I'm done...

       

This morning, I had to duct tape Clare's shoes together...can school be over now?

                                           

Field trip with Clare

I decided this year I would be a field trip mom.  I've never gone on field trips with the kids.  I've always had a baby and not been interested in being held responsible for the safety and education of a large group of kids.  Nope.  But the kids always wanted me to go on field trips with them.  So this year I gave in.  I got Adell and Lorien taken care of in the field trip department...Clare was next.

Clare's class was studding the Missions of California this year.  So at the end of the unit the class went down to the Mission San Jose (which is not in San Jose...).  We drove down and got a tour of the Mission.  The history was interesting and the kids were great.  

Field trip with Clare, check!

                                             

                                           

Funny note: one of the docents at the Mission sounded exactly like Gru from Despicable Me...like identically.  I kind of thought he was trying to mimic the character at first, but no, it was his real accent.  He told the kids: "Now, when you walk through the mission...you are going to be very tempted to reach up and hit the top of the door ways.  They are very low because people were much smaller back then.  But resist the urge to hit them!  They are old and fragile and human oils from human hands make them more fragile.  Also, all of the naughty kids who came before you who did not listen to me already reached up and hit the top of the doors so they are covered with boogers, and slime and germs.  You don't want to touch that.  It is very disgusting."  It was pretty funny and none of the kids in my group reached up to hit the tops of the doors...so funny and effective.  

1 bathroom town

A few months ago our master bathroom toilet started leaking in the bowl.  Not a big deal, just a waste of water...during a serious drought season...so a big deal actually.  

I tried to fix it.  I almost got it...except then the leak was happening outside the toilet after I finished.  

Will tried to fix it.  He almost got it...except the leak was STILL happening outside the toilet.  

So we were down to one toilet...in the whole house.  We've lived like this before, way back when we were first married and up until we had three children.  Even with three children, one kid wasn't potty trained so one toilet met our needs.  We've been living the luxurious life of two toilets for the last six years.  It was hard to go back.  We found a lot of family time happening in our one bathroom.  For better or worse...

Will was able to officially fix the toilet after a week.  Hallelujah! 

Spring Happenings...

            The Elementary school always has a Mother-Son event in the fall and a Daddy-Daughter event in the spring.  This year I was so pumped to take the fall event off!  My only school aged son is in middle school and not into hanging out with his mom at school.  I got to take the Mother-Son event off.  THEN, the school decided to have a Mother-Daughter event too!  Grrrrr!  I get it, there are families where they don't have a mom or dad at home for these kinds of events or they only have daughters or sons and so someone feels left out.  I am all for inclusion...just as long as I don't have to be included.  Just leave me out, seriously.  

No, I knew it would be fun to take the girls to the dance.  So Adell and I got dressed up together (Clare had a play date after school and met us later) and headed to the party.

                                         

It was chaos...but fun chaos.  They served crepes, which resulted in nutella and strawberries all over the place.  The girls and I danced the night away and had some lovely time together.  So...all good things.  

                                          

To add to our plate of activities this spring, Wyatt started playing golf at school.  He tried out for the golf team and made the JV squad.  Basically, he only has to go to practice one day a week and the driving range right up the street from our house.  So, that's a pretty great deal.  

                                          

The last few things...spring break style...

         

 On the first morning of spring break--while I slept in--Wyatt, Clare and Adell brought every, single Lego in the house and dumped them on the living room floor.  They spent the whole day building and creating.  It was great.  Thankfully, they knew to put down a few big sheets before getting the Legos out so it was a pretty easy clean up.                               

                                         

Colter spent some time perfecting his "spike hair" over spring break.  

                                         

I got the worst cold sore I've ever had in my entire life.  It was a full on swollen face, headache, sore neck, painful in every way kind of thing.  Not cool.  Not cool.

                                          

Lorien orchestrated a ribbon dancing fight--er--party.  Most of the time was spent dancing...some of the time was spent trying to poke a siblings eye out.  

