Party Crashers

This morning as we were leaving to take Josh to his social group, we noticed a truck delivering a big water slide to our neighbor's house. Ooooooh, it looks like R is throwing a party! But wait, R didn't mention a party to us...so Tyler goes over to find out what happening....it's nice when you can use a child to find out the scoop! It turns out that little R is having his 4th birthday, didn't L give you an invite? No? Well we got our last second invite and that's what we did this afternoon. We hung out eating Mexican food while the kids played on the water slide and another big blow up slip n slide.

The boys spent a good 3 hours playing in the sun and water so now we chilling at home. Hector is playing The Legend Of Zelda with Josh watching, Tyler is watching The Ant Bully and I am ready for a nap!

Josh

See the Similarity

You know about that saying how owners resemble their pets? Well, my son is starting to resemble his precious Torchic stuffed Pokemon. After ignoring teddy bears and other stuffed animals all his life, Tyler found his best buddy this year and they are practically inseparable.

Picture Update

Here is the scrunchie hat I finished a couple of days ago. I especially like the pattern which makes this hat cute and unique. The tie can customize the fit. I'm gonna keep this hat for myself.

This is a very easy hat to knit (Josh graciously agreed to model). You knit a basic rectangle, join the short ends together, gather one end together, fold the other end to make the brim and presto! Instant hat! I was going to claim this hat for myself but T saw it and HAD to have it. So I'll give this hat to her and also knit a little purse in the same yarn. I need to find a cool brooch to pin on the purse and then I'll take pics of that.

Another Day

Yesterday Tyler went on an outing to Seaside Lagoon in Redondo Beach. It is a saltwater play area and I've seen it several times but never had a chance to check it out. M took his niece & nephew there and invited Tyler. It was a nice break for me. Josh went to school so I had a couple of hours to myself.

I finished my scrunchie hat last night and decided to keep it for myself. I've been knitting for everyone else so I kept this one once I saw how it turned out. I'm trying to find the little digital camera to take some pictures of it and the pictures from Soak City should be ready by this afternoon too.

I received my Denise needles the other day and they work great. I love this kit. I really like working on circular needles and found this interchangeable kit. So far, it's been very versatile and easy to use. I paid the $5 extra to donate to breast cancer plus my kit is pink! No more second guessing needle gauge etc. since everything has its proper place and fits neatly inside.

Tyler and I just returned from seeing Shrek the Third which was cute and funny. I'm not too timely in seeing new movies but we manage. I was originally thinking about Ratatouille but Tyler chose Shrek. We zoomed on over to make it to the 10:15 am showing since Hector was home to watch Josh. I love the early showings! We can watch the movie then go home for lunch and the rest of the day.

No great plans for the weekend but the kids got an invite to a going away party on Sunday. It should be lots of fun with a bounce house/water slide and shave ice machine. The big perk is that the party is being held in a super swanky mansion in Palos Verdes. It's a long story how a pharmacist friend can afford this place but she made an awesome decision to buy it when she did about 5-7 years ago when it was a buyers market. I questioned the million $ price tag even back then but now the new homes in the same tract are now selling for over $5 million!! I'll try to take lots of pictures of the 7000 sq. foot house on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Sweet!

Soak City

Today I took the boys to Soak City in Buena Park which is part of the Knott's Berry Farm theme park. Our friend M was supposed to bring his niece & nephew but the little girl was being a brat so they ended up not going. I made good time in about 20 minutes so we arrived about 10:15 am (park opens at 10). I got really good parking and we snagged a couple of loungers under some shade so we were set for the day.



Tyler opted to play at the Beach House which is a multi-level structure with a couple of slides and knobs, levers, water cannons all designed to wet yourself or others. Plus there are a couple of huge buckets that tip over when full onto a dozen or more kids waiting for the waterfall. Josh doesn't like water spraying or dripping on him so he tried avoid everything in that area. He ran up the stairs very fast and when I finally caught up with him he was already drenched. Hmmm...oh well, that's what we were here for.



We moved on the Tidal Wave Bay which is the wave pool. There were not many people yet so finding some tubes was a snap. I put Josh in a life vest and he was off running into the water. I was surprised that he liked it so much since he doesn't like the ocean but I never know what to expect from him. It took a while for him to find a position he was comfortable with but he liked laying on it like a boogie board while the waves tossed him around. Josh loved it. We found a great spot where Josh could catch a 3 foot wave and ride it for a bit then I'd bring him back to do it all over again. The morning time was nice and not crowded at all unlike the afternoon.

