My Day with Kathryn

Busy week so far.

I wanted to share some pictures that I took when I was out with Kathryn.


Our first stop was Downtown Disney. We walked around and did some window shopping. She ate a pretzel and then went into the Disney 365 store. She bought a hairpiece extension thingie.
She does like to look glamorous. After going through a couple more stores, we went to eat at the Olive Garden.



The food was wonderful and Kathryn and I had a great time just chatting away.


Kathryn enjoyed her spaghetti. I had delicious Chicken Parmigiana. By the time I remembered to take a picture, I had it half eaten, so I don't have a picture of my food.


Here you can see Kathryn's hair piece thingie. It's a ponytail piece that clips onto her hair. I must say that she does have fashion sense - something that I don't have!

After our lunch, we did a little shopping at the mall. Then it was back home to join the rest of the family.

Steve and I try to make a little one on one time with each of the kids and treat them to a nice lunch and let them decide what the agenda will be (within reason). It's usually done after Christmas because they usually have some decent spending money that they received as gifts.
We all enjoy ourselves and the kids enjoy the undivided attention!

Funnel Cakes

Yesterday, we were able to get out and after Mass, we headed out to get some funnel cakes. During the summer Steve won some coupons for free funnel cakes and today we decided to redeem them.

We drove down to Shoreline Village in my old hometown of Long Beach. It's situated near the water and has lots of shops and eateries. It has changed quite a bit since I lived there.

Ryan at the entrance of the Funnel House.

The funnel cakes were delicious!

Some sights at Shoreline Village.

And as a side, here is Emily in her Our Lady of Lourdes costume that I fumbled my way through!


I don't know who the saints are in front nor in back of her. Cute!

Summertime Activities (with Photos)

I was able to upload the latest pictures from my camera (and Kathryn's), so this is some of what we've done this summer:




We did a little baking. Kathryn wanted to make these Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins, and she did a terrific job. They were delicious.

We made a visit to the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles.



This pond here shows all the tar that is still there. Gases still rise up from the earth below.

This is a depiction of how a woolly mammoth baby got stuck in the tar while momma and sibling looked on helplessly.


The ground at the museum has lots of spots like this. Tar just coming up from the ground.

Here you can see Emily standing in front of the skeleton of a woolly mammoth.

The gang is all here minus me taking the picture!

On the drive home, we passed by Paramount Studios. No citing of celebrities!

The next shots are from our short visit to the beach to collect some shells. We were only there for about half an hour. The shells around there are pretty small and mostly pieces, but they still have beauty to them.

And I can't end without a photo of some of my harvest of wonderful tasting tomatoes! I have had a continuous supply of them and they are delicious!

Summertime Activites

Well these sure have been the lazy days of summer! I obviously haven't been doing many posts lately. I've been trying to visit your blogs when I can, but have been off the computer a lot. I've been trying to do some activities with the kids before they begin school. I have pictures, but I haven't uploaded any of them yet. Hopefully, I can do that soon because I want to post them.

We visited the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles. It was a very interesting place and Ryan especially loved it. We learned about the animals that lived in that area eons ago and got to see the fossils. Most of them were trapped in the tar or asphalt. There are still fossils being discovered today and we got to see some people (I forget the name of them) working on them.


We also went to the beach. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera. We had a blast. I pretty much stayed under the umbrella, but enjoyed watching the kids run from the waves.


Kathryn has finished her summer basketball season. Her team went undefeated and they won the championship for her team's division just yesterday! Yea!

Today, Kathryn and I had a consultation with an orthodontist. She needs to have braces, but we're not sure when we'll actually do it. Ryan is going to be referred by our dentist in a couple of months. Having two kids in braces is going to cost us a good chunk of money and I really think Ryan will need them more than Kathryn. So I don't know how we'll handle this right now. Lots of playing around with the budget. I wish I could find that lottery ticket that I misplaced :)

Well, school begins on Monday. All three will finally be in school. It's been fun having the kids home all summer and I think I will miss having them around. I hope I don't get too teary when I see little Emily in her uniform standing in the Kindergarten line! She's my baby and when I allow myself to think about her starting school...well, I don't want to stay there too long. AAAGH!! MY KIDS ARE GROWING TOO FAST!!!!!!!! I'm sure many of you can relate.

