120 kindergartners and me

I swear I've blogged that title before in years past with one of my other kiddos, but I can't find it and I don't have the patience to look for it in order to link to it. Just trust me that I've ventured into the wild wild world of kindergarten field trips before, and it is always a reason for extra tylenol joy. :)

This time around they went to the Children's Museum, which we've attended many times before and really enjoy. Having been there a half-dozen times already, I felt secure enough to roam around, knowing what I'd find on each floor, etc. Ethan's teacher was very kind and only assigned me one other kiddo-just about as hyper as Ethan himself-but the two of them amid the hundreds and hundreds of other kids at the museum that day kept me quite on my toes.

Love the museum, love that schools take their field trips there, but man, I wish they'd try to plan on less busy days. There were way too many schools and way too many kids there. The children could hardly move for that first hour, and the chaos it created (especially by the notion of losing them amid the sea of little people) could have possibly been avoided. Thus, this was our situation.

I have lots of other pictures, but drat if the name tags they are wearing depict my kiddo's school, and I really don't feel like editing a bazillion of them. So you get the following for your viewing pleasure. :)

Here are the two crazies I was in charge of.

Such camera hogs!

Think we look alike?

I love the little grocery store room, but this was the most crowded spot; I think we spent approximately 18 seconds in here.

Then onto the ball room.

The noodle forest. We got yelled at multiple times for running and not staying with our adult. Didn't we, children? (not yelled at by me-by the staff nazi lady who kept telling me to stay with them in an acre of noodles that essentially makes one blind until emerging out the other end. Yeah, right, lady.)

As much as I love the paint-the-castle set-up in the art room, I hate how dirty the kiddos get. The other child I was watching literally got paint all over his hair somehow.

Race cars pushed down an awesome racetrack.

A break for fake ice cream.

I love how it looks like Ethan is whispering a great secret to his friend here.

This is Ethan's typical I-am-so-excited face. Suck in your bottom lip and say "Ohhhh!" real excited-like and you have Ethan's over-bite facial expression here. (See the racecar picture above for a frontal view)

We got back to the school at around 1:30. I slept on the bus on the way home.

it's a grand old flag

   

Cameron had the opportunity to attend a veteran-sponsored event in which he learned all about the flag and proper ways to fold, carry, and dispose of it. 

He got to practice moving it from one site to another-and to avoid dragging it on the ground of course.

He even got his own flag pin-you can just barely see it below, on his right collar.

There were hundreds of people at this event; I think quite a few more than expected, as we had to sit on the grass.  But that was ok, because it put our cubscouts literally in the front seat to watch the flag-burning ceremony.  (properly conducted and done in respect to dispose of damaged and unusable flags).  It was a really interesting event!

want to go see "shrek: the musical" ?

We've been looking forward to Shrek the Musical coming to Phoenix ever since we noticed the clips on YouTube. It looks like it'll be a really fun play!

I need at least 10 to get the group rate. If you're interested in attending, here are the deets:

Where: Gammage
When: we'll likely go Tuesday, January 4th or Wednesday, January 5th
The group rate price: $46.30 for Tier B balcony seats or $38.30 for Tier C balcony seats
25% of the $$ is due within 2 weeks, the rest is due mid-November

Let me know if you want to go in on our seats! We're taking our 8 and 11 year olds with us as I think this show will be a bit more kid-friendly than some of the past ones we've seen.

Contact me ASAP to reserve your seats!

Here are some clips:

sean's arrow of light and cameron's bobcat awards

Last Tuesday night, Cameron earned his Bobcat award and Sean earned his Arrow of Light award through Cub Scouts.  Not to make this about me, but I was so sad to miss this pack meeting-it was my first day of clinicals in my CNA class and ditching wasn't even an option.  My friend Christine (awesome photographer that she is!!) was willing to go take a bunch of pics for me.  I'm so grateful for them!  Not only are the pictures much much much better than anything I ever would have taken, but having them makes me feel like I was almost there.

Both Sean and Cameron have worked really hard on Scouts this year. In fact,  Cameron has been in his Wolf Pack for approximately 28 days and is about half-way done with all his requirements already.

Here are the pics from the Arrow of Light Ceremony, which symbolizes lots of hard work on the way to Boy Scouts next year.

         

And these next couple show Cameron receiving his Bobcat patch and pinning the pin on Dan.  (though we all know, it's moms who do all the hard work! *grin*)  Notice that Cameron's neckerchief is inside out?  Oy.

 

I'm proud of you, boys!

ever tried plantains?

Look Maria, I made them!


I can finally refer to the eats of our Canadian trip without shuddering. This is one of the good new things I was introduced to. Fried plantains. Sweet and carmelly and yum.

dinner and a movie. . .at the stadium

Our city is so cool.

