Scollay Family Happenings

Projects, Basketball, MLK, & Trains

2012-01-23T19:01:00.000-08:00

Catch up post, and, GO!

Last weekend we were busy working on projects around the house.

The boys finally have a stable closet unit!

We needed to take this pile,

this pile,

and this mess

and make it all fit here.

IKEA shelves to the rescue!

Outside, Keith got a new work bench and some high shelves.

They also worked on our garden shed and built in some shelves to help clear out the garage a bit.

Basketball practice started this last week.

Cody's 1st game went pretty well for the kids not really having been told what the game is all about.
(More to come later on that)

Wednesday we met with our homeschooling group to learn about Martin Luther King Jr and civil rights. The kids heard a couple of stories and watched video clips.

Then they were split into groups to make posters about some of the words and things that were discussed.

The groups then presented them.

Everyone did a great job!

Thursday we went on a field trip to the train museum.

Here come the train!

I forgot how long the ride was to get from Folsom to Downtown, but the boys had a good time riding the light rail.

One of the cool exhibits they have right now displays a lot of the fruit box art.

They would make awesome pictures for your walls.

We finished with a trip to the train toys.

When we were at Rich and Judy's this weekend the boys decided that their train board needed some scenery. So Grandpa gave them supplies and they went to town.

After dinner they showed off their handy work.

So another busy week on the books!

Ice Skating

2012-01-11T17:05:00.000-08:00

Today we went to the Rancho Cordova outdoor Holiday rink with our homeschooling friends. The boys did great getting out on the ice, thinking the trip we made to the indoor rink a month ago made for a huge advantage.

Ty spent a bit of time in the beginning with a bucket for balance.

With a bit of time to become comfortable in new skates, they were both off and skating alone.

Here's a video of them skating...

Ty ended early and became completely enthralled in a game of Angry Birds.

This rink is open through Jan 16th and we would recommend it!

It's off Zinfandel, look for the Farris Wheel.

Basketball and Bowling...

2012-01-08T20:23:00.000-08:00

Saturday, Cody kicked of his basketball season with a skills clinic. He did great with dribbling and passing as well as being one of the faster ones when they did sprints. I'm not sure how this league will shape up as it seams a little small, but he'll get a lot of time to play!

Today we headed back to Strike's in Elk Grove for bowling and pizza with Keith's work.

The VW team won the bowling tournament a few months back at the company party and it earned them another party.

Cody is becoming quiet the bowler. After the first game he asked me to take the bumpers off his turn and he did great without them up.

Tyler is getting pretty good at the run and chuck style of bowling.

This might be the year we ask for bowling balls for our Birthdays. I get very frustrated because I need a lighter ball but my fingers never fit the holes.

The dangers of reading...

2012-01-05T18:04:00.000-08:00

Who knew. Library books are dangerous.

Tyler came down the hall the other day saying he didn't know what happened, holding his hand that was dripping with blood. So not awesome. We ran it under water for a bit, and quickly put a bandage on it to stop the mess.

Keith walked up and down the hall cleaning the mess, feeling like he must have butchered something along with his finger.

Finally had a chance to look at the wound a day later when the bandage fell off.

Seriously, one of the worst paper cuts I've seen. Thinking he caught the side of the paperback cover.

Ouch!

Spiderman made it better again.

See, he's happy.

So there, read with caution. I guess this is a good advertisement for a Nook!

Postings...

2012-01-01T20:32:00.000-08:00

over here.

Christmas

2011-12-26T23:11:00.000-08:00

We are adding another great Christmas to the books!

On Christmas Eve morning we opened the last day on the advent calendar, Santa was coming tonight!

The boys and I made some fudge for Santa...

In the afternoon they went over to Grandma and Grandpas for a while to spread the excitement around a bit. While there they made an awesome gingerbread house and trees.

While they were away Santa's elves were busy working on their main Christmas gift...

We all went back to Rich and Judy's to hang out for a bit and celebrate Stu's Birthday with some pizza and brownies.

While there Rich broke out a new toy for all the boys, a remote control helicopter.

We had fun watching as they figure out how it worked...

Then it got stuck on the roof...

It was retrieved just in time for dinner!

Before we knew it, it was time to head for home to get to bed so Santa could come!

The boys sprinkled the reindeer food on the lawn.

We made some hot chocolate and picked some fudge pieces for Santa and they were off to bed!

Santa came...

(really not as sad a take as it looks as the big stuff was outside!)

Glow....

The tree was stuffed with presents!

The boys were up off and on all night. Cody said the first time he checked the clock to see what time it was it said 2:30ish. They waited until 6:30 on the dot to come wake us up!

Tyler opened the blind right away to find the trampoline waiting for them outside.

Then they opened their stockings...

before the rest of their Santa gifts....

The took a break to jump on the trampoline. It was freezing out and they only last a few seconds.

They happily dove into the rest of their gifts.

Cody finally has his own pillow pet, he was thrilled!

We enjoyed the yule log and Christmas music the whole morning.

The boys enjoyed the morning playing with all their new loot!

Around noon we headed over to Rich and Judy's for presents and dinner.

Hoping everyone had as wonderful a Christmas as we did!

Old Town Christmas

2011-12-21T21:52:00.000-08:00

We headed downtown to see what kind of Christmas cheer we could find. We started with the capital, checking out the tree and the giant Menorah.

Then we headed over to Old Town to see the lights.

Standing in front of the Christmas tree.

We went to see the Theatre of Lights show and had to wait a bit for it to start.

They had lights all over the buildings and the tree that would dance to the music. It was very cool to see before the show.

The balcony all lit up...

Mark Twain gave a little Sacramento history and then read

"Twas the Night Before Christmas"

On an opposite building the story was acted out with Santa, the tree and all the lights.

If you can get down there, we highly recommend it.

A lot of the shops are open and everyone has that Christmas cheer!

Ice Skating and Ginerbread Houses...

2011-12-13T23:06:00.000-08:00

Today we went to an event for our charter school at the ice skating rink. They have an annual gingerbread house showing and competition that we participated in.

Our "blank canvas"

The boys worked hard decorating their houses...

Our finished village, complete with sugar snow.

Here's our village on display, we entered the competition...

We won a prize! The snow globe in the front that is printed with the Winterland Gingerbread logo and we can put a picture into it to remember the day.

The boys had a lot of fun skating.

They both started out using the buckets to figure out their balance.

They took lots of breaks to play in the snow...

We were kicked off the ice for a short break so the Zamboni could do it's job.

Then we were back on the ice.

They turned on their snow machines for a few minutes, the boys thought that was pretty cool.

It didn't take long for Cody to drop the buckets and skate on his own. He had a few falls, but nothing major and kept getting back up.

Tyler took longer to be convinced he could skate without the buckets, so he and I took some times going around the ice.

He eventually let go as well and was doing great!

I think we're all warmed up to hit the outdoor rink in the next couple of weeks.

Jam packed update....

2011-12-11T18:32:00.001-08:00

Oh my, it's been a over a month since I've updated about anything on here, geez!

Well, we've been busy, but that's how we like it. Here's a not so brief recap....

The boys did a 4 week parkour class through Groupon.

It wasn't "gymanastics" enough for them, but gave us something to do.

Cody has been signed up for a basketball league and Ty will be signed up for regular gymnastics in the new year as Christmas presents from the grandparents. Great for these busy boys!

We've upgraded to a Tahoe again. We'll be selling the Vanagon soon as it's just not doing what we need it to do anymore. We've loved it so far!

The boys and I took a field trip to the Folsom Zoo, just beating out the rain.

Visiting the monkeys...

We missed the all-white peacocks, but the others were beautiful.

All the cats were out and playing!

Ahh, bears....

The deer are fun to see because they will walk right up to the fence.

The boys had their last soccer games of the regular season.

Here's Ty playing...

Making some saves when he played goalie.

End of the season awards...

Cody's team played in a tournament the first weekend of December. The boys did well and it was great to play some teams we hadn't seen before.

On black Friday we took advantage of the free day at Fairytale Town.

We spent most of our time on the crooked mile, making laps!

Enjoying the beauties of fall...

The rabbits are as cute as every, snuggling...

Then it was time to go cut a tree!
First stopping at Rainbow Orchards for some apple donuts.

We went to the other Robert's Tree Farm this year which ended up being more foresty and less tree farmy.

Searching and searching...

Finally found one on our way back out.

The tree was around 12 feet tall and we had to take about 3 off to get it in the house. Oops!

Once we had a tree, it opened the door to decorate the house...

Cool new Santa plate for cookies!

It was finally December and the boys were able to start opening their advent calendars.

The box advent is filled with mini ornaments for the boys' tree that's in the toy room.

Ice cream and hair cuts!

Tyler has been asking for a cut for a while, so he's happy with his shorter, more boyish do.

To further our Christmas spirit we headed to downtown Sacramento for the Santa parade.

Typical, ear-plugging start...

Mounted police...

Unicycle group...

llama's...

Bands...

We had to leave before the end because of a Birthday party, but it was fun!

We are finding our way through our homeschooling, finally feeling pretty comfortable with what we are doing. I still have panics that we aren't doing enough, but the boys enjoy the subjects and are learning a ton. We have joined up with a couple of homeschooling groups to get out of the house. One is just a meet and play type group in Folsom, it's been nice to connect. The other is through a friend and they do more service and field trips, the people we have met have been more our style and it's closer to home. We have some catch-up work to do over our holiday break because we started late in the year, but that will keep us on schedule and we can do as little or as much as we want!

Christmas is knocking on our door and my fingers are crossed that I'm able to get everything ready and the shopping done in time. So on that note, I had better get back to wrapping!

and the winner is...

2011-11-24T13:24:00.001-08:00

So Random.org said the #5 was the winner, which means Rachael wins!

Congrats and I'll be in touch.

Anyone else that may be interested, please click the button at the top of my blog page for a discount.
andreascollay.blogspot.com

My Memories Giveaway!

2011-11-14T21:49:00.001-08:00

I'm so excited to be posting this! My Memories has offered me the opportunity to do a giveaway, here, on my blog! I can't use enough exclamation points, this is so awesome!

Some lucky blog reader or Facebook friend will win the My Memories Suite Scrapbook software (a $40 value). This is a digital scrapbooking software package that enables you to make fun scrapbook pages, collage photos to hang on your wall, cards, calendars, digital slides with video and whatever else you can come up with to do with your pictures.

To enter the giveaway, visit the My Memories web page then come back and leave a comment on this post telling me which kit you would purchase 1st. (Please be sure to give me your email) The winner will be picked at random on Thanksgiving morning (Nov 24th) at 10am (Pacific).

They also gave me the opportunity to use the software, and it's been a lot of fun to see what I can do with it. They have easy to use instructions on their web page that helped out a newbie like me and made it easy to jump right in.
I love the different backgrounds, embellishments and design elements that come with the software. You are also able to purchase all kinds of kits (along with a nice selection of free kits) that help you make spectacular pages.

