Aly's Harvest Festival

Aly's Harvest Festival started at 6. So after running from school, to KK's school for Trick or Treating, to home to finish the decorating of 24 cupcakes, we made it just in time for the Harvest Festival. Man it had already been a long day! Here are the cupcakes I made, I think they turned out really cute. They are brownie cupcakes, with chocolate frosting, Oreo cookie crumbs, and gummy worms.

Since we knew it would be cold and raining we convinced the girls to wear warmer costumes for the Harvest Festival. KK chose Jo Jo's Circus and Aly chose her Frog costume. They were both very warm and comfy and both liked their costumes.

The girls had a blast doing the carnival games and trick or treat alley.

I really liked how the festival was set up and I hope we get to do it every year. It was a nice, safe activity for everyone to enjoy. They got to see many of their friends too. I imagine in a few years we won't be able to walk around with them anymore.....sad....

Aly's kindergarten class halloween party

Aly had her class party today. I woke up at 5:30 a.m. frazzled as to how I was going to accomplish everything needed for the day. We didn't make it home from Disney on Ice last night until 10:45 p.m. and I didn't get to sleep until almost 11:30. I still had to decorate some of the cupcakes for the party, make the children's lunches, get Aly dressed and her hair all fancy, and get the children breakfast. I was also somehow supposed to get both children to their separate schools at 9:00 a.m. I knew this wasn't going to work! So at the last minute I decided to just have KK skip preschool and come to school with Aly. Siblings were welcome to come to the party so I figured it would be fun for KK too. Besides, her class wasn't having a party, they would be going trick or treating at 1 pm. which we planned on joining them for.



You can't tell in the picture but I put Aly's hair in a cute twisty bun and sprayed glitter in her hair. I also let her wear a little lip gloss. The second picture is of KK and her friend Jordon eating their cupcakes before the rest of the class comes in from recess. Do you know I totally forgot to take a picture of the cupcakes. Bummer!

Here are some pics of some of the kids at the party. We kept everything pretty simple and the kids had a great time!

This is a picture of Aly's friend Nathan--you know the one she is going to marry because he has black hair like her Daddy and he is nice and smart! Nathan was sitting next to one of his best friends Bryan.

Disney on Ice: 100 years of magic

All week long I waited around hoping the tickets I won from the radio would show up. I was expecting them on Tuesday, nope they didn't come. I thought for sure they would be there on Wednesday..nope, not at all! I was so worried we wouldn't receive them. I basically had no choice but to wait around for the mail to come at 2 p.m. and hope the tickets were in the mail for tonight's show. I got to the mailbox early and found out that this just happened to be a day the mail carrier wanted to chit chat down the street so half an hour later he showed up. In the meantime my girls were climbing manzanita trees and KK managed to cut her finger quite badly.

Lucky for us the tickets were in the mail! I was thrilled and told the girls we would be going to the show! I called hubby and work to let him know we would be there at 5 to pick him up. We left the house shortly after 3 so I could run a few errands on the way. We picked Daddy up at 5 and boy were we glad we did. Do you know how long it took us to drive what would normally be about a 30 minute drive? It took a whopping hour and a half! We got there with 15 minutes to spare.

Aly wasn't looking forward to the show in the beginning because she was afraid there would be fire. She sat in Daddy's lap and braved the show. After about 15 minutes she was in love with the show and much more comfortable. KK had a blast!!! She absolutely loved it! We loved it too and thought it was a great show. The first half of the show was perfect and very entertaining. The second half only had two slow parts, Mulan and the Incredibles. Neither of the girls were into those parts so they got a little bored at that time.

My camera did not get any pics at the show. It didn't like the lighting or should I say lack there of. So we will have to keep the memories in our hearts.

Do you know as soon as we left the show KK was already crying wanting to go back?

Playgroup Halloween Party

We decided to keep things simple and have our playgroup Halloween party at the Pizza Factory. It worked out quite well too. The kids all had fun in the game area well the adults got to visit. Come all, we all know playgroup is really for the adults don't we? We need to socialize more than the children!

