Atlantis Play Park

There is a park in Garden Grove that I remember going to as a child....it has a big stone dragon slide and a pirate ship. I couldn't remember where it was so I asked my oldest friend, Wendy, whom I have known since kindergarden and whom I gone with to said park. She remembered it too, but also could not recall the name. So she emailed her mom, Judy, who is currently living in Thailand and *viola!* she remembered the name: Atlantis Play Park.
The dragon slide is still there, though a bit smaller than I remember......but the kids are having a blast as I write this and I am enjoying wathing them have the same experience I had so many years ago.

Mobile Blogging from here.

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The Artiste

Our neighbors had a birthday party at the park and somehow I was assigned the job of face painting.......it actually turned out to be a lot of fun, and I see a great deal of face painting in our future! A sample of the results:

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A Whole New World

So. Ava can read. She read 43 pages of "Green Eggs and Ham" all by herself last night. If she doesn't recognize a word she can sound it out. If she can't sound it out she can spell it out for me or Brian. Clearly she is a genius.
I can't express how excited I am for her. She has the key to 1,000 lands, endless skills, all knowledge. The begininng of a great journey.
Bon Voyage!

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Movie?

Trying something new.....let's see if this works. This is a movie from way back in November of 2006; the kids were just over 2 years old. Cate cracks me up in this....

Off to School We Go!

The kids started pre-Kindergarten on September 3rd. Such a big day!! They are going to St. Stephen's Lutheran School, at the Lutheran church by our house. Not that we are Lutheran, but it's close and our God-daughter (who is also not Lutheran) went there and loved it. They only teach pre-K and K, and have been doing it for decades. Their teacher is Mrs. Barillier (Baa-rill-EE-A) and she looks like she could be June Cleaver's slightly more stylish best friend. The kids love their new school, love their new friends, and are having a blast. I, on the other hand, am having tremendous anxiety over packing their lunches every day - my God, the pressure! WHO KNEW? I want them to eat healthy food, but I also don't want them to be those kids, you know the ones, the ones who come to school with carob clusters and all-natural sweetened-only-with-fruit-juice oat brannie O's and try to trade with the other kids for normal foods like cookies and, yeah, that's never going to happen. But I also don't want to fill their lunch boxes with Oreos, potato chips and Ding-Dongs. Where is my happy medium? WHERE?

Okay, enough angst. Pictures!

And So It Begins......

Today we spent a few hours in the pool at Jessie and Nigel's place. It was a perfect day for the pool; a hot-ish 85o with a slight breeze. The water was cool and lovely and the kids splashed and played, racing each other from one end of the pool to the other. Then Ava decided she wanted to visit the "hot pool", so we moved the party over there. Even though the day was hot and the water was even hotter I could have stayed in there all day. I do love me a good hot tub.

Jack was inching in, dramatically wincing at the heat. He stuck his feet in, then went to his knees, then mid thigh, then the water hit his crotch and he straightened back up quickly. I asked him if he was okay, to which he replied "My penis doesn't like the hot". "Oh?" "Yes. My penis doesn't know if it wants to come in. It's deciding".

Apparently his penis has a brain. I related the story to Jessie, who said "Well, at least he acknowledges it. Admitting it is the first step". So true.

Sea Crags #3

Woodland children.

Ava on the swing.

At the river.

Mimi and the Guncles.

Another wonderful trip! We are looking forward to heading up again at Thanksgiving! The old house is coming along, and with a few more improvements we should be able to stay in it. That will be a great day.