Flat Isaac

Poor Flat Isaac got run over by Auntie Nette's car! A little history... Isaac made this in school last year after his class read the book Flat Stanley. He had to send him to another person in another state to have adventures with them. He chose to send him to Aunt Yvonne's. He came back with a broken leg, snow clothes on and a photo book of all his adventures.

Well Maxwell found Flat Isaac laying around the house and decided to take him to Thanksgiving with us at Auntie Dar's. The next day when we got to Grandma's house, Max dropped him out of Charlotte's car and left him in the street. When Annette and I came back from moving her stuff, we ran him over. Luckily for him he was flat already! Not like the mouse Charlotte ran over but that's another story.

You Can't Pick Your Family...

that's why Annette doesn't like hanging out with us for very long. Most of you know that I'm just plain nuts most of the time. I always enjoy having fun even if it is at someone else's expense. In this case it was with Annette. While cleaning out Mom's house I ran across the coon skin cap, the beanie, and swiped Cody's Pimp Daddy hat. We decided that we were going to wear them to the mall with Annette to do the "Shop til you drop" girls' night out. Lucky her!

The Orange County Zoo

We headed off on another Grandma Tour on Friday with my Mom2Mom group from church. This is really small zoo that houses animals that are indigenous to the southwestern United States. The most famous resident at the zoo is Nacho the black bear. The bears came out to see us and one even backed into the water pool to cool off his hind quarters. It was at least 80 degrees that day. I hope it cools down soon. We were quite fortunate to be able to go seeing how the Corona fire started the next day and closed all the freeways to the zoo.

One of the animals at the zoo was this guy, a mule deer. I have never seen a deer up close that was growing in his antlers. It was really neat! He had several velvety prongs growing in all in a cluster. I wish this photo came out better. The chain link was hard to shoot through.

After seeing the zoo animals we went to the duck pond to feed the ducks. While feeding them this beautiful boy came over for some food as well. He walked right up to me to get some. The kids were so excited to see a peacock up close that they were closing in on him and we had to get them to back away so he could get back to his friends. We were afraid that the kids would fall into the yucky duck water. That stuff is just nasty... and I know from experience unfortunately. Ewww! Grandma C seemed to have a good time and enjoyed watching all the kids having fun. And she was very thankful that I did not lose her into the pond while pushing her wheelchair down to the edge.

My Grannyman

This is my Grannyman, Haydn. Haydn has been with me since I've been married. He is a very sweet 16 year old siamese cat. He is my little ray of sunshine. I know he's getting old and I won't have him with me much longer so I savor each day I have. Haydn sleeps with me with his head on my cheek and an arm around my neck. When the weather is too warm he sleeps on my pillow and I use him as a pillow. He doesn't seem to mind as long as I am near him. I ran across a book called, The Grannyman by Judith Shachner, last year at the library. It totally reminded me of Haydn when we brought home Scooter, our other cat. It's about an old siamese cat that reflects on his life and prepares to die until a new kitten arrives in his home. He then teaches the kitten everything it needs to know about life. It is a really nice book. Haydn did that with Scooter until Scooter became the Alpha Cat in our home.

Here is our wonderful Scooter using Haydn as a pillow as well. I am so surprised that Haydn hasn't died due to the abuse that Scooter puts him through. That poor old cat never gets to leave a room without Scooter jumping him. Scooter is a beast but he's sweet in his own way too. Scooter loves to sleep under the covers by my feet and is good until you move too much and then he'll attack you. Should have had him declawed! Isaac and I went to the pound the other day to license our dog. We checked out the animals, which we do everytime we go there even though Jeff has said "no more cats!" Let me tell you...it took all the willpower in me to not adopt the blue point siamese kitten that was there. He was so cute and talkative! Isaac told me to get him and I told him that if I do I'd have to get rid of a kid...most likely him. He decided that we didn't need the kitten after all. Too bad...the kitten would have been a nice change.

Meet Max...The Mastodon

Today we went to the Western Center Museum for Archaeology and Paleontology located in Hemet. This museum is out in the middle of nowhere at the new Diamond Valley Lake Reservoir. When they began construction on the reservoir, they ran across numerous fossils of extinct mammals. Paleontologists had to work quickly to preserve and remove the fossils in order to not delay the construction of the reservoir. What would have normally taken a complete season to remove one mammal was done in the matter of hours. This is Max, one of the mastodons uncovered. Below the display are the real bones that they uncovered. In this room there are some hands-on activities for the kids. They provide clay to make fossils and crayons to do rubbings of different animals.