My camera wasn't taking good pics so this is all I got:

Drumroll for Dumbo....the cute little bumble bee...

Tuck the turtle from Wonder pets....the turtle costume is KK's and his mom geniusly made the cape and hat!

And the cute little puppy dog!

There were other children too but all of those pictures turned out blurry so until I steal some from those people, this is all I got!

blogging, cleaning, etc

So I am either really successful at publishing blogs daily or cleaning. I can't seem to get both done so one or the other tends to suffer. Lately I have been trying to be more anal at cleaning the house which has really put my blogging on hold. So, I will have to try and catch up on blogging perhaps this weekend. With Halloween on Friday we are booked solid with activities over the next few days so I will try to catch up over the weekend. I owe pics from the San Francisco trip and would love to write some other things....

My b-day celebration

My birthday always falls at such a busy time of year. Now that I have two girls it feels like it is even more busy! The day started off with me get Aly off to school. Once I had accomplished that task I had to bake 60 cupcakes! Yes, that's right, 60! Why so many you ask? Aly's school needed me to donate 24 for the cake walk and I wanted to make 36 for Aly's class. Aly's class only has 20 students but I knew younger siblings would be coming to the party and I didn't want them to be left out. So I made a dozen extra just in case. I knew some of the adults would want to eat one anyway.

So I decided to make 24 brownie cupcakes, 24 m&m cookie cupcakes, and 12 chocolate chip cupcakes. This consumed most of my day. After Aly got home from school we played a bit and then found out that Daddy could meet us at Carrows for dinner. Carrows happens to be Aly's favorite restaurant because they know just how to make macaroni and cheese the right way!

Of course I had a coupon for a free piece of triple layer chocolate cake and a free drink. So it got hubby off the hook from buying me a cake for my birthday and we wouldn't have to worry about any left over!

When we got home we opened presents. The girls were so thrilled and wanted to open my presents for me.

The girls got me pins for my substitute teaching Disney lanyard. Aly got me a Pluto pin and KK got me a Mickey Mouse pin. Hubby picked out a Tinker Bell music box. The girls loved it so much that I could barely keep my hands on it! In fact the sad part was that nearly 5 minutes after I opened it one of the butterfly wings had already broken off. Super Glue here we come!

Here is a close up picture of the globe. You can see how fragile the butterflies are. We told the girls not to touch but it was so hard for them not to. When I wasn't looking Aly picked it up and accidentally made it fall. Oh well, Super Glue here we come!

My best friend Amy completely spoiled me with Mickey Mouse Christmas PJ's from the Disney store. Can I just say these are the most comfortable flannel pj's I have ever worn! She also got me a Pampered Chef decorating tool for cake decorating and a bear ornament for our Christmas tree. I loved everything! She also sent one of those fun musical cards and this one song the Mickey Mouse theme song!

Thank you Amy and hubby for making my day so special!

Tinker Bell the movie

Did you know my favorite Disney character is Tinker Bell? It has been my favorite character since falling in love with the movie Peter Pan. So of course when I heard they were coming out with a movie about how Tinker Bell came to be I was thrilled. I was even more thrilled when I learned it would be released right before my birthday. Of course I had to run out and get it the first day it came out!

We ran to Walmart to get the movie and went straight home and all three of us sat in bed and watched the movie. Daddy tried to join for while but fairies just aren't his thing! The girls loved the movie and Aly immediately ran to her playroom to find the Tinker Bell costume that Grandma T had bought for her. Of course since Aly ran and got her Tinker Bell costume, KK had to run and get hers. They both had a great time playing Tinker Bell.

Disney on Ice

While driving home from our weekend trip to San Francisco, I was listening to KUIC 95.3 FM. They were having a call in contest where caller number 5 would win a four pack of tickets to Disney on Ice. Lucky me, I was caller number five and we will be going to the show this Thursday as long as we receive the tickets in the mail on time. I was offered to go to the station to pick up the tickets but considering the station is an hour and a half drive from our house I decided to have them mail me the tickets. Besides they said they would drop the tickets in the mail tomorrow which means I should actually get them on Tuesday. I am not going to tell the girls about the tickets until they are in my hands. That way if something happens they won't know.

