Mia does it AGAIN!

Last year, Mia submitted a photography entry in the PTA Refelctions contest.  Her entry went to district and then onto State.  This school year, Mia wanted to do photography again.  The theme was, "The Magic of the Moment".  She knew right away that she wanted to take pictures of clouds.  Here are some of her favorite pictures of the clouds.

She took them at different times of the day and in different places.  She finally decided on this picture as her entry.  This was taken right outside our house.

This was the description that she had for this picture:

"It's magic.  Clouds move shape.  I captured that beautiful view of magic.  It's magic because you may never see this magic again.  It fills your mind up with treasures and magic."

This year, Mia's entry went to the District level.  She was the only one from her school and even nearby schools that made it to Districts.  Also, this year, they did not take as many entries in the district and state levels.  For some reason, I thought because we go to a small school, Mia's chances were better since there weren't as many entries from our school.  But, I think that everything gets judged at the district level and it doesn't matter what school you are from.

We are so proud of Mia and that she is discovering her talents and interests.  

Next year, I've been asked to help promote the Reflections program at our school.  Since it is fairly new at our school, I don't think the parents know much about it.   I LOVE that the Refelections program gives children the opportunity to express themselves in artistic ways and I hope that more parents and children take advantage of it.

Mia expressed interest in continuing Photography for next years Reflection contest.  We might just have another photographer in our midst!

Year of the Icecream

Each year we choose something fun to discover.  Last year it was "Year of the Museum".  We started our year at the museum of art at Pixar.  Throughout the year we visited places like the Oakland Museum, the Bay Area Museum, Lindsay Wildlife Museum, Lawrence Hall of Science and even a local museum in Clayton.  Because of our library pass, we were able to get into most of the museums for free!  They also have free days throughout the bay area which makes it so nice!

This year is the "Year of the Icecream".  This will probably be everyone's favorite year!  Our goal is to find unique icecream places that people don't normally know about.  Luckily, Ben has co workers who know all the good places.  For our first visit to an Icecream place, we chose the San Francisco Creamery, which ironically is located in Walnut Creek, not San Fran.

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We ordered the biggest icecream you can get there, the kitchen sink.  The kids got to each choose their favorite iceream and topping.

Looking at it, you don't think you could ever possibly eat the whole thing.  But let me tell you. . . it is possible.  They have a kitchen sink challenge where if you can eat it in 15 minutes you can get your picture on the wall.  Not too long ago, they filmed, "Man vs. Food" where the host did the kitchen sink challenge.  

We are going to have a fun year, I'm sure of it!

GOING. . .

GOING. . .

GONE!

Grandma/pa Armstrong Visit and other things. . .

GRANDMA/PA ARMSTRONG VISIT

Grandma and Grandpa came for a quick visit last weekend. They were in Utah helping Autumn, who had just gotten ACL knee surgery and thought they would pop over to see us. We pop over meaning, driving 12 hours. We had fun visiting and Grandma/pa bought the kids Christmas presents which they got to open. My Mom thought it would be so funny if we wrapped dollar store gifts and gave it to them and said that was it. She thought my kids would complain about not getting more. But to her surprise, my kids were totally content with the dollar store gifts and did not expect more. I think she was pretty impressed with my kids. I was proud of them myself. She got the big presents out and my kids were even more excited! We wished they could stay longer, but hope to see them again soon!

 ORNAMENTS

I love our tradition of making ornaments for our tree each year. We do lots of crafting around here and I love seeing the kids get so creative. This year we used beads. Each year, I'm always thinking of what type of medium we should work with. Sometimes, it is hard thinking of something different to use. It doesn't matter though, the kids can be creative with anything.

 

TAEKWONDO AND GYMNASTICS 

 A couple months ago, Mia decided she no longer wanted to take gymnastics so we took her out. I was asking her what she would like to try. We thought of soccer which we were too late signing her up for the fall. Xander played teeball this year and wasn't super interested. I was trying to think of what he would like to do. Karate was the first thing that came to my mind. It is more an individual sport and he secretly wants to be a spy someday so karate seemed perfect. An opportunity came along at the gym where they do gymnastics and I was able to sign both kids up for Taekwondo. Taekwondo is Korean karate which is perfect for my little ninjas. At their first class, the instructor taught them Korean words, which they found facinating. They got to learn different kicks and other moves. Xander said, "I love this Mom!". I guess Moms do know some things their kids like.

 Shortly after Mia quit gymnastics, I put Zoey in. All summer long she waiting until she turned 3 and then waiting until the enrollment in September. When I bought her her first gymnastics outfit she yelled, "Sign me up!" She calls gymnastics, "nastics". She loves doing gymastics and bouncing and jumping and tumbling around. She is getting better at waiting in line, which she had no idea what a line was at the beginning. She is also learning how to wait her turn. I think the teacher thought she was older because she is so tall, and would lightly scold her for not waiting her turn. I felt bad for Zoey, but it didn't even bother her. She kept plowing forward. That's my girl!

 

I can't believe December is flying by! I wish December was a little longer and a little slower. I love this time of year!

Thanksgiving with the Andersons

For Thanksgiving, we visited Betsy and Russ in Portand, Oregon.  I've never been to the Portland area before and this was a first for all of the kids.  We arrived Wednesday afternoon after traveling all day.  Russell's sisters and brother visited too and so we had a nice big group.  Thanksgiving is much more fun with LOTS and LOTS of people.

The kids loved playing with their cousins.  I especially loved watching Xander get some much needed boy time!  He is surrounded by girls all the time and it is so fun to watch him play with boys.

