Hiatus Finished...I'm Back!

I know it's been a really long time since I've posted to our family blog. Needless to say I just wasn't feeling like posting anything for quite some time. As you all know...lots of stuff has gone on over the last 2 1/2 years. Lots of losses and lots of blessings. I'm just so thankful to have my family and friends that have stuck by me and mine during that time.

Well this month is a major celebration month for us. Both boys had an incredibly fun birthday party. The Penguins of Madagascar theme was perfect for them. Both boys are so creative and so to incorporate that into the theme I had all the kids build their own mousetrap catapult. This was broken down into ten confusing steps but they all did great and all the catapults worked!


For Valentine's Day Eugene pleasantly surprised me with a dozen orange roses. My favorite color!! They are so beautiful! I scheduled us for a tea party at my friend's Sharon's house. It was delicious as usual! I love going to her house for tea.
 
Eugene's mom, Catherine, has been in and out of the hospital lately.  Just dealing with normal everyday issues of being 85.  She is such an amazing woman!  So joyful and blessed to be able to go where she needs to go and deal with what God gives her.  We were planning on taking her out for my birthday this Friday but seems like we'll be bringing lunch to her at the rehab facility.  No biggie...as long as we're able to spend some time with her. 


Sorry this is so short and not really eventful but consider it a trial run for me and remember...my life is definitely not slow or boring so I'll be posting a lot more later on.

Wienie Dog Races

We went to the Wienerschnitzel Wienie Races today at Los Alamitos Race Track. This is one of the best events I have spent my inheritance on....it only cost $3! The kids were free! Wow! What a deal! There were wienie dogs galore here. Long haired, short haired, red, black, black and white...that one looked like a cow! Anyhow, the dogs were set up to race all evening long about every 6 to 10 minutes. There were even a couple of horse races in between the dog races. The dogs were put into the chutes and the gates lifted.

You could feel the excitement in the air as the dogs zoomed out of the chutes. Okay, there were quite a few that were dazed and confused and just did not know what the heck they were doing and what was that smell? Is that horse poop? Why am I out here in dirt up to my arm pits? Don't they love me any more? For the most part half of each set would make it to the finish line. Some stayed back with their owners and others just wandered around sniffing. One poor little guy got going so fast that he did a nose-plant and almost flipped over. Ouch!

I suppose besides the fact that this was just so much fun to watch and probably partcipate in with the family dog there was a cool Winner's Package awaiting the "top dog". The package consisted of this super cool dog house with the Wienerschnitzel logo, a $1000 purse and the title "Fastest Dog in the West". Annette, the boys and I had a wonderful time and hope to be able to do this again in the future.

My Nemesis

One of my all time favorite cartoons is Phineas and Ferb by the Disney Channel. It's about two brothers that only have 104 days of summer vacation and want to utilize that time and make the most of it by creating crazy outlandish things like roller coasters, haunted houses, robotic tree houses, etc. It really reminds me of my childhood.




These brothers have a sister, named Candace, that is always trying to bust them and get their mom home in time to see what they have created and built. They also have a pet platypus, named Perry, that is a secret agent unbeknownst to the family. When the boys start getting creative, Perry always disappears causing the boys to ask, "Hey! Where's Perry?"

Well Perry always has some secret door that he disappears into to get to Headquarters where Major Monogram gives him the scoop of the day about the evil Dr. Doofenschmirtz. Agent P's assignments consist of checking out Doofenschmirtz's latest evil plan and foil it. As Perry and Doofenschmirtz battle it out, the boys continue in their construction of fun and excitement to Candace's dismay. As she tries to get her mom home, whatever gizmo that the evil Doofenschmirtz has built always obliterates the boy's creation of the day and they never get caught.

This is the evil Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz in the episode that he found out that he had a nemesis, Secret Agent P. He was so excited to have been found worthy of having a nemesis! This brings me to the point of this long drawn out story. I have just found out that I have a nemesis. I'm not too sure if I'm ecstatic about it like Doof was but it's flattering in a weird psycho way. My nemesis has found my blog and apparently liked it so much that he has plagiarized my writings and passed them off as his own! Wow! Who would have thought that my creative writing would be passed off by someone with a much higher education than myself. I guess I should be flattered but it is quite sad. Very sad actually. The best thing about Phineas and Ferb? Doof is always put to shame and his evil plans foiled.

