Yummy Granola

Tonight we made some homemade granola. We turned the oven on and waited for it to get preheated. In the meantime, Tanner had been trying to help cook. However, we didn't realize he had continued to help while we went in the living room. Wondering what he was up to we checked on him and saw that he had added almost an entire bottle of fennel to our granola and had mixed it in. He enjoys helping us cook but we weren't brave enough to taste his recipe so we made milkshakes instead.

What's New?

Start of School:
We have had an exciting start to the school year. The oldest is in Middle School and the next two are still in Elementary School. The oldest woke up before his alarm the first two mornings but this morning had to be woken up and he responded by telling me (insert whiny voice here), "I'm too tired, I don't want to go to school." So let it begin . . . early mornings getting ready for school. The other two do much better (mainly because they need to be ready for school 1 1/2 hours later than their older brother). They all seem to have good teachers and are enjoying their classes. I'm glad to be back into the normal routine. The evenings have been incredibly busy. The middle school has had 3 parent info/6th grade orientation/open house evenings in a week and then add band instrument rental night tonight and that makes 4 nights at the middle school in the last 9 days. That doesn't include regular things like Young Womens and church meetings, and Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts. This might be a good time to mention that I'm really glad that we chose not to do soccer this season.

Projects around the house:
Painting the trim on the house
Cleaning out the pool to store for the winter
Finding time to mow the lawn (or as our kids have said when they were little "mow lawning")

Work:
Tim has been back at work for a month and has enjoyed riding his bike to and from work most mornings. As for me, housecleaning is never-ending work and I'd always rather be playing than cleaning house.

Church:
Tim has been called to serve on the High Council which means I'll be without him on Sundays and he'll also have meetings during the week.
I'm busy with the Young Women. We used to be combined with the other ward and we just split to be on our own.

Bike to Work Week

A few weeks ago there was National Bike to Work/School Day. We got all the kids bikes fixed up and ready to go a few days before and then wasn't able to do it since the weather was horrible. Well, our area has Bike to Work Week and they have had various events throughout the week. I thought maybe we could bike the kids to school today but last night when the wind was really whipping, I told myself we better not go. Fast forward to this morning . . . a gorgious, sunny, perfectly nice morning with zero wind. I made a quick last minute decision and got all the bikes down and everyone ready as quick as I could. We were quite the train of bikes: Me, Little T. in the bike trailer, followed by 3 kids on their own bikes. When we left I really wasn't sure if we'd get there before the bell rang but the kids all did great, no problems and we parked our bikes as the bell rang . . . perfect timing. I had a good friend take the kids bikes home in her van and I rode back with Little T. It was a great morning.
Side Note: The 3+ mile ride to the school is much easier than the ride back to home. When you're in a car you don't notice that one way is slightly downhill and the other is slightly uphill but on a bike pulling a trailer it becomes very obvious!

Backpack, Backpack

Little T. recently got a fetish with having a backpack. All his brothers have a backpack for school so he was asking for one. Now he takes his backpack (regular size one that is as big as he is) everywhere. He keeps his cars and trains in it and the other day I saw him putting a pamphlet in it as he was saying "Need my Homework". Also, twice now he has gotten his backpack and put it on while the kids were heading out the door for the bus and turned to me and said "Bye Mom" as he headed for the door to try to catch the bus with his brothers. He is in such a cute stage!

Mother's Day

I had breakfast made for me by all my boys. This years menu: chocolate chip waffles, sausage, fresh sliced strawberries and bananas drizzled with chocolate syrup, orange julius. It was delicious. Better still, all the kids got all ready for church by themselves and I got ready with no distractions from beginning to end with no distractions (not sure if that's ever happened before). After church we went to see my mom and had a nice late lunch / early dinner. At home Tim has spoiled me with doing the dishes and keeping everything in order today.

I got some beautiful flowers from Tim and some homemade gifts from the boys: Tissue paper flowers in a flowerpot, a pen (made to look like a flower) in a flowerpot, a decorated egg carton to store my jewelry in, hand planted marigolds, starter plants of chives, tomatoes, and more marigolds, a lavender sachet, some great cards, and a beaded suncatcher. I also get to go buy some plants for the yard. It was a good day.

Movie Night

Since I had the kids by myself tonight we decided to have movie night. The kids' school was doing it tonight but I didn't feel like taking them to see "Shrek" so we did our own dinner and a movie. I made little tickets on the computer so they could be admitted to the movie and a ticket for their dinner. We had homemade pizza, soda, popcorn and ice cream. I let the kids set up one of their little tents in the living room and they snuggled down into their sleeping bags. We rented "Where the Wild Things Are" but actually didn't finish watching it. It was weird and kind of scary. The kids said it's nothing like the book so we turned it off and rented the new "Free Willy" movie and the kids liked it.

San Diego Vacation (Part 2)

On our second day in San Diego we went to Sea World. The kids really enjoyed everything; I thought there would be a bit more to see but it was still great.

This was the tank where the walruses were. They were fun to watch and they would come to the window and rub their belly on it as they did kind of a backflip in the water.


This was a simulated bear cave and there were spots that were real snow. But they also had speakers with bear growls and Tim tried to take little T. in there and climb around but as you can see from his face, he wasn't too thrilled about that and didn't believe when Dad told him it would be ok. He left that cave as quickly as he could.

Mom and the boys on the water ride right after me and 2 of the boys had gotten thoroughly soaked by Shamu during his show (the only part the kids didn't like was the taste of salt water in their mouth). Tim isn't a real fan of getting soaking wet and then walking around a large park the rest of the day. I don't mind so much; it's part of the fun. But it works out well since someone has to be with Little T. anyway.

The touch tank was fun for all the boys:

Big T. and Little T.

Little J.

Little T. looking at the Flamingos. They were really chatty and energetic since we got there just as they were feeding them.

Little T. actually got to touch a ray as it swam by. All the boys got a chance to do that.

Another picture at the tank with the rays.

A great ride was Journey to Atlantis. Here are Tim and Little J. just at the bottom of the log ride part (like splash mountain). Then it proceeds to put the boat on tracks and turns to a roller coaster. We all went on that a couple times and it was a lot of fun. It was a great ride.

On the third day we took the kids to Mission Beach to play in the waves, play in the sand, play with the kelp and all that fun ocean stuff. Little T.'s favorite part was playing in the sand. He even got buried by his dad. The other boys' favorite thing was searching for sand dollars and sea shells. Then in the afternoon we drove to a place that supposedly had good tide pools but we didn't find them and didn't search too hard since it was very windy there.

When we drove along the freeway Little T. (he's only 2) said "Temple, Temple!" Well, we couldn't be that close and not take the kids. Of course being on the temple grounds is great but when you have 4 boys it's also great that they have a giant grass hill great for rolling down.

We also stopped at Children's Beach and watched the seals and sea lions on the rocks. Although I enjoyed watched them push each other off the rocks and swim around and sun bathe, I couldn't keep Little T. interested in them. He was too busy laying on his tummy on the ground watching some ants.

This is Little T. playing at Mission Beach. We have some good pictures of him getting buried in the sand too but after I took those pictures Tim pointed out that maybe I shouldn't post them since the background had the girls next to us sunbathing in bikinis. I love his fake smile!

Children's Beach

On the day we drove home, we stopped at the church's historic site: The Mormon Battalion. If anyone is ever in San Diego you Have To go to this place. The little tour uses the latest technology and is fun for everyone. We heard about it when we visited the temple. When we searched for it we realized it was about 1 1/2 blocks from our hotel.

The kinds got to try their hand at panning for gold and they got to take some home too.