Here is a really neat way to show how an excavation is done. This section is actually the floor of the room where you can walk on top of what was excavated in the manner it was found. It kind of gives you the real sense of uncovering it yourself. Grandma was kind of paranoid rolling on top of it. She thought it was just glass and not able to withstand any weight. Of course the boys had to jump up and down to show her how strong it was and get her more upset.

Plant Portraits is one of the travelling exhibits currently being shown. This collection, showing about 80 paintings, depicts California wildflowers and plant life painted by A.R. Valentien from 1908 -1918. He had been commissioned by Ellen Scripps to paint these in hopes of being published. Unfortunately the cost of publishing was too much for Miss Scripps and eventually upon her death the collection of 1100 paintings was donated to the San Diego Natural History Museum. These paintings are amazing. The detail and color are extremely rich. Here is Grandma and the boys next to a painting of Mariposa Lilies. All in all this little museum was fun to see and thankfully it is in the middle of nowhere so there was practically no one there.

Introducing...Miss November!

Not exactly a centerfold but isn't she a cutie! This is our new hamster, Miss November. She is a robo dwarf hamster. We just got her today and boy is she full of spunk! I made the boys recycle bottles and cans and cash in all their loose change so they could buy another hamster. Maybe "ownership" will help them take care of her better. They were able to come up with the $20 for the hamster and her playground. We are hoping to train her so that she is people friendly and maybe even potty trained. Do you know that they actually sell litter boxes for hamsters with tiny scoops as well? It's amazing to see what you can spend your money on in pet stores. We had the unfortunate experience of finding poor Blackjack stiff as a board this morning. On a side note...never tell your kids the dead animal is "stiff as a board". They will want to make sure that is the correct description and touch it themselves. Luckily I am definitely not the squeamish mom and let the boys touch him to make sure I was right in my assessment of him....they told me I was.

If You Build It...The Kids Will Come

And they certainly do! Legoland is a fun place to take the kids. It is amazing how many things there are almost life-size and built solely out of Legos. The boys and I talked Jeff into playing hooky from work and go to Legoland. It was a perfect day...the longest wait was 5 minutes. While in the Pirate Shores area, Isaac and Jeff went on "Splash Battle", Maxwell was staying out to shoot water at them! The "pirates" on the boat can squirt water at the onlookers and the onlookers can do the same back to the "pirates". Luckily for Maxwell he was short enough to not get too wet.

Holy Moly! For a small roller coaster this Technic Coaster flew! Here's Isaac and I holding on for dear life as our car "lost it's brakes"! Check out my hair! Pretty cool. Isaac loved this ride. We finally got Maxwell to go on it at the end of the day. I thought he was going to burst into tears on the down drop. Then he just laughed and smiled the rest of the way. Isaac just wanted to go on it again and again. I can only handle roller coasters so many times....especially small ones. They seem to be harsher on me than the big ones at other parks. I could hardly walk after I got home and the next day was horrible! I must be getting old.

Here is an amazing example of what you can build with Legos. It absolutely blows my mind when you look at all the details and the size of these animals. I would think that a lot of kids would love to grow up and be Lego engineers and designers. I must say it seems it would be fun.

Trunk & Treasure Mateys!

Avast me hearty! Here we are headed out to Trunk & Treasure at my church. The theme was obviously "Pirates"...unfortunately due to the chocolate coin recall...no chocolate coins could be handed out. No biggie... we just went with bigger and better candy to hand out. Michelle and Alex brought Grandma C to my house to get her decked out in pirate garb and thankfully Alex's recent birthday was a pirate theme as well. Michelle had all the jewels for us...even a tiny parrot to hang on to my shirt.

The boys this year wanted to be Ben 10 (Maxwell) and Upgrade (Isaac). Upgrade is one of the aliens that Ben 10 can change into thanks to the Omnitrex on his wrist. Maxwell even insisted on having black hair for the costume. Kind of strange seeing him with such dark hair. Some of my friends even thought he was Isaac. I was able to just make the costumes this year myself. I only had to attach a black stripe to Max's shirt for his. Isaac's was more fun. After buying white pants and a black hoodie at the thrift store, I cut out the green neon lines out of felt and ironed them on. Isaac liked having the face mask as well but it got too hot for him to wear the whole night.

Alex decided to come as a Jedi. The boys have seemed to latch on to this Star Wars craze. I don't think that this will be the last time we see them dressed up like this. Alex decided to not go trick or treating in his area and give us a try. I think he had fun with the boys for a second night of goody-getting. While Grandma, Michelle, and I handed out candy at our decorated car trunk, Jeff took the boys around to the other cars and to the bouncers and other activities that were available.