Back to school

Happy day and sad day all mixed together.

The kids started back to school today.

Happy that the kids will be back together with all their friends and happy that the house will be quiet again.

Sad because I really miss them. I miss the noise in the house (other than the pounding that started around noon) I miss being with my kids. K misses her kids too. She looks sad today. :(

Normally I take photos by the front door. Well, couldn't do that today so found a new photo spot. Had to say please many times to get a quick chance for a picture.

Greg in 4th grade. Greg is thrilled to have the teacher he has. He knows the other boys in his class but none of his best friends are in his class. That is ok. He will see them at recess and lunch. Plus the kids switch teachers for reading and math groups. I am sure his buds will be in his reading or math group.

Evelyn is in 6th grade which is middle school at our school. The classrooms (portables) are in "the village" The middle school building is in the process of being built so we will get to see it's progress through out the year. Evelyn is thrilled to have the homeroom teacher she has. None of her girl friends are in her homeroom class. She knows some of the girls. She seemed a bit sad but knows that homeroom is only for like 15 minutes a day. Then they switch for all their classes and Evelyn knows she will see more friends there. Also at recess and lunch. This is a good chance for Evelyn to make some new friends too.

Parents can go to the kids classes on the first day of school. School doesn't start until 8:30 so we had one more day of kinda sleepin in. we went to Greg's class first and he found his desk. Then to Evelyn's class with Greg coming along too.

It was nice to see some of my mom friends again too and briefly catch up with people. I am closely watching my clock so I won't be late for pick up. Looking forward to a new and exciting (really??) school year.

Let's spend a little time with Evelyn now

No, this is not the Greg blog.It's a family blog. Where I can write, brag, vent, about what I want to. Mostly write about the family, the kids, the dog.

While Evelyn is at all Greg's games cheering on the team, and playing with the other sisters who are younger than her, Evelyn does have interests of her own. She is quite the young horse woman. She has loved horses for years, gone on trail rides and somehow convinced grandma she needed riding lessons for her birthday. Well, that has turned into weekly riding lessons and dreams of becoming a professional barrel racer.


Since we don't live in the country or have a vast amount of acreage behind our house, Evelyn takes lessons in the heart of Lake Forest. It's a very nice equestrian center nestled back in the trees with nice arenas and even a great riding trail. We have met the nicest people there too, and the greatest horses.


Evelyn is taking Western lessons. She looks like she has been on a horse all her life. Her horse love is Freckles, a stubborn older guy who doesn't like attention and would rather show you his back side. She controls him like a pro in the arena and gives him plenty of hugs and pats and shows him that she loves him unconditionally. Maybe he is warming to this sweet young lady who loves to ride him and dreams of owning him and him alone one day.


Today Evelyn is moving to a more advanced riding lesson. She will be riding with older riders. Should have seen the smile on this girls face, like a jack arsh with a mouth full of bumble bees. I am so excited too and can't wait to see this girl in action.

Over spring break Evelyn attended a one day riding camp at the stables. Oh what fun these gals had. The did competitions, painted the horses, won awards and had a horsey great time, y'all. Evelyn won a few ribbons too. She proudly displays them in her room (messy though it be) Here are some fun photos of the day.

Girls just havin' a fun ole time painting this sweet horse. Can't remember her name but she is so sweet. And she looked so purdy when she was done.
I believe she was summer and spring. The girls were in 2 teams. Each team had a theme to paint their horse.
The other side, the other side, the other side o' this horse.
Oh, just lovely.

Oh, hello there Evelyn. Gotcha!!
Here are the girls waitin' to get their awards for their hard work that mornin'.
Sweet! Evelyn won 3rd and 6th for the 2 events she did. Yee haw!!
Lookie Lookie. How great is that!
The group o' campers proudly showin' off their awards from the day.
Here's a closer view of Evelyn and that's her riding instructor behind her, Miss Nicole. Woah! Back the horse trailer up! Is Evelyn almost as tall as Miss Nicole? Did I forget to mention how tall Evelyn is getting. Hard to keep her in clothes and shoes lately.
Here is one of our favorite horses at the stable. A big ole' sweet horse who can be very intimidating at first given his size.

