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.

Born on a Mountain Top in Tennessee...

Greenest state in the land of the free. Raised in the woods so he knew every tree, Killed him a bear when he was only three. Davy, Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier.

Here's the boys' latest themed costumes for Treats in the Streets. Alexander was Davy Crockett (compliments of Cousin Anna, who made his costume for a dance performance he did), Isaac was a Frontier Marshall making sure that the buffalos (Maxwell) were left alone to run free. We had a great time as usual with the exception of Maxwell begging to go home because he was tired. I think we pooped him out at Disneyland yesterday. I actually had to pick him up early from school because of it. He then got his second wind and was fine for a while gathering treats.

We saw this sign in one of the antique stores in the downtown area. Thought it was totally appropriate for a photo op. Can't be having any buffalo poached along the way!

So after an hour of getting tons of candy we headed home. Have to have some rest for more candy gathering tomorrow night at church. Okay, maybe I just need the rest....the kids are on a sugar high.

The Grandma Tours Kickoff

We are off and running with the Grandma Tours again. Isaac just finished up his first trimester at school and is now off for a month. We kicked off "The Grandma Tours" with a trip to Disneyland with the family. Annette, Cody, Shawna, Dexter and Anna were able to join us for a fun day at the park. The day was fantastic! The weather was cool and the lines were short. A tourist's dream come true. This was Dexter's first trip to the park. He seemed to enjoy himself as much as a 9 month old could. I kept seeing him just looking around at all the bright colors and people around us.

Maxwell picked his favorite ride to be the first on our list to go on. Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters is a fun interactive ride where you are put into a star cruiser that is equipped with astro blasters that fires a red laser. Your goal is to battle the Evil Emperor Zurg and save the universe. As you gather points from hitting the targets you are then ranked as a Space Ranger at the end of the ride. Both boys just love this adventure.

Isaac and Max were able to try their hands at playing music in Tomorrowland's Innoventions attraction. Maxwell was picked to play the drums and Isaac, the guitar. This section was hosted by Yamaha. The drum set was great. You could either play it and hear the music or plug in headsets and not hear it at all. The guitar could sound like a guitar, a piano, a japanese guitar, etc. The technology behind this is ingenious.

We went on one of Grandma's favorite rides "The Jungle Cruise". This is one of the original attractions at the park. The neat thing about this ride is that Grandma's father helped build it. He worked on the animals, particularly the elephants and the hippos. I have always loved this ride. The jokes still make me laugh and they always seem to come up with new ones. Check out the vandalism on the front of our boat. I can't believe Grandpa would have done that! Grandma must have a secret admirer there.

Third Place Winner!

He did it! Isaac got a trophy for coming in third place in popcorn sales for the Cub Scouts. Thanks to all of you who supported us, Isaac's total sales were $636. Parker, who is next to him, was the top seller with $2100 in sales. Wow! Talk about a salesman! We are seriously going to miss Parker when he bridges up to Boy Scouts in February.

The boys are laughing so much in this photo because their Cubmaster, Kevin, who made the trophies, attached a sound chip to the back of the popcorn cup that plays "The Popcorn Song". Their expressions are priceless. All in all our pack did a fantastic job in fundraising. We were able to sell $10694 in popcorn. We even came in higher than last year....amazing in this economy! Way to go Cubs!!