Theater Day Camp

Maxwell wanted in on the fun so I decided to put him in Christian Arts & Theater Camp or CAT Camp. He is my little thespian in the making. This camp was geared for 5 to 7 year olds to introduce them to theater...acting, singing, dancing and doing crafts and water sports. Maxwell had a blast. Each day he was to dress up differently. One day he was to dress as his favorite book character. The suggestions were...Pollyanna, Huck Finn, etc. Well we aren't quite there with those types of books so we picked Darth Vader, which if you have a little boy you have read picture books on Star Wars. So off he went as a complete Darth Vader. When I went to pick him up...I was a little surprised to find him looking like this. My galactic warrior had transformed himself into a tiger! Wow! What a shock. I almost didn't recognize him.

On the last day of camp he was to dress up as his favorite cartoon or tv character. He chose to go as Ferb from Disney Channel's Phineas and Ferb. So off we went to the halloween store to buy bright green hairspray. Thankfully we had the other items to pull this costume off. It would have been nice to know that all this last minute creativity was on the schedule. But then that would have made it less fun and less creative I guess.

Cub Scout Day Camp

This motley crew is Den 11 - the Firecrackers. Isaac (holding the flag)got the opportunity to attend Summer Day Camp with Alex's pack at Irvine Regional Park. The facility is really nice and is still being built. There are numerous building and lots of area to run and play. We were unable to attend Day Camp or Camp Wiley Resident Camp with our pack due to us scattering Jeff's ashes during the weeks that the camp were offered.

Thankfully Michelle volunteered John to shuttle the boys back and forth to camp daily and allowed Isaac to stay the week with them. John and the boys went up the following week to Camp Wiley so that they could have fun there as well. What a brother-in-law! I owe John big time for this! And to top it off...Pack 51 scholarshipped us for half of one camp and entirely for the other. We were truly blessed!Here Alex and Isaac are making bear masks. This was just one of the 2 dozen achievements that they accomplished at camp. Isaac brought home a catapult, a rain stick, and a tool box...all hand-made by him. Takes after his daddy and grandpas.

Licensed to Learn

This summer we decided it was time to get Maxwell a library card. Watch out world! He's now licensed to learn. We love going to the library! There are so many stories, games, and puzzles that you can get there. Maxwell was so proud that he was able to sign his name by himself on the card. We usually go and get the 25 book limit for the boys. I know that seems like a lot of books to some of you but believe me...we go through them in a week when we are in school and have to log them all for the homework packet. I never thought I'd be reading that many books in a week! I am seriously going to have to get a new rolling backpack to lug out all those books. They weigh a ton!





Here's the other reason we like going to the library. There are always fun things to see and play with. Max said that he was getting hungry after he saw this huge hamburger. Needless to say we went to Wienerschnitzel on the way home.

Happy 4th of July!

Today our day started off with walking in the annual City of Corona 4th of July Parade. We have participated in this parade for a couple years now. I was fortunate enough to be able to miss the long staging periods in past years because Jeff would do it with Isaac while Max and I would wait for them at the end of the route. This year I was not so lucky. I seriously think they need to pick a shadier street for the staging area. It was way too hot for 9 am.

Our pack has 3 soapbox cars for the scouts to ride in. Here's Isaac in the Eagle 1 with his friend, Tyler pushing...or rather making sure Isaac doesn't lose control and take out any spectators. Brakes are not included on these so accidents can happen. One of the dad's offered to provide a kit for us to make a car...all we have to do assemble it. That actually sounds like a lot of fun! Then we'll be able to give the scouts more turns at riding in the parade.

Charlotte and Max hopped in to walk the couple of blocks with us. Max was so happy about this...being part of the action is what he really likes. He looks up to Isaac so much and doesn't want to miss a thing. We were fortunate enough to have friends along the route spray us with super soakers. Never thought I'd be happy about that but it sure felt good! After the parade, Annette joined us in seeing the new Transformers movie. Loved it! The computer animations/graphics are amazing!

We finished off our day with a family gathering at Pinki's. I took a little siesta while the kids had an all out water war including climbing on the roof of the house with a hose! Okay, not my kids but the big teenage kids thankfully. It is amazing how well they all get along with each other seeing how the age gap is up to 16 years. We're blessed with such a wonderful family. Here's the boys hanging out with Aireylle and Bree.

Aunt Doni and Uncle Randy were able to make it as well. They had just finished up their fire watch duty at Mt. Wilson. It sounds like an interesting job just looking out at the wilderness keeping an eye out for fires. They always have such fun stories about people they meet out there hiking through.

All in all we had a great time and enjoyed not only our fireworks shown here but the neighbors as well. Lots of illegal ones shooting up in the sky but still pretty to look at.