Day 1: The Longest Day

ROAD TRIP!!!

It has been 5 years since we hit the road, as a family, for an extended period of time. Therefore, Husband and I decided it we high time to do some exploring. This time, we have opted to hit the US West Coast.

Got up at a ridiculous 4 am to catch a 7 am flight, but that meant landing in Los Angeles at 9am, so once we had our luggage and a rental car, we had the entire day ahead of us to explore.

First stop was the La Brea Tar Pits, where we explored the working excavation site and museum home to many animals who got stuck in the tar and ate each other.  Both Bug and Bird enjoyed posing for pictures as saber tooth tigers, vultures, or what not.

As it turns out, we didn't exactly park where we were supposed to. The Tar Pits have their own parking lot...but there is an art museum next door with its own parking too. We got mixed up and unfortunately had to pay to park.

BUT, it also meant we got to visit LACMA, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. This museum is HUGE, with both paid and free exhibits. We looked at many of the free sculptures, especially in their outdoor sculpture garden. Bird, our resident artist, loved this in particular.

After these cultural experiences, it was time for some shopping!  We headed up to the Groves...specifically the American Girl store.  Bird had no idea, and when she realized where we were going, she was super excited! She had her doll with her, and we spent about an hour in the store, just following her around as she explored.  Bug was such a good sport that we followed this up with a window-shopping trip to the candy store across the street.

Finally, we checked into our hotel, but we still had one more place to go: the Santa Monica Pier!!  Kids were thrilled at the chance to see the Pacific Ocean and lost no time diving in. Unfortunately, we didn't really think this through...it was around 5:30pm when we arrived, so we didn't bring swimsuits or extra clothes or anything, and wet pants make for cranky kids. Our day ended with a quick dinner (burgers), a hot bath, and a crash into bed...16 hours after we started.

Peaceful

I love the sound of ocean waves. So therapeutic.

Begin Again

*CREAK*

Steps in, opens a window, and dusts off all the cobwebs....

Pensive badger...surprised to find me here.

Well, let's state the obvious:  it's been 4 years since I last posted on this blog.  Doesn't seem like that much time has passed, but an awful lot has changed.  Social media has exploded, and with so many other outlets, I'm not surprised I got away from blogging.

Bird is 10, and Bug is 8 years old.  This has been a fun summer so far....the kids are far more independent now, which means a little more freedom for them, and I have a little more time on my hands.

I've done some of the normal summer things...read books, declutter and/or reorganize parts of the house, and take the kids to the library, parks, and whatnot.  Along with quite a bit of nothing too.  I will say, I am enjoying a lot of nothing.

And then, I started working on the scrapbooks.  I realized I have one album almost finished - the book that chronicles our trip to the Grand Canyon - FIVE years ago?! While I've compiled all the pictures & labels, I still haven't done the actual journaling (my least favorite part).  And while I did keep some notes in my calendar, the bulk of my memories were posted here.

Naturally, though, I couldn't just open up the ol' blog and start working on that project.  No, I felt the need to go through & spruce up the place a bit.  Blogger looks a lot different too; many different controls and settings and such.  So after all that tinkering, I had to write a test post, just to see how things work.  ;)

Some Etiquette Lessons are just Lost on Kids

Today is Nana's birthday, so Husband called to wish her a Happy Birthday. Naturally, the kids couldn't be left out, so they got to talk to her too. Bug's conversation was short & sweet, but Bird's was... amusing:

Bird: Happy Birthday Nana!!
Nana: something
Bird: How old are you now?
Nana: answers
Bird: Wow, that's a big number!!

Crossing a New Threshhold...

In case I ever had any doubt, my baby is definitely NOT a baby anymore!! She was quite excited by the whole thing, really. And here she is, fake smiling to show you.

Looking at this picture, I kind of wonder if I should change the sidebar of our pics over there. Nah... I don't want to take a pic of MY teeth!

In case you had trouble telling...

Bug: Do you know what bad guys look like Mommy?
Me: I don't think there's an exact dress code.
Bug: Bad guys don't wear underwear.
Me: They don't?
Bug: NO! They are only wearing pants.

So now you know.

How to Throw a Disasterous Birthday Party

My baby turned SIX this past weekend. (Ack!) Naturally, being the social butterfly that she is, we had to have a birthday party. She really wanted to have it at a local playground (yes! procrastinating deep housecleaning until summer vacation!), and for the first time, we were letting her invite friends from school.

She had fun, but it didn't exactly turn out as planned. So, if you wanted to know how NOT to throw a party, here you go:

- Pick the hottest weekend in May.
- Host the party at a playground with very little shade over the picnic tables. (Although this does make for some amusement when all the parents are huddled in the shadow of the bathroom building!)
- Ensure that the bathrooms do not have any soap in them. (Thank heavens Auntie R brought hand sanitizer!)
- Invite friends from school - the ones whose parents you don't know & don't have the decency to RSVP, so you can't exactly call them up & see if they're coming so you aren't sure if there will be 25 people coming to the park or 45. (I mean, really!)
- Invite friends from school - especially when they're still little enough bring their parents. (Because then, they can all huddle up and complain about the school. Ostracizing me, cause there's no way you'd catch me in that conversation. I'd like to keep my job, thankyouverymuch.)
- Put the cake in a shady spot - mainly to ensure the ants eat the cake before anybody else can. (Again, Auntie R to the rescue - she ran an emergency Publx trip for a replacement cake!)

Most importantly, Bird had a really good time, and I had other friends there that I could hang out with & talk to. (Yes, Mom I did the hostess thing & made sure I talked to all the grownups!)
Next year, though, I kind of want to talk Bird into someplace cold.