Pets

The kids played with the Duck all day. They filled up the kiddie pool and swam together who needs a rubber duck when you have a real one. it was really cute. After a day of freedom, Waddles decided it was the life for him. He flew away the next day. Its okay. I was counting on that the day we brought him home. 1 down 1 to go.
We put Cassie for sale on craigslist she got a new home right away. She wasn't a bad dog. It was just one more thing I had to take care of. The kids didn't care either. Right up until the guy came to pick her up. then William broke down into big crocodile tears. The new owner almost didn't want to take her away because William was so pitifully sad. I assured him it was just because it was past his bedtime.
We had a good run but it feels very liberating to be a pet free home. Now my kids want a cat. I told them we have to have a grieving period.

Pirate dinner adventure

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While Kate and Kyle were visiting us we went to the Pirate Dinner Adventure. It was a lot of fun I recommend going to see it at least once. We got tickets half off from travelzoo my new favorite travel/entertainment newsletter (thanks Mom). It took a long time to get there because it is down in orange county and its LA traffic, once we got there it was fun.

They had a suspended rope chokey I want to make one. I think it will come in very handy.

While we were waiting to be seated they had a mini show kind of a preface of what the story was. They served us hores devours to keep us from getting too hungry. Once we got in there was a lot of interaction with the "crew". Almost every one in our group got to participate. Scott and Kate were part of the competition round. Ellie got to travel in a little boat that went in the water all around the stage. William got sworn in to be a pirate by Capitain Sebastian Black himself and both kids got to help "rescue" the princess toward the end. It was very cute!! All in all a good show and good food. I give it 2 thumbs up.

Carpenteria

My Sister Kate and her hubby Kyle came to visit. It was so nice to have people come visit us. The weather here has been super HOT!!! 115 degrees. We were going to go on the wave runners but changed our plans deciding we would totally cook at the lake. So we did the next best thing. THE BEACH. Carp is a really nice beach. The drive is a little longer but worth it. Peter was very brave on this particular outing. He loved playing in the water. I didn't let him go very far much to his disappointment . He keeps forgetting he is only 1yr old.
Kate and Kyle just enjoyed the sand but that is what you do on vacation.
Scott burried all the kids. You can look at their faces to see if they enjoyed it or not.
Ellie spent most of her time finding sand crabs (gross) she found this really big one ->
William kept up with his boogie board practice. He almost got the hang of it.
Brennen was mad that I left his life jacket in the car, but he got over it and just did what Brennen does best. Make noise and mayhem. Only its okay at the beach because the waves drowned out the sound. It turned out to be a great day at the beach.
After the beach we walked the 2 blocks to the farmers market. They had some BEAUTIFUL flowers. I really wanted to buy some tuberose, they smelled Sooooo GOOD.

They were very expensive so I couldn't justify it. We decided on some fresh berries and honey. YUMMMMMM
There is just something calming and rejuvenating about the beach

vacuum

I bought this little vacuum at a thrift store. Peter found it and "vacuumed" the whole store. I hesitantly gave the cashier the $3 it cost to take it home. (yes I am that cheap)
It turned out to be some of the best $3 dollars I ever spent for Peter.
He LOVES his little vacuum. He pushes it all

over the house all day long. He wants to take it everywhere. He takes it for rides in the car. He even took it on our Sunday walk and pushed it the entire way. Those of you who are familiar with our walks know they are a couple miles.
Now if only it really sucked up the crumbs. . .

BEX

We went up to Scott's work to have lunch with him. He took us to this cool restaurant called BEX. It had a hip industrial feel to it. Apparently on the weekends is a club but they have some great food.
The coolest thing was their drink dispenser. It is a touch screen where you can choose from 140 different kinds of drinks. Lets say you wanted a coke so you push the coke icon and up pops all the different kinds of coke that are created. ie; regular, diet, diet with lime, caffeine free, vanilla, cherry etc. etc. Once you choose your drink it mixes it right there. So if you chose cherry coke it wasn't the same cherry coke from a can, it was real coke with real cherry mixin. Needless to say it is way better than regular cherry coke! I chose peach fanta I was pleasantly surprised. You could try as many flavors as your tummy could hold. Im sure my children will be asking to go their again.

Harvest time

I know the pictures are blurry I lost my camera and have been using my cell phone. Camera come back to me. . .
It was time for us to harvest some of our veggies from our garden. Unfortunately the squirrels thought so also. They ate all of my tomatoes just as they were turning red. They also ate our bean and Lima bean plants. The birds ate all my beautiful peaches. We have tried everything to keep them away but nothing seems to be working. If only we had a dog. . . oh wait we do. . . she is useless. I think her only function is to eat whatever food Peter throws on the floor. Our corn was more like a cob with a few kernels than an actual ear of corn. Its a good thing we don't actually depend on our garden to feed us or we would starve.
On the up side our cucumber, squash, zucchini, cilantro, honeydew melons and peas are doing good. My Peas are doing great and they taste delicious. Our potatoes and onions are still not ready. I guess those are more of a fall vegetable.
I am glad we tried a garden and I will do it again next year We just need a new system to keep the animals away. Anyone have some suggestions?