We grabbed some lunch at noon before everyone else got the same idea. The kids' meal came with a sturdy souvenir cup with Snoopy on it. The only complaint was that an ice cream bar was given with the kids' meal so by the time they finished their food their ice cream was melting all over the place.

Our next stop was the Sunset River (lazy river) which is quite long and very relaxing. On our second time around, Tyler announce very loudly that he HAS to go to the bathroom! Geez...if he hadn't said it so loud I would have told him to pee in the river (I know it's a bad example but everyone does it, right ?) but people are all around so we get out at the nearest exit which of course, wasn't the exit where we left our sandals so we're running because the ground is very hot. We ended up near the entrance by the lockers (at least it was shady) then ran to the Beach House because Tyler wanted to go there. I had to run back to Sunset River while holding Josh to retrieve our sandals (he was very smart in asking me to hold him). I zigzaged my way to a little patch of grass then to a small puddle and finally the river. Ahhhh...is it possible to burn the bottoms of your feet? To recover my tootsies, Josh and I went back into the river for another loop before heading back to find Tyler.

We found Tyler who was bored with the Beach House at this point and we went back to the wave pool. This time the pool was packed and everyone was fighting over the same waves so I decided to pack up for home. Josh was not happy with this idea but it was 3:00pm I wanted to head home before traffic began. Overall we had such a great time. Hopefully next time Hector can join us so we can take Tyler on the more adventurous slides and rides. I didn't bring any of my digital cameras because I didn't want to get them wet and had no one to watch them. I did buy a disposable waterproof camera so I'll try to develop those today.

Guppy

Yay! Tyler passed his swim class criteria for the next level so he can now move on to the Guppy level. He's been in his current Polliwog class for a couple of sessions. Tyler had to be able to swim 25 feet freestyle, backstroke and sidestroke without assistance to 'graduate'. When this current session started I had a talk with Tyler to really listen to his instructor instead of goofing off with the other kids. He really seems to try now in swimming and other sports we've been working on. So Tyler's summer is looking pretty good.

Things We did Before Noon

7:30 am - Alarm goes off. Thankfully I have it set so my iPod plays music so I can lay there listening. Sometime after this, Josh comes running in to lay down with me followed by Tyler saying he is cold (?).

8:00 am - I get up...the kids are playing GameBoy. I feed them breakfast and make some bacon. We watch some program on HBO Family called I Spy which Tyler enjoys.

9:00 am - We get dressed and I gather some things to take to the park ie. soccer ball, bubbles, shovel and some juice for the kids. Look at some stuff on the computer about Soak City because that is our plan for tomorrow.

10:00 am - We walk to the park and stop at Glenn's house to see if he wants to go but his mom has plans. We kick the soccer ball around and Josh kicks it much harder than Tyler. I work with Tyler on his drop kicks when he plays goalie and he starts to get the hang of it. We play in the playground and I wave big bubbles around. Joshua won't share his shovel with Tyler so we cut our playtime short.

11:00 am - As we're walking home, we see our neighbor Judy leaving for work and say hi. She says we can use her pool so we rush home to change and gather all the water stuff. The water is cold but the kids get used to it and start splashing. Tyler and Josh have a great time but Josh gets out first and wants to snuggle in his towel.

12:00pm - I notice the time and say it's time to go for lunch. Tyler has a burrito while Josh has his PB & J sandwich and they share an apple. Now they're watching SpongeBob...we'll hang out until Tyler has his swim class at 5:00 pm. He wants to pass his test so he can move on to the next level!

Bathtime Conversation

Joshua was enjoying his bath so I decided to work on his conversation skills.

Me: What's your name?

Joshua: My name is Joshua.

Me: How old are you?

Joshua: I'm fine.

Me: How old are you?

Joshua: 4

Joshua: How old are you? (taken aback but happy he asked a question)

Me: I'm 41.

Joshua(looking surprised): Oh! (I'm smiling and laughing)

Joshua(smiling): Is Joshua funny?

