Playing catch-up....

For some reason, trying to get around to updating has been quite a task. We've been busy, we've had stuff, but really just haven't been able to fit it in. So here it is, two weeks worth of things we've been up to!

A couple of Saturdays ago, they had an art show at the community center, featuring art from kids from the local schools. Tyler's class made special snowman pictures to display...

Then his school went up on stage to perform a few of the songs they sing in class. This is a mix of all three classes, those who were able to attend.

Their last number was on the floor with lots of dance, you can see his blonde head and brown jacket right in the middle.

After that we headed over to the creating area where they painted pictures and stamped cards.

They also made necklaces using foil and etching a design onto them.
Somebody was being ornery, and having a not so good hair day.

Last Tuesday Cody's school held a skate night at the local roller rink. The boys and I strapped on some skates and headed out for a good time. Tyler had the walking skates (where the wheels don't really roll) and Cody was in the medium speed skates, so the first bit was spent with death grips on my arms trying to get around in a circle. They were doing well and we stopped off for a break.

After a while, and seeing his friends out there alone, Cody found his courage and ventured out on his own. He did great, only fell a few times, but was back up and going again.

Tyler was also going really well, he's requested that he wants rolling wheels next time. Hoping to take him back soon for a morning Tots session.

This last Saturday was free museum day in Sacramento. It was a bit rainy, but we started our adventure at the zoo. Luckily, we missed the storms and had a nice, dry time.

First stop was a ride on the carousel.

We walked around and saw all the usual suspects. The giraffes are always a favorite, can't wait to go back and see them up high from the new observation area that is opening soon. They have a huge new enclosure and much more space to move about. Cool to see this one spreading his legs to get lower to eat.

Zookeeper Tyler

Red panda...

and the flamingos.

After the zoo we jumped on the freeway and headed to Woodland to visit the Ag museum. This is a new one for us, but totally worth the drive. We stopped into Sonic and ate before heading over to check out the old tractors and trucks.

Tyler by the tractor that's kinda like Grandpas, only bigger.

Some of these were huge.

Toy trucks section, found an old Wonder Bread toy.

The wooden tractor, Tyler driving, Cody's the engine.

Today Tyler had a field trip to Petsmart. What a cool place! They did a great tour, going around to the different areas, taking out animals to see and lots of explaining. They all seamed to have a great time.

Petting the Guinea pig.

and a rat...

the turtle...

and the snake. Wasn't sure what that look was all about.

But his hand went right up to pet it.

Then we went over to the vet clinic and they showed them how the animals go to the doctors. The kids disappeared with Ms. Suzanne and the vets for a nice chunk of time. We contemplated a coffee run, but they were just heading out.

Watching a pup get a hair cut.

Then over to see the fish.

They handed out cool little goody bags with coloring books and crayons, and a bunch of papers Ty said were for me.

Next up on the agenda is getting things ready for Valentine's at the boys' school. Tyler's class is having a party complete with cookies and sandwiches, then handing out Valentine's to his friends. Being the typical overachiever I am, I decided to make suckers for him to hand out. Seamed like it wouldn't be too hard, stupid assumption.
I started out using the Wilton candy melts, but as soon as I tried to flavor them, the melts went lumpy, so one batch thrown out. I next tried using almond bark and the first few I made went well. That was yesterday. This afternoon I finished them up and had little success getting the bark to melt to a nice creamy consistency, the flavoring was messing it all up. But they aren't awful and they taste really good so we're going with it!

The messy process begins...

Popped out and needing a shave.

Smoothed out..

Bagged and ready to go.

It always starts out being a good idea.

Cody's class is handing out Valentine's, but not really having a party and we can't take any kind of candy in. So we found the cool Lego cards that gives you a sticker puzzle to figure out.

Tonight we are headed to the school for a PTA sponsored pasta dinner. Can't beat $3 a plate for dinner. They are also holding the Feb PTA meeting during dinner, in hopes of getting some more participation, and to make sure all the officers for next year are put in place. This is where I'm diving in head first! I'm on the list for doing fundrasing next year. After seeing what was done this year, I'm not too afraid and hope to maybe find some new things to bring to the table. We are also gearing up for the annual school carnival that is held in April. It's nice to be able to do things for the school because it hasn't worked out for me to work in the classroom much this year.

No worries though, Cody's teacher has been keeping me busy! I've been taking home things to enter into the grade book, grading tests, cutting flashcards apart and other things here and there. She seams surprised every time I come in with a stack of finished things looking for more to do, nice way to make the evening pass.

So that's our happenings and up-to's over the last couple of weeks. The kids are out of school next week for the Presidents holidays and teacher in services. Hopefully we can keep ourselves entertained!

Alexander...

And the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day!

Tyler's class took a field trip to a play house in Roseville to watch this story come to life. It was cute and fun, goofy actors not far from high school, so-so singing and okay acting. But they put a lot of heart into and the kids seamed to enjoy it.






In other news of the week...

Cody has an admirer at school. She Loves him. The way she says good buy in that long, drawn out way, looks over at him, and gives him pictures and cards she's drawn. Lord help me make it through the teen years with this boy!

