After dinner we went to Camarillo to see Aunt Kristin perform with her church choir. Emily loved being able to watch the orchestra play from a fairly close position.
Sunday morning we wasted little time and were back in the car to head home. After a quick lunch and a change of clothes, Claire got dropped off with her Brownie troop to go see the Nutcracker ballet. Emily and I didn't want to be left out of our yearly tradition so we went to a different production of the same ballet at the same time. We all rendevouzed back home later in the afternoon. Our Christmas tree had been delivered on Saturday while we were gone. It and the house needed some decoration. That lasted until almost bedtime. Phew! It's amazing how with a little planning you can sqeeze so much into a short amount of time.

Bye Bye Palm Trees!

2010-11-28T10:20:00.000-08:00

As much as the palms gave a sunny so cal look to our house, they were messy and on occassion dangerous - those big fronds fall when it gets windy. So rather than get them trimmed we decided to remove them. Correction we had someone else remove them.

It's hard to tell from this picture but step one was to get up inside the fronds and cut them down.

Most of the trunk pieces came down in smaller sections than this thank goodness since it sounded like a war zone as each piece hit the ground.

After the fronds were gone each piece of the trunk was cut. Yes he's up there with nothing more than spikes on his shoes, a chain around the tree and a lot of bravery!

Somehow removing the palms made the sunny so cal weather go away too. Coincidence?

Joshua Tree

2010-11-13T18:17:00.000-08:00

The girls wound up with a 4 day weekend at Veteran's Day thanks to a furlough day. We took advantage and made a reservation to camp for two nights in Joshua Tree National Park at Indian Cove Campground. Our friends the Zs and Bs came with us. We drove out Thursday after lunch and spent the first afternoon setting up our campsite. When you make reservations online its hard to know exactly what you will wind up with but in this case we could not have chosen a nicer site. The campground has many rock formations and the campsites are nestled among the rocks. A lot of the sites we saw were narrow - wedged between the rocks and the gravel road. Our site was in a horse shoe shaped formation so we were surrounded on three sides by rock. It was very private and since it was windy, protected too. The sites are fairly primitive. We had to fill up water containers at the ranger station about two mile from the campground and the bathrooms were glorified port a potties. But the beauty of the surroundings more than made up for the inconveniences. As the grown ups worked on setting up the kids quickly got acquainted with the rocks surrounding us. Two walls were fairly steep but the third had great rocks for scrambling. They spent all afternoon finding caves and playing war games. We were pretty sure that someone would tumble eventually but the worst injury all weekend was a scrape.
Around 3:30 the sun dropped below the ridge near us and the temperature plummeted. Fortunately we had prepared and everyone started layering on clothes. Soon after we started the campfire and dinner. Since it was pretty dark by 5:30 we ate early. That meant we had a long evening by the campfire. S'mores and talking filled in the time until about 8:00 when everyone was ready for bed.
Friday morning dawned bright and early. We were up and going by 7:00. It was still pretty chilly but a nice warm breakfast got us going. Again the kids scrambled on the rocks in our campsite until John packed up his gear and took us for a walk to another area in the campground. There he climbed a relatively easy route and set us up with ropes. Emily was first to volunteer to make the climb. She carefully found her hand and foot holds and without too much trouble made her first official climb. She was estatic. She even did a great job rapelling back down to her starting point.
Little Jake was next on the rope. At 3 1/2 he wasn't quite ready to climb all the way to the top. So we lowered him down and let Claire go next. She was gung ho to scramble up. Her shoes were not as willing to go to the top. At one point she had lost both. Fortunately Troy was in a good position from his look out spot to help her put them back on. Once they were on tight she practically flew to the top of the rock. She really liked rapelling too.

Dean was next to go. He did fairly well getting started but right at the point of no return, he lost his nerve. He was having a hard time trusting the ropes to keep him safe and just wanted to scramble like he was used to on the other rocks. We coaxed him to the top where he had to spend a few minutes collecting himself before coming back down. He never did get the hang of rapelling. He was really trying to slide down the rock which made him even more nervous. After he finally go down he was done for the day on the ropes. Fortunately he went right back to scrambling on the rocks so he really wasn't scared off of the whole experience.

Emily and Claire each wanted another turn and did fabulously. Claire certainly didn't have any issues with trusting the ropes. On her second climb she started to lose her shoe again. On a fairly steep part of the rock, she sat down, adjusted her shoe and was back to climbing in no time. It was pretty amazing to watch. Not to be outdone by my girls I had to give it a try too. Of course the kids make it look so much easier than it is. The foot and hand holds that they found so easily apparently disappeared when it was my turn. At one point I thought I was going to have to end my climb and start back down. But when I leaned back into the rope to start down I realized I could make the next step up just as easily as down. So I did make it to the top! I had to head down fairly quickly before I started thinking about it too much. Once everyone had had the turns they needed we cleaned up and headed back to camp and lunch. John had to climb back up to bring our gear back down. Unfortunately he made his job even harder by throwing things down and getting them stuck on the plants growing on the side of the rock. He had to reach out unroped to free it. I had to watch else where.

After lunch I thought we would go to another spot to do the ropes again but the kids were just as happy playing on "their" rocks. It was a relaxing afternoon of scrambling, reading, napping and just enjoying some time off.

Again dinner was early right around sunset. After dinner we got the fire going again. John started telling stories of the ancient gods and godesses. Dean was enraptured. When John needed a break we started telling stories in the round. One person would start a story line then turn in over to the next person to add onto it. The stories got pretty ridiculous pretty fast. The girls declared that we should tell stories like that every time we go camping in the future though. One of our recurring characters was Awesome Squirrel. He seemed to show up in every story that we told. The other cool thing about the fires was watching the light flicker on the rocks around us. It could have been really spooky looking but instead it was just beautiful.

Saturday morning came early again. After breakfast it was time to clean up camp.

While we were rock climbing, Karl and Margarida had found a nice hike that they told us about. Once the cars were packed up we drove to the Fortynine Palm Oasis trailhead. Getting to the Oasis took us along a 3 mile round trip walk. There was some altitude gain so it wasn't the easiest walk but the kids made it without too much complaint. Claire and Dean were our guides on the way to the Oasis. They had picked up some Junior Ranger guide books and were busy reading and trying to identify the various plants we found. Emily was busy taking pictures for a Girl Scout badge she is working on. Once we made it to the Oasis, we rested for awhile and tried to convince Emily that we were truly at an oasis. I think she was picturing something more along the lines of Hawaii. While we rested we overheard some other groups talking about a desert tortoise that they had seen on the way. We tried to identify where they had seen it but there just aren't that many landmarks to identify where they had seen it. So we joked on the way back that we should keep our eyes peeled for a tortoise. Sure enough as we were talking, Troy says, "There it is." Calm as could be. Shannon and I were sure he was joking with us. But sure enough we looked where he was looking and there was a little tortoise cruising along just off the trail. We stopped to watch him for a few minutes and take a few pictures. The next group that came along seemed more intent on getting right in the poor creature's space. The guys took the kids and kept up their walk. Shannon and I stayed behind to glare at the offender until he started walking again too.

We had one more stop to make on our way out of town at the Information Center so I could get my patch and the girls could turn in their Junior Ranger books. Emily hadn't really gotten into it but Claire was busy checking off what she had seen and filling in the blanks on the pages. At the Information Center, the Ranger talked with Claire for a few minutes, quizzing her to make sure she had really done everything she had written about. He was especially interested in our tortoise siting and even wanted Daddy to fill out a report. (Ironically he couldn't find the paperwork.) When he was done he got everyone's attention in the room, made Claire raise her right hand to take the Junior Ranger oath, then presented her with her badge and a book. The book is not for sale and can only be earned by Junior Rangers. It was so cute. The Ranger certainly could have just handed her her badge and book and been done with it but he really made her feel special.