SF trip heading home

This morning we decided to head home. Do you know that right next door to our hotel was Sloat Nursery? So of course hubby had to stop by and check out all of their plants. He had already taken a brief tour when we arrived Friday night, but this morning he had big plans! He was going to stroll in and take his time shopping and bring home some new plants for his garden.

Aly and I decided that we had to make a plan with Daddy. If he gets to go to a plant nursery, we get to go to a mall! So Daddy reluctantly agreed and we were all happy!

I just have to share with you the view from our hotel Too bad it was foggy when I took the pictures. In the first one you can see how the zoo entrance is right across the street. In the second picture you can see where the street ends is the beach. See how close everything was? It was great and we can't wait to do it again maybe next February or March! Grandma T you might want to join us on that trip! I know you have wanted to go to the beach for at least the last four or five years. Oh yeah, and I even have an extra zoo ticket for you and it is free.

Our day at the San Francisco Zoo

Today we decided to go to the San Francisco Zoo. Since the zoo was right across the street from our hotel and it didn't open until 10:00 a.m. we had some time to kill. We decided to give the girls a bath and go to our favorite local mom and pop grocery market called George's Zoo Deli. Hubby got his coffee there and we decided to try out there sandwiches and bring them to the zoo for our lunch. BTW, you know what is crazy? The owners of this market have a house near where we live and stay there on days they aren't working! Small world!

We got to the zoo right when it opened at 10:00 a.m. We had no idea how long we would stay and really didn't want to make a plan. We just wanted to take the day as it came and let the children lead the way. We knew something was happening at the zoo that we weren't aware of because we saw a bunch of children dressed up in Halloween costumes. Once we were inside we found out that it was trick or treating day at the zoo. Bummer we didn't know before hand. The zoo was nice though and let anyone trick or trick whether they were wearing costumes or not. So this became the sole purpose of our zoo visit to the girls. Animals?? What animals?? All we want to do is get candy!!!

Our first stop was the giraffes. Daddy and I were more interested than the girls!

The girls did love climbing on the animal statues though. They spent lots of time climbing on and around them. Even Daddy joined in!

The zoo also has a great playground to play at which I think we spent well over an hour playing at. After we played at the playground we went to the petting zoo. By the time we were finished at the zoo it was 4:00! We were shocked that we had spent such a long day at the zoo. We look forward to going back again another time when there won't be any trick or treating. Perhaps the animals will be more of interest to the girls instead of just mommy and daddy.

Our trip to San Francisco

Today we went to San Francisco for a weekend trip to visit the zoo and the beach. I managed to find a hotel right across the street from the zoo and a block away from the beach! It was great to be able to leave the car parked at the hotel and walk everywhere we wanted to go. We got to the hotel today shortly after 3. Our first stop was to go to the beach. Luckily it was low tide and we were thrilled. There were so many sand dollars on the beach. Aly and Daddy had a great time picking them up.

KK was mostly interested in shoveling sand in the bucket. and I was quite content to just watch her. We stayed for a little more than an hour and decided to head back to the hotel to get dinner. I will post more about the weekend trip later.

KK's School field trip

KK had her school field trip to a local farm today. The farm has pigs, goats, chickens, and ducks. It also has two old tractors for the kids to climb on and many arts and crafts booths for the parents to purchase things. KK and I decided it was easier to drive and meet her class at the farm instead of driving to the school and then to the farm. So we ended up getting to the farm half an hour before her class...oops! You see, the field trip said it was at 10:30 so I got to the farm at that time and didn't really realize that 10:30 was the time they were leaving from the school. Oh well, KK and I had time to look around at the animals ourselves.

