Busy Day

While Porter was in school today Liesl and I went to the school where my good friend teaches to read a book. My friend teaches third grade and every year her school celebrates Dr. Seuss' birthday. This is the fourth year I have done it and I really enjoy it.

After we picked Porter up from school we went home, ate lunch, then walked up to the Science museum. We were meeting some friends later in the afternoon in Balboa Park for a walk, so I thought it would be a good idea to walk there instead of drive. The kids had a great time at the museum and the walk was nice. It was getting dark and I still needed to go to Whole Foods, so by the time we got home it was 7:30. I ran part of the way home because even though it is a busy road there were no street lights on this short stretch and I was a little freaked out. Now I have a pain in my lower abdomen from the running. I am so out of shape it sucks.

Mission Trails

Last Friday we went to Mission Trails to check out this program called Ant Sized Adventures. It is a talk, hike and craft for preschoolers. The talk was a little too long and the craft was a lot of work for the parents, but the kids had fun time.
Liesl loved the caterpillars.

At the end of the hike was a special surprise. Mr Horse rescued an opossum that his cat attacked. The opossum imprinted on Mr. Horse and is now his pet. Crazy.

Park with Grammy

After I picked Porter up from school last Thursday we went down to my parent's house for lunch and to visit. We went to a park close to their house and had a really fun time. Porter has been asking to go back to the park he had so much fun there.

Liesl sat in this spot and said "take a picture of me"

My mom.

and the winner is.....

Valentine's day Brunch at Lei Lounge

I am on the mailing list for Lei Lounge and get a buy one get one free coupon every week for the Saturday brunch at Lei Lounge. The last time we went was for my birthday in September and I really wanted to go again. We met some friends there on Valentine's Day with the kids and had a really nice time. The food is good and the booths are big, so the kids have lots of room to move around. I think it is one of the best places to take a kid because of the booths and it is so loud the other guests are not bothered when your kids start screaming.

composting and valentine dots

My dad made me a composter and I am really excited about it.

My sister sent me this post for valentine dots, so I decided to make them. The store I went to didn't have Valentine's colored M&M's, so I just used the regular ones.
Porter watched a ridiculous amount of Spanish PBS today and is trying to speak Spanish now. It is cute.

Disneyland Ticket Giveaway!

Disneyland gave us a free Resident 2fer, but we will not be able to use it by the expiration date of 6/03/09. So, if you would like a chance to win a free ticket please leave me a comment. You will receive an additional entry for linking this entry to your own blog, let me know if you have. The giveaway closes on the 18th and the winner will be chosen at random and announced the following day.

Disneyland

Last Saturday we had the opportunity to got to Disneyland and preview the new "it's a small world" before it reopened yesterday. Jason and the kids had never been to Disneyland before, so I was really excited to take them. We left our house at 6AM, so there was no traffic and it was really easy to find. We got to ride "it's a small world" a few times and each time we saw new things. I loved the ride as a kid and it was so much fun to see our kids experience it for the first time. The whole feel of the ride is the same and it is really fun to find all the new Disney characters in the different scenes. Liesl loved to find Ariel and Tinkerbell and Porter like Peter Pan and the hula dancers. After the third ride Porter wanted to go check out the rest of the park, so we did. The kids loved the roller coaster in Toontown and running around checking out everything. We didn't go on a ton of rides, but we did go on Pirates of the Caribbean, Big Thunder Mountain, Autopia, Astro Orbitor, Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage and Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin where both kids were so scared, Porter even cried after it. We had such a fun time and the kids just loved it. I wish we could had stayed longer and into the evening to see it lit up at night, but we had to leave in time to make it to watch my niece and nephew perform that night.

Check back soon for a chance to win a free ticket to Disneyland!

"that's impressive"

Today I tried to make some gluten free bread from a recipe that my sister sent me. She used to make this bread all the time with great results. I started making it and realized that I didn't have an xanthan gum, so I added some arrowroot powder and potato starch instead. I also just remembered that I forgot to add the salt and the combination is probably what made this bread fail. I put it in the oven to rise and it stared to overflow, so I put the pan under it to catch the drippings. Soon it was just a huge mess, but instead of taking it out of the oven I just left it in to bake on to the rack a little more. When Jason saw it he said " that's impressive, I don't think you could do that if you tried"

The beginning of the mess.

The final results.

fun weekend

We had a great weekend up in LA. We did two fun things, one I will write about later in the week. Saturday night we went to see Amelia and Henry, my sister's two oldest kids,perform in the Music Man. It was really good and my kids enjoyed it, but they were tired and Liesl fell asleep at the end. The kids always have so much fun with their cousins, I wish they lived closer to each other, but it is better than New York where they were before. They had another performance today at, so we had to say goodbye to them at 12 just before we left ourselves to drive home.