Happy Halloween!

Best Witches for a Happy Halloween!

Got Candy?

For the past few years we've been going to Mickey's Halloween Treat at California Adventure. This year they changed the name to Mickey's Trick or Treat. I'm not sure why the name change, but regardless of the name it's a special ticketed event that gives adults and kids the chance to dress up and trick or treat within the California Adventure park. They are very generous with the candy and there are many place to stop and trick or treat within the park. They have a parade, dancing, and lots of entertainment scattered in the park. We went with my folks, Wendy's family, and we all just had a great time. My folks ducked out around 9ish, then Wendy & Co left around 30 min later. We ended up staying until 11:15ish and boy, were we tired. I know that lots of you out there have little ones that fall asleep on the ride home all the time, but now that our boys are older, they pretty much stay awake. Not Friday night! They were both out by the time we got home. That's the mark of a fun night.

There's a Bobcat in the house!

Squish has officially begun up the path of Cub Scouting, and became a Bobcat last night. Now he begins working on his Wolf rank. It's the tradition that as new scouts receive this first rank they have the dads hang the boys upside down while the Mom pins his Bobcat pin on him to remind the Cub to "Do a good turn daily." Turn, flip....get it? Anyway, 3 boys were pinned for the first time last night, and one of our friends even received his Arrow of Light! Good job C.J.! Squish participated in his first flag ceremony last night at the pack meeting and went home saying "I love Cub Scouts! I can't wait for our next pack meeting!" Oh, that he might always feel that way.

So that's the difference!

I love taking the boys places that get us away from the world and it's distractions. It gives us a chance to stop and talk and I just try to let the boys discuss whatever is on their minds.

Yesterday 8 year old Squish and I went for a walk at the Nature Center. As we walked the mile or so, several times a lizard or squirrel tried to scare us by rustling in the dried leaves out of sight or jumping out at us along the path. (We're normally not that jumpy, but the Nature Center was unusually empty and we were largely by ourselves.)

So as we walked Squish said "how can you tell if a lizard is a boy or a girl?" I thought about it and said that it was my guess that a boy lizard had "body parts" that were just like a human boy. His response after blushing that I had used the "p" word was "yeah, and the girls have long hair and sing too much!"

There must be only boy lizards at the Nature Center.

(And for the record, he was thinking of the girls at his school, apparently they like to congregate around the recess "Coachie" and sing to her. I didn't want you to imagine that I was "going Maria" at the Nature Center. Hmmm? What is "Going Maria?" - The Sound of Music - her name was "Maria" - Me not singing "The hills are alive, with the sound of lizards....")

Pa's Pumpkin Patch

I love Fall. The colors are so beautiful, and there are so many photo opps that my camera batteries are almost always being recharged! We took the boys to the local pumpkin patch tonight with some dear friends. We've been going to the same patch with them for years now, and it just doesn't seem right if they aren't there.

We wish you all a happy fall!

Brick or Treat!

On Saturday, Oct 18th we took the boys to Legoland for the "Brick or Treat" Party. They had parts of the park all Halloween'd up, and there was "Brick or treating" along one short path.

Mr. W HAD to see the "Lost Temple" show, his favorite thing at Legoland. (He's shown with the cast.) He got to be in the show and that just made his day.

I really like seeing all the funny Lego builds they have around the park. (Like the fisherman with the fish on the ground encouraging the caught fish to jump out.) My biggest reason for wanting to go was because I wanted to see how they decorated for Halloween. I wasn't disappointed. They had in the "miniland" all kinds of fun surprises. One of the best was aliens landing in Las Vegas, complete with the Men in Black in the left corner. (You can click on the photos and they get larger.) Another I liked was Buffy the Vampire Slayer fighting a vampire in a graveyard, in the New Orleans area they had zombies coming out of graves, and some were holding teddy bears while still in the coffins. There were lots of houses that had trick or treaters, Halloween parties, and just a stray ghost or witch on top of a house. The Washington Monument even had a witch crashed into the side! Anyway, for those that live too far to go to Legoland, I wanted to share a bit of the silliness! Thanks for reading!

We wanna go tomorrow!

