Soccer Star II

The older version of the soccer star - Maddie. This was Maddie's second season playing. Last fall her team was very bad - so bad that they never won a game and only scored a few points during the season. This year's team started out with most of the same players and the same coach, but then the coach had to quit because she was moving. The team finally showed some improvement, winning two games and tying a few others. The last game was this past Saturday and neither side was able to score. Maddie played fantastically though. I've never seen her so aggressive on the field. It's not just me, because the coach and the psycho fanatic soccer dads who roam the sidelines noticed too. Right before the game ended Maddie got knocked hard by the ball and had to come off the field. Even though they only tied that day, Maddie played like a champ.

Crabby Crabs

Ellie and Lindsay got inside these giant shell in the Children's Zoo and pretended to be crabs.

King of the Jungle

Last Thursday I was chaperone on Ellie's kindergarten field trip to the Zoo. There were lots of parents, so we each just got a pair of kids to watch. I had Ellie and her little friend Lindsay. We checked out the zebras, owls, giraffes and koala bears. This picture was taken from a tunnel by the lion habitat. There are windows into the lion's area - the lions were all laying right there next to the glass. It was cool to get up so close to them. I'm guessing that the glass is reflective or opaque on the other side, because the lions had no response to hordes of kids jumping up and down and yelling "Look mom, a lion!".

Birthday Ben

Ben had an Incredible's cake. This cake was barely big enough for all the kids - at the end we were cutting pieces in half to hand out. We also handed our Incredibles gift baggies, with noisemakers. Instead of hats we gave out masks - these were a big hit. Of course I'm not even close to being organized enough to have ordered the masks ahead of time. I spent the two hours right before Ben's party driving around to every discount, drug and grocery store in town looking for party stuff. I found two packages of masks at Target, then finally tracked down a third package at Kroger.

Pump It Up

Ben's 9th birthday party was at Pump it Up again this year. This is a really fun place - they've got a giant room full of inflatable slides and bouncy stuff. The kids go wild for 90 minutes, then there is an adjoining room to serve cake and open presents. For the last 15 minutes of Ben's party, I let them turn off the lights and turn on the disco ball. Ben's little brother and another young friend did not like that part, but the rest of the kids loved.it.

Soccer Star

Ellie is a member of the Grey Tiger Sharks this year. It's her first year playing soccer and her favorite postion is goalie. At the first practice she stood down in her goal, yelling "People - I'm over here!" because the rest of her team was wildly chasing the ball around the middle of the field. Her coach calls soccer at this age MagnetBall - the kids all chase the ball with no further thought than kicking it in the first available direction.

On the day of our first game, the team met at a local school beforehand. We made posters, painted our car windows and attached balloons to everyone's vehicle. Then we drove about 3 miles to the soccer field, honking our horns the entire way. This is a league tradition, and the kids loved it.

Sleepy Sunday

Sammy, Dave and Sasha are passed out on the couch after church, this past Sunday. Our ward meets from 1 - 4 pm. At first I thought it would be horrible, but I've really grown to like that timeslot. The congregation is so big that we don't rotate with the other wards, because we need the whole building to ourselves. The nursery alone has 30+ kids and meets in the Primary room, plus two other rooms. Sammy is always extra crabby after church though, and last week was no exception. He was grousing around my chair, so I ordered him to go sit with Dad for a few minutes. Next thing I knew they were both asleep, then Dave's favorite cat, Sasha, joined them.

4 More Years

Here is the Birthday Girl with Mom and Dad. It's hard to believe she's already 6 years old. Last year on her birthday she said "Mommy, I'll never be four again", which almost made me cry. This year she kept saying "Only 4 more May 7s until I'm 10!"

Pinata!

At the very end of the party we had a pinata, stuffed with candy. The three smallest kids at the party were able to wack it with a big stick, then the fourth kid knocked it off the rope we had tied to it. At that point, Dave ripped open the bottom and scattered the candy. It's good that it worked out that way, because while the kids were lining up, I noticed that the pinata was hanging right above the dirt under our backyard swing. 25 kids scratching in the dirt for lollipops is not good.