Thanks to VW my new camera came this week as well. My poor Kodak camera was coming up on being 6 years old, a life full of much abuse and trips and falls. So a new Nikon point and shoot was in order. It's not the camera of my dreams, but hopefully it will do what we need it to and it's tiny! So I'm still trying to figure out all the settings to find which work best in different settings.

That's been our week, the good of the week.

Have I mentioned lately how much ALS sucks, if I haven't, it really does. As we close out the week, we'll be saying goodbye to my dear friends dad after his long, hard battle with this awful disease. So if you have the means, please send a donation to the ALS association in honor of Steve Hall. Much love Jen...

Bouncy party...

** Check out my crafty for the week: http://acraftychristmas.blogspot.com/


Last Saturday we were invited to a Birthday party for one of Cody's preschool friends at the bounce house place. These are some of the best parties we've been to, everyone always has a great time, and it produces an awesome nap!

Aww, That was Awesome!

Head first....

Little Tyler, Awwww!

Havin' a great time!
And yes, he has on two different socks, that's his current style.

Juice and super hero masks before snacks and cupcakes.

Yep, need to go and do some open play, especially with all this nasty weather we've been having.

Carseats....

Oh car seats, they keep our kids safe, and are such a pain in the rear! So here is a bit of a PSA for this week.

Online last night trying to figure out a better fitting booster seat for Cody in Keith's car. He's been riding in a Cosco booster for a while, but it's a bit wide for the seat and it's a little sideways, annoying more than anything. I think our problem will be solved, and a safer ride, by taking the back off and having it be just a backless booster.

My 1st PSA comes into play regarding lap belts. Now the van is great, 4 seats with shoulder/lap belts and 3 with just a lap belt, great! Every time we've had our big kid friends in the car, we've put them in the lap belt seats, In their boosters. I didn't know that this is a huge No-No. But now I'm educated and so will you be!
It makes since, the whole point of a booster is to get them high enough for the shoulder belt to cross their chest, and not their necks, so that they are safe. No shoulder, no need for a booster. It says that it can throw off the position of the lap belt, making it unsafe if they are in a booster with just the lap belt. So Now we know.

Cody will be happy because next time we're in Boise, he can just ride with Grandpa in the hot
rods, not extra seats required.

In the best of worlds, a harnessed seat is the best option, even for big kids. Luckily we have a large seat for Cody that he rides in every day in my car, it has a harness weight of 65 lbs and then it's a belt positioning booster until 100lbs. He could probably use this harnessed seat for the next 2-3 years, but he won't. Tyler is going to outgrow his seat in the next year, height, not weight. So we'll do the big shift, and Cody will be totally boostered after that, he'll be so happy.

Anyway, just wanting to make sure my friends are all well informed, because I obviously wasn't!

Ummm, yeah....

So the blog is a bit neglected again. Sorry. We are just coming down from the holidays and settling back into the school routines. Life isn't very exciting right now, just normal.

Happenings over the last couple of weeks:

* apparently superheros ride scooters and eat lots of cheese.

*We've eaten a lot of fresh, fully homemade meals over the last couple of weeks, thanks to the Weight Watchers cookbook, that's been fun.

*Speaking of Weight Watchers, thanks to them, I'm down 7 lbs in the last 2 weeks, that and a lot of Wii and walking. Now to kick this stupid candy habit....

*Speaking of Wii, Wii is awesome. Love that little dude. Moving and working out should be fun, and it totally is.

*Can't find my crafty desk, the crafty has spilled over and exploded, hope to find it again soon.

*Cody is getting better at reading, almost have him to the point that he doesn't sigh and roll his eyes when he doesn't know a word, just stops and sounds it out.

*Tyler Loves his teachers at school, he told Ms. Suzanne this on Thursday, we were both near tears when she told me.

*There's a major ending that is probably coming soon, and I don't really know how to handle it, supporting my friend the best I can, but not sure if any of it will ever be enough.

*Most of my shows started this week, Yay for good TV again!

*Spaghetti squash is a good noodle substitute, as long as you don't mind a mild crunch.

*Tyler is going to the music class again starting in Feb, not sure who's more excited about this, him or me?

*Has several spots to rearrange in the house, but that also means needing to buy a few new shelves, hooks and shoe racks. Stupid money.

*Life is just puttering on, and on...

Something crafty....

is happening over there.

http://acraftychristmas.blogspot.com/

Gifts from the boys...

It was brought to my attention that I had mentioned all these wonderful things the boy were doing for us for Christmas, then never said what they ended up being. Oops!

Both boys worked hard at school and with Gma & Gpa Scollay and great gifts, the were very proud of their accomplishments!

Tyler's class made plates , decorated by the kids. Very nice snowman!

Cody's class made a pillow case.

Over at Gma & Gpa Scollay's they put together, then added to food for bird feeders. We haven't put them out quite yet, wanting to wait until spring when the rain won't wash them away.

And a New Year Begins...

So here we are, the beginning of another year. Like a lot of people, this is a bit of a reset button and a ready-set-go button.