I must also say , that this girl of mine is just the sweetest, kindest, sweetest, beautiful people I know.Did I say she was the sweetest? Sure she has her moments, but not that many like others in this house who will remain nameless. She is kind, friendly, patient, funny, loving, sweet, kind, a wonderful friend, adventurous, patient, a beautiful young woman, a super friend, sweet, kind, a super sister, loving, funny, and just has a wonderful soul. Can't find enough great words to describe this girl of mine. Just wonderful, super, mine. She just goes with it, hardly a complaint, always happy, always helpful, always her. We have fun hanging out together. I love watching her ride horses and just hanging out with her. She loves to run with me and I am afraid one day here will out run me with those long legs of hers.


So, that's my Evelyn, my girl. You are wonderful, awesome, you are definitely you. One day you will fulfill your dream, you will have a horse and you will be riding. One day. Don't ever loose sight of your dream. Never. Never. Not ever.

All Stars

So, our baseball days are no where near over.

GREG MADE ALL STARS!!!!

Tryouts were on Friday. I still was not feeling good, actually feeling worse than ever. Greg came home from school not feeling well either. But I still took Greg to All Star tryouts. It actually was nice to get outside in the fresh. I hung around for awhile until Tom got there and then headed home.

There was a scrimmage scheduled for Sunday morning for the players who were called back. We got a message on Saturday for Greg to be at the scrimmage on Sunday.

Scrimmage went ok. Greg pitched, played 1st, 3rd and left field. They had the boys playing all over as they wanted to see them in different positions.

So, later Sunday, I am changing to go running. I thought I heard the phone ring and heard the kids talking. They were playing webkinz. I asked "did the phone ring?" answer "yes"
Me: "well who was it?"
E: "it was for Greg"
M: "who was calling?"
G"coach Jones"
M "oh, what was he calling about?"
G"All stars"
M "and.........? what did he say?"
G "That I made All Stars"
M "Great! And did he say anything else?"
G "That he would either call or send an email about the practice schedule"
M "Ok Great! and what did you say?"
G "OK"

End of conversation. This was one tired kid. He stayed the night at G's house and was up late. Tom picked him up at 8 am Sunday morning for the scrimmage. He was tired and cranky and more interested in furnishing his webkinz house than talking to me at the moment.

But very exciting. And yesterday Greg was more excited about the news and asked if I got an email about the practice schedule.

Our TOC (playoffs) start this week. Our game is Wednesday. Then Saturday. Closing ceremonies are June 14. And that is our last regular season game. Then I heard the All Stars have their first game that afternoon.

Also, the MV Sox tournament team are playing in 2 tournaments this summer. July. One in San Diego and the other in the Inland Empire. Not sure where that one is.

Looks like it will be a base ball summer.

Congrats Greg!!

My Zingz

Check out www.myzingz.com. It's a Fiskars product. I signed up right away when I heard about. Got some free ones in the mail for the kids. And you can see what Evelyn did with hers. Pretty neat-o. She decorated her guitar hero guitar with Zingz.

Taste of America

The 5th graders are learning American History this year. Each student as assigned a state and had to do a state report. Then, for Taste of America, they had to make a dessert recommended by the Governor or know from that state and share it with the entire 5th grade, parents and guests. They had to either dress appropriate for their state or wear formal uniforms. They had to display their dessert, report and travel brochure on their desk and be prepared to answer questions about their state. They were all graded on this.

Lollipops were first made in Connecticut. Evelyn's state. Evelyn wanted to make lollipops for this event. At first it was to be 100, then Evelyn said 120, then it went to 200 and the last buzz was 60. Well, we made 140 on Monday.

