Spoons

For Christmas presents for some primary teachers, I had the kids make hot chocolate stirrers. So simple, fun, and CUTE!
The supplies
And the finished product...Preston and Ryan's spoons.
And Spencer's spoons.
We put a packet of hot chocolate and 3 or 4 stirrers into a mug...it was a quick and easy gift!

And for a change...

In case you were wondering what Hope's been up to...instead of kitty in a box, it's kitty in a bag! :)

 

Watch out for laser eyes!

Urbanathlon...or Urban Race

November 5th was a CRAZY day...I was getting over being sick and had things going on ALL DAY LONG. But they were all good things, so I was happy to do them, and it ended up being a really good day. It started out going with Gina to see Shane and Kris run the Urban Race, a 3 mile run with an obstacle course. We didn't get to see many of the obstacles, but it was fun to see them running! It was Shane's first race...Kris is a seasoned pro! :)
Here they come!
Finished!
And their team...the Nerd Herd

DBG Pumpkin Festival

In October, Shane and Kris kindly donated some free passes to us, and we went to the Desert Botanical Garden Pumpkin Festival. We played corny little carnival games, went on a hayride, and the kids got a free pumpkin to decorate.
It was still hot outside...REALLY hot...so by the time we finished pumpkin activities the kids didn't have much oomph left for exploring the actual garden trails. But we went to the butterfly garden, then headed over the special limited time only butterfly pavillion...(I can't take the POLITICS! :)
Preston and I would have like to spend a little more time there, but everyone was hot and tired so we decided to call it a day...but it was a fun day!

Disneyland...finally

David wanted to go to Disneyland for his mom's birthday this year. John and Rebecca were planning a trip, so we went with them. We had a lot of fun! The kids were, of course, in heaven. Even Spencer was happy most of the time. When we got there, Ryan wanted David to be his ride buddy, but after about two rides he only wanted to go with Savannah.

Jedi Training...Preston was the only one who wanted to do it.

Friday night we got tickets to the Disney Halloween party. As you can imagine, trick or treating at Disneyland was CRAZY! I think I had about 50 heart attacks thinking I had lost one (or more) of the kids!
The mist on the water that night looked pretty cool...and so did the Haunted Mansion/Nightmare Before Christmas decorations.
I refuse to go to Disneyland on a Saturday...any Saturday...it's way too crowded and just not worth it. So Saturday, I took the day off...had a wonderful, quiet day to myself. Then met back up with everyone that night for fireworks. I gave David a camera and told him to take pictures for me...he didn't. But Rebecca did!
(Savannah was NOT happy about rowing the boat! Ha ha ha! I just love pictures of miserable children...goodness knows I have enough of my own!)



The other thing I insisted on was a trip to the beach while we were there...(David was not too happy about going, but the kids I SWEAR had as much fun there as they did at Disneyland!)...we spent a couple of hours at CA Adventure that morning, went to the beach, then went back to CA Adventure that night for World of Color and a few more rides.
Our last day at Disney, I got some pictures of the Halloween decorations, and we took the kids souvenir shopping at Downtown Disney. We stopped at a park on the way home to eat dinner, and feed the ducks (and turtles!) in the lake.
I'm not sure how David felt about it (since he doesn't like to talk about things like this much...) but I found it sad, and a bit difficult being at Disneyland without Ruth. But it was also nice to be there where we have so many memories of her, to celebrate her birthday. And it was a lot of fun to be there with John and Rebecca and their kids! And, as usual (for me) I have to thank Rebecca for taking so many great pictures and sharing them with me! A lot of them are mine, but A LOT of the good ones are hers!