I'm really not going to set resolutions this year, things that tend to not get done. There are goals that are running around my head:
~full effort put forth for the 12 week Biggest Loser competition with my online mom friends
~then doing the next one, and the next one until this body is in the shape and size of healthy
~to find a doable, lifestyle, running routine
~run at least two 5k races, getting faster with each one, and end the year with a 10k
~put more effort into crafty things, not just in Nov/Dec
~love more, laugh more, stop being so angry
~play more

So maybe a bit resolution-ee but there you go.

Set forth and accomplish!

last week of the year...

Tuesday we headed over to Cody's school to play on the big, open playground. Everything was damp, but they seamed to have a good time, especially when a couple of friends came along.

Stomp rockets...

Scooting...

and a short spell of remote control cars, until they died. Forgot to check the batteries, Oops!

It's been a really mellow 2nd week of vacation here. Monday we lounged around and watched a couple of movies we had borrowed from the library. Yesterday we went out to see Alvin and the Chipmunks, very cute and the boys were excited to see it in the theater. Today we are headed to the park, as long as the rains hold back.

Tonight is supposed to be some big party night, or at least that's what I've heard! But we'll just be hanging out at home. Tomorrow will be much of the same until the evening. A Christmas present from my MIL, a night out with her, SIL and SIL's MIL to see the musical Xanadu. Probably need to go read up on that a bit, I just said yes to going out!

Yep, today's the end and tomorrows the new!

Christmas!

**Side note: The craft blog is now open for all to see, enjoy!

We had such a wonderful Christmas! So much so it's taken a few days to sort it all out, go through pictures and post a little blurb.

We started the night before by getting the tables set and ready for breakfast.

Then we headed outside to sprinkle the reindeer food on the lawn.

After this we read a couple of Christmas stories and sent the little ones to bed. They were so excited for Santa to come! Tyler went to sleep pretty quickly but poor Cody just couldn't handle it. Not sure when he actually fell asleep, but he was up at 2, 2:30, 3, 4ish, then for good a bit before 6. Just Too Exciting!

So I finally got out of bed at 6am, had to get the cider started for breakfast. I made them go back and get Keith, he was awake, but waiting for his little buddies to "wake" him.

Santa Came!

Pulling down the stockings...

The dump, although I miss the full arm reach in from last year.

They were finally able to open up their big present, scooters!

Cody with his new camera...

Tyler with his...

The "WHOA" face that was present most the morning...

Yay! A track like big Cody's!

And this is where my camera died, like really died for good. After doing the mad dash around everywhere to find Keith's, only to find the battery was dead. I busted out my camera for a few more while it was charging.

Playing with their new remote control cars...




Playing with the new scooters.

Cody's loot, Ty's pile is much of the same...

Keith's family and Eli's Mum Barbara came over for a breakfast of pull-aparts, eggs and sausage. The boy were excited to show off all their new things and we were excited to not have to rush out of the house.
After breakfast we packed up and headed to Keith's family's house to open more presents.


This was pretty much it for my picture taking for the day, little disappointing. We headed home after playing for a while and took some much needed naps before traveling back over for dinner. It was a full day, but very mellow and lovely.

What about the gifts you say, the big one we received was the Wii. So Excited! We finally busted it out on Sat and played a round of bowling before bed.




We also received some lovely gift cards and put some of it towards a Wii Fit, Active and a couple of new games. So excited to put this thing through it's paces!


I'm working on getting a slide show together of the boy's picture from their cameras and I'll post it soon. Might have to start a blog for them, they are just taking too many picture for me to post all over mine.

Twas the day before Christmas...

The boys are so excited for Santa's arrival tonight they can hardly stand it! They've had a lazy day, watching a few of the Christmas shows on TV, baking cookies for Santa and trying to make the clock move faster.

All mixed up and ready for the oven...

Mmm fresh sprinkly chocolate chip cookies...

Testing the product, quality control...

These are some of the best darn cookies we've made in a while!

As the boys have been lazing about, I've been getting the house ready for company in the morning. I've had to make myself stop because the OCD was getting the better of me. But the house looks great, the serving dishes are all clean, cups and utensils sit at the ready. I guess I'm trying to make the clock move faster as well!
After dinner we'll go out and sprinkle reindeer food on the grass. We have a couple more shows on our viewing list this evening, then Christmas stories before putting the boys to bed. Once that happens, it's time to get the tables set for the morning and play Santa. My favorite thing about all this will be watching White Christmas in the process, I've grown to love this movie and it's on multiple times tonight, but it starts perfectly at 8pm just the right time to get it all done.

So Merry Christmas to you all, hope your day is wonderful!

Place Cards for Christmas Breakfast...

Christmas breakfast is coming to our house this year, something my MIL doesn't have to do, and less rushing about for us. Simple it will be with Scotch pull-aparts, scrambled eggs and sausages, add in OJ, hot chocolate and cider and we're calling it a meal! We are also excited to have Eli's mom here from Australia, so I thought it might be nice for everyone to have a place card. Plus, it's a big arrangement that in my head is perfect, so there's less explaining to do that morning.

(Picture quality sucks, sorry!)

