Brooke & Kyle's 1st Fieldtrip

Brooke and Kyle went on their first field trip with school. Toward the end of the summer session, they all went to the Santa Ana Zoo. The kids wore their new green Ontario Christian t-shirts and loaded onto a yellow school bus and went to the zoo. I looked it up online to show them before they went and Brooke was super excited that this zoo was home to 50 monkeys.

In true scrapbook form, I went to the store the day before the field trip to get some fun cameras for the teachers to take with them in order to take pictures. If I couldn't be there, then I wanted to have some pictures of the kids and their classmates having a great time. I haven't gotten them developed yet but I did get a CD the other day from a mom who did take some pictures. Apparently my son was the total ham and got in front of the camera. I have taught him well!! I will post some of those pixs when I get the cameras developed.

The kids had a really great time and fell asleep on the bus ride home. I didn't worry too much about them since they were in good hands with the school. My little babies are growing up, going to school and going on field trips!!

First Day of Pre-School

On August 10th, Brooke and Kyle started pre-school at Ontario Christian. We have been talking about this day since April when we all went down to Ontario Christian for a visit and decided they would go there. It was an early morning for everyone. I got up at 5:30am to get a head start before I had to get the kids up. I woke them up at 6am to get them moving, dressed and fed. You know Kyle is tired when he doesn't just POP out of bed and still just lays there. I bought little closet organizers where I could place the entire week's worth of clothes. We had packed it up the night before with the clothes and I had shown them where they were to get their clothes so they could help in the morning by getting dressed. Worked out really great and I didn't have any "issues" with what clothes they were going to wear. Typically I have this type of discussion with Brooke since she is pretty head strong on what she wants to wear. Gee, I wonder where she gets that!

We were doing pretty good and got downstairs for some breakfast. While the kids are eating, I make their lunch and pack it in their lunch sacks. Auntie Janet got Brooke a super cute monkey lunch sack that is right up her alley. The kids are pretty simple with what they want. Peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I pack their lunches instead of them buying lunch at school. All they offer is crappy food like pizza, mac n cheese, chicken nuggets, etc. You know, all the stuff that kids like to eat. I still have my kids fooled into eating stuff that's good for them. We cheat but I don't need them eating it ALL the time. Plus, this way they can swap food with their friends like back in the good ole days.

By a little after 7am, we are in the car and on our way. We have the little talk in the car to remind them that they need to listen to their teacher and follow the rules. At this point, I don't' think they have a clue but I am not too worried. We get to school and pile out of the car. We have the backpacks all packed up, the lunches made and the kid looked adorable with them on. I have them stand in front of the pre-school sign and take their picture. My babies are growing up. Today is a learning experience for all of us as I need to figure out where they go. I know they are in room 400 with Miss Kara. We get into the classroom and I get them signed in. Kyle at this point throws his stuff down and heads for the Thomas the Train table. There are some other kids playing and both kids are in NO way bothered by the fact that I am going to leave them there all day. Kyle gives me the, "BYE mom" and a wave and he's off. I give them both a kiss and I'm out the door. That was super easy. Now I just pray that they use the bathroom all day and I don't get a call from school to come and get them.

When I get back to school to pick them up, they are on the playground playing and having a great time. Kyle tells me that he "loves school". This makes me really happy. We pile in the car and head home. A total success! The kids are in a safe learning environment and I don't have to worry about them being parked in front of the TV all day.

Havasu #2

We had so much out in Havasu that we decided that we would go back out for another week before we headed up to Washington. When I asked Brooke and Kyle if they wanted to go back out to the lake, Brooke answered, "can we go right now?" Now that's when you know as a parent that they really loved it. This time around though we didn't drop the cash to rent another boat for a week. One of Steve's friends was nice enough to let us borrow his boat. Also, before we went, I loaded up the kids and drug them out to the EZ Up factory out in Colton to buy an EZ Up. We were looking at the temps out there and it as going to be 115! EEKS! Can I just tell you that it was the best 100 dollars we ever spent!!

The kids were animals in the water this time. They were so used to it from the other week we were there. Kyle thought he was Michael Phelps without his life jacket on. He and Brooke both were swimming around in the channel with their faces in the water and everything. It was so great to see.



