Get Your Kicks on Route 66

Saturday was Duarte's 17th annual Route 66 parade.

Before the parade we were able to talk to the current Mayor of Duarte, Tzeitel Paras-Caracci

And then participate in the parade! The kids thought being able to ride in a car without car seats was a pretty funny thing. (I was also in the parade, carrying a flag with the Missionaries and members of the Duarte ward)

After the parade we went to the Vintage Car show and festival at Royal Oaks Park. Brielle and James are hard at work building a bird house.

And the kids enjoyed the giant inflatable slide over and over and over again.

The Happiest Place on Earth

I didn't keep track of how many times we went to Disneyland this past year. At the beginning we would go about twice a month. For this past month though we went 2-3 times each week. I was trying hard to get tired of it. I remember as a teenager we went as a family and had a 5-day pass. After 4 full days of Disneyland (before California Adventure existed) we all begged off the last day and went to the beach instead. I was sick of Disneyland for a good long while after that. That method didn't work this time. We had a great time and some great memories and hope that Disneyland has another promotion so we can afford season passes again sometime while we live so close.

I Simply Remember My Favorite Things

The Hollywood Bowl hosted The Sound of Music Sing-a-Long this past week. Everyone is invited to dress in costumes for the show. Margaret made these beautiful dresses for the girls. I made the lederhosen for the boys, and Megan Warnick searched all over to find the perfect hats and socks to complete the boys costumes. With such teamwork, the kids looked pretty darn cute.

Kissing Cousins :)

The kids were able to go on stage for the costume parade. The lady in the back wearing pink is the actress that played Liesl in the movie. All 5 of the actresses that played the girls of the Von Trapp family were there.

The sold-out crowd. The audience participation for this show made it oh, so much fun. Booing and hissing, cheering, cowbells, flashlights, poppers to celebrate the first kiss, and of course so many people all singing together.

The kids were a little confused about what in the world they were doing on stage in front 18,000 people.

Fire Safety Week

 Stop, Drop, and Roll

I hope we never have a fire to deal with, but just in case, we did a lot of practicing.  We checked all the fire alarms (and replaced batteries!), so we would know what sound to listen for in an emergency.  We drew maps of the house and all the exits, we practiced calling 911-only PRETENDING!-to be able to state our name and address if needed.

Scavenger Hunt 

We went on a scavenger hunt throughout the house to find all the things that get hot.  And where fires might start.  And yes, I did tell the kids my personal experience of curling irons causing fires.  They know we always turn off or unplug all these things that get hot.

Fire Science

We learned about how fires burn and ways to stop them.

I had to relight the candles over and over again.  The kids loved being able to stop the fire.

But of course we learned we never play with fire.

Field Trip to the Fire Station

Firefighter Luna  was so nice to give us a tour and tell us about life as a fireman. Brielle told me she wants to be a firefighter.  I think she might need to grow a few inches first so she can at least reach the pedals.

I know Ethan was just looking for a way to play in the water.  This is the smallest hose, used for small brush or dumpster fires. It still pumps out 40 gallons of water per minute, which would definitely knock the kids right over.

Books

We've had Alphabet Rescue before, which Brielle immediately recognized and loved.  But I think the books were actually equally loved and red this week.

Looks like Ellie is already learning how to copy. :)

Preschool Packets
http://homeschoolcreations.com/firemanlapbook.html
http://momto2boys24.blogspot.com/2010/10/unit-study-fire.html
http://mamasmonkeys.blogspot.com/2011/09/firefighter-tot-pack.html

Happy Anniversary

James was gone at a conference during our anniversary this year. Actually, for most of the years we've been married our anniversary has fallen during finals week, or some other busy time for James. We've learned to celebrate whenever we can, and to not worry much about the actual date. So, 4 months late...here is our anniversary celebration this year!

We started by heading to California Adventure together. We had a great time actually getting to ride together on the rides. Brielle is tall enough for most of them, but Ethan is not, so we usually have to trade off kid duty.

We were amazed by how many rides we could fit in when we didn't have kids and strollers to deal with. We only stayed for a couple of hours, but still went on all the big rides, and even some smaller ones.