Once her friends arrived we had a short tour of the farm. After the tour the kids each got to pick out their own pumpkin. This was KK's favorite part. She picked out an itty, bitty pumpkin with a long stem. She was very proud of her pumpkin and decided to climb up on a bale of hay to take a picture with her pumpkin. Her little friend Hunter thought this was a good idea too so he decided to join her! Unfortunately KK wanted to be king of this mountain so she started fighting with him to get off! First she used her words and then she resorted to pushing. I of course had to intervene and told her that she had a choice to share the spot or get off. In the end she decided it was better to share

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Career Path

I have it all figured out! I know what my girls will be when they grow up. Aly will be an artist, and KK will be a singer. Yes, I base all of this on their current talents. Aly's favorite thing to do is draw and KK's favorite thing to do is sing. So there you have it, they don't even have to fret over their path, it has already been decided. In India they have arranged marriages, why can't we have arranged careers? O.k., I am just kidding, of course I will let my girls choose their own path whatever that may be.

I will say though, Aly does have quite a gift for drawing which she definitely gets from her Dad's side. Here are some of her latest drawings:

These two pictures Aly learned how to draw at her art class that she goes to on Wednesdays.

This picture Aly drew at school. She said it is Johnny Appleseed. How cute!

KK's School Pictures

KK had her school pictures today. Her school arranged to have a professional photographer come to the school and take a class picture as well as individual action pictures on the playground. We don't have to order anything up front and will be given a web address to view the pictures online and make orders at that point.

I had the girls and Daddy help me pick a dress out for KK to wear. It was a 3 to 1 vote. The girls all wanted KK to wear this cute apple dress so poor Daddy lost his vote. This apple dress was given to us by my best friend Amy and her daughter Taylor had worn it when she was KK's age. We think the dress is adorable! I took a few pictures of KK myself in the morning. I put two little braids in her hair. I think she looked really cute!

Child labor-works for us!

This past weekend was a weekend filled with chores. Hubby really needed some help getting all the firewood he split stacked up so he could throw some tarps on it. So I told him that I would help and we could try and get the girls to help too.

It totally worked! KK was thrilled to help and had a great time loading wood in the wagon and handing it to me to stack. For the first 4-5 loads it was just KK and I. Aly then decided to join in and boy did it go fast. With both of them helping me load the wagon and then both of them handing me wood to stack it was great! Really helped ease the strain on my back too.

KK actually helped almost the whole time. Aly was good for about 4 loads. At one point she recruited KK to do art with her at the table outside. KK did art for a bit but decided she would rather help stack wood. Isn't that cute, a little three year old helping Mommy stack wood.

I tried to take a picture of the wood pile but it is so wide it didn't fit in the whole picture. We actually still have more to stack and think that by the time we are done it will all be filled with wood. We are assuming it will be around 2 1/2 cords which means we may still need 1/2 to 1 more cords of wood split. Hubby wants a break for now though so after we get the wood stacked we will cover it up and worry about more later.

Another Great Deal

You will never believe how much I found these outfits for? I was shocked to see that these outfits were only $2.50 each. Yes that is right for pants and shirt. The complete outfit! I just had to buy one for Aly and one for KK at that price.

Looking at the tags I think they were orginally from Walmart. I found them at Big Lots which is a closeout store. They orginally sold them for $5. but had them on sale for $2.50. Yeah for me! Can't feel guilty if the girls stain these up!

Who are the toys really for?

It seems like there are so many toys that we bought for the girls--well, uh, I think actually they may have been for Daddy! Yes, it is true, Daddy is reliving his childhood through his children. His favorite toys are trains and dinosaurs. Yes, whenever he plays in the playroom with the girls, that is what he plays.

This particular night he built one of the biggest train tracks he has ever built. As you can see we have a train table in the back but it is filled with lots and lots of toys. Daddy feels the train table is too small and he can't built the ultimate train tracks on it. In fact, I think we actually had to buy three different train sets just to make a track this big. Check out all of the dinosaurs around the track.

