Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Painting A Ceramic Kitty

Hannah got a gift certificate for her birthday to Color Me Mine, and today, since it was the last day of our 'summer vacation' as Hannah goes back to school tomorrow, we went and painted today as our last 'Hoorah!'. LOL.

Rachel picked out a ceramic kitty to paint. I'm surprised at how well she did painting. When we went in March and colored ceramic eggs, she kinda lost interest, but not today. She kept painting and brushing and smearing. It'll be interesting to see how her kitty turns out after it's been finished and in the kiln.

Monday, July 28, 2008

A Special Lunch Date!

We had a very special lunch date today! McKenzie and Haylee had spent the night last night with Gramma and Papa. We met Gramma and the girls at McDonald's for lunch, Gramma's treat! Thanks Gramma!
Umm, yeah, those cups are pretty big for such small girls.
The cashier was apparently having a bad day and just gave me the super sized cups. And yea, despite only being halfway, one did spill. It was inevitable. LOL.

Saturday, July 26, 2008

We went to see the Wizard!

This evening, the Redlands Bowl put on their closing night of The Wizard of Oz. Having gone two years ago to see their production of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, I knew this would be a great thing to see. In fact, the dates have been on our calendar for months!

The girls and I packed the ice chest with cold drinks and sandwiches and off we went. Steven had some work to do, so he stayed home. Because we went two years ago, I knew what to expect and knew we should go early for closer seats, not mention seats in the shade. We got there shortly after 5:00 and waited just over 3 hours for the show to start. But we got great seats!! Our friends Amy and Bethany joined us and that helped make the wait go by faster.The Wizard of Oz is one of Rachel's favorite movies. In fact, last year for Christmas, she got a Dorothy dress and Ruby Red Slippers for when she played dress up. She wore that outfit tonight and was a huge hit!! Everyone pointed and "oohed" and "ahhhed" at the sight of her. Rachel was so cute, throughout the performance, she kept asking if she could get her picture with Dorothy (like we do with the characters at Disneyland). So after the performance we headed in the direction in which Dorothy exited the stage and we found her! Only she was already out of costume, I'm sure she was hot and wanted to be comfortable. She was more than happy to take a picture with our little Dorothy, which made her night! Both the girls talked almost the entire way home, and it was after 11:00 when we even got to our car, so it was late. But both girls had had so much fun, they just kept talking about their favorite parts from the performance.

Friday, July 25, 2008

Friday Evening trip to Disneyland

We met Uncle Bart at Disneyland late this afternoon. For some reason, Rachel was really looking forward to this trip all week, because she prayed "help us have fun at Di-neyland" all week when she prayed for meals, when she prayed at bedtime. LOL. We had a good time and enjoyed some usual attractions, as well as the new Toy Story Mania at California Adventure. This was coming off of the Toy Story Mania attraction. The ride was very cute and I can't wait to go on it again. Rachel had a lot of fun too.
Silly girl, trying on a 'coon skin hat. She thought she was pretty funny.
Watching and waiting for Hannah and Daddy on Grizzly River Run. It's a ride you get wet on, and we opted to sit out, nevermind the fact Rachel isn't tall enough...yet!We spent some time in California Adventure, and then went to Disneyland. We did some favorites over there and then ended with sitting on a curb on Main Street, enjoying ice cream sundaes on a warm Friday evening! A great way to end a week!

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

San Elijo Beach Camping

We had a wonderful weekend camping with friends from our church. The drive was only about an hour and a half (much better compared to the drive to Mammoth) and once we arrived, we unloaded our car onto the picnic table and then moved our car across Pacific Coast Highway. Rachel and Hannah kept busy with friends Parker and Brandon, while we set up our tent and campsite.