I tested out one of the pre-made templates to make this page:

You can simply drag and drop photos into the layout, add extra embellishments (like the orange brads and rope), then any words or text. Everything is moveable, rotatable, and easy to crop as needed. There is also photo editing available to change the tone (black & white/sepia), red eye, lighten/darken/etc to make your photos really shine.

Next I tried out using a blank template.

(You may be getting an early preview of our Christmas card!)

I picked a background paper, then added a photo template, inserted picutres, added the snowflake element, then the Happy Holidays saying, then the text across the bottom. I love that even though I picked a photo layout, I could change things. Like the cropping on the boys' soccer pictures so that I could add two picture into a spot that originally had one. Then I added the picture of the rabbits to the template because I needed one more.

It was a lot of fun to use the software and I've barely scratched the surface.

If you are interested in purchasing the software go here and use the coupon code STMMMS84354 to receive $10 off the purchase of your software and a $10 coupon to spend at My Memories (a $20 value!).

Don't forget to enter the giveaway, the winner will be picked at random on Thanksgiving morning (Nov 24th) at 10am (Pacific).

Go forth and be crafty!

Meal Plan 11/14-11/20

2011-11-14T08:00:00.000-08:00

We are soccer partying at the end of this week and which means lots of pizza! So, lots of chicken for us!

Monday: BBQ Bacon Burgers
Burgers, bbq sauce, bacon and a bit of Pappy's seasoning. Yum!

Tuesday: Stovetop Skillet Chicken Skillet
1 1/2 cups hot water
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 pkg (6oz) Stove Top stuffing mix
6 small boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 can Cream of Chicken with Herbs
1/3 cup reduced fat sour cream
Mix hot water, butter and stuffing mix.
Cook chicken in nonstick skillet on med-high heat 5 minutes on each side or until browned on both sides.
Mix soup and sour cream; pour over chicken. Top with stuffing; cover. Cook on low heat 10 minutes or until chicken is done (165 degrees)

Oven options: Heat oven to 375. Prepare stuffing as directed. Place chicken in 13x9 dish. Mix soup and sour cream; pour over chicken. Top with stuffing. Bake 35 min or until chicken is done.

Wednesday: Paula Dean's Drunken Chicken and Potatoes
1 whole chicken
seasoned salt
House seasoning (1 cup salt, 1/4 cup pepper, 1/4 cup garlic pepper)
1 (12oz) can beer
1 sprig rosemary
Preheat a charcoal grill over high heat. When the coals are hot and glowing, carefully push them over to the sides of the grill, leaving an open space in the middle of the grill.
Wash and drain chicken. Coat the chicken inside and out with seasoned salt and house seasoning. Open the can of beer and carefully insert a sprig of rosemary. (I empty the can 1/4 of the way down and cut the top off so the beer can really steam the inside.)
Then, place the beer can into the body cavity starting at the rear of the chicken. Carefully place the chicken on the center of the grill, facing 1 of the banks of hte coals, making sure not to spill the beer. Cover the grill and cook until chicken is done. Approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour, turning the chicken as necessary. The chicken is done with the juice runs clear.

Thursday: CP Charlene's Carnitas
2 1/2 lb pork butt, fat trimmed
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp salt
1 tsp chili powder
1 cup of soda (Cola, Rootbeer, DP)
1 orange, peeled and separated into segments.
Season roast and place in crock. Pour soda around meat and cover with orange segments. Cook 8 hours on low. Shred with fork and lay out on cookie sheet; bake at 425 for 25 minutes. Return to crock juices and serve.
(Can't wait, these are so yummy!)

Friday: CP: Busy Day Chicken and Potatoes
1 whole chicken
1 1/2 cups bbq sauce
Place chicken in crock, legs up. Pour bbq sauce in and over chicken. Cook on low 8-10 hours. Meat should fall off the bone. Serve with rice or potatoes.

Satruday: SuperSports Soccer party, Pizza!

Sunday: Chicken Cordon Bleu
2 thin chicken cutlets (3oz each)
2 slices each ham and reduced fat Swiss cheese
1 Tbsp plus 2 tsp Dijon mustard, divided
1 tsp honey
1/3 plus 2 tsp plain dried bread crumbs
2 tsp veg. oil
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 tsp flour
1 Tbsp sour cream
Preheat oven to 375. Top each chicken with ham and cheese, roll up and secure with toothpick. Combine 1 Tbsp mustard & honey, spread 1/2 on each roll. Roll chicken rolls into bread crumbs. Coating all sides and place on baking sheet, drizzle w/oil. Bake until cooked through 20-25 minutes. In sauce pan, combine broth and flour, stir until flour is dissolved. Cook over medium until thickened, 3-4 minutes (do not boil).
Serve chicken cut into 4 pieces w/sauce on top.

The 1st tooth has been lost...

2011-11-08T08:20:00.000-08:00

Cody finally lost his first tooth on Sunday night. It's been barely hanging on for a while, but he wouldn't touch it. It fell out while he was sleeping and luckily we were able to find it in the morning.

I've been meaning to make a pouch/bag for a while, knowing it was coming eventually, and finally had to get it done so the tooth fairy could come last night!

You can kinda see where his tooth came from in the front.

This is his shark tooth, so the big tooth is already in most the way, just behind.

Orthodontist bills are in our future...

With the tooth safely inside the back, we hung it on the door.

In the morning he woke up to find two $1 dollar coins!

Tyler has been a bit jealous of the process, so he had to get in on the photo.

He's showing off his morning yogurt drink.

Meal Plans 11/7-11/13

2011-11-06T08:00:00.000-08:00

Okay, so this week was better for shopping the ads and planning around meats and things that were on sale.

Monday: Tacos
We will probably have ground turkey tacos as it's been a while and we're craving them!

Tuesday: Roasted Chicken w/Rosemary
1/2 c butter
4 Tbsp minced fresh or 2 Tbsp dried rosemary
2 Tbsp minced fresh parsley
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 whole roasting chicken
6 small red potatoes, halved
6 medium carrots, halved lengthwise and cut into 2-inch pieces
2 med onions, quartered

In a small saucepan, melt butter and stir in the seasonings. Place he chicken breast side up on a rack in a roasting pan; tie drumsticks together with kitchen string. Spoon half of the butter mix over chicken. Place potatoes, carrots and onions around chicken. Drizzle remaining butter mix over veggies.
Cover and bake at 350 for 1 1/2 hours, basting every 30 minutes. Uncover; bake 30-60 minutes longer or until a meat thermometer reaches 180 and veggies are tender.
Cover with foil and let stand for 10-15 minutes before carving. Serve veggies with roast.

Wednesday: Bacon Twice-baked potatoes
2 medium baking potatoes
2 Tbsp butter
1/4 fat-free milk
1 bacon strip cooked and crumbled
1 Tbsp chopped onion
1 tsp minced chives
1/4 tsp salt and dash of pepper
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Bake potatoes at 375 for 1 hour or until tender.
When cool enough to handle, cut a thin slice off the top of each potato and discard. Scoop out pulp, leaving a thin shell.
In a small bowl, mash the pulp with butter. Stir in the milk, bacon, onion, chives, salt, pepper and 1/3 cup cheese. spoon into potato shells. Top with remaining cheese.
Place on a baking sheet. Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Thursday: CP Bacon and Cheese Chicken
2 Tbsp olive oil
4-6 chicken breasts
12 pc bacon, cooked and crumbled
1/4 cup teriyaki sauce
1/2 cup ranch
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Oil bottom of crock and place chicken in. Combine sauces in bowl and pour over chicken. Sprinkle cheese and bacon over and around the chicken. Cook on low 6 hours or on high for 3 hours.

Friday: Pioneer Woman's Macaroni and Cheese
1 lb dried macaroni
1 egg
4 Tbsp unsalted butter
1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 1/2 cups whole milk
2 tsp mustard powder
4 3/4 cups (1 lb) grated cheddar cheese
1 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp seasoned salt
Heat oven to 350 and grease a 2-3 qt baking dish. In a large pot of salted water cook macaroni until still firm, about 4 minutes and drain.
Beat the egg in a bowl and set aside. In a large saucepan melt butter over medium-low heat and whisk in flour, stirring constantly, for 5 min. Whisk in he milk and mustard until smooth. Cook until very thick, stirring constantly for 5 min. Reduce heat to low. Slowly pour 1/4 cup of the sauce into the beaten egg, whisking constantly, to temper the egg. Pour egg mixture back into the sauce.
Reserve 1/2 cup of the cheddar and stir the rest into the sauce until melted; add the pepper and salts. Stir in the macaroni, then pour into the baking dish and top with the reserved cheese. Bake until bubbly and golden, 20-25 min. Serves 8.

Saturday: Zumba Party!
Yummy appetizers and dessert are being served, but haven't narrowed anything down quite yet.
(Have you RSVP'd yet? You're missing out on a really good time!)

Sunday: Cheeseburger Stuffed Potatoes
3 large russet potatoes
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 lb lean ground beef
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup tomato paste
3 Tbsp Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp salt, plus 1/4 tsp
pepper to taste
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 Tbsp plain low-fat yogurt
6 slices American cheese
Preheat oven to 450. Prick potatoes and back until tender.
While potatoes are baking, heat the oil in a deep skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until slightly translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the beef, stirring to break it up, and cook about 5 minutes, until browned.
Stir in the Worcestershire sauce, tomato paste, Parmesan cheese, 1/2 tsp salt and pepper to taste.Cook another 5 minutes.
Remove potatoes from oven and set aside until cool enough to handle. Cut them in half lengthwise and carefully scoop out the flesh into a mixing bowl, leaving some behind to keep the shells intact. Mash potatoes lightly with a fork, then mix in the butter and yogurt and 1/4 tsp salt. Set aside.
Fill each potato shell with 2 Tbsp hamburger mix, then top with 3 Tbsp of potato mix, mounding slightly. Top with a slice of American cheese and bake until melted, about 5 minutes. Serve immediately.

Horseback Riding

2011-11-02T19:41:00.000-07:00

Today we were invited to go horseback riding. The boys had a really good time and really did well for their first time riding. Tyler was a bit over confident at the end, but they were slowly learning how to lead the horse around.

Here is a video of them towards the end of our time.

Meeting the horse...

My friends Father-in-law did a lot of teaching about horse care, safety, and getting them ready to ride.

Tyler went out before Cody; here he's getting ready to go...

He started off being led around the arena.

Before long he was riding by himself and learning to work with the horses.

His favorite thing was getting them to cross the bridge.

Ty did really well. His last turn out he got a little big for his britches and tried to have the horse gallop. He didn't really have a hold on the reins and shouldn't have tried to go so fast. All ended okay, but it was going to dangerous pretty quickly. He knows better for next time.

Cody went out a bit later, he sat and watched for a bit.

He also started by being led until he got a feel for the reins.

He caught on pretty quickly.

He had a really good time.

We can't wait to go and give it another try!

Halloween Fun...

2011-10-31T21:50:00.000-07:00

This year we had a quiet Halloween season, really sticking close to home, no parties, just simple.

