Squish's teacher invited me to go with his 2nd grade class on a field trip to the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles. Personally, I think his teacher is amazing. She is just the nicest woman who loves her students enough to work them to their potential and doesn't let them get away with stuff. As a kid, I wouldn't have liked her. As a parent, I loooove her and really wish I could do some incredibly generous thing for her. But, since I really don't have any money, I try to do anything I can to help. Plus, I love field trips, so today was truly a win-win.
We went t
o see the dinosaurs at the museum, but they were still being re-arranged or dusted or something, so we didn't get to see the big exhibits that I was expecting. But, the kids don't know they missed anything. We went into a discovery room where the kids dug for fossils, touched fossils and rocks, looked at bugs and snakes, and then ended the time (for our group) by petting a few "animals." Why the quote marks? Because the "animals" were a hissing cockroach and a spiny stick bug. C'mon kids, who wants to pet the roach? Yes folks, they lined up for this privilege. Not my kid though, he stayed in his seat. But sweet girly-girls eagerly reached out and touched Mr. Roach and his pal Sticky. The boys did too, but it sounds like a boy thing. After that we saw a T-rex a
ll assembled in in the pose of attacking a 4 legged dino. That was neat. We finished the tour with "mammals" and looking at people actually digging bones out of dirt, which was cool.
While we were in this hallway looking at the scientists, I was at one end of the line of kids, and Mrs. P, Squish's teacher was at the other end. I looked to my left (the class was on my right) and I see a DINOSAUR walking towards me. A woman calmly annouced that it was a puppet, someone was wearing the puppet, and to please not touch the very, very expensive puppet. My first thought was "great....it actually looks real and is going to eat me first then go to work on the kids..." I looked at the kids and they had the same nervous looks in their eyes. As it walked tow
ards us, you could see the person's legs beneath the puppet, but I am telling you it LOOKED REAL. It moved like the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. It "walked" up to me and was right in my face. I actually felt a shiver down my spine. I was telling myself "It's not real" but I could imagine if it was, how dead I would have been. Then, as fast as it appeared, it moved down the line and was gone. I remember a couple of kids trying to hide behind me, but we all agreed it was really neat.
For lunch we ate at a nearby park and the kids got to play on the playground equipment. They had about 40 min of solid, heart pumping, smile inducing playtime before we had to get back on the bus. I appreciated that Squish's teacher strongly endorsed having the kids have some time to run around. All in all, a fun day. We returned with the same kids we left with (a big plus) and are ready to go again!
To watch Twilight! Last night Liz and I threw a Twilight Dvd release party!
It was so much fun! We (Mike, Me, and Kiddos) spent Saturday cleaning up the backyard. Then we tried to turn it into a cool movie spot. We had the "Welcome to Forks sign, a poster, and chalk on the driveway (courtesy of Squish.)
Then Mike spent all day building this amazing tarped pavilion. He hung the speakers up inside and put up some white lights.
We spent about 30 min all talking and watching our friends bring the most amazing desserts. There were beautiful cheese bread dishes, huge chocolate dipped strawberries, two - BITE brownies, 7 layer dip, lots of Cullen Chips, fruit, Emmet's favorite rice crispy treats, Alice Oreo Balls, Blueberry muffins, candy, munchies, toffee, and PAPER CUT cakes (they were amazing - layers of chocolate, red velvet, and chocolate again - Angie is amazing!) I know I am forgetting something, I apologize. I wish I had taken more photos!!! The food was incredible! Wendy brought Fire and Ice roses for the tables and Liz displayed her Borders collectible dvd set. There were posters around and a full size popcorn maker (on loan from friends) that added to the movie feel. (Thanks Wendy for making all that popcorn!)
We got our chairs set up and started a trivia game. We separated into two teams, "Team Edward" and "
Team Jacob". (Most of Team Jacob complained, but well, we couldn't have two team Edwards!!) We gave those that came on time Twilight necklaces and the friends that answered the most questions in the game won these amazing bracelets that Liz and I got from everyone's newest best friend, Tammy. She sells them on Ebay under the name "*lady arwen*". If you click on her name it will take you to a completed listing of one of her bracelets and then you can click "view sellers other items" to see if she has any bracelets for sale, or contact her directly, tell her you know Barbara and ask her if she's selling any right now. She is just one of the nicest sellers on Ebay and she made all the jewelery we gave out at the party. She might even custom make something for you - but I highly, highly recommend 
her for Twilight saga related jewelry! (If the link doesn't work, search "Twilight Inspired Charm bracelet" and keep looking until you find *lady arwen* as the seller.
I just started uploading the photos and I'm realizing all the people I didn't get pictures of. Dang. Ashley took some fantastic photos, and I took some okay ones too, but I hope there are a few more pictures out there. (I know Liz has some...anyone else?)
There was somewhere between 27-30 people at the party, depending on what time you counted, but it was so fun! It was cold, but it was fun! Thank you to everyone that came and made it so fun, and thank you to the my honey for setting everything up! We had wanted to do this at midnight on Friday, when the dvd was first released, and I was so impressed that our numbers didn't change that much when we decided to not do it at o'dark thirty and have it at a less zombish time. Thanks everyone for coming!
In January Mike went to Disneyland with his beautiful daughter. I had sent him with a disposable camera, but they rarely get used up (unless I'm holding it) so I sent it with our oldest on his recent scout campout and he took a few....but it still wasn't done. *sigh* So, I walked around, shot poorly lit photos of the outside of our house, and then had it developed. I was so surprised to see these pictures! Sooooooo, I thought I'd share. Mike said that they had a really fun time together and I am so glad. Love you both!