Grandma and Grandpa Scollay

Eli's Mom and BIL Stu

BIL Eli & SIL Virginia

The boys'

Us..

Keith's Aunt Carol, who sometimes comes to dinner, so made one to take over.

These are brought to you via Cricut, my paper stash, Stickels glitter bottles and Xyron sticker makers.

As we get closer to Christmas day, I feel as though I've left something out. My house needs to be cleaned, at least the floors were mopped today and the toy room cleaned out, but that's for tomorrow and a bit on Thursday. A few things need to be rearranged to accommodate all the people and Santa's gifts that are coming. Cookies for Santa are getting baked on Thursday, a new tradition the boys have been asking about all week. All the presents are wrapped and under the tree, everyone is bought for. It's just that feeling of forgetfulness. Hopefully it's nothing too major!

Sshhh, it's a secret!

**Check out the crafty blog for a new post**


One of the cutest things happening at our house right now revolves around presents and secrets. Tyler has really latched onto this idea that Christmas presents need to remain a secret, but he insists on telling you this quite often. Remember the "no peeking" from the previous post, you're still reminded of this when you enter the house.
Secrets being apart of this really took off today with an afternoon spent at Grandma and Grandpa's house. They are working on a Christmas present for us with that the boys are doing, which they all love. Tyler is the first to tell you, "Sshhh! It's a secret!" The whole way home, this is what I heard, with Cody reminding him, "Quiet! You can't tell her! And you can't tell Dad either!"


In other fun stuff....


Tonight I made one last re-arrangement of the presents to accommodate a couple of stragglers. In doing so I put the boys' presents they made at school together, making my heart warm just a bit. Cody's is on the left, wrapped by him with a card made by him, "Merry Christmas, I Love You, Cody" Tyler's is on the right, he stamped the paper and helped wrap it, then made the card to go on top. Can't wait to open them and see what they made!

A friend posted some items she was clearing out of her house for Christmas and among them was a Smart Cycle. This thing is very cool, perfect for rainy days and getting energy out. Think mini spinning bike!

He loves it!

Here's a couple of videos:






Thanks again Charlene, they are loving this thing! (So am I)

Presents are wrapped...

Well most of them anyway, only missing a couple that are waiting to be finished.

So over the last week, I've spent a couple of evenings getting all the presents wrapped and put under the tree. Cody and Tyler were both asking when we would put some under there, so we had the "absolutely no touching!" talk and they started to appear. Anyone coming into our house is told by Tyler "NO Peaking at the presents!" So I'm pretty sure the message sunk in.

From the polka dots to the wall are headed over to my IL's for Christmas morning.

The rest is completely jam packed, a good portion are from the Idaho family, but a good portion are not. Someone got a little excited about the holidays!

Santa's pretty packages...

Love how they sparkle.

The to-do list for Christmas is getting shorter by the day, now we get to move onto the fun stuff. This weekend we'll be delivering some of the baked goodies to friends, a favorite time of the year. The boys are both out of school for the next two weeks starting Monday, wish me luck! Next week will be busy with getting ready for family to come over for Christmas breakfast, and the boys and I have to bake cookies for Santa on Christmas eve. I'm happy to report that all the gift sewing has been completed, some minor finishing construction and stuffing and we'll be on our way.

Tree Lighting and Breakfast with Santa

So far we have had a busy weekend! Friday night we went to the tree lighting at the Orangevale Community Center. Tyler's preschool class made ornaments for the tree and were able to hang them on. Because of the rain, Ms Suzanne was handing ornaments out 1st come, 1st serve, so Ty didn't put his ornament on the tree.

But in all things random, Cody did!

They had all kinds of free treats inside, arts and crafts, and music. Tyler's preschool stood in front and sang "Jingle Bells" with Ms. Suzanne.

The boys were also given a turn to pull things out of Santa's treasure box.

Because of the rain, we didn't stay for the tree lighting, but the boys seamed to have a good time anyway.

Saturday we went to Breakfast with Santa at Cody's school. Being the good PTA mom I am, I worked the door, checking in people that paid in advance and taking money from those that hadn't. Keith brought the boys down later.

Someones excited to see Santa!

Making sure that Santa has a scooter on his list...

Conversing about much of the same I'm sure.

Good times, Good times...

So a Birthday party this evening for Stu and another tomorrow afternoon for a friend of Ty's, busy, busy!

Christmas Traditions...

As we go into our 7th Christmas as a family, little traditions are starting to pop up. I forget about a lot of them until it's time and they happen, less stress that way! For the last few years some of the traditions have included the family trip to cut a tree, walking around the awesome light displays of Dove Wood Ct, opening the advent calendar each afternoon and going to the Holiday parade in old Fair Oaks.
Another that I finally caught us up on this year was a photo ornament for each boy. When Cody was a baby I found cute pre-decorated ornaments from the store. Then we started getting the wooden ones from the craft store that you can decorate. Cody has done his own the last 3 years and Tyler the last two. After looking through, I realized 2006 was skipped, so more ornaments were bought and decorated to fill in that year. So as of last night, our set is complete and current.


