Week in Review, + a Few

Starting off with a picture of yours truly. Brian took this, a week ago, Saturday. In 2009 I did a photo-a-day album, Project 365. I skipped last year, then kind of missed it, so decided to do it again this year! Only this time I'm not making my own accents. I used a lot of my stash, but it took a lot of time, too. This year I decided to order the kit for Project Life. It's a bargain, with everything you need included, even the album and page protectors! The only thing I have to add is my pictures. I prefer ordering from Scrapbook Pictures, and like to order about once a month, so none have been added for this year, yet.

Also, I like that this picture shows Photoshop Elements open, b/c that is my most-used computer program. I use it for every picture I edit--a lot! I must have been caught up, b/c the display was empty! Yay!


The same day, Julia had two 4-H project meetings. I took her shopping that afternoon, b/c she is growing so fast and needed a few new clothes. This was the first time she has ever really cared about what we were buying, expressing any opinion at all. It was pretty cute. We only went to Penney's, and she would finger a top: "This is pretty...I see girls at school wearing things like this...I like the scarf..." I'm so glad she didn't have strong negative opinions, just was showing me things she liked--and I liked them too. I liked that she is still wanting pink and pretty things, feminine, unlike a lot of girls her age (I hear about).


We did some craft-supply shopping for Valentine's crafts she and Lauren want to make. And Caroline. Ha ha--Caroline wants to make everything she sees them making. ;) She told me lots of things about what goes on at school: things they talk about, some girl drama, her thoughts on all this. It was nice to hear what's going on in her head, and nice to know she's making good choices! She's a sweet girl.


1st pic: This dress was one Julia picked out. Brian says it looks like it's from the 70's--teasing her (in a nice way).

2nd pic: Austin built this elaborate tent. We made him leave out enough chairs (2) for Brian and me to sit on for dinner, and enough bar stools (3) for the kids to sit on! Caroline had to sit in her highchair. I let him leave it built for a few nights, since he'd put so much work into it, and he and the younger two were playing in it quite a bit.

In my last post I mentioned Lauren playing baby dolls recently. This went on all last week. She took Dorothy to bed with her. And sometimes Annabell.

Austin adores his baby sister. He is so good with her! He plays with her and talks so sweetly to her.

He wrestles (and knows to be gentle!) with her and swings her around. She loves him too.

The two girls, Julia and Emily, are walking to school with us again, as their mom is doing her second term student-teaching. Jan. 26, Julia G. comes up and says, "Mrs. B., we don't know what happened, but her head came off..." Oh dear. Poor Sasha. I tried to fix her, but her neck was broken. Lauren said she died. But no one knows how... Julia said if she'd been an American Girl doll, we could send her to the AG hospital to be "fixed". Alas, she's not. Rest in peace, Sasha. ;)

Tuesday afternoon the little girls and I made these heart ornaments. They dipped yarn in glue made with cornstarch and water, then smashed the yarn into a cookie cutter to get the right shape. They had to dry for a few days. Here they are after I hung them up with clear thread. Cute!

Sunday, Lauren wore all this jewelry to church. Before we left, she said, "I am a queen!" That afternoon she had Julia play beauty shop with her. They got a little silly, and Lauren came out of the salon with a mustache! She pretended to be a pirate!

Lauren has been playing school with Caroline the last few weeks. Here's her teacher desk.

A few months ago I cut off a piece of my seamless paper, with the intention of letting the kids use it for art. Well, we got busy, and forgot about it. I came across it today, and Lauren and Caroline were very excited to draw on it. I taped it to the patio, and Lauren wanted me to trace the two of them, so that's what we did. Austin wanted to do it too, but the scrap was only this big, plus he had homework, so I told him we'll trace him another time.

They had the best time coloring themselves. ;) Lauren said, "Mine is nice, but Caroline's looks like a monster! She just scribbled..."

They finished coloring, then played in the yard till it got too dark. They were busy singing [loudly--sorry neighbors!] songs they made up. Lauren was singing something like, "God is good! And I love Him!", adding to it continuously, almost shouting. It was quite the concert! Here are their finished figures. Lauren cut them both out, and I went inside to get dinner started. I came back out, and Caroline had dumped dirt in the marker box. And so it goes...! The figures are now hung up in Lauren's classroom. ;)

Of Boyfriends, Baby Dolls, and Brushes

Lauren and Caroline have been playing baby dolls this last week. Every so often Lauren decides a doll needs a bath, and she always uses my giant Tupperware bowl for the job.


