Cooking Claire Style

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

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!

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

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

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

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...

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.