Me: Yes. (More smiling)

The Police

Kat and I went to see The Police last night and the concert was okay. It wasn't great and it wasn't bad; something was just off. Kat and I have seen a lot of concerts together and we rarely talk during the act. But last night we were chatting about other things like Green Day, Anaheim Ducks and other concerts...our attention was just not there. We really tried to enjoy the concert but there was something lacking. Don't get me wrong ...Sting looked awesome and he played his heart out but some of the songs were arranged differently that made it difficult for us to identify (even for Kat who is more musically inclined). Kat saw them 20-some years ago during the Synchronicity tour and she said the previous concert was much better.

Maybe we were having an off night but we had a so-so time. Thank goodness I bought the tickets at face-value and we were near the back top of the venue. I saw tickets for sale at $3500 each for the floor so I would have been VERY upset if I paid that much for this concert.

We have a Chris Isaak concert Saturday night and he's always been fantastic. This should be our 5-6th time seeing him so we're looking forward to it. Another plus is that the concert is at the Pechanga Casino so we can gamble later that night!!

School's Out

Let's play out in the sun! We're about ready to go swimming with some friends and later tonight Kat and I are off to see The Police in Anaheim. Yay for summer!

Things My Man Thinks About Before Going To Bed

The other night while I lay down in bed, Hector and I had this conversation.

Hector: Why do you sleep with earrings on?

I wear small hoop earrings (dime-size) with even smaller diamonds.

Me: What do you mean? I wasn't sure where this was going.

Hector: I mean aren't you worried they earrings will catch on something and rip off of your ear?

Me: What would they catch on? Kind of amused at this point.

Hector: The covers or pillowcase or your fingers...

Me: No, these earrings are comfortable and I don't feel them when I sleep.

This is where I put in earplugs and go to sleep....

I suppose it depends on the earrings and the person but it was kinda funny that he would think about it. If my earrings were a bother, don't you think I would take them off? :)

Jumpin Beans

Well, washing Hector's truck didn't go exactly like I planned. Tyler and I were supposed to wash it but Tyler was indisposed in the bathroom so I started without him. Hector joined in helping me until Josh arrived home. Hector took over the washing of the truck while I brought out the wiggly water sprinkler for the kids. I got to take lots of pics of the kids jumping all over the place and boy, that Josh sure can get some air. Tyler soon joined in on the action which was fun to photograph.

Summer's Here!

More Carnival

Not much to say except that Josh and I have a slight cold. I feel bleh tired with a mild sore throat. It's a warmer day and we're hanging out inside staying cool. I decided to clean the BBQ grill since my last attempt grilling resulted in charring the BBQ and all the meat! Oooops.

When it cools down tonight, Tyler and I will wash Hector's truck which hasn't had a bath in a year or so. I finished knitting some fingerless gloves/handwarmers which came out huge so I stopped after one glove...does anyone know any one-armed giants?

Father's Day Conversation

We're gathered in our bedroom...

Me: Josh! Say Happy Father's Day to Dad.

Joshua: Oh, thanks!

Sunday game

We had a lovely day Sunday (Father's Day) where we woke up Hector to give the gifts that the kids made. Tyler made a personalized T-shirt where Tyler drew some stars and wrote, "World's Greatest Dad" on an iron-on patch. Very nice. Joshua traced, I Love You Dad on some paper and made a frame with a picture of Josh holding the sign. Then the I gave him the books "1000 Places To See Before You Die" the world edition and USA/Canada edition.

Later I took Hector to Staples and we saw the Avengers (arena football). It was entertaining and fun since Kat and her parents went with us. The Avengers won and there were lots of giveaways. The crowd won a free Hamburger from Carls Jr. since the Avengers scored more than 50 points. We also won 10 free wings from Hooters when the Avengers scored a touchdown in the last 10 seconds of the 2nd quarter. Yay! We also won a Tastee Freez ice cream for something else that I can't remember. The event ended on a sour note when we exited the building, there were no vouchers or coupons handed out. After a few minutes we did get some Carls Jr vouchers but that was it. Hector and Buddy witnessed a fight break out over the promised goods which was unfortunate. Other than that, it was a fun game.

Carnival

Tonight we headed on over to a carnival for some fun and excitement. The last time I went with the kids, Josh was too short for all the rides. This time he was big enough for all the kiddie rides but Tyler was too big!! Tyler doesn't like the fast, wild and crazy rides like the Zipper but he really enjoys the fun house. Hector and Tyler went on a spinning ride and poor Tyler didn't look well afterwards. At least he didn't throw up and I distracted him by playing some midway games where I won the tiniest stuffed penguin and gave it to Tyler.