Off the top of my head, there's only a couple of traditions left to do this season; pass out goodies to our dear friend and teachers and make Santa his special cookies on Christmas eve. But as mentioned before, I'm sure I've left something out.

What are some of yours?

O Christmas Tree...

**New post on the crafty blog**


Friday we headed up to Apple Hill to cut our Christmas tree, this has become a family affair, with Grandparents and all the brothers and sisters that are around. Goal for this year was sturdy branches.

Heading up the hill...

Tyler decided he needed his own measuring stick and found one, he did a pretty good job hanging onto it, only whacked everyone once or twice.

We walked around for a bit, up and down the same lane a couple of times and then circled back to find a tree we missed the first go. Yep, that's the one, sturdy branches!

Here' Ty measuring with his stick.

Cutting it down...

Timber!

Everyone found their respective trees and we headed back down to the parking lot. It was a beautiful day!

Wrapping it up...

Off it goes...

Before we could head home, we had some investigative work to attend to. Tradition has always been to go to Rainbow Orchard for apple donuts before anything else, they were as yummy as ever, but their prices are raising. In hopes of finding something new, we stopped at Larsen's. They have a nice bake shop, but no donuts. We did however score apples, 40lb boxes for $12. Guess who needs to make applesauce this week?!?! After a second stop for cider, we headed back down to home.

Between all our Christmas tree hunting, decorating and birthday party celebrating, we made time to go to the Fair Oak Holiday parade. This is a favorite, small townish style parade, with the local HS marching band and dancers, 4-H, girl scouts, pageant queens in cool cars, dancing girls, and random odd clubs, ending with Santa (in a Cadillac!) .


By the end of the weekend, we had all our decorations up, inside and out, and the trees were all decorated.

Here's our mini tree in the playroom, complete with the holiday Thomas set.

Ta-Da! The main tree in the front room.

Busy, busy, busy is all we are right now. We have another jam packed week and hopefully I'll be able to finish more projects and gifts along the way.

A new wreath...

Love this time of year, even all the craziness! Somewhere in my internetting travels I came upon Eddie Ross's Craft blog, specifically finding a new and fairly easy wreath to make. It takes a bunch of ball ornaments (all sizes), a wire coat hanger, glue gun, and a bit of ribbon.

Here's how mine turned out...

This took about 1.5 hours to construct, but it wasn't hard, just took a little patience in getting things to lay where you wanted them to. I didn't glue the caps onto the ornaments like he suggested because I couldn't get them to come off, although when it was about finished and it was time to rearrange, a couple did come loose. I'll probably search out a different shade of ribbon for the top, it helps hide the hook of the coat hanger, but it's all but ready for the front door.

Christmas is slowly creeping into the house!

December, Ah Fuuudge...

Well, I'm almost ready to panic. Not quite there, but give me a day or so and I will be. We returned home from Idaho Sunday, a nice drive, little traffic and great weather. Now it's time to step it into high-gear, finish projects, get the house decorated (inside & out), finish the baking, then get everything all wrapped and ready.

YIKES!

The current state of my office: the futon covered in presents and projects.

My desk, with the advent calendar waiting for me to finish it up so we can get on with it!

I'm close, but not as close as I probably should be for it being December 1st. Although I'm happy to say that all the shopping is completed and I'm only waiting on a couple more items to show up in the mail. Yay me!

Okay, back to it.

Rafiki

So today we went to Rafiki to play and catch up a bit with old friends. We have heard great things about it and am glad we ventured out. It was great to catch up with Jessica and see what she's been up to and what some of our other friends had as well.

This place was cool. It had a big climbing structure with slides, a zip line and general climbing fun. So I watched a lot of this...

They also had a coloring area, a bin of "snow", dress-up, play kitchen, train table, baby area, and some other trucks and toys around. Along with the fun for the kids, they have lots of different couch areas set up for the parents, and a coffee/juice/snack bar. Defiantly on our list when we return.

Christmas before Thanksgiving and bikes....

At the Idaho Center, very large event center, they hold a Christmas show every year with all kinds of vendors, some food and Mr & Mrs Claus. It's fun to see all the stuff, and they have the best Santa around.

Yes, my camera sucks, but hoping to fix that soon. We bought the nice photo that they took.

He's watching you...
The boys have been wanting to play with the dogs, so we brought them in for a bit this afternoon and they all played for a while.

We've been searching Craigslist the last couple of days, looking for cheap bikes for the boys to keep up here, they were found!
Cody's $10 bike...

Ty's $25 bike....

Seeing the excitement and smiles: Priceless.

We'll take them for a spin around the neighborhood tomorrow.

So that's been our first couple of days in Boise, tack on a bunch of shopping for food and there you have it!

Tyler's Field trip and feast at school...

Tyler had a busy week at school, Tues was their fieldtrip to the music store and Thurs was their Thanksgiving feast.

We went here....

to learn about all different kinds of instruments.

The owner was great and showed them some different wind and stringed ones.
Then we moved over to the drum guy...

Then another guy showed us about drums from different cultures and different stringed things.

This guy showed us guitars, he was very talented.

Mrs. Suzanne showing us her skills...

