Let's Go Fly A Kite!

I can't help but smile at this picture.

Will is expertly guiding the kite through the wind..
Lynnea's poised to fly away with the kite...
and Mikayla is so in awe of the fact that yes, the kite is actually flying that she can't wait to get her hands on it and try it for herself.

Yes, it was a pretty blustery day down here about a week ago so we just had to take advantage!
Eventually the kids were itching to see just how high Master Kite Flyer Daddy could get it so my wonderful hubby took them to their school down the street (away from the power lines) to test his skills.

 I was too lazy Lynnea was too lazy to go so we stayed home. Incredibly, the winds were so strong, I could see the kite from my backyard! (the little pink arrow is pointing to it).

 Pretty fun for an otherwise ordinary day...

Birthday Fun

 This blogging thing has been tough lately. I'm trying to keep up with it but it's getting away from me. Adding 5 hours of work into my weekly schedule on top of my 10 has taken some getting used to but I'll attempt to be witty and informative in my blogs and not too boring and drab.

I'll let these pics speak for themselves (for the most part).
Mikayla's dream was to go to Disneyland for her birthday. So, we decided to make it a family affair and she could bring one friend with her as well. Thanks to a wonderful brother-in-law and a friend who both work at Disneyland, we were able to get in for free. Honestly, a thank you doesn't seem to be enough. The day was just perfect for Mikayla and she told me it was her "best birthday ever!"

Her best friend, Mikaela (yes, they have the same name...just spelled differently), spent the night at our house and me and the 2 girls took off in the morning to join the throngs of tourists at the Happiest Place on Earth.

The girls are the best of friends and were so excited to be there together. Can't you tell? They even have matching shoes for the occasion (my daughter's only wish for her birthday, besides Disneyland). They looked like twins. I actually got that question a lot. Would you name YOUR twins the same name? Come on, people! As you can only imagine, there was a lot of girl chatter (which I love) and "stories" from school which are quite hilarious. We had a whole 6 hours to ourselves before Will came with the young ones.

Our first ride of the day was Jungle Cruise. When my hearing came back after listening to the shrill voice of our female tour guide, we headed off to Swiss Family Robinson..I mean, the Tarzan treehouse. After that, we decided that we just must visit the fairies at Fairy Hollow. We waited for about 30 minutes. During that 30 minutes, there was quite a lot of this...

 The girls would whip out the hand-slapping games to wait out the time in line. It definitely reminded me of my own time slapping hands and doing little rhymes to go along with it. I actually tried my hand at it and did pretty well! After all that waiting, we only got to meet 2 fairies. Silvermist was first. She promised that she would try to keep it from raining that day so that Mikayla's birthday would be perfect! Tinkerbell was up next. Needless to say, I felt dead next to her enthusiasm. She was quite the character and did a great job with the Tinkerbell attitude, as you can see in the picture of the 3 of them. Such a cute shot!

 We even ran into Mary Poppins. The little kid in front was being trained how to say Supercalifragilisticexpialadocious" backwards. Thus, the look on his face...

 Then the little ones came. The whole experience changed for sure. I think this was the highlight for them - watching the ducks and swans in the moat. They weren't up for many rides except the train and Autopia and I was so glad that they came toward the evening and weren't there all day.

 California Adventure was fun, as was the Little Mermaid ride. I had never been on that one before and the animatronics were pretty amazing. They did do quite the "reader's digest" version of the movie but I guess it would be too expensive to put in the sinking boat scene, don't you think?

 At the end of the day, we went to World of Color. It was late. They were moody (don't be fooled by the plastered on smiles of my darling 9 year old). The show was worth the wait but staying up until 1:00am is only a once-a-year thing...maybe less.

I did get one shot of all of us, me included. Will was there too (you can see his shoulder in the California Adventure picture.) As adults, we usually don't get any picture time but I did want to record that I was actually there with my daughter as she experienced her birthday at Disneyland.

So much fun!
So many memories!
So long Disneyland - see you next year!

9 years already?

Yep, can you believe it? 9!!
I feel like the past 9 years have been a blur (except for the first few weeks; those seemed to drag on forever).

