Juliebeane

January Stuff

2012-01-26T20:34:00.001-08:00

Quinn is small. He fits in many spots. Here he is in the space in a wall at Rubios.

Riley had his first piano recital. He played Heigh Ho and It's a Small World. He did a great job!!

This is my new Target! It doesn't open until March 11, but I am ready!

Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Quinn Loves to Draw

2012-01-16T11:24:00.001-08:00

Quinn is quite the little artist. Just give the boy some paper, and he's happy!

Quinn drew this unicorn this morning.

A self portrait.

Quinn as a lion. (He's also a HUGE Lion King fan).

Cute panda.

Picachu.

Another picture of himself as a lion.

Kirby. He started out drawing Kirby, all the time, but now he can draw just about anything!

Long Weekend

2012-01-15T22:26:00.001-08:00

It's great to have a long weekend! So far, I have slept in, until 10:00 AM both days, and just hung around the house. It's nice. It's just crazy at school. There are just too many students. The change in class size is just ridiculous. I can't teach. I spend my entire day disciplining 3 kids. It's exhausting. I do have sweet kids, I really do, but there are three that absolutely make me nuts. I am trying to focus on the rest. It's quite challenging with the constant interruptions. I wish their parents could control them. Anyway, I am enjoying my weekend...

This is Sharkie, the mascot of the San Jose Sharks. He came to visit my class on Friday. I swear we need Sharkie every day. The kids have never been more at a loss for words!

Even Maya is enjoying the lazy, king weekend!

I got a new puzzle when we were at Disney World, so I got it out and started it.

Kevin and I enjoyed two bottles of this yummy stuff on Saturday night, and again tonight, while we watched the Golden Globes.

Tomorrow we are going to venture out of the house, to see Beauty and the Beast in 3D.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Christmas Highlights

2012-01-12T21:28:00.001-08:00

Our 2011 Christmas tree. Pretty much looks the same as 2010, 2009, 2008...

Santa left some goodies for the boys!

Christmas mess!

Gifts the boys got from us, Maya and the cats.

Maya got a new toy! It's still intact too!! It's really hard plastic, so she's not able to destroy it as quickly as the fabric, stuffed toys.

Quinn's been doing a lot of drawing. He drew this picture of himself. I really think he has talent!

I'm Here

2012-01-11T19:24:00.000-08:00

Wow, it seems I have had many absences from my blog lately. It's just work/life keeping me busy. Plus, we just got back from Florida. We spent 10 days at Disney World, and a quick trip to Islands of Adventure, to go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Here are the highlights of our trip. I still have to get them onto Flickr.

Animal Kingdom, on our way to ride Expedition Everest. Quinn is just tall enough this year to ride! He loved it!

We did this Wild Africa Trek at Animal Kingdom, on Dec. 31. It was sooooo cool. We all got to wear those funky vests!

The trek allowed us to get closer to hippos and crocodiles. I was not standing right next to this hippo. I was on a slight overhang, looking over them. I zoomed with my camera.

This is where we stood, harnessed in. If you look to Quinn's right, you can just see the hippos. You can also see the regular safari tour vehicle, to Quinn's left.

We had to cross two rope bridges! One person at a time. It was very cool.

One of the bridges went right over the crocodiles. There's something like 26 of them down there! All boys. Again, we were up above them a little, and harnessed in.

Magic Kingdom, Cinderella's Castle.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Riley and I have been reading the Harry Potter books-finally. I bought them a long time ago, thinking Riley would like to read them. He never showed any interest, but then I decided that I would read them. My nieces love them, and between them and me reading them, Riley has started reading them! He's reading book 5 and I am reading book 4. Since we were going to be in Florida, we decided to visit the Harry Potter world. It was pretty cool. VERY crowded, but cool. Oh and it was freezing the day we went. I mean really really cold!

You felt like you were in the book or movies, walking through Hogsmeade. Really really cool.

Of course, we had to have Butterbeer. We had both the cold and frozen. Both were very yummy.

Epcot. This park is my favorite. I really love the World Showcase, and we all love Test Track.

Rafiki and the boys! This was taken at Rafiki's Planet Watch at Animal Kingdom.

Quinn on Expedition Everest. He loved the ride. It really is a great ride-easily my favorite Disney ride. It's so good!

A giraffe from the safari vehicle at Animal Kingdom. I just love them. They are so cute.

Kevin, Stitch and the boys at Magic Kingdom.

We had a really great time. We are all still quite exhausted and still trying to get back into our time zone. I am looking forward to the weekend, where I hope to sleep!

I will try to be back tomorrow with other things that have gone on around here.

To check out the pictures from our Wild Africa Trek, click HERE. To see the rest of our pictures from The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, click HERE.

Global Winter Wonderland

2011-12-23T20:47:00.001-08:00

Last night, Kevin and I took the boys to the Global Winter Wonderland. This is apparently its first time in the US. It's in the parking lot of Great America (an amusement park, if you aren't' local). Actually, I believe it's the parking lot that may soon be the new 49er stadium. Anyway, there have been commercials on TV and one day I decided to google it, and it looked very interesting to me. It was interesting, and very colorful too!

These are all giant lanterns which light up. This dragon pagoda is pretty cool.

Quinn, don't ask me what he's doing. He always has a plan.

Cute, colorful snowman!

This is a really big shoe. I guess the old lady who lives in a shoe, celebrates Christmas too. Jeez, I bet Christmas is expensive when you have so many children (that you don't know what to do).

A very Disneyish castle.

I love these trees!

This is made entirely out of dishes: plates, glasses and spoons. Look closely. Very cool.

To see the rest of our Global Winter Wonderland pictures, click HERE.

I Am Still Here

2011-12-23T20:32:00.000-08:00

It seems like I have been absent from my blog a lot lately. Work. I am so busy at school, and then shuttling these boys all over to activities and appointments, leaves me exhausted in the evenings. It's been crazy. Anyway, I am here now, on Winter Break, but it doesn't feel like a break getting ready for Christmas and all! Here's a little about what's been going on around here...

My mother in law made me this yo-yo tree. Isn't it cute?

The UPS guy in our neighborhood, delivers on bike! It's so cool!

This is our tree this year. I have a TON of ornaments. I really should streamline them. We do have another little tree, full of nothing but ornaments we got at Disneyland or Disney World. I should take a picture of that. We are Disney geeks.

We have a Christmas yeti. Doesn't everyone?

Riley had his first band performance last week. All of the bands at his school are awesome! His music teacher is amazing. Riley can play that clarinet! It's so cool.

We went to a cookie decorating party last weekend.

We HAD lots of pretty, decorated cookies, but they have somehow disappeared! Imagine that!

Quinn, "testing" a cookie.

He approved! Cookies taste good.

I am going to try my best to be around here more often.

Reminiscing Still

2011-12-02T20:07:00.000-08:00

I had four completed puzzles on my island! Last night I cleaned them all up. One of them was kinda fun!

It was very stiff and all the pieces stuck together! I said to Quinn, "Here, hold my puzzle!" I think Maya thinks it's something to eat!

I am still thinking about my Thanksgiving break! Ahhhh, good times.

I got some oven bake clay, and Quinn and I set to work.

Quinn made the Angry Bird, Kirby, a coffee bean, and eyeball, and the gingerbread house with the cherry on top! I made the other gingerbread house.

I put Mr. Obama's ugly Christmas sweater on him. He's ready for the holidays!

I took pictures of the girls, and their cute reindeer friend.

I wore my Hello Kitty slippers!

Kevin and I went to China Chili for dinner one night. He had a very giant beer, and we sat next to a very fancy arrangement. We had food for several days afterward too!!

It was a great break. Two and a half weeks and I get another one!

I updated my classroom blog tonight. Check it out-go see what our elf is up to. The link is on my sidebar. Crossman Crew.

Crafting

2011-11-29T17:57:00.000-08:00

I made a trip to the bead store over Thanksgiving break. I had an urge to make a bracelet like one I saw on Etsy. Check it out HERE. It has been sold already, but I just love it.

These are the supplies I got at the bead store.

This is the bracelet that I made. It's not nearly as nice as the one on Etsy, but it's close. The artist ordered the owl bead from HERE, and so I ordered one too! I simply sent her a message asking for a bead with holes on the side. She let me choose my color too!

I also made this bracelet. I was going to use the big red bead (which is actually a button) on the owl bracelet, but decided it was just too busy. I simplified.

I also made this ribbon flower, and then sewed a button in the middle, and made it into a bracelet. Now that my craft room is nice and clean, I can get busy and make some more jewelry!

By the way, if you would like to see what we are up to in Room 24, you can find my classroom blog on the side bar. It's called Crossman Crew, and it's under Family Love to your right. We have an elf!

Cleaning.

2011-11-27T11:25:00.001-08:00

While the boys were at Disneyland, I used the quiet, empty house, to do some cleaning. I started in Riley's room. OH. MY. GOSH.

HUGE mess!! This boy does NOT believe in several things: garbage cans, a safe place to store his money, and the laundry room. I found so many candy wrappers, juice boxes and cans, and a whole, uneaten apple in his room! I also found TONS of dirty clothes (socks mostly) and $66 behind his bed!! In addition I found at least 5 DS games and ALL of the chip clips that I have been looking for! It was a big project, and my legs hurt for several days afterward!

BUT, it's clean!

Really clean, and vacuumed and dusted.

It looks so nice. It's even mostly still clean today! I did have to remind him to take the pile of clothing to the laundry room.

My next project was my side of our office. My craft desk had become a dumping ground for everything, and I had wanted to sort ALL of the boxes of craft items, and put like things together.

Success!! Everything is put away, and I know where it all is too!!

All of my boxes are sorted and organized!

Um, I think I have A LOT of beads.

Pictures from Thanksgiving, from my iPhone

2011-11-27T11:18:00.001-08:00

You have to read the next post to get the full story from these pictures. Basically, we went to a restaurant in Capitola, for Thanksgiving. These are pictures taken with my iPhone.

Kevin and I, taken by Kevin's parents, with my phone.

The inside of Shadowbrook, before all of the people arrived. We were early!

Isn't that cute? I love the Swiss details inside.

The outside of the restaurant.

Thanksgiving in Capitola

2011-11-27T10:39:00.000-08:00

The boys spent some time at Disneyland this week. They left Monday morning, with my parents. I had conferences at school all day Monday, and then Tuesday morning. The boys were at Disneyland until Thanksgiving, when they made the 6 hour drive home. Kevin and I, and his parents, decided to have our Thanksgiving dinner in Capitola, by the beach! It seemed silly to make an entire turkey for just four of us, so we opted to eat out. We went to Shadowbrook in Capitola.

Check out the view from Shadowbrook!

We parked at the top of the hill, and then made our way down a bunch of stairs, to the restaurant. We decided to take the little tram UP the hill after dinner.

The view up the tram tracks!

Look at how peaceful the water is!

Here's the restaurant from outside, in their little courtyard by the water.

After dinner we drove down to the little downtown in Capitola, and walked to the wharf. We walked past these cute condos on our way. I totally want to stay in one of these!

Aren't they cute? The ones at the front, facing the ocean, are all bright colors. Super cute!

See? I love this green one! It's two stories even! Although, they might not be connected. They might be individual units.

It was overcast, threatening rain, on Thanksgiving, but we walked onto the wharf anyway.

The views are still pretty spectacular.

We made a new friend. This pelican wanted the fish that people were catching. He was even trying to bite at people as they walked past him. Kevin got a little bit, teasing him. That's what he gets! To see the rest of my pictures, click HERE.

Stuff From Around

2011-11-14T20:01:00.000-08:00

It's been busy around here, so here's a look at some stuff going on...

As you can tell by the large amount of paper, Quinn's been drawing a TON of pictures! He absolutely loves it!

Pokemon. Cute.

This is Quinn in Lion King version. Quinn is obsessed with Lion King. Just obsessed.

