She Knits Shizknits

Wednesday amusement

Both the small men had today off (actually, Little Man has the whole week off, what?) so we decided to go to Legoland. I was worried that it would be crowded, but I think a lot of kids had school and didn't get out till noon because there weren't a lot of people there when we arrived at 10:30am.

We headed straight to the back of the park, where there were almost no lines (since everyone else was still at the front of the park). We hit the Dragon Coaster and the Knight's Joust in quick succession:

While Monkey Boy was on the Knight's Joust, LM and I went to the Knight's Tournament, where they strap you into a huge mechanical arm and throw you around. We usually do Level One, which is totally mellow. But today LM wanted to try Level Two- not so mellow! I didn't realize that they turn you upside down and sideways! OMG! I was proud of LM for trying it, though, because he's generally so cautious.

We also went on the Lego Boats:

By now the park was starting to get crowded so we hit a few more rides before leaving. I was worried we'd get stuck in the pre-holiday traffic, but it wasn't too bad. We got home fairly quickly and the Dearest ran off to rescue a client while the small men and I hung out at home. We ended up strapping on our hockey skates and playing some hockey in the street till it got dark, then headed inside to play with Legos and eat dinner.

Luckily, we are not having Turkey Day at our house tomorrow; we're going to MIL's house, which means I didn't have to clean or prepare too much. I'm going to boil some eggs and potoatoes tonight since the Dearest volunteered to bring potato salad for dinner. Wish me luck, as I don't normally make potato salad! LOL The Dearest looked up some internet recipes, though, and I'm going to try following one of those.

My sis is coming out this weekend so we will be Thankgiving on Saturday at our house. Instead of turkey, the Dearest got us a turducken...!  I've never cooked one of these before so hopefully it turns out good!  The one we got is HUGE...the turkey alone weighed 20lbs!  I think we're going to have leftovers for months!

whew!

Well, as you can see from the posts below, I was in Palm Springs for a girls' weekend to celebrate the birthdays of three of our good friends.  I did things I haven't done in FOREVER....hung out at a bar and played pool (with a bunch of Marines...who ruined the flirting by calling me and my friend Michelle "ma'am"):

-spending all day by the pool, drinking...drinking...drinking...and I don't mean water!

-for the first time ever, I actually ordered drinks from a real 'cabana boy'...loved his smart-arsed attitude!

-went to a bar with a 'dancer'...

...I'll leave it to you to figure out what type of bar this was...we had a blast!

-rode in a Hummer limo !

-we laughed, we cried, we wandered around on the street, and we missed our friend Jen terribly. Jen was one of the original birthday girls, but had to bow out at the last minute because her mother lost her fight with breast cancer.  So instead of celebrating with us, Jen had to fly back east to be with her family for the funeral. We were all bummed she couldn't come, and thought about her all weekend.

And what went on at home while I was gone?

Soccer...


swimming...

and evidently, a little bit of missing mommy:

wheeeeee~~~~

It's all fun and games.....



...till someone gets hurt! LOL

Legoland day

The small men and I went to Legoland yesterday. It was the first time I had taken them to LL by myself, and I knew it would be pretty busy so I was paranoid that I'd loose track of them in the crowds. So I dressed them like this:

I also wore a tie-dyed shirt to make it easy for the small men to spot me if we got separated. We got lots of compliments and comments on our choice of attire- and it sooo easy for me to keep track of the boys.

Then park busy, but not crowded. The longest we had to wait was bout 30 minutes...but most of the rides we went on were less than a ten minute wait.

We got SOAKED going on the pirate ship ride (no pics cuz I wasn't going to get out the camera with all that water). My shirt was so wet that it actually dripped when I wrung it out. Luckily it was a nice sunny day so being wet was a good thing...it kept us cool!

Little Man had received a gift card for his birthday, which meant a stop in the Big Store before we left the park.  He and Monkey Boy each picked out a new Bionicle, and I spotted this while we were in line to pay:

Of course I had buy it! Between the small men being Lego- and popsicle-crazy, it was a must-have purchase. We have already filled the molds and will hopefully be eating minifig popsicles by this afternoon!

surf camp!

This is the second year that the Dearest and the small men have attended Surf Camp: three days camping on the beach, playing in the ocean, climbing rock walls, doing crafts, and hanging out. They go with a big group from a local church- it's "Daddy and Me", so it's all the dads with their kids. Surf Camp is held at a YMCA camp south of San Diego (the Dearest says you can see the buoys marking the international border between Mexico and the US right off shore), which is nice because the YMCA staff provides three meals a day and there are showers/potties right there.

Here's the campsite for the Dearest's group:

Evidently the kids found a big hill of sand when they first arrived on Friday night.

They spent quite a while climbing to the top and running down as fast as they could.

The beach is very long and shallow so the waves break way out and come into shore much smaller, perfect for the kids to use their boogie boards.