I just love that it sponsors free get-togethers such as this.  We have a generally young population-lots of young families in starter homes-and this is just one of the many events the city puts on each year for the citizens.  :)

We got together with our friends for pizza dinner and "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" up on the big baseball stadium screen.  We did this several years ago when Ethan was a baby, so it had been a while since we'd participated. 

The kids were old enough that I didn't freak out (too badly) by letting them run around.  They knew where we were set up and they checked back in every couple of minutes.  Then when the movie started, we sat together and ate.  And talked.  And giggled.  And spilled our juice.  But that's what blankets are for.

My camera doesn't take night shots very well, but these will give you an idea of how our night went.

 

 

Isn't she so cute??

      

Afterwards, I gave Harley some of her first ice cream (notice the chocolate on her lips).  Both of us have some crazy hair going on. :)

 

We all love playing with Harley!

It was a fun night!  Thanks for sharing it with us, Chris and James and fam!

slowly, over the last couple of months, collected on my ipod

...because is it just me, or has there been a dearth of good music lately?

Yes, I said dearth. It's a word. Look it up.

Anyway, I had been waiting on posting this blog, in hopes that some good new tune-age would surface, but alas that has not been the case. So I post in hopes that ya'll have some good beats you can drop on this white girl. Lay 'em on me. In the meantime, this is what I have been listening to.

too cute for (the right) words

Since I can't get my computer to recognize the existence of my crappy camera, I am forced to dig thru some past photos for today's blog.

Namely, this piece of artwork sent from my 5 year old to his grandparents.


And I quote (loosely translated):

Happy Valentines Day. I love you Grandma and my Mom's Dad. Love Ethan.

Gotta love it.

to-do list

• sweep/mop floors
• vacuum
• wash whites/uniform for class tomorrow
• study for lab quiz for tomorrow
• study for lecture test for tomorrow
• work on 2 Scout things with Cameron
• work on 2 Scout things with Sean
• go grocery shopping
• return things to the library
• figure out why my camera won't let me up load pictures to the computer
• balance checkbook

What's your plan today?

few facts fer ya

The flu sucks. Three of my family has caught it so far--fortunately it is brief...it's amazing how quickly the kids bounce back. I luckily caught it on my off-day from school so it didn't effect my program. But man is it yucky and horrendous and stinky and gross and I hope to be done with it. Bah!
Today is the last day to enter for the $100 Visa gift card contest over on my review blog. Go on over and enter...whatcha got to lose?
My CNA class is just over half-way done. Just finished up my 4th week and have 3 more to go. Very cool and I'm enjoying all I'm learning, even the bed baths and such.
I've eaten Taco Bell bean burritos 3 times in the past 4 days. This is not a good thing. But they are soooo a good thing.

That is all. Happy weekend everybody.

12 of 12 and on time!

No special theme this time around, just whatever grabbed my camera and said, "Me! Me!  Take a picture of me!"

*smile*

The end of my parents' visit.  They're faking their smiles pretty well aren't they-they weren't feeling too good at this point.

 

Proof that once in a while I iron.  Well, at least until my CNA class is done.

 

 

The flu visited our house briefly this weekend.  Briefly, I said.  Ya hear that, germs?  I said briefly!!  Now go away!

 

This shot has nothing to do with the picture before (lol); I was actually practicing personal protection equipment techniques for school.

 

I grew these in my very own garden.  They are small but oh so yummy.  (like myself. . . *snort*)

 

While out and about, my hubby and I got some Taco Bell.  I have fallen in love with bean burritos, minus the onions.  It's a dangerous thing.

 

The menu at my kiddos' school for lunch and brekky today.

What the grass looks like in our backyard right now, from a bugs' eye view.  :)

The three books I'm reading right now:  1) Memoirs of a Geisha, which I got from the library sooner than I'd planned so I had to start right away, 2) Pride and Prejudice, which I'm really enjoying but had to put on the backburner since Geisha came in, and 3) Eclipse, which I'm reading to Sean.  *swoon*

Also in the pic you can see some Canadian Kit-Kats I picked up for my friend Jenn while up North (Jenn, they're not gonna last for long, you best come get 'em!), my scriptures (finished the Book of Mormon right on time a couple of weekends ago and am now reading the D&C), and the boys' Nintendo DS's which they had all lost until Tuesday for various reasons.  :p  You can also see one of my favorite scrappy pages that my friend Christine made for me, framed there in the background.

 

Cameron and some Legos. . .

Sean and some piano playin' - he's actually quite happy doing this; I just happened to catch him at a second when he had a serious look on his face.

And Ethan playing baseball during our Family Home Evening activity.

This was our life on April 12th.  How about yours?