Kelsey's Got a Gun

I don't know who gave K a water gun but she had fun shooting everyone with it at Donavon's party.

Donavon's Birthday

I'm a little behind - but we have to celebrate that Donavon is now a Teenager!!

We had a pool party over at our pool with the cousins...
Happy Birthday Donavon!!!

I Need Chocolate!!

Around 5 pm most days Kelsey shows her twoness. Today she was screaming for chocolate and was making the most angished faces - I figured there were enough of us out there that knew exactly how she felt...

OHS Family Picnic

We had fun party on Saturday with the kids and other teachers at OHS...

All the Scrapbook magazines tell you to get good pictures of your kids by focusing in close so they fill the entire frame... If you've ever tried this you know how hard it is to keep a moving child in a small focus field... I got lucky but might I suggest taking a regular picture then just cropping it how you want it after...






Dad loves the rocking toys...
Kelsey was fascinated with with Ginger's curls...

Happy Patriot's Day

Today at Collin's school we celebrated Patriot's Day with a flag raising ceremony.
The early years (K & 1st) students sang a song about the importance of going out and voting (I made sure to register with my new address so I'm good to go)
Afterwards the students were invited to leave flowers at the base of the flag pole. (my camera ran out of batteries right then, rrr)

We got to school early so I told Collin about why we celebrate Patriot's Day today. I told him about the plane crashes...

A girl in our ward was getting married but they didn't have enough money to send both of her parents out here for the wedding so it was decided that just her mom would come. As a surprise, her friends organized fund raisers and earned enough money to fly her dad out too. Ironically he was able to get a direct flight while his wife had a lay-over... (I think you know where this is going) He was on the 4th plane that went down on 9/11. I explained to Collin how the passengers found out what was happening and overpowered the hijackers so the plane crashed without killing thousands more.

In the program this morning the principal talked about the military people but I wanted Collin to know that you don't have to be in the armed forces to be patriotic. Those people in the last plane were patriotic by protecting others, even giving up their lives. When we go out and talk about prop 8 to people, encouraging them to support it, we are being patriotic. The women who had the booth at school to encourage parents to register to vote, even though we have different political views, were being patriotic. The little kids explaining the Pledge of Allegiance, and singing about voting, were being patriotic.
You don't have to be in the military to love our country. Do something today to make it a better place to live in, for our children and for ourselves.

Of Course I Got Tickets!

I just wanted to reassure everyone that I did get tickets for Collin for the Walking with Dinosaur - The Live Experience.

Knowing I don't have TV my sister, Chris, called a few weeks ago to tell me about it. I immediately got on the Internet and googled it. Most of the tickets were already sold out so we ended up with nose bleed seats but that's all to the good since Collin was a little nervous about live dinos (funny, eh)

I was going to have it be a surprise but after his teacher told him about it I decided to confess that I already had tickets.

Since then I think I've gotten about 3 more phone calls about it - the last one this morning from my sister who is bringing her son to see it in Arizona tomorrow (Sharon, if it's a surprise don't let Max read this...) so she'll tell me how it was. But I wanted to let everyone else know that I did get the tickets for my young paleontologist.

In case you didn't know, Collin is into dinosaurs. The only way you wouldn't know that is if you've never met him. I remember the first time when he was 3 yrs old we were standing in line at Albertsons and Collin started talking to the man in front of us, "I'm into dinosaurs now." He was still 3 when he started telling people he wanted to be a paleontologist (1 in 3 adults didn't even know what that was). He often asked me, "How does everyone know I like dinosaurs?!" "Um, because you tell them?"

He has branched out more to dragons (my influence) and rain forest animals -especially toucans (Costa Rica's influence) but he still loves dinos and demands every book written about them - and if you've ever been to a book store you'll know there are a lot (by the way I don't think I ever thanked Ryan and Kristy for the Life-Size Dinosaurs book - it's awesome) so I've slowed down on buying more - he has more dino encyclopedias than anyone will ever need (he used them for his "research") I'm a book freak so if there is any topic he says he's interested in I get books about it for us to read. I also get DVDs - like the Eyewitness series and take him to museums like Thanksgiving Point in Utah and La Brea Tar Pit in LA. So it's only natural that I would take him to the live show too.

We'll be going to the show at the end of September so it will be awhile before you'll get an update but we will add more pictures from the event - no worries.

Picture Day

For picture day today Collin insisted that he needed to look nice. I tried to talk him into a nice shirt or even just go without a tie (I'm lucky I didn't have a bow tie because that was his first choice!) He was trying to talk me into letting him wear a suit coat, "...and then when I'm done I can stuff it in my ba- ... I can fold it nicely and place it in my backpack to keep it safe."

So, this is the outfit he picked out for himself. Everyone told him how handsome he looked except one crazy girl who shrieked, "Collin! You look like you're going to get married!" Collin just hid behind me until we walked past her.

It's nice to have a son who has enough confidence that he can carry off this look at school ...

I guess it could be worse...

At least we know where Collin got his distinctive fashion sense from... probably from his Grandma, Linda!

You know it's time to get off the computer when...