Little Man was going way out where the water was up to his chest, and riding all the way in on his boogie board.  Monkey Boy had a bit of trouble because he was so light- the front of his board kept digging into the waves and flipping him. Didn't seem to bother him a bit though, because the Dearest said MB just kept getting up and running back into the waves.

Later that night, LM went to watch the camp staff doing some skits while the Dearest and Monkey Boy hung out together.

One of the things the kids really enjoy doing is finding dried seaweed. They throw the dried air bladders (they call them 'poppers') into the fire and watch them POP.

The Dearest got some good photos of the beautiful sunset:

The next day, the kids spent a lot of time digging holes and burying each other in the sand. I can't believe they got Little Man covered up so thoroughly!

The guys were gone from Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon. What did *I* do with all that free time? Whatever I wanted!!! LOL Friday I went to the Orange County Fair and did some demonstration spinning with the South Coast Weavers and Spinners Guild.  It was really hot, but luckily we were in a barn and there was a nice breeze.  I took some time to walk around and look at the displays since I've never been to the fair before!

Check out this big momma piggy and her ADORABLE little piglets:

There were something like sixteen piglets....I loved their wiggly tails!

After spending some time at the Fair, I met up with friends for dinner and shopping.  The Nordy's Anniversary sale started Friday night so I picked up shoes for the small men for the new school year.

Saturday, I attended my usual morning yoga class and then did some errands. Nothing spectacular, but it was nice to have plenty of alone time. I'm an introvert at heart so being home alone was fun! I did some spinning (photos to come), watched a bunch of TV in the middle of the day, and totally neglected the dishes in the sink.

I had a newborn photo shoot scheduled for Sunday morning, and by the time I got done and came home, the Dearest was calling me to say they were only 20 minutes from home. They arrived sandy, a bit sunburnt, and full of stories from Surf Camp.  I think it was a good weekend for everyone concerned!

How to make it home with two bikes

This is what u resort to when the six yr old is too tired to ride anymore

wot fun!

Found this on the web yesterday and love it- the music, the dancing, the fact that regular people joined in...how fun!

We had a ton of fun ourselves going ice skating with the small men. The Great Park has set up a small ice skating rink in one of the old airplane hangars, where the public can go and skate for free. The rink is being taken down at the end of this month so we decided yesterday to run over there right after picking Little Man up from school. We were joined by some friends/neighbors, too. There was a bit of a wait as they only let in 80ish people for each 45 minute session. So the kids ran all over the place. They found this clever bike rack:

Litte Man wanted to 'steer'...

The small ones also spent some time picking up rocks from a dry streambed. Somehow I got talked into taking the rocks home....of course Monkey Boy's rocks were all HUGE and the bag ended up weighing 20 lbs. LOL

We didn't have to wait too long before they let us in to skate. The Dearest had brought his own ice hockey skates, and someone had given us a pair of tiny hockey skates for Monkey Boy. LM and I borrowed skates from the front desk (that was free, too!). Funnily enough, the skate boy behind the counter automatically handed me a pair of 'girly' skates complete with toe picks. I had to hand them back and ask for hockey skates....I have no idea how to skate with toe picks and was afraid I'd eat it if I tried to stop fast! I also asked for a pair of helmets for the small ones. I couldn't believe that our kids were practically the only ones in the whole rink wearing helmets...especially since 99% of the kids there were obviously first time skaters. That's probably why an ambulance was parked right behind the rink!

Here are all the men on their first go-round:

LM, in typical Little Man fashion, took a while to warm up to the idea of skating without his gear. At home we only allow them to use their hockey skates if they are wearing helmets, elbow and knee pads. LM, as a charter member of the Conservative First Born Club, was quite concerned that he was only wearing a helmet and could fall at any moment. We had to let him have some time to himself in the center of the rink before he was comfortable enough to skate alone...

Monkey Boy was happy to skate around holding our hands.

Though he did do some skating (and falling!) on his own.

We all had a great time. 45min was just the perfect amount of time for the small men to skate before they started getting more interested in the vending machines and water dispensers. LOL We are definitely planning on going back next year!

you see the most interesting things at a laundromat at 10pm on a sunday night

One of the things we did while my computer was on the fritz (so I couldn't post about it) was a quick trip to Big Bear to play in the snow. Last year we went around this time and almost got snowed it due to a late winter storm. So we brought our chains and were all prepared for a long, slow trip up the mountain...only to get there and find that it was 60F!  In fact it was warmer in BB than it was here at our house.

We left late Sunday, Feb 22nd, and got into BB around 7:30pm so we decided to stop and have dinner before going to the cabin. Monkey Boy had fallen asleep on the ride up the hill, which was unusual for him. We found out why he was so tired when I got him out of the car at the restaurant: he was HOT! His cheeks were flushed and he was definitely running a fever.

Nice.