Thanksgiving morning, we played some football- even the girls!  I love to play, but usually, Ben just plays with the men. The little kids got to play their own game and I am so glad they did.  It was fun to watch them run around and throw the football.

We had a wonderful dinner and at one time I looked around at everyone cooking and thought, "We are just kids, trying to make a thanksgiving dinner!" Well I guess we are big kids now. Everything turned out great!

Ben and I tried to hit Walmart for the Black Friday sales but after parking a mile away, and walking into chaos, we turned right around and left.  There was a huge line, just to buy your things.  Not worth the wait for us!

Betsy and Russ let me take their family pictures.  There family is SO cute! We took them at Nike and you would never even know looking at the pictures.  The campus is amazing and just blows my mind.  I left wanting to work there!

Thank you for having us Andersons!

Who does that?

Who forgets to post about Halloween??  And how Mia and Ben both won for scariest costume at the ward party?

Who does that?

Who forgets to post a picture of the school Halloween Parade?

Who does that?

Who forgets to post about the Mommy preschool trip to the pumpkin patch?

Who does that?

Who forgets to write about the Halloween inspired pizza night that has become a tradition in our family?

Who does that?

Who forgets to take pictures of the pumpkins the kids carved and only takes a picture of the one she painted?

Who does that?

Who forgets to write about the Warrior Dash  and how dirty they got, how much easier it was than she thought it would be, that she had so much fun doing the race with Ben, and how washing the clothes and shoes afterwards was interestingly so dirty?

Who does that?

Who forgets alot these days?

Um me!

Rock City

This weekend I biked up Mt. Diablo.  We started at 200 feet and climbed to 3,848 feet.  I wasn't sure I could do it, having never done such a steep climb.  It was such a fun ride and I had absolutely no problem doing it and in fact, I think I could have gone faster!  

Ben and the kids met me up at the top with lunch and we headed to Rock City which is right inside the park.  It's a place that I have been wanting to hit and I am so glad we did.  I think it is our new favorite place to go.

It was a rock playground where we could climb anywhere we wanted to.

There were also so many nooks and crannies for the kids to climb into.

Xander was so excited at first and couldn't stop moving from one place to the next.

Zoey and CJ loved finding the little places to hid in. And Zoey loved sliding down the rocks like they were slides.

Mia was the adventurous one, climbing up the highest rocks.  She went from one giant rock to the next.  Always wanting to climb to the highest points.

This is what Xander and Zoey's bottoms looked like after!  They slid down so many rocks that it tore their pants!  We can't wait to go again!

The Happiest Place on Earth

This year, we decided to try Disneyland at the end of September.  I really didn't want to take the kids out of school, mainly because of the work CJ would miss and would have to make up.  There is just more work to do in middle school than in elementary.

Oh, but we did it anyways!

I am always amazed no matter what time of the year we go, how many other people have the same idea!  There were tons of people there, but surprisingly, the lines were not very long at all.  Just a couple of rides, we had to wait over an hour.  Mainly, Radiator Springs Racers.  Cars Land just opened this year in California Adventure and so it was super popular.  There was even a super long line to get a fast pass for the ride.

The first day, Zoey did not measure the 42" she needed to ride most of the rides.  I think she was hunching a bit.  The next day, I did a huge pony on the top of her head and she made the 42" no problem!   I could not believe all the rides she could ride.

At first, she was a little scared because she did not know what to expect.  But as we rode more and more rides, she got the hang of it.  Her favorite rides were the new Ariel ride and Midway Mania in California Adventure.  Then in Disneyland, she loved the teacups and Splash Mountain!

She is in the picture, just hidden.  If you look closely, you can see her little hand.  She is sitting next to me.  She was so brave and would copy her siblings and hold her hands up in the air on some of the rides.  When she watched the parades, she waved at all the princesses and characters.  She also loved seeing the characters walk throughout the park.

The other kids had fun too!  Mia's favorite ride was California Screamin'.  We went on that 3 times!  It's the biggest rollar coaster there and Mia had no fear!  Xander was also fearless and surprised me with how brave he was.  CJ's favorite ride was Splash Mountain and Grizzly Rapids. She loved getting wet!

So what did we do when we waited in line?

The kids took pictures with the camera. . .

We danced. . .

We played the, "Who looks most like Mom or Dad" game. . .

I think Mia looks most like me.

CJ is a clone of her Dad.  Overall, I think Mia looks like me and the rest look more like their Dad.  I think they are all so cute!

We could have easily done Disneyland and California Adventure in 2 days this time of the year.  The last day we saved for riding our favorite rides again.  We started in California Adventure and by the time we got to Disneyland and got a fast pass for Splash Mountain, we had to wait around until 7:25 p.m. to ride it.

We wandered around trying to fill our time with rides and by the time 7:25 p.m. came, I and I think everyone else was exhausted.  We finally got in the fast pass line, which is supposed to be faster, but wasn't moving very fast.  We waited in line and finally got up to the point where they were loading people.

We waited and waited and noticed that no one was moving.  They ended up closing the ride!  The kid's were all bummed and disappointed.  I was frustrated that we waited around for a ride that ended up closing!  We made our way out of the park and ended up eating dinner around 9:30 p.m.

I was tired and grumpy by the time we got back to the hotel.  Then we noticed the fireworks show was just beginning.  So I got out our big blanket and we ate dinner while watching the fireworks.  So I guess something good came out of all of that.  We got to watch the fireworks, when normally, we would be in bed by then.

I was in a better mood and so was everyone else.

All in all, we had a great time at Disneyland!  Can't wait for next year!