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.

I can make a Disco Ball...

I made this Cinderella dress for Lorien when she was three years old. We all know that when I sit down to sew I really know how to put the "stress" in seamstress. You can just imagine how well things went when I was trying to sew with crazy sequined fabric and yards of tulle... Suffice it to say, this project ended with me dumping a cup of chocolate milk onto Lorien's head. Still, the dress is adorable.
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I did not know how to sew sleeves so for a year Lorien wore a Cinderella dress with weird-fan-like protrusions at the shoulder. The next year for Halloween I added sleeves and puffy side thing-a-migs--very Cinderella.

Lorien wore that Cinderella dress almost every day for about a year. The wearings be came a little less frequent as time passed but this home made Cinderella dress was a favorite long after the front of the tulle ripped out and even after I bought the actual Disney dress on sale.

Lorien started to out grow the Disney princesses but luckily for me (and all the princess crud our family has obtained over the years) Clare has just started to fall in love with the Disney princesses. A few days ago I made a little trip out to our back shed where I keep several boxes of toys. I hauled out our two Cinderella dresses. To my distinct surprise and joy Clare picked my home made dress to wear. The velcro closures gave out ages ago and the front panel of blue tulle is still ripped off--none the less--those sparkles scream out over the imperfections making it the dress de jour.

During lunch today, dressed in her Cinderella finery, Clare caught the sunlight bouncing off all of her sparkles. She also noticed that if she stood on her chair and turned in a careful circle--those sparkles moved around the room. For a little while, if you tilted your head just right and squinted your eyes, our breakfast nook was transformed into Studio 54 complete with spinning disco ball and moving lights.

Because it's there...

NASA has a research facility here. Did you know that? And they have a couple of museums on the NASA campus--one of them is free. Did you know that?!? Well, now you do. Saturday we took the kids over to the Ames Research Center to take a walk through the (free) NASA Exploration Center. It isn't very big but it has a bunch of pretty cool stuff--and it is free. We spent about 90 minutes walking around a big room with models of different space crafts, 3-D pictures from the Mars Rover, a slide show of the Hubble Telescope's greatest pictures/discoveries, a moon rock, space suits and the first craft sent up into space. (I know I say this about a lot of stuff but I cannot help it) The Exploration Center is WICKED COOL! Wyatt had the most fun because in between wanting to be a Mailman and a Cake Decorator he also wants to be an Astronaut.

Check out the pictures:

The kids loved seeing the life size pictures through their 3-D glasses. Wyatt knew how the Mars Rover was powered--solar panels.

There was this totally hot guy there showing my kids all around the museum and talking like he graduated from MIT or something...smart and hot! I managed to sneak a picture of him with his 3-D glasses on. Pretty hunky, huh?


Did I mention the Astronaut cut outs you could stand behind to pretend you were walking on the moon? Say it with me folks: "Wicked cool, wicked cool."

Sleep where she will...

Will has been coaching the High School wrestling team this season. Clare loves to go to wrestling with Daddy. She has too much fun climbing on the mats, running around the room and wrestling whoever dares to take her on. Sometimes practice goes too long and Clare is understandably tired. This is how she ended practice today...

Classic...

I missed my work out this morning--bummer. My van is in Oakland, with my husband and the wrestling team he coaches. We are out of a number of food staples (including milk) and we are expecting company for dinner tomorrow evening. For a laugh, I decided to walk to the grocery store with Clare in the wagon and Lorien and Wyatt on their bikes. I made my shopping list and headed over to the grocery store. (Here is where the tale takes an interesting turn.) This was not just a quick pop into the grocery for a loaf of bread this was a trip to feed my family for a week. It was four gallons of milk, it was fresh chicken breast for Sunday dinner, it was cereal, apples, bananas, broccoli , carrots and bagged salad. It was canned goods on sale and dairy products we were out of. It was eggs, people, EGGS! I ignorantly tossed whipped cream and olive oil into my grocery cart--completely forgetting the fact that I had not come to the grocery store in my van but in a red. plastic. wagon... The sobering fact of the wagon came all to soon when I wheeled my overflowing cart of paid groceries out the door and was halted by said wagon. My optimism prevailed, "No problem!" I thought. I loaded the milk into the wagon and using long forgotten Tetris skills I managed to fit most of the other groceries into the wagon (giving all of the produce a solid bruising in the process.). With most of the groceries balancing precariously atop the milk I turned my attention to the four cereal boxes that would not be squeezed into the wagon. Naturally, if my sweet children wanted to eat the cereal they were going to have to carry it home. I looked at their small bikes, their knobby knees, spindly legs and thin arms...perfect pack mules...of course. Attaching a plastic bag containing one box of cereal to each of their handle bars we headed home.

One block into the walk home, the youngest child who was forced out of the wagon by all the groceries ran a few paces ahead of me, tripped over her own feet and skinned her knee. With mule # 1 too far ahead to hear my screams of "Wait! Lorien, wait!" and mule #2 in hot pursuit I had no choice but to scoop up the crying baby and run to catch up. I am not a graceful runner and hauling 50 pounds of groceries one handed in a red wagon while balancing a crying toddler on my other arm does nothing to add to my running style. Mercifully, mule # 1 has about as much biking grace as I have running grace and several yards before I was about to sit down and cry, she lost her balance and fell over...onto a pile of rocks...effectively stopping her parade. With the unstoppable force of a speeding wagon behind me I had to keep running until I nearly collided with the sobbing Lorien. In the middle of my attempt to comfort both Lorien and Clare an elderly woman passed us on the sidewalk. She gave me a weak smile and kept on her way. At the time I thought she must not have spoken any English. However, as I reflect now, I think it is far more likely that upon seeing the scene before her (two screaming girls, a dirty faced boy and a crazy woman pulling a red wagon full of groceries) words simply failed her. She couldn't even muster the vocabulary to sympathise or scold and she was way too polite to give me the dirty look I deserved. After all, what kind of person makes a gigantic grocery run with a red wagon and two kiddy bikes? Well, a person who is in the odd habit of grossly overestimating her abilities, that's who.

I have come to the conclusion that I do not need to work out. Hauling 50 pounds of groceries up a steady incline to home will keep me in tip-top shape. More over, using all of my mental powers to will a wobbly 5 year old on a bike to stay on the side walk and out of the road will keep my brain out of Alzheimer's territory for a long time. I have everything under control...really.