He ended up sleeping on my lap all through dinner, poor thing. When we got back out to the car, I grabbed a spare towel to cover him up because he was complaining that he was cold. Thank goodness I had the towel because all of the sudden he looked up at me, said "Oh no momma!" and threw up all over the place.  The towel caught most of the mess, but a lot of it ended up on his shirt, the carseat and the carseat straps.

So needless to say I spent a couple of hours at the laundromat that night.  Not the way I want to be spending my first night on a 'relaxing' vacay! LOL Evidently MB threw up a couple more times while I was gone, and then he puked one more time while I was sleeping with him. Luckily we had plenty of extra towels and blankets so there wasn't much of a mess. I just gathered everything yucky and threw it into a garbage bag to take home.

The next day was Monday and MB woke up feeling much better. His fever had broken overnight and he was quite perky and ready to go outside for some snow play.

The boys and I did some sledding while the Dearest stayed at the cabin and finished working with a client. As you can see, MB was feeling pretty good:

Eventually the Dearest joined us for sledding:

The snow was a bit icy from the warm weather so the sled was going pretty fast.



The Dearest made a little ramp for the small men to sled down...Little Man got a some air!

MB got going so fast that he almost ran me over....

MB was also trying to 'sled' down a snowdrift on his tummy, which led to a lot of snow down his shirt.

LM really wanted to take home an icicle or some snow, but I talked him into taking souvenir photos of snow instead:

Aside from sledding, we just hung out in front of the fire and played games. Oh, and there was some knitting for me...check out my Rainbow Mountain Socks:

These are made from my handspun and I love the way they turned out. The colors are so bright and cheery! I used the "little shell rib" from Sensational Knitted Socks, but modded the pattern by discontinuing the shell rib on the instep. I was afraid it would be too bumpy in my shoes so I just did a plain k4 p4 ribbing on the foot.  (More details on my Rav page for those interested)

Sledding, knitting, cozying up....it was a great, relaxing overnight trip even with MB's 24hr stomach flu!  Oh, and that nasty bag of puke-y towels/blankets? I turned it inside out straight into the washer when I got home LOL Thank goodness for hot water and soap!

at the park with small men and knitting

taken with my iphone

seasonal randomness

Today we are socked in with rain and fog- the second (or third) big rainstorm we have had in 10 days. This being perpetually sunny SoCal, *any* water falling from the sky is unusual. Last Monday it rained so hard and so long that most of the streets around here flooded. The drainage systems are just not made to handle that much water at once!  But SoCal has been in a drought (with whispers of water rationing earlier this season) so no one is really complaining.  Well...maybe the commuters who get stuck in traffic due to accidents....

Now onto the seasonal randomness:

-It did stop pouring long enough last week for me to take the small men to Tarjay to buy some gifts for the Dearest.  This is the first year that Little Man was so insistent about 'giving Dadda a gift'. I hope the Dearst likes Legos, because we sure spent a lot of time in that aisle picking out a gift!!!!! LOL  It was very cute to hear the boys discussing which set "Dadda would like best".

-Monkey Boy had a sudden growth spurt in the last few weeks.  He's been 39inches/30lbs for the longest time, which was driving him crazy because every time we went to Disneyland he would measure himself to see if he was FINALLY tall enough to go on Star Tours (gotta be 40in). Then a couple of weeks ago I noticed him sleeping a lot and eating more than usual.  A few days later I was holding his hand and it seemed bigger.  Then the Dearest measured him and MB was soooo proud to tell everyone "I am big! I am 41!"  He has sprouted up like a weed- all his jeans are now too short for him and his feet got bigger, too!  He even looks different to me...not as rounded/toddler as he did before. He still weighs 30lbs so he has gotten longer and skinnier...he looks like a  little kid and not a baby.  Waaaa!!  It *almost* makes me wish we had another baby....then I come to my senses! LOL He'll be four in a week and I'm loving how much fun it is to have to kids in the house instead of toddlers. I can actually take a shower without worrying about someone sticking a marble up their nose. LOL

-Monkey Boy and his friend Konga performed some interpretive dance to Christmas music, which I caught on video...

-Since another storm was forecast for today, we went to Legoland yesterday. Earlier this year, the Lego store at Downtown Disney was running a special where you got a free child's annual pass ($99 value) for every $100 you spent in the store. We had already decided to switch our Dland passes for Legoland passes, so this worked out perfectly. We bought Christmas and birthday presents for the next couple of years, then got our vouchers for the kids' annual passes. Yesterday we went and turned in our vouchers, purchased passes for the Dearest and myself, and spent a few hours running around the park before they closed.  Monkey Boy and Little Man really wanted to go on the Bug Bouncer in the Indiana Jones section of the park, but check out MB's face in the video- he kept saying "get me off! get me off!"

It was also the first time that Little Man was big enough to ride some of the rides by himself. He was very excited to be able to take the boat ride alone!

-today we are planning on making some yummy gifts for friends and neighbors.  It's the perfect rainy to hole up in the kitchen and play with chocolate and sprinkles.