Lauren came home from school yesterday so excited. She got in the van and said, "I married Jake today!" She explained that she was playing with him in the toy kitchen at Choices. She was making cakes, desserts, and all the food for the wedding. Apparently Jake thought this was all a good plan as well! She said, "I tried to kiss him on the lips, but Ms. V said, 'No kissing in this class, Lauren! You know better!' " I asked Lauren what happened, and she said, "I forgot to shut the curtains in that window." Like it all would have gone according to plan if only those curtains had been shut!! Hee hee Austin had his share of "girlfriends in Kindergarten too. Now he thinks girls=cooties. So funny, these silly kids!



They sure make a mess when they play. Dolls, clothes, and beds all over!


The Thomas trains are in the garage now. Lauren claimed the train basket for her doll clothes! These 3 were her kids: Dorothy, Annabell, and Sasha. Caroline was using Julia's very first doll, Esther Rose. Somehow her name has stayed the same through the years!

Caroline said this was Baby Marsha.

Lauren outside with Annabell. And Caroline painting.

She is very serious, using that paint brush.

She had to paint her fingers, too. Lauren got her into that. They've almost used up Caroline's watercolors with all their handprint-making!

Sweet smile. :D

The Park to Ourselves

Last Friday, the 21st, we walked to school as usual. It has been really nice weather here for over a week, in the 70s! The nights get chilly, but it's warm during the day. I had no errands to run, and nothing pressing to do at home, so decided to take Caroline to the park on our walk home. She was sooo happy!


We had the entire park to ourselves, except for a few people playing tennis. She swung on the swings for the longest time. We talked about the kids at school we could also see swinging. About kids doing PE. About dogs walking past.

Caroline always asks me, "What's that dog's name?" when we pass people walking their dogs. Sometimes I make names up. Sometimes I ask people. They're all friendly and eager to tell us. We've met Jag the St. Bernard. The Basset hounds, Hamlet and Ophelia. A couple of tiny, little dogs, Pokey and Poppy. A golden retriever named Casey. Caroline is always happy to know the names!

When we finished at the playground, she found lots of dandelions to blow. She just barely had it figured out, as sometimes she'd open her mouth, and instead of blowing, would kind of eat the seeds. She didn't like that too much. ;)

She told me to take her picture smiling with the dandelions. This was how she posed. :)

We had fun together and definitely need to go more often! :)

CA Adventure--January

I thought I better post about this before it's time for us to go there the next time. ;) We went to CA Adventure January 5, the day after Disneyland. The day before, Austin didn't care at all about pictures with characters. He had no time to waste on that silliness! At CA Adventure, there were no lines at all by Lightning McQueen and Mater, and Austin agreed to a picture. Hee hee. Cute! I think it helped he likes Cars, and the characters are decidedly more boyish than a lot of the other Disney characters.


It wasn't too busy at the park. We were so glad! There were hardly any lines. We only had to wait 0--walking on--to 10-ish minutes for the rides. Yay! We tried out the Jumping Jellyfish ride. Cute, but not much to it.


There are quite a few rides at CA Adventure that Caroline is too short to ride. so Brian and I did kid-swapping on those. One of us would ride w/ the big kids. Then the other would ride w/ one of the big kids right away a second time. That was interesting, choosing who got to ride one more time! Brian had them pick a number, 1 -10. Then we just rotated through their turns.

We didn't go on the Grizzly River Run, as it's a water ride, and the day was chilly. Austin ran over to the giant bear and told me he wanted a picture with it! Funny he had time for that! Lauren jumped in the scene too. Austin told me later he put his arms up so it would look like he was keeping the bear from falling on him. :)

There are these murals set up all over the area where they're building the new Little Mermaid ride and a restaurant. Maybe the Goofy Driving School too? I don't remember.

Caroline's favorite: the merry-go-round! She was lucky, and we walked on, to ride it at least 3 times in a row!

Our action figures: Drama Queen was more than willing to ham it up. Goofball Brother, was, well, goofy. You can kind of see the top of his head in the first picture, hiding behind Woody. Composed Oldest Child wasn't going to be silly in that box. Nuh uh, no way! ;) She did want to be in it though and just smiled so nicely.

Caroline was worn out! The day before at Disneyland, she had no nap. We went to Subway for dinner after the park closed, about 8:30 pm we ate, and she slept through the whole meal! I was glad she took a nice nap in her stroller at CA Adventure. Brian took the big kids on Soaring over California, then I took a couple of them again with the kid swap. We could take two on that ride.

Also while Caroline slept, Brian and Austin went on the big roller coaster, CA Screamin'. Austin was a little scared, but so excited when he got off. He loved it and wanted to do it again! Julia kept saying it wasn't her thing, but Austin told her she would like it. Generally she does like fast rides, and she said maybe next time she'll try it.

So, the boys did the roller coaster and Caroline slept. The older girls went on the caterpillar train.