How adorable is this panda? I need to get Quinn into some drawing classes. We totally want to nurture his drawing skills-future animator? Pixar employee? Game designer? Lots of possibilities.

I made a sock owl, using THIS tutorial. Super easy. If the pictures in the tutorial are tiny (it looks like a long strand of pictures), click on them and they get bigger.

This owl bank was my anniversary gift. He's cute huh? I like owls.

Disney came out with smelly Vinylmation. I got all 4!! The gingerbread one is the best, followed by marshmallow. Yummy!

At the mall last week or so: cool lights hanging in a store window.

Run girls! Run to Target and get your Justin Bieber wrapping paper! As my friend said, "It's good for Father's Day too!" LMAO.

Now you are all caught up!

2011-11-13T22:24:00.000-08:00

We have really enjoyed our extra long weekend around here! On Friday a friend and two of her colleagues came over to work with Riley a bit, and to help me figure out what kind of accommodations will benefit him at school. We got to have Chipotle for lunch too! Saturday both boys had Scouting for Food activities. I went to JoAnn Fabrics! Saturday evening we took the boys to the Tonga Room, in San Francisco, for our anniversary. Oh, did I forget to mention that Kevin and I had our 16th anniversary on Friday (11-11-11)? I honestly do not know where the time has gone. Today was a home day. I powered through my report cards, finished a puzzle, cleaned out my closet, prepared dinner for tomorrow night! Yes, it was an awesome weekend!

The Tonga Room is in the Fairmont Hotel.

We had drinks and an appetizer, since we arrived at 5 and dinner wasn't being served until 6. Quinn loves to have a Shirley Temple. Riley tried a Strawberry Daiquiri (virgin of course, he's 13!), Kevin had a Zombie and I had a Pina Colada.

The Stanford. They had really cool lights along the side of their hotel. They flashed and changed too.

After appetizers and drinks at Tonga Room, we walked DOWN hill to Lori's Diner. Quinn enjoyed his Oreo shake. The Fairmont is actually only 4 blocks away from Union Square-down hill, which of course means UP hill when we headed back to the car. Oh my it was hilly!

The tree was lit up in Union Square when we arrived, but it was not lit up when we left. We think that maybe the lights were being tested, because I think the city has some sort of tree lighting ceremony.

The boys, acting like statues. Weird statues, but statues nonetheless.

Macy's entrance is all lit up. The puppies and kittens are not in the windows yet. I'm sure that won't happen until after Thanksgiving.

Disney Store fancy TV trees. Can you see Sorcerer Mickey?

One window display at Anthropologie. They always have the most interesting window displays.

It appears that all of San Francisco is ready for the holiday season. These snowflake lights are all up and down Market Street. I think they are very festive.

Busy week ahead, lots of meetings, and I am starting my conferences at school. The good news is that I will have another extended vacation, next week! I need to finish cleaning out my room, and then tackle my area of our office. Plus I really want to sew!!!

Holiday Boutique

2011-11-06T10:35:00.000-08:00

I participated in the American High School Holiday Boutique yesterday. I did it last year as well, and it was rather lucrative, so I thought I would give it a try this year. Another lucrative show! PLUS my entry fee went to help the Seniors go to Disneyland this school year, for Grad Night! Winning!

My table display-half of it. In addition to the button bracelets and rings, I made earrings this year-they are posted on the bulletin board at the back of the table. I wish I had taken a better picture.

I also made glass tile pendants-and glass tile earrings!

Here's a closer look at the pendants.

I put all of my button rings into black sand, which I got a Michael's. I used rice last year, but I like the black sand, it sets off the colors. They look so cute and colorful.

Button bracelets. I sold 18 button bracelets, and an assortment of earrings and rings and glass pendants. I am trying to decide: save for Disney World or buy a custom Blythe?

More button bracelets.

It was a fun day. I got to see lots of people that I don't usually get to see, and lots of people that I always get to see. Again, winning!

Happy Halloween!!

2011-10-31T19:15:00.001-07:00

Happy Halloween! I am happy to finally share my Halloween costume!

I spent part of Saturday, putting it together. I am an iPhone!

I even have the Apple logo on the back!

I made the entire thing out of felt. I made a basic bag type pullover, and then attached the apps with fabric glue. I used my own phone for inspiration. I even have Angry Birds!!

2011-10-30T21:00:00.000-07:00

Kevin and the boys went on a Scouting adventure yesterday. They visited a tank museum. A good time was had by all.

One person is the owner of all of these tanks. He has since passed away, but wanted the tanks to be available for small groups to visit. I didn't go on this adventure, but apparently his collection is quite extensive, including not just tanks, but other weapons of war as well.

Only a LITTLE intimidating huh?

I am a girl, so I don't know if I know the "technical" terms for these guns, but I would call that some sort of machine type gun, on a tank. Quinn looks thrilled to be blowing away fake enemies. He looks a little too happy, if you ask me.

Riley wouldn't hurt a fly, but he looks pretty intense with this gun. Geez, boys and guns.

Quinn, riding a motorcycle. Look, it has one of those little side cars! It's very Indiana Jones, or is it GI-Joe?

Riley, "driving" the military jeep. You know, he'll be able to really drive in just over 2 years!

I believe that is a bazooka. Again, a little too excited for my taste! Go Quinn! That thing is bigger than him! I wonder if those things had a pretty big kick-back after being fired?

Quinn, inside a tank. Looks like everyone had a really great time! I had a great time here. I went to Ikea and I worked on my Halloween costume. I will have pictures of THAT tomorrow.

Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-27T22:15:00.000-07:00

We decided to visit the local pumpkin patch last weekend. We waited until 4:30 on Sunday to go. Kind of a mistake. It was super crowded and the sun sucked. You can't tell how glary it was, from the pictures, but it was horribly bright. Also they didn't have any decent pumpkins. We took pictures and then left. Kevin got a nice pumpkin from the grocery store.

This pumpkin patch is located at Ardenwood Farm in Fremont. We hadn't been to this pumpkin patch for a couple of years. We've been driving out to Livermore. There's a nice one out there.

I had to snap my picture quick as there were tons of kids trying to climb this tractor, even though the sign clearly says not to.

This is at this patch every year. I have pictures of Riley, sitting on the ground, as a smiley baby. I would link to those, but those pictures are from film. Remember film? You had to load it into the camera (out of the sun) and then take it, and drop it off, at Longs or somewhere, to get it developed. AND you couldn't delete any bad pictures. Getting your pictures back, in that cute envelope, with the negatives, was a lot like Christmas though.

All of the pumpkins were dented and smashed in some way. They had good sides, but then you turn them around and there would be a hole or a yucky part. I like my pumpkins pretty on all sides.

Quinn, in motion, running from the hay structure. I am amazed that there aren't any people in my picture (only half), as this tower of hay is a big draw. The little hay maze is an even bigger draw, but when you are finally taller than the hay, it's just not as magical. Both boys are taller than the hay now.

Kevin wanted to get this pumpkin, as it's already mostly cleaned out!

I think we waited too long to get pumpkins. They were really picked over.

These are the nice sides.

I really love this one, but nobody else did.

Corn! Such pretty colors.

Mini pumpkins. I love these.

By the way, I tried not to get the many people in my pictures, and now that I look back at them, I was pretty successful. I really hate to have strangers in the backgrounds of my pictures. I know I just opened myself up for some photo bombing from my friend, Michelle. It's a hobby of hers. :-)

2011-10-24T19:01:00.000-07:00

Work is really cutting into my play time! Things are starting to get busy. We are conferencing this year, so I am trying to schedule all 27 of those, and it's a complete nightmare. I sent home a note to my parents, to see best available times-as suggested in a staff meeting. I got almost all of them back! Awesome. Only that's not the problem. The issue is not with them, but with HOW we are scheduling the siblings, and the fact that I have a sucky number for getting to the sibling book so that I can schedule them. I can follow my own schedule, but then the parents may be at school more than once for conferences. I am trying to avoid that, but I so dislike the way the procedure is being done this year, that I feel I may just make my schedule because it's what the parents want-it's the times they chose, when they are available. That could open up a whole can of worms. Did I mention that I have 15 students with siblings???? It's stressful. I'm not going to think about it anymore tonight because it just gets me all worked up.

Anyway, we have been equally busy at home! Scouts, appointments, piano, meetings. It is never ending.

I am participating in the American High School Holiday Boutique again this year. It was rather lucrative for me last year. I've made 44 new bracelets, plus a bunch of earrings and some rings, oh and glass pendant necklaces! I am all set! Now, let's hope I do as well this year. It's November 5 from 9-4 at the high school. If you are local, come on by!!

We finally got to play with our Lightning McQueen Appmate! It was designed for the iPad 2, but they came out with a compatible version for the iPad, so we were able to use it. It's pretty cool. You drive the car on the screen and it interacts!

Saturday night we went to Palo Alto. We had dinner at the Peninsula Creamery, and then walked through the downtown, to the Apple store. All of the trees are lit up and it's so pretty.

We have our own clouds now! Super cool, but I'm not too sure just how it works yet.

Quinn, concentrating on his game.

I dropped Quinn off at a birthday party on Saturday afternoon and then I went to the thrift store. My $11.95 went far!! I got that Disneyland plate for Riley. See the vintage, plastic pumpkin up there? 50 cents!!! My favorite is the little glass tumbler in the front, the one with the birds on the lid. 50 cents!!

Well, I have some correcting to do, so I better get to it. It's not going to correct itself!

Disneyland!

2011-10-17T21:57:00.001-07:00

We made a quick trip to Disneyland this past weekend. We drove down Friday (after Riley got out of school), and we came home last night. Both parks were way busier than when we were there in August. Halloween Time really draws the crowds!

On the way home yesterday, we stopped at Griffith Park so that we could see Walt Disney's Barn. He was really interested (and collected) 1/8 scale trains. This barn, which I believe was his hobby barn, used to be in his backyard. It was moved to Griffith Park, and is open to the public once a month. We happened to be in the area this time! Inside the barn, there's memorabilia from Walt, and at least one of his trains. Super cool. Check out my other pictures of the barn HERE.

Before heading home yesterday, we were in Disneyland for a little while. Quinn sure loves this little door. He's drawn to it on every visit. It's the side of a hat store, in Fantasyland.

In the Hub, near the Partners statue. Each of those pumpkins has a face from one of the lands.

These next pictures crack me up. I love, love, love that big Mickey!

Quinn being silly, screaming. Riley-posed.

More silliness from Quinn. Riley-still posed.

This is about as serious as we could get Quinn. Riley-posed. This guy at Riley's new Scout troop asked me if I thought Quinn was on the spectrum. Um...No. Obviously. To see the rest of Halloween Time at Disneyland, click HERE.

And now....

I stayed home from school on Friday. I was going to just take a half day, so that I could pick Quinn up early, so that we could leave for Disneyland as soon as Riley got out of school. It turned into an all day absence, because my car needed an oil change before the long drive, and I had no time during the week to get it done. It also helped that I was home when the new iPhone 4s' arrived!!! The poor UPS guy was so overworked. I heard the truck on my street and was waiting on the front porch when he pulled up. He said he should have called in sick as he had so many of them to deliver. He was darting all over town, delivering them first, so that people could have them. Cool huh?

Oh Hello!

2011-10-10T20:45:00.001-07:00

Um, I guess things have been crazy around here. Kevin was gone all last week, on a business trip. Of course the week was jam-packed with a cut/color for me, dentist for me, Scouts for both boys (Tuesday and Wednesday), a pick-up of glasses for both Quinn and I, and Riley's weekly appointment. Whew! No wonder I didn't blog! I was NOT home. Oh yeah, and I worked too!! Ok, so back on track...Let's catch up...