We've been wanting to make a trip to go climbing for awhile now. It went better than I could have imagined. John fulfilled one of his dreams to see his girls in harnesses hanging off of rocks. They are hooked and will certainly want to go again. We are getting better at camping. It seems to get easier each time we do it (even though we missed packing a bag of food into the car this trip! oops) Despite my best efforts we have become a camping family but I love it because I love the people I go with.

Halloween

2010-10-28T23:14:00.000-07:00

It is still a few days until Halloween is officially here but the celebrations are well underway. Monday we went to Little Monsters at Disneyland. It's a scaled down version of Mickey's Halloween Party just for Cast Members and their families. There were 18 treat stations set up throughout the park and just a handful of rides open. We went on Haunted Mansion (duh it's Halloween!) and Space Mountain. It gets dressed up as Ghost Galaxy in October. I'd never seen it changed over since the line is usually so horrendous. At the party it was only 10 minutes! Yay! It was silly scary and kind of fun but I still prefer the usual version. By the time we had hit all the stations and the 2 rides the event was over. Quick but fun! Amazingly Claire even got recognized in her costume. She's a character from a relatively obscure cartoon series that she is hooked on right now. One of the girls working a treat station just happens to be dressing up as Katara as well and knew Claire right away. She was thrilled to be noticed and I was happy that I had been able to put something together that was recognizable to someone who knew what they were looking at.

Tonight we went to visit Greatmother and Greatdaddy at their place. The residents were hosting trick or treat stations and had done tons of decorating around the different halls. We had fun walking through and admiring all the work that had been done.

All Safe at Last

2010-10-13T23:26:00.000-07:00

Like so many others I've been transfixed by the rescue efforts going on in Chile for the last 24 hours. Every chance I got I tuned into the news to find out how things were going. I'm so relieved that everyone including the rescuers are safely out of the mine finally. I don't know if they will ever make a movie out of this story (seems a safe bet though) but I can't imagine how they could make it more captivating than the actual events. Congratulations to everyone involved. Job well done!

Darth Stall

2010-10-03T23:27:00.000-07:00

The differences in personality between the girls is rarely as evident as when we are getting ready for bed. Emily gets ready, reads for a bit, snuggles and falls asleep. Claire finds anything else to do but get ready, gets a book out which may or may not get read, turns into a tazmanian devil as she flops around in bed, eventually wears herself out and crashes. The other night part of the "anything else" included getting her light saber out and playing with it. She was quickly dubbed "Darth Stall" as she delayed the nightly routine.

Cooking Claire Style

2010-09-23T19:03:00.000-07:00

We were sitting around the dinner table while Jenn was telling us about leaving home before sunrise so she could attend Disneyland's appreciation breakfast for trainers. "All they had was a Danish and a juice box for us!"
"You'd really expect Disney to prepare something hot--not just open a package," I said.
Claire thought about this for a minute and said, "Here's how you prepare a dinner:" she gestured with both hands in the air, like she was conducting. Then she brought down one hand in a karate chop, "First, you kill something."
Jenn just barely didn't spit out the wine in her mouth. It took us a few minutes to settle down. "Not just anything, whatever kind of meat you want."
I added, "You're right Claire. That's how you know they appreciate you; they have to kill something."
She went on to talk about planting vegetables and cooking, but we had already had the laugh line for the night.
That's my youngest daughter, Clairifying cooking for all of us.

Yucaipa Camping

2010-09-12T21:26:00.000-07:00

We took a quick camping trip this weekend too. We made the reservations long ago before we knew when soccer would start. It was worth it though to get a nice break, let the kids play and have some grown up conversation (and beverages) around the campfire.
The kids played with water balloons and tried not to get soaked. Some were more successful than others. They also had fun rolling down the hill in the background. After dark they played with flashlights and ran all over the grassy areas. When we wanted them to stay closer to the campsite they played in the tent. Whatever that game was it was loud and funny.
Of course there were s'mores!
Water balloons are really only fun if someone is getting wet. We took this picture of John soaking himself showing off his mad heading skills. When we saw how the light picked up the water everyone wanted a try.
The girls aren't as good at heading (yet) so Daddy needed to help a bit. It was a warm, dry day in Yucaipa so no one stayed wet for long.

Soccer!

2010-09-11T15:26:00.001-07:00

Daddy's dream has finally come true and both girls are playing soccer for the first time this year. He is even coaching Emily's team. They had their first games today and all in all things went well. Claire's team, Pixie Dust, played as well as they could against a stronger team. They don't keep score in her division but let's just say that we were really excited when our team was not going to be shut out!
Emily's team, the Fighting Flamingos, won 3-2 in a hard fought evenly matched game. Emily even played goal keeper in the final quarter. She had several saves! Phew! Mommy was sweating it a bit. They both enjoyed playing today. We'll just have to see how long the enthusiasm lasts. Who knows maybe they really will follow in Daddy's cleat prints.

First Day of School

2010-09-09T15:15:00.000-07:00

Second and Fourth Grades have officially begun. Claire has the same teacher she had last year, Ms. S and Emily has her kindergarten teacher, Mrs. W again! Talk about recycling =) We're happy though because they are both great teachers. There's a little twist though... they are both pregnant and due fairly soon. Mrs. W had to let her substitute Mrs. S start the year with the kids and she will return after her babies are born (yes, twins). Mrs. S transferred from another local school and has taught 4th grade before. That was a huge weight off my mind. She also impressed me by walking down the line of students before they walked into their classroom and shaking each of their hands and introducing herself. Emily seems to like her a lot so far. But Em's favorite thing so far has been the binders that were handed out the first day. The school does a program for the 4th-6th graders to help them learn organization. Each of them gets identical binders so the teacher can help them learn how to put things away so they can be found again. My neat freak/office supply diva is in heaven!
Claire's class is a 1st/2nd combination. So far there hasn't been as much "talking talking" as there was last year. That was a constant source of irritation for Claire so I hope it continues to be peaceful for her.
We're all excited about another successful school year for the girls!

Getty Museum

2010-09-07T21:40:00.000-07:00

We took advantage of the last few days of summer vacation to visit the Getty Museum. It was a perfect day to go. Most kids are back in school after Labor Day and it was an unusually cloudy, drizzly day. We watched a movie about the Getty to get an overview of what was there. We decided to stick with the decorative arts rather than the paintings. We thought the girls would be more interested and we know we are. I was amazed by the number of ways they had for kids to interact with the exhibits. Next to several pieces there were computer touch screens that they could use to get a close up of the art. On one small cabinet there were four very small painted panels. When we could see the detail on the computer screen we realized they represented the four classic elements - water, air, fire and earth, just like in the girls' current favorite show, Avatar: the Last Airbender. We studied the pictures for a few minutes and tried to guess which each represented. When we had decided, the girls pushed another button that "labeled" each picture so we could see if we were correct. The same information could have been written on one of the classic wall plaques next to the art, but this made it more interesting for the girls to be able to manipulate a screen.
After lunch we headed outside to the sculpture garden. We could have spent the whole day in this part alone. There we so many things to see between the flower garden (felt like we were back in Europe), the sculpture garden and the zig zag walk along the creek. Claire also had fun running up and down the steps. They were long with a short rise so she felt like they were built for her.

Emily is now aspiring to be a still life photographer. I think she has an eye for it.
Another cool thing they had for kids was the Family Room. Again the kids could interact with the art. In this case they hopped into a replica of an 18th century French bed. We later found the real one. Turns out that Emily's bed isn't that much newer than this one in the museum. Plus we think hers is prettier.

We also poked through the gift shops and found a letter box. I had to go to work that night so we had to leave before we were feeling done. The girls really wanted to stay longer. I think next time we may try to go to the Getty in Malibu to see the Roman and Egyptian pieces.

High School Reunion

2010-08-15T22:51:00.000-07:00

I went to my 20th high school reunion this weekend. It was more fun than I ever expected it to be. It felt like a time warp had happened and I was a teenager again. Of course we all looked like grown ups and talked about the grown up things we were doing but I felt carefree again. It was fantastic.