The anticipation of our upcoming trip is high around here, and everyone is talking about things we are looking forward to. Our cruise will be on the same ship we went on last time, and we'll even be eating at the same table as last time. We were going to be in the same rooms, but I've already told you that story. (grin). Have I told you how much we like change? These 2 photos are from the 2007 trip and I can't believe that so much time has gone by since our last cruise. I still haven't finished scrapbooking the last trip! How can I go on another one? Yeah, I'll get over it. I was just reading this one person's travel journal online about what they suggested you did and didn't pack on this cruise. They said don't bother to take more than 3 rolls of film. WHAT? I'm wondering if my two 2 gig memory cards will be enough. Pictures are such a great way to journal without having to write what happened at any given time.

We'll be going to Cabo San Lucas, then to La Paz, and then to Ensenada. I've never been to La Paz, I'm hoping the shopping will be good. In Ensenada we're booked to go on the "La Bufadora" tour. La Bufadora is the second largest blowhole in the world, and can shoot upwards as high as 80 feet above sea level. Wow. I hope it does that while we're there.

Anyway, we're all excited and looking forward to a week with no school, no homework, and lots of family time.(But we'll miss all of you!)

We're "batty" for science!

I was trying to think of something fun to do with my boys this afternoon because they were both getting out early from school. I decided that it was time to "science up" a bit and go to the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana. (Who knows? Maybe we'd learn something!)

We found ourselves almost alone at the Science center, apparently all of the hordes of kids on field trips had to be back at school by then and it almost echoed in the place. (It was GREAT!) We got to play with all of the fun exhibits, making smoke rings (with a machine you push on after it fills with smoke - they weren't passing out stogies), learning about erosion, and rode out 3 earthquakes in a simulator. We checked out Dino Quest, played a sim volleyball game in front of a green screen, and played with a virtual trickle of pebbles on a wall. Eventually we had to check out the bat exhibit. I knew this would be the exhibit they would love. Hadn't Squish learned all about echolocation in kindergarten? Wouldn't this bring back fun memories? Couldn't it? Yeah, the boys were so ecstatic that they had not only the run of the place but the full attention of all the employees there they ran from point to point to point, kind of afraid something batty would jump out at them (nothing did) or scare them. Clearly, we were the scariest things in the place. (see photo 3.) I was proud that Mr. W. was willing to put his head between the fake bat ears and hear how bats hear. His brother was sure they were going to attach or do something scary so he wasn't going near them.

My favorite part was a 3d maze (a hallway that had 1 turn....oooooo) you walked through that had images of bats and trees and things like mountains with caves, all that really did look 3d. (See photos 1 & 2). When I took pic #2 it looked 3d to me. I was so excited! Now it occurs to me that under the black light, with the neato glasses, it did look 3d as the walls did. At home on my blog though, not so much. Sigh. The very best part of the maze was just after I had finished reassuring Squish that nothing was going to jump out at him in this "maze" an employee innocently opened a door in front of us and walked down the hall. Well, he tried, but first he had to step over Squish's body now laying on the floor. Not really. But he understood (based on Squish's scream) what he had done and really enjoyed it (as I did). We walked through the maze 4 or 5 times, and I really thought it was the coolest thing in the center. If you have passes to the Science Center, go for the 3D maze. We're looking forward to "The Science of Gingerbread" next month!

Calling All Creative Types...

I know some of you will run screaming when I say this, but Christmas is coming. I am trying to find ideas for cute and inexpensive crafts for my kiddos to make. Any ideas? I just found this adorable card making idea using a handprint and fingertips. (Yeah, some of you may get this card....) but I am trying to get ideas for gifts that people will actually like. I'm open to suggestions!

Trunk or Treat!

Halloween Goblins and Ghosties and Ghouls!

Tonight we had a trunk or treat at our church building. It was advertised as a "Harvest Festival" but it morphed into more of a Halloween Par-tay! I wish I had gotten to walk around and take pictures, especially of those ward boundary jumpers that came! (The ward boundaries were just re-done so some of us like to visit other wards from time to time for activities!) Mike was dressed in style, as Elvis.(Yes, Elvis was in the building!) People kept asking me if he was wearing a baptism jumpsuit that I had "bedazzled." (I kept telling them "No, we got it off Ebay!) Sir Squish a Lot was "Link" from the Zelda video game series (Thank you Amy! You're SEW amazing!) and Mr. W was Superman! The Superman costume is cute, but if the wind blows his cape up you can see this big opening all the way down his spine where the company didn't bother to make a zipper or velcro closure. (Niiiice. And it's an adult size! This isn't a kid costume!) There were a bunch of game booths tonight, a bounce house, and trunk or treating at the end. It was a fun night, and a nice way to get excited about Fall!