This is my newest pumpkin. I got him at the Homegoods store last weekend, for $12.99!! He's huge! He's an Annalee pumpkin. Super cute. He's too big for my mantle though, so he's on the hearth. Huh. I like that word, hearth. Sounds so Martha Stewart. Hearth. LOL

This weekend I completed a project. First the boys and I went to Dale Hardware and purchased spray paint. Kinda a LOT of spray paint. No, we don't plan on tagging any walls with all of that color. I promise. I'm a teacher, so you have to believe me. I'm honest.

The project involved painting this small printer's tray...

and this bigger printer's tray. I got the idea from Pinterest, to paint them and use them to store Lego mini figures. The small one is Quinn's and the big one is Riley's.

Quinn chose silver, which was VERY easy to work with. Riley chose a really great shade of blue, but the paint was really hard to work with, and it's already had 3 coats and it needs more, and I am out of the blue. I think I prefer the Krylon paint to anything else.

I am participating in a holiday boutique, for the local high school, on Nov. 5. I am making more button bracelets (see my sidebar Etsy shop). In addition, I am making glass tile pendants, glass tile earrings (pictured) and filigree/flower earrings (pictured). I have been glueing, sanding, and glueing, and assembling. If you are local, you will need to come by. It's at American High School.

Quinn has this master plan of growing his hair out. It's driving me crazy, but he has his own ideas, and I am trying to let him be who he wants to be. I did offer him $20 yesterday to cut his hair...short...but nope. He's not interested. He wants long bangs. I wish I could figure out how to scan a picture of me, my senior year in high school, because looking at Quinn is like looking at me! I will work on it-I had bangs down to my chin! I was into New Wave. Anyway, I digress...Kevin and I were able to talk Quinn into getting his hair shaped for longness...

Ta DAAAA! Look at how cute he looks! It's still long, but it's better shaped. I seriously need to find that picture!!

Pumpkins!

2011-10-04T19:19:00.001-07:00

It's pumpkin time around here! I got my pumpkins out last weekend, and I have been arranging and rearranging them ever since.

I used to group them all in alike sets, and now I try to separate them out some.

Those two gourds and the tall lantern are some of my favorite pumpkins!

I also love glass pumpkins.

These three are my MOST favorite though. I love them!

Mickey Mouse pumpkins! LOVE.

The sad guy at the front in one of my newest pumpkins. I got him at West Elm in Emeryville, the night Kevin and I got to go on a date and we ate at Trader Vics.

The Mickey in the back was purchased at Disneyland when we went this summer.

I love the teeth on the pumpkin in front.

I probably should not buy ONE MORE pumpkin, but I love them so much.

Renaissance Faire Fun

2011-10-01T23:16:00.001-07:00

Kevin and I took the boys to the Renaissance Faire today. I hadn't been to the Ren Faire in years and years, and Kevin hadn't been either. It's at Casa de Fruta, just past Gilroy. It seems like a pretty good size faire, and there was lots to do and see!

We arrived just as the faire opened for the day.

Lots of dancing, parading, games, activities, and shows.

Speaking of shows, we took in the Broon show. He was really good: juggling and eating fire!

Riley was chosen to be a part of the show! He got to wear this "safety helmet" and hold a 10 lb. bowling ball. His job was to place the ball into Broon's hand so that he could juggle the ball, a lit torch, and an apple (which was tossed to him by another audience member). I don't have any pictures of that as I think I was mesmerized that he could juggle all three different items, AND eat the apple as he did it! Amazing!

It was so nice of Broon to pose for a picture with Riley, before the juggling finale. He posed for another one too, which is hysterical, but you have to check out the rest of my pictures, to see that one. Click HERE for the rest of the faire pictures, and pictures of our stop at Casa de Fruta's pumpkin patch.

There was also Javelin activities going as well. Very entertaining to watch.

Quinn was thrilled to ride a giant swing.

I certainly don't feel that I need to attend the Renaissance Faire every year, but it was pretty darn cool. I would definitely go again. People were very friendly, and there was LOTS to do. We left around 2 because it was pretty crowded and we were pretty hot.

Casa de Fruta

2011-10-01T23:12:00.000-07:00

After the Renaissance Faire, we stopped at Casa de Fruta for lunch, and to check out their pumpkin patch.

Lots and lots of pumpkins, in all different sizes.

Even the train engine car looked festive with pumpkins.

Garlic! We were at Casa de Fruta, which is just outside of Gilroy, CA, which is the Garlic Capitol of the World!

No pumpkin patch is complete without a completely awesome tipi!

Dragon Boat Racing

2011-09-25T12:05:00.001-07:00

Riley spent the night at the park Friday night. It was part of a big Scouting event. The Boy Scouts got to sleep in the park Friday night, and then participate in Dragon Boat Racing on Saturday morning. The Cub Scouts showed up Saturday morning for the Cub Scout Games.

It was tent city Friday night-Saturday afternoon. LOTS of Boy Scout troops stayed the night at the park.

Dragon Boat!

There goes Riley! Heading to the Dragon Boat with his troop and another troop.

The boats were provided by the Chinese American Citizens Alliance of SF.

All aboard! Riley, looking happy to be one of many, in charge of paddling.

Away they go!

Riley was in the blue boat, and they raced the green boat. The green boat won, but everyone had a great time.

Paddling!

The girl at the front of the blue boat was the drummer. She helped them keep time, and provided a really cool effect!

Cub Scout Games

2011-09-25T11:55:00.000-07:00

We spent part of our Saturday at the park, for the big Scouting event. There were Cub Scout games, and the Boy Scouts were there as well, Dragon Boat Racing. Riley actually spent the night at the park Friday night.

We took Quinn to the Cub Scout games.

There were 8 games total, and Quinn played all of them. He had to throw a frisbee and hit the orange cone, or make the frisbee land in the hoop under the cone. He was successful 3 out of 6 of his throws!

Filling up his game card.

He had to use 3 hula hoops, throwing one at a time, and jumping into the one he threw, to get to the other side. Then he had to jump into all 3 (where they landed) to get back to the start.

Last hoop. He's quite a good jumper!

This one was hard. They had to work together, lifting the correct leg and the ski to be able to move. Right, left, right, left.

This was a stumper for a lot of boys, but Quinn's "team" was successful.

Beautiful view of Mission Peak, from the park. Quinn played all 8 games and earned a patch, plus a dragon tattoo!

Apple Trees

2011-09-19T20:51:00.000-07:00

Shhhh! These are the apple trees that my students made. I didn't post this picture on my class blog, because I want the parents to come to Back to School Night tomorrow night, and see them in person. I had to share them here because, well, look at them! They are adorable!

Quinn and I spent about 2 1/2 hours at the eye doctor today. Eye exams, and then picking out new frames. Quinn is getting plastic frames this time, and they are really cool. I am getting plastic frames again too, and they are pretty cool as well!

Sorry, that's just about as exciting as it gets around here tonight. I am exhausted. It was quite a busy day at school today. It's actually a super busy week for me this week: meetings and Back to School Nights every day!

Halloween Dresses

2011-09-17T20:17:00.000-07:00

The girls got Halloween dresses! I ordered them from Cherry Pop on Etsy.

I love Halloween. I think I'll get my pumpkins out next weekend.

Trader Vics

2011-09-12T21:06:00.000-07:00

The boys spent the night with my parents on Saturday night. Kevin and I decided to go to Trader Vics in Emeryville.

Trader Vics is the home of the Mai Tai, but I had Menehune Juice. Kevin had a Mai Tai.

I had macadamia nut crusted mahi mahi. YUM. It was so yummy.

They have wood burning fireplaces. Kevin's burger was made here.

Trader Vics decor. Cool tikis.

I found the ceiling particularly interesting.

Plus this tiki candle holder was super cool too.

Palm trees outside of the restaurant.

Kevin outside of the restaurant. Trader Vics has a pretty cool view of the marina there in Emeryville. It's on a little peninsula.

The marina, and fog.

That's the Bay Bridge. The city is beyond that, but it was rather foggy. If you look closely, you can see a construction crane sticking up-that's the work on the new bridge. It's been a long time coming-we've needed that bridge since the Loma Prieta Earthquake in 1989! Part of the bridge fell during the quake. It's not really earthquake friendly. We need a new one.

We had a great dinner. We sure do love that Polynesian atmosphere.

9/11 Ten Years Later

2011-09-11T23:33:00.000-07:00

It's been ten years since the terrorist attacks in NYC, at the Pentagon, and in a field in Pennsylvania.

People flew their flags proudly.

My boys showed their support for NY.

I can't believe it's been ten years. It still seems like yesterday. I can't begin to know what the families of the victims have/are going through. What a horrible time. I was 4 months pregnant with Quinn. Riley was a happy 3 year old. I had gotten up that morning, to get ready for work. I was teaching 2nd grade. I don't think I had turned the TV on in the morning. My mother called to tell me to turn on the news, which I did. It was horrifying. My mom called back to beg me not to fly out the next morning. Kevin, Riley and I were headed to Connecticut (via Dulles Airport in DC), with Kevin's parents. We were going to an anniversary party. I watched what news I could, and then went to work. I don't know why school wasn't cancelled that day. It was horrible. We couldn't talk about it with the kids, and had to act like it was business as usual. I couldn't wait for the day to end, so that I could go home and be with my own family. We did not end up taking that trip. All flights were grounded. Quinn was 18 months when we finally did make the trip to Connecticut. We made a trip into NYC for the day, with Riley. We went to Ground Zero. It was just so sad, so horrifying. As painful as it was for all US citizens to take in, nothing can compare to what family members felt and must still feel. Those people who died will never be forgotten.

Nice Melon!

2011-09-08T20:35:00.000-07:00

I made a trip to Trader Joe's tonight. I got lots of fruit, I mean LOTS of fruit. I got some veggies too, and some scallops, and of course their yummy jelly candies.

Among the fruits that I bought, this melon is the best! It's adorable. I don't even like watermelon, but both boys do, so I got it (based solely on its appearance-how shallow of me). A friend of mine posted on Facebook that it's called a "personal" watermelon (I posted this picture there tonight too. I am obsessed). I think that is hysterical, a "personal" watermelon. I don't think "personal" pizza is funny at all, but for some reason "personal" watermelon is really funny to me. I really don't know why I think that's so funny, but I do. I just do. I may be tired. Anyway, even Kevin said, "Hey that's a pretty cute little watermelon," when I showed it to him. Adorable little watermelon. I hope it tastes good.

Back into School Mode

2011-09-07T20:25:00.000-07:00

We went from happy vacation days back into school mode. Actually the transition has been pretty easy-other than the damn traffic in the mornings! The high school pushed back their start time, so now they start only 10 minutes before the jr. high, thus creating HORRIBLE traffic in the mornings! My 3 minute commute was almost 15 minutes yesterday!! It's very annoying.

Riley is taking Beginning Band as his elective this year-it's a year long elective. He is going to play clarinet. We went to the music store tonight to get a beginning clarinet book and extra reeds.

While Riley was at Scouts last night, Quinn and I busied ourselves while we waited for him. I corrected class work, and Quinn played on my phone. Isn't this a charming picture? He made this using the app, Kitty Carnage.

Over the weekend we went to the Alameda Antique Fair. I saw this sign. I LOVE this sign. I must have this sign. It's from Beachcomber Studio, and they have an Etsy shop, HERE. It appears to be empty right now, but when they open back up, I will look into ordering that sign. I should have purchased it Sunday. Silly me.

Here are my treasures from Sunday. The big owl is a vintage hairspray cover. There are two little ceramic owls, a red threadless spool, and a big fat jar.