At this point, you'll have to be subject to my mini flashback! It was 2003. I had quit my job on February 14th to get ready to welcome my first baby! The time came...and went. 2 weeks later, I was still waiting...and in that time I watched way too many "Baby Story" shows on television. After scaring myself silly by convincing myself that it would be the most painful thing I had ever experienced (that ended coming true with #2), the labor part actually ended up NOT killing me after all!

9 years later I can, without a shadow of a doubt, tell you that parenting is the hardest thing I've ever done. I can also tell you, without any doubt, that it is starting to become one of the most rewarding. You're probably wondering why I used the word "starting." I'll just say it like it is. Babies give rewards in the area of diapers and smiles (it's a start). Toddlers reward you by enhancing your cleaning skills and developing your patience. I'll admit, toddlers are starting to "pay it forward" but, for the most part, it's hard to see where the "rewarding" part comes in when your kids are little. It's when they start to become bigger, when what you've taught them actually starts to stick and they start to make good decisions and good friends that makes you realize that all those tears and frustrations were worth it.

So, with that, I want to say Happy Birthday to a beautiful, caring, sensitive, kind, funny, playful and loving little girl who's not so little any more and carries a piece of my heart with her wherever she goes.

Happy Birthday, sweet Mikayla! You are God's gift to me and I love you very much!

Who Is That? Oh! It's Anne Frank!

I must admit, I got a little lightheaded and panic-stricken when I ventured into the 3rd grade classroom last year during open house (when Mikayla was in 2nd) and saw all of the kid's pictures in various "historical costume." Obviously, this was yet another project of parental proportions that would have to be completed in a short amount of time (if your child was a procrastinator like mine) and one that would take the utmost creativity to complete.

So, when February rolled around and we got the "book report" that wasn't a book report, but a "people report," I relived the lightheadedness just a little. First of all, it took 2 weeks for Mikayla to choose a famous person. We went through several before she chose one. First suggestion was Pocahontas: there wasn't much on her life...then Sacajawea: my child wasn't quite sure she wanted to die of a disease (part of the assignment was that they had to become that person and speak from first person). Amelia Earhart had already been chosen, sports greats like Michelle Kwan weren't an option...but we finally found one, Anne Frank. I know, you're confused. I was too. I mean, at least Sacajawea had died of a disease, they think. They're not even sure HOW she died or WHEN she died. But Anne Frank? Everyone knows how she died and it was much worse than any other person she could have chosen...but choose her she did. I've got to think that she somehow connected with her since she was so young.

























So, I checked out the books, she read them in a matter of days, and I thought we had a great start to our "reporting." Unfortunately, time got away from us and the next few weeks came and went with family visits, more family visits, and just life in general. Suddenly, this past Monday was upon us and it was due Wednesday. Oh, and did I mention the whole 3-5 minute presentation had to be memorized? So, imagine my Monday afternoon. The kids got out early that day so we had the whole night to write up a few notecards. Easy, right? 6 HOURS later, Mikayla had finally written what she wanted to say (using my suggestions the whole way) and I had them typed out on notecards for her to memorize. As a side note; any question you have ever had about Anne Frank, I know now. Come on, test me! I'll bet you don't know who her favorite movie star was! I do!!

Back to the report. The good thing was that I know she has an amazing ability to memorize things. I won't even tell you how I know that but I just do. =) I knew once she had those notecards, she'd be fine. We had already found her an outfit at our local Goodwill and I hand-crafted the Jewish star out of construction paper to make it complete. By Wednesday, she was ready to go (and I just about died in anticipation of what her grade would be). A day later, she had gotten her grade. An A!! How long did she talk for? 3:01 minutes. She made it by ONE minute! I was so proud of her, even though I'm sure she added a dozen or more grey hairs to my collection.

I just can't wait until Open House this year...what are we in for in 4th grade?

Now, I couldn't end this post without at least putting in a picture of my boy in his element. If you knew Tyler, you'd know that he LOVES snakes, insects, anything with more legs than humans have. Recently, we attended a birthday party that included a visit from a woman with reptiles. You can just see the exhilaration on his face as he holds the "butt" of the snake. I'm sure he would have loved to have taken it home with us too.