Friday we attempted to make a yummy treat.

Rice Crispy Pumpkin balls.

The boys rolling out the pumpkin balls.

Then carefully sticking in the jelly bean stem.

We were going to use our edible markers and draw faces, but I think they were too greasy as the markers wouldn't work.

So here's our finished pumpkins.

They looked cute, but tasted awful! Didn't have butter, so we used our Brummel and Brown spread, then adding food coloring and maybe not enough crispies equaled disaster.

So we cut our losses and moved onto Sunday and carving pumpkins.

The boys all gloved up and ready to clean out their pumpkins.

Tyler drew a face and then cut it out mostly on his own.

His jack-o-lantern face.

Cody chose the pirate stencil from the carving book, then transferred it onto his pumpkin.

He carved it all by himself.

Awesome job!

Our test glow on the 30th...

Cody also carved a jack-o-lantern face on the other side.

For Halloween dinner we had spider web pumpkin pancakes.

This year was not my year for culinary treats as these also didn't turn out to be very good. I think I wouldn't have minded the batter in waffle form, but didn't like the pancakes. Cody hated them and was forced to eat one just so he would have enough energy to get through Trick or Treats.

Ironically, my non eating Tyler thought they were great. Weirdo.

We were finally ready for Trick or Treat!

Tyler as the Sheriff. His horse did stay home and you can't see that he's also wearing his guns.

Cody finally decided to be Mario.

He had a hard time with deciding what to be this year, he seamed to be embarrassed about dressing up and looking silly.

Off they go!

Tyler seamed to have a pretty good time, but Cody just wasn't feeling it this year.

After a while we came upon the first of three houses that had people jumping out to scare, this didn't set well with Cody and after the 2nd one he had had enough. Tyler thought it was funny but didn't want to go back to "those" houses again. Keith and Cody ended up going home towards the end and Ty and I finished up our street. I'm pretty sure he would have gone around more of the extended neighborhood if I had let him!

They did end up with a good candy haul!

This is even after we pulled out the candy that's not favorites to replenish our candy dish.

So we survived another Halloween! Hopefully we can make more fun of it next year.

Meal Plans Oct 31st- Nov 6th

2011-10-30T20:22:00.000-07:00

Watch for some Halloween fun!

Monday: Spiderweb Pumpkin Pancakes & Mummy hotdogs
Pumpkin pancakes
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 can (15 oz) pumpkin (not pie mix)
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
Maple syrup

In a large bowl, mix eggs, sugar, milk, oil and vanilla until well blended. Stir in remaining ingredients except syrup just until mixed.
Line 1-quart pitcher or bowl with gallon-size resealable plastic bag. Pour batter into bag;seal bag, pressing out air.
Heat griddle or 12-inch skillet to 375 or over medium heat.
Oil hot griddle. Cut 1/4 inch hole in one bottom corner of bag. For each pancake pipe out a 4 inch spider web shape. Cook 1-2 minutes until pancakes are puffed and dry around the edges. Turn pancakes; cook about 1 minute longer or until other side is golden brown.

Mummy Wrapped Hot Dogs:
http://www.pillsbury.com/recipes/crescent-mummy-dogs/d52a57d7-ab8a-4a1c-8dae-f9f90d03b912/

Tuesday: Left over meatloaf and potatoes

Wednesday: CP Pulled meat left overs
(this will be a mystery until it's cooked, either tacos or bbq)

Thursday: Pizza by the Yard
1 bag (16oz) frozen cooked Italian-style meatballs (about 32)
1 jar spaghetti sauce
1 loaf french bread
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Cook meatballs in microwavable bowl for 3 minutes. Cut meatballs in half; return to bowl. Stir in pasta sauce. Cover and microwave on high 6-8 minutes, stirring once or twice, until hot.
Set oven to broil. Cut bread in half crosswise; cut each in half lengthwise; making 4 pieces. Place bread, cut side up, on ungreased large cookie sheet. Toast lightly under broiler.
Spoon hot meatballs and sauce evenly onto bread. Sprinkle with cheese. Broil 4-6 inches from heat 1 to 2 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly.
Cut each piece in half to serve.

Friday: Hot dogs with Mac and Cheese

Saturday Family Dinner

Sunday Mac and Cheese

All ready for school...

2011-10-27T18:58:00.000-07:00

It was like Christmas at our house today! Our school books and supplies arrived from K12!

The FedEx truck stopped first and delivered our computer.

Then UPS stopped by and left us these....

So excited to have a computer for both of them. We've had a lot of times this week when they both could have been working if we'd had two. Plus it came with a microphone and a microphone/headset combo so we can join in on the chats during our online class with the lead teachers.

Here's Tyler's set of things...

Workbooks for all our classes, including Handwriting Without Tears which I think will be great, videos for music class and history, math shapes and blocks, a phonics kit, maps, globes, science supplies, art supplies and a nice library of reading books.

Cody's kit...

His included much of the same, with a bit more for science.

I did pretty well and it almost all fit on the two shelves we had left.

(Tyler's phonics box is on the floor)

Here's all their subject books and workbooks...

All the reading books for language arts and history...

Our DVD's & CD's for Music and our one for History.

They also received slide whistles and tambourines for music class.

All of our science items for experiments and hands-on learning.

Art kits included a full rainbow of tempera paints, brushes, modeling clay and pastels.

Just like Christmas morning, all the wrapping to recycle.

LOTS of empty boxes! We have to send a good portion of these things back at the end of the school year, so most of these will be sticking around.

So far, homeschooling has been going well. We've done our best this week just working off of the computer, but have had to skip lessons because we were missing books and such. So happy to have everything here so we can really dive in!

Skate Night and the Fish Hatchery....

2011-10-24T21:38:00.000-07:00

Last Tuesday was skate night for Pershing, a favorite at our house.

They were one of the first ones on the floor, and pretty close to the last to leave!

Tyler was a speed skater this time! He held my hand for a bit in the beginning to remember how to balance, then he was off. He had a few friends from class there and I hardly saw him! Cody was the same. They both had a great time as always.

On Sunday we took a break in our organizing day and headed over to the fish hatchery. It's been a really long time since we've been, so it was fun.

Watching the little Steelhead

We walked down to the bottom of the fish latter and watched the fish jumping upstream.

Handsome boys...

We were there in time to watch them feed the fish.

Then we watched the fish go nuts!

Dropping bits of food to make the fish jump.

We walked over to the edge of the cliff to watch the fish jump up river a bit more and saw the fisherman as high up as they could go. Judging by all the fish we saw, that was probably some good fishing!

Room for School...

2011-10-23T21:13:00.000-07:00

Monday marks the start of our homeschooling adventure.
After looking around the house, I finally settled on re-arranging the office to make room for the boys' school area. It took lot of moving, re-organizing the shelves and borrowing a table for a few weeks until we can pick up another one from Ikea to match the set.

SO, the bookshelf was moved into the closet and the computer moved out.

Now they have a small work table by the window.

Where the bookcase was, now stands the new computer table. This is the borrowed table that will be replaced. We should be getting a computer from the new online school, so it will also fit on this table.

The boys each have their own school supply jar, nice and portable as we need to move around the house.

They each have a magazine file that will hold their finished school work.

(we have to turn in work samples each quarter to their teacher)

The three drawer has some of our art supplies that we might need.

A major project was re-organizing this shelf. Now there is room (hopefully enough room) for our school supplies and books that should arrive on Thursday.

I still have my crafty corner opposite the school area.

We are excited to get started, and I'm a little nervous trying to figure out what our new routines will be.

Meal Plan Oct 24th-30th

2011-10-23T19:56:00.000-07:00

The spooks come out at the end of the week, meal plans will hopefully make it less scary!
We are also working on eating out of the freezer/pantry the next couple of weeks, so not as many new recipes.

Monday: CP left over BBQ meat for sandwiches

Tuesday: Tacos

Wednesday: CP Lasagna
(Look back in September for this recipe)

Thursday:Skillet Herb Chicken (posted before I think)
4 chicken breasts
1/4 tsp ground sage
1/4 tsp dried thyme
2 cloves minced garlic
1 can Cream of Chicken soup
1/2 cup water
4 cups cooked rice

Cook chicken in a skillet sprinkled with sage and thyme, until no longer pink.
Remove chicken, then spray the same pan with cooking spray and brown garlic. Return chicken to pan, add soup and water, reduce heat to low and heat through. Serve chicken and soup over rice.

Friday: Calzone Pinwheels
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
1/2 cup diced pepperoni
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup chooped fresh mushrooms
1/4 cup finely chopped green pepper
2 Tbsp finely chopped onion
1 package refrigerated crescent rolls
1 jar (14 oz) pizza sauce, warmed

In a small bowl, combine ricotta, Italian seasoning and salt. Stir in mozzarella, pepperoni, Parmesan, mushrooms, green pepper and onion. Separate crescent dough into four rectangles; seal perforations.
Spread cheese mix over each rectangle to within 1/4 inch of edges. Roll up jelly-roll style, starting with a short side; pinch seams to seal. Cut each into four slices.
Place cut side down on greased baking sheet. Bake at 375 for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm with pizza sauce.

Saturday: family dinner

Sunday: Boxed dinner.

Jog-a-Thon

2011-10-16T22:59:00.000-07:00

Friday the boys had their Jog-A-Thon at school to raise money for their classes. It ended up being a warm day, but everyone did great!

Cody's group went first.

Ready to run!

There they go!

Cody started out strong.

He was really good at sprinting past the parents and around the corner before walking the rest of the way around. He didn't quite take to the "jog" part very well.

After 30 minutes, he was done.

He did make it around the loop a bunch of times and earned his juice pop!

Kindergarten was the last group to go.

Tyler with his soccer friends plus one.

He smiled the whole time, and went around a bunch of times.

Still smiling!

Smirky smile...

Another well earned juice pop!

Meal Plans Oct 17th-23rd

2011-10-16T08:30:00.000-07:00

Copy and paste away ladies!

Monday: CP Root Beer BBQ Beef Sandwiches
1 boneless beef rump roast (4lb)
2 cups bbq sauce
1 cup root beer
16 sandwiches buns (WOW! I guess everyone's coming to our place.)

Place beef in crock. In a medium bowl, mix 1 1/2 cups bbq with root beer; poor over beef.
Cover and cook on low 10-12 hours (more like 8 for my crock)
About 20 minutes before serving, remove beef from crock and place on a large plate. Pour juice from crock into 12" skillet. Cook over medium-high heat about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until juices are thickened and reduced to about 3 cups. Meanwhile, shred beef with 2 forks; return to crock.
Stir remaining 1/2 cup bbq sauce into reduced juices in skillet; pour over shredded beef in crock. Salt and pepper to taste if desired. 1/2 cup serving of meat per bun.