The weekend started with meeting up with Karyn, Rachel and Mimi at the park next to school. Meem and I brought our girls. They are all almost the same ages and have met before. They took off to play which left the 4 big "girls" to talk. Rachel and Mimi also had husbands in tow but they were kind enough to indulge our conversation without asking for explanations. Three of us brought yearbooks, I had a photo album and Rachel brought letters and notes we had written to her over the years. It was hilarious to go through it all. Our hair was ridiculously big and our clothes were unmentionable. But we knew we looked good then right? We stayed at the park until we started hearing from the little girls that it was pushing lunch time. But first we needed to do a walk through of campus. We posed at our lunch spot for pictures. The girls had fun playing with all the lockers as we walked the halls pointing out classes and places we remembered. The school looks pretty much the same just a bit older - kind of like us.

After dropping my girls off at Grandma's and shedding the other parts of our families we had lunch at Lazy Dog Cafe. It was so cool to reminisce and to catch up with current events. It was like no time at all had passed. We could have all been together last week instead of years and years ago. These girls are not casual acquaintances but life long friends in the truest sense of the word. After lunch we drove around town visiting each other's houses. We walked up the drive of Rachel's house pointing out the changes we saw. We tried ringing the bell but no one was home. That gave us time to stare at the backyard without interruption. When we were done we were "caught" by one of the neighbors who turned out to be a friend of Rae's mom. They got a chance to catch up for a few minutes then we were off to Mimi's house. We visited with her parents for a few minutes, took some pictures on their steps just like we did in the old days and I got to try on an extra dress Mimi had. I wasn't planning on going to the Saturday night main event and hadn't bought a ticket. But they convinced me to at least come to the social hour beforehand that was taking place in the bar area. At this point I could have gone home happy and felt like the reunion was a total success. It was so great hanging out with people that shared so many of my memories. It was funny to see who remembered what and be reminded of things I had totally forgotten about.

We all took a quick break to go get ready for the hotel part of the reunion. Karyn and I went back to Mom's house to get ready. I was able to dig out some more pictures and scrapbooks I had kept. When Mom, Rich and the girls got home from swimming we all sat and talked and caught up some more. After spending the afternoon with the girls there wasn't anyone else I had to see but it was really fun to see everyone that had shown up. The conversations were more superficial and interrupted but fun none the less. I was so impressed by how successful everyone was. Not just financially but overall. People seemed happy and satisfied with life. Maybe the ones who aren't didn't come - who knows? Some people were so easy to identify, they hadn't changed a bit since high school. Others I was really glad had name tags on. After awhile everyone I wanted to talk to had wandered over to the dining room and I headed back to Mom's house.

Sunday there was a family picnic at the park behind the library. It was casual with all the kiddos running around. The conversations were better though because it was a smaller crowd and people could stay in one place longer. I brought out my photo album again. It spurred a lot of catching up about people who hadn't made it too. All too soon I had to pack up my kiddos and head home. I really hope we don't have to wait 10 years to do it again. There is already talk of doing something for the 4 of us girls when we turn (dare I say it?) 40 in a couple of years. Possibly there will be something for the 25th. We'll see how it all turns out. For now I will continue to bask in the glow of good times.

Another Month Gone By...

2010-07-28T22:30:00.001-07:00

Working nights has been tough. I've had to let some things slide like this blog. Ugh. These last two weeks have been doubly difficult since I've been teaching summer school in the morning then heading off to Disneyland at night. *yawn* John and the girls have been troupers though. I try as hard as I can to give the girls extra attention when I'm with them. It's not too hard since they stick like super glue to my side.

On a brighter note... David Carolyn Magda and Natalie were in town this week. They pulled into town Monday night after driving from Chicago! Yesterday the Leeb clan descended on Seal Beach. I heard it was a good time. All the girls spent a lot of time in the water. Emily also wanted to be buried in the sand. Claire may or may not have gotten stung by a bee. (The jury is still out on this one.) After getting cleaned up they all met back at Grandma and Papa's house for dinner (minus Grandma and Papa of course). The 4 girls had fun playing a game with one of the bouncy balls where Claire played the net in a bouncy tennis sort of game. It's the kind of thing that is made up spontaneously and is immensely fun.
Today I signed them into Disneyland so they could go have some fun there. They took a break to have dinner at our house so all 8 of us could have some time together. Emily said she loved having older cousins because they knew fun games and it was like having cool older sisters.

The girls are also doing Girl Scout day camp this week. Claire is in the royal blue dolphins group. I haven't gotten a name for Emily's group yet. It's weird not being able to drop them off in the morning and pick them up afterwards. Today was the one time I was going to be able to pick them up. I had to identify myself as Claire's mom which felt weird. I'm used to being the overly involved mom that's at everything. This week I'm one of those "pop in" parents. *sigh* This too shall pass. Next week I'm back to working only one job and I will be able to feel more like myself again.

Purging

2010-06-27T01:36:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-06-24T15:19:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-06-22T19:57:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-09T23:58:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-07T22:44:00.001-07:00

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

2010-06-06T19:56:00.001-07:00

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

2010-06-03T22:28:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-06-01T21:51:00.000-07:00

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!

Yay Emily!

2010-05-27T19:40:00.001-07:00

Just to balance out yesterday's post a little... Emily was chosen Student of the Month for her class again! I didn't realize that could happen but I'm sure she deserved it =)

Is this thing still on?

2010-05-26T21:18:00.000-07:00

OK so it's been over a year since I blogged last. I don't actually think that anyone has noticed but I'm back. I love to keep journals about the happenings in our family's lives but I've been terribly slacking at that too lately. I blame the DVR. I used to journal during commercials to keep myself occupied. Now that we have cable and that wonderful invention called the DVR I don't watch commericals anymore... sorry advertisers! Somehow I do spend a lot of time on the computer so I'm going to try and put some of that time to better use and at least blog some of the things that we do. Maybe I'll even print them out at some point and put them in our journal. We shall see.

So entry #1... Claire had a "mental health" day today. Yeah a first grader needing a "mental health" day. It's been a tough year for her in school. Academically she is doing fantastic (again this journal is for me so if there is an extraordinary amount of bragging involved so be it). Socially things seem fine too. She loves recess and all the jump roping that entails. What she is struggling with is as she puts it "All the talking!" She has a very chatty class and my dear sensitive child feels that it is her responsibility to make sure the class is being as responsible as she is. As many times as we have told her that she can only be responsible for her own behavior and that if the teacher is reprimanding the class she is really only talking to the people who are misbehaving Claire takes things personally. (Oh yeah the comma on our keyboard is broken so bear with the strange grammar.) So we have gone through many mornings of tears and "I don't want to go to school today." It breaks my heart to send her when I know she is miserable but there really isn't the option to let her stay home when she feels like it either. She has to learn to deal with situations that aren't easy. But we have also been in a couple of times to talk to her teacher and try to come up with some options to make things easier for Claire. Her teacher has been very understanding and supportive and we have found some things that seem to be working. We haven't had tears for awhile now. And most of the "I don't want to go to school"s seem to be habit.

So since she hasn't really asked for awhile I surprised her last night by telling her that she wouldn't be going to school today. I told her it was her reward for doing so well in school this year. She's the 2nd person in class to read 100 AR books and the 2nd to get her monkey to the top of the math facts tree. She really is an awesome kid. (I warned you about the bragging!) I had a free ticket to the Aquarium of the Pacific so I only had to buy hers and off we went. We got there right at the 9:00 opening. There are horror stories about field trip kids taking over the place so we were hoping to beat the rush. We did fine. We zoomed straight to the sting ray tank where she could say good morning to her favorites. We were the only people there for a good 20 minutes or so. The rays were still happy to be touched and swam right up to her. She was in heaven! We toured the rest of the aquarium and saw just about everything. It did start to fill up while we were there but we just kept avoiding the largest groups. When we were done we walked a little around the outside of the aquarium and found a nice bike path that I'm hoping we can bring bikes back to some time this summer. It was a good day. Claire needed it and I was happy to get some one on one time with one of my favorite people in the world.

