A Birthday to Remember...

Clare is a very lucky girl. She got to celebrate her birthday three times this year--because she is three. First up we spent Clare's actual birthday at Disneyland. Despite being sick the night before Clare had a great time riding around Disneyland in the stroller and checking out the rides from the safety of her fathers lap. You will never believe how many pictures I took! Z-E-R-O! That's right...we spent 8 hours at Disneyland having the time of our lives and I did not take a single picture!!! All because I couldn't remember where I packed the camera. Oh well, we all had a great day and our mental memories will have to suffice. Oh, Clare got a button with her name on it as part of her birthday celebration package. Every time we passed a Disney employee s/he would say "Happy Birthday Clare!" It made me feel special...

Celebration #2 was at Cheesecake Factory with my Aunt Colleen and Uncle Richard. They were very kind and let us stay at their house (a few miles from Disneyland) while we were in Southern California. We all went out to dinner before our family had to hit the road for home. At the end of the meal Daddy whispered to Clare "Eat three more bites and you'll get a very special surprise." Clare looked at Daddy with her happy blue eyes and said "It will be my 'Happy Birthday Cake'!" We got home from Disneyland too late on her actual birthday to have cake and she was ready for us to sing. With her three bites down and a slice of flame-topped-chocolate cake in front of her Clare smiled as we all sang "Happy Birthday too You!"

The final celebration was scheduled for Sunday March 29th. We planned to have our near by relatives over for sandwiches, cake, ice cream and presents. So much for "planned"... Wyatt and Lorien ended up getting the pukes the day before the party and we had to cancel. We still managed to party as best we could with two sick kids.

We started the party with each family member going around and saying what they love about Clare. This is something we do for Family Home Evening every so often. All of the kids love it, whether they are getting or giving the love.

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Then the kids decorated crowns and we played Pin the Crown on the Princess, The Princess and the Pea,

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and Hot Miss Marie (all so known as Hot Potato--we didn't have a potato)

Check out Clare's expression in this picture--I love it! She really got a kick out of playing "Hot Miss Marie".

We finished the party up with the standard cake, ice cream and presents. Clare had a blast and we had a blast celebrating three times. We all love this girl!

**********************************************Guess what she got for her birthday?

Obsessed...

Did you have leprechauns show up at your house last night? We've never had a problem with leprechauns. Every March 17th we wake up to white milk, clear toilet water and a house only as messy as it was when we went to sleep. This year, thanks to an optional home work assignment, my kids became obsessed with catching a leprechaun. All weekend we built our traps. Lorien made a pretend piggy bank with a trap door. Wyatt and Clare took an idea from the Family Fun magazine and built a leprechaun sized rock wall with gold at the top. Lorien took her trap to school on Monday and we kept the other at home. Monday night we tucked the kids in bed leaving them to their happy dreams of all the loot they'd get from the leprechauns we caught. Saint Patrick's Day dawned and Wyatt woke first to discover our toilet water had been turned green. Running into his sister's room he rallied the girls to march into the kitchen to check their traps. Wonder of wonders we did catch a leprechaun! But the tricky fellow figured out how to get out of our trap before the kids woke up. As a reward for their cleverness he left a pile of gold candy, a box of Lucky Charms and turned our milk green. Wyatt is already planning next years trap. Lorien, however, feels kind of guilty. Our leprechaun climed the trap only to find the gold glued down. He left a note explaining the circumstances of the night and his frustration at not getting our gold. Lorien thinks next year we should leave some gold unglued for the leprechaun to take home.

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Wyatt's First Wrestling Tournament...

Today, Wyatt went with the Woodside Westling Club to its first Tournament of the season. You might not be surprised to learn Wyatt wrestled in the lightest weight class but I think it will surprise you to learn the other kids in his "weight class" out weighed him by more than 10 pounds. He was also the youngest wrestler in there--needless to say--he was facing an up-hill battle. Wyatt wrestled three times today. In his first two matches he was pitted against the two biggest kids in his weight class--bummer! Wyatt tried his hardest and had a good time but he lost both matches kind of quickly. His third match was against a kid who was a little smaller than the others and they wrestled all three rounds. The other wrestler won but Wyatt did his best and we were all very proud. It was hard for me to see him disappointed. Will was very proud of how hard Wyatt tried. Wyatt never gave up and kept on giving it his all with every match. I think Wyatt gained some valuable experience and hope he will have as much fun at his next tournament.