I've been on the computer now for a few hours - posting (or trying to), creating movies, down-loading pictures, up-loading pictures, sending e-mails... there's so much to do on a computer (at least there is when you're a computer nerd, like me) I notice when I have to get up for something that I've been sitting too long (though I usually ignore that warning) but just now I felt something on my arm. I tried to brush it off, thinking it was a hair but when I looked down I saw that a spider was trying to build a web on me!
So you know when you've been on the computer too long when spiders are spinning cobwebs on you! Sheesh! Good night...

A Blessing of Babies

We had two baby blessings today. First Chad was able to bless his sister's daughter, Addison.

Cate, Tyler, Linnae, Tiana, Matt, Addison, Chad, Andy, Kayla & Betsy

Milloy, Karissa, Collin, Alaina, & Kelsey

Addison Linnae wearing the dress her Aunt Linnae wore for her blessing.

Steve, Kevin, Avarie, Debbie, Carsten, Collin, Bradlee, Micah, Kelsey, Chad & Cate

Then in the afternoon we went to my sister, Debbie's son's blessing. His dad, Kevin, blessed him with Chad, Kevin's brother, Steve, and several members of the ward assisting...

It's great to see these beautiful babies... and I am so fortunate to have a husband who can participate in these ordinances. After Addison's blessing there were testimonies and each time one of the cousins went up Kelsey would say, "Titi's turn!" Linnae thought she meant she wanted Tiana (Aunt Titi) to go up but she was saying that she wanted to go up (she calls herself 'Titi' - not sure why.)

Sipping Soda Thru a Straw

I need your help - I know there was an old song about sipping ... la la la . As I'm writing this a little more is coming to me about sipping cider - Anyway I need the lyrics of any random song/poem so when I scrapbook this I will have the right quote I'm think of but cannot recall.

This was a great photo shoot cuz they didn't move the entire time. I could move their hair out of the way and take as many pictures as I wanted and they just kept drinking (and blowing milk bubbles)
I love this picture cuz I noticed they were holding hands but I still wanted to get the sipping in too.

Tie Dye Party

Our neighbor, Amy, organized a tie-dye party for the kids on our block - of which there are scores!

Collin used lots of different colors on the shirt he tied himself.
Kelsey put on the gloves while she was waiting for me to find and tie her shirt... Look at the concentration!
The end results!

We had a lot of fun and would do it again and again but then dad would call us all hippy-freaks and ship us out to Ojai...JK

Happy Labor Day!

For this last Saturday of the summer Eric and Chad decided to through a BBQ for the neighborhood. When I first got there it was just those two and half a dozen kids but as people came out to watch their kids play they all wandered down to try some of Chad's bratz and Eric's tri-tip...

Normally we don't let Collin play in the alley and for good reason! I don't know how many times my heart stopped as he rode right across the street... Still. he's getting pretty good on the skateboard - especially the long board.

Two of Collin's favorite neighbors, Eric & Nick. Many a morning I go out looking for Collin only to round the corner at the end of the block and see him on Nick & Leah's patio chatting away. Or hanging with Eric who has given him and Aiden shades and soda pop so they look cool hanging out. They are both really patient with him and I really appreciate their befriending my kid.
Hanging out... They pretty much hung out until it was movie time - around 8 pm (Chad wanted to lose his farmer tan) All summer Eric has hosted outdoor movies Friday & Saturday nights at the end of the block.

Now that summer's over he may finally get to put away the 30 foot screen he made...

David & Sharon's New Blog

You'll notice a new entry on my blog list ... I would like to welcome my sister, Sharon, to the blog world :) She texted me today to check out her blog and my other sisters had already beat me to it. When I added her to my list I thought she would be at the top of the list but Marj still has the most recent blog posting... Sorry, Sharon, you'll have to be a lot faster if you want to make it to the top of my list when Marj is out there blogging away...

You'll notice a new entry on my blog list ... I would like to welcome my sister, Sharon to the blog world :) She texted me today to check out her blog and I added her to my list... and Marj STILL has the most recent

1st Day of School!

Today was the first day of first grade. Collin was really upbeat about going again...
Colin's all set with his dragon shirt and rain forest backpack.
He has Ms Beshid again this year.
Collin was supposed to draw a picture of himself at school... if you look close you can see the dragon, tiger and even the yin-yang sign from his shirt. It wasn't long, though, before he flipped the paper over and drew pictures of tropical birds.

As soon as I left my sad boy at school I went and did some good guilt relieving retail therapy... let's just say he'll have the best sack-lunches ever!

The Last Day of Summer

On the last day of summer we went up to Ellie's grandparents' beach house (we really just went up so Paige could give us haircuts but the rest was fun too.)

Ellie & Collin on the Rocks (Collin's "before" shot)
Ellie, Kelsey & Kayley (Collin in the background)
Kelsey & Kayley washing their feet after playing on the beach.
Collin, Kayley, Addison, Ellie, & Karissa... It's so great that the cousins all get along so great and have a lot of fun with each other. (the "after" shot)
I was so surprised when I saw the sand. Last time we were there it was the lowest I had ever seen it, most houses had a 4 foot drop after their last step. This time it was the highest I had ever seen it - about 8 feet higher than the last. There was only half a dozen steps to go down. It really made t nice to watch the kids because they were so much closer & they enjoyed it more because there was no high tide when they couldn't go down and play.