Tuesday: Skillet Herb Chicken
4 chicken breasts
1/4 tsp ground sage & dried thyme
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup water
4 cups of cooked rice

Cook chicken in a skillet sprinkled with sage and thyme, about 15 minutes or until no longer pink.
Remove chicken, then spray the same skillet with non stick spray and brown the garlic. Add chicken back to pan. Mix soup and water in a bowl, then add to skillet. Turn down to low and heat through.
Serve chicken and soup over rice.

Wednesday: CP Tacos (pulling together all the left over meats)
Cleaning out the freezer of all the left over taco meats.

Thursday: Beefy Italian Ramen Skillet
2 packs of beef-flavored ramen noodles
1 lb lean ground beef
24 slices pepperoni
1 can diced tomatoes with basil, garlic & oregano; undrained
1 cup water
1 small green bell pepper, cut into 1/2" pieces (1/2 cup)
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Break blocks of noodles in half, reserve on packet of season and discard the other. Set aside.
In a 10" skillet, cook beef and pepperoni over med-high heat 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally until beef is thoroughly cooked; drain.
Stir in tomatoes, water and reserved season packet. Heat to boiling, stir in noodles and bell pepper. Cook 3-5 minutes, stirring occasionally until noodles are tender. Remove skillet from heat.
Sprinkle cheese around edge of noodle mixture. Cover; let stand for 5 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Friday: Cheesy Mini Meat Loaves
1lb ground beef (90% lean)
1/4 cup plain bread crumbs
3 Tbsp ketchup
1 tsp onion salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 egg
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
4 slices bacon, cut in half, crosswise

These are meant to be grilled on a Forman style grill, I will probably use a skillet.
In a large bowl mix all ingredients except bacon. On a work surface, pat mixture into 7" square; cut into 4 (3 1/2") squares.
Place beef squares on heated grill/skillet. Top each square with 2 half slices of bacon, cook for 6-10 minutes, or until squares are cooked through and no longer pink.

Saturday: Family Dinner

Sunday: Short Cut Sloppy Joes
1 lb ground beef
1 can Campbell's Italian Tomato Soup
1/4 cup water
2 tsp Worcestershire
1/8 tsp pepper
6 hamburger buns

Cook meat until browned and no longer pink, drain.
Add soup, water, Worcestershire and pepper. Reduce heat to low and heat through. Serve on rolls.

Meal Plans Oct 10th - 16th

2011-10-09T08:30:00.000-07:00

Alright, another week planned and ready!

Monday: CP Pulled Pork Tacos
Cook pork in root beer (1 can, I usually stop and get a can from the vending machine outside of Winco) for 6 hours. Then pull it out and shred, drain the crock and put back into crock. Add about 2/3 cup of water and a packet of taco seasoning. Heat it back through for about an hour or so. Dress tacos as you like.

Tuesday: Easy Calzone Rolls
2 loaves frozen bread dough, thawed
1/2 lb sliced ham
1/2 lb salami
2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 cup spaghetti sauce

Roll each dough loaf into a 8x12" rectangle. Layer meat down the center, lengthwise. Top with 1 cup of cheese per roll. Fold short sides in 1/2"to seal, then roll long sides into a long loaf. Pinch to seal. Bake at 375 with seam side down on a greased sheet for 20 minutes or until golden.
Cut and serve with warm spaghetti sauce

Wednesday: CP Bacon Wrapped Potatoes and Easy Turkey
1 lb fingerling potatoes, washed, dried and stem ends trimmed
1 Tbsp minced fresh thyme
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp paprika
1/2 lb fatty bacon strips
1/4 cup chicken broth

Toss Potatoes with olive oil, thyme and spices in a large bowl; set aside.
Cut each bacon slice in half lengthwise, wrap half slice bacon tightly around each potato.
Heat large skillet over medium heat; add potatoes. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook until lightly browned and some bacon fat has rendered out. Bacon should sear "shut" around potatoes.
Place potatoes in crockpot. Add chicken broth, cover and cook on high 3 hours.

Easy Turkey is simply the microwave turkey meals (the ones that cost me $1 a few weeks back!)

Thursday: Burgers
Fire up the grill and let them sizzle!

Friday: Mac & Cheese
Yep, the classic blue box.

Saturday: Family Dinner

Sunday: Italian Patty Melts
1lb lean ground beef
2 tsp oil for the pan
2 Tbsp Parmesan cheese
1 tsp italian seasoning
4 slices mozzarella cheese
4 buns

In a medium bowl combine meat, Parmesan, and seasoning; mix until combined. Form into 4 patties.
Heat oil in skillet, cook patties 10-12 minutes until cooked through.
Cover with mozzarella and cook until melted.
Serve on a bun, garnish as you please.

Meal Plan Oct 3rd-9th

2011-10-03T15:54:00.000-07:00

A little late this week, but it's all good!

Monday: CP Provolone / Swiss Chicken
4 boneless chicken breasts
4-6 slices of provolone &/or Swiss cheese
1 can Cream of Chicken Soup (mine has herbs in it)
1/4 cup milk
2 cups Stovetop
1/2 stick of butter, melted

Spray crock with cooking spray (or use a liner). Place chicken on the bottom and cover with cheese slices. In a bowl mix the soup and milk together, then pour over chicken. Mix the butter with the Stovetop and spread over the top. Cook on low for 4-6 hours.

Tuesday: Steak Tacos
I buy the carne asada from Winco, usually not seasoned and throw it in the crock pot for half the day on low with about 1/2 cup of water and 1 1/2 packets of taco seasoning. Yum!

Wednesday: CP Breakfast Casserole
32oz bag of hashbrowns or country style potatoes
1 dozen eggs
1 1lb cooked bacon, diced
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Spray or line crock. Place a layer of potatoes on the bottom, then bacon, & cheese. Repeat 2-3 more times. Mix eggs, milk, salt and pepper. Pour egg mix over the potatoes, cook on low 10-12 hours. (I'm pretty sure mine would be a crispy, burned mess if I let it cook that long, so mine will cook maybe 8hrs or so)

Thursday: CP Chicken and Noodles (I will only cooking half of the listed recipe)
3 cans of chicken broth
2 cans of Cream of chicken soup
1 stick of butter
4 chicken breasts
24 oz egg noodles, uncooked

Place everything except the noodles into the crock and cook on low for 7 hours. Take out the chicken and shred, then return it to the crock. Add in the noodles, season with salt and pepper. Cook on high for an hour, or until noodles are cooked.

Friday: Pot luck dinner for Cody's Class

Saturday: Family dinner

Sunday: Lasagna Rolls
6 lasagna noodles
1 lb ground beef (I will add turkey sausage and chopped meatballs as well)
1 jar favorite spaghetti sauce
2 cups shredded mozzarella or Italian mix cheese

Cook lasagna noodles according to their package. Meanwhile, cook beef in a skillet until no longer pink, drain. Stir in spaghetti sauce (and other meats); heat through.
Drain noodles. Spread 1/4 cup of meat sauce over each noodle, sprinkle with about 2 Tbsp of cheese. Carefully roll up noodles and place seam side down in a baking dish. Once all your noodles are arranged, top with remaining meat sauce and cheese.
Bake, uncovered at 400 for 10-15 minutes or until heated through and cheese is melted.
Supposed to serve 6, everyone with one roll. (adjust to your needs)

Bonus, it's October Recipe!
CP Pumpkin Spice Lattes
1 1/2 -2 cups brewed strong coffee
4 cups milk
1/4-1/2 cup sugar
4 Tbsp canned pureed pumpkin
3 Tbsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
Whipped cream (optional)

Add coffee and milk to crock. Whisk in pumpkin, spices, sugar and vanilla. Cook on high for 2 hours. Whisk again and ladle into mugs. Garnish with whipped cream and cinnamon.

(hmm, thinking I need to round up the ladies for coffee and give this one a try!)

Halloween Craft Exchange

2011-10-03T15:17:00.000-07:00

A mom friend from school and soccer organized a 5 person craft exchange for Halloween home decor. It's such a cool idea! You make 5 of the same craft, then exchange them and you come out with 5 new decorations for the season.

For my craft I decided to do stacked word blocks. They can be separated and placed around the room, or all kept together. They are also double sided, so you can flip them around and have a November/Harvest decoration as well.

In general I like how they turned out.

The middle one says Witches, it's better in person.

The top one says Autumn, and it turned out a bit too dark.

Rachael made a Halloween tree. It's fun to stop and look at all the leaves and their cool colors.

One of ladies made apothecary jars...

Another one made this beautiful table runner, it hangs over both sides of my table.

"Something wicked this way come!" Love this!

Charlene made these cute rag wreaths...

Here's how I have them displayed.

I love decorating for the seasons; this was such a cool way to acquire some new things!

Now to start thinking of what to do for Christmas....

Meal Pans 9/26-10/2

2011-09-26T07:23:00.000-07:00

This weeks' meals have a couple of new ones in store.

Mon: CP: Amazing French Dip
4lb roast
1 can each Condensed French Onion Soup & Beef Broth (10.5oz)
12oz Ginger Ale

Add everything to the crock, cook on low for 7-9 hours, slice thin and serve on rolls. Use broth as dip.

Tue: Crunch Onion Chicken
2 cups (4oz) French's fried onions
2 Tbsp flour
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 egg beaten

Mix onions and flour in a bag, crushing onions with hands or a rolling pin. Transfer to a pie plate or pan. Dip chicken in egg, coating both sides, then dip in onion mix, making sure to press it down so that the onions stick. Bake 400 for 20 min or longer, or until chicken is no longer pink in the middle.

Wed: CP Cheeseburger Meatloaf
2 lb ground beef
6oz of Chicken Stove Top
1/2 cup water
2 eggs, beaten
1 small onion or onion flakes
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup mustard
dash Worcestershire
1 tsp ea: garlic powder, Italian season, season salt & pepper
4 slices of cheese

Mix everything together until just blended except the cheese. Fold 2 pieces of foil (30 inches each) lengthwise in half twice, then lay in a cross on your work space. Top the foil with meat and shape into a loaf. Fold foil up and use as a lift to lower into crock. Cook on low for 4 hours or until the middle has reached 160 degrees. Top with cheese and let stand until melted.

Thurs: Quiche
Basic pie crust (mine are store bought)
2 whole eggs
2 egg white
favorite ingredients

Bake at 375 for about 30 min, or until knife inserted in the middle is clean. Let stand for 10 min.

Fri: Something from a box

Sat: Family Dinner

Sun: Spaghetti

Sep 18 - 24 Meal Plans

2011-09-18T18:04:00.000-07:00

We had a change in the pay dates for Keith's work, so this has forced me to buckle down and go back to meal planning. (Mainly so I can shop for 2+ weeks in advance instead of weekly) This put my planning skills back in working order, a word document was made, and I've been digging through my recipe boxes and the internet.
So, here's what we're eating this week, recipes included as appropriate.

Sunday: Cheeseburger Noodles, of the box variety, that allow me to collect another Box Top for the school!

Monday: CP (Crock Pot): To Die for Roast with biscuits on the side
4-5lb roast
1/2 cup water
1 package each: Brown Gravy, Italian Dressing, Ranch Dressing mixes

Place roast in crock pot, combine seasonings in a bowl and spread over roast, then pour water around roast without washing the season off the roast. Cook on low for 6-10 hours (all depends on crock)

Biscuits are our favorite Pillsbury variety.