                                          

                                          

And...we finally made "art lessons with Mom" a thing.  We've tried this over and over again with limited success.  Over spring break we did find time for a little art lesson almost every day.  I loved it!  I hope we can duplicate the lessons/activities in the summer.

                                          

Back to the beach...

I love the coast and Will loves the mountains.  It is a little bit of a running joke between us that California is the only place we could ever live and be married because we live with in comfortable driving distance of the beach and grand mountains.  Lucky us!

The kids and I did take one day to go to the beach with Aunt Angela and Aunt Heather and all of our cousins.  As always, it was an awesome beach day.  We went down to New Brighton.  I hadn't taken our kids there for a while.  Unfortunately, the park department was doing some renovation work.  The bathrooms were closed and half the parking lot was torn up.  Still, we had a pretty great time.  The last couple of times we've gone down to the beach we've brought along Lorien's friend, Ava.  She always comes with a few boogie boards so it is a great deal.  I think we are going to have to get some boogie boards of our own...the kids love them.

                                          

    

                                           

Waves were splashed in, mud was slung, sand castles were built, and sandy snacks were consumed.  Beach day success!

Kicking off Spring Break with a hike!

Oh were we ever ready for spring break this year!?  Between early morning seminary, Clare's dance classes in Walnut Creek and every other activity the kids do our lives are pretty busy.  I know "being busy" can be a self inflicted disease and I try to not partake...but with five kids it is almost impossible to not get caught up in the spinning.  

As usual, we had zero travel plans for the break.  We were all going to rest!  Until Sunday morning when Will decided we should take a family hike.  He spent some time checking out local (and well traveled) trails but ended up picking a new place.  We spent the morning watching General Conference then loaded up into the van for a nearly two hour drive south.  Will had heard about Pinnacles National Park from a family friend/co-worker and was excited to check it out.  

We were all excited for a new adventure.  We got a later start than we hoped but still had time to enjoy the park before sun set and all the gates were closed. 

Will picked out a trail that took us through a few caves and around some magnificent bluffs.  It was wild to see the changing scenery.  Parts of the park were very similar to Zions in Southern Utah.

                                          

Adell was pretty nervous about the caves.  Even holding on to my hand and having her own flashlight didn't help calm her fears.  I'm not sure what she was worried most about: spiders or tripping in the dark?  Poor girl.  

                                          

Wyatt was excited to tell us that his Boy Scout Troop would be spending an overnight at Pinnacles in a few weeks.  He took the opportunity to familiarize himself with the trails so he could be an expert when the Troop came down.

                                        

Will was all to happy to show off his wall climbing skills.  Skills he developed in the hallowed halls of his childhood trailer home.  

                                          

                                         

I recently learned that taking selfies with each member of my family is going to be the only way I'll ever get into any photos at our outings.  I'm not camera shy at all but I am always the one taking the pictures and documenting events so...no one ever sees that I am actually there too.  Selfies to the rescue!  

Lorien and Wyatt showed all the kids how to decorate their faces with "sticky monkey" leaves.  I have no idea what the plant is actually called but Lorien and Wyatt learned about them in outdoor ed in the 5th grade.  I am assuming Clare will learn all about it next year.

                                          

No surprise, it was a beautiful trip.  Lorien had a little (gigantic) scare as we were wrapping up the hike.  She doesn't like bugs at all, Lorien is as afraid of bugs as Adell is of dark caves.  As the sun set scores of crane flies started lighting off the bushes as we passed.  Crane flies are harmless--I always called them Mosquito Hawks growing up and thought they ate mosquitoes...Wikipedia tells me "no" on that one.  Anyway, Lorien couldn't stand to see all of these big mosquito things flying around.  She kind of had a melt down about it.  Even with her freak out about bugs, and Adell's freak out about the caves we had a great time.  Pinnacles is a really cool park.  We hope to go back when we have some more time to explore.

We did have to break the Sabbath to have some frosties at Wendy's on the way home.  Our ox was totally in the mire.