Fun ‘til the big “D” land!

Well, we made it to Santa Monica on Sunday late morning. Must say that the kids travel very well, much better than many adults even. We made it down to the boardwalk and met up with Helen for the afternoon and evening. A very good time, and it was awesome to see Helen!

I am just going to caption the photos and not go into much detail (I think). We are kicking our feet up tonight waiting for pizza to come to our room and then to bed early for our first long day at Disney Land in the morning.

Cole got to do his Pirate mini-golf on the Boardwalk.

Jo waited for over 30 minutes to jump on this bungee jump. She tried her best to do a flip too but didn’t quite make it over. The smile on her face was worth the wait!

Helen stayed with us while we watched the street performers (she is standing be hind us). The kids got a real kick out of all the dancing and singing.

We traveled to the La Brea Tar Pits along with stopping in Hollywood and driving through many other (I couldn’t afford their out houses) neighborhoods. The tar pit was really neat and very educational.
Two thumbs up from us.

Cole really wanted to have his photo taken with this guy. I know some of you might be saying to yourselves “What kinds of places are they taking those kids to!” But really this man was very polite and kind…scary in character, however, as you can see by Cole’s face here.

Jo saw this Batgirl from across the street and wanted to run to her then. This gal was very sweet to Jo and gave Jo a hug along with the photo. Jo almost cried with this Batgirl meeting.

Cole is standing in Darth Vader’s boot prints.

Jo has her face painted in Downtown Disney.

Good night for now!

Just Doin’ Stuff

The kids and I took a walk to City Hall and got a photo with the famous Simpson family! Homer and his family were sitting on their couch just waiting for us to show up to take a photo or two. Neat display. Might be kind of fun to actually get the movie premier in town.
I took the kids on an over night trip to pick up some computer work and along the way we stopped at one of my old playgrounds. The kids thought is was neat that they could climb all over a train and would ask every now and then…”Did you get to climb up here too?” Growing up I thought all towns had a train for the kids to play on. My brother and I would play tag quite often and the only rule was you could not step on the ground or you would be “it”. Looking back now it’s a wonder we didn’t break a bone or more the way we would run along the top jumping and sliding. Oh, the good old days.
We have been taking more bike rides with the kids, getting out more often like this feels good and the kids just talk and laugh the whole way. Oma took a ride with just Jo, getting a little one on one time with the girl. She fell asleep on the couch in the garage after the ride…tired little one.
Oma bought this year’s slip-n-slide and the kids have been having a good time in the sun. Watching them slide and laugh makes me want to join them. But it’s sure not going to happen…I think Oma and I both tried last year or the year before that? Not a fun landing…whether you slide or not…ouch…ugh…bruise…

Our Future Little Leaguer

Cole is playing T-ball and really having a blast. Out of all the sports he plays at home and loves to play I think this is his first love at this point.

His high lights of playing are “getting dirty like the Mariners”, “running the bases” (he even tried a slide once, ha ha) and then “hitting like Ichiro”.

These are photos from his first game.


The serious ball player.

He is a right-hander but bats left.

Even kicking up the dirt as he runs the bases.

I don’t think leading off is part of t-ball rules but he tries it.

Graduation

Well it has come and gone. They have graduated! I know…most of you are saying...
”WHAT?! How did time fly by so quickly?” Well some time is like that.

Ok, it was Preschool Graduation and they were happy about it. Goofy before they headed to school and were high energy when I dropped them off.

The Graduates
looked stunning.

The Graduates wore a lightweight, royal blue, polyester fabric gown with

heat-set pleats and creases dropping from the neckline.

The matching royal blue polyester fabric cap had a matching royal blue tassel with a gold metallic “07” hanging from the matching blue polyester fabric button located at the top center of the cap.


It was a small production with one song and a lovely slide show of their classmates put to music. Each received a diploma, ate cake, drank a little punch and ran around the room hugging every one of their friends.

Grandma Marie and Grandpa Norman were heading north so they made an early trip to attend along with our neighbors, (left) Francis and Dale. The kids had a good time and are looking forward to their big year at Kindergarten next year.

Sun Fun, ER, Family and a Growing Moment

With all the recent warm weather we’ve been trying to get out and play as much as possible. Oh, all our home chores and projects are staring at us in every room of the house or inch of the yard but all that work can wait while we play and enjoy the sun.We have had the sprinkler up and running almost every day for over a week and a couple extra kids here and there as well. Cole and Jo are having a blast being out in the sun getting wet and muddy and then wet again.

Dusted off the bikes and tag-alongs (a photo of the tag-alongs is on the March 2006 link to your right) and we have had a couple long bike rides with the kids. Jill has taken us on a rout that has a small hill which gives me a break on peddling and forcing fresh O2 into my lungs which at that point into the ride is helpful to put out the fire burning in my chest. Though I know Cole enjoys the hill too Jo makes sure everyone knows she's enjoying the hill by saying weeeeeeee and or just laughing the whole way down.

I took Cole on his first solo ride the other day, learning the bike path rules and etiquette. He was a little slow peddling at first and very tentative on the path but when we hit the half way point his confidence picked up with the rules and his speed. “On your left” is not said often enough with folks out there but I kept my eye out and gave him heads up when I could. He got lots of kudos from walkers and biker out on the path and thanked me for taking him. Ready to do it again!



Cole took a header into the curb, he was running on the way to the pool. Well he didn’t make it to the pool that day but he did get lots of cuddle time with Oma on the couch. Two hours later his head was still bleeding some so Oma took him to the ER to have his head glued shut. If it hadn’t been in the hairline we could have flied it shut but nothing we tried at home worked. He came home with super hero stickers…so he was happy.




Jill’s sister Lisa came down for a couple days with her sons, Holden and Skylar. We went swimming (not Cole…paragraph above), played some video games, did a little BBQ and just hung out with each other. It was a good time and hope to do it again sooner rather than later. A Growing Moment:
The kids just finished up with their repeat swim class of the Slick Seals. They have both been great and sure look forward to getting into the water twice a week. Cole no longer sinks like a rock and they both have gotten better arm strokes now. They received a completion paper at the end of lessons stating which class they may sign up for next. Cole will be doing another Slick Seal class while Jo graduated to Willy Walrus! She is very excited when I read her paper, jumping up and down, clapping her hands and saying “yeah…yeah!” Cole said he was a little sad that he didn’t get to move along with Jo. Their first separation has come. He gave Jo a hug and said “good job” with the best smile he could muster. But boy does he “get it” that she is doing something better then he is. They are both happy yet sad. Bound to happen sooner or later.