Wednesday after school, Evelyn arranged the lollipops in a basket and made signs for the flavors. She also made a Connecticut sign. Connecticut is has many beaches, so Evelyn dressed like she was a tourist headed to the beach. Brought her beach towel, which was draped on her desk, she wore her sunglasses on her head, shorts and a t shirt. She did look cute :)


I really had no idea what to expect at this event. Let me tell you it was exciting, fun, chaotic and crowded. The desks were lined up in rows in the 4 classrooms and the hall. All the desserts, etc... were displayed, kids in costumes, etc... Elvis was even there. After a few desserts, I had had enough. I got a cup and just collected desserts in the cup and it was overflowing. I left it for Evelyn as she also wanted to sample desserts. the kids did have a chance to walk around at the end of the evening.

To view the recipe for the lollipops, click here for my Tasty Reviews site. The lollipops were a hit. We didn't bring many back home.

Walk Through America and Betsy Ross

This year Evelyn is learning American History. I love it too as I love history. And it's also fun because I have been to a lot of the places they are studying about and we have taken the kids to some of those places too.


In 1976, my family took a 2 month vacation across the country. We hooked up our tent trailer to our trusty Chevy station wagon and off we went, from California to Maine and back again. Several years ago, we took a business/ family vacation back east. In November. Cold. We visited Washington DC, Valley Forge, Philadelphia, Gettysburg, Mt. Vernon, Arlington Cemetery (not necessarily in that order and I probably forgot some places too).


So, a few weeks ago, the 5th grade classes experienced a Walk Through America. Each class individually had their own "Walk". Each child was assigned a historical character. Evelyn was Betsy Ross. So cool as we had been to Betsy Ross' house in Philly. In 7th grade history, I made an American flag like Betsy made for extra credit.


The "Walk" was about 2 hours. There is a company that puts it on, and the narrator narrates the story while the students act out different parts.


Evelyn's group were Hessians at the battle of Concord and the soldiers at Valley Forge (we were there). Evelyn also had to stand up and give a short speech about making the first American flag. She used my flag as a prop. When the narrator asked her who made the flag, Evelyn said "my mom" and he quickly added "no, Betsy, you made it" then commented that it was a replica of the first flag and not a current one like most people bring. The kids get points for their part in the walk. Evelyn got the max of 50 for her costume, speech and her prop! The kids were in 3 teams, red, white and blue, earning points for their team.


Here are pictures of the Walk Through America.





The stage area and the puzzle is the 13 colonies. A few kids were asked up to put the puzzle back in place after it was scrambled.
Evelyn, aka Betsy, walking in, followed by George Washington.
Here is Betsy and her white team working on a timed quiz to answer questions of events they just reinacted.
Betsy coming back in after the break
This is the reenactment of the battle of Concord. It is Christmas Eve and the Hessian soldiers are exchanging gifts, unaware of the surprise of the attack lead by George Washington.
It's night time, sleeping with their (fake) guns
Now, fast forward to Valley Forge. The kids are American Soldiers, huddling around a fire in the harsh winter. George Washington is standing.
And of course, the kids had to sing Yankee Doodle
Here is Betsy waiting her turn. The girl at the right played a soldier.
Betsy talking about making the flag. This is the flag I made. Her skirt is one my mom made for me for Christmas when I was about Evelyn's age. It's like a pinafore, and made with antique lace. The bonnet is one my great great grandmother on my mom's side actually wore.
Betsy and the narrator discussing the flag.
Here is the narrator. He was quite the comic and made things fun. He didn't use a script and knew his history very well.
Oops, here is Greg running through America. When we got out, Greg's class was in PE and running the mile. We had to walk through their run and I had to get this photo of Greg. didn't realize it at the time, but I messed up his run. He forgot to get his stick and had to go back to get it. I guess each time they pass the PE coach, they get a stick to remind them how many times they have gone around the course.
Greg making his way through the parents and other kids.

Riding, Baseball, Soccer, Football --- all in one weekend

And you thought we were done for awhile, didn't you :) We thought so too, but we only had a short break. I will splain........
Evelyn has horseback riding lessons every Friday night, unless it is raining or too windy. Greg came with us Friday. When Evelyn gets out of the ring to do a stable walk, Greg likes to walk around too and we pet the horses. Most welcome a good scratch on the chin or the forehead. And of course, our feet were caked in mud and who knows what else after doing many laps around the stables, in the dark. Evelyn is really progressing in her riding lessons and so loves it. She wants to be a barrel racer and dreams of her own horse one day.