We decided one day to get out of the channel when we looked at the weather and saw that it was going to be 119. We went up river to Park Moabi. It is so nice up there now plus it was much cooler. The funny thing that happened was that once we left from up there it took us about an hour to get back to the channel. We hit the channel and ran out of gas. Couldn't have been a nicer place to run out. The kids and I hung out there and swam and steve headed out for some fuel. We ended up having a boat pull in next to us and they were firemen/firewomen and we hung out with them until 7pm. The kids were having a blast and the parents of the year didn't have dinner until 8:30. Gotta love the river! Brooke is ready for us to buy a boat and Steve continues to prod her telling her that we need to buy a boat. We'll see what happens there. I am vying to go back out but to stay in Park Moabi. Maybe sometime in August we will go.

Havasu

Schoooooool's out for Summer!! Yeah! I finished school on a Thursday and we left for Lake Havasu City Arizona on Sunday. We stayed out there for a little over a week and rented a pontoon boat. The kids absolutely loved it. They were total river rats by the time we left.

Auntie Janet and Uncle John joined us at the Islander on the following Tuesday and they towed out their son's boat. Brookie just loves her "auntie!" We had a great time on the water and it was really great to see the light finally click in Kyle's head on swimming in his life jacket.

Once he finally got it, he was a swimming fool and was swimming around in this cove going over to everyone floating on a raft.

Once Jason and Jess got there, they brought some jet skis. The kids got on them with both Steve and I and they werent afraid at all and they even understood how to drive them.

It was fun to be back out in Havasu. It's not the same anymore but we did see a few familiar faces. Of course Steve was back to his ole haunting grounds and was happier than a pig in poop!!

Happy 3rd Birthday!!

OK, I am sooooo behind in posting here. Things were really hectic toward the end of my school year at work. No more excuses.

It was a great 3rd birthday party. It was only supposed to be our family and the godparents and my parents were in town. That's it. Well, in like a flash of a second, it turned out to be 27 people. WHEW! Oh well. Plenty of food and drink and it went well. It was so nice to have my parents in town for the event. We started the day by giving the kids a motorized car. I was more excited to give it to them than anyone.There is still a bit of a learning curve but they will get it. The dang car even has a REAL working radio. Thanks to PopPop and Steve for putting it together. We only made a ton of noise trying to get it upstairs to hide it before their birthday.

I have started the tradition with the kids that on the actual day of their birthday, I get them a little cake of their own and we sing just to them. For the past 3 years, they have had a mutual party but their day was celebrated separately.Thanks to Grammy and PopPop for running around looking for the perfect cake!!! Saved this stressed out mom 1 less task!

The day of the party with everyone there was fun. We all had a great time and I was actually able to relax and enjoy the event!

A day in the life of a working mom

OK, I was thinking back on my day I had this past Tuesday. Whew! Just another day in the life of a working mom. It wasn't a lot but here it is:
Wake up at 6am and go to work all day.
Leave work and get home to 2 ramped up kids excited to see me! Which of course is the best part of the day.
Once home, the kids are quick to tell me that there is a DEAD rat in the kiddie pool! Lovely!
Get a bucket from the garage and have the dead rat float into the bucket. There is NO way I am touching this thing.
Dump the dead rat into a trash bag and quickly throw him in the trash. The whole time I am listening to Brooke as if she can see it.
Dispose of the dead rat, get the kids back into the house and get their shoes on.
We are now off to the store because the pastor of the church is coming over and I want to have some cookies and goodies to munch on while he is there.
Race through the store in the cart that has the car attached in the front. Stop a few times to tell the kids to stop yelling and fighting with each other or I will remove them from the car.
Get checked out of the store, kids loaded back into the car, get home, unload the kids, get the groceries unloaded and put the kids up to the table for dinner.
Feed the kids dinner, get them cleaned up and out back playing so I can straighten up the house and backyard a bit.
While I am doing all of this, I turn the oven on and throw some chocolate cookies on a sheet to bake in the oven and put the rest of the goodies on a serving platter.
At 7pm on the dot, the pastor and Carlos show up to the house. Welcome them into the house, get them some water, take the cookies out of the oven, get the kids in the house and sit down. Steve gets home from work and is there to help. Whew!
We sit and talk with the pastor and he leaves around 9:45pm.
10pm - Fall into bed and pass out! Gotta get some beauty sleep so I can get up and start the process over tomorrow!

This One's for you La La!!

Our little LaLa likes monkeys and elephants. For this year's birthday party, we are going to have a monkey party for her and a Thomas party for Kyle. I needed to change the background and get Easter off of here since we are in May now. I found the monkeys and just coulnd't resist.

Well, the flu/cold bug is still at our house. Kyle has now come down with it. Poor little guy has this aweful cough. As a mom it's so hardd for me to see them suffer or be in pain. Hopefully he will bounce back soon.

That's it for now.