Pinewood Derby

 Both kids are in scouts this year, so they both made pinewood derby cars and raced with their dens.  It was a lot of fun!  Silas made the Nintendo Racer and Daphne made the Boring Car. 

Silas is 10!!

 Happy Birthday, Silas!

I am so lucky to be your mom.  I've loved you since before you were born and somehow love you more each day.  It makes me so happy to see the young man you are becoming, all your interests developing, how hard you work in school, your willingness to try new things, and how much you are learning.  I had so much fun with you on the trip to Phoenix. 

I love you more then you will ever know.  Happy Birthday!

Love, Mom

A New Year

 We had such a great Christmas break and a very Merry Christmas.  Daphne got Polly pockets and some Descendants and Zombie dolls.  Silas got Pickle Ball with a pickle, a magic set and the Kirby Switch game. 

We stayed home most of the break and did local stuff:  Natural History Museum, Science Center, Griffith Park, Steve took the kids bowling and took Silas and Alex to Top Golf.  Silas and I also went to Arizona for a short trip, it was a lot of fun.  

Almost Christmas

 We had a great last week of school and have been enjoying the start of our holiday break.  I got to be at both kids' class parties which I really enjoyed.  Lola and Jinx visited us again this year, and have been up to their usual.  The kids love to find them in the mornings.  

Joshua Tree

 The beginning of Thanksgiving break, we went to Joshua Tree for a few days.  It was really nice!  We rented an Air BnB that had a lot of great amenities, and we took Ruby.  

Unfortunately, we didn't end up spending very much time in the National Park.  It was SUPER windy the day we went and not allowing dogs on trails made it really limiting of what we could do.  There also wasn't any cell phone reception, so Steve and I couldn't keep in contact when split up. 

Despite that, I think we all enjoyed the break.  It wasn't too bad a drive to get to.  There definitely isn't as much in the Joshua Tree area as there is in Big Bear... it's not a walking city.  But the kids loved the house, the fenced in back yard, pool table, jacuzzi, swinging chairs, gas fire pit, etc.  I think we'd go back again. 

Happy Thanksgiving!!

 So much to be thankful for this year.  We went to Knott's today.  It was PACKED with people outside when we got there, so I was nervous about how much we'd actually get to do but we had a great time.  We were able to do a bunch of rides the first hour with no line and stayed until about 1pm. 

Silas and I tried Coast Rider, and the kids both tried the Gliders and Pacific Scrambler.   We'll try going back Christmas Eve or maybe see if we can squeeze in another trip in December. 

Halloween!!

 The kids had such a fun Halloween this year.  Daphne was Princess Red and Silas was the Tin Man.  We went to the Cal Poly Pumpkin Patch, we did the pumpkin pool-oza at Wiseburn, it was warm and sunny that day.  Perfect swimming weather.  The kids made literacy lanterns for school.  We went to the Halloween carnival at the Scout house, the kids dressed up at school and they both got to go trick or treating with their friends. We all had a great Halloween!