2011-09-01T20:50:00.000-07:00

I think I am going to love my class! It's such a different environment from last year's class. Sure I have some kids who will need redirections, but today I had a lot of success with a sticker chart, and verbal praise! Tomorrow the kids will make sticker books. Little kids will do just about anything for a sticker, and I've got LOTS of stickers. I have one student who has had serious behavior issues in the past (spent most of K and 1st grade in the office). Today, I must have thrown a jillion stickers at him (ok, 3-tiny ones too), and he worked quietly all day: on task, not rolling his eyes, not out of his seat, real work, real concentration. At one point, I went to check in with him and he told me I was the best teacher he ever had! (Oh my heart!) I plan on using that to help him stay on track. Best teacher today, and yesterday one of my students told her mom that her first day was better than chocolate! It is definitely humbling, and I feel the power I have to help kids succeed. I think I can be the teacher I want to be this year!! Yay!

First thing this morning, a former student (now a 5th grader), stopped by to bring me these Goofy Sours! Every year when they go to Disneyland, she brings me back Goofy Sours. Isn't that sweet? I love that family, and not just because they bring me Goofy Sours, but because they are involved in their child's life, and work really hard to help her succeed. Plus they are super nice too.

I got a new student today, at Target (DENIM, Shaun White hoodies and DENIM). Do you know who he is? The kids are going to flip when I bring him in tomorrow. If he goes over well, I may have to get the bigger version! I should get the other one in this size, and make these my Hall Passes!

First Day of School 2011

2011-08-31T21:33:00.000-07:00

Today was the first day of school!

Backpacks and lunch boxes ready for the big day!

Two happy boys.

Quinn 4th grade, and Riley 8th grade.

My day was really good too! Check out my classroom blog, by clicking HERE.

Busy Busy Busy

2011-08-30T22:10:00.000-07:00

I went back to work last Thursday, and it seems that everything is a big blur since then! Super busy.

School starts tomorrow, and my classroom is ready! I was at school until 5 tonight, planning, making sure all was ready for tomorrow.

My supplies are ready, and pretty, I might add!

I have purple toes! I wanted to show my new students just how much school spirit I have!

Over the weekend, I made a bracelet. I finally got to use my big, chunky, fancy clasp.

I took this picture with my phone, when we were at the zoo. Isn't she so cute????

School starts tomorrow! Quinn is super excited, looking forward to seeing his friends and meeting his teacher. Riley is not so excited. I'm hoping once he gets there tomorrow, and meets his teachers, he'll be excited.

San Francisco Zoo

2011-08-27T20:45:00.001-07:00

School starts on Wednesday, so the boys and Kevin and I headed to the San Francisco Zoo this morning, as a way to put an end on a great summer. The zoo has made a lot of improvements, and they are working on even more. It's really coming along nicely.

Two boys, happy to go to the zoo.

What lion? I don't see a lion.

The newest zookeepers.

Such a sleepy owl. She was sitting on the ground, behind a low fence, and she stood so still, I was able to really zoom in on her face.

The Grizzly Bears were quite animated. It was a few minutes before the doors opened to their bigger enclosure, and feeding time, and they could not wait to get in there. They were running back and forth, making noises and pacing. It was quite the scene when the door was opened and they ran in to search for fish in their water area, and then other various fruits/veggies scattered around the rest of their enclosure. Not too long ago, a homeless guy climbed INTO the enclosure with the bears. I did not climb in. I felt like I could be one with the bears, without going into their home. I'm funny that way though.

The boys did climb ON this Grizzly Bear. The Grizzly Bears (the real ones) are super impressive.

There are peacocks all over the zoo. This one just let us take pictures of her, she wasn't shy.

The boys and a baby elephant. How sweet.

We spent over an hour watching this Fishing Cat try to catch a fish. It was a big fish, a carp, and a smart fish too. In the end though, and after the zookeeper let some of the water in the tank drain out, he caught his prize. He splashed into the water and grabbed that fish right up! He took it out of the water and then proceeded to play with it. The poor fish would flap all around while the cat hid and pounced, hid and pounced. Finally he carried it off to eat it. It was worth the wait. Proof of the food chain.

This is a Mandrill. He was very cooperative too! Look at his face, isn't he cute? His butt is pretty cute too, all blue and yellow and red. Just sayin'. Click my link at the bottom of this post and see for yourselves.

This giraffe found the wall quite tasty. They literally may eat the zoo out of house and home.

If you would like to see the rest of my pictures (and there are some very impressive lions and of course all of the shots of the Fishing Cat getting his fish, and the Mandrill's bottom) you just need to click HERE.

Hi Ho, Hi Ho...

2011-08-26T21:17:00.000-07:00

I went back to work yesterday, officially. I was in my classroom for a few hours on Wednesday, but yesterday, I HAD to be there. I am mostly ready to go. I just need to make final preparations in my classroom, do some planning, oh yeah, and have some students show up on Wednesday!

These are the supplies that I used to create my new classroom discipline chart.

I cut the paper, and used Mod Podge to glue it to my extra long clipboard. It was all kinds of curly and stuff, so I had to be really patient, and coat it lots of time, to get it all to lay flat.

The finished product. Green is where the kids want to stay. Green means they have had a peachy keen, swell day. As the day goes along, and I have to talk to any of them about any issues, they will move their clothespin down, a color at a time. Red is the final straw, deep doo-doo. I will use this and stickers and our class money system to reward good behavior.

Now that I have my ducks all in a row, I am ready to rock and roll!

I am trying something new this year, and have just created a blog for the happenings in my classroom, which I hope that my students and their parents will visit. The kids don't come until Wednesday, but I have already posted on it, and had some people test the comment moderation for me, thanks to Facebook! Click HERE to view it.

Ooops! More Disney

2011-08-21T23:55:00.000-07:00

Oooops! I wanted to post these pictures, and I didn't. I'm doing it now.

Walt and Mickey and the castle.

Chip stopped by for a visit, and a picture.

Pluto was so much fun! He spent a lot of time at our table, grabbing onto all of us, hugging us, and posing for pictures. I love this picture.

The Rest of Our Disneyland Trip All in One Post

2011-08-21T23:04:00.000-07:00

We are back from our last trip of the summer. We all had a great time at Disneyland. We rode the updated Star Tours ride a ton! We were able to visit all of the possible planets, much to the delight of two small boys.

These Storm Troopers were walking through Tomorrowland, and Quinn ran right up to them and force-pushed them, and then promptly ran away. It was so funny.

We found Boba Fett!

We had dinner at Goofy's Kitchen, at the Disneyland Hotel. It's a buffet, and it was really yummy! Characters come around to all of the tables and sign autographs or pose for pictures. It was lots of fun. I had peanut butter and jelly pizza!

Trying to get the sword OUT of the stone. Unsuccessful.

I was trying to take pictures of the castle, when I spotted Kevin rushing up Main Street, toward me.

These boys make cute toys. They are much easier to get out of the box, then real toys are!

This morning. We tried our best to ride the Mark Twain before we headed home. They were having technical difficulties, so we couldn't. Bummer.

The Crossman men in the Hub.

We left Disneyland after 10 this morning, and decided to stop in Hollywood. We had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, and then walked down to Grauman's Chinese Theater, to look at handprints and footprints of famous people.

Home of the Oscars!

Lots of people crowded around Michael Jackson's star.

We had a great time, but everyone is happy to be home. This is the boys last week of summer. I have to be at school on Thursday. I'm not sure if I will go there before then. I want to savor the rest of my summer. Maybe on Wednesday for a little while. I'm really not in any hurry.

If you want to look at ALL of my Disneyland pictures (315 of them), click HERE.

One Last Summer Vacation

2011-08-18T21:33:00.000-07:00

Part of the reason we decided to buy Go-Go's tickets for the LA show, was because we knew we wanted to squeeze in a end-of-summer Disneyland trip. We are here until Sunday.

Today was a beautiful, hot, day! We got to Disneyland early, before 8 am. We were able to ride the new, updated Star Tours. It was pretty freaking awesome!! There's something like 54 different combinations of rides! After Star Tours, we rode Space Mountain for the first time without using a Fastpass! The wait was 10 minutes!!

We rode the Jungle Cruise (of course). It's one of our favorites.

This tiki guy is outside of the little fruit market, by Jungle Cruise.

Kevin ordered these awesome Adventureland t-shirts for us all. The tiki guy on the front of the shirt is holding a Dole Whip, which is why Kevin is holding a Dole Whip. If you've never had a Pineapple Dole Whip, then you need to get to a Disney park NOW-or Hawaii.

Riley loves the very back row of the Thunder Mountain Railroad ride.

Outside Big Thunder Mountain there's this fancy hidden Mickey (or not so hidden) cactus.

Sleeping Beauty's Castle. I jazzied the picture up with one of my phone apps. I think it was Camera Bag.

We walked all the way down to the Disneyland Hotel. They are doing a ton of reconstruction over there. This place, Trader Sam's, is brand new. We took the boys inside (it's very cool) and had fruity drinks. There's also a new restaurant and the pool has been redone to include Monorail water slides! I have pictures, and when I get them uploaded to Flickr, I'll post a link.

Quinn spied these puppets while we were walking around Downtown Disney. He could not stop talking about them. He decided to use Grandma money and his own money, to purchase one for himself. This is the before shot.

This is the after shot. The guy (behind the BIG puppet), let Quinn pick out which dog he wanted, and pick his shirt, and pick his bandana. Then he trimmed the hair on the dog's face, put the clothes on (he threw in pants for free!), then brushed the dog all out, and even added some hairspray! I think he felt a closeness to Quinn who had visited the puppets a number of times before the big purchase. Quinn is infatuated with "Billy." I mean REALLY REALLY infatuated. He just loves this thing. At dinner he was making "Billy" wave to the waiter.

We came back to the hotel early tonight, since we were out pretty late last night. My feet hurt and so does my head. I have Tylenoled up, and ready to do it all again tomorrow!

The Go-Go's at The Greek

2011-08-18T21:22:00.001-07:00

We are in Anaheim! We drove down yesterday.

We checked into our hotel and the boys went in the hotel pool and hot tub for a little while, before we headed out.

We had tickets to see The Go-Go's at The Greek! They were playing San Francisco on Tuesday night, but the tickets were general admission, and we wanted to take the boys, and we needed assigned seats. We decided to get tickets for the LA show, and my friend Juliet, her sister and her cousin, were able to join us!

It was such an awesome show! The Go-Go's were tons of fun! It was great to hear them play their old hits.

2011-08-16T23:35:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, Riley, Kevin and I got up really early and headed out to get Quinn from Scout Camp.

Camp Royaneh, near Guerneville is where he spent almost a week.

He had a GREAT time. When we got there, his leader told us he was spending the last of his money in the Trading Post. We caught up with him, running down the hill with this rabbit fur-which he purchased with the rest of his money. He's quite proud of that rabbit fur too.

Riley had camped at Royaneh before (it's owned by the Boy Scouts of America).

On the way home, we stopped off in Petaluma and had lunch. Can you see the "Mighty Quinn" sign behind Quinn?

I think it's a bar. We didn't eat there.

The downtown area of Petaluma is pretty cool. Really cool old buildings.

The sign says "Eat This" so we did. We ate at Zazzle. It was really good too! Quinn is pretending to eat the sign, because he said that's what the sign said.

Another cool building.

The back side of that building.

Pretty church back there!

Quinn had a great time camping, and is happy to be home. He seems to have a little cold, which is fine. Two weeks ago, when my friend's son went to the same camp, a whole lot of boys got sick. The camp had to clean and disinfect the entire camp. One boy from Quinn's troop went home sick with the flu on Thursday, but so far (fingers crossed) Quinn is just fighting a cold.

Random

2011-08-11T20:09:00.000-07:00

I have been a bad blogger. I've had stuff on my mind.

I took the boys school clothes shopping last week. They got shoes, some shirts and shorts. It was pretty painless.

These are Quinn's shoes. My mother can appreciate the day-glo color on them. I must have left for school in colors like this, a LOT during my high school days.

I am going to make a mini quilt, using these fabrics. I am running out of summer to do it though.