Well, it's late now and the bed is calling my name. I hope I can get a post in tomorrow with some pictures!

Super Bowl Sunday Ramblings

We are having a little informal party here for Super Bowl Sunday. I'm really not into football, but Steve and Ryan have a ball talking about the game. We have just finished our pizza and are awaiting the start of the game to begin indulging in our junk food snacks! So, I plan on eating, crocheting, and watching the commercials (that's about the only time I look forward to watching them)!

Yesterday, Kathryn had a basketball game and she got quite a bit of playing time. She hardly ever gets to play, so to see her out there hustling after the ball was fun. Her team lost but they did make a tremendous comeback after being behind by 20 or so points! I think they ended up losing by 9.

I also finally got around to cleaning out Ryan's closet. What a job that was! There were so many stuffed animals! Most of them were Emily's. I had to bag a lot of them and put them in the garage. If I had my druthers, I'd donate them to Goodwill or something. And that reminds me that I need to do that purging type cleaning when no one is home. All the kids want to know what I'm throwing in the trash, what's going in that bag, what am I doing with such and such.
Most of the stuff they don't play with anymore, but all of a sudden they see it and beg me to not get rid of it!

I don't want them to grow up being a pack rat. I've been like that and it's only within the last couple of years that I've learned to let go of so much. It is so easy for me to accumulate clutter. I used to save so much memorabilia type things, remembrances of this event or that one, but the thing is, it's just stuff that stays packed away. It's not like I have it sitting out to remember it. Just accumulated clutter. I have saved a few things, but I find it much more freeing to let go of a lot.

For me, letting go of clutter is like peeling an onion. I go through a lot of things, trash some, and save some. The next time I go through a box or something, I see the same item, then this time decide that it is something I can let go of. I try to also keep in mind that some things I think are worth saving will not be something my kids will want went I'm long gone. Maybe some things will have a memory associated with their past and they'll want to save, but most of it will be junk to them. I'll spare them the task of having to go through all my stuff.

I'm finally finishing up season two of The Waltons. I'm enjoying the episodes so much. The story lines are good and I just love watching Olivia and Grandma tending to their duties. And Olivia always shows such gracious hospitality. The family was in the midst of the Great Depression, yet they always welcomed the unexpected guest with an extra plate at the table or a place to stay for the night. They remind me of my mother. She's always tended to her duties without grumbling and showed gracious hospitality. They give me inspiration when I find myself grumbling and being a little lazy in my duties.

Before I start watching season three, I have to watch a few horror/suspense movies that are in my queue. I actually like these kind of movies, as long as they are not too bloody or violent. I like the psychological thrillers, especially any that have a telephone involved, like getting weird phone calls or something. No one else likes to watch these (meaning Steve since the kids can't watch), so I have to watch them at night - yikes- and Steve is not there to tell me what's happening while I have my eyes hidden behind my hands!

Enough ramblings for now. The party will be starting shortly!

Wednesday Funny

Ryan is quite a humorous boy.

The other day, I came out of the shower, slathered some floral scented lotion, and proceeded to do my household business. As I passed by him, he says, "Oh mommy, you smell nice, just like roses! I thought, "Aw, how nice." Then he says, "Not like when you go to Grandma's house or go to the doctor, or go see fireworks (meaning most other times), then you smell like peanuts! But he made sure I didn't feel too bad. He said, "But that's still nice!"

I had to double check with Steve and the girls and find out if I really smell like peanuts normally. They said I don't smell any kind of way, just normal. That's good. Maybe I'll wear scented lotions more often. They do smell pretty.

I think I mentioned before that Ryan loves to play around with my camera, taking shots of just about anything. I'll leave you with a self-portrait that he did. I'll spare you the pictures he took of his tongue and tonsils or him picking his nose.

Back From Our Little Getaway!

We had a fun time on our little getaway and are sorry that it was so short, but it's nice to get away, even for just a little while.