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Because Will takes Wyatt along to the high school tournaments Wyatt knows many of the coaches from the other teams in the Bay Area. Wyatt had a huge cheering section and received many pats on the back and high fives from his fans. It was great to see so many people routing for my little guy.

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Oh--my super sexy husband wrestled and coached at this tournament. Check out the pictures and try not to pinch his butt next time you see him.

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My Favorite...

I consider spring in California my personal reward for living through so many springs in New England. Everett, Massachusetts has an especially unpleasant and frustrating spring. Usually, the snow begins to melt and the sun comes out for one afternoon--then Mother Nature yanks the carpet out from under your feet dumping 7 inches of sleet and freezing rain all over the place. The sun will show up for a day or two followed by a week of more cold, sloppy precipitation. This little back-and-forth in the weather department starts in March and last until July. No wonder Massachusetts has such a terrible (and in my opinion, deserved) reputation regarding its drivers. You'd drive like a crazy person too if you had to deal with a fickle spring every year.

We've been living in California for over four years now and I can say with authority March and April are my favorite months. The rain from winter starts to lessen and we get beautiful sunny days. The same rain has done its work turning everything bright green. Trees start to bud, grass grows thick and daffodils poke up from the ground--really it is lovely. We took a walk around "The Dish" on Sunday taking our time to soak in the green from the views all around. If you were ever wondering when would be the best time to visit us--my vote is March (or April).

Don't do it..

Just don't. Don't have children. Because even after they out grow that whole wake-up-every-two-hours-to-eat thing they are still ticking time bombs. Waiting until you've settled into a false sense of security in the sleep department and then BAM! They come up sick and are awake half the night coughing, crying and throwing up--and you are awake too--worrying, wondering and praying that this too shall pass. So, save yourself the trouble and just don't have kids. OK?

These were my exact thoughts as I stood at my kitchen counter in my underwear at 3:28 this morning--smashing a cough drop with the bottom of a jelly jar.

Why was I powdering a perfectly good cough drop with a breakfast spread container, you ask? Because:

A) My almost-three-year-old has a terrible cough.

B) Her delicate palate cannot handle a full cough drop--or half a cough drop--or even a cough drop crumb.

C) The only thing that will quiet her cough is little sprinkles of cough drop powder lightly dusted on her tongue.

And D) I find a full jar of jelly to be the best smasher in the business--naturally.

Now, when you are standing in your kitchen, in your unmentionables, crushing cough drops at record speed because your youngest child is a gagger, sitting on your newly washed bed spread and if you don't get her cough some droppage soon she is going to up-chuck all over the place it is only natural to wonder a little bit why you are in this particular situation.

"Kids." was my immediate answer.

If any single person or newly wed without children happened to ask me for advice on having children...I would have recited my opening paragraph without hesitation. Rest assured, we all know that the odds of a single or newly wed person standing in the kitchen with me at 3:28 this morning (while I was not dressed for company) are about as good as the odds of me winning a gold medal in the 100 meter dash. So my little anti-children speech did not effect any one's posterity.

As the warm yellow sun spread its beautiful glow over our sleeping house this morning (and I decided that getting to school on time was waaaay over rated) I could more clearly reflect on my situation I knew how much I truly love my (sleeping) children. In addition, it was only the ridiculous hour of the morning that pushed my mind to its anti-child limits. Kids are wonderful creatures and if they aren't keeping you up because they are new babies, sick toddlers, scared children or curfew breaking teenagers enjoy your sleep--it wont last long.

WARNING...

THIS POST CONTAINS IMAGES AND INFORMATION THAT MAY BE UNSUITABLE/OFFENSIVE FOR THOSE WHO APPRECIATE WEEDS GROWING IN THEIR GARDEN!

We have been getting quite a lot of rain here in Northern California. The latest batch of rain came pouring out of the sky on a serious mission: to turn every grassy surface in our back yard into squishy, soggy soup. Mission completion rain, mission completion...

On Tuesday, Wyatt went outside (in the pouring rain) on a mission of his own: to rid his strawberry bed of weeds. When I went out to check on him this is what I heard: "Argh, I must destroy you! These weeds are bad! They are my enemies and I can't defeat them. You will not kill my strawberries! I must do something... get right out of there weeds--swwwish--killed them!" This little verbal battle between Wyatt and the weeds lasted a good 15 minutes before Wyatt was soaking wet and every weed from the strawberry bed had been eradicated. Way to go Buddy.

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***********************************The victorious warrior and the carnage he left behind.