I went to the Fremont Festival of the Arts over the weekend. I purchased this oilcloth messenger bag. I love it. The colors are amazing.

I made this bracelet this week too.

Quinn has been at Scout Camp since early Monday morning. Kevin went with him, but he came home yesterday, and Quinn comes home on Saturday. Quinn was having a great time. I am anxious for him to get home though. I miss having him around. It's really quiet around here. I think Riley misses him too, for the same reason.

Tennis Anyone?

2011-08-07T20:59:00.001-07:00

We signed the boys up for tennis lessons. It's a 6 week course, on Sunday evenings. Tonight was the first night.

The instructor had the kids busy the entire hour. Quinn's practicing control over his ball.

Riley was really good at tennis!

Quinn needs to get baseball out of his head! He is trying to homerun that ball!

What form!

Look at the concentration!

It turns out, our neighbor girl is in the same class. Both boys enjoyed the lesson and I think they look forward to next week.

Santa Cruz and Monterey

2011-08-02T22:41:00.001-07:00

Kevin, the boys and I met up with some friends in Santa Cruz on Sunday. We met at the Boardwalk for a day of rides, interesting food, and lots of fun.

"At the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, in the warm California sun!" Well, it really wasn't all that warm, and the sun didn't even come out until around 2 pm.

Quinn, getting ready to ride the bouncy ride.

I usually hate these bucket rides. They freak me out. This one freaked me out, but I rode it anyway. You can't beat the view.

The boys loved this spinning Starfish ride.

Ah, the sun finally came out, and the beach was packed!

To see the rest of our Santa Cruz pictures, click HERE.

Yesterday, I took the boys to Monterey for the day. We went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, walked down Cannery Row, and perused an antique mall. We also had frozen yogurt, for LUNCH.

This sea dragon is really really cool. I am going to order some of these prints, to use at school, for one of our reading stories.

The boys and some fish.

Seals sleeping on rocks.

This is overlooking the tide pool area, just outside of the aquarium doors. People can pay to swim around with fishes and look for starfish and other sea life.

Monterey Bay. So pretty. The sun came out a little earlier yesterday, then it did on Sunday.

So we have had a fun past few days! We stopped at the Giant Artichoke in Castroville on the way home, and I bought artichokes. 5 for $1.00!!

To see the rest of our Monterey pictures, click HERE.

Waiting and Waiting

2011-07-29T22:30:00.000-07:00

We spent the day at home, waiting. The boys were waiting for their Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 game to arrive, so we just stayed home. Kevin ordered it the other day, and had it two-day shipped, which meant it would arrive today. Oh my gosh were there some anxious boys around here. There was much complaining about how "bored" they were for most of the day, and then, at 1:45 this afternoon, Fed Ex arrived! The excitement was immense. Riley quickly set about loading it onto Quinn's computer. He hit a slight snag as Quinn's computer needed some updating first, so Kevin quickly got that done-the boys were super lucky that he arrived home from work early. Once that was complete, they were good to go. Riley struggled (and was frustrated) when he couldn't get it to finish loading at first, but after a little break, he tried again, and success!

They can now create their own zoos, and have roller coasters and other rides as part of the attractions in their zoos. I have to admit, it is pretty cool. They can have animals galore, and feed them, and give them toys, and they even poop. Big news for 9 year olds!

There was no fighting over the game. Riley played first, and when he left for piano and his waiter duty at the Elk's Lodge (Scouts), Quinn played. Riley returned, and they continued to share very nicely.

See how excited Mr. Quinn was? Ecstatic.

In other news...

I took the boys' popcorn rock out of vinegar today. The crystals are still sprouting out of the rock too! Now there are fine crystals all around the side of the rock, and there weren't any when I took this picture. It's drying now, and I assume the crystals will stop growing as the rock dries.

Last night, I was up really late, finishing a book. This was Maya's position on the couch. That does not look comfortable. Those are HER toys all over the floor too!

The boys gave up a chance to go swimming yesterday, to stay home. I was feeling a bit stir crazy, so I went out to do some antiquing. I bought these three treasures. My favorite is that gold tray-and it was on sale!!

So today I had pent up frustrations in me, so I took it out on my laundry room. I cleaned the entire room. Vacuumed and dusted too. I need to go to Ikea-going to try and squeeze in a visit tomorrow night-to get some bins for the boys school work I am keeping, and maybe a better system for the dirty clothes.

I watched Project Runway this morning. It was my first time watching the show, and I did so at the urging of my mother in-law. I had to watch it online, because the tape that I had of it (that's right, we don't have a DVR, we have the old VCR) got stuck in the TV/VCR combo! Now the TV doesn't work anymore. That was such a bummer because I wanted to just have the TV on in our office, and clean my craft desk. It was not in the cards for today-and apparently not in the near future either. Perhaps my dad can fix it, but he's across country until the end of August. Bummer.

A's Game

2011-07-28T22:24:00.000-07:00

We went to the A's game on Wednesday night. It was $2 night! The tickets to the game are $2 on Wednesdays! Cool huh? Since my friend Valerie is in town, and her son is a big fan of the A's, we decided to take in a game. It was so much fun, and really an awesome game!

Quinn and his giant nachos! It was very sunshiny when we first arrived, but it didn't take long for the sun to get out of our eyes.

Kevin says there are not many baseball fields that allow you to sit directly across from home plate any longer. It was an interesting view, except we couldn't see the outfielders at all, and every ball hit, looked like a home run. There were at least 3 home runs during the game.

The A's played the Tampa Bay Rays.

The whole group in front of us left really early, so some of the boys in our group moved forward. It was funny to watch these three. I don't know what they were doing, but it was exciting and fun to them.

See the score? That's only the 6th inning too! The 4th inning was a major inning for the A's. The final score was 13-3.

Posing for a picture.

I guess Quinn was feeling very Zen here.

....I really have no idea.

Quinn's been on this Angry Birds kick lately. The iPod goes everywhere with him, and it's a constant, "Look mom, watch this..." as he makes his birds fly. Oh, he also likes Pocket God, which is one app that I really have NO idea how it works. NONE. Quinn does though. Funny boy.

7th inning stretch.

We left at the bottom of the 8th, to avoid the giant crowds getting back onto BART. It was a fun night, and a really exciting game-Giants kind of fun!!

The Boys Cooked!

2011-07-25T17:11:00.001-07:00

I put the boys to work yesterday.

I had them take the wrappers off of a jillion Hershey's Kisses.

Then I had them put the kisses onto the pretzels. These pretzels were a little too big, but once the chocolate set, they were fine.

We melted the chocolate onto the pretzels for 3 minutes, at 275 degrees, then pushed M&M's into the melty chocolate. We used regular M&M's and also tried some of the peanut butter M&M's. Yum.

We put the cookie sheet into the fridge to set for a little while, and then they were ready to eat! I need to give these things a name. I found the recipe online, and they weren't called anything. Speaking of names, my new doll needs a name. Suggestions?

Giants vs. Brewers at AT&T Park

2011-07-25T16:54:00.001-07:00

Saturday night, we went to the Giants vs. Brewers game! It's like a show, going to see the Giants. The players have theme songs when they come up to bat, and it's always so much fun to watch them play.

AT&T Park. It's such a great ballpark.

All four of us were decked out in our Giants gear. It was country western night, and we all got Giants belt buckles. They are pretty darn good belt buckles too!

We had total nosebleed seats, on the 3rd deck, second to the very last row. It was an awesome view of the ballpark and the bay though. That's McCovey Cove up there, and you can just make out the "Splash" camera. That camera catches homeruns which are hit out of the park, and into the water. Barry Bonds use to do that a lot, and that's where the name came from.

That's the Bay Bridge back there, behind the Coke bottle slide. It's actually two parts, the part that's like the Golden Gate Bridge (but not dark orange), and the flatter part behind the island.

All of the Giants home games are pretty much sold out. We bought our tickets on Stubhub, and they were probably somebody's season ticket seats that they weren't using.

We got a view of downtown too! You can just see the point of the Transamerica Pyramid.

2010 World Champions!!!!

The Giants were ahead, by two, at the top of the 9th, so it was time for the closer. Fear the Beard. Brian Wilson.

Brian Wilson only threw 5 pitches, before the game ended!

Giants won, 4-2!!

A Day in the City

2011-07-20T22:41:00.001-07:00

The boys and I headed off for an adventure today. We went into San Francisco: through Chinatown, and into North Beach, with stops along the way. It was a beautiful, warm day in the city. We took our sweatshirts, but we all ended up carrying them. I even got a sunburn!!

Heading into the tunnel to Chinatown.

We walked through Chinatown, stopping to check things out along the way. We stopped at a pet store there, and looked at some really really big fish, and talked to a bird. I have a video of Quinn asking the bird questions. I'll post that. Chinatown led us into North Beach. We stopped in Washington Square, and had a great view of Coit Tower on the way.

We went to a store in North Beach, called Double Punch. They specialize in Japanese toys. The boys purchased some treasures. This was the view from across the street. Beautiful day on the bay!

We walked all the way down Columbus Ave, into downtown, after we visited Double Punch. We passed this building. It was featured in the movie, Interview With a Vampire. I love the look of it. That's the Transamerica Pyramid behind it.

Transamerica Pyramid. I think this is my favorite building in SF. You can't go to the top though. It's not a public building.

This is the view from under the structure of the Transamerica Pyramid. Cool huh?

These hearts are all over the city, and each one is different. This one is in a lobby of a business, just outside of a Starbucks.

We went into a cool toy store (Jeffrey's Toys), on Market Street. Quinn got a wooden sword. He just loves his swords. I love this picture. He looks determined. I told him he was not allowed to stab anyone.

It was a very nice day! To see the rest of my pictures, click HERE.

I Sewed Some Stuff!

2011-07-18T00:08:00.000-07:00

I sewed a dress for my newest girl. I really need to come up with a name for her. Perhaps another poll?

All three of my girls sporting dresses I made for them.

I also made a pillow. My mother in law gave me this chenille remnant piece (I think it was from a bedspread). I used another piece, a pink piece, for the back of the pillow.

Maya enjoyed some girl time today too!

They boys played some Monopoly City tonight.

I started a new puzzle tonight.

We didn't leave the house all day. It was nice. I have a clean house and I was free to do what I wanted, all day!

This was Maya this evening. Looking pathetic crouched on that little pillow. She's now snuggled next to me, sound asleep.

Where Does the Time Go?

2011-07-16T23:09:00.000-07:00

It has been a crazy busy week. Appointments every day of this last week. Doctor appointment for Riley, Endocrinologist appointment for Quinn, dentist for both boys, orthodontist for Riley, and a cut and color for me. It seems like that's all I got done this week. The appointments were all long-well except for the ortho. It's always rush rush rush at his office. Today it was kind of low-key around here, to make up for such a busy week.

I was on Pinterest today (as I am every day), and came across the yummiest looking treat! It called for three ingredients! Pretzels, Kisses and M&M's. You put Kisses on the pretzels and heat them in the oven at 275 degrees for 3 minutes. Then you push an M&M into the melty chocolate and refrigerate. Easy peasy and oh so yummy.

Don't they even LOOK yummy? You would not believe how good these are! The boys loved them. The neighbor kid loved them. Kevin loved them. I loved them. You should rush out, get the 3 items and make them. Yum.

Last night Kevin and I went to Valley Fair Mall. Macy's was having a sale (one day!-can you hear the song?) and I got the last two sets of Fiesta dishes I wanted. These are turquoise but you can't really tell the color in this picture.

There was snuggling with Maya sometime this week. This boy sure loves this dog, and vice-versa.

I made friendship bracelets this week, for both boys, and for me. This one is mine. It has Wicked colors. There are lots of tutorials and posts for friendship bracelets all over Pinterest, and Etsy. They seem to be making a very popular comeback.

