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

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...

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!

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

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

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!

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

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