A Real Bummer

Ethan brought home another stomach flu type virus a week ago that was going around his preschool. Poor guy! The worst part about it was it causes the STINKIEST GAS EVER and a lot of it. His poor tummy would become so bloated and hard he looked pregnant.

Well Graham had it on Fri. and now Zach has a very mild version of it....but oh that gas.

Yesterday in a rush of morning mayhem I some how forgot to help brush Zach's teeth. Last night when brushing before bed I apologized for forgetting in the morning and said something about all the girls thinking he had stinky breath.

His response, "Mom I have such stinky gas right now no one noticed my breath and they don't even want to be my friend."

Oh it's days like this you just ache for the little guys as it takes you back to all the humiliating moments of childhood.

Party Central

Turning 6 mid week has it's Advantages and Disadvantages.

Blueberry Muffins for a birthday breakfast......
Advantage:)

Made by Dad.....
Advantage (for mom anyway:)

Hearing the phone ring @ 6:30AM & 7:00AM.....
Disadvantage:(

Grandmas on the other end with birthday wishes....
Advantage:)

Opening Grandma Slocombe's gift (a Bionicle) while on the phone with her.....
Advantage:)
Grandma Jenkins bought Zach and early present (Power Miners Lego Set) when she came to visit in the fall.

Homemade Brownie Pops to share with my class @ snack time......
Advantage:)Having class sing you Happy Birthday in English, Arabic, & Spanish....
Advantage:)

Having one classmate that doesn't eat sweets....
Advantage:) for Ethan that is.

No birthday party because it's a school night....
Disadvantage:(

Backyard Treasure Hunt for family present (Crystal Skull Lego Set)
Advantage:)

This years birthday was all about Ben 10 so the cake was an Omnitrix.
This cartoon boy superhero is all the rage here among elementary age boys.

This was Zach's cake and guess who had to make it.......yes me. Of course Chris had a field job that had him working nights (the story of my life). So again cake duty was diverted to me. Actually this was an easy one and I had a fun time using new tips and creating crazy colors. I was pretty happy with the results.

On to the Weekend!

Chris has been wanting to take the boys camping for quite some time and it just hasn't worked out. So when his night job got canceled due to equipment failure they loaded up the chariot with gear and headed up the street.

Our neighbors across the street have these Jebels behind their house.
Which made the perfect back drop for .....

...a father and son camp out birthday party, not Zach's, but our neighbor Julian's.
The evening was filled with Jebel Exploration, Orienteering, Knot Tying, Hot Dog Roasting, and Marshmallow Melting.

Moms and Sisters (Nyah, Julian's sister & Isabel, below) helped with the set up....

but then went inside for a makeup party of their own.

I know Chris enjoyed the Dad time even though he was on very little sleep. Another good thing that came out of the evening was that all the Dads and boys are eager to start a scouting troop here again....run by the dads not the moms (yeah!)

The morning after Chris wasn't sure if there was more sand in the tent or out of the tent.

After putting all the camping gear away and washing the smoke smell off the boys we then got ready for all those boys and a few girls to come over and celebrate Zach's birthday at our house.

Aliens attacked our backyard and left their.....

Alien goo (cornstarch and water) all over for the kids to play with.

If you've never played with this concoction it is sooooo cool. It looks liquid but when you pick it up it dries then will ooze down again like a liquid.

Next we wrote secret messages with invisible ink and had them developed.

The last game was a race to see which Ben 10 team could kill the most aliens first. We had two teams line up. We sent one player from each team across the yard where they had to pop a ballon with and alien face on it. They then had to run back and tag the next player.

Enough with the fun let's eat cake!

It was a bit breezy and difficult to keep the candles lit.

And open the presents. Zach's friends were very generous he got some great stuff including:
money, remote control cars, (mini) pinball machine, Ben 10 Wii game, Lego stuff, Ben 10 paper pack.

Zach also got a very coveted gift from his Aunt Lauren....a Star Wars Lego Encyclopedia.
"THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!" was all he could say!

There was some jumping on the trampoline, a Clone Mineral (gift bag wrapped in tinfoil) Treasure Hunt, and good ole plastic bubble blowing fun for the rest of the afternoon.

Happy 6th Zachary.

Mr. Sandman

The park next to our house has suddenly become very exciting again....at least to one member of the family. If the front door gets left openby a big brother, I am sure to find Graham high crawling it toward the park.

For a crawler, that is still a bit of a distance but it in no way deters him. He actually has started walking and is doing a stellar job but the max distance is about 8 steps.

Notice the Rt. eye (little weepy and small). We are still battling chronic eye infections for this little guy. We will be meeting with the Ped. Ophthalmologist again next week to see what our options are now as antibiotics and massage are becoming ineffective.