Curious about what Pinterest is? CHECK THIS OUT. Prepare to be addicted. You have to request an invitation, and that takes a day or two, but it's so worth it. It's so cool.

Monday and Tuesday

2011-07-12T21:29:00.001-07:00

Monday and Tuesday have been a whirlwind. Yesterday Riley had a doctor appointment, and then we went to radiology to get his spinal x-ray done for this study he is participating in (aromatase inhibitor study). I scheduled an appointment for a bone density test for him (Aug. 2), which is also needed for the study. Later that evening, we had Quinn's baseball team party.

The trophies have the Niles Centerville Little League emblem on them. Pretty cool.

Yo! I'm getting a trophy.

Quinn, his trophy and his banner. His coach acknowledged him for the only triple hit this season. We are still pretty excited about that triple. It was freezing at the park last night, btw.

Oh yeah, and Quinn really really wanted to fill the bathtub with water yesterday, and play with his Playmobil boats in it. Apparently I am the best mom in the world for letting him use the bathtub for his toys. It was his job to dry them all when finished, which he did happily, but he left the towels on the floor. Oh well.

Today's appointment was Quinn's trip to the endocrinologist at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford. We were there a long time today. I am not sure why it took so long. It was a total of 2 hours. We got a room with a view though, and I learned today that I can park back there (outside that window), instead of the main lot across the street (which is a paid lot). When we go back in December, I shall park there!

Quinn had fun with this heat sensitive board, while waiting for the doctor. He had to visit the lab today. The doctor asked if he would donate a little of his blood (since they were drawing it anyway) to science. We consented, and headed to the lab with the extra vials. Quinn did well with the blood draw. He cried a little.

Quinn got a $20 Target card, from the person running the study of the donated blood! He was quite pleased, so we stopped at Target and he got Beyblades and Pokemon cards. When we go back in December, the doctor wants to discuss the possibility of using growth hormone shots for Quinn. I am not sure how I feel about that. He is growing, but he's very small for his age. It's really a hard decision to make. I am more interested in seeing if Quinn will benefit from the same study that we have Riley enrolled in.

Tomorrow's appointment: dentist for both boys.

Just Home

2011-07-10T23:51:00.001-07:00

We had a pretty lazy day at home today. We didn't go to the fair or go to see Super 8. I did venture out to the grocery store (ooooh, ahhhh).

We bought this Popcorn Rock at the Museum of Natural History, in DC. It has a warning on the back: Eating rocks may lead to broken teeth!

We covered our rock with white, distilled vinegar. The vinegar will evaporate and crystals will grow on the rock. It could take awhile. The vinegar stinks.

The boys are going to take tennis lessons. We bought them cheap rackets to practice with. Kevin took Quinn out tonight, to the high school, to hit some balls. How do you like his outfit? He looks like a tennis player! I think Kevin will be super excited if one of these boys continues with tennis and eventually ends up at Wimbledon-he's always wanted to go to a match at Wimbledon.

I made bracelets. Just experimenting with string, knots and braiding. I made a wrap as well, but haven't taken a picture of that. Tomorrow perhaps.

Tomorrow starts our busy week of appointments: doctor, dentist, orthodontist, endocrinologist (Quinn's turn), and a cut and color for me!

Getting Back into the Swing of Things

2011-07-09T20:02:00.000-07:00

We have fallen right back into our normal summer routine, after vacation. It's taken the boys a little longer to adjust back to our time zone. The boys spent the night with my parents on Thursday night, so they could go to the water park with my mom on Friday. Kevin and I went to see Bad Teacher, which we both thought was really funny. Friday night Quinn went to a slumber party (and I don't think there was much slumbering going on), and then he had another birthday party to go to today. Kevin and I and Riley went to see Horrible Bosses last night, which I didn't think was appropriate for Riley, but Kevin thought it was fine. Perhaps it's a guy thing? It was a really funny movie though, appropriate or not.

These are some souvenirs I picked up in Washington DC and New York. Don't you love my Statue of Liberty Mickey Vinylmation??? I just loved the Disney Store in New York City.

We took Riley to a local Japanese Bazaar today, at the Buddhist Temple. I had the yummiest sushi for lunch, and Kevin had a teriyaki burger which he quite enjoyed, and also a beer.

Riley was super happy to hang out with his friend, who attends the church. My friend was there too, but I couldn't find her anywhere (although I did find both of her boys). We enjoyed the bazaar very much, and plan to go next year!!

I went to a bead and gem show yesterday afternoon, and these are my purchases. Everyone basically had the same things, but there were really good deals.

This was Quinn tonight, waiting for his dinner. Super sleepy from all of his partying. The cat hadn't moved from that spot all day.

Quinn changed positions. Note the cat, in the same spot. Nope, our animals are not spoiled. Not at all.

Tomorrow is the last day of our county fair. Thinking about going. It's always the same, but I don't think we went last year. Maybe. We'll see. A frozen banana sounds kinda good. Or maybe we'll go see Super 8.

Happy July 4th on the 6th!

2011-07-06T09:51:00.001-07:00

We are home! We got home yesterday, early. We landed early, and then we were home by 2:30 in the afternoon! I had time to unpack a little, and the boys and I went to get Maya. She was soooo happy to see us. She is such a spazz. All she's done since we brought her home, is sleep. She is one tired dog. She must have really enjoyed her vacation with my friend and her two dogs. She spent about 3 weeks with the other two dogs-remember we had the dogs while my friend went on vacation? She's pooped. Actually, the four of us are pretty darn tired too.

Here's how we spent the 4th of July...

We took a cruise on the Hudson River. We saw the skyline of New York and the Statue of Liberty.

I love my new camera with its 14x zoom!

Later, my friend came into the city (from Jersey) to watch fireworks with us. Look at this sunset! Beautiful. We were in a crowd of thousands and thousands of people for Macy's fireworks show. TONS of people. It was a little intimidating. We were on 34th Street and we walked down but the police wouldn't let anyone cross to near the river-that was already really crowded. So we were kind of stuck where we were and then people behind us just kept coming and it was super crowded. We decided to move back some. We found a group of people who had put down lawn chairs so we settled in front of them. It was better, but still crowded.

The fireworks were spectacular though! The biggest production in the states. 6 barges of fireworks! The viewing area was from around 29th Street up to 51st Street. CRAZY!

Can you see all of the cameras out? You can get a sense of the crowd in my other pictures, which you will find at the end of this post.

Ahhhh! The crowd was so excited about the fireworks. It was amazing how in-sync they were, for 6 barges!!

These are my favorite! They are so big. The show was about 25 minutes in length. When it ended, people simply turned around and walked peacefully out of the area. It took quite awhile to get out of the crowd, but everyone was patient, and moved along. The crowds were immense. I wonder how long it took my friend to Subway her way back to Jersey?

The Empire State Building all lit up for the 4th of July. It closed early for a private event. I bet the view of the fireworks was spectacular, from there!

To see the rest of my pictures, click HERE (cruise) and HERE (fireworks).

New York, Day 4, a Slight Change in Plans

2011-07-04T05:26:00.001-07:00

We were going to do a river cruise around Manhattan Island yesterday, but it rained, so we decided to do it today, because it's NOT supposed to rain. It worked out ok anyway, since Riley seems to have a little bug. He spent the whole day in the hotel room, with Kevin. He was able to venture out to eat a little dinner last night, but still wasn't feeling great. Hopefully he'll be better today. We want to take that river cruise, and see the Statue of Liberty.

Quinn and I went out, in the rain, and had a little adventure on our own. We walked from our hotel, on 31st Street between 6th and 7th, all the way to Times Square, around 44th Street. We were going to try and see a show, the two of us, but this is what we found....

Um, a whole LOT of people had the same idea. We decided NOT to stand in that giant line (and that's not even all of it)! We'll see a show next time. We just couldn't figure out what to see and when. While in the area, Quinn and I did some shopping. We went back to the Disney Store. I love that place!

We went back to Toys R Us where this candy king tried to eat Quinn's arm!

And Quinn got to pose with a giant sock monkey. We headed toward Fifth Avenue, and Nintendo World after that, on 48th Street (Rockefeller Center). We had hotdogs on the street, for lunch. Quinn LOVES those hot dogs too.

Quinn enjoyed playing Wii, upstairs in Nintendo World. He absolutely LOVED this place. We spent over an hour in the store, shopping and playing Wii before we headed back to the hotel. We walked all the way back. Not one complaint from Quinn. He was happy to walk and talk (and carry his treasures from Nintendo World).

When we went out for dinner, we had a good view of the Empire State Building. Riley and I came back to the hotel after dinner, while Kevin and Quinn went to see Cars 2. Riley just wasn't up to the movie.

So it was a slight change in plans, but it worked out fine. Today we are headed down to the water, for the river cruise. We also intend to take the boys to see Grand Central Station, and of course, there are fireworks on the Hudson River tonight!!! Happy 4th of July!

Click HERE to see the rest of my pictures from yesterday. There aren't that many.

New York Day 2 and 3

2011-07-02T19:58:00.000-07:00

Kevin and I are doing an excellent job of wearing our kids out. We have been on the go, seeing stuff, since we arrived in New York, on Thursday. They are exhausted.

Yesterday we went to the American Museum of Natural History. Quinn is throwing the bone, for Rex, but that's not Rex (Night at the Museum). Right place, wrong dinosaur.

THIS is Rex.

The boys had no gum gum for Dum Dum (Night at the Museum).

We walked through Central Park to get to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

King of grape soda!

After the museum, and a slight mishap with a step, we rested outside of the MET. Quinn scaled a wall and pretended he was sleeping. He just needed a cup to earn some money!

We took a taxi down to Rockefeller Center, where we went to the Top of the Rock. This was our view. Spectacular view of the Empire State Building!

The boys were happy to take in the view too. Look mom, we tried to fix Riley's hair in this picture for you.

Today we went to MoMa (Museum of Modern Art). We saw Van Gogh's Starry Night.

We visited the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue, and then went to FAO Schwarz, with our good soldiers. We then took a taxi to the East Village to visit a store called Toy Tokyo. I was hoping they would have some Blythe dolls. Nope. The boys found stuff to buy. Quinn is going home with quite an assortment of Pokemon plushies and Angry Birds. He is out of money. Riley is still spending as well.

We were back at the hotel a little after 4 today. Kevin and the boys stayed and rested. I went out in search of bead stores (I found something like 7 of them!!). I ended up in Times Square and then I walked back down to 34th street, and went to Macy's. Kevin and Quinn met me at Macy's for dinner-we ate at their grill. I had a Lava Flow drink. It was yummy. I had food too, but the drink was memorable. Riley stayed in the hotel. He's not feeling very well. See? Exhausted. Those boys will sleep for a week when we get home.

To see more pictures, click HERE and HERE.

New York!

2011-06-30T19:32:00.001-07:00

Blogging, live from New York City!

We took the train from DC, to Penn Station. It was a nice ride. We've never traveled by train before, and we all enjoyed it. We made stops in Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.

We checked into the hotel, and then headed out. First stop, the Empire State Building!

The view is amazing!

The boys really liked it too.

Next up, Toys R Us in Times Square. Quinn is being chased by a dinosaur!!

Wow! There's a whole ferris wheel inside of the store! Quinn was impressed. Riley remembered it from his last trip, when he was 4.

We wandered all around Times Square. Super cool, but super crowded!

Lights and people and cars and noise! Really cool!

To see the rest of my pictures, CLICK HERE.

Everything George

2011-06-29T19:07:00.001-07:00

Today we took a boat cruise down the Washington Channel, to the Potomac River, and on to Mount Vernon. It was all about George today! General George Washington.

This great big tree was pretty impressive. Can you spot Quinn?

Posing like a president?

This is the mansion of George Washington! We took a tour of the inside. It has 10 bedrooms, which is not huge by today's standards, but in the late 1700s, it was pretty spectacular. I found it fascinating. Some of his belongings are still in the house. Super cool.