Tuesday: Taco night

Wednesday: CP: Garlic Ranch Chicken with corn on the side
4 chicken breasts (can be frozen)
Bottle of favorite ranch dressing
1 clove of garlic- chopped

Place everything in crock pot, cook on high for 1 hour, then on low for 2-4.

Thursday: Bacon Cheeseburger Pasta
8 oz uncooked tube or spiral pasta
1lb ground beef
6 bacon strips diced
1 can 10.75 oz Tomato soup
1 cup shredded cheddar chesse
BBQ sauce and mustard are optional

Cook pasta according to package. Brown beef, drain and set aside. Use the same skillet and cook bacon until crisp; remove with a slotted spoon onto a paper towel. Discard of pan drippings. Using the skillet add in cooked pasta, meats, and soup; heat through. Sprinkle with cheese, cover and cook until melted. Serve with mustard and BBQ sauce if you like.

Friday: Pizza Biscuits
Take canned biscuits, smash flat and lay onto cookie sheet. Add your favorite spaghetti sauce, toppings and cheese. Bake biscuits as directed on package. Yum!

Saturday: Family dinner at Rich and Judy's / Momtourage dinner!

We don't eat very fancy meals at our house as you can see, but they are quick, easy and favorites.
Both of this week's crock pot meals are from the Crock Pot Girls group on Facebook.
I'm not sure where the other recipes came from at this point as they were ripped out of a magazine.

First Soccer games of the season....

2011-09-14T20:23:00.000-07:00

The start of the soccer season is here! Both boys had their first regular season games on Saturday.

Tyler, all ready to go...

Warming up with Asst. Coach Jennifer...

Hair is flying!

Keith said he did quite a bit of this, walking by the ball instead of attacking it.

But he did score one goal!

Gettin' his snack on, grumpy boy...

Everyone doing a cheer for the other team!

The officially finished banner!

Sweaty kids after the game, one of his new buddies that is also in his class.

We aren't really keeping score, but Ty's team did awesome and scored lots of goals!

Cody all ready to go...

Warming up his legs...

Cody played the whole game, starting off as goalie. He did great and didn't let any in!

He's becoming an awesome defender and is playing in our sweeper position most the time.

He's working on finding his leader voice and directing his defenders on where to go.

When he lands right, he's starting to get a great foot for goal kicks.

Loving the crazy camera shots...

Go Tigers!

Cody's team did great, winning 2-1. They also handled the heat of a 3pm game pretty well, buy the 4th quarter, both teams were whooped.

Goldrush Days...

2011-09-05T10:19:00.000-07:00

Sunday we headed down to Old Sacramento for Goldrush days. They shut down the streets to cars, covering part of the cobblestone roads with dirt for the horse and carriages. There were also people in period costume, acting out scenes and pulling you back in time!

A lot of the stores were selling rubber band and pop guns.

Then we came across this bit of awesome, the rubber band machine gun.

We walked around a bit and were pulled in to watch a magic show. It was a lot of fun with some nicely done tricks. The magicians were very funny and the man even came into the audience and tried to swoon Virginia for some more magic mojo.

After the magic show we headed down the street to watch the firemen rescue the brothel girls.

There were protesters in the streets saying to "let it burn" and warning us to avert our children's eyes from the sinful things happening in front of us.

Check out those beautiful dresses and costumes.

Then came the firemen....

Up the ladder to save the ladies, but they were scared and kept running away...

Shooting the "fire" with the hoses, the drunkards running the streets...

a job well done.

After that show we headed over to pan of for gold.

Then they had their take weighed and were given a certificate to receive special gifts from some of the stores. We were only able to find one place that had the stars, but the boys thought it was cool.

There were a lot of horses and carriages around, even the Calvary road through.

We stopped to watch some of the Native American dancing.

They had a shootout a few times throughout the day, but it was hot and too much talking to enjoy it, so we moved on.

After a stop for lemonade and listening to some music we headed over to watch the medicine show. Their elixirs claimed to cure all kinds of things!

There was a Punch and Judy puppet show that was pretty funny to watch, even the adults had a laugh.

After a stop at the candy store, an Old Sac must, we toured the school house.

We walked back to the car after a fun day past the tower bridge.

We will definitely go back next year, it was a lot of fun and nice way to see history in action.

Let the soccer season begin!

2011-08-27T22:30:00.000-07:00

Soccer practice started a few weeks ago and this weekend was the seeding tournament for Cody's team. I've not been able to take any pictures of either of the boy's teams yet, being the assistant coach for both, but luckily we have some great parents that have!

A couple of the boys had handheld games, naturally the rest had to go see what was happening...

What?

Lined up and ready to go!

Cody played hard, playing most of the 5 games. He's figuring out his role, now he just needs to build some confidence in what he's doing.

We have one weekend off, then we dive into two teams each Saturday. Hopefully we can all keep up!

Thanks to John and Rachael for the great pictures!

1st day of School

2011-08-22T15:47:00.000-07:00

Today marked the first day of Kindergarten for Tyler and the first day of 2nd grade for Cody.

Walking up the ramp to school...

Cody is starting the Rapid Learner program at school this year. I'm a little nervous but so happy he is in the program. He's excited because his best buddy is in class with him again.

Getting ready to leave...

Where he'll be learning all kinds of new things!

In line with his best buddy Ethan...

Off they go!

He's right in the middle of the room...

Cody reported back that he had a good day. They started with a get to know you game and as well as learning things about their teacher. They listened to a couple of stories, then took a tour of the school to show all the new kids around (only about 8 kids in the class went to Pershing last year). Then it was recess. He did other things but couldn't remember what. Then it was lunch time. Lunch is the same time as last year and they also go out with the 1st and 2nd grade classes. After lunch the were handed out a planner and went through it a bit and their Pershing folders were handed out. At some point during the day they learned that they have computer lab, library time, PE and Art throughout the week. Then it was time to go home.

Tyler ready to leave...

My big guy looking so little....

Excited to have his turn to ride the bikes at school...

Lined up and ready to go in...

Off they go...

Ty reported back that he had a good day. They started the day on the carpet and then went to their desks. At some point they worked on some sorting, by color and then by object. They also did a sheet on the letter "A." He had snack/recess and decided tomorrow he needs to eat faster so he has more time to play. They were told they get to go to the computer lab and library, but couldn't remember when. He liked his teacher and saw friends from soccer. Successful day on the books!

Tyler's 5th Birthday Party!

2011-08-16T23:17:00.000-07:00

Today was Tyler's 5th Birthday party. (His Birthday is on the 29th, a mere 13 days away!)

We took our party to the OV Community Pool; with 3 reserved tables in the shade, lots of sunshine for a good swim, snacks, cupcakes and lots of good friends.

Ty spent a lot of time of the slide today.

Cody had a lot of fun with his friends.

Finished cupcakes on display.

The hair is the product of a good time!

with Grandpa D

with Gramma D

Keith and his Mom

Tyler wanted to take Keith down the slide.

Somebody won't be bored for a couple of weeks!

Such a fun day and a good way to round out our summer before school starts!

Getting Ready to Party...

2011-08-13T21:37:00.000-07:00

Party planning and preparations have begun!

Tyler is turning 5 in a couple of weeks so it's time to get our party on before school starts!

We made up a bunch of back pack charms for the goody bags.

(also what we'll give to his classmates on his actual Birthday)

He decided he wanted a tie-dyed theme after seeing it in the party catalog, so to go along with that we found these mini swirly lollipops and added a 5 to make them special.

Then came the cupcakes. After putting my Google skills to work, I found tie-dyed cupcakes.

You start with a basic white/yellow cake mix.

Divide it evenly between as many colors you would like to have.

This is two boxes of mix to make enough cupcakes for all the guests.

Next, add your dye. I had some orange left over from another time and purchased basic food coloring gel from the grocery.

Color to your liking...

Then add the batter a Tablespoon at a time, dropping it in different areas of the cup so it's a mosaic of color. Once settled it will look like this.

Next take a knife or dowel and swirl to give it that tie-dye effect.

I put my dowel in the middle of the cupcake, then made a big swirl towards the edge, only going around about one time. Carefully pull the dowel out and swirl it a bit around the top with the excess, then wipe the dowel clean. If you swirl too much the color will run together to make brown and you'll lose the effect.

Here's the the swirled cupcake ready to bake.

Out of the oven...

Tyler was disappointed that I bought plain white cupcake liners (instead of characters or something) until we pulled them out and we were able to see through to the awesomeness.

I'm not sure how we are going to frost them yet. Something simple so as not to take away. If Ty would let me I would dust them with powder sugar and call them good, but I'm not sure he'll go for that!

So, the party is planned, snacks purchased, tableware ready and we are just waiting for Tuesday!

Haircuts...

2011-08-09T15:52:00.000-07:00

Today was haircut day for the boys. The kids salon was packed with people there for the $10 day.

Cody getting ready with his game started....

Tyler all ready to go...

Cody all finished

Before After

After looking at Cody's hair all afternoon, I'm not happy with it. It's not short enough on top and it's very uneven across the front. I realized later she cut his hair to be combed to the side, but his hair goes forward. So, I have a feeling we'll be back for a redo in a week or two.

Tyler's new do...

Before After

I'm pretty sure his stylist, Brian, was afraid to cut his hair. It's not as short as I had hoped it to be either. Here is the reference I was brought along.....

He said his hair was already like this only longer. I see it as much more chunky layers and a lot shorter in the front, without being mullet-ish. I know that Ty's hair is a different texture, but thought it would work out okay.

Tyler on the other hand wanted something more like this...

End of swim lessons and a new grill!

2011-08-07T12:50:00.000-07:00

Sat marked the official end of our swim lessons, yay! Slide day!

They did a lot of jumping in for fun. They also swam over to the other side of the pool, with help of some noodles, and Tyler showed off his diving. She took some time and worked with both of them on kneeling dives, so awesome.

VW has a program for their employees where they earn points and then there's an online store where you spend them. We were able to "buy" my camera through this program.

The latest cash in was for a new grill. We've been using our camp grill anytime we want to BBQ, so it will be nice to grill more than 4 burgers at a time!

22" Weber

There was also enough points to get a Rapidfire Chimney Starter, which we've heard makes a big difference when using charcoal.

Yay for a bonus of sorts!

Sports Bags....

2011-08-05T21:34:00.000-07:00

The boys are in need of their own bags for soccer, my Jansport is bursting at the seams with both the boys' stuff.

Here's Ty's bag; big enough for a ball, shoes, shin guards, socks, sweatshirt, books, toys, water bottle and what ever else they think they need!

Inside...

There is a flap that covers everything on the inside...

water bottle pocket on the outside...

Backpack style straps....

Cody's is the same design, but blue.

Okay, now we're officially ready for the season!

Creating a soccer banner....