The other day I kept finding little piles of sand like this all around the house. Or little trails from one play area to the next. Yes, you say that shouldn't be unusual as you live in the desert but it all happened in a short amount of time. After a little reconnaissance Mr. Mischief informed me that when we were outside he had .......

filled Grahams diaper with an entire 12oz. water bottle worth of sand.
THAT'S A LOT OF SAND!
It all made sense now. Just prior to lunch the 3 of us had been on the back porch. When I went out I saw the bottle of sand and Graham was playing with it. A few minutes later I saw the empty bottle tossed in the grass and thought that was weird. I didn't think Graham could open it and I didn't see sand dumped anywhere. Ethan was gone by this point so I didn't give it another thought. We went inside to get lunch ready for the crew and that's when I started finding little sand piles. When I finally pulled Graham out of his high chair it too was full of sand.
And of course he never complained once.

Graham is also starting to demonstrate dangerous addictive behaviors. Such as pulling out drawers to use as steps, jumping off the arm of the couch landing a perfect belly flop, and eating out of the garbage.

What can I say....he's had very good teachers. The whole couch thing is about giving me a heart attack. I can't leave him alone in the room with his toys because the second I step away for even a moment he climbs the couch, gets on the arm, and stands there without holding on. The kid is just learning to balance on the flat floor for Pete's sake so I have to be sure not to make any sudden movements when I find him like this or he'll go over backward. And let me tell you we have yet to drop something, even from a short distance, on this tile floor that hasn't cracked or broken completely.

His favorite garbage is the kitchen. He just can resist the little pop up lid and it is just the right level for trouble. I've caught him eating veggies out of the garbage that I had TRIED to feed him at dinner but he absolutely refused and tossed off his tray. Why do kids do this? I've also found him after a meal eating the dried out spoiled remnants off the floor around his highchair. Why didn't he just eat them the first time when they were fresh. And when crawling outside he can't pass a puddle with out taking a sip or two!

Yet, I still can't help kissing that adorable face.

A Little Boy's Dream Come True

After MONTHS of hoping....

WEEKS of asking....
DAYS & DAYS of waiting....

It was finally here, the day Zach had been talking about for AGES!
LEGO LAND!And he throws up literally as he's walking out the door.

In a matter of 3 seconds his dream of a lifetime (at least the last 8 months), was tossed just like him morning toast.

As Zach was tucked back into bed for the day his brother and cousins drove away to fulfill his DREAM.

Sometimes parents make mistakes. Yes, it's tough to admit but both Ryanne and I made a drastic one only days before this picture. We took all our small children on the eerie, dark, and stomach dropping ride......

The Tower of Terror!

It is by far my favorite Disney ride. I can do without all the twist and turns of a roller coaster but the sudden and irregular drops that elevator ride makes gives me such a rush!

The kids were kinda freaking out in line as you hear all the moaning and such from the speakers. We reassured them it wasn't that scary......but, apparently to them it was.

Connor was so upset we thought he soiled himself but the tough guy didn't.

Ethan after said, "I don't want to ride this ride. I don't want to see this ride. I don't want to even be near this ride ever again."

Luckily it's tucked away at the back of the park so we were able to oblige.

So this brings us to this picture...this ride is a similar concept but on a smaller, bright, tamer scale.

But the kids still didn't think so.

It was absolutely incredible what can be created with Legos.

I mean in the past I was always impressed with my little engineers' creations but this takes it too a whole new level.

Just keep in mind when going....this is very much a kiddie park. Once the Lego structure become unimpressive it's time to leave the park because there are no thrill rides.

Lego Land Part Two!
Thankfully our travel schedule allowed for us to stay in California an extra day. So after we said a sad farewell to all our dear family we drove back down to San Diego so that Zach's Nightmare Day could indeed become a Dream Come True.

Loved the workers cleaning the ear wax! What you can't see is that they are moving back and forth with the Q-tip.

This band was really rocking out!

There were many Santa scenes added in places for the holidays.

It was really cool to see places I love to visit in real life captured in Lego miniature.

This ride was tough. To even compete you need two adults.

For us Zach was in tears at the end because we were so behind we didn't really get time to do all the steps. Because it was a race against other teams that had two adults we just couldn't keep up.

Lego Drivers.....start your engines!
Luckily the boys driving group was mostly older kids who could actually make it around the track. Other groups had super inexperienced kids that kept causing major traffic jams and pretty much wasted the entire time.

Graham was such a sport as Mom and Dad often had to trade off to do the rides with the bigger boys.

After you work and work to pull yourself up....

then you get to drop all the way down.

The last ride of the evening!
Thanks to Graham the boys got quadruple the fun.
This coaster is not a long ride, therefore they let everyone ride it two times in a row. When it came to our turn they 1. Let us ride up front. 2. All sit together 3. Let the parents trade off!
The fact that the boys got to ride the ride 4 times consecutively completely blew their minds! (You already go through twice since the track is so short).

Just a note. Don't go and expect to NOT buy your kids a Lego set. Since Christmas was only days before we planned ahead that the boys gift from Mom and Dad would be to pick out a set at the park. Also it is advisable to buy it at the beginning of the day when the stores are empty instead of the end when everyone buys something on the way out. They will hold your purchases for you and you can pick them up on the way out of the park.

Was it worth it! For Zach and Ethan yes! For Mom & Dad it was fun the first day but a bit torturous the 2nd time around one, because again, no thrill rides and two, the crowds were drastically larger the 2nd day.