Preschool Grad and Gems from Joey . . .

Am I a Scrooge to think that graduation from preschool (or kindergarten, or even 6th grade) is slight overkill?! Oh, well! It was a fun evening . . . Trey, the little boy standing next to Anna, is the reason I answer this question daily, "Mom, what grade do you have to be in to kiss boys?!" My answer: "COLLEGE."


And now, some GEMS from Joey's Second Grade "Quick Write Journal" which he brought home yesterday. I had the BEST time reading through it, and now present some of the best excerpts - totally unedited:

*One day my brother had namonea! It's when the fluooy gets worse and worse.

*My faverite song is Jigle bells. I like the jigle part.

*My faverite Ice crame flaver is choclite. I have ate it at Aretic Cerkle.

*If I was in a rodeo I would be scard. Becuse I would bounce up and down.

*I would vote for my dad beacuse my dad is seriuse. And strong. And fathful. (I assume
they'd been asked to write about whom they would vote for for president!)

*I don't have a faverite kind of socks. Becuse there all the same.

*My fridge is white. It has food in it. It does'nt have rotten food.

*I voted for Micane. Becuse people say Oboma lies. I dont know for shor. Goodbye.

*Oboma is presendent now. I am kind of sad. He chaned the rules. (P.S. This and the above do not necessarily represent his parent's political views ;) At least we know he'll think for himself!)

*I think that soldiers spend their day buying guns.

*I don't know what it would feel like to be a cow with no teeth.

*I'ts national hug Day today I would'nt hug anewon aspeshaley a boy Its creepy!

*If I foud the last bit of snow I would lock it in the frezer. But that would turn it into ice so I
don't know what I would do with the last bit of snow.

*If I could go on an amaganary trip to Ploto I would. Well first of all I wouldnt beable to beacuse
Ploto is more then 1,000.000.000 miles away from earth. But if I could I would shout IM THE
FIRST HUMAN ON PLOTO!"

*You shoud respect a lady. Beacuse she might be carring a purse and if your not nice she might
just SlAP YOU.

*If I found one hundered dollers sitting on the ground I would pay tithing. (ten dollers) Then I
would pay for two D.S. games Yoshis Ilend, and Mario Kart D.S. So 100-65=35 So I would
have 35 dollers left. So I'd give the rest to my parents.

*If I was a composter I would write RAP muisc. Beacuse RAP is sort for RAPTORS I Think.
(their school mascot is a Raptor!)

*I don't really know what my summer vacacon plans are but I know I will have fun.

MAN, I LOVE THIS KID!! I hope summer vacacon IS fun . . . .

Homage. . .

This sippy-cup needs it's own special post. I bought it for Tommy, YES, Tommy. Now, before you gag, please know that THIS particular cup has avoided the dreaded "lost for days with milk, no wait, that's cottage cheese" scenario! I don't know how, but it's retained it's original paint job, even after COUNTLESS washings - most of which were in the paint stripping dishwasher! You can STILL tell who made this cup! AMAZING! So, for that reason, I feel the need to pay homage to the cup that has survived 4 CHILDREN! Heck . . . I'VE BARELY survived 4 children! It will soon be time to retire our old friend, but until then. . .God Bless America. . .and it's celebratory 4th of July themed sippy-cups!

EEWWW. . . dirt.

Said Anna to me in the car today . . .

"Ew, I think there's dirt under my fingernail"

"It's okay, we can clean it out when we get there."

PAUSE. . .

"Oh, wait. It tastes like oreo. It must've just been oreo from when I scraped the frosting off."

Alrighty then! Do I tell her now that it won't ALWAYS taste like oreo?!

When life hands you lemons. . .

Last night as I tucked Joey into bed, he informed me of something he'd apparently been tossing around in his head. . .

"I think I know what boys who don't go on missions, 'cause they don't believe in our church or something, do while they would've been on their missions...
They open a lemonade stand to make money."

My Last First.. .. ..

From here.. .. ..







Sara Alice
March 28, 2008
9 lbs. 3 oz.
21 inches










to here...in one SHORT year.




Sara Alice
March 28, 2009
23 lbs. 4 oz.
32 inches









I've watched my last "first steps" (6 weeks ago) heard my last "first word" ('Anna' - she LOVES her big sister!) and made my last "first birthday" cake. But I guarantee I haven't given my last hug! I LOVE you, my last baby girl!