Angels Game

Our friends scored some sweet tickets to an Angels game and invited us to tag along. There was a lot of traffic trying to get down clear to Anaheim at 5:30 for a game that started at 7pm. We got 3/4 of the way there and decided to stop for some dinner. We finally got to the game at the 6th inning. Lucky for us it was not a close came (0-2) Blue Jays up. The stadium was really nice and like I said we had some awesome tickets. We were 3 rows up from the opposing teams dugout. We could spit on the players (Not that we would, but we could;) They had a pretty rock waterfall behind the outfield, and good company to watch the game with.
I had a good time even though it took so long to get there and back

Real day of Rest

After a usual crazy Sunday we decided to go to the beach on Monday. Not a lot involved, the house can wait to be cleaned. Just pack a lunch some sand toys and couple of towels. We decided to go to Carpenteria a little

longer drive but well worth it.
The sun was out the beach was beautiful and my ears are filled with children's laughter and squeals of delight as they chase the waves in a game of can't catch me.

They dig in the dirt because its okay to get dirty at the beach. They find a few sand crabs. Today they found big crab camouflaged by kelp. More squeals both of excitement
and fear but mostly happiness. The wind just a slight breeze to cool me down.

This is a day of rest.

I read a little, one page, then I realize I would rather be playing with my children in the gentle surf.
Ellie has found an extensive collection of sea shells. Some average some beautiful. They are all beautiful in her eyes and that's all that matters.

William try's his skills at boogie boarding. Not too bad. Not ready for any extreme competition yet but he's having a great time doing it.

Brennen is having an extra good time just playing although he did have some trouble with his swim trunks. Just say no to crack.
Don't get me wrong I love Sunday but as a mom with little ones. . . This is more of what I would call a day of Rest

Day of Rest

Who ever coined the phrase "Sunday is a day of Rest" was either
A. without a family
B. not a member of our church
Sundays are CRAZY busy/hectic/stressful/tiring
Here is a sample of what an average sunday is for my family
7:00am wake up make bed before the little one wakes up (too late)
7:10 shower (hurry little one is trying to break down the door)
7:20 teeth and makeup "Peter get that toy out of the toilet!!"
7:25 make bed (so one room in the house has order)while a crying child is hanging on my leg
7:30 try to pick up what used to be the upstairs. (little one is following me around crying)
7:45 wake up the big kids (my little shadow is at my heels still crying)
cleaning is useless this is supposed to be a day of rest
8:00 wake up the big kids again
8:10 feed little one breakfast (he finally stopped crying)
8:15 Scott is off to choir practice and meetings
There goes my help for the day
8:45 Feed Brennen breakfast wake up big kids
9:00 argue with William about getting ready for church
9:10 get church bag ready. trip over little one, he starts crying again
9:15 last minute touches on my lesson
9:30 big kids get dressed
9:32 big kids change because they didn't dress for church
9:40 did you brush your teeth?
9:45 where are your shoes?
10:00 load the car
10:01 NO, we can't take guns to church
10:02 Go eat your breakfast
10:05 hairdoo's x 5
10:15 big kids go eat breakfast!!!
10:16 Where's Brennen?
10:17 Brennen is playing in the dirt
10:18 change Brennen's clothes (he peed his pants and played outside)
10:19 William did you eat?
10:20 get myself dressed
10:25 wipe the gooberslobers off of my fresh shirt
10:30 finally everyone is in the car to go to church
10:35 Did I put dinner in the oven?

You would think once we got to church things would settle down. WRONG
wrestle with Peter. Tell Brennen to shush he us talking way too loud. William has to go potty. Breakup a fight over the 1 toy motorcycle we brought. Brennen has to go potty. Ellie's mad because she wants Peters snack. Didn't you eat breakfast? pick up the spilled goldfish. etc.etc
you get the picture and that is just sacrament meeting.
I'm in the primary so it's more dealing with children for another 2 hours. (put your feet down. keep your clothes on. Don't tip your chair. keep your hands to yourself. . . Fit a spiritual lesson in somehow.
Time to go home. Where are all my kids? Ellie is on the stage practicing for her next debut. William is at the bishops office trying to score another piece of candy. Who knows where Brennen is. Scott has more meetings we will see him later. Finally get home and the chaos starts all over again.
So I ask you. . . Who was the crazy person that said Sunday is a day of rest?!?!?!?

unthinkable

Ladies and Gentlemen the unthinkable has happened. . . . . BRENNEN IS POTTY TRAINED!!!!! I let him have a couple of days to get back to normal from our trip to Utah. Once he was back in a routine I got him dressed with underwear on and told him he was NOT TO PEEP in this underwear. He should use the potty instead. Yes I said peep. That is what he calls the action and the anatomy, and I'm okay with that. Now everytime he goes he wants us to check it out. The last time he did it we said casually "good job Brennen." He stopped us and demanded "Where's my whohoo?"

lost tooth

William finally lost his first tooth. that tooth was hanging on by a thread for dear life. We were so sick of hearing about his teeth that hurt because they are loose. And the fact that he "couldn't eat anything" that last night Scott finally just yanked it out. Hurray!!! When he went to bed he wrote a note to the tooth fairy and left a snack just in case she was getting hungry. I tried to explain that she is not Santa Clause that needs milk and cookies but he insisted. I guess the tooth fairy deserves a snack too. This morning he woke up with a gold coin under his pillow. He was so excited to try out his new space with a straw. I told him to just wait until we go to the store and get a sucker.