Fast Times

Nathan graduated from high school Wednesday night. Doesn't Lupe look happy and proud? Nathan was our ringbearer at our wedding and now he's taller than his mom.

Nathan and his girlfriend Kelly...aren't they cute? They have busy summers plans then off to college. Congratulations!

Grad Day

Last Friday we went to our nephew's Nathan grad party which was combined with 2 other families. It was a really nice BBQ and all the fixins that you could ever want. About 50-60 people showed up and my kids took advantage to take a dip in the hot tub. Tyler was in heaven when he found out that the older kids were playing Guitar Hero. I had to hold him back from jumping in because those kids were on the Expert level and Tyler plays the Easy. When the kids cleared out, Tyler played against a very nice girl who was patient with him while he yakked through the whole song. I had to remind him to be quiet and he announces to her, " I talk a lot." Duh!

Here are the 3 grads posing with their respective cakes. Congratulations!

Park Day

The first graders had their Park Day on Wednesday. Tyler's class got the morning shift from 9am to noon and we spent our time playing games. Some of the games were the usual water balloon toss, balloon fight and farthest balloon throw. Another cute game was like musical chairs but the kids sit in a circle, pass along a package around and when the music stops, the child holding the package gets to open the first layer to reveal a prize between the layers. Then that child steps out while the remaining kids continue passing the package until everyone has a prize.

After the games, we had a nice lunch of Wienerschnitzel hot dogs, potato chips and fruit. Of course, each class always has to have too much food so we had other classes offer us Chinese chicken salad and pizza. Needless to say the parents had a wide variety of food to eat so that was great. After that, Hector and I were stuffed and headed home for a nap...it was a nice day!

Impromptu Field Trip

This morning started off the usual way...Josh & I hanging out at the park with Sherri and her 2 kids. S was telling how her week will be super busy because of all the school activities and her brother & his family arriving Thursday for the weekend. She has to get her place ready and clean but she still needed to buy her husband a present for Father's Day (they only have one car so it's difficult for her). I said I would watch her kids this afternoon if she wanted to run over to Target (she wants to buy Mario Party 8) but she wasn't sure about time etc so I said, "Well, let's go now!" The park was getting busy with all the kindergartners out for their Park Day and it'll be like a field trip for the little ones. So off we walked to Target past the drugstore, marsh and carwash. It was a snap getting the game so we relaxed with some Icees and popcorn. I bought Josh some more socks and then we headed home. End of fieldtrip.

Okay, it was just an errand but for Sherri's kids it was a nice change of pace. And I enjoyed the walk.

Doubleheader

You won't believe that I saw 2 movies on Saturday. It's a minor miracle when I see a movie in the theatre so I jumped at the chance to see Pirates 3 with Kat and Fran. We met at Downtown Disney and had lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. I ate light so I could have some real movie popcorn but the liquids got me and I had to leave during the movie for a potty break. Anyway, the movie was chock full of action and double crossing goodness. I just saw the second Pirates movie a few days (I know I'm probably the last person on earth to see it) but it answered a lot of questions. Of course I'll have to see it again to catch more of the details I missed.

I arrived home in time to leave with my boys to head out to the drive-in. We invited Tyler's friend Glenn & his dad to see Surf's Up. I saw most of it but it's hard to watch a movie when you have to take care of the kids. They are constantly wanting a drink or pizza but overall they had a great time. The movie itself is cute...some body humor but the surfing action was pretty impressive in how realistic the waves looked. The movie showing after was Spiderman 3 which would have completed my movie trifecta but it was getting late for the kids. I was impressed that I managed to see 2 movies in one day which will most likely never be repeated again.

Wii would like to play...

Mario Party 8. I've been a fan of the Mario Party series since it first came out. Kat and I spent countless hours playing, laughing and yelling at each other over the unique and fun minigames. Over the years the minigames evolved and it was always imaginative. Tyler grew up watching us play and soon joined in on the games. It was a good lesson is sportsmanship. Now with Mario Party 8, Joshua has graduated from spectator to participant although he needs help on a lot of games. This game version is much more fun because of the Wii-mote that has us mimicing the action of the characters. The kids especially love the game where we have to shake the Wii-mote like you're shaking up a soda can to see whose soda fizz shoots the highest. I just hope that the kids don't shake my Diet Pepsi!