Sara LOVES Abby Caddabby from Sesame Street. She gets SO excited everytime she sees her, so naturally that was who her cake had to look like! Well, that backfired a little because all she wanted to do was gently 'pat' Abby, not EAT her! I had to force feed her some frosting to get her to realize that she could eat this Abby! But, not being one who likes to get her hands dirty, she still wouldn't go for the dig-in-approach! So, we ended up using a fork! But, as you can see by the last picture, she eventualy enjoyed her Abby cake and ended up with frosting everywhere! Happy Birthday, Sara!

The Happiest Place on Earth . . .

Tommy opened his last gift . . . the one with the surprise. Notice the lack of excitement - - EXCEPT FOR ANNA! She was thrilled! At least one of them was! Sheesh!So, off we go into the wild blue yonder - still a strange lack of enthusiasm. EXCEPT FOR ANNA! After arriving in L.A. (I was determined to see a celebrity while there . . .) T.R. decided he really wanted to go to Sea World! After being in a plane for two hours, we then drove in a fancy rental car for two hours. By the time we got there, the kiddos (even Anna) were even LESS thrilled than before! But, Sea World was pretty cool! We only got to stay for two hours because it closed at 5:00 - but there were VERY FEW people there and NO lines, so the two hours was just about enough! (I highly suggest taking your next California vacation on a random weekday/end in March. No crowds, the weather was great . . . not too hot, not freezing cold. PERFECT.)

The next day, Friday the 6th, we INTENDED to go to Disneyland, but ended up spending the entire day at the CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE! Anna and I ate lunch with the princesses AND my friend Torrey and her little girlies. So fun. Anna was in awe the ENTIRE time (and well she should be for what that lunch cost! Man, those folks at Disney sure know what they're doing.) Tommy, Joey, and T.R. hit the rollercoasters and other "scary" rides while we were at lunch. Then we met up and saw ALMOST all there was to see! (I'm pretty sure we could've spent a week there and not done anything twice!)

Finally, on Saturday, we made it to DISNEYLAND! (Along with tens of thousands of other people!) After riding Small World first, we decided to divide and conquer! That way Tommy and Joey wouldn't have to suffer through princesses and teacups. . . and we wouldn't have to hear Anna whine 'cause she was waiting in line for a very manly jungle safari. So, most of the pictures are of Anna and the princesses again. But then, we met up at about 4 p.m. on the Finding Nemo ride, and spent the rest of the day waiting in lines together! The last ride we rode was Pirates of the Carribean, and I do believe it was my favorite! Last is always best, right?!

We had so much fun! But, the highlight for ME. . . was seeing some of my roomates from my first year at Ricks! Sharon (far right) lives in So.Cal. and Torrey's (far left) husband and Dawna's (center by me!) husband had work stuff going on the same weekend. Thank heaven's for Facebook, or we might have missed each other 'cause really, what are the odds?!! The best part was that Dawna surprised us by coming! Only Torrey knew she'd be there, and when I turned and saw her and her cute family standing there - I cried! It was SO great to see my friends at The Happiest Place on Earth! So what that we paid an arm and a leg to be there! Memories like this - - PRICELESS

Sunday morning, TR's Aunt Lori made us Mickey shaped pancakes (thanks again to Uncle Loy and Aunt Lori for letting us stay at their house! It was so fun to see them!) then we hit the beach, just to say we did! Then back home to see Sara who'd been with my mom and dad. THANK GOODNESS! She would've been misserable with us! It was SO fun, and I'm so glad we went! Now maybe next time the kiddos will be a LITTLE more enthusiastic when they find out we're going to Disneyland!

P.S. I promise T.R. came too - - he just wanted to TAKE the pictures, not be IN them!

Surprise?

We promised Tommy when he was 3 that we'd take hime to Disneyland when he turned 5. OOPS. Well, he turned 10 last Wednesday! We decided to bite the bullet, and JUST DO IT, and surprise him with the trip! FINALLY! The last present he opened was a box with this message written in it. . . "Pack your bags, we're finally going to Disneyland! Tomorrow! REALLY!" We hadn't said a thing about it, it was to be a complete surprise, and we really were leaving the very next morning! His reaction? He teared up and was a completely underwhelmed by the news because he was going to have to miss school. wow. Did not expect that! Now, I can look at this two ways:

1. Hurray! My kid loves school more than Disneyland!
2. How sad! My kid loves school more than Disneyland!

Judging his enjoyment of the trip (pictures coming soon) I can only assume that his reaction was based on the fact that he had no idea what Disneyland/California has to offer. But still. What have we done?!