We have bought Daddy other toys too like legos, cars, and lincon logs. At least we know he has something fun to play with the girls with. He is not so much into dolls, and princess dress up!

A Blonde Moment

It seems lately I have had a few more blonde moments than normal. But the good news is I can laugh at myself and don't mind if others do too. My latest blonde moment:

While cleaning hubbies bathtub I couldn't get the water to drain out. I assumed it was plugged and proceeded to get the plunger. For the next twenty minutes I plunged the tub and was getting some gunk out. I gave up and waited for hubby to come home. He tried for a minute to plunge and then noticed the drain was actually plugged as the lever was up. He pushed the lever down and problem solved. I had to laugh at myself for that one. I put the lever up to get some water in the tub to clean it. What a dork I was for not remembering or thinking to look at that!

Subbing Day 4--not good at all!!!!

Wow, today was not good at all. It is funny though because I was only there to sub for two hours in the afternoon and I thought, this is going to be a great day. The kids just play in the afternoon as that is what their teacher has them do each day. So all I had to do was read a story, play inside and play outside. Seems easy right?

For most classroom this would be easy, but today, Diane was having a really bad, horrible, not so good day! As you may recall from my first post about subbing, Diane can be a very difficult child. Today was no exception. As soon as I went to pick the kids up from recess Diane was already throwing a screaming, crying fit. She didn't want the bell to ring and she wasn't ready to go inside from recess. I knew it was best to acknowledge her feelings and not address the issue anymore.

She cried the entire way into the classroom and tried throwing a fit on the floor once we came inside. I let her know that if she didn't calm down she would loose choice time. This seemed to work at the moment and I began reading the class a story.

Choice time did not go well as she couldn't get a long with anyone. She literally screamed at the top of her lungs at the other children in the class. Yelling at them to stay away from her, not take her toys, yelling that they wouldn't play with her, etc, etc. At one point I gave her a choice time out. She sat on the floor screaming, kicking her arms and legs, yelling at the top of her lungs. One of the other girls in the class couldn't stand it and told her, "If you don't stop screaming I am going to cut you with a knife!" Yeah, you read that right, another kindergartner in the class threatened her with violence. We are not even an inner city school, we are a bunch of country bumpkins!

The day continued with Diane screaming at other kids anytime they got near her. I honestly don't know how these children put up with her everyday, let alone their teacher.

After days like these I still consider if it would be better for me to home school Aly the rest of the year?????? How do these children have any opportunity to learn when Diane is taking away so much time and attention from instruction?

Pondering the past

Yes, I admit it, I am one of those sad women in their thirties addicted to Reality TV Shows. What's worse is that one of my favorite shows is The Hills. Yes, I know, this show is targeted for late teens/early twenties. I just can't help it, I love the drama, I love analyzing all of their mistakes, and wondering how many times I made those same mistakes myself.

It got me thinking back to the dread full days of dating in my twenties. I definitely made my share of mistakes starting off with my first boyfriend of two years, Matt. I don't know what I was thinking there but I was pretty much in the same situation as Audrina from The Hills. Yes, Matt was too young for a committed relationship and as much as I wanted it, it never happened. All of my friends told me to run the other way but I never listened. They had intelligent, watchful eyes while I had my blinders on. After two years I did finally break it off and it was the best decision I ever made.

Another dating blunder that came to mind happened in my mid twenties. I met an Irish boy through some friends at a bar. Yes, I would say that was probably my first problem, meeting a guy at a bar. Well, it was an Irish bar, but hey that is still not the best place to find someone to date if you are looking for someone who is relationship material. Anyway, this boy, Michael, asked me out and we went to dinner and another Irish bar. He brought me home and gave me a nice long kiss at the door. Since I was a "Good Girl" I didn't even consider inviting him in. I went to bed that night thinking the date went well and was quite sure I would hear from him again. After all, he kissed me right? Why wouldn't he call if he kissed me?