We were able to get to Disneyland this year as it wasn't as hot as last year. It wasn't super crowded so we were able to take in a the rides without wasting time in long lines. The kids of course were so excited.

We swam in the hotel pool. It was a little cool to be swimming, but we had to take advantage of being there.

The rest of the time we just hung out and ate!

I haven't uploaded any pictures yet so I don't have any to share right now. That reminds me, I've been meaning to start organizing my pictures on the computer. Right now they are just organized into folders, but the pictures themselves are not tagged. I need to do that so that they are easy to find when I'm searching for a certain people, places, or whatever. Does anyone have any suggestions on good photo storage sites? I have a Photobucket account and also Flikr, but I've only put a few pictures in each and haven't really researched them to see what exactly I can do. What do you use?

So now I'm easing back into the routine of things. I did lots of laundry today. The loads are all washed but not many baskets have been folded and put away. That's not one of my favorite things to do. I must admit that after my morning routine was finished, I slacked off a bit. I got caught up watching some episodes of Heroes on DVD. I only intended to watch one episode but I got hooked. It's like reading a good book that you hate to put down! I think I ended up watching three episodes. Not good when your husband and children are starving!

Tomorrow is another day and I'll try to be better disciplined! :) Well, I'll have to be. I have to send these disks back to Netflix so I can get the next episodes!

Have a good week, everyone! I have a lot of catching up to do with all of you, so I hope to visit your wonderful blogs soon!

Friday!

Yeah! It's family weekend getaway time!

Kids have gone back to school!

Emily started soccer! Too cute!

I have memes to do!

Christmas planning to do!

Will report when I return!

Have a wonderful weekend!

A Trip to the Wild Animal Park

We had a wonderful trip to the Wild Animal Park this past weekend. The weather was great and everyone enjoyed themselves.

Emily and Kathryn enjoyed trying on the masks.

Here's a momma giraffe with her baby!

Some lionesses lounging around.

Rhinos are much bigger than I thought!

Kathryn got a beautiful flower painted on her face.

We had a wonderful time. I'm sure we'll be back again!

Saturday

Tonight I got to have an unexpected date night with Steve! My brother and SIL had tickets to the Angel's game against the Seattle Mariners that they couldn't attend so Steve and I got to go in their place!

We had a great time! I ate some Chinese food (YUM) and some peanuts. I still can't quite get over how the ballpark food has changed since 20 or so years ago. It used to be that all you could get were hot dogs, peanuts, pretzels, ice cream ( and even that was just the stuff in the container with the wooden spoon) and the other traditional baseball fare. Tonight I had a choice of some pizza, Chinese food, Car*ls Jr., Mexican food, gourmet this, gourmet that. Lots of choices. It was almost hard to pick!

It was a little chilly, but it was still nice to be in the fresh air and have some nice conversation. Oh yeah, the Angels won 4-1.

Tomorrow I hope to be able to attend the Latin Mass at a local church. I've gone before and loved it so I'd like to attend another one. I think seeing the Pope has gotten me yearning for some Latin/choral music. It will be soothing to my soul.

By the way, if you like listening to choral music, you can listen on line at this site.

Zoo Day

No, I'm not talking about the zoo at my house, but the day (Sunday) that we went to the LA Zoo.

Ryan is on an animal kick and is into reading about animals, watching Animal Planet, and playing with animal toys. So we decided to make a day out of going to the zoo.

This is Emily, Kathryn, and Ryan standing in front of the pelican exhibit.

And here are the pelicans!

The kids behaved well for the most part. We enjoyed seeing the koalas, giraffes and gorillas. Unfortunately, I didn't take too many pictures, but these are some that came out OK.

There was also a spider exhibit going on but I didnt' want to see that. YUCK! But I was able to get a shot of Ryan with one of those photo boards.