Why is it so hot?

A few days ago I got really excited about fall. It was cold. It even rained on Saturday for a few minutes. I knew that the long awaited fall had arrived! I went to the store that night and bought "cool weather" food - potatoes, chili, stuff to make all kinds of soup in my crock pot.

Yesterday, Squish and I went to the library. The bank across the street said it was 99 degrees at 2:30ish in the afternoon. Today, the weather channel says "Abundant sunshine. Warm. High 89F." It's only 10am and my patio thermometer says that it's 80 degrees. Abundant sunshine? Bummers. Bring on the rain and the cold! Oh wait. We live in CA. Maybe in January......I guess I'll go hang another load of laundry on the line in the backyard.
Stay Cool Everyone!
Barb

A Fairly Fun Day in September

What is it about the Fair? Is it the sights of really cool prizes that can be won?




























Maybe it's spending time with friends and family....

Or the cool exhibits?

At the LA Fair one of the COOLEST things they had was a Christmas building with slushy ice for the kids to dig around and slip in, and ice skating rink, and a toboggan run! I wish I had captured Squishy's face when it went from "What am I doing up here?" to "This IS the best!!!!!!!!!!" I did catch the grimace at the end where he was
expecting to crash, not as cool, but kind of funny considering how happy he was going down. Mr. W loved it so much he kept getting back in line until I had to pull him out! It was incredibly hot that day, around 100 degrees so as soon as we got there we had to all get hats. Well, most of us. We spent the day with our friends from Utah, their brother and son Kelly, and Mike's folks from Texas. The above picture of Sir Squish making the slushy ball is one my very favorite of him of all time - Childhood boyishness captured for one brief fraction of a second. My favorite part of the fair? The Footsie Wootsie Machine and that my husband had lovingly packed his pockets with quarters for me.

Cruisin' in way more style than we deserve...

Have I told you that we're going on a cruise this month? OH MY GOODNESS! We are so excited! Mexico here we come! We're pulling the kids out of school for a week and taking a family trip! We'll be traveling with my folks and my sister's family - we went last year together to Mexico on the same ship. One of the sweetest things about last year's trip was that when we asked the kids what their favorite part of the trip was they said "eating together." Glad we spent all that money to go to Mexico so they could enjoy what we do on holidays, birthday, many Sundays......actually they were probably meaning just how much time we all spent together on board, and usually if we were awake, someone was eating.

Today my Mom called and said that because of an amazing offer through Carnival this morning, we would be upgrading our rooms from this....(Which would have been quite lovely and we were gratefully looking forward to....)







to this! Wow! A Penthouse Suite! I can't believe we're going to have a private balcony, a walk in closet, and bubbly tub! The kids are going to use the sofa bed. We are soooooooooooooooo excited! It isn't even on a "public" floor - it takes a special key to get there. We don't leave for a few weeks, but I just wanted to share the excitement!


Sing with us! "Somewhere beyond the sea,
Somewhere, waiting for me,
My lover stands on golden sands
And watches the ships that go sailing..."

Does anyone else out there remember "BIONIC" buttons from the 80's?

Just a question - I was listening to General Conference today and they were encouraging us to have courage to share our beliefs. I was reminded of a time when I was in either High School or Jr High and maybe it was just a local thing but they passed out these buttons at church. They had a heart on them and said "BIONIC", with a white background. BIONIC stood for "Believe it or not I care" and we had to promise that if we took one, we'd wear it everywhere. Well, I don't actually remember the promising, I just had a flash back of being in PE and my teacher telling me I couldn't wear the button on my gym clothes. "But Mrs ?! It's for my church! It's not bad! I promised I'd wear it!" yeah, I didn't get away with it. I think she rolled her eyes at me and told me to take it off. I wonder if I could have gotten away with it today. "I have to wear it for religious purposes!" "Oh, ok Barbara. I'm sorry. Can I have one too? I looks really nice with your gym top!" I don't know. It seems like people get away with more these days. I googled forever and I couldn't find a photo. Does anyone else remember them? The idea was that it would be a conversation starter, but I don't remember anyone ever asking me about it. It was small, like the black or white buttons everyone wore on their denim jackets or bags in the 80's. Anyway, the notion of me arguing with my PE teacher to wear that button just cracked me up. Oh, I felt so misunderstood. *grin*

