Happy Halloween!

Presenting our Halloween costumes:

Perry Hotter

Native American Princess

Cowgirl Sally

Ariel

Snow White and the Clown

Work hard, then play hard

I lead a fun and BUSY life. Moderation in all things is key to being well balanced. I need to have PLAY TIME! Two of my girlfriends flew down from Utah for a weekend in Palm Springs. Our jaws never tired, even though we talked non-stop the entire 4 days. I miss these gals a whole lot. Thanks to the family members and husband that helped make this possible.

While driving to Palm Springs, we stopped at Glenn Ivy (Corona, CA) for a relaxing day at the spa. I will not be posting most of the photos (courtesy to my friends' wishes) because of the bathing suit attire.

We loved our time in several different pools, baked in the sun with mud all over us and even sat in a mineral bath that was very stinky. It is very affordable, you just gotta try it (all ages are welcome).

We went to In-N-Out

My parents hooked us up at a time share condo, "Cinamaron Golf Course Resort". We had a 2 bedroom, 2 bath place with a full kitchen. Not a care in the world...

We spent a day at the pool, since it was over 100 degrees every day we were there.

We had pedicures done.

While we shopped at the stores along the main street in PS, we found this soap store that lathered us up and let us smell combinations of all sorts of scents. Personally, I appreciated the fresh air outside the store, but it was an experience for sure.

This statue attracted many, including Holli. We had the best smoothies at the Mexican restaurant behind her.

I think we went inside almost all 130 outlet stores, including this new "Brighton" store. No kids and the whole day to shop. We were definitely exhausted, but we kept on going!

We ate at Ruby's on the Seal Beach pier and then they experienced Trader Joe's. They had to take another carry-on the plane with all their stashes.

I have been lucky to call these ladies my friends for about 11 years now. We all bought our first homes together, we lived in the same neighborhood, we went to church together, we had our first babies together, we even spent a week together on Lake Tahoe. There are so many experiences to list, but they are the best and I love them lots! Thanks for coming to Cali.

I highly recommend for moms to get away on occasion.

Less hair at our house

When you are blessed with something good, I believe one is required to share. Sage has donated her hair twice, now it was Brooke's turn to make a good choice. http://locksoflove.org/
Once I felt Brooke had enough hair to give, I explained to her about the "gift" she could give. Today was the day!

She will share the hair and the story with her kindergarten class tomorrow. I am very proud of her decision. Look at how grown up she looks with the new "do"

Libby was also in need of a new style (check out her new glasses as well)

These are the after shots

I kept the longer locks (for the hubby) but added layers to lighten up the heavy load. Sorry, I am not as cute as the girls, but it was noteworthy :)

Day at Clark Park

The city of La Mirada has excellent family activities for FREE! This is not a paid advertisement, I am just tipping my hat to them as a city. Sage, Brooke, and myself attended a 3 hour family event with a paleontologist at a beautiful park (link is listed below). They will do it again in December. We were lucky enough to be joined by a friend and her son, Brooke's friend. First we listened to a lecture, looked at fossils, etc. Then we went on a hike looking for fossils and then finished the day by playing (PALEO, very similar to BINGO).

Sage and Brooke standing by a jaw bone (replica) of a T-rex

Sage is showing off her tooth from a lion, we also looked at teeth from bison.

Sage is holding coprolite (petrified poop)

We are playing PALEO with pebble markers

We started at the bottom of this hill to begin our search for fossils.

We walked up in the heat. Sage asked how they watered all these plants. We had a discussion about native growing plants.

This is the view from the top. You can see we walked by several baseball fields and across a field from the park to get to this area that was once a beach.

Brooke is showing an imprint of a shell.

Brooke kept having me ask the paleontologist what it was she found. He would respond, "a pebble"

Another rock

Finally, her friend found a fossilized shell. She was thrilled to hold it, but was equally thrilled with all the pebbles she found.

We played on 1 playground at the park after the presentation was over.

Brooke being a daredevil.

This reminds me of a play structure over at El Dorado park. It was a nice park, even has fishing (catch and release only). The park does cost $5 to get in and you can't re-enter for free. Sage and Brooke were glad we got out of bed for this, even on a Saturday!

http://www.ocparks.com/clarkpark/default.asp?Show=Activities

1st day of school

They were all ready and eager to get out the door at 8:15 this morning. I woke up every 5 minutes for an hour before finally getting up to start this school year off. I think we have all been anticipating this moment.

They each packed their lunch with their own personal "choices" and then we were off on our walk. The dog was sad to see us leave without him, but he is not allowed on campus and their was a parent meeting to go to. (insert sad puppy eyes)

Look at them go, they all wore matching dresses today. Brooke demanded to wear her hair down, so we will not do much of that in the future. Another little girl was actually braiding her hair while they stood in line.

Here is Libby standing with her new 3rd grade class. Her teacher, Mrs. Wallace is the lady in the purple dress.

Now on to the BABY starting kindergarten...

She will attend school from 8:45 - 1:45 each day. That includes eating lunch in the cafeteria. Brooke was very mature today, she is going to do great! Brooke has also officially started piano lessons with Grandma. So far she is very motivated and is learning quickly.

She couldn't wait to get climbing on this structure.

Brooke loves the slide as well.

Here is Brooke with her class learning the rules of the playground. Her teacher, Mrs. Matheus, is in the black skirt. This is 2 classes combined. Brooke has 17 children in her class, might grow a little over the next few days.

Everyone enjoyed their teachers and classes. Perry talked positively about introducing his cousin, Ben (new 7th grader to the middle school), to those he knows at the middle school. Somehow, they manged to have most of the same teachers but during different periods. There is always Lunch!

Children's museum in La Habra

Reminder: left click on the pictures to enlarge them.

We took a trip to the Children's Museum in La Habra. Target sponsors free admission on the first Saturday of each month. The girls enjoyed themselves for hours. Somehow I missed a picture of them creating puppets. Guess who loved that activity the most? I also missed pictures of the locomotive room. Libby and Lee also enjoyed a puppet show during this time as well.



(This picture didn't get turned) Sage and Brooke are sticking their faces out of the holes of this indoor tree. They have a room for children under 5 to enjoy.

Outside in the dinosaur garden we found these "dino riders" willing to be photographed.

Brooke loved the dress up room with all the clothes, shoes and other props a girl could want. She actually played in the sound room as well.

Sage dressed up as a firefighter.

The store they have set up includes little carts, wooden and plastic food, a cash register and scale. Sage was trying to see how much weight she could make the scale hold before it will fall off.

She made it to almost 6 pounds before pieces started to fall.

Gavin and Kaylee had a good time as well. Look at these cute mamas, they are both 32 (?) weeks along.

Sage made it on this life size horse. Crazy as it sounds, I tried to lift Sage up on the horse (yah right). Uncle Philip came to the rescue. He lifted Sage up and she was very happy to get a turn on the horse.

Brooke gets her turn with the reigns

Libby and Lee also get a turn. The best thing about this horse...well I think you know :)

Here is Brooke showing another mode of transportation.

Sage was happy to find an intriguing looking mancala version. She loves that game!

Sage also found special kimonos and other fine materials to try on in this room.

The last room included real "stuffed" animals on a nature walk.

Yes, they are crazy enough to let us touch them. These animals remind me of the velveteen rabbit, they are very LOVED!

Brooke is as grumpy as a grizzly.

Lee meets up with this Kodiak bear. She didn't want him to leave and tried to give him a hand!

GRRRRRRRRRR...Sorry if we scared you. Next month they will be focused on pumpkins, want to come?