San Clemente

Every Summer as a kid we would spend a week at San Clemente. We have "our spot" - it could be the 4th of July, crawling with people and any one of us could walk right to our group without any word. We have our candy store, our grill dogs, our "crab lady" who has had her spot in front of us for 20 years, and our pizza place. San Clemente is filled with tradition for my family. So, it would be wrong to visit and not make a stop there. It was weird, being the end of September, the place was deserted. We got to take our cousin Elle who just lives up the street. After going for a swim you HAVE TO - it's the rules - take a walk to the end of the pier to dry off. Well, that didn't happen and so I am now keeping my eyes peeled for a lightning strike. It would be worth it though, because we had a beautiful day at the beach.

Disneyland. . .The Happiest Place on Earth

Ok. So we spent 2 days at Disneyland. Oh wow. You would have thought Santa Claus escorted us. These girls were on Cloud9. The McGees came with us the first day. It was great. We were there right when they had set up for Halloween. We couldn't have asked for better weather or 2 better days. It was just nice to dedicate 100% of our time to the girls. . . not having to stop to pay bills, or be on the phone, or wait for Ben to get home from work.






Ok. This was the "IT-IT" of the trip. Amy told us about Ariel's Grotto. You have dinner and each one of the princesses stop by, one at a time, at your table to talk and take pictures. Well, out comes Belle first and the girls sit up straight and kind of stop talking. . .waiting for the big moment. Then every few minutes more and more princesses come out. They were all around us. Téa claps her hands super hard and yells "Can life get any better than this!!!!" afterwhich Avery lets out this deep grumbling groan - I've never heard before - and screams "I just can't stand this!!!" through her tightly gritted teeth. They almost wet their pants.

Poor Aves. She and Tay had a big day. But I think we kind of overdid it for Avery. You see, Ben and I aren't perfect. No no. We're not. We make some poor choices, even in our old age. One such poor choice was putting our 4 year old (and 6 year old, for that matter) on The Tower of Terror. We knew what it was, I'm not going to plead ignorance. But, hey, they met the height requirement so it must have been ok. Right? Wrong. Their cute little bums were all the way off the seats. The picture that they take for you as you're falling just showed Ben and I on the outsides facing in, tending to our screaming kids. They are so little that you couldn't even see the tops of their heads in the photo. She kept saying, "I don't like the big "elebator." I don't want that." Sweet thing.
We had a great time. They were the perfect age. They KNOCKED OUT when we got back to the hotel. That's all I ask for.

10 Days on the Road

We got back a week ago. It was a great trip. We are all still happy and healthy . . . which I consider a huge blessing considering how much time we were on the road, and that on the 5th day, Ben went off on his own in, well, basically a semi-truck to pick up a few California souvenirs of his own (explanation to follow later).

Well - it started in Las Vegas. We got to stay at Ben's sister's house for a few nights. It was so fun to watch the kids play. I've got 2 girls and she's got 4 boys. They get along beautifully. Each one gets their own car and everyone's happy. They got a babysitter and we went out for sushi and then crepes at the Paris hotel. So nice to be together without kids. (Thank you Emily!)

Sunday we took off for San Clemente, CA to my sister, Amy's house. This is where the pictures begin, because we got a new camera that day!

We all headed off to Disneyland the next day.

Amy took this one of Elle waiting for us to arrive.





Amy said she found the girls at 5am coloring.

"GIVE IT BACK. THE GIFT BASKET, GIVE IT BACK"

If you know what I am talking about, I really hope you laughed as hard as I did.
Ohmigosh. So freaking funny.

JOSIAH BENJAMIN

Our newest nephew. Ben's brother Collin and cute Rosemay do great work, don't you think?? So so cute. But too too far away. Living on opposite coasts isn't working for me. . .
Congratulations!

Can't get enough of this photo

This is my little niece Elle, Amy's oldest. We get to see her this weekend.
We are leaving for California on Friday. We'll be gone for 10 fabulous days. Well, 8 fabulous days and 2 Mermaidia-movie filled days in the car.

Seriously, do I check-out Ok???

Today was my first day volunteering at Tea's kindergarten. Ben asked her yesterday if she was excited and she gave this "conditional" shrug. Turns out, she was worried what I was going to look like!
Here's the run down of that one:

>Are you going to look cute, mom?
>>Do I normally look gross???
>Well, sometimes when you come home from the gym.
>>Honey, would I EVER go to your class straight from the gym?
>Maybe, I dunno. But are you going to wear your hair in a piggie, or down?

So, today, I was standing in my closet and I started laughing. I realized I was stressing over what I was going to wear. . .to kindergarten! So dumb. So So dumb. I couldn't help but ask Tay if I looked presentable (for her apparently fashion-forward kindergarten class). She checked under my hair for earrings and then said I looked fine. We took these pictures with my phone at the bus stop right before class today.

I am so in-for-it.

Avery and I spent the entire day playing paper dolls and watching Cinderella III. That's because she didn't get to go to school and wasn't allowed to have friends over.

Last night at 9:45pm she woke up crying. I just about passed out when I saw Rocky Balboa's swollen eye on my daughter's face. I was not prepared. It was awful. I called InstaCare and I basically had 9 minutes to find someone to stay at the house (Ben wasn't home) while I drove 85mph to make it before the doctor left at 10pm. It was Pink Eye. On the way home, she was crying because the eye drops "feels like smoke." I told her the drops were good guys going in to kick the bad guy's trash. She said, "Do they have guns? Or are they just kicking them in the stomach?"