Biggest Loser Finale

2010-05-25T19:41:00.000-07:00

I'm not a big reality TV fan. Most of those kinds of shows bore me to tears. For whatever reason though I've gotten totally hooked on the Biggest Loser. Even when the people get booted they still have something to walk away with; either the knowledge of how to change their lives for the better and/or they've already lost a good amount of weight. So I've been watching for a few seasons now. A few weeks ago my friend Amanda posted on Facebook that she had a pair of tickets for the live finale show and needed someone to go with her. I jumped up and down waved my hands in the air and screamed "me me me mememememe". Then I posted back (because somehow she didn't hear me all the way down in San Diego) that I would love to be her plus one.
Tuesday was the big day. As expected there was a whole lot of hurry up and wait. We got to the check in area in plenty of time then sat until it was time to go in the studio. Everyone from the audience was in the same area though so we spent a lot of time saying "That person looks familiar... is it a former contestant or a family member of a current player?" Between all of us waiting we could usually come up with the name. With about 30 minutes to spare until show time we finally got into the studio. We were absolutely thrilled with our seats to put it mildly. The front section was reserved for the families of the final four contestants. We were in the front row of the next section back in the very center! We were so close to the stage! As former contestants ran back and forth to greet each other they came by us almost every time. Alison Sweeney is the host of the show. Her husband and mom sat right behind us! Her mom was cute though. I overheard her say to someone "We never stop supporting our kids do we?" I love that! No matter how famous you might get you are still your mom's kid and she will sit in the audience to see you perform.
Finally the show started. I usually watch the 2 hour show in about 2/3 of that time because I fast forward through so much of the fluff and commercials. The 2 hours live went by so fast! At each commercial break the MC was running around the audience handing out goodies. I got a CD of workout music and a box of water mix ins. You couldn't help but get even more excited for the contestants with them right there in front of you. They all looked so happy and looked so good! I didn't really have a favorite this year so it didn't matter to me who won. But I was totally amazed by how good Michael looked and how well he did. Unlike past seasons when the winners actually looked too skinny he looked healthy! He may lose some more but if he doesn't he'll still be good.
After the show was over we scooped up a handful of confetti and grabbed out seat tags. Our hands were tingling from clapping so much and our voices were scratchy. But it was totally worth it! We stopped some of the former contestants and got autographs. We saw the mom and son Dan(the musician) and Jackie; season 3 winner Erik (on this season because he gained a lot of his weight back but by the finale he looked good again) and Daniel who was on 2 seasons because he had such a long way to go. They all looked great and so did the other former contestants.
As soon as I got home it was time for the west coast showing. So we turned the TV on and there in the first pan of the audience was me and Amanda! It was quick but it was us!! The girls were so excited to see Mommy on TV! The whole day was such a cool experience. Living in California it seems like we should be able to do more of these kinds of things. Usually it's not something I care all that much about but to be able to see one of my favorite shows was a blast!

Claire's Field Trip

2009-03-30T17:27:00.000-07:00

Claire and her class went to the Environmental Nature Center in Newport Beach to learn about, what else?, nature! Claire was so excited to ride on the big bus for the first time. When they got there, they played the "worm game" where they pretended to be birds and dig in dirt for plastic worms. They went for a walk through tall grass. Claire got to be the big helper when they talked about butterflies.

Living Pictures

2009-03-29T17:34:00.000-07:00

Our family got to be part of an amazing ministry put on by our church each year. Close to 200 members of the chuch were involved in putting together 15 scenes depicting the life of Christ. We did 4 shows for around 700 people! Here Emily and Jenn are attending the bride at Cana where Jesus turned water into wine. Hopefully we will get some more pictures of John as Joseph and Claire as an angel leading the Palm Sunday procession. It was hard work and lots of hours but as we were cleaning up after the last show, the girls were already talking about next year. I think they were hooked!

Manners Tea

2009-03-25T13:29:00.000-07:00

When we booked a manners tea at the Centennial Museum we had no idea that we would be taking the girls to the same place many of them had just been for their school field trip. Not to worry, they were thrilled to go again and see some new and some of the same things. They made calling cards. They each got to pick a dress to wear to their tea party. We learned lots about what good manners are and got to practice them too.

Emily's Field Trip

2009-03-16T17:23:00.000-07:00

Emily and her class visited the Kellogg House in Santa Ana to learn about Orange County 100 years ago. She really liked the dress up part especially when they learned about the fainting couches for the poor ladies who wore their corsettes too tight. They also got to scrub on a wash board, watch a blacksmith work and eat lunch on the grounds. They had a great day and "only 30 minutes at school today!"

Happy Birthday Emily!

2009-03-13T09:50:00.000-07:00

Emily brought ice cream for her class as a treat on her birthday. They loved sitting on the grass outside their classroom on a Friday afternoon and relaxing together.

Emily chose to go to Medieval Times with her friends R and N this year instead of a traditional party. It was so much fun! The girls made their princess crowns, wands and tulle draping at home before we went. We were assigned to the red and yellow knight's cheering section. Try as we might, our cheering did not lead him to victory. But we ate with our hands, got to see leaping horses and several beautiful princesses so it was a "knight to remember."

Our New House

2009-03-01T10:22:00.000-08:00

Claire and Sierra helped to keep things organized as they got put onto the big truck on their way to the new house. It was an incredibly smooth move because of all the help we had. We feel so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family!
Day 1 at the new house.

Our swingset now lives in front yard, but here is what the house looked like just before we moved in. We weren't really looking per say but when the right house became available at the right time we couldn't resist! We love all the extra space upstairs and love walking to school each day. We'll post more pictures when the inside looks more settled.

Claire lost her first tooth!

2009-02-20T16:50:00.000-08:00

It just got wiggly a few days ago and sure enough this afternoon, out it came! Where oh where did my baby go?

Unique of the Week

2009-01-29T17:18:00.000-08:00

Claire was the "Unique of the Week" in her class this week. She got to take papers to the office any time they needed to go. She got to bring in her favorite books to share with the class. As a special treat, she got to bring the guinea pigs to class. Everyone got a turn petting them and feeding them a few bites of carrot while Mommy held them. Here she is sharing her poster of pictures about herself.

Yellow Belt

2009-01-17T14:21:00.000-08:00

Emily got her uniform for Christmas and looked very official at her next few classes.
She has really enjoyed the class and learned a lot. She tested and passed her white belt exam and was promoted to yellow belt level!

Sea World

2008-12-28T19:28:00.000-08:00

It didn't take too long to cash in our family gift of a trip to Sea World. We piled all 6 of us and our stuff in our new "micro" van and we were off to San Diego.
A new addition to the park (at least since we were last there) was the Journey to Atlantis ride. It was a cool combination of water ride and roller coaster. Fortunately sitting in the back you don't get very wet. Claire got a little bolder our second day at the park and asked to sit in front. I think she regretted the decision because when we asked her the third day if she wanted to go again she said, "NO! You get too cold!"

Emily got to spend time with her favorites, the penguins.

Mommy's favorite girls with her favorite animal.

Claire had to keep warm while she waited for the nighttime holiday Shamu show. There was a lot of whipped cream to get through before she could even start the hot chocolate.

Claire got to pet her favorites, the sting rays. She even got to feed them slimy fish parts.

This ride was more Grandma's speed.

There was a cool climbing structure in the middle of the park.

Mommy got in on the fun too!

Waiting for the Sesame Street 4-D show to begin. This was a high light for Grandma.

From the underwater viewing area:

While we were in San Diego Mommy was able to visit with my cousins who I haven't seen together in years! The girls got to meet their 2nd cousin. He was very much a "ladies" man and had to have a hand on one of them at all times.