We also visited the tomb of Martha and George Washington, as they are buried at Mount Vernon.

This was really impressive to me. I mean, he's there, buried, the REAL guy! That's just amazing to me.

Martha is on the left, and George is on the right.

Today concludes the DC portion of our trip. We've had a great time, and I believe we will need to come back again. There's just so much to DO!!! Tomorrow we take the train to New York. Oh there's lots of excitement about that one too! If you want to see the rest of my pictures from Mount Vernon, CLICK HERE.

DC Highlights

2011-06-28T18:41:00.001-07:00

I apologize in advance for the vast number of pictures in this post. Since I haven't blogged any of our sightseeing days, I am getting caught up. We are still in DC, having a great time. The weather has been perfect, well except for today. It was hot-a high in the 90s and it was sticky. We are just not used to sweating so much in our little part of CA. Here are some highlights of our trip.

We went to the National Zoo. There are 11 of us total. Here are some of the 11.

We saw pandas at the zoo!

We took a bus tour and saw the Capitol. We also went back for an inside tour of the Capitol, on another day.

On the same bus tour, we saw the Lincoln Memorial. Impressive.

At the Smithsonian American History Museum, we saw Abe Lincoln's hat. He was wearing this hat on the night he was assassinated.

Riley purchased the Hope Diamond at the American History Museum. Ok, it's not the REAL Hope Diamond, just a replica.

Quinn got on the ground, on a real slab of Route 66, also at the American History Museum. I think that museum was my favorite.

We visited the White House. This is the Pennsylvania Ave. side.

We also visited the other side of the White House!

After we checked out the train station, we walked to the Capitol for our tour.

We saw the Washington Monument. Kevin ran up to it and touched it.

We went to Arlington National Cemetery. We visited the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and watched the changing of the guard.

Arlington National Cemetery.

This is the gravesite of John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. There are two of their children buried here as well, a boy who lived only two days, and a daughter. The flame above them burns eternally.

We went to the National Art Gallery as well.

We have been very, very busy. Tomorrow is our last full day in DC, and then it's NYC time!

To see more pictures, Click HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE...or not. lol

Our Nation's Capitol

2011-06-24T19:22:00.000-07:00

We are in Washington DC! We arrived this evening. The weather here was perfect when we landed-not a trace of humidity! We are hoping that will last...HA! We flew Virgin America, and I will definitely fly with them again! What a nice airline! We had a good flight, and I am feeling better. Maybe I didn't mention that I have been sick with food poisoning from bad blueberries? It was horrible! I don't think I have ever felt worse in my life. I was really worried about the flight, being stuck on an airplane for 5 hours. It was fine though. I haven't been eating, just liquids, but when we got to the hotel, and went out for dinner, I had part of a turkey burger, and so far, so good. TMI?

ANYway, Quinn packed his coonskin hat for the trip.

Cute little critter huh?

Look at the flag painted at the end of the plane's wing.

Two boys, happy to be on their way to DC!

Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States of America!

We are staying at a Hampton Inn near Chinatown. We walked down there for dinner (Fuddruckers). I love the mix of old buildings and new buildings.

Oh yeah, and this is the view from our hotel room! Can you see the point of the Washington Monument?

The heart of Chinatown. Impressive huh?

I think that I am going to get to bed. We are on West Coast time on the East Coast, and we have a busy day ahead of us tomorrow!

Oh yeah, and did I mention that there are 11 of us on this trip? It's Kevin's parents anniversary, and they were kind enough to bring us, and his sister and her family, and themselves, along to help them celebrate!

This Week

2011-06-23T22:11:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy yet low-key kind of week.

It was about a jillion degrees on Monday (ok, 96), so when a friend invited us to swim at her swim club, the boys and I were game! They had lots of fun playing in the pool.

I think Quinn's feet are adorable.

I finished my quilt! Finally! It only took a couple of years. I just had to finish binding, so I sat down and did it.

The back of the quilt has a black & white pattern.

I pulled the suitcases out, to get ready for our upcoming trip (DC and NYC), and look at what I found! The boys socks and underwear from who knows when? It's newish socks and underwear too! It might be from spring break last, LAST school year. I just know that the underwear and socks no longer fits Riley, so I put it all in Quinn's drawer-he doesn't grow so his stuff still fits.

We dogsat this week, for a friend. This is Gracie. Adorable huh?

This is Miley. Adorable again huh? Both boys loved having them, and tonight they each were missing their bed buddy.

I made a bunch of bracelets. These go together very easily.

My pile of stuff for our DC and NYC trip. OF COURSE my Obama is going with me!

Father's Day

2011-06-19T21:49:00.001-07:00

Happy Father's Day! We headed off this morning for History Park in San Jose. We took my parents along with us. My mom, Riley and I were there in May for the Walk Now for Autism. We thought it would be fun to visit again. It's such a cute place, a museum of sorts. There are all of these old buildings from all over the place. They were all moved to this park and it creates a little city. Cute.

This is a pretty cool tower. It's right outside the Pacific Hotel.

Looking up, into the tower.

My dad and mom!

Riley and Quinn, getting ready to head West-oh wait, we are West. Nevermind.

This is a Viet Museum. Just pay no mind to the AC unit in the upstairs window.

Enthusiastic (?) students in the one room school house.

Look out! Train!!

Old fashioned gas station-isn't it cute?

The boys got to pan for gold. GOLD I say! It was a nice, warm day-finally! If you want to see the rest of my pictures, CLICK HERE. We went to Mimi's for lunch afterward. I LOVE their corn chowder soup!

We went to Buca di Beppo for dinner tonight, for my in-law's 45th wedding anniversary, and Father's Day. I don't have to eat for the rest of the week.

It was a nice, busy day, spent with family.

One Man's Junk is Another Man's Treasure

2011-06-18T22:50:00.000-07:00

Remember these items that I got at the thrift store earlier this week?

An assortment of items. 3 candle holders and the big vase. The small vases were from school. I purchased spray paint...

and I painted all of them. In addition, I painted one of the bottles from my IBC black cherry soda, and I repainted the birds and the tall candleholder-they were blue.

Happy Father's Day tomorrow to all the Dads out there!

Thrifting and Popsicles

2011-06-16T22:25:00.000-07:00

The second day of summer has been a success (well except that the Giants lost tonight). We got to sleep in just a little today, because Riley had piano lessons at 10:00 am. After the piano lesson, I went out to the thrift store.

Success! I got a few of these things the other day, when I had to buy sheets to cover stuff up at school. I went back today, because I wanted the third little vase with birds at the base-the biggest of the three-see next picture. I also got that big candelabra today, for $2!! I have plans for that!

These three are my favorite purchases. Aren't they cute? I think I am collecting this type of etched glass-although I believe these pieces are lead crystal. They are so sweet with the little birds at the bottom.

My Zoku machine was ready to use today. It was semi successful. I think it takes practice. I made three, and was only able to successfully remove one of them. I will continue to practice.

Quinn was all about trying the cookie dough popsicle. Riley got to enjoy pieces of one-he didn't like it. Quinn DID like it though.

Yummy!

We also made a trip to Target today!! Yay for summer!

It's SUMMER!

2011-06-15T21:31:00.001-07:00

We are officially on summer vacation! I have never been happier to see a group of kids leave my classroom. I know that sounds horrible, but this year sucked. I had 9 really great students, and the rest of them were pains in my butt. The behavior was horrible. NOTHING worked with this group of kids. Even up to the last day I was having to fight with kids! The parents of those kids were not much better. Most couldn't do anything to change their child's behavior. Most didn't believe there was even a problem (even though it was noted on past report cards). I was accused of saying the F word in class (by a parent who didn't even EXIST on my list of parents-fake name and email). I was accused of grabbing a kid (crazy mother who came in a couple of Fridays ago and yelled at me, with students present). I was harassed by parents. I was asked to get homework together for absent kids and then it wasn't picked up. I was asked to conference and then was stood up. I was lied to. I was unsupported. I was not appreciated. I could not work hard enough for most of these families. It was a daily struggle with this group of kids, and unfortunately the bad behavior of most completely overshadowed the 9 very sweet kids I did have the fortune to teach. Oh and I loved those 9. I was not allowed to be the teacher I like to be. It's over now, and I am still trying to recover. I'm exhausted. I'm hopeful it will be better in the fall-I figure it really can't be any worse. 16 years of teaching and this was the worst year I've ever had.

My classroom is packed up. I had to toss lots of things since this group completely destroyed my things.

I have no more space in my cabinets, so I have to stack stuff and cover it in sheets.

The boys are happy to be out of school too-especially Riley. I came home from school yesterday with two extra dogs. My friend went on vacation, and we are watching her two dogs. Those dogs love me. I took a nap yesterday, and again today, with all three dogs plastered to me. They seem to like the boys too. Each boy had a dog in bed with them last night.

Quinn's got all three dogs here.

We had to take Riley to his endocrinologist appointment this morning, at Stanford. Afterwards we went to Sprinkles and had cupcakes. It doesn't matter that it was 10:30 in the morning.

This is my cupcake: chocolate coconut. I love coconut!

After cupcakes we went to Williams-Sonoma and I bought the Zoku maker I've been wanting. Lucky for me, they are now making a duo version (cheaper!), so I bought the cookbook too! I have the machine freezing now and tomorrow I will make cookie dough pops!

I am going to be really low-key at home for the next week. I have to get caught up on my sleep. I'm just so tired. I can feel the stress slowly leaving though. I am conserving energy for our upcoming vacation.

Reno Weekend

2011-06-12T22:12:00.000-07:00

Riley and I are home from our weekend trip to Reno. We are ready to finish this school year on Tuesday, and get summer under way!

Riley, sitting where the chips lie.

Riley and a really cool fountain. I think this is inside El Dorado.

Isn't it pretty? I like the lights on the ceiling too.

We stayed at Circus Circus. Pretty nice rooms, and not very expensive.

Riley and the boy elephant at Circus Circus. The girl was wearing a bikini. I should have taken a picture of her.

Games! Riley had a great time playing the carnival games in the midway, and he was quite successful at them too!

The view from our room.

We went to Reno for my cousin's high school graduation. It was in the Lawlor Events Center. It was a very nice ceremony.

On the way back to the hotel from my cousin's house, last night, we stopped at Scheels.

There was lots of snow in the mountains! I'm not sure why nobody was skiing. Looks to me like there's plenty of snow.

2011-06-11T10:00:00.001-07:00

Here are some pictures from our drive to Reno...

Snow! It's June!!

Lots and lots of snow! People may be able to ski all summer!

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Feathers and Reno

2011-06-11T09:50:00.001-07:00

I got feathers in my hair!

I went to my salon on Wednesday and had the hairdresser put feathers in my hair. Lime green, aqua and black & white. I love them.

Riley and I are in Reno, NV with my parents. My cousin is graduating from high school, so we came to help celebrate. We had a buffet dinner last night, and as you can see, Riley broke the rule.

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U2 360 Tour

2011-06-08T20:33:00.001-07:00

Kevin, the boys, and I went to the U2 show last night!! We've had the tickets since October of 2009! The show was supposed to be last June, but Bono injured his back, so it was postponed. Finally, after a 356 day wait, it was time!

This is the stage! A "spaceship", also referred to as the "claw." Awesome.

The boys, sporting new U2 shirts, posing in front of the claw. We had awesome seats!! Can you tell I like the word awesome? It's awesome.

There were two opening acts, Moonalice (some hippie band), and Lenny Kravitz. Lenny Kravitz was really good. He's super cool.

Here's all of us and the claw! Some nice lady saw us discussing picture opportunities, and she offered to take our picture.

As the stage was being prepped for U2, this was on the big screen. That screen goes all the way around, hence the 360 Tour.