2011-08-03T21:43:00.000-07:00

Tyler's team needed a banner for game days, it pulled on my crafty heart strings to get it done.
So, here's the process....

First step was to sew casings for the frame to go through...

Decided to use freezer paper stenciling to add the wording. Also realized I can use my Cricut to cut letter and things from the freezer paper. Not sure why I hadn't thought of this sooner!

Yay for not having to trace and cut all these by hand!

So I ironed on the stencils...

Started dabbing on the fabric paint with a stenciling sponge...

Then realized I had an issue....

The stencil did not iron onto the duck cloth (canvas) very well. Usually this works wonderfully on t-shirts giving me clean and crisp images/words/lines.

Instead I was left with this kind of mess...

But, a Sharpie came to the rescue!

I used the same process to stencil the names & super hero thingy on to the capes.

I had a bit of touch up to do on theses as well, but by the end had figured out how to paint the canvas to minimize the bleeding.

Some hand painted soccer balls, a lot of measuring and a glue gun later we have a pretty spiffy banner!

All that's left to finish is building the PVC frame and finding the right size steaks to set it up on game days.

Just keep swimming....

2011-08-02T22:59:00.000-07:00

Yep, still in the middle of swim lessons.

Tyler has been progressing right along this last week and weekend

My swim buddy on Sat...

For some reason, he decided to shut down during the majority of his lesson today. He was saying he was cold, but I'm not sure what was actually wrong.

This is him being pulled off the wall and trying his hardest to fight the back float...

We went back to the pool this afternoon for open swim and after about an hour and a half he finally warmed up to swimming and off he went. He even started trying to dive into the deep water, with decent form! I'm really hoping we can work through this attitude over the school year because otherwise it's gonna be a long one!

Cody is steadily improving by the day. His dives are getting better and he's getting better on his back. Here's a mash up of his swim lessons today.

He had a lot of time to practice his dives at the open swim this afternoon and was finally able to figure out how he should hold his tummy in and make a good arch into the water and not belly flopping.

Afternoon Fun...

2011-07-28T22:56:00.000-07:00

The boys have spent a lot of time playing out front this week, usually riding their bikes or scooters up and around the cul-de-sac. They also like to get out the buckets and their water shooters for some fun.

Today, they had the hose and buckets out and were attempting to make waterfalls on the rocks.

They really like Grandma & Grandpa's new water fall and think we should have one too.

I've been in and out of the office today working on Tyler's soccer banner...

I'm very close to finishing the painting so I can get it all put together, Yay!

Then it's time to move onto the next project...

Sports backpacks for the boys.

Back for another session of swim lessons....

2011-07-26T20:57:00.000-07:00

Monday we started another session of swim lessons for both boys.

If you have been following along on Facebook you'll know that Tyler has not had the best start to his Saturday sessions. The first 2 weeks were awful, wouldn't listen and just would not do anything the instructor asked of him. Before his 3rd lesson we had some talks, he lost some privileges and I even added a Disneyland sucker as a bribe minutes before his class started. Something worked and he was a rock star in class. The instructor even made a point to see us after class and let him know he did a great job and she was proud of him. So we do still have 2 Saturday lessons to go.

To get him going a bit more, we are overlapping a two week morning session with his Saturday class. It is the same class he's in on Saturdays, but a different set of instructors. So far so good! He responded right away to his instructor and continues to be a rock star. (It helps that she's a cute, blonde, and kinda looks like his favorite gymnastics coach)

Bobs...

Learning about streamline hands...

Practicing streamline arms with kicks....

Being shown how to do freestyle arms...

His second day went well, really going after the freestyle stroke. They also had a chance in the shallower water to dive for rings. Yay for swimming!

Cody is also back for another session. We've spent some time the last couple of weeks working on his back swimming and he's getting better.

Working on his streamline...

Jump to freestyle...

They also work on diving in this class and he's struggling with this quite a bit. Hopefully we can figure out the right words to explain it better for him to be able to figure it out. It would also help for us to be able to get over to the OV pool so he has a chance to practice in the deeper water.

Someday, it will all come together....

2011-07-22T19:13:00.000-07:00

Over the past few months, the office has become a dumping area. My dumping area. It's caused me anxiety to even walk through the door, even when it's just a bee line to the computer.
So, I've finally made a bit of headway and have usable space again! Hooray!

The first project to get finished was moving the shelves in the closet so that it's more usable.

Also taking time to organizing all the wrapping paper, bows, bags and tissue. Before, if you tried to get anything out, one thing turned into a fall of a hundred bits and pieces.

Ooo, tables with open spaces to actually work on!

I also took the toss and condense method to heart when organizing the shelves.

They really are not organized at all, but it's condensed and fits!

The cabinet now has a set of wire shelves for fabric and enough room for the paper cart to slide in and be tucked.

A big step was taken with the Cricut cartridge boxes.

They were all thrown away!

For some reason I've felt the need to hold onto them, you know in case I bump my head and decided to offload Cricut and all the cartridges. (That's just laughable!) So they are now gone. Freeing up an nice little chunk of shelf space.

Now, it's not finished by any means.

This space is still a bit of a head scratcher. The chest of drawers peaking out on the right needs to be gone through as well.

I do have ideas though....

Plastic shoe boxes and my label maker to organize things better.

Maybe even some canning jars on shelves...

or hanging them on a magnet strip kinda like this...

Cropper Hopper ribbon cards to get rid of the millions of spools.

I'm also thinking of getting a bar or two like this from Ikea to hang for things like scissors, markers, pencils, etc.

I would also like to get something like this to hang my thread on the wall.

Then I walk out into the living room and the yard sale/give away/find someone awesome to take over this amazing item pile. Gah!

So yeah, someday it will all come together.

Forgotten Splash Park...

2011-07-20T19:45:00.000-07:00

I forgot a splash park on the great review!

Peter Bertelsen Memorial Park located on 831 Redwood Ln in EDH

Nice play structure with swings.

Small spray yard, but nice covered picnic area.

The only problem is that you can't sit at the picnic area and still see the play structure.

So, bring a chair for the grass (usually a little damp) and you can sit right between the spray yard and the play structure.

This park also has a nice parking lot and really nice, clean bathrooms.

We never just go to this park, but if we are up for a movie, we go afterwards for a picnic and play. We visited it today after seeing Marmaduke at the $1 showing, the El Dorado Hills Regal theater is one of my favorites.

Slip N Slide...

2011-07-18T19:37:00.000-07:00

Tyler has been asking to get the slip n slide out, but our back yard isn't in the best shape for sliding. So I finally decided to just put it out front! He had a great time.

Cody was being a turkey and didn't want to get wet, so he missed out on all the fun!

Our review of some local splash parks.....

2011-07-17T13:44:00.000-07:00

Alright local friends, here is the Scollay Family review of some of the free splash parks in our area:

(oh, and please enjoy this trip down memory lane, as you will see)

We'll start our tour in Rancho Cordova at one of our favorites.

Stone Creek Park, Spoto Dr (just off Zinfandel)

This park is in a nice area with lots of parking and fairly clean restrooms.

There is a nice covered picnic area, although a bit back from the water area. The rest is covered in nice grassy areas that are prefect for setting up a shade canopy. They also have benches around if you do not want to pack in your own chairs, but most are in the open sun.

The play structure is a lot of fun, with nice climbing areas.

They offer a nice spray pad with water that sprinklers that shoot in all directions.

That would be a 5 year old Cody enjoying the water...

also a 23 month old Tyler...

They also have a nice sand area with diggers, 3 year old Tyler approved...

Another fun thing about this park is it's right by the air base, so you get to see all kinds of planes go by as you play.

The Village Green Park located at 3141 Bridgeway Dr

Behind the Lowe's off of Zinfandel

The park is just a spray yard, although it also has a lot of nice grass to play in. There are nice bathrooms and covered tables to hang out for lunch. Parking is along the street, but it's in a residential townhouse development, so the traffic isn't too bad.

This is a nice place to go and cool off, maybe even host a simple party at!

Next we'll travel to Folsom.

John Kemp Community Park located at 1322 Bundrick Dr

There is a nice parking lot, frequented by the ice cream truck, nice bathrooms and a great covered picnic area. Benches surround the spray pad for parents as well.

The spray pad is a smaller one, but has lots of fun sprinklers.

2 year old Tyler loved this place!

As did 4 year old Cody...

The next year, it was all about lying on the sprayers.

There is a really nice play structure here as well.

Livermore Community Park located at 6004 Riley St

This is one of our favorites. The parking is nice, they have restrooms that are close, a shaded picnic area is available, and if you pack your chair or blanket there's lots of shade to sit under.

This one is good for the big and little, with a giant water fall to play under, then the stream to sit in and run boats down or to fill your water shooter.

3 year old Tyler showing off the water fall.

3 & 5 year old Tyler and Cody in the stream...

7 year old Cody is also a fan of the giant water fight that happens...

4 year old Ty getting in there as well...

This park also has a nice play structure and sand volleyball pits. To be honest, we go for the water and have never played on either of these as they are off in another section of the park.

The next part of the tour takes us to Roseville.

Roseville's web page lists the next three parks as having water features, we didn't find this to be true.

Mark White Park located at 504 6th St.

This was not the best area, the parking was all on the street, and there wasn't a bathroom.

The boys did have a bit of fun on the play structures...

We did finally find the button that was supposed to turn on the water, but could tell where the water was going to come from or what it would do. We won't be going back to this one, ever.

R.F. Rube Nelson Park located at 1213 S. Bluff Dr.

This is a nice neighborhood park, street parking and no bathrooms. There are some picnic tables, but not much shade.

Small play structure and decent grassy areas.

The water feature wasn't working or turned on, it was some kind of sprinkler that sprayed out of the frog. Good for little ones, but not as much fun for the big ones.

Leanoard Duke Davis Park located at 1460 Northpark Dr

This is a nice big park, lots of grass, street parking, good shady picnic area, but no bathrooms.

The play structure was fun and they also have a half court basketball area.

This stream is the water feature, that goes into a sand box, but again it wasn't on or working.

They did have some pretty flowers around though...

Our final destination was to tour Rocklin.

Whitney Park located at 1801 Whitney Ranch Pkwy

This is where we entered the land of awesome.

Big parking lot, nice bathrooms, 3 large covered picnic areas, with lots of other seating around.

The spray yard was a nice size with sprinklers and water shooters.

The play structure is one of the largest I've ever seen, the boys thought it was awesome!

Fun!

We will defiantly make a trip back to this park this summer, hopefully bringing some friends along.

Lone Tree Park located at 6101 W Oaks Blvd

Nice park with good parking, bathrooms, 4 covered picnic areas and lots of grass for your own chairs and shade canopy.

This is the largest water pad of all the ones we've been to with sprinklers from the ground or above on poles, things to run under and water shooters.

This also hosts another monster play structure that has some feature you don't always find, like a flat swing that goes in a circle.

We have been here before. Queue the Ahhhh....

(11 month old Tyler)

2 1/2 year old Cody...