6 Year Old

This is a picture from Ellie's 6th birthday party, held last weekend. There were approximately 25 kids at the party. We rented a moon bounce for the backyard and ate hotdogs. It was a wild and crazy party - next year I think we'll just invite girls to cut down on the numbers.

Fender Bender

Mary Lou had a minor accident with our car today - I stuck this picture up here so Dave could see the damage. I'll delete it in a little while.

edit - I decided to leave the picture up - this whole episode was so irritating. Mary Lou was in a parking lot, when a Kindcare truck backed into her. She exchanged information with the drive, who neglected to inform her that he was actually an employee of the Firestone, where the truck was being serviced (at least that's what Kindercare thought). After a series of calls to Kindercare, then the Firestone we got that straightened out. Unfortunately, by that time the drive had conveniently changed his story to one where Mary Lou hit him. So now our car is banged up and we have no recourse, because it's our word against his. I've learned two things from this little incident:

1. Any accident I have, no matter how small will involve a visit from the police, so they can see the position of our cars and take statements right away, before people have time to concoct stories.

2. Firestone sucks. The manager of the Firestone was incredibly rude to me. They would not give me any information, and told me I'd have to call their Consumer Affairs department. He also refused to provide me with the phone number for this department, claiming it was in the phone book. He is a liar, as are his employees. No one ever provided a satisfactory explanation for why that Kindcare truck was cruising around a parking lot three miles away from the Firestone. I have a pretty good idea why though - the truck was parked in front of a Murphy's Deli when it backed into our car. Maybe other technicians had already grabbed whatever "cool" cars were in for service that day, so our poor drive was forced to use the Kindercare truck for his lunchtime errands. Why drive your own vehicle, when you can take someone else's for free?

Where's the Beef

We had a priority seating reservation at Hollywood & Vine for 3:30 on this day. That was pretty early for dinner, but way late for lunch. I had stuffed a big breakfast into everyone at the condo and made them wait all day, since this was an all you can eat buffet. Once we got in, it was fabulous. They had shrimp, roast beef, all sorts of entrees and side dishes. There was a smaller bar that catered to kids, with chicken nuggets & macaroni and cheese. I was even able to make Ellie her favorite - a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. There was a big dessert bar, with pie, cakes, cookies and an ice cream machine. By the time we left this place, we could hardly walk and were all ready for a nap. We also got tickets to a special seating section for the Fantasmic show that night, as part of the package I'd purchased in advance.

I don't think I've mentioned it before, but I'm a way obsessive planner. Before we left Texas, I had a spreadsheet with every meal we would eat on the trip. I used http://www.allearsnet.com to check out the restaurants at each park. Then I planned where we would eat and estimated the cost. I carried the printout around in my purse, and was something of a taskmaster about it. We had a budget and I wanted to squeeze in as many character meals and sit down restaurants as I could, which meant we couldn't just blow $40 at a hamburger stand for a quick snack. Food is pretty expensive inside Disney, but I think the pricier places are actually a better deal because you get to sit down and you get a lot of food.

Touched by a Girl

The boys got their picture too, under some duress for Ben. He's at the perfect age where girls are yucky and video games rule. I guess later girls will be not yucky, but video games will still rule.

Ellie with Snow White

Later in the day we ran into Snow White. We didn't take a lot of character pictures at Disney, because there were usually long lines and we'd rather be going on rides. But, we had to stop for Snow White. Ellie has a Snow White costume, and she looks perfect in it, with her short brown hair, red lips and blue eyes. I wish she'd worn it to the park on this day, because it would have been great to get a picture of her with the "real" Snow White.

Candy from Strangers

We met these girls in the line for The Little Mermaid show. They kept talking to Ellie and giggling. Then they told me they were school teachers from Japan on vacation. They asked to take a picture with our kids, then we took one with them. I have no idea why Ellie looks so sullen here - I hope she looks nicer in their snapshot. After the picture, they gave the kids some sort of Japanese candy. I didn't get to try it, but the kids all liked it.