Saturday morning we were up early for baseball tryouts. I got Greg in the earliest group so we could make his soccer game. He saw some old team mates and coaches and it was great to catch up with some parents. Tryouts seemed to go well for Greg. Let's keep our fingers crossed for the draft! Since Greg was not at his regular try out time, his number was last. Time was getting late for us and Greg had not batted yet. I made a plea to a coach who was helping with try outs to let Greg bat early as he had a soccer game. Plea granted, Greg hit great, then we raced out of there to get to the soccer field.

Made it to the soccer field 10 minutes before game time. Whew! This league is a 5 on 5, short field, small goals and no goalie. Pretty much the boys play where they want, which is all over the place. Some different rules than AYSO soccer. Greg's team won 3 - 2 and Greg scored a goal! He was worried about those small goals. Well, I guess not anymore. I told Greg to remember this is not football and to keep his arms down when he is running with the ball. He is not supposed to block or push like he can in football. At least he did not get called for it, this time.

Home from soccer, to shower, eat lunch and then get K to the vet. She needed shots (0uch!!) and blood work for the hip meds she is on. K made a new friend at the vet, this huge white dog that just loved her. She did so well with Mr. big white dog and his little Mrs. black dog friend too. Maybe she is relenting her superiority in her older age. :)

Home time for a relaxing afternoon and evening. Evelyn took a nap (yeah!), Greg played football in Wii land and played with the neighbors, while I did some more scrapping. I was on a roll and so needed to get some done. yeah me! We watched "Aragon" which was so awesome! The dragon was so cool!

Now it's football time and we skip to Sunday. We all slept in Sunday morning. Headed to church and then to Frudruckers for Greg's football banquet. Almost everyone was there so we had quite the crowd and had our own room. Of course the Chargers game was on (Go Chargers!!) It was great to see all the players and parents and catch up with them too:) The coach handed out the trophies and gifts for the kids and we watched a great photo presentation and video one of the dad's made. And we each got a copy!! Greg is all pumped up for football next year and sign ups are only a few months away.

So, that was about the jist of our weekend. 4 sports all in one weekend. Wow! It's crazy, but I love it!
Update on Evelyn's knee: She used her crutches on Saturday but not on Sunday. She can straighten out her knee now and it doesn't hurt as much. One more week of staying off it as much as she can.