Memorial Park located at 3980 Rocklin Rd

A nice spray yard with all kinds of sprinklers.

A smaller play structure that was okay, but they have swings.

We would like to thank you for making it this far on our splash park tour.

Your tour guides after a day of research...

Looking around, there are also spray yards and even free play pools all around Sacramento. We may venture out to the one in Land Park the next time we are down that way, but most are not ones we would go to.

SPCA camp, bowling and more swim lessons...

2011-07-09T16:55:00.000-07:00

Our busy summer continues....
On Wednesday the boys headed out with Grandpa for a morning day camp at the SPCA. They did some crafts, saw the animals, played with the kittens and learned about the SPCA. They reported back that they had a good time, and got Taco Bell for lunch (= happy boys).

Wednesday night we sent Cody off on his first sleepover at a friends house. The boys had a good time, playing games, watching a movie and talking until 10:30ish. He's pretty go with the flow, so we didn't get any late night calls that he was ready to come home. Hmmm, I'm seeing over night camps in our future!

Thursday we had a Momtourage play date for some swimming fun. We were only missing one family, so it was a full pool! It's always great to see everyone and the kids still get excited to see each other. Jen treated us to snow cones and I'm pretty sure we found our summer paradise!

Friday marked the last day of Cody's first swim session. Otherwise known as slide day.

Tyler hunkered down with a friend playing her Leapster.

While waiting for their slide time, his class played "Red light, Green light."

Waiting for his turn...

1st time down...

Swimming to the edge...

2nd turn...

His swim session went pretty well. We are on the fence as to whether he'll stay in this class or if he can move up a level. We need to work on getting him comfortable on his back and swimming with a back stroke. He also needs to learn to dive a bit better, like off the wall. So we'll see what we can do over the next couple of weeks. I would like to move him up because the class will be a lot smaller, so he'll have more time with the instructor and he'll be pushed a little bit more with new strokes and distance.

Friday afternoon we finally took advantage of our Kids Bowl Free coupons. We signed up the kids so that they can bowl 2 free games every day of the summer at a select bowling alley. It's a great program, and after going to the alley that is hosting the program once, it's wasn't as awful as I remembered it to be!

He ran back to his seat most turns....

We were there with some friends and we all bowled the first game, then let the little ones sit out the second round. I finally broke 100 the second game, with a only a bit of help from the bumpers, giving Teresa and I a tied score. Can't wait to go back again! Thanks to a tip from another friend, we found out this alley does $1 shoes & games every weekday from 3-6pm and on Fridays they have $1 specials at the snack bar.

Tyler started his group lessons today as well. He's signed up for 5 Saturday lessons for 45 min each, then he'll jump into a two week session at the end of July the same time as Cody.

Doing his bobs in the water...

kick board...

His lazy freestyle...

"Red light, green light"

We talked before lessons and I thought we had him geared up to learn, but it all fell apart pretty quickly. He didn't really like the teacher (this is an annoying theme with him right now), so he wasn't very willing to try things. He also wouldn't put his face in the water while learning his stroke, so he was sinking. Needless to say, we have some pool work to do this week before class next weekend. Fingers crossed we can push through.

4th of July...

2011-07-07T11:42:00.000-07:00

Oh how we love the 4th!

Once again we headed over to the Ahnberg's for a BBQ and swim before going over to watch the fireworks. We were also successful in louring in a couple of other Momtourage families to join us!

Keith was one of the brave dads to actually get in the water with all the kids. This meant he was instantly attacked by the water guns and was throwing kids left and right.

Tyler had a blast with the shooters.

He spent a good portion of his time in the green tube, floating around the deep end.

There was also a lot of jumping going on...

Cannonball!

Once it was finally dusk, we headed over to the school so the kids could run about a bit more before the fireworks started.

It was another good show by Sunrise, although we forgot a radio so we didn't get the full affect.

We also had to forget the Disney fireworks we had just seen because those are hard to compare to.

We will have a new adventure for the next 4th as Jen and crew are moving and will most likely not have a pool in their yard. Hmmm, maybe next year we'll try out Tahoe!

And now back to our regularly scheduled summer...

2011-07-07T11:34:00.000-07:00

We are finished with the vacation stuff for the summer, so now we can get back to our regularly scheduled summer.

Before we left, we met some friends at our favorite splash park in Folsom.

The day after we returned, it was time to jump right into swim lessons for Cody.

He's becoming a fish!

Kick board all the way across the pool.

Something new for this class was diving.

This equaled some pretty impressive belly flops from Cody, Ouch!

Tyler didn't have lessons this session because I wasn't sure he was old enough. He did make some friends and saw a couple of old friends from preschool to keep busy.

Tomorrow marks the end of this session, so I'm curious to see if he can move up to the next level and learn some new strokes and be pushed to go further. Unfortunately he's not comfortable with any kind of back swimming, so I'm afraid it's going to hold him back. He has really improved with his breast stroke and can dive down for rings like a champ. We will see...

Tyler also wrapped up his parks and rec gymnastics class last week. He wasn't very impressed with the new teacher he had for this last session, to the point he was a bit of a turkey during class.

A new improvement for him though was letting me put his hair back.

It made a difference when he could see what he was doing!

Also while we were on our trip he missed one class, so we scheduled a make-up with his favorite teacher.

He did a lot better while in her class, listening and following directions. With her own school schedule she doesn't have as many classes she teaches as she once did, so we won't be able to stay with her. Fingers crossed that we can find him a new class to fit into, she did such a good job at pushing him to go further.

So that's where we are, swimming, library programs, and trying to stay cool!

Family Trip day 9

2011-07-04T23:31:00.000-07:00

On our final day of the trip we were ready to make our way home.

Tyler slept like this quite a bit of the night...

After breaking camp one last time and loading the cars we went on a quick walk around to look at the Koi pond.

After saying good-bye to Uncle Stu, Grandma and Grandpa, we were on the road to home! Along the way we made a rest stop at Casa de Fruita. This was a really cool place. They had a fruit stand, treats and candies, winery, rides and a cafe.

Checking out the train...

They weren't that bad on the trip, but it was pretty funny.

After letting them out of their shackles, we let them ride the double decker carousel.

Cody picked a horse on top...

Tyler found a spinning seat, just like the Mad Tea Party, and he was in heaven!

We rolled back in to town mid afternoon, unpacked the van and crashed on the couch! We had a great trip and can't wait to go back to some of the places we visited along the way.

We also added a good stack of coins to our smashed penny collection. Most of these are from Disneyland, including one smashed quarter, but we did find some other cool ones along the trip.

One of our other Disney souvenirs was a new penny book...

Family Trip Day 8...

2011-07-04T23:22:00.000-07:00

Saturday we packed up camp and headed up to San Lois Obispo to see their Children's Museum.

This is a great place to get out, explore and touch everything!

This was a rock organ. You would cover the hole of the color you wanted and the note would play.

Light table, bringing back preschool memories for Cody...

Interactive wall, as you would walk by the balls, they would move around.

Giant bubble ring. One of the helpers tried to get the boys to stand inside, but they wouldn't. Cody was able to make a bubble almost up to his waist before it popped.

This was a cool engineering project, to build an earthquake proof structure.

Cody's hardly moved at all when it was time to shake!

On the second level they had a pendulum swing...

and a small climbing tower...

Then lots of interactive areas for real life play.

You could work in the kitchen, the firehouse, doctors office, post office and grocery store.

The third floor was geared toward the 4 and under crowd.

The boys loved this ball track; you could flip levers to make the ball go down a different path.

And we can't walk by a train table without touching it for at least a minute or two.

Lastly we headed outside.

They had a water mover where you crank the wheel, scoop up the water and run it up to the top, then it makes the water wheel turn.

Also a couple of plasma cars...

and a spinning cup!

After a stop at In N Out for a burger and some shade it was time to head to our last campground,

San Lorenzo Park in King City.

The campground was very nice, lots of grass, and things to do.

Only problem was the winds picked up and it was constant through the afternoon and late evening.

They also have a museum on site, a blacksmith's shop, irrigation history and lots of farm and road working machines.

The playground was also really fun for the kids.

With all the wind in the evening, we didn't get a chance to have our last campfire. We also had to take turns making dinner in the RV and stayed pretty squished in until it was dark and we could call it a night.

Family Trip Day 7

2011-07-04T23:05:00.000-07:00

Friday morning we woke up ready for another new adventure! Stu, Virginia, Keith and I set off for a surf lesson. We met Derek from Shell Beach Surf School at the beach parking lot and looked forward to getting out there on the waves.

After a bit of a wet suit snafu, he had us back in business and ready to go. We hit the sand and had a quick talk about the basics and then it was time to give it a try.

We spent a lot of time out in the waves, trying to catch a few and getting tossed around a lot. Virginia made it to standing a couple of times, if only for a few moments. The boys had a great time as well, getting close, and even breaking one of the boards! I had a good time as well, never actually making it to my feet, but getting the feel for the catch of the wave. I would love to go again, after taking some time to build up some strength in the push-up area.
Our instructor was awesome. He was very open to us all being kinda new, and even though we all had different water experiences, he was able to help each of us out. No judgement of ability or shape, just wanted us to have a good time.

After our lesson we walked around the Pismo Beach shops for a bit and grabbed a bite at Mo's for some great BBQ. Then we piled into the car and headed North to Morro Bay to check out the shops.

I had found a little aquarium that I thought might be fun to check out, but it was such a whole in the wall we couldn't make ourselves go in. But we did find some nice little galleries and had a good time.

While we were away on our surfing adventure, the boys hung back with Grandma, Grandpa and the dogs for the day. They went to a Jr Rangers program at our campground to learn about the Monarch Butterflies.
Then found a playground to get out some energy for a while.

After that, Grandpa found a beach that was more kid friendly (and less dune/atv friendly) so they could play and build castles until their hearts were content (or at least almost content).

After dinner we went to a campfire program at our campground, it was also about the Monarch Butterflies. The boys thought it was fun that they knew a lot of the answers to the questions.

Can't wait to go back to the Pismo area again.

Family Trip day 6...

2011-07-04T22:51:00.000-07:00

We woke up on Thursday ready to head further up the coast.

The boys had some more fun playing with their light sabers...

They also joined Virginia and Guinness on his morning run.

We cruised up the road and made a burrito stop in Santa Barbara at Freebird's. It was really yummy and made for a good all day snack!

Our adventure for the day was to get to Pismo beach for some sand dune fun. We reached Pismo, and waited for the others to arrive so we could figure out where we were actually supposed to go, catching some of the scenery while we waited.

Then it was time for the dunes.

The littlest one geared up and ready to go, I'm surprised he could walk as I'm sure the helmet weighed about as much as he does!

Uncle Stu making sure Ty is in tight and ready to go.

Keith and Cody ready to have some fun...

Holding on tight for a fun ride!

And there they go...

They reported back that the first part of the time wasn't the best as nobody really knew what the machines would do or how to really ride the dunes correctly. One of the main guys from the rental shop went out to check and see how they were all doing and spent a few minutes showing them the ropes. Once that happened, things started looking up and it made the day.