Then to see the different key boards, by this point the kids were a bit finished and her songs weren't upbeat enough for the crowd, hence the faces.

After this, they were given the chance to try some of the instruments. Some had fun, Tyler had a bit of stage fright and wouldn't touch anything.

Then we headed outside to have a bit of a snack.

Thursday was feast day at school.

Circle time, singing songs...

It was Tyler's sharing day, he brought in some cars for the toy box.

Cheesy boy with his feathered hat and bead necklace, showing me his place.

The whole group...

They had a full spread of turkey, potates, rolls, veggies, salads and desserts. YUM!

More crafty...

Another post on the crafty blog:

http://acraftychristmas.blogspot.com

Let me know if you want the door unlocked.

Crafty...

Go here for a new post on my crafty blog. If you would like to see and you're not on the list, please email me and I'll unlock the door.

Cody's last game of the season...

Cody had his last game of the season this past Saturday. We're all ready for a break, but he said he had fun and wants to play next year. He had a so-so game, not really listening, but goofing around most the time. So, ahh, whatever....

Pre-game, warrior stance...

Going for it, full smile plastered on his face.

This boy next to him was a force to be reckoned with! They were all having a hard time getting the ball back when he had it, and he had an awesome foot!

Hooray! We're done!

The energy boost at the playground at the end of the game.

Cody and his friends, what he really enjoyed this year.
(Another mom sent me this)

Crafty blog on lockdown...

Okay friends and family, it's that time of year when the crafty blog gets locked down so only some eyes can see!

I'll send an email invite to those who's email address I have. If you would like to check it out, leave me a message, here or on FB and I'll let you in, seriously everyone's invited.

Okay, almost everyone. Family, sorry, you're not allowed. Wouldn't want to ruin the surprise!

So let me know and I'll unlock the door.

And the Christmas crazies begin....

There have been apples galore on sale the last couple of weeks, so I've been stocking the fridge and finally put them to use. Introducing the first thing finished for the Christmas baskets: homemade, sugar free apple sauce.

Variety is the key...

New toy, so cool!

My kitchen for the afternoon.

Mmmm, apples and cinnamon cooking...

Ran the soft apples and juices through the blender and it made perfect applesauce.

After many batches of peeling, cooking, blending we all felt a little like this. 24 jars ready for the freezer.

Next time around I'm going to try to get the right tools to actually process the jars for canning so they can be stored in the pantry. But being impatient and worried that the apples were going to go bad, I had to go today.

Cookies are next and bread to follow while up at Mom and Dad's for Thanksgiving.

Halloween Fun...

We jammed in a bunch of fun in a couple of days. It started Wed night with a game night at the high school, Cody was getting sick and couldn't go, but Ty and I braved the crowd.

Quick picture before we headed in.

The gym was full of carnival games, and Ty played most of them, lots of throwing things.

Bowling...

We cut it short as he said he'd had enough. Treats in hand we were back home to watch the Monsters vs Aliens Halloween special.

Friday started out with a party with Tyler's school. More games, food and fun to be had.

Showing off his painted pumpkin.

We ate and played, then they did a costume parade around the building, ending up on stage to sing "The 5 Little Pumpkins." Super cute.
After that we headed over to pick up Cody, then went to the safe TOT in old Fair Oaks. We started off with the games, both boys had a lot of fun.



Then did some TOT around the businesses, ending up in the little court to take a few pictures.
Saturday was soccer, then we went to lunch at the IL's house. After lunch, we left Ty with Grandma and took Cody up to Apple Hill. We stopped and picked up my race packet, then headed off to explore a bit. We went to El Dorado Orchard and let Cody have a pony ride, then walked around the craft fair. On the way down we stopped at Abel's to see what they had before hitting the freeway back. Once we picked up Tyler we ran home for a quick dinner before getting ready to go show off the boys' costumes. We started off at the IL's house and then came home and set out around the neighborhood.

Pumpkins ready to great the kids.

Ready to go!

and they're off.

It was fun, the boys bags were full by the time we came home and they were ready to settle in for the night. Happy Halloween!

Apple Hill Harvest Run

Done, Finished and walked away! Yep, I motivated myself for 3.5 miles around the Apple Hill country side. (And I didn't finish last)

Before it began. It was warm this morning!

Lined up...

3.5 mile crowd...

Off we go!

I knew that the race started uphill, but damn, that was a steep hill. So there was a bunch of walk /jogging going on, probably at least 1/3 of the 1st mile. But it finally leveled off and I was able to find my pace, still slow, but there. First mile was 18:30, second 18:15, and the last 1.5 28:18, for a total time of 63: 03. The average mile time figured out to be 18:001 which is at least 30 seconds faster than anything I've done before.
The end of the race was a nice uphill as well, so walking and jogging part of that until I came around the corner and could see the finish. See here I am still moving.
Rewarded at the end with a cold bottle of water, fresh apples, cookies, apple donuts, energy bars and chips. Then found a nice shady spot to collapse!

The other reward, a cool new shirt.

So my first running race has been completed! YAY!!

Now to figure out what's next.