Christmas 2008

2008-12-25T19:19:00.000-08:00

Christmas happened over several days close to the 25th. Our first celebration was in Thousand Oaks with Mommy's side of the family. We were a little early for the big annual soiree but the girls had fun opening presents on Winter Solstice. Our big family present both directions was a trip to Sea World!
After church on Christmas Eve (where both girls had starring roles in the pageant), we headed to Daddy's family celebration. It was hard to wait through dinner (and for Emily, in an itchy skirt) for present time! The girls were professional gift deliverers by the end of the evening. We were all thrilled to get annual passes to Knott's Berry Farm.

Finally, it was the big day. They hardly knew where to start.

But it didn't take long to hone in on the big present...

We spent the rest of the day happily learning how the thing worked. Emily became a pro at bowling very quickly. Claire loves to box. Daddy is sore. Mommy tries to find games where she doesn't get beaten by every other member of the family.

Christmas eCard

2008-12-22T21:21:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!

Claire and Emily make such dramatic progress each year that normally the adults in their lives seem stuck in place. Not this year.

Emily is in the second grade and reads better every day. She is doing so well that all my friends with older children caution me with, “Yes, that’s great, and how long until she’s a teenager?” That’s okay. I’m certain all the navel-baring, eyebrow-piercing and raccoon-eye-shadowing trends will all be gone by the time Emily is in high school. “Replaced by even worse ones,” say the friends.

I curse you and your smugness, friends.

She has started to get interested in astronomy and has a sticker for each planet on her window. We even got to see the rings of Saturn through a telescope owned by Karl Bertain’s father in Yucca Valley. I stumbled through the mnemonic, “My Very Excellent Mother Just Sent Us Nine…” and then I didn’t know what to do. Some children wrote letters to scientists asking that Pluto not be demoted to demi-planet status. I worried that she would be upset that Mickey’s dog friend no longer rated recognition. I told her about the Pizzas and Pluto, and she took it all in stride. Intelligent, easy-going and beautiful. If you want to know anything else about her just ask me, I’m completely unbiased.

Claire left pre-school in June and started kindergarten in September. The faculty of the pre-school wants us to say she “graduated”. They dressed her up in a white shirt and mortar board and made all the adults say, ”Ooohh” at the cuteness of it all, but come on. Four-year olds facing a minimum of thirteen more years should not be getting the idea that this is the high point of their education. Claire has overcome any of those misconceptions and recently got a glowing report card for her first trimester of kindergarten.

There are some things that we have failed to get across to Claire. We have been very fortunate to visit Maui the past two summers. Claire loved the pools, but got a little freaked out at swimming with fish below her, even with three noodles, a life jacket and a parent alongside. So at the end of the trip she informed us, “Next year when we come back, I’ll be better at snorkeling.” Because she can only remember the past two summers, she figured we go every year. Yeah, sorry Claire, our snorkeling is going to be confined to Leader Lake in Wisconsin for a while. But I can show you some big sunfish! Claire’s giddy disposition and unintentional humor is a constant source of delight.
Shut up, friends.

Not that Claire has left any of her mischievousness behind. She dressed as a sting ray for Halloween and loved nothing more than sneaking up on us and yelling, “Rrooaarrrr!” She gets impressive volume out of her limited chest cavity, but we still have to feign fear. I mean, how scary can a 3 ft. tall sting ray be in a well-lit den? She also told us to shuffle our feet on the floor or, “I’ll sting you!” She picked up that factoid at the Long Beach Aquarium and would not let it go.

Jenn has assumed several new responsibilities this past year. As the girls’ increasing school schedule has left her with a few empty minutes here and there, life stepped in and filled them up. She is the membership chair of the PTA at Barker Elementary, co-leader of the girls’ scout troop, and a coordinator of a social group at the church we joined over the summer. I think Jenn subscribes to Zora Neale Thurston’s advice: “I want a busy life, a just mind, and a timely death.” Well, that death thing is a little too heavy for a Christmas letter, but you get the idea.

And last May I decided to switch schools, so I put in for a transfer, interviewed at Rancho and was hired as a new math teacher. I am teaching all Algebra one and have to travel from classroom to classroom, but it is getting easier. It has been a big adjustment getting used to new procedures, making new friends and organizing around being a mobile teacher, but I have been enjoying the transition. I do miss many people at Pacifica, but teaching does not leave a great deal of time for regrets—too many papers to grade. Things are still in transition, and I am not sure what my subconscious has planned. I think Jenn smells a mid-life crisis coming on; so far she has only been wrinkling her nose.

My highlight for the past year was enjoying our time in Wisconsin with the family. Also, my good friend Karl Bertain was able to visit us at the lake with his son, Joe. Fish-fries with Matt Ryder, inner-tube drags behind the boat with the McKenzie-Gillems and all manner of relaxation.

Jenn puts her vote in for the seven days we were in Maui with her parents, the Johnsons, and the Geises, all thirteen of us in adjacent condos. Dinner cruises, snorkeling trips and whole days just playing on the beach. We had a very nice blend of tacky tourist activities (who can argue with seeing a giant green sea turtle up close?) and more authentic, lower expectation outings.

Last Spring, Emily was invited to attend the Miss Placentia Pageant as a little girl escort to Jenna Howard. She got to perform on stage with all the other girls. It was a big night for her, full of makeup, singing and dancing—very exciting to a seven-year old.

Claire’s favorite time of the past year was her birthday party, because she had a killer huge water slide. If only all our pleasures could be so simple. I am going to enjoy these years and not worry about what may come. So there, friends.

School Pictures

2008-12-03T18:23:00.000-08:00

Claire - Kindergarten
Emily - 2nd Grade

Our Newest Family Portrait

2008-12-03T09:13:00.001-08:00

A photographer came to the girls' school to do family portraits. It was quick and easy and I love the results!

Bowling

2008-12-01T22:42:00.000-08:00

We decided to do something new... bowling! The girls had a great time. The bumpers made each ball count for something. Emily even got a strike on her first ever frame! Claire threw her ball so slowly sometimes we weren't sure if it would make it all the way down the lane. It was a fun outing that we will be sure to do again.

Dear Santa....

2008-12-01T22:30:00.000-08:00

We took advantage of a random day off of school to avoid the crowd going to visit Santa. We were able to walk right up and make our requests. Claire asked for a "Santa toy with a horse and dog." Emily wants "shoes and a DS game system." We'll see what shows up!

Ice Skating

2008-11-28T22:18:00.000-08:00

We continued a fun tradition by going to an outdoor ice skating rink near Grandma and Papa's house. The girls are really improving their skating abilities. Emily likes to skate with someone but doesn't need any support. Claire needs a hand but is getting very steady.

Halloween 2008

2008-10-31T10:29:00.000-07:00

'Twas the night before Halloween, and all through the house were sounds of pumpkins with their guts being carved out. OK so I can't rhyme, but the girls really enjoyed designing and helping to prepare their pumpkins for carving.
Claire decided to do something a little unique this year. She painted two small pumpkins to make a spider and a bat.

The girls' school has a costume parade every year on Halloween morning. Tons of parents, grandparents and siblings come to watch all the creativity.

In case it isn't obvious, Claire is a sting ray and Emily is a witch.

How Cool is this Kid?

2008-10-29T21:24:00.000-07:00

One of the boys who goes to school with the girls has a dad in the California National Guard. For Red Ribbon Week, the dad asked for and received special permission to land his Black Hawk helicopter on the playground of the school. By all accounts is was an awesome site to see. Commander Carlson spoke to the kids about making good choices and believing in themselves.
It was better than having a rock star on campus!

Emily's class:

Claire's class:

YIKES!

2008-10-28T21:25:00.001-07:00

We caused a car accident today. So it wasn't more than a fender bender and we weren't even in our car but 2 families sure were not starting their day as planned this morning. We were walking to school with some friends this morning. There were 3 adults, 4 kids and 1 baby in a stroller. We weren't an insignificant bunch crossing the road. But somehow the second person in a line of people waiting to turn right across the cross walk we were in missed seeing us and plowed into the first car in the line. We hadn't even gotten half way across the street when we heard the BANG so we were in no danger but it was still a little unsettling. Ironically we had just finished answering the question from the kids, "Why do we have to hold hands every time we cross the street?" This is why. One of the moms in our group was nice enough to leave her name and phone number with one of the crashers just in case. Other than a few rattled nerves and bent bumpers everthing will be alright. Thank you guardian angels for watching over us this morning.