After we were set up, and our friends had their trailer set up, we made a mid afternoon trip down to the beach. Rachel had a blast playing in the sand and with Caleb, a little boy her age. She even made her way out to the water and attempted to sit on a boogie board in the water, which she didn't like, but she did like pulling that board around behind her. Thursday evening found us hanging out around the campsite, having dinner, chatting, playing games. Putting Rachel to bed was relatively easy for the first night. She was pretty tired and went to sleep fairly quickly. The next morning we were up bright and early, thanks to the coastal commuter train just across PCH that started at 5:40am. We were up in time to join the beach combing party and made our way to the beach in search of shells and other treasures that had washed up on the shore in the night. After breakfast and some playing around the campsite, we packed our bags and lunch and headed back to the beach for the afternoon. Rachel loved going to the beach and playing in the sand. Her and Caleb played so well together and had tons of fun just sitting in a hole the older kids had dug and then filled with water. Friday evening after dinner, once it got dark, Paula set up an outdoor movie theater for the kids! She put a flat screen monitor facing out of her tent trailer bed, and put on a movie, complete with microwave popcorn (ahhh, the beauty of camping with hook up and people with trailers!) Paula set up the outdoor movie theater both Friday and Saturday night and it was a great way for the kids to settle down, unwind, and fall asleep in their camp chairs. Saturday morning, it was pretty overcast and chilly. We actually had a campfire until mid morning and sat around the campsite chatting, playing games, and then after lunch, when the sun came out and we headed to the beach for the afternoon. Paula had found this cute sand bowling mold and all the kids (and a few adults!) cleared out a spot and made way for Seal Bowling! Sunday was the day that everyone had to pack up and head for home. But first we had a nice breakfast and then went to work. The kids continued to play. But did do a great job of picking up all the trash on the two campsites.

After our sites were packed up and cleared and goodbyes were said, we went to visit Uncle Bart, who lives less than a mile from where we were camped. We showered and went to lunch and then ended our visit with ice cream! Rachel was so tired, she fell asleep at lunch, stayed asleep while being put into her car seat, but wouldn't you know it, she woke up just as we were digging into our ice cream.Rachel had so much fun camping at the beach. She's been saying since we left the campground that she wants to go back! LOL. To see more of our pictures from our beach camping, visit San Elijo Camping, July 2008.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Attitudes on the Beach

Something about being on the beach brings out the grumpies in Rachel....

June 2006, Pismo Beach

July 2008, San Elijo State Beach

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Prayers for Ian

This is Ian and he's having his palate repaired tomorrow.

Would you please add him to your prayer list for his surgery to go well. And for his Mommy and Daddy too!

Monday, July 14, 2008

Pool Time Fun

We pulled out the inflatable pool last night and filled it up with air and then water. Rachel was having so much fun holding the hose and making the water dance about and make 'waterfalls'.This afternoon, the girls dawned their bathing suits and went for a swim. Rachel is wearing a shower cap to prevent any water from getting in her ears. She still has her tubes in from last October and it's recommended you not get excessive amounts of water in your ears with tubes in. I think my Mom has a few pictures of me as a child wearing a shower cap, running through the sprinklers for the same reason.

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Adventures in Hollywood

We went into Hollywood today to see Pixar's new movie, WALL-E, at the El Capitan. Gramie enjoys seeing movies at this particular theater and sitting in the balcony so today was her treat. The movie ticket includes a reserved seat, a souvenir bucket of popcorn, and a drink.After the movie, we had lunch and made our way atop the hills of Hollywood. Our plan was to visit The Griffith Observatory as you no longer had to have reservations to visit, however, once atop the mountain, there was no parking in the lot, and people were parking down the hillside and walking up. Therefore, we skipped the observatory. We did however, drive through Griffith Park and found ourselves an area of the park that offered horse rides. Hannah's been wanting to ride a real horse (opposed to that of riding a carrousel horse), once in line, both the girls were excited to ride a horse, we chose the Medium horses. The horses had a track that they followed. Some walked very slowly, some trotted. Rachel was a crack up to watch, she had me laughing so hard that I did not get a close up of her riding the horse past me. Both times she passed by me, she was laughing so hard, with the biggest smile from ear to ear. When she got off the horse, she became upset because she wanted to keep on riding. Because she'd had so much fun, Gramie bought another ticket and this time Rachel chose the ponies that walked in a circle (BORING!). She still enjoyed that ride nonetheless and riding that pony round and round lasted a heck of a lot longer than the first ride. After the horse ride, we headed to the other end of the area where there were miniature trains to ride. But on our way there, there was a group offering free crafts, and Hannah is all about crafts so we stopped and the girls made beautiful butterflies. After finishing up at the craft table, we made our way to the train. Gramie and the girls rode, while Mommy and Daddy sat out and watched and waited. Rachel got off the train loving the ride and of course passing by the horses once again. We had a great day of adventures in Hollywood with Gramie. It didn't take long this evening for Rachel to fall fast asleep, she was tired!