Halloween Crafty

Lucked out a bit this year, not much to make for Halloween costumes. Last year was quite a different story, but they turned out so cute. So I had intended to make Cody's costume this year as well, he told me he wanted to be a pumpkin. I ordered an orange hoodie online, but when it came it fit him perfectly, no room to puff it out for a pumpkin. Before I could get another one ordered, a friend came the rescue, finding a felt pumpkin costume at the thrift store. YAY!
So it needed a cleaning and a little altering to shrink it up just smidge. Then I sewed a pool noodle around the inside middle to give it form, put a big pocket on the inside behind the face to puff it out a little and the costume was done.

The real crafty came into play in needing a hat to go with it so he could have his stem.
Fail #1 came in the form of a white beanie I found at Walmart. I had hoped to dye it and sew a little stem to the top. But it wouldn't hold the dye and ended up a weird peach color with a sea green top.
Fail #2 came in the form of a bucket hat I found at Michael's. It was light tan, but I figured with enough saturation it would turn orange. It did, just the way wrong color. It was a muted orange, so back to the drawing board again.
Win came in the form of making a hat out of felt, luckily I have a big stash and didn't have to buy anything! I used the bucket hat as a template as it fit him just right and went from there. The stem is a 1 inch foam block with a pipe cleaner wrapped in batting stuck in the top to be able to bend it over.

Here's is the wrong colored bucket hat. I glued on a felt face (so we can peal it off and use the hat this summer) and Ty can wear it with his Thomas costume to add a little Halloween flair. Plus I was feeling bad that he didn't get anything made by mom this year.
The last thing in this years crafty line-up is the pumpkin shirt I made for Cody. He doesn't get to wear his costume to school, so I thought this would be fun for him. Simple felt piece sewn on with a straight stitch around the edge. Yes, it's grey, the black was too harsh against the lighter orange.
So there it is, crafty but not over the top this year.

Pumpkin Carving

It's that time of year! We've gone to the pumpkin patch and it was time to carve the pumpkins. Now, it's been a super long time since I've carved, the last few years we've either painted or did the "Potato Head" pokers for faces. We picked up the carving party pack from Walmart and were on our way. We had high hopes for our pumpkins, picking out pirate faces and such, but most of our pumpkins were a little on the small side, so we made it work.

Opening Cody's monster pumpkin, EWWW!

Tyler digging at one of his.

Cody finally getting into it, once I found him some gloves that were way to big.

Our carving was done over 3 days, first being the cleaning of the two. Then the next night, Keith was home and helped to clean out the other three and start getting pictures carved.

Tyler happy with the face he picked out.

Concentrating

Cody's ghost.

Tyler getting into carving on his 2nd pumpkin.

Tyler carving another face on his monster pumpkin.

"Take a picture of my pumpkins!"

Finished face, he did the eyes and nose, I helped with the mouth.

4 of 5...

Candle testing

3rd day was today, I finished carving my pumpkin. Had to get all fancy with it of course.

As some of you know, the boys now have a computer set up in the living room. They love it! FIL built it from a couple he had, and an extra monitor we had. It's set up so that I can surf on it on my own user, then the boys have their users so we aren't messing with each other's things!

Training: last week and this week...

Well in less than a week, I'll be jogging around Apple Hill!

The last couple of weeks have been slow on the training. I wrote my last post just after getting home from a 3.5 mile run, feeling good and working out my normal aches and pains post run. Well, one stuck around. Seams like everytime I get something going, something like this happens. But pushing through, hopefully it won't keep me out for long.

So Tues was a resting day because I couldn't walk without significant pain in my foot.

Thur I eased back in and ran 2 miles before going to school with Ty. It was fine while running, but after, and the few days after, were not the best. Paced back down to 19:22, but some of that is pushing Ty up hills, curbs and guiding him along a couple of street areas.

This weekend brought more rest, planned on running on Sunday, but it crept away. So today, Ty and I put down 3 miles after dropping Cody off at school. It felt good, but my foot hurts this evening, but pace was back down to 18:35 so improving and loving it!

The plan for the week is to take it easy, no more running until Sunday, but getting a little more time on my bike to keep endurance up.

I feel confident for Sunday, I'm not going to be speedy, but I'm going to finish.

So things are set and almost ready. Any suggestions a good running belt for storing my phone, keys, ID & cash? Need to pick one up for the race as I think the rest of the family is meeting me there.

Mom and Ty at the Pumpkin patch, Jog-A-thon...

So for the second time in two weeks, Tyler's pumpkin patch field trip had to be postponed, then canceled because of the rain. He was bummed, so trying to make the 3 year old happy, we found another patch close to the house and went on an adventure on Wed. (Pumpkin Hill on Kenneth)

Petting the llama, then it stood up and we promptly left him alone.

little bunny...

Aarrr, Tyler the pirate!

We hopped on the hay ride and went out to the fields, pretty scarce, but Ty found a nice pumpkin in this mix.

"Huh, a little tiny pumpkin"

On the way back on the hay ride, cheesy.

Really, it wasn't that painful.

Then we made our way to the bounce houses, Ty's shoes guarded our pumpkin.

Boing!

Aahhh!

He lapped around about 20 times on this thing.