Irvine Park

2008-10-19T21:39:00.000-07:00

We met up with our pre-school friends at a local park to enjoy a fall day. Of course the weather thought it was still summer! We found a nice shady area to call our own. There wasn't much there to play with but you never would have known it by watching the kids. They made up their own games and stayed busy all afternoon.

Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-12T21:31:00.000-07:00

We went to the Disneyland of Pumpkin Patches with Grandma Holly and Papa Rich. There were animals to feed, an animal show to watch, giant pumpkins to climb, a corn maze to get lost in, a hay bale tower to climb, a hay ride to ride, cows made out of barrels to ride in, a box with a ton (literally!) of beans to play in, wheelbarrows to ride in, oh and of course... pumpkins to choose!

Oak Glen

2008-10-05T23:05:00.000-07:00

In order to experience "fall", we have to drive to the local mountains, gain some elevation, then see what the rest of the country raves about. We love to go to Oak Glen each year for this purpose. Once we were up the mountain, we found a lovely orchard that was having its opening weekend. That meant that the trees were covered in apples still and the girls had a very easy time filling 2 big bags in a short amount of time. They also liked exploring the grounds, feeding the resident horse and patting the resident pot bellied pig.
After working hard in the orchard, we had to reward ourselves with a treat - carmel covered apple slices! The bowl was scraped clean by the time we were done with it.

We finished up by pressing some cider. We picked out 20 pounds of apples. Claire threw them one by one into the press while Daddy, Emily and I took turns turning the wheel. When we were done we were sticky and tired but we had a gallon of yummy cider.

Student of the Month

2008-09-25T08:25:00.000-07:00

We're proud to announce that Emily was selected Student of the Month for her class!

Karate

2008-09-20T21:17:00.000-07:00

Although I can hear Kramer from that old Seinfeld episode every time I say it, Emily started a "kara-te" class today. Well technically they call it self-defense but they wear the cool pajamma uniforms and yell loudly as they punch with their arms so in her mind it's karate. For once I didn't have my camera in tow so I didn't get any pictures this week but she promised that she had a good time so since there are 14 weeks left in the class, there is a good chance I will remember at some point. I really wasn't sure she would be into it but she was running and punching with the best of them. And so starts another obsession in Emily's life...

Alright I brought my camera and got this...

Bye-Bye Summer

2008-09-06T21:44:00.000-07:00

We met up with a group of pre-school families for an afternoon at the beach. All the kindergartners had started school already so the moms could swap stories of how things were going so far. The kids were just happy to see their old friends again. They have the amazing ability to make it seem as if no time has passed since they last got together.
After playing in the water and sand for a few hours we had dinner. Our fire pit got taken over so we had to use the parking lot as home base while we ate. The consensus was that eating in the parking lot isn't so bad. There was far less sand in our food!

Our after dinner entertainment. The kids all piled into the motorhome to choreograph a song and dance routine. Then they came out to perform their different numbers. The whole scene with the motorhome and parking lot was a little Griswold-ish but everyone had a blast.

After the sun went down and it was time for s'mores we imposed on a very kind group that let us share their fire pit. They had actually witnessed ours being "stolen" and pitied us and our "big group of kids". The kids ate and played sand football with a glow in the dark ball until it was time for everyone to head home. What a great day!

First Day of School

2008-09-04T21:31:00.000-07:00

The 2008-2009 school year has officially begun! Both girls are in school every day now! Can I even say how excited I am??? The girls were both thrilled to learn that they had been placed in the classes of their first choice teachers. Of course they looked the part of student in their new outfits and backpacks.
Claire at her desk ready to learn. (For those of you with keen eyes, yes, she is in a different outfit. We got to go to her class the day before school started for a Kindergarten Tea where the kids had a chance to look around the classroom before school started. Parents were strictly forbidden from entering the room on the first day.)

With Mrs. Weber:

Emily at her desk. By 2nd grade, parents are allowed in "for exactly 2 minutes!" to snap a picture and get everyone settled in. Of course, it's completely for the benefit of the adults. The kids are anxious to get going.

Ms. Satterthwaite:

Disney Adventure

2008-08-29T22:49:00.000-07:00

Our Annual passes are expiring soon so we wanted to get some good use from them since we aren't renewing this time. =( The girls have always been intrigued by the restaurant inside Pirates of the Caribbean, the Blue Bayou. So we went ahead and made reservations to eat there. We got a table against the rail closest to the ride which was really cool. We waved back and forth with the riders.
After dinner we hopped over to California Adventure to try out the new Toy Story ride. It was kind of a long wait but worth it. It was very fun blasting away in the virtual midway! Mr. Potato Head was entertainment while we stood in line. He even asked Claire if she would trade her Minnie ears for one of his ears.

Finally we sat and watched the Electrical Parade in all its cheesy glory. The girls were bright eyed and had those wonderful looks of amazement the whole time which makes it all worth it.

And if all that wasn't enough, we watched the firework show as we walked to the car. It was really a perfect way to say "good-bye" to Disneyland for now.

Back to School Tea

2008-08-28T22:27:00.000-07:00

Grandma took the girls and me on our 3rd annual Back-to-School tea. We hopped the train to San Juan Capistrano and walked to a cute tea house. The girls love picking out hats for us to wear. We all eat our yummy scones when they come out and are too stuffed to eat the rest of our lunch!

After tea we can walk to Zoomars. I keep thinking the girls will get their fill of guinea pigs at home but there seems to be room for lots of piggies in their lives. Grandma made friends with a rabbit this time too.

Girl Scout Night at Angel Stadium

2008-08-23T22:26:00.000-07:00

Angel Stadium invited all the Girl Scouts in Orange County to a game. Our whole troop showed up but there wasn't a lot of baseball being watched. There was a lot of random cheering, eating junk food and being silly.

Math Camp

2008-08-21T22:25:00.000-07:00

Emily went to a really neat camp through UC, Irvine where they learned all about science and math.

Rainforest Adventure

2008-08-04T22:22:00.000-07:00

The girls went to Vacation Bible School at church for the second year. They had a blast! The best part of the day was spending time with friends in the pool.
Lots of Claire's pre-school friends came back for VBS too.

Ventura County Fair

2008-08-03T17:01:00.000-07:00

Grandma treated the girls to a day at the Ventura County Fair. They got to see lots of animals, eat yummy fair food, go on rides, eat ice cream and cotton candy and see a horse show. What a day!

Claire's Party

2008-07-27T16:56:00.000-07:00

Claire had a super fun birthday party once we were home from our trips. We rented an inflatable water slide that was a huge hit! Claire took the first slide of the day and didn't get out for about 6 hours. She took two short breaks for food and presents but otherwise she looked like this:
We did cupcakes that looked like hibiscus flowers.

So happy together:

Present time!

Mommy even got in on the action once the little kids left:

Pajama Party

2008-07-26T16:51:00.000-07:00

Our troop had a pajamma party for fun this summer. Daddy came over and did baking soda & vinegar "rockets" with the girls.
We did a scavenger hunt.

We ate dinner.

We worked on our scrapbooks.

At the end of the evening we wound down by learning some new songs.

Maui

2008-07-22T13:35:00.000-07:00

July 16: Our first full day in Maui. We had to hit a beach first thing. Honokowai Beach Park was walking distance from our condo. The girls weren't that interested in the water at first but when they saw Mommy, Grandma and Aunt Kim having fun jumping into the waves or just sitting and letting the waves crash over them, they finally joined in. As we played we noticed a group of sea turtles about 90 feet out into the water bobbing up and down and riding the waves.

