Halloween Treats

We hosted our playgroup Halloween party at my house. I decided to make some treats for the party (because I have so much free time, but I've been dying to try these out) and made the cake pops from the Bakerella website. There is something about cute food that I have a weakness for. The kids and I made a red velvet cake per Bakerella instructions. I will never make another one. What is the purpose of the red dye? It makes a horrible mess. To add to the problem, you crumble the cake up, mix it with frosting and roll it into balls. I did not appreciate the red dyed hands and then to feed them to children? Um, never again. All griping aside though, they turned out relatively cute and tasty for the very small amount of effort I expended. I'll do it again. With yellow cake.

San Diego Picts

So I was looking through the pictures from our trip and found this one. Just had to share. I bought the kids goggles for the trip (clearance at Target). I don't normally let them use goggles, since it isn't an ISR ok thing. Let's just say that the goggles were an enormous hit. Griffin wanted to go everywhere in his. This is us riding the elevator. He wore his goggles to eat his breakfast. Yeah, he's special.

The View from Under the Bus

So Laney went upstairs with Charles tonight to do the bedtime ritual. We'd just watched this really weird cartoon movie about the Secret of Kells (weird. really. with flaming eyed square viking types) and she was in an emotional mood. Here's my understanding of the tearful conversation that followed between her and her dad:
Laney was crying because she didn't ever want to leave home to marry a man and not be with her daddy anymore. Charles struck one for the feminist cause by asking her why the man wouldn't be moving in with Laney. And pointing out that she would always have a home with her daddy.
Moving on to topic two: she wants to die first before her dad (yeah. I know. She's obviously related to Charles. And she isn't even 13 yet. We've got some Good times ahead.) He said that he needs to die first, but that he'll try to live a long time first. Her response? Oh, ok. But mom can die first!
Under. The. Bus. That's me.

San Diego Etc

We got back from our trip to San Diego on Monday afternoon. We had a good time. I thought it was really interesting to see the MCRD (Marine Corp Recruit base. Yeah, I don't know what the D stands for. Shoot me). I'd seen part of it while we were in SD last time on the way to Charles favorite burrito place. I must say that not letting people walk across the grinder is a major pain in the butt. Poor little Kenna had lots of juice for breakfast and then didn't get taken to the bathroom before we left the hotel. About 10 minutes into the car ride she told us she needed to go potty. I told her to hold it and then we hit traffic...then we finally got onto base and the car was searched...and then we had to drive around and find parking...and then we met everyone in the parking lot and hiked about 1/2 mile around the grinder (yes, I'm exaggerating, but truly it was a long way). Aunt Di was holding her and I was distracted by the massive pain I was in caused by a long walk in heels carrying a 30 pound toddler. She told Di that she needed to go and Di told her to wait until we found seats. We were in front of the grandstands when she started to pee--all over Diane. The mother of the recruit. It was a quantity like I've never seen. Poor Diane!! I ended up having to walk all the way back to the car for a pull up and back again. But it was our fault that she had an accident, not Kenna's. Tim asked me "I thought you said she was potty trained" but really--she held it almost an hour after needing to go and it's not like she can just take herself to the bathroom is it?

Then during the ceremony, Griffin peed through his pull up all over my lap. So both the twins christened the grinder. Is that a sign??

Our graduate was about 6 inches taller than the last time I saw him. Seriously, he towered over everyone. I think maybe he hunched a lot prior to boot camp and standing straighter combined with heeled shoes and a big hat made him TALL. The Marines made him skinnier too. He had that look about him, like childhood has been rubbed off, you know what I mean?

After the ceremony, we all met up in Old Town San Diego for lunch. A guy came by our table and made balloon sculptures for all the kids. Our hotel had a free happy hour every night so we were the place to be. Everyone met there for drinks before going out. The kids ran everywhere and tried to mess with the courtyard landscaping and the koi. We were across the street from Seaport Village so we went there for dinner several times.

Saturday we went to the beach at Mission Bay. The water was cold and it was windy, but we actually had a really good time. Until it was time to go home. The twins were getting pretty tired from missing naps and they had a massive melt down leaving the beach. Screaming snot-running hissy fits. Largely because I wouldn't pick them up and carry them. I think we brought half the beach sand home with us!

Sunday we went to Sea World and it was great. We saw a lot of things that we didn't see the last time we were there. It's sort of a bummer that the Shamu show doesn't feature trainers riding the whales anymore since it was spectacular before and sort of ho hum now. But I guess the prospect of a whale killing a trainer during a show really puts the damper on it. The kids liked the new shark exhibit so much that we went through twice in a row.