On our way out we hit the rope swing.

It's a cute little pumpkin patch, if you are needing to hit one last minute. While we were there, two small preschool groups were there, so not very busy. He had fun and that's what counts.

Thurs was Cody's Jog-A-Thon at school, supposed to be last week, but the rains got in the way.

Waiting with the Kindergarten classes

Lined up, tally sheets in hand.

Working hard, he ran 8 laps in 15 minutes!

At the end, all the runners had a treat of juice popsicles, yum! It's fun to go to these sort of special events, can't wait for more.

Family Pumpkin Patch trip...

Have I mentioned how much I love this time of year? Really I do, I LOVE going to the pumpkin patch, all the fall colors and the fun that comes with Halloween. Sunday we were up bright and early, loaded up Virginia and Eli and pointed the van towards Bishops. This place get better every year, except that it's so well known it's usually packed. We got there early though, so we breezed through and were out by the time the places was super packed.

Tyler

Cody

The Barn slide

Aunt Virginia helping Ty with the scoopers.

How can you walk past without playing? Come on!
Even the adults have fun here.

Feeding the goats

Much improved from last year, Ty didn't run away screaming!

Showing of his bravery

They hay jump, mattresses under the hay

riding the train

Giant pumpkins

Virginia and Eli

The pig races, official NASPIG sanctioned race.

Don't remember them jumping last year?

When did they get so tall?

Ahh...

On the hay ride to the pumpkin fields.
Ty said it was his favorite part.

On the hunt

Found it!

The most glorious find in the fields, the official butt pumpkin..

Oh butt pumpkin, how we wish we could take you home. Alas, none of us could come up with anything that wasn't wildly inappropriate to do with said pumpkin. So it was left for someone else. 10 years and we'll be on that hunt again.

Finally, Cody settled on a pumpkin, he looks so thrilled.

All of our pumpkins

Tyler was supposed to go with his class today to a different patch in town, but the rains came and they cancelled. So we may or may not have more pumpkin fun to come!

PJ night at Barnes and Noble

A couple of Fridays ago we went to Barnes and Noble for a PJ night to benefit Cody's school. Way fun to go out in your pjs!

Highlight of the trip: the train table of course.

Excited to listen to stories.

They read "Where the Wild Things Are" so they are all showing off their monster faces.

Listening...

They topped off the night with hot chocolate, the good kind from Starbucks. Fun!

Training 10/12-10/17

Side note: I've been a very bad blogger, hope to get better about that this week. Look for another post later about the PJ party last Fri and hopefully some new shots from soccer today.

Ugh, bad training week. The rain through me for a loop and I've felt like crap most of the week. You know, scratchy/sore throat, voice in and out, feeling like an elephant was sitting on my chest, and by the end of the week it was topped of with congestion. YAY!!
So Tues I popped in my dance workout DVD before Ty went to school and we danced for about 1/2 an hour. Thur I really started feeling crappy, so I didn't do anything. So bad this week, we didn't ride our bikes once to school.

But today, Saturday, I got my booty out of bed and hit the road. 3.5 miles around the hood, running most with a couple 15 sec walking breaks to stretch and boost my attitude. The kicker in all this, by taking the week off, I told myself to push and it worked. My average mile time this morning was 18:48, finishing the 3.5 in 1 hour 5.5 minutes.
Last week's 3 mile run averaged out to 19:23 per mile.
Holy time shaving, Batman!

So, this is it, I'm going to sign up for the race this afternoon. I know I can finish it and have two more weeks to get stronger.

Holy cow, gonna go freak out in the shower now.

****Update****
I did it, I signed up for the race, sent my money. Nov 1st, 2 weeks to go!

Training week 10/5-10/10

Miles people, it's all about the miles...

Tues was the first of the beastly days of millage, starting out with 2 miles of jogging. It went well, only had two small stints of needing to do some long step, leg stretches, so I can't complain. Have mentioned how hilly our neighborhood is, um wow. So I did it, painfully slow at a whopping 40:04 for 2 miles, yep that's would be 20 min miles. But I did it!

Thur was upped to 2.5 miles, same hilly neighborhood, but with a goal to shave some seconds, and it was accomplished. Mile 1 was 19:20, the last 1.5 miles were 29:38, total of 48:58, shaving just over a minute from Tues. Yay, slow but Yay!

Saturday was the big 3 mile day. It went well and seconds were shaved, 1st mile was 19:08 (12 seconds!) the last 2.09 miles were done in 41:02 averaging out to 19:50ish, not quite 20 min.

So I now know that I can put down the mileage needed for the harvest run in a few weeks, hopefully next weekend I can get things together and enter. It's gonna be a slow race, taking over an hour to complete, but I'm excited to start and finish.

After this weeks running, I've set a new goal. I'm still going to keep training, and hit some races in the spring, but I really want to get my mile time down to a respectable time. Not exactly sure what the time is quite yet, probably around 15-16 min, then resume training for longer races, like a 1/2 marathon sometime in the late spring/early summer. I'm going to start searching out a new training program to start in January, and spend Nov/Dec getting a little faster, and hopefully a little lighter.