Showtime!!! They started with the lights on, playing David Bowie's Space Oddity. Hence the spaceship. The lights dropped and they played Even Better Than The Real Thing.

Bono! I thought the big screen was super cool. So is my new camera which took all of these pictures. I am very happy with it. It's a Canon PowerShot sx230. It has 14x zoom and it fits in a pocket! It takes some cool pictures too!

The stage set up was, you guessed it, AWESOME!

When they sang Beautiful Day, they showed a special message to us, from astronaut Mark Kelly. He actually said "Hello Oakland," from the space station. He also quoted Space Oddity by saying, "tell my wife I love her very much (she knows)." They filmed it while he was in space! How cool is that???? The astronaut's wives get to pick the songs that they use to wake the astronauts up in the mornings. Gabby Giffords (Mark Kelly's wife) picked Beautiful Day by U2 to wake them up on one of the mornings. They are not in space right now, they are back, but it was still really really cool that the U2 people were able to make that happen.

The big screen stretched! Can you see that??? This was awesome, big lights up to the sky. Super cool. To see the rest of my pictures, click HERE.

It was an awesome show! It was a late show. U2 didn't take the stage until 9:30, and they played until almost midnight. We left at the second encore, to beat the traffic. We got home a little after midnight. We had some tired boys today, but they are in bed now.

I guess we were very lucky to actually get to attend the show. Apparently lots of people who drove to the show, couldn't park anywhere. The stadium parking was full, and they were directing people to other lots, but those lots were all full. Some people sat in traffic for four hours, on freeway off-ramps and never even made it inside the stadium! Some didn't get into the show until 10:30 or later! The attendance at the stadium last night was 69,000 people. The stadium did not plan very well for parking. Thousands of people are really angry, and there's been some talk of lawsuits. Somebody messed up. I am sure glad we decided to go early!

Out With a BANG!

2011-06-06T20:53:00.000-07:00

Today was Quinn's last official baseball game of the season. Depending on the results of the game between the other two teams, we MAY play a championship game next weekend-on Closing Day. Tonight's game though was spectacular!

See this picture? Just looks like every other picture I have taken of Quinn at bat this season, behind the fence. THIS picture though is the picture I took, before Quinn hit the ball, HARD, down the first base line, past the first baseman, and way out into the field. My student, who is on the opposing team, missed it too, and she had to chase it. It went so far that....He got a triple!! A TRIPLE!! It all happened so fast, and we were all screaming our heads off that I didn't get a picture of him on third base, winded from the run. LOL. Two runs went in, and that got us to our 5 run rule, so the inning ended. We were ahead 6-5, against a tough team-one of the toughest. It turns out that Quinn's triple won the game! Quinn got a game ball. He was (and still is) thrilled.

This was the first time at bat tonight. He hit this one down the first base line too, but the first baseman was able to get it and tag the base. Can you see the ball in the picture?

This is from some game. Quinn goofing off in left field.

Another game, at bat.

He was walked here. Oh I bet you are wondering about the pink socks on the other team. One of the moms has cancer, so the boys wear these socks for her. It's very sweet. They also have pink wrist bands, and the coaches have pink ribbons on their hats. Very, very sweet.

Quinn played on the same team as this boy, last season, when he was a Hot Rod.

Rabbit ears on third base.

This has been a tough season for Quinn (and us) and before tonight's TRIPLE, he didn't want to even play next season. He's spent a lot of time on the bench this season. Six of the kids have spent a lot of time on the bench, or locked into their outfield positions, and it wasn't because of lack of ability. This level is still a teaching level, so the kids are supposed to be rotated around ALL positions. The coach was apparently unable, or incapable, of making a fair schedule, so the kids were never rotated. This went against the league rules. Some of the other boys on the team NEVER sat on the bench, while others sat every game. Quinn sat mostly twice every game, with the exception of one game, where he played all innings. The coach had his favorite 7 players, and used the other 6 to rotate the bench. Those 7 got to play the "best" positions. Those 7 got to practice the "best" positions, while the others were the runners, to help the 7 learn to field. It was horrible. The man should not be coaching.

Kevin and I went to the coach with our concerns. We wanted to talk to him about the situation. He sent us an email instead. He said because we have 13 players that some kids have to sit two innings. That is true, some kids do have to sit two innings. The thing is though that they do not have to sit TWO CONSECUTIVE innings, as many were, and it doesn't have to be the SAME kids ALL the time. For example, Quinn often did not appear in the game, until the 3rd inning. He would play two innings, of four, and that's it.

He was low on the batting order too, so a couple of games he got to hit only once the entire game. There was one game that he sat 3 innings on the bench! This went on and on. The batting order rarely changed. His 7 were in priority spots. His focus was on them. Other people complained. Board members were contacted. Kevin and I then went to the player agent with our concerns, when we got nowhere with the coach. The coach was told 7 times to make changes, that it wasn't fair. It wasn't until the 4th to last game that we saw any change-and Quinn played THE ENTIRE GAME-and even got to pitch! The last 3 games have been a lot more even, and some of the 7 (or as I called them "The Superstars") actually sat on the bench during an inning. It was obvious the coach favored these 7. What was even worse is that one parent (of a "Superstar,") would listen to our conversations with the player agent, and then report back to the coach, dividing the team. She did this to several of us parents, on the "other" side. It was horrible. The coach was a total ass, and Quinn did not have fun. My hope is that this man not be allowed to coach next season. He was such a bully to the kids who weren't his favorites, and to us parents. He rarely spoke to us. He rarely spoke to my kid. He had this warped idea that winning is everything, and would yell at the kids. Two games ago, after a particularly rough inning (of Superstars-Quinn was on the bench), he called them all to the dugout and told them they were horrible. I was standing right there. I would have spoken up if MY kid had been who he was speaking to, but he was on the bench.

The coach was all about winning, so he wanted to build the best team, but that's the thing, it takes more than 7 to make a team. Many of these boys didn't get a chance to play positions that they really wanted to play because of this ass. It's over now, and I am happy. Quinn is too, and now his triple adds a "so there," slap in the face, to the entire season, and to those who didn't think he could do it. He went out with a BANG!

It Feels Like Summer...NOT

2011-06-04T23:03:00.001-07:00

Rain, rain, rain. Here we are, the 4th day of June, and it is STILL raining! In fact, all baseball games were canceled today. Ours is rescheduled for tomorrow. It actually worked out well though, as Quinn woke up and then promptly threw up, off and on, for a couple of hours. There was no way he was going to be able to play baseball today.

Here's Quinn, with his best friend, keeping him company. We think it was the pizza he had for dinner last night, but we really don't have any proof. By later this afternoon, he was fine.

I have a cold, so I spent the majority of the day at home. I used these supplies to get crafty.

I put glue on small parts of this paper pear (purchased in the $1.50 bin at Michael's), and then I wrapped the pear in yarn.

I am happy with the finished product. I have an apple too, and a bird. I am not sure the bird will work out, but I may yarn wrap the apple.

I also made this. It's from a paper star kit that I got at Paper Source. It was pretty easy to put together, and I like the look of it. There are other colors that still need to be made.

Shoes and Awesomeness

2011-06-03T23:32:00.000-07:00

I had my students make shoes this week.

Paper shoes. I have a pattern, in one of my art books, so I dug it out. It was tricky (my students are often confused about what it means to cut or put patterns on the fold), but they figured it out.

Some really figured it out, and made a matching pair!

These remind me of bowling shoes.

This little girl even made a soul for her shoes!!

I had the best plans today, for awesomeness...

Perhaps it wasn't in the cards. The day started out good, and I was feeling kind of stress-free. Riley turned in all of his text books today, so all is winding down for him. Baseball ends on Monday, and school ends in 7 days. We see U2 on Tuesday. Things are looking up! Then, about 9:00 am, things went bad. It started with a parent in my classroom, yelling at me, in front of my students. It has escalated from there, which I will not go into today. Let's just say that I am OVER this school year. These kids and their parents have been the biggest challenge of my entire 16 years of teaching. It's not all of them, but when most of my students are little shits, it's hard to give attention to the 9 great kids I did have the opportunity to teach.

Real awesomeness...

I got some new fabric!

I got some new candle sticks!

Memorial Day Weekend Continued

2011-05-30T22:14:00.001-07:00

Today we went to The Mystery Spot, in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Kevin's parents came along with us. It's nestled among Redwood Trees and Eucalyptus Trees. I had never been to The Mystery Spot.

Lots of big Redwood Trees.

The official transportation of The Mystery Spot.

Here we go! Science awaits us!

The gift shop sold all kinds of stuff with their logo on it, from Chapstick to T-shirts.

The gift shop also sells these. REAL bugs people! They also had chocolate dipped crickets and sour cream and onion! They also had worms: Larvettes. Really gross. I wonder if they sell any of these treats?

A little history about the Mystery Spot.

There are all kinds of weird angles going on in this crooked house/shack thing. Can you see the girl standing on the table, inside? Creepy.

The boys getting their "lean" on. It's hard to see their lean in this picture.

Here are complete strangers and their leans. It felt really weird to walk through there. It was so steep and crazy. I felt like I was on a cruise ship! Really weird.

That's Quinn, hanging from the outside of the crooked building.

These people were lined up, shortest to tallest.

When they switched places, they all appeared to be the same size. Crazy. Kevin is 5'8 and the girl at the end is 5'2.

It was interesting, for a $6 tour. If you want to see the rest of our pictures, go HERE.

Memorial Day Weekend

2011-05-30T21:48:00.001-07:00

My parents took the boys to Great America all day on Saturday. Kevin and I went to see The Hangover 2, and then we had tickets to see the A's play the Baltimore Orioles. I won the tickets at the Grade-in put on by my teachers union. It was raining pretty good when we got to the stadium. We took BART (public transportation), and had to walk through the rain to get to the stadium.

It was really very wet. The game was delayed about 20 minutes because of the rain. Over Memorial Day Weekend. Rain. I am very sick of the rain.

This was very exciting. Watching the tarp being removed from the field. They pulled it all the way back, over itself, dumping the water in left field. Then they pulled it back over the field, then back again, one more time.

The last time, they folded the tarp in half and then rolled it up. It was very wet in left field.

We had awesome seats, practically IN left field, but it started to rain again, so we moved back, under the overhang, and watched the game. We left at the top of the 8th inning. The A's were ahead. We headed back toward BART, but were turned around because the ramp to BART was blocked off because they were having fireworks after the game. We had to take a school bus from the stadium, to BART. It was really annoying. No signs anywhere about this closure, and they made one announcement, as we were leaving, that the ramp would be closed at the top of the 8th inning. We nearly made it, but some belligerent old man made us walk to to the buses.

The energy at the A's stadium is nowhere close to the energy level at AT&T Park, for the Giants. They have their diehard fans, but it's just different. It was fun to go to the game, but I think I will stick to the Giants. We did get to check out our seats for the U2 show in two weeks though! THOSE are going to be AWESOME seats!

Oh yeah, I also made a bunch of jewelry this weekend.

Marshmallow Anyone?

2011-05-27T20:07:00.000-07:00

So Quinn and I were at Lucky yesterday, getting some groceries, and something for dinner. They have stuff out in a display for summer. We found these...

Giant marshmallows. For the rest of the night I asked Quinn, "Do you want marshmallow?" You only need one.

See how big they are??? I would not try that marshmallow bunny mouth game with these-what's that game called? The one where you stuff your mouth with marshmallows?

I wore my fancy, ribboned chucks today, to give me a little happy, before we had Riley's big meeting at his school. I already blogged those details on the other blog.

Our meeting was about an hour, so I had the rest of the afternoon to myself! I got a sub today, to attend the meeting. This pile of dirt is going to be a new Target! It's an area that will be called, "The Block," and will house Target, a movie theater and other stores. We are hoping to get an Apple Store there.

I went to Jo-Ann's and got this yummy fabric and some freshwater pearls.