Mr. W goes to his first "Man Meeting"

This weekend is General Conference for our church. What is that? It's a twice a year meeting where the leaders of the church speak to the world to educate and edify anyone that wants to listen. (Directv users - it's channel 374 - byu tv or see LDS.ORG) It's a 2 day thing, and Saturday evenings there is a special meeting for the men, who are members of the priesthood, only. (Which, for the record, is just fine with me. I don't want another meeting to go to, nor do I want the priesthood. Plus, a transcript of the meeting is published in a magazine I can read later if I want.)

Today was extra special, because while Mr. W will not be receiving the priesthood at this time, he was old enough to attend the meeting for the first time. When he got home he said "Mom, I'm a grown up now! I went to the meeting with Dad!" He and Mike were able to attend a pre-priesthood meeting pizza & rootbeer dinner with some friends of ours and their ward before the meeting. Tonight in Mr. W's prayer he said "Thank you Heavenly Father for letting me go to the man meeting." (I love that he called it that!) So, I wanted to share all this because I know that some of you were mighty curious if he would be attending, and if he did, how he would do in a 2 hour meeting shown on a movie screen broadcast from Salt Lake City. I guess he sat there and for the most part listened. Oddly, he didn't draw for the whole thing, and even SANG ALONG with the last 2 songs. (or tried to.) He came home very at peace and very calm. What a special night. We sure do love our 12 year old!

Squish's 8th Birthday - the best ever!

For Squish's birthday I told him we were going to have a family dinner at our place, and that it would pretty much just be a quiet dinner at home with both sets of Grandparents (Mike's folks were flying in that day for his baptism) and that his cousins would be there too. (the ones that live locally.) So, he went to school and I went into action. (Cue"mission impossible" music) I decorated the backyard with a bunch of streamers and Speed Racer stuff, decorated a Speed Racer car cake, and let in the bounce house man to set up what would make this "The Best Birthday Ever!" (At least, that's what Squish said.)




It went from this.....








To this in just a few minutes. I was worried that phone line would get knocked down or over with the bouncing, but it was just fine. My orange tree behind the castle didn't appreciate how often we deflated and inflated the castle, but the kids loved watching it deflate and fill up again. It was a really cool combo bounce house that also had a big slide and a climb through tunnel. We've never had anything like this before and don't usually do "big things" for birthdays.

When Squish got home from school we told him he had to do his homework before everyone got there, so after he was done, I tied a ribbon to the bounce house and told him "I have a really big balloon for you, you just have to find it." I had wound it around in the house a little, to give me a few seconds to run outside and turn on the camcorder. I hadn't anticipated how fast they would be, and oh, the happiness on those four faces!











"This is the life!" Says Mr. W (while doing his homework later than night)...Cousin Ozzie enjoying the tunnel .....

Mike enjoyed the bounce house too...
Mike's folks...


Cousin Cakes












and here's my folks.....









And here's my Mom and Sister....




It was a great party, we had pizza for dinner, cake, and created lots of bouncy memories! The best part was that because it was our first bounce house the man left it for us overnight and didn't come back for it until 7pm-ish the next day! WoooHooo!! By the end I was almost forcing them into it. They wanted to keep bouncing, but it was a really hot day and they were just dripping with sweat. Being the good mother that I am however, (ha ha) I kept saying "No, you can't go inside and play video games! We don't know when the bounce house man will be back to take it to his store! Go play!" (Because he just said "I'll come get it in the morning, you don't have to be home") So I really kept thinking it would be gone any second. Let's just say the boys slept really, really well that night. They did their homework in there, and when I finally gave up and could tell they had bounced enough, they laid down inside the bounce house and played Nintendo DS video games and read books. You might say we got some serious mileage out of that castle.