That night we rode Quicksilver for a sunset dinner cruise. We got Claire's birthday and our 5, 10, 15 and 20 year anniversaries announced.

July 17: Our first (and only) rainbow. We had rain almost every afternoon but never saw another rainbow.

We drove up to the far west end of the island to find the lava pools and blow hole we liked so much last year. The cousins had fun finding crabs hiding in the cracks of the rocks and spotting fish in the pools.

Paul decided to be brave and jump into the deepest hole.

Each afternoon the girls wanted to swim in the pool. Emily is a very good swimmer and loves to do cannon balls and dive after toys in the deep water. At the beginning of the week, a grown up had to swim right next to Claire at all times. Each day she got stronger and stronger to the point where the girls could be in the pool alone with the grown ups watching from the side. She can now swim the entire length of a small pool with no problem! We were totally amazed by her progress this week!

July 18: We started the day at Honolua Bay. It's an amazing snorkelling site. John and I saw tons of fish including a pair of clown fish, a zebra morey eel and a puffer fish. We heard people talking about some turtles but we missed them.

For our 10th anniversary, we went out to dinner at the Lahaina Fish Co. We got a water front table right at sunset. It was perfect!

July 19: We drove over to the north-central part of the island to see the I'ao Valley State Park. It had some nice walking trails with beautiful lush scenery. Claire got to try her "jelly leg" routine on a new sympathetic set of ears, Uncle Paul's. He carried her up the 130 or so steps to the viewing area. *snicker, snicker*

We also drove all the way to the top of Haleakala to see the view from 10,000 feet over the island but our luck ran out. It was totally cloudy, rainy and COLD (49 degrees!). So we never did get to see anything from there but the scenery out the windows as we drove.

Just another gorgeous Maui sunset:

July 20: We re-boarded Quicksilver, this time decked out as a snorkel boat, for a trip to turtle town and Molokini. Emily and I spotted this guy swimming not too far from us:

There she is peeking out of the water.

John tried to coax Claire into the ocean to take a peek but she was a little freaked out by the vastness of the ocean. She was very content to stay on the boat, watch us swim and see lots of fish that swam near the surface next to the boat.

Our whole group at sunset on our condo lawn.

July 21: Our last full day! *sniff* We went with another beach day. We borrowed some boogie boards and set off for Fleming Beach. We all caught some great waves. The best though was when we were all in the water, just past where the waves broke, bobbing in the surf. It was so relaxing in the warm, clear water with some moments of alarm when we thought a wave was going to be too big to get over.

After our last group dinner, we had to take one more group shot:

Then we drove to Whaler's Village in Kaanapali to watch a hula show.

What an amazing week! We can't wait to plan our next family reunion vacation!

Happy Birthday Claire!

2008-07-15T13:34:00.000-07:00

Claire had a pretty uneventful day on her real birthday. Poor kid was cooped up all day... on a plane to Maui! Yeah she has a tough life. When we got there I was able to have the bakery girl at Safeway customize a cake so we could have a little celebration that night.

Fire Station Visit

2008-07-12T13:31:00.000-07:00

Our troop leader's husband is a fire fighter/paramedic with the Huntington Beach Fire Department. He invited us to come visit him at work so he could show us around. The girls got to try on the very heavy jackets.
Claire came along on her first offical scout event. She is old enough to be a Daisy Scout now!

As a special treat, each of the girls got a turn shooting water through the hose. Emily liked making the water as big as she could then making it narrow again.

Claire just went for distance.

Wisconsin

2008-07-09T13:21:00.000-07:00

Our first couple of days in Wisconsin it was too cold to play in the lake but Papa could still take his water samples. He amazed the girls by changing the color of the water by adding different chemicals. The girls helped him determine how much oxygen and algae were in the water by doing cool "scientist" stuff.
A leading contender for our Christmas card picture:

We took a canoe trip down the Namekagon River one breezy (read: fewer bugs) afternoon. We saw a snake, deer, lots of fish, eagles, turtles and about a million trees.

But alas the excitement of it all was too much for our youngest:

Emily loved fishing this year. Daddy's friend, Karl and his son Joe stayed with us at the cabin this year. Their favorite thing to do was fishing and they were more than willing to let Emily go with them. She may not have caught all the fish on this string but she will admit to having caught the biggest ones. She may just really be a fisherwoman!

We attended a Duluth Huskies game this year. Emily's one wish for the game was to catch a foul ball and get it signed by some players. On our way into the stadium the first part of her wish came true. A ball came sailing over the wall of the stadium and into Daddy's outstretched hand. After the game was over, she did indeed get it signed!

Always a favorite place to spend a day is Wilderness Walk. The girls really wanted to feed deer but this baby pygmy goat was very persuasive in getting strokes and food.

This deer wasn't particularly hungry but she was content to be pet.

Another favorite past time - playing with cousins at the beach. They also did a lot of tubing and the big kids even tried water skiing for the first time. It wasn't very successful but at least they tried.

Happy Fourth of July! The sparklers would have been much more fun for the girls if we had explained ahead of time that they would stop burning long before the sparks got close to their fingers. As it was, the girls had very concerned faces the whole time and were not interested in holding a second sparkler even with proper warning.

Claire got to start celebrating her birthday a little early at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. in the Mall of America. She got a special birthday song and a yummy dessert.

Grandpa Roger (my dad) was able to join us at Bubba Gump and bought Claire a copy of one of her favorite books afterwards as a birthday present.

Huntington Beach

2008-06-20T09:26:00.000-07:00

Even though we were scheduled to take off for Wisconsin at midnight, we decided a trip to the beach would be a great idea. Fortunately we were right and we had a great time playing in the waves and making sand castles with our friends.

Boomers

2008-06-20T09:25:00.000-07:00

Two days after school got out, Emily's teacher had a special treat for her and 2 of her friends - a trip to Boomers for miniature golf and lunch. One of the girls had won the trip as part of a silent auction at school but Mrs. F was generous enough to invite the other girls too. They all golfed well. Several holes in one were reported. But the best part was having special time with their teacher.

Coronal del Mar Beach

2008-06-19T09:24:00.000-07:00

The girls' cousin celebrated her 4th birthday at Corona del Mar beach. They loved building sand castles together.

Emily's Last Day of School

2008-06-18T09:23:00.000-07:00

Rather than drive home on the last day of school, Emily and a group of her friends (and parents) met at local park to play and welcome summer vacation.

Talent Show

2008-06-11T09:21:00.000-07:00

Emily and her BFFs sang and danced to Hannah Montana's "True Friends" at the school Talent Show. We were very proud of them for practicing hard and remembering all the words and moves.

Court of Awards

2008-06-06T09:17:00.000-07:00

Our troop had its first Court of Awards ceremony where the girls got the Try It patches that they had earned.

Claire's Last Day of School

2008-06-05T09:15:00.000-07:00

After graduation there was one day of school left. The girls made silly faces on their way into class for the last time together. =( They spent the day going to any classroom they wanted to play in. At noon all the parents came back for an end of the year picnic. The girls signed each others Autograph Dog and Memory Books in between playing one last round of Underdog.

Graduation

2008-06-04T19:18:00.000-07:00

As all good things must do, pre-school came to an end. But before we had to say "good-bye", we had a wonderful graduation ceremony for the kids.
Claire made some wonderful friends. They all played so well together and were so sweet to each other. The kids will miss having each other in class next year as they are all going off to different kindergartens.
Each child introduced herself. "My name is Claire. I am 4 years old. When I grow up I want to be a teacher." Miss Sue asked her who she wanted to be a teacher like. "Miss Cami" (her teacher, not mom or dad LOL)

Claire played Momma Monkey in the skit "5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed".

Getting her diploma from her teachers, Miss Cami and Miss Renee. We will miss them!

The proud graduate and her family.

