Mini-me

Can anyone guess what she's doing? After the kids got their disposable cameras we went on a hike around our campground. The kids were all too eager to snap some pictures. I think they've seen me take a few. I like to capture different points of view and it's apparent that I'm not shy about getting in awkward positions to achieve a shot.

Legoland

We really enjoyed riding all the rides in Legoland. Carter was just over the required height which made things nice. The only limiting thing was fear. It took some convincing to get Jacie on the roller coaster. We told her we wouldn't have to go on another one if she didn't want to but she had to at least try one. I think she enjoyed it after all was said and done but if there was some heart monitor on her it would have spiked as soon as we said we were going on one and didn't stop until we got off. The only complaint we had of the park was the displays were a bit dirty. The grounds didn't seem to be kept up quite as well as we had expected. We had a great day though.

San Juan Capistrano

We visited the mission in San Juan Capistrano. I must say, it was very beautiful. It was nice because they handed out "phones" to all the kids so they got to punch in a code to hear about that part of the grounds. I was amazed at how big the mission was and of course how beautiful it was. We had heard that this is the "jewel" of all the missions in California.

Carlsbad

Is anyone a fan of Huell Howser? I can't remember the last time I watched him. Maybe when I was nursing. Anyway, he travels up and down California looking for "California's Gold." I remember seeing an episode on the flower fields of Carlsbad and thought that some day I would like to go see them in person and take some pictures. I think the only way to do that place justice is to rent an airplane or helicopter and take an aerial shot. We went camping in San Diego county. We planned on going to Legoland one of the days there. I knew that if we went to Legoland the first day they'd practically shun me at the thought of visiting flowers after that, so I scheduled this for the first day. We also got them recyclable cameras so they were pretty excited to visit the ranunculus. Personalities sure did come out upon receiving the cameras. Carter was practically done with his pictures before we left the campground. Avery and Kenna were a little more conservative about it but still ended up being done by the first day. Jacie had allotted 2 for the campground, 3 for this, 4 for the flower fields, etc... Although she showed the most promise, she did end up using them up quicker than what she planned but lasted longer than the rest.

April Fools

 I have enjoyed finding things to trick the kids with for April Fools Day.  I think last year I made candy bars look like breadsticks and green Airheads rolled into peas.  This year I had a few up my sleeve.  Kenna likes having a fried egg for breakfast sometimes so I made this for her.  It's yogurt and a half of a peach. 

Jacie has been into collecting seeds for her garden so I printed out this seed packet and put Cheerios inside it.  She read the label and still didn't realize it was a trick until she was going to divide her "seeds."

For lunch I made them Jello in cups with straws so it looked like punch.  After that the kids were scheming.  They tried mixing glue, lotion and some other stuff to make it pink.  I thought at one point, this could get kind of messy.

Cherry Cupcakes

 The kids, traditionally, get to pick their birthday cake.  This year Avery wanted cupcakes.  We had the Boersmas, Kostelyks, and the Olsens over for after-school snack.  After all the fun and running around we went to Red Robin for her birthday dinner.

Birthday Girl

 This is Avery on her birthday in her class.  We made butterfly crafts for her birthday since it also is the first day of spring.  She helped me the night before assemble the snack for her class, which also looked like a butterfly.

Pioneers

 Here's Jacie, her class, and a demonstration of what they might have felt after their journey.

Move over Pioneer Woman

 Here's our aspiring butter churner.  I think we need to add a few more chores on the list because they got to whipped butter consistency.  Or maybe she's just showing off her culinary skills.

Jacie's grade got to experience a day of pioneer fun.  They got to walk on a simulated Oregon Trail and look at a covered wagon.  They had pancakes so they could eat their butter and sew a quilt piece.  What a fun way to learn.

blossoms

 This was the day we came back from the snow.  We went from winter to spring real quickly.  All the blossoms on our driveway kind of look like snow though.  They were actually blowing off the tree as I was taking the picture; I just wasn't able to capture it.

Sledding

 When Avery and I walked up the hill for the first time she really tried to convince me to start at a lower point.  Once we went down together, she said, "Let's do that again!"  I'm glad she overcame her fear.  Luckily there weren't any real injuries, other than Carter getting a bloody nose from getting knocked by someone coming down the hill.

Anticipation

 As you can see we have a few eager kids ready to tackle the snow.  We went to Montecito this weekend with I believe 10 other couples and their families.  Planning for this trip we were worried there wouldn't be enough snow to sled, but we had just enough.  It was so nice to wake up, go downstairs and decide whether I wanted a latte, or tea or whatever else they offered.  The kids made great use of the hot chocolate machine.  I didn't know which would break first, the machine, or the kid's stomachs.  Carter and Avery won that battle but Jacie and Kenna were feeling sick the next day.  Jacie said, that morning prior to getting sick, "I'm sick of hot chocolate."  I asked her how many she had, she replied, "5 or 6."  All the meals were provided and there were some planned activities for the kids.  It was truly a vacation for us all.

Cast of characters

 I got to eat breakfast this morning with Pippi Longstocking, Fancy Nancy, and Thing 1.  It was so much fun to get them ready this morning, partly because they were eager to get dressed (which is not a regularly anticipated activity around here) and partly because it was fun to color their hair and make them look like their book character that they chose to be for Book Character Day.  It's the grand finale to a week of no tv this week.  I offered to spray Carter's hair orange too but he didn't want to have anything to do with that.

Skating

 
The kids had a skating party a couple weeks ago. They had a good time. A couple of them even won a free drink during one of the games. For some reason, I am unable to center the pictures better in this collage, but you get the idea of how fun the day was.

Jacie

 

Blake

 

Breakfast

 
The kids made us breakfast the other day.

Dancing

 
For about a week or so, Avery has been wearing some heels of mine so Carter wanted to wear Blake's shoes. Avery really wanted to dance. It took a little convincing of Carter to go along with it but he finally acquiesced.

White

 
This is how Kenna wears a white sweatshirt: Walk up to a parking garage wall, lean against it, and see end results.

Trains

 
In Old Sac we went to the train museum. Even if you're not a big train fan it's a pretty cool museum to check out. We got to walk in a few train cars. One even shook a tiny bit, it felt like it was moving.