We then enjoyed a yummy fondue dinner at The Melting Pot. We have been wanting to try out this restaurant since we first heard about it back in Utah, at least 7 years ago. A travelzoo deal came along; so we finally did it. The food was pretty amazing, the dessert was even more so. We were carefully watching for our waiter to make sure he didn't see us licking the bowl.  We didn't want to waste a single drop.

We headed to the St. Regis, where we have stayed before.  We earned a free night stay while we were out in Virginia Beach for James' conference in June.  

Saturday morning James went for a bike ride while I ran along the beach.  We then met back at the room to enjoy our freshly made hot chocolate delivered by our personal french butler.

The kids were so excited about being able to have a sleepover with their cousins.  We appreciate Aunt Megan and Uncle Danny for watching them while we celebrated 8(+) years of marriage and many more to come!

Dinosaurs

Good news folks!  We got a camera.  It was at the end of the week, so I don't have pictures of most of our activities still this week, but I'm excited to finally be able to document our life again.

We started out Dinosaur week at the Museum of Natural History in LA.  They have a new Dino exhibit, which was very cool.  There were large touch screen computers with interactive information and games, touch tables with bones and eggs, and lots of dino skeletons on display.

Making Dino Eggs

We used some peanut butter play dough (still in the fridge from butterfly week) to make dinosaur eggs and nests.  I let the kids use skewers make indentions in the eggs.  It is amazing at how play dough can be fun all over again with just a new tool to use.

Digging for Dino Bones

We had ribs for dinner at Vov and Yogi's house last week.  I saved the bones and dried them out, and then buried them in a box of sand.  The kids used small paint brushes to dig them out.  They looked so cool when dry because they turn white and looked old.  You could use any kind of bones you have on hand though.
Brielle was convinced they were actual dinosaur bones.  She kept asking me which dinosaur certain bones came from.  The bigger ones she was sure must be a tyrannosaurus.  The smaller ones, maybe a velociraptor. 
The kids then used these bones and made their own museum.  Gavin organized them into dino-looking exhibits.  Brielle took charge of cleaning the museum to get it ready for the grand opening.

Dinosaur Snack

I used the idea from the amazing mess to make no-bake cookies using 'dinosaur' ingredients.  I love that the kids are so trusting that they believe you are actually using dirt and crushed dinosaur bones to make a treat.  They loved it.

File Folder Games

A story about Dinosaurs with Manners

Dinosaur Bone matching game (with polite things to say to each other)

My sister-in-law was a first grade teacher.  She gave me a lot of these file folder games.  Brielle especially loves doing these kind of activities.

 Books

I had no idea there were dinosaur names that start with every letter of the alphabet.  We learned a lot by reading ABC Dinosaurs.  The kids enjoyed looking at the book and deciding which kind of dinosaur they were as we were playing.  Gavin always wanted to be a meat eater, Ellie a plant eater.

At one point while I was busy cooking dinner or something Ethan was quiet for a while, which usually means trouble.  I went looking for him and found him 'reading' the dino books.  He loved them.

In the future, I saw this idea years ago and it still hangs out in my mind.  I'm waiting for the kids to get a little older with a longer attention span.  Then we will build a whole dinosaur using chicken bones.

Reading

Brielle has known the alphabet and letter sounds for a long time, but hasn't been interested in learning to read.  I've tried from time to time to have her read, but she would just guess at the words and get distracted.  James and I believe in the studies that show that it doesn't matter how early you learn to read, (what young kids read usually isn't life changing!) but the love of reading is what matters in the future. 

I heard about Bob books, and finally got them from the library.  Brielle got very excited when she learned that she could read the whole book by herself.  Right now she is loving her new found ability to read.  I am again wondering who came up with this awful English language.  It is hard to explain why 'the' just says the and to sight read it and don't try to sound it out.  And why does 'a' say 'uh' when it is by itself, but 'aaa' or 'ay' when combined with other letters?  That is just how our language works.  And, we're just at the beginning of all those crazy rules!
Ethan is so excited by Brielle's achievement, that he also takes a turn 'reading' to me every morning.  He pretends to sound out the words and loves it!  He doesn't know any letters of the alphabet yet, but is finally starting to sing them when singing the ABC song.  He used to sing the entire song using only the letters A and B.  Now THAT is impressive.