Family Visit Part II -- Splash!

Oh no, here are the girls smothering Nana with their love. Or is it drippiness?

And just in case you don't recognize the shape of her feet in all that water, this is Journey!

This was our family's first visit to the new La Mirada Splash! We chose a great day to go since it was HOT HOT HOT over the weekend. The girls spent lots of time splashing and going down the slides.

Personally, I feel they really need to change the name of the "lazy river" to the "stressful river" because it was stressing us out! First, it is easy to get on the river, but can be challenging fighting against the current to get OUT of the river. Second, just when you get nice and comfortable, something squirts or drops cold water on you. Not relaxing at all!

Thumbs up, WAY UP, for having The Big Straw handle concessions. We've been there lots of times with Claire and they know all about her allergies. It was so nice to order her favorite drink, "Strawberry Heaven" and feel confident there would be no dairy in it.

I have a feeling we are going to be spending lots of time at Splash! this summer.

Family Visit Part I

We had a lovely weekend with my parents, uncle and nieces. So much to write about, but I know exactly where to start. It is with this little sculpture Jordan made at the Bowers Kidseum. I'm so glad I got a photo... and that it was actually in focus!

We went to Bowers to see the Terra Cotta Warriors exhibit. Claire learned about them in her history class and was so excited to see in person what she had been learning about. Who knew she would get to meet an actual Terra Cotta Warrior live and in person!



He looked like a real statue. That is, until he moved. It was very strange. Not sure exactly what was all over his body but he looked completely made of clay.

Happy Father's Day

Food everyone will eat.... Potato Oyaki

My daily goal is to be able to cook one dinner each night that everyone in my family will eat and enjoy. When it happens, it is beautiful.

Main dish for tonite was Potato Oyaki. I have never made this before; but with some slight modifications I could tell Claire could eat it. Bonus: it looked like something Ben would like, so I went for it.

It had a lot of steps ... making mashed potatoes, creating dough with it, chopping veggies and making the meat soboro ... assembling the oyaki and then frying them in a pan. I was really tired.

Verdict: Ben LOVED them. Ellie and Claire liked them too, but they preferred I would have made them without the extra soy sauce brushed on. It did make for a stronger flavor. Next time I'll make it with extra soy only for Ben, and I'll make Ellie and Claire's plain.

The soboro by itself is DELICIOUS. I plan to make that many more times to eat with rice.

Potato Oyaki, give it a try!

The Oregon Trail

Today was the big play for Ellie's 3rd grade class. Ellie was in a play about the Oregon Trail and she played "Grammy".

So how did you like being in the play? I felt very nervous.

What was the most important thing about the role of Grammy? The most important part was giving peppermint sticks to the children ... Caddy, Gem and Baby Sarah.

What were you wearing? I was wearing a long brown skirt, a white shirt, an apron and a bonnet. My favorite thing to wear was the bonnet.

What did you learn about the Oregon Trail? What life was like. It was very hot. And ... um... and very long clothes.

Why did people go West? I don't know. Maybe because they wanted to do what they want without any laws?

Thanks for the interview Grammy .... um.... Ellie.

Crazy!

Today was Crazy Hair Day at Ellie's school. She has been talking about this day for a long time.

Planning.

Worrying.

Will I be crazy enough? Too crazy?

Note the large loops of hair on top.

In the car, on the way home from school, I asked her how it went.

Her answer from the backseat .... "crazy!"

My favorite day is Monday.

Today Claire worked very hard on her writing assignment. She wrote a first draft, made corrections, and then two more copies to get her page just right.

Sadly, we did not realize that this writing exercise would foreshadow dire events to come.

Today, as luck would have it, was the "favorite" day of Monday. Gymnastics day.

Everything went exactly as Claire likes it. She saw her friends. Ellie and I were there to watch.

The last event of the class involves the girls standing in line, waiting for their turn to run and jump and practice throwing up their hands and "sticking" that landing. Claire is watching the girls taking their turns. Claire's neighbor is bored and tries for a handstand. Her hands go down, her legs fly up, and one hits Claire right in the cheekbone. Ouch!

Claire is crying. The girl is crying. The teacher goes to get ice. Thankfully, after the swelling goes down, it turns out Claire is OK. I think the majority of the swelling was from crying.

I believe Claire learned a valuable, valuable lesson today.

Monday is never, anyone's, favorite day.

Almost summer!

We've been working hard trying to get Claire's schoolwork done so we can take a much needed break this summer.

Yesterday we completely finished the art lessons for first grade. That was, by far, Claire's favorite class!

There are only 2 lessons left in science, 2 left in math ... although the semester seemed to last forever, it also went by too quickly.

Ellie is excitedly getting ready for her final week of school. Foremost in her mind ... crazy hair day and the play her class is doing on the Oregon Trail.