I was lucky to snag a game after seeing the commerical play so last week I went on a quest to find the game. Circuit City, Best Buy were sold out but I found plenty at Toys r Us! Now the game is favorite of ours and tomorrow we have a Mario Party 8 party with a classmate of Tyler's and her mom. There is gonna be a lot of waving and yelling going on!

Shutterbug

I've had my digital SLR for a year now and looking back, I realize I needed to really learn its functions. I bought several books that explain f-stops, aperture and shutter speed but never fully understood these things. My friend T and I took a basic photography class last night and everything became so much clearer. The instructor gave me the urge to explore the creative side of my camera so today I fiddled around with the focus points. I took the same picture about 7 times but changed the focus point to a specific object each time. The class was only 2 hours and only covered the general terms and functions but it is a huge push for me in the right direction.

So hopefully I can learn a lot more in the next year and promise to not use the AUTO function as the main setting. Hector gave a new external flash for Mother's Day so I'm excited to see how my pictures turn out. I already see a big difference....yay!

With all the pictures I take at the park, a lot of them include my friend Sherri's kids. I've been meaning to burn the pics onto a CD but last weekend kat brought over her little flash drive to upload a picture she wanted to have lightened. Aaaahhhh! The little lightbulb came on and I thought I need to get one of those. Duh...Hector always says that I love gadgets and yeah this one took me a while to discover but the prices have dropped & storage is much bigger so yesterday we went to Circuit City to get a flash drive. I know people use them for work but it never occurred to me that I could use them for my photos. Heh, I'm a little slow at times.

I'm in the mood for...

another tropical vacation. Somewhere peaceful and beautiful. Phuket certainly is gorgeous but very humid and very far. Hawaii perhaps? It's been about 9 months since Thailand and the itch to travel has started. We are planning a big trip in October to destination unknown but it's still a long ways off. I will have to satisfy my urges with memories for now...

Funny face

There is a family resemblance...

More Legoland

We also hit the new Pirate Shores at Legoland. The day started of gray and gloomy which became sunnier late in the day. That didn't stop Tyler and lots of other kids from getting wet even though it was a bit chilly.

It might be a little difficult to see the bucket that fills up with water every few minutes but a bell starts ringing which signals all the kids to run over to a good spot for a big dump of water. The top 3 pictures shows the sequence of events. The kids never tire of this...too bad it wasn't warmer otherwise I might be tempted to join them.

There are a couple of waterslides for the adventurous or older kids. Tyler could have spent the entire day here.

There is also a water area for babies/toddlers and those more timid (like Josh).

There are real rides to go on at Pirate Shores but prepare to get very wet. The water ride pictured above looks like fun, right? You get your own water cannon that you can aim at other boats or people at the edges. Ha, that's where you would be mistaken...the seats in the boats are soaking wet so you're sitting in a puddle. There are multiple outposts like above where Josh is standing with his own water cannon and he can duck behind a wall so he won't get nearly as wet as those poor people in the boats who have no protection from the water. Yes, this ride is much more fun as a spectator with a water cannon versus a person on the ride. We saw lots of grownup people have lots more fun spraying the boat riders. Hector saw one man spray people for about 30 minutes...he was laughing so hard at the unfortunate people on the ride as he was soaking them. Good times for all!

Legoland trip

Last weekend we also hit Legoland for another fun day. There was a plan to build the largest Lego tower that weekend and when we arrived, the tower was at about 45 feet tall. The plan was to make it over 90 feet so they had a ways to go.

At the end of the day(which cleared up), the tower grew almost to 60 feet and we helped build the inner tower that supports the outer tower. After a while our fingers were sore from pressing on hundreds of Legos and I cut my hand from pounding on the edge to press the Legos toegether. Ouch.

This is our contribution that we worked on and it took about 20 minutes to build. Some people were very creative with the designs....

So hopefully this tower broke the last world record for tallest Lego tower. It was fun to help out and we can say we helped build the tower.

Extreme Moves

Josh has been pretending to be Sonic the Hedgehog which is really cute. He pretends to grind rails and practices his jumps off the park bench. Little A has been copying Josh which is really cute...she is a little daredevil! I think Josh looks like Tony Hawk in training...all he needs is a skateboard to complete his look. I'll have to watch out for more extreme moves.