Friday, July 11, 2008

Rachel Gets Pierced Ears!

Little girls with pierced ears are cute, in my opinion. I've wanted to get Rachel's ears pierced for a while, but the first couple years of her life, I waited because I didn't want to have to take them out for any surgeries, etc. Then, last Fall when I started asking her if she'd like 'holes in her ears', I thought it best to wait because she was getting tubes in her ears and I didn't want to take the chance of her fussing with the earrings if her ears were bothering her, etc, etc.

But the last couple of months, she's been saying she wants 'holes in her ears' like Mommy and Hannah, and even her cousin McKenzie. So tonight, as we were looking for adventures while Daddy waited in line for four hours for an iPhone, I took Rachel to Claire's and got her ears pierced!

She was so excited. She climbed up into the chair, hugged the teddy bear, and sat patiently while the lady cleaned and prepped her ears. I was only going to get her ears pierced if both could be done at the same time. There was no way I was going to take the chance of getting one ear done, and then not the other if they were done one ear at a time. The ladies pierced her ears and she shed no tears, until it was all done and over and the load noise of the piercing guns had scared her. Once calm, she took a look in the mirror and liked what she saw!

She called Gramma and Papa and then we raced back to the Apple Store line to show Daddy and Hannah! Here's hoping she leaves them alone!

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Disneyland with Friends!

It's not often that we can go to Disneyland with Amy and Bethany during the week.

But today was special. Since last weekend, Keith and Amy have had their 2 1/2 year old niece visiting them, and has never been to Disneyland. So Auntie Amy arranged to get off work early this afternoon and a girls trip was arranged to take Alyssa to Disneyland for the very first time!! We got to the parks about 3:00 and decided that Alyssa would enjoy Playhouse Disney. So we went to the show and she loved it. This is also a favorite of Rachel's as she watches all these shows on Playhouse DIsney. It was sooooo much fun to watch the little girlies filled with excitement. Because today was all about Alyssa and keeping to doing things we thought she would like, we headed to Disneyland where there is more for little kids to do, in addition to the fact that Disneyland is just plain more magical. :) We ventured down Main Street, stopping off at City Hall to get Alyssa her official "1st visit' button. Rachel got an "Honorary Citizen" button! However, she's looking forward to coming back next month and getting her special "birthday button".
We ventured through Fantasyland, skipping all of the 'darker' rides. Going to the teacups and then King Arthurs Carousel. Amy took the girls and I waited out with the stroller and our backpacks. Because they were at the front of the line, they had first dibs on which horses they wanted. Rachel got to ride "Jingles" which is the 'lead' horse for the Carousel. Back in April, Julie Andrews rededicated the horse, and with it's most current makeover, the horse has silhouettes of icons famous from the movie Mary Poppins, which has "one of the most famous carousel scenes ever filmed for a motion picture". Riding the special horse meant nothing for Rachel, but I was pretty excited. LOL.
Working her muscles in hopes of pulling the sword out!
After Fantasyland, we headed back to Toontown, where we thought Alyssa would enjoy touring Minnie's house and playing about in the cars on the street. Exploring Toontown is also a favorite thing for Rachel to do.After that, we did the Tiki Room and then headed down Main Street in search and shared in some ice cream and then went on search for the perfect "1st visit' souvenir, a stuffed Minnie Mouse! After that, we headed for the trams and parking structure before it got too crazy following the fireworks!

We had a great afternoon/evening with Amy and the girls. It was fun watching Alyssa's expressions and excitement. Kinda gave me a clue of what taking my kids at 2 1/2 years old would have been like, if I had waited. LOL. Thanks Amy for letting us share in Alyssa's special day!

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Prayers for Drew

Remember Drew?? I introduced him about a month ago.Drew and his Mommy and Daddy need your prayers. Tomorrow, Thursday, Drew will have his palate repaired. This is a pretty big surgery.

Please prayer that the surgery goes well, without complications, remember the complication with Rachel's tongue?? We don't want that for Drew, or his parents, so please add them to your prayer lists, I KNOW they will appreciate all the prayers that will be said on their behalf.