A day at the Doctors

Wednesday turned out to be quite a day. Greg had to get a tooth pulled as he has a permanent tooth growing on the outside of the baby tooth. We had a referral to an oral surgeon for a tooth extraction. Tom took Greg to the oral surgeon for his 8:30 appointment. No problem there. Greg came home in good spirits with a mouth packed with gauze and blood tinted drool. He also had his tooth which he proudly showed me. I helped Greg get more gauze in his mouth to stop the bleeding and drooling, gave him a yogurt smoothie and then was on my way to my Dr. appointment.
This one was for my wrist. Bothers me all the time. I have had my nerve conductive study which confirms what I know so now have been referred to an orthopedic surgeon for more evaluation. I was home from that appointment within an hour.
Now on to Evelyn. She was also home as she hurt her knee ice skating Friday and was still hobbling around on it. Her knee was very swollen when she got home from school on Tuesdsay. I called the dr. office Wednesday morning and got her an appointment for 2:00.
In between appointments, the kids were reading, doing school work and having fun in the land of Wii.
We didn't wait long till we were seen by the Dr. She gave us the news that Evelyn has jammed her knee joint. It's like when you jam your finger and the knuckle gets sore and swollen. Well, that's her knee. Evelyn needs a brace and what did she say??? Crutches? Yes that was right. Crutches for a few days. And to keep off her knee as much as possible for 2 weeks. Ok. Now it gets fun.
We head to this great out of the way pharmacy recommended by the dr. It's Cal-Med pharmacy across from the YMCA on Trabucco and Marguerite. If you need a medical appliance or first aid item.....that's the place to go. A very nice lady helped us get the right brace for Evelyn's knee and measured her for crutches. (Evelyn is 5'2"!!) We opted to rent crutches rather than buy. But the only pair left was way too small even after adjusting them as much as we could. Argh!! Now what???
I planned to go home and check out the phone book and start calling. But then I remembered a few people who had crutches at one time and started calling them on the way home. Success! Eric said they still had Chrissy's crutches from when she broke her foot years ago. Told him we would meet him after 5:00.
This did relieve some anxiety but I was so ready for a nap by then. It was just one thing after another all day long. But I didn't nap. I went back in the office to finish up some work, and also made sure the kids had all their school work and reading done before heading back to Wii land.
We got the "crunches" from Eric and Chrissy. That is what Jake called them :) We stayed for awhile to chat and play with Jake and Nathan. Then we picked up my mom and went to Corner Bakery to get some soup for dinner. It was tasty and just what I needed. Helped to clear up my head ache. And soup was a good meal for Greg.
Greg did not complain at all about his tooth. Evelyn is getting used to her knee brace and moving around on crunches, oops, crutches. Greg said he would carry her back pack to class for her. Nice brother he is :)
I had enough of doctors for one day. Next dr. visit is next Monday when the kids have dentist appointments. Just a check up and good timing too to make sure Greg's mouth is doing fine.
I hope today will be a quiet day. Please, pretty please :)

OC Marathon

It was cold and gloomy and looked like rain but we still headed out early for the OC Marathon. Why???

The kids had been training for the Kids run. During PE at school, they were training and ran for a total of 25 miles . The kids run at the OC Marathon was 1.2 miles and would be their final leg in the 26.2 miles of the marathon. While the marathon and half marathon started at Fashion Island in Newport Beach, the kids run and the 5K were at the Irvine Spectrum, much closer to home.

Evelyn hurt her knee on Friday when her and Tom were ice skating. She still hobbled along with us to cheer on Greg. Greg found his buddies Gregory and David to run with. We also saw Gavin and coach Skinner from football and many other people we knew.




The boys decided to run at 9:00 with the 11 and 12 year olds. Their time was 9:30. Greg is to the left of the photo almost standing next to the man in the black sweat pants and sweat shirt.
Ronald McDonald was there to entertain and talk about the Ronald McDonald houses. The world record holder for the 100 m was also there. I forget his name, but he is from Jamaica and will be running in the 2008 Olympics. :) Here he is. And that is Greg just to the left of him.

The air horn blasted and the kids were off. Greg was at a full on sprint. I told him to pace himself. Oh well. He's up there near the front of the group and I know which shoe is his :)

Gregory was the first of the group to come in. Evelyn thinks he was about the 6th runner in. Greg was in the top 20.

After the kids finished the race, they each got a participation medal. More awards will be handed out at school. Greg was pretty winded but was fine in just a few minutes. He is already talking about doing more races. That's my boy!
I asked the kids what they wanted for breakfast and it was unanimous, Starbucks. We ended up driving north on Alton and this was the route of the marathon. We didn't see any runners this time. We went to the closest Starbucks I knew of and then headed back to Alton. We parked in a parking lot facing the street and sat in our warm cozy car with our Starbucks waiting for runners to go past us. We sat for almost 30 minutes and maybe saw 20 runners go past. Some looked exhausted while others looked like they just started running. At this point the runners had about 3 miles left of the race.

Greg and Evelyn are now talking about training to run 5k races. We have worked out a training schedule and just need for the rain to let up so we can get started.

Cookie decorating

Sunday we decorated cookies, lots of cookies, lots and lots of cookies. The kids each invited a friend over to decorate cookies and take home what they decorated. And of course they had to get a little silly by decorating their faces. After decorating for a bit the went outside to run around and jump on the trampoline to get rid of the sugar high from eating probably as much frosting as they put on the cookies!

yummy!!