Have you read Twilight yet?
I am really excited that the "not-as-good-as-the-book-but-I-can-accept-that" movie is coming out on dvd this Friday night. I'm planning to go to a store's late night release party....then I'm looking forward to partying & watching it with a few Twi-peeps on Saturday. That will be my focus for the next two days....cleaning, coming up with games for a release party, and just being excited to see some friends that I really don't see nearly enough. If you haven't read Twilight, you could have it done in a day - if you are are "reader" or not. I'd say go check it out of the library but most have long wait lists on it. But I really do think you'd love it! Is anyone else out there doing anything for it?
Happy St. Patrick's Day! Mr. W is going to school today wearing this rockin' St. Paddy's day hat and Squish is just sportin' a shamrock sticker (& 2 teeny shamrock stickers on his shoes.) We hope you have a great green day!
What is it about Facebook? Is it that we can find old friends that we'd lost? Is it that it's fun to see how people's lives have turned out? Is it just that we need one more thing to keep track of? I'm having the hardest time remembering to blog. I even forgot I had email for a few days! Yikes! Anyway, I'm curious about what your take on it is. (And hey, friend me when you're done! hee hee!)
So our 2000 Caravan has been needing some work. Yeah, we knew it, but it still drove so we kept using it. But we has a scout overnighter last week to Joshua Tree so we took it in to make sure it was safe for other people's children to ride in it that far. (We knew it was safe locally, just to be sure it would make it.) The dealership said "yeah, it's safe. But it needs X to make the A/C and heater run again. It'll be about a thousand dollars." Oh. And the driver seat had been broken for years, another 1,000. if we wanted to do it. O
h, and there was melted crayon in the back seat. Nice. We'd been driving it forever, and it showed. The nice men at the dealership pointed out that the car was worth less than the new part. Funny that. Sooooooo we started to shop.
We looked online and in the lot, and had found a black stripped down Caravan, a 2009 that we went on Tuesday to look at. It was sort of in our price range and the boys really wanted it, but it didn't feel right. I kept asking the salesman if there were used ones, especially a blue one. He pointed out this silver van, and I tol
d him I'd like my dear brother in law, Rob to look at it. He's a mechanic at the dealership and very good with cars. Rob checked all over and gave it the thumbs up. Suddenly, we were talking prices and buying it. We spent 5 hours in the process and when it was all done, we walked out to our new van at about 10 pm and realized we had NEVER DRIVEN IT! DOH! But, Rob was, as always, right on the money, and it is a sweet ride. Only Wendy and Rob have seen it yet, so I wanted to share a few pictures.
I haven't really loved the old van for a long time. I called it the "pack burro" because it felt like that was what it was. A work horse that got me and our stuff where it needed to go. It worked, and I was grateful for that, but it didn't have some features we would have really liked to have had. Mike drives a sexy little car that has a great stereo system in it. It's the stock radio/cd player, but it blew the van's out of the water, and well, I spend a lot of time driving. Oh, I LOVE the radio in the new car. It has a Sirrius satellite system in it and I don't know how long it will last, but it is so nice to listen to my 80's tunes and not have the off color comments by the djs on the radio. (Michael...you know what I want from the Easter Bunny! A subscription to Sirrius!!!!)
Because we bought this 2008 car used (it was driven in Missouri as a rental for 8 months) it has bells and whistles that we wouldn't have had otherwise. It has "stow and go" where the seats fold into the floor and individual reading lights which really will come in handy. The boys love the middle row of seats because they recline and have their own arm rests. Ooooh....the middle doors open by pushing a button! Okay, I know you all have had these things on your cars for years, but personal climate control and air vents in the back really get us giddy. *grin*
Thanks for "listening" to my giddyness. We are just too excited to act cool about it. Oh, and a big "thank you" to my hubby for posing and jumping for me in the first picture. It took a few tries, but I love the photo!
Squish's teacher invited me to go with his 2nd grade class on a field trip to the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles. Personally, I think his teacher is amazing. She is just the nicest woman who loves her students enough to work them to their potential and doesn't let them get away with stuff. As a kid, I wouldn't have liked her. As a parent, I loooove her and really wish I could do some incredibly generous thing for her. But, since I really don't have any money, I try to do anything I can to help. Plus, I love field trips, so today was truly a win-win.
o see the dinosaurs at the museum, but they were still being re-arranged or dusted or something, so we didn't get to see the big exhibits that I was expecting. But, the kids don't know they missed anything. We went into a discovery room where the kids dug for fossils, touched fossils and rocks, looked at bugs and snakes, and then ended the time (for our group) by petting a few "animals." Why the quote marks? Because the "animals" were a hissing cockroach and a spiny stick bug. C'mon kids, who wants to pet the roach? Yes folks, they lined up for this privilege. Not my kid though, he stayed in his seat. But sweet girly-girls eagerly reached out and touched Mr. Roach and his pal Sticky. The boys did too, but it sounds like a boy thing. After that we saw a T-rex a
ll assembled in in the pose of attacking a 4 legged dino. That was neat. We finished the tour with "mammals" and looking at people actually digging bones out of dirt, which was cool.
ards us, you could see the person's legs beneath the puppet, but I am telling you it LOOKED REAL. It moved like the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. It "walked" up to me and was right in my face. I actually felt a shiver down my spine. I was telling myself "It's not real" but I could imagine if it was, how dead I would have been. Then, as fast as it appeared, it moved down the line and was gone. I remember a couple of kids trying to hide behind me, but we all agreed it was really neat.