That picture was taken today, 18 hours later. It's is looking GOOD at this point. I feel bad for her. And you all can feel bad for me. . .I could not find her little sunglasses ANYWHERE, thwarting my plans to sneak her into the library for a little "excursion." (I'm desperate ok!) Not to mention, I am out of ideas of what my Cinderella doll can say to her Sleeping Beauty doll.

Summer Catch-up

Summer is coming to an end. I love Summer. Fall is definitely on its way. I can feel it. It is always a bitter-sweet change for me. The only bad thing about Fall is that after Fall comes Winter. Snow is not too welcomed, seeing how I only wears socks like 3 days a year. Here are a few things we've been up to the past little while.

We spent 4th of July in Idaho. The last 2 days of the trip, we dumped the kids on the boys, and took off for Sun Valley. We went to an outdoor Ice Show. Just prior to the show, we also went on what I consider a Gastronomic Safari. Oh was it gluttonous. We all overdosed on raspberries and bread. My sisters-in-law and mother-in-law are so great. That was a fun night.

Tay and Avery are on the same soccer team. It just happened that way because they are so close in age. Téa is not happy about it but little Avery doesn't care. At her first game, she was running-down the other kids and pushing them out of the way. She wouldn't hesitate to "sweep the leg," if you know what I'm talking about.

We have 6 fruit trees in our backyard. We watch and wait and check and wait some more. It seems like forever before the fruit is ripe. Both peach trees and both apple trees decided to ripen ALL of their fruit on Tuesday evening at 8:36 pm. ALL OF IT. I really did paniced. Ben and I were picking fruit as fast as we could. LIterally hundreds of peaches and apples. It's a race against those peach-sucking hornets!

Well, my mother-in-law happened to be visiting and she saved me! She and Roz came over and we made peach jam.

Ok. So we have a real-live friend who is a real-live clown. We took the kids to see him in action, but not before Ben took a ride on his clown bike that was left in his car.

The ever-so-humble Téa who did Avery's hair and makeup.

Téa lost her first tooth on a day she happened to be cruising around in a velvet cat costume. Of Course.

The girls got to take a friend for a day of animal-petting, pony-riding, and shopping.

And then there was the day Avery was a Half-Rainbow Pirate. Of Course.

Labor Day we had friends over to BBQ what we didn't BBQ at the Chili Party. We just sat outside and told college stories (dang, I sound old). This is cute Rachel and Ashley. I genuinely appreciate having great friends live so close.

6th Annual Chili Party and Horse Race

Thank you for another great year at "the races!" We delayed the party 6 months to take advantage of our backyard. I think having everyone squeezed into our house, and up the stairs, got kind of old for everyone involved.
I got some slack for serving chili in August (it's normally in February) but then realized hamburgers are served hot, just like chili, so there. Plus, it's tradition, and if you know me, you know I am an over-the-top sentimental, nostalgic traditionalist (when it comes to these kinds of things). So chili it was!!
The night was perfect and the competition was FIERCE!!! Holy Cow. I wasn't the only one with butterflies when it was my turn. And the group of men off to the side had some serious strategery going with the betting.
Katie N. was not here to reclaim her title. It was up for grabs. And Fancy Pants took the title.






photo credits: Jake West

A Sword Neck

First of all, awesome picture.
So 3 weeks ago I woke up on Sunday and my left hand was completely numb. My entire left arm was on fire. And my shoulder, well, that was something to cry about. Ben tried to talk me into going to the hospital. Oh please. I thought I was tough enough to ride it out. I was. Until the tears came Monday morning. Well, my good friend's husband is a chiropractor.
Skip to the chase, I ended up in his office within 30 minutes where he tells me I am JACKED. It took 2 days to dry up the tears completely and like 8 visits to stop hurting. I am now a believer.
For about a week I couldn't let the girls hang on me as usual. I told them I had a sore neck. Avery kept telling me she wanted to touch my neck "super softly." It was weird though because she looked so so scared. She would touch me and ask if it hurt and if it was going to bleed. I was confused. She was scared.
Then is all came out. I told her I had a SORE NECK. She heard "SWORD IN MY NECK."
Do they GET any cuter than that little girl? Cute, and very confused.

I Couldn't Resist

Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!

Chiquita Girls

Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!

Tay's first day

Let's be honest here. It was actually MY first day. Téa started kindergarten and I started getting stuff done. I miss her. She has been my little pal for almost 6 years. But she's been so bored lately! And I can only play Barbies and have "Dance Party USA" so many times in a day. As you can see by the blow-by-blow shots of her traveling to her first day of class, she had finally had enough. I had officially become part of the paparazzi. I tried to give her a kiss goodbye, but I had totally blown my chances.

The "BooAFool" Solution

The daycare at the gym requires socks to play inside. Well it's 100 degees outside and my kids are not wearing shoes lately. But heaven-forbid she CARRY the socks into gym. No no. She has to be prepared. So she came running downstairs so so excited. She wanted me to see how "boo-a-fool" her feet looked. She was so thrilled she couldn't stand it . . .and neither could I.

A little Gypsy Punk never hurt anyone

You know you want it. You do.
Go ahead and download Gorgol Bordello's song "Wonderlust King." It is physically impossible to not dance to it. The song only gets better if you have kids. If you are a really up-tight person you might just do a little head shake to it, but I bet that is considered "dancing" to your up-tight self.
So, spend a dollar, dance a little.
(P.S. His voice totally sounds like someone. No, it's not Borat. I'm thinking it is one of the muppets. Who is it!!)