After months of training after school 2 days a week, Emily and Ashley ran a mile lap in the OC Marathon. Ashley gave it all she had and arrived in the middle of the pack.... Emily came in absolutely last just ahead of a kid in a wheelchair. She told me she just doesn't like to run. I am proud of both of them, keeping with the program to the end...and improving their starting time.......despite countless complaining every Monday and Thursday morning.
We try not go go anywhere for spring break, because...that is when everyone else is there. So we just stayed home and enjoyed the time off from school (well...some of us enjoyed the time off from school.) Spring break started out with Heidi's class having an Easter party and egg hunt. I came in at the last minute to hide some eggs and give "face-time" since working in the classroom bores me to death and I get angry because I am not getting paid 80K a year to do the same thing the teacher is.
I took Heidi & Emily to the city's Bunny Days to get their picture taken with The Bunny. A must!
We had to drain the pool this year. The water had been in there for about 6 years and the chemicals were out-of-whack. It always reminds me of the Polar Bear Habitat at the Zoo when we refill it. We had neighbors down the street call the water company complaining about all of the water running in the gutters..(water is a precious commodity here...unlike Oregon where I grew up) The water company showed up at 11:15 at night to see what was going on and did'nt care at all what we were doing....they just had to explain it to the people at the end of the street.
On Easter morning we had a visit from the bunny....followed by an egg hunt in the back yard. Reed is taller than me now and he looked like a grown adult running around the yard frantically searching for eggs.....weird..... I baked for 3 hours in prep for Easter ham dinner with relatives. Knowing that Reed would be anxious to tease the girls from all of the candy he had ingested in the morning...I had him cook with me. We made Deviled Eggs topped with bacon bits and chives, pistachio salad, and homemade potato rolls. He did a really good job helping me. Maybe by next year, I can pawn the whole baking thing off on him.
Ashley's birthday fell on a school day this year and her only birthday wish was to skip school and be taken out to lunch. So, since she is the only student in her class to be getting straight A's, I figured I would give the rest of the class the day to catch up and let her stay home. We went to Nordstrom for lunch and then I took her to get her ears pierced at the mall. She was super nervous, but did just fine. (Isn't she oh-so glamorous?)
I was also convinced to let her have a few friends over after school, which turned into an all day and all night slumber party.
As one OC resident says to another when complaining about the high cost of living "You get what you pay for". These days are what we pay for.
While we were over at the tide pools there was an obnoxious family (obviously not from anywhere around here)...most likely the mid-west.....and they were stomping on the sea life in the tide pools causing the water to explode out of the sea anoemies and the stupid Dad was kicking all of the mollusks off of the rocks. I couldn't help but let them know what they were doing was illegal and that they were destroying sealife, so no one else can enjoy it. And all I got was a blank "what the hell" midwest stare. Idiots.
This year for Heidi's 6th birthday she had a friend party. She invited all of her little friends from Kindergarten to come over and play all day. The weather was fabulous for a January day and the girls played outside the whole time.
Heidi with her creators.
Heidi, Dan, Olivia and Paige. Dan is certainly in his element in this picture.
A fabulous crown birthday cake, tons of treats and a pinata. What more could a 6 year old want?
Pure Joy!
Ever since Reed was born, I had envisioned great New Years Eve Birthday parties for him since the poor kid was born January 2nd. So this year we finally did it. We heated the pool, and invited all of his buddies to go airsofting, swimming and movie watching....allllll night long.
We ended up putting them to bed at 2am and then again waking up at 4am to yell at them to go to sleep. Reed had a great time and is now an official 14 year old.