Anatomy and the Pasta Isle

Laney and I went to the store together on Sunday. While we were shopping, I picked up a lemonade Koolaid mix. Laney wanted a different color, so as we proceeded down the pasta isle in the bus cart she yelled at me: "Moommm, I can't have lemonade! It makes my penis hurt!". To which I replied calmly, "you don't have a penis". (others in pasta isle are laughing). Laney keeps going with the penis theme. She does have one and it hurts if she drinks lemonade. I decided that a more face to face chat would be in order. So there I was, in the pasta isle, telling her: Laney, you don't have a penis. You have a vagina. Boys have penises. And we don't usually yell about our parts when we're in the store. Then we went back, exchanged the lemonade mix for pink lemonade and continued on.
Charles is off to Denver again and we're holding the fort. We had our first carpool day yesterday. We are picking Rorie up after school for Tues and Wed and Rorie's grandma will pick Laney up on Thursday. So I guess at least one of the school days the twins will get a longer nap. Laney was really whoopin' it up to impress our guest. She took off her car seat straps (a recently learned skill--she can both buckle and unbuckle now), she talked nonsense and then laughed hysterically, she purposely mispronounced Rorie's name over and over again. We had to have a serious talk after dropping Rorie off. It made me realize though what a big personality Laney is compared to other kids.
Off to water the new plants now. The calamondin is not looking happy.

The Streak

It was a long week. Charles left last Monday and was gone until Saturday night. He came home for Sunday and left Monday until Wednesday. The kids were all sick with colds last week too. We made it through though and really it wasn't too bad. We went across town on Friday to shop for some bedding for Kenna. I took the kids to visit Olive and Don and then we went to Homegoods. It was getting a little late and lunch needed to happen, but I was trying to complete the mission. So we did the quick shop and went to the check out--where all hell broke loose. While I was trying to check out I started to hear laughter in the line and turned around to find Kenna stripped butt naked. Like not a stitch on including no shoes. I calmly finished paying for my stuff while she ran through the store grandstanding for all the people. Laney melted down because I wouldn't buy her a makeup kit and Griffin ran off with a rolling backpack and was doing the circular route through the exit doors and back into the store with it. By the time I was done I literally hauled three screaming children, three bags of comforter/pillows/etc, and a twin stroller out of the store and across the parking lot while the crowd of seniors looked on. A definite joy moment
I cleaned all the carpet in the house (and it was immediately peed on again). For some reason I said yes to play dough and moon sand after finishing cleaning the carpet. BIG MISTAKE. BIG. I did not realize that moon sand was invented by the devil. I've swept and vacuumed about 5 times now and am still finding purple moon sand everywhere.
We're having big car seat milestones this week. I threw G in his seat the other day and went around the car to buckle in the girls. When I came back to buckle him in, it was all done. Amazing. Laney figured out how to get out of her car seat later in the week.
Laney and Griffin knocked down a box of hats and gloves right before school on Tuesday. They both decided that they needed to wear a hat. So Laney wore a fuzzy orange hat that made her look like DJ Lance (Yo Gabba Gabba for those not in the know) to school and Griffin wore a snowflake pattern ear flapped knit hat. It was almost 100 out and humid like nothing else. Kenna had to take her plastic Elmo purse and the puppy on the string in with her. We were a parade of freaks. But hey, we're used to the circus effect. Griffin has continued to wear the hat occasionally. He looks a little like Elmer Fudd.
We are off to play group in a little while. We're doing a kindermusik demo today. Tonight we're going to the Greek festival (fried cheese!!).

The Grass is Always Greener (when it's fake)

We have grass. It is very, very green and shiny. I should have installed it with the grain of the grass (yeah, our grass has a grain) facing the house but I didn't want to buy more grass to do the install that direction. So it runs side to side and our view from the house is somewhat shinier than it is from the pool. Isn't it funny how you obsess over little things when you do things yourself?
Ernie came over to help with the install on Saturday. Seriously, he's just the best. And he brings tools. We've started saying the same thing over and over "Yes, we have an X. It's in Idaho". As in we have a hammer, we have a wheelbarrow, etc. Charles moved all three tons of crushed rock off the driveway himself and Ernie brought the plate compactor. We were done installing by early afternoon. Now I have a chunk of grass left and I'm thinking of adding another grass area over by the end of the pool. I'll have to do seaming, but I think I can. Overall, I think I like the grass. It does get hot in direct sunlight but cools immediately in shade and it is a rather bright green, but it's nice to have it out there. I keep feeling this little shock every time I look out the window and see green.