Brian had fast passes for CA Screamin', so the boys were quick w/ their ride! They returned just as Julia and Lauren were lined up for the lady bugs. Brian stayed w/ Caroline while Austin and I hopped in line w/ the girls.

Woody's Midway ride was the only ride we had to wait a long time for, the entire day. That line was 45 min. Boo. But Austin reeeeally wanted to do it (it is fun), so we suffered ;) through the line. Caroline loves the rides/shows that have the 3-D glasses! It's like playing dress-up for her, and she calls them sunglasses. Actually, she doesn't love the 3-D shows; the pictures "jumping" out at her scare her. So she just plays w/ the glasses and watches the shows w/out them. She likes Woody's Round-Up though; she gets to wear "sunglasses" and shoot a gun at the game targets. :)

Before leaving we watched the World of Color light and water show, and it was really good! Absolutely beautiful. The only thing, there were a lot of people for that, and it was a little hard to see some of the lower parts of the show. The 3 big kids kind of wormed (nicely, they are little and skinny!) their way into empty areas near the front, so at least they could see better. Caroline sat on Brian's shoulders most of the show. It was a very fun day, and we got to do a lot of things we didn't do our first visit.

And That's Why She's Going to College

The other day, Lauren brought a Barbie to me. She needed Barbie's dress put on. I said, "Wow, that's a short dress!"

Lauren: "Well. It's ok. She's in high school. And she's going to go to college." Like being older made it more ok to wear a short dress.

Me: "What will she learn in college?"

Lauren: "She's going to learn how to ice skate really good so she can be in the Olympics!"

Lauren with Austin last week before Awana. Crazy Hair night. Could you guess? ;)

Made Me Wonder

We got a call from Austin's teacher tonight. She said she wanted to talk to us about something that happened at school today. I was thinking, "Oh boy...", wondering what he did. She then went on to explain, saying she was getting choked up even thinking about it again.

She said they have a new boy in class, which Austin had told me. She told how this morning she called the kids to come sit on the carpet. The new boy--who's a little guy (Austin said probably shorter than Lauren)--was shuffling his feet, and his teeth were chattering, walked slowly to the carpet. Austin and 2 other boys made a spot for him, and said, "Abran, Abran! Sit here!" She said she was so pleased with them for making him feel welcome.

He looks welcoming, huh?

And how they went on to make sure he knew where the restroom is and then played with him at recess. She said, "Enjoy him!", and "Give him a hug. I don't see many kids being kind," and how seeing this made her so happy. =)

Disneyland--January

We went down to Brian's mom's January 2. We planned to go to Disneyland that Monday, the 3rd, but didn't want to go in the rain. So pushed it back to Tuesday. It was so much nicer going this time than in November. Mainly because there were so many less people!

There were quite a few characters right there when we walked into Disneyland. The girls wanted their picture with these two, but not Austin. He didn't want to waste time on that--just get to the rides already! Julia's favorite animated movie is Alice in Wonderland, so she was pleased to get a picture with Alice. :)


Brian went to get fast passes for a ride, so I got a few pictures of the kids w/ the castle behind them. Oh my, what a hassle! And the sun was in there eyes for this shot, poor kids. Then we met up with Brian in Fantasy Land and went on Dumbo.

Caroline said when she saw these pictures, "We went on that Dumbo ride! We went up. And down. It wasn't scary..." She's scared of most of the indoor, dark rides. But loves It's a Small World with the singing dolls. ;)

No line at all for the Teacups! Brian's not a huge fan of them, so off he went to get another fast pass.

The kids were all smiling and laughing as they spun us around and around in our cup.

Austin tried to visit White Rabbit. But his door was locked. ;) Caroline waiting in line for the Storybook Cruise.

And off we went, to see the storybook scenes.

That was the last picture I took that day. I can hardly believe it! I was so sleepy and maybe just didn't think about it? I don't remember! Oh well. We really got to do a lot this visit since the park wasn't too crowded. We went to the Tiki Room, and the kids liked the singing birds. We all shared a Dole Whip before we got in, and that was gooood.... Yum!

When we left Disneyland for the night, the lines for the tram to the parking garage were so crowded, w/ people leaving Disney and CA Adventure at the same time. So we walked to the parking lot! It was only about a 10-min walk. We did that the next day too, when we went to CA Adventure. Soooo much faster than waiting in that crazy tram line and dealing with taking all the stuff out of the stroller, the kid out of the stroller, folding up the stroller on the tram, then unfolding it off the tram, and reloading it with all the bags. And the kid. We might have had a little more tired feet (especially Austin and Lauren), but I thought that is what we should do from now on! Unless the tram lines are super short.