Yes, I was a naive little girl. Even though my Mom warned me on numerous occasions all about what boys want, I think I actually couldn't believe that was the case. No, Michael never called me again and I sat around with all of my girlfriends pondering why, what did I do wrong, and why would he kiss me if he didn't want to see me again.

Do you know when I finally figured it out? O.k. it wasn't even on my own. I told my husband this story a year or two ago and he made it all crystal clear. He said, the guy kissed you hoping to get invited inside where he would get to "spend the night" and have his needs met! What? Are you kidding me? Are you serious? Boys are like that? Wow, that explains so much! I can't believe it.

Singing in the rain!

Aly expressed interest in taking a shower tonight. She had the time of her life too! It was so cute! She pretended she was singing in the rain. She said the shower was rain and it felt like so much fun to stand in the rain and let water pour over her head. Of course this is not one of those Kodak moments so don't expect any pictures. KK thought the idea of a shower was neat too so she joined her sister. It was so cute to see both of them playing in the rain. I even taught them the Singing in the Rain song. Aly has informed me that she will be taking a shower every night now and doesn't want baths anymore.

Do you want to know how pathetic I was? I was so terrified of taking a shower when I was a child that I didn't begin until nearly ten years old. I remember not wanting water in my face or eyes. I know my Mom really wanted me to take a shower. Based on my recollection I don't think I began taking them regularly until after my step mom let me take one with her a few times to get used to it.

So my girls beat me to it. Yeah, they made me look pretty pathetic. I am happy though that they enjoy the shower as it is certainly easier to do than a bath.

Homework time for Aly

Lucky me that Aly is naturally responsible and loves school. The past few Mondays she has came straight home from school and grabbed her homework packet out of her backpack. This homework packet is given out each Monday and is a week's worth of homework. Well, she takes the packet out, reads all the directions, and has it completed on her own within 20 minutes! Yes, the whole weeks worth of homework is done and we don't have to even think about it again.

My Toyota Corrolla is FINALLY fixed

Words cannot express how thrilled I am that my Corrolla is fixed. First of it took 5 mechanics to figure out the problem. Here are all the things we replaced as suggested by different mechanics. In their defense a vibration problem is hard to diagnose and for some reason my check engine light never came on until a week ago.

Things replaced/repaired:
tires rotated and balanced $20
axels replaced $150
Struts ... $200
transmision fluid changed $30
brakes redone $100 (these actually needed to be done)
diagnostic even though they didn't know the problem: $40

I can't remember if there was anything else but it finally ended up being a bad spark plug. Apparently Bosch spark plugs aren't always compatible with Toyota's. Too bad that check engine light didn't come on two years ago! So I guess my car was running on three cylinders instead of four which is why the vibration was only happening in high gear going up steep grades. Ugh, anyway, I am just happy to have it back as it should start saving us quite a bit on gas!

Hubby is totally fine with the Corrolla being his new commute car. So we shall really start cutting our gas bill almost in half!

Davis' Baptism

This morning KK and I left the house at 7:15 to make the drive to Santa Rosa to see my cousins son Davis get baptized. Aly stayed home with Daddy as she had a 9:00 a.m. soccer game and since they don't have enough girls on the team she couldn't miss it.

We arrived at the baptism just in time with 5 minutes to spare. KK handled it pretty well except for having to go to the bathroom right as the priest was putting holy water on Davis' forehead. The cool thing was that the priest let an audience member blow the candle out and he brought it over to KK and I. I think KK was thrilled to help blow the candle out. After the ceremony we went back to my Aunt and Uncle's house for a nice luncheon.

It was great to see all three of my cousins. I rarely get to see them since one lives in San Jose, one in Monterey, and one in San Diego. I hadn't even ever had the chance to meet Davis or Haley since they had been born. Davis is around 5 months old and Haley will be a year old next month. So it was great to finally get the opportunity to meet them.

KK enjoyed playing with Haley and I think Haley enjoyed it as well. We had to leave shortly after 3 to make the trip back home. I am so glad that I had the opportunity to go and spend some time with my family.