Strawberry Festival

2008-05-24T19:10:00.000-07:00

The best part of Memorial Day weekend in our town is the Strawberry Festival. It's very busy since Daddy helps with the pancake breakfast before the parade and at the Kiwanis corn booth but it seems like everyone in town is part too so we see lots of friends around the festival grounds.
Emily and Mommy got to walk in the parade with our Brownie troop:
We got to go on lots of rickety carnival rides. Claire especially loved this roller coaster:

They're flying away!

Un-Birthday Party

2008-05-19T22:03:00.000-07:00

Claire and all the summer birthday kids got to have an un-birthday celebration in class.
Claire signed up to bring blowers and party hats. The blowers were very popular!

Brownies at Bolsa Chica

2008-05-17T22:01:00.000-07:00

Emily's Brownie troop had their first field trip at the Bolsa Chica Wetlands. We hiked for about a mile along the bluffs above the wetlands and saw the native and invasive plants, butterflies and talked about the animal that lived there (but hid for the most part).

When we were done walking, the girls got to explore the "touch tanks" and see what lived in the water:

Mother's Day

2008-05-11T21:57:00.000-07:00

Claire's class hosted a wonderful Mother's Day tea for their moms. They made beautiful decorations and a yummy lunch. They also sang for us and served us.

On Sunday we took Grandma Holly to the Arboretum at Cal State, Fullerton. We got to see some really interesting trees and flowers. The girls favorite was this tree that had an interesting trunk. It grew in such a way that they could walk through the middle of it.

We loved this field of native wildflowers:

Awwww

2008-05-01T20:05:00.000-07:00

A fun photographer came to Claire's school and took some "glamour" shots:

Spring Portraits

2008-04-28T13:24:00.000-07:00

Claire's school always does their school pictures in the spring and Emily's does a "fun" picture. Here they are:

Pre-School Amtrak Trip

2008-04-24T21:51:00.000-07:00

Claire's school has an annual train trip to San Juan Capistrano. Since we are such a large group (over 120 this year!) we get a car all to ourselves. Even though there was plenty of space, the kids had far more fun playing sardines in the seats:

We had a wonderful program at Zoomars where the kids got to try different things from the "olden days". Claire's grandmas were talked into being helpers at 2 of the stations. Grandma Wendy helped the kids grind grain into flour:
Grandma Holly had the next station where the flour had been made into dough and needed to be rolled flat then cut into biscuits:

Emily's favorite station was panning for gold:

Miss Lindsay made sure the kids didn't slack at the washtubs:

Zoomars is mostly known for its petting zoo. Claire and her friends loved holding and feeding the guinea pigs and rabbits:

It was a wonderful day making memories with our pre-school friends and families. We were all pretty tired on the way home but very happy.

Legoland

2008-04-08T19:41:00.000-07:00

Since the girls were on Spring Break two different weeks this year, we couldn't really make plans to go out of town. So we compromised and went to Legoland on one of Claire's days off from school. It was a little rough getting into the park since we arrived at the same time as the hordes but once everyone scattered around the park, it was remarkably pleasant. The girls are big enough to go on rides without a grown up now:
We met the girls' friend, J and her mom at the park.

I love the Coastal Cruise ride and all its famous landmarks in Legos.

The funniest part of the day we naturally didn't take any pictures of. Claire and J got on the Skipper School ride alone. The ride requires actual boating skill as you navigate a short river in a little battery powered boat. As soon as they left the landing, J's mom and I agreed that letting the girls go alone on this ride was about the dumbest parenting move we had ever made. We watched in hysterics as every boat passed them then in horror as their boat turned the wrong direction and they were headed back to the starting point. Other boaters were kind enough to push their boat along and occasionally get them going the right direction again. After about 15 minutes (the ride should take 5 minutes or less) they were past the 2nd bend in the river (of about 8) and we were done watching the struggle. Fortunately they never got too frustrated and as they were pushed into the landing by the poor employee who had to don waders to save them, they were laughing and asking to go again!

American Girl Place

2008-04-07T19:35:00.000-07:00

Emily's 348,969th and final birthday celebration was held at the American Girl Place - Los Angeles. She got the Samantha doll at a previous party and now needed to create a wardrobe for her. It was amazing to see all the options that were available. Emily could have easily spent her money three times over!
Once Samantha was properly wardrobed we were off to tea with the Grandmas. We each got to pick a doll to share our tea with.

Emily took excellent care of Samantha and made sure she had enough to eat and drink.

For dessert, Emily got a special cake. After it was cut, it was served with pink peppermint ice cream. Yummy!

The Chicago Leebs Came to Visit

2008-03-29T19:30:00.000-07:00

The girls' Chicago cousins came to visit during their Spring Break. Their one big request was to spend some time at the beach. We took them to Corona del Mar to explore the tide pools and beach and take a short dip in the water.
Compare this to waking up in freezing Chicago that morning:
Of course all the local family had to get together for dinner and to spend some time together. Here are the proud great-grandparents with 2 of their grandchildren and all 4 of their great-grandchildren.

Happy Easter

2008-03-23T22:11:00.000-07:00

The poppies have been amazing this year. The girls modelled their Easter dresses while checking out the blooms.
After church, we had our egg hunt in the backyard. It was very successful compared to previous years when we had crows and/or the dog eat several of the eggs!

Spots and Skitter

2008-03-18T21:51:00.000-07:00

When Emily was about 3 she met her Aunt Kristin's class pet, Midnight. She thought he was a pretty neat pet, so starting about age 5 she let it be known that she would also someday have a guinea pig as a pet. Loving parents that we are, we didn't want to crush our dear daughter's dream so we told her, "When you are 7 you can have a guinea pig". Figuring that 7 was at least a year and a half away, guinea pigs would be loooong forgotten by then.... Fast forward to present... you guessed it, she never forgot and we had to make good on our promise. So the day after her birthday, the quest for the pet guinea pig began. Since I don't like to make things easy on myself (and I'm very much in favor of adoption as the way to go for adding pets to the family), we couldn't just go to any local pet store and buy a guinea pig. First we thought we had found a great solution: the local guinea pig rescue society. Emily and I took the time to fill out their adoption application only to be denied "because we don't adopt to families with small children". Huh??? Who else is looking for guinea pigs? Fine, we'll check the local shelter, they can't be nearly as picky. Sure enough we found a posting on their website for 2 male guinea pigs. I sent John and Emily down the next day to put her name on their adoption list. Turns out that since these 2 were abandoned by their owners there was no waiting period, they were good to go that day! The only question the shelter asked them was "Will you take both?" They are supposed to be siblings and have always been together so no one wanted to split them up. So Emily's guinea pig turned into pigS. She is over the moon happy to have her piggies at home. Claire lucked out that she has one to play with too. Though Emily is quick to point out that one belongs to her and the other is the family pet - not Claire's!

Without much further ado... this is Spots with Emily:
His name comes from his very prominant cow lick spot on his forehead.

The cage was quickly upgraded from this one. We really thought we would have a few days to prepare before the pigs came home. They didn't seem to traumatized by the old cage.

Claire with Skitter. Originally she wanted to name him Lovey (her make up name for everything) but it was quickly changed due to his behavior. Once caught he really is sweet to hold.

Happy 7th Birthday Emily!

2008-03-13T17:39:00.000-07:00

Emily had a Harry Potter birthday party this year. As her friends arrived they made wizard hats and wands. Daddy taught everyone how to use their wands as they made a dropper float and sink in a bottle of water. We also did a Sorting Ceremony to put everyone in their correct House.
After lunch and some playtime, we played a game with Bernie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. The Houses had to sample 10 different types of Beans and identify their flavor. Here are the Gryffindors hard at work:

While tummies settled from eating all those Beans, Emily opened her presents. She loved everything!

Her "cake":

Emily and one of her classmates share a birthday, so on the real day the two girls treated their class to a pizza party at lunch. Her button says "Birthday Girl".

That night we went out to dinner and met up with Emily's friend whose birthday is 7 days after hers.

It's hard to imagine it's been 7 years since Emily was born. She is our joy and makes us proud every day. What a wonderful person she is growing up to be.