In other news, we've got the sickies again. Ryan has developed a cold that's making him feel miserable. He's missed two days of school because he has a low grade fever. He was complaining that he thinks he may be getting an ear infection because his ear hurt a little. That was enough for me to make an appointment with the doctor. He's had plenty of ear infections in his lifetime and I didn't want to wait for it to get bad enough where he wakes up in the middle of the night with ear pain. No fun! So we see the nurse practitioner who examines him and says that his lungs are clear and his ears are clear. She says he just has a cold and it could last one to two weeks. I was so happy to hear that his lungs and ears were clear. Hopefully he's in his worst days and he should be on the way back up. Let's just hope this doesn't spread.

We're supposed to have four more days of rain. I don't mind the rain. I just don't like having to go out in it. I think it's rained more this winter than last, but I don't think it's enough to stop our drought. Our rainfall levels are way off. At least it's been enough to keep the grass green.

Now I'm off to look for some lunch. I haven't been good at getting my menus together so I think I'll be heating up some leftovers!

I hope there's not too many typos. I need spellchecker back!!!

Pictures to Share

Wednesday, we headed on out to see the Rose Parade floats. We didn't go to the parade itself, but went to see them displayed at a park. They looked very beautiful but already some of the flowers were getting a little droopy. There were so many people that it was hard to get some good shots, but I tried.

Here are a few:



This float is from the City of Anaheim. It had some of the city's attractions, like this sleeping beauty castle from Disneyland and trolley car.

I wanted to get this one in. It's a little replica of the Honda Center where the Anaheim Ducks play hockey and other things like concerts take place.

Obviously, this is not a float, but I wanted to show what the real Honda Center looks like (taken at the Ducks Stanley Cup celebration!)

Cute little truck with oranges loaded in.

Here are a few close-up shots:

Emily has had enough!!

Christmas Program

Ryan's Christmas program at school went well. Everyone in his class played angels and they sang a few original Christmas songs as well as Silent Night. If I must say so myself, he looked so handsome up there and he had the biggest smile on his face the whole time. I think he loves performing. I didn't get to take many pictures because we were so far back from the stage and it was a little dark at times during the performances.

This is how far we were. Actually, if I zoom into this picture, I can find Ryan. He's about the sixth child from the right, next to the girl with the dress with the dark sleeves. Can you find him? You can just make out a speck of dark hair! Sorry, I don't know how to make the picture zoom in when you click on it.

Emily was very well behaved. She made it until about three minutes until the end of the program. Then she'd had enough and wanted to wander away. I think she did quite well.

Here she is being occupied with my pocket calendar.

I've been kind of tired lately. I'm still coughing at night and Ryan has had a cough as well. If it's not me coughing, it's his coughing waking me up. His is getting better, but I'm still at it. Hopefully, it will be on it's way out soon.

The rest of the weekend was spent shopping, or just doing this and that. I actually wasted a little time when I went for my hair appointment and realized as I was sitting in the waiting area that my appointment was the following week! That was a little embarrassing, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who's done that!

During the next few days, I hope to shop a little bit more for some of the things left for the kids before they start their Christmas vacation on Wednesday. Steve also starts a much needed vacation on Thursday, then we can do some fun things with the kids. I pray no one else gets sick!

A Day with Emily

Steve had Monday off, so we wanted to have a little fun. Kathryn and Ryan had to go to school, so it was just us with Emily for the day. It was such a treat to have some fun with her and let all the attention fall on her.

We started with an appointment to get her hair cut. It had gotten a little wild and just plain getting all in her face (no, she does not like for me to put barrettes in her hair). She was an excellent customer and when she came out, I could see her cute face again!

After having lunch, we decided to go for a little walk by the lake.

There were the usual ducks and birds. I'm embarrassed to say that I know nothing about birds or ducks other than the usual ones I see all the time. Some of these were a little different. Maybe these are a little more common to others, but not to me.

These particular birds I see a lot in the lakes and ponds, but I honestly don't know anything about them or what they're called. I guess I better look them up. I should be able to tell my kids what they are.

Notice the interesting feet.

These ducks were a little different looking to me.

We had a wonderful time enjoying the beautiful day. It's not often that we get to just be together and do things spur of the moment. And it was so peaceful!! No arguing or bickering! Since Emily had us all to herself, there was no occasion for a tantrum, YEAHH!

One last stop before picking up the other at school - the park!