Tyler had a blast, giving a thumbs up...

I spent a nice quiet time on the beach, with my book, watching the waves...

Our camp for the night was at Pismo State Beach in the Oceano campground. All in all it was a great spot to be, although a bit loud with the dune traffic coming up and down the main road.

Family Trip Day 5

2011-07-04T15:45:00.000-07:00

After a lazy morning recovering from Disney, we were showered, camp was torn down and we were ready to hit the road. Eli caught an early shuttle and had to fly out for work.

Cody and Ty playing with Uncle Stu and their new light sabers.

The boys traveled to downtown LA with Grandma, Grandpa and Virginia to check out the La Brea Tar Pits. They reported back that it was a lot of fun seeing the different fossils from the Ice Age including a saber tooth, sloth and mammoth. They saw models of how they looked, their skeletons and saw scientist working to pull more fossils out of the tar.

Stu, Keith and I headed over to see the Wally Parks NHRA Museum. It was very cool to see the history of the NHRA and the other motor sports Wally Parks was involved in.

They had a photo montage of the 60 best moments in NHRA history along the walls.

(We bought a book that has all the photos in it as well as the explanations.)

Photos and memorabilia from the first NHRA National event in Great Bend, KS.

These cool rides were hanging out in front of the building.

We then made our way towards Malibu to meet with the rest of the group.

Finally catching site of the ocean for the first time on our trip. We beat the others there so we walked around a bit and went to a museum/house that's right on the beach. I've forgotten the name, it was beautiful!

Seeing the surfers out on the water...

At the home we were able to walk around the grounds, but the house was already closed for the day.

Talk about million dollar views!

We had planned to stop at Malibu pier to check out the sites, but it wasn't much to see.

Once the others arrived we traveled to find our campground at Point Mugu State Park. It was cool to be right across from the beach, but the campground was super full and there were lots of kids running around that didn't seam to have any parents. (Loud!)

But we made due and after dinner took a walk to the beach.

The kids were excited to finally bust out the sand toys.

It was beautiful, and the sun made it's way through the clouds at one point to put on quite the show.

After a bit of digging and such, they broke out the football to play for a bit.

Oh, how we love the beach!

Family Trip day 4: Disneyland!

2011-07-04T15:01:00.000-07:00

It was finally Disneyland day! Everyone did a great job of keeping it a secret from the boys. Everyone that is except for me! I had a minor slip up while in Sequoia, but ducked and covered pretty well.

I had made Cody a little book to read to Tyler to explain days new adventure.

They were pretty excited once it started to sink in. I'm not sure the really understood where we were going and what Disneyland actually was.

We finished getting ready and walked over to catch our shuttle to the park.

So cool!

Tickets in hand we headed through the gates.

Seeing the magical castle as we walked down main street.

The rest of the Matterhorn...

We started in Tomorrowland and had to ride something! So we jumped in line and rode the Astro Orbiter while we waited for everyone else to find us.

Next up was Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. This was a ton of fun; you are thrown into a big video game and help to shoot Zorb's evil aliens. They take your picture and you get your score at the end. Eli was the big winner from our group!

Next was the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage. While waiting in line we could watch the subs cruise by and they also had a buoy set up with the seagulls from Nemo saying "Mine, mine, mine." (Lucky us, this is one thing we are still randomly hearing from the toy room!)

We had fun "diving down" to see scenes from Nemo.

Then we headed over for our 1st big ride, Space Mountain. We utilized the Fast Pass system while we were at Disney, and I honestly don't know how you could do it any other way. We jetted to the front of lines when our Fast Pass was ready and it made our day awesome!

Space Mountain was fun, and fast, and a bit scary. Tyler wanted to ride it again right away, I think Cody and I could pass!

Uncle Stu playing with the boys and the giant water ball. They loved sharing their day with him, and he was quite the trooper.

Next we headed over to Adventureland. As we were walking through there was no line for the Enchanted Tiki Room, so we went right in and the show started 5 minutes later. That was a lot of fun, the boys really like the songs and we had a few minutes to sit and relax.

Jungle Cruise was next on our list. The tour guides completely make this ride, ours was awesome, and had great timing with her delivery and jokes.

We took our only split from the boys after the cruise so that we could ride Indiana Jones. Tyler was a bit too short this trip, so we decided it would be easier if neither of them rode it. So they went off with Grandma and Grandpa to explore Tarzan's Treehouse. They also visited the Sailing Ship Columbia pirate ship. They said they had fun, but didn't report much else.

Indiana Jones was fun for the bigger kids. Not a favorite ride, but good effects and story.

This brought us to lunch time so we jumped onto the Monorail and headed into Downtown Disney to have a sit down lunch and take a break. We were able to ride in the very back of the Monorail for great views!

We walked around a bit and decided to try the Rainforest Cafe for lunch. I've heard of them and have wanted to try it, but have never been around one. The restaurant is very cool with animal statues everywhere and rain forest plants, aquariums and jungle sounds. Every so often a thunderstorm erupts with lights and sounds and some of the statues move. The food wasn't worth the price however, so we probably won't go back again.

We also had a chance to look at a few of the shops. One cool place was Build a Ride, where you can build a custom model car and for more money you can turn it into a remote control. They also had a LEGO store, so cool to see all the different series and the life size LEGO statues. We jumped back onto the Monorail for more Disney fun!

We headed for Critter Country so we could meet up with Virginia and Eli for Splash Mountain. This was Tyler's favorite ride! Cody had fun as well, but he was in the very front and was soaked for a good hour later. I loved going through the story and the small falls. You can't see Ty in the picture, but he's in the very back with Eli, his hand are also up and he's squealing with joy "this is Awesome! "

We split again and went for the tamer Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. The boys loved it, going through a book and seeing the story as we rode through.

Then we headed over to New Orleans Square for Pirates of the Caribbean. Stu kept the boys busy with many games of rock, paper, scissors while waiting in lines.

Pirates was a lot of fun, once again, I love the stories. They have updated this with some new Jack Sparrow parts with Johnny Depp added in, made it so we recognized some of the characters.

We headed over to Frontierland next and met back up with Grandma and Grandpa for the Thunder Mountain Railroad. Ty was once again a huge fan, Cody had a good time as well, but we're starting to realized he might not be a huge coaster buff.

It was time from Fantasyland and It's a Small World. The ride is beautiful, and a nice break from walking with a/c to boot!

It's fun to see a lot of the favorite characters in doll for and hearing the different languages and native instruments.

Mad Tea Party was next on the list, somehow we folded Stu up enough to ride!

Meeting up again with Virginia and Eli, we headed for Dumbo the Flying Elephant.

Virginia and Ty...

Eli & Cody...

Keith and I...

Mr. Toad's Wild Ride took us for a fun and crazy drive.

There were a few more rides in Fantasyland I had hoped to hit, but we ran out of time, next trip I guess....

We headed up to Main Street to catch Mickey's Soundsational Parade.

This was a fun way to see some of our favorite characters in one spot!

Tyler really liked Tangled, so she's his favorite princess.

Tinkerbell has a lot of rolls at Disney as we found out later in the evening.

I think after the parade we went through the Haunted Mansion to see the funny ghosts, the boys were okay with this one, reminding them it was all pretend. Some of it was a bit scary.

This brought us to dinner time. We all gathered out in Downtown Disney for a Mexican dinner. It was wonderful and a much needed break!

We hustled back into the park so we could find a spot to watch the Fireworks. This was such an awesome display . Our favorite part was seeing Tinkerbell flying by on the high wire to lead us through the show.

After the fireworks we headed over to the Rivers of America to get a spot for the Fantasmic Laser Show. We had a pretty good place to watch, but that also meant sitting and waiting for almost 30 minutes. Unfortunately this happened...

which was the conclusion of Ty's day at Disney!

So the rest of us relaxed and waited for the show. It was beyond awesome! Mickey guided us through the show of lasers, lights and fireworks. We saw the characters come by again on river barges, a pirate fight on the big ship with Peter Pan and Hook, dragons and alligators in the water, and so much more. Sooo glad we saw it!

Keith and I went with Grandma and Tyler slowly making our way out of the park. We hadn't had much time to smash pennies through out the day, so we took time and stopped at some of the places I had marked on my list. Then stopped at a couple of shops so we could get shirts and light sabers for the boys. Then we made our way out to the parking lot to wait in the RV for the rest of the group.

Cody went with Grandpa, Eli, Virginia and Stu to try and catch Star Tours. They lucked out and were able to get in, said it was awesome!

We got there at around 8am and were back at camp around 1am, such an awesome day! We can not wait to go back again and hit the few things we missed and take more time to see the shows and shops in each area. And yes, we will go for 3 or more days next time!

Family Trip Day 3...

2011-07-04T11:23:00.000-07:00

While in Big Bear Lake we camped at the Sorrano Campground. It was a wonderful place and we hope to go another time to stay longer. Large campsites, pretty quite, nice facilities and great staff.

Our first adventure of the day was to ride the sky chair up to the top of the mountain for lunch. We had mixed signs as to whether or not the cafe on top was open, so we packed up a picnic to be safe.

It was open, but the picnic did us just fine.

Going up!

Seeing all the snow machines they use. One sign said that when the temperature drops to the right place they can go from bare mountain to skiing in 2 days & nights. They use water from the lake to make real snow, and have an intricate draining system that collects the snow melt and channels it back to the lake. Talk about recycling!

One of the many runs...

At the top looking around...

During the summer this is a mountain bikers paradise. We saw a lot of different people going up the chair with their bikes. The bike runs are different than the ski runs, so we couldn't watch them go down, but they looked geared out for some serious fun.

View of the lake on our way down.

Our next adventure was to go ride the alpine slides. It's been years since I've been to the ones in Colorado, so this was high on my list for this trip. Nothing like a big fiberglass slide down a mountain!

Ty was too little to reach the brake all the way, so he rode with me. We had a blast zooming down as fast as we could!

Keith...

Cody was just tall enough to ride alone, although he probably would have been better with an adult as he couldn't actually push the handle hard enough to get all the way off the brake.

Virginia and Eli coming off, reporting back that it was a lot more fun than they had expected.

We also rode Go-Karts here as well, on a very small track, but the boys liked it.

After some fun we loaded up in the cars and headed to Anaheim. We were lucky enough to hit a bit of LA traffic, but it wasn't as awful as it could have been. Camp was okay here, mainly set up for RV's. So we set the tents up on the concrete slabs. The boys were stoked because there was a pool and we were right across from it! They had fun getting a swim in before dinner.

We hustled them to bed as Disney was up the next day. From our camp you could see the top of the Matterhorn, but if you didn't know what it was, you wouldn't have known it was there. We were also able to see and hear the 9:30 fireworks show that Disney puts on. Tyler slept through it, but Cody woke up and had a hard time getting back to sleep. Being the good parents we are, we lied and told him we didn't know what the big bangs were or what they were for.

I was almost too excited to sleep!