Halloween

It was a lot of fun, but I’m glad we’re done with all the festivities.  We had classroom parties, scout trick-or-treating and by the time the actual day came, I was wiped out.  This was the first year that we weren’t all together.  Reggie was begging to go with his friends, but we had already committed to go to another party (which was all girls his age).  So, we decided to let him go with his good friend Tyler and he had a blast.  We sort-of already had our trick-or –treating fun at KOA as a family, so I didn’t feel too bad.  I think we are going to have to alternate years with friends to make it fair. 
The kids loved the Halloween parade and assembly at school and it was fun to see all the costumes…there was the coolest jellyfish with LED lights!  K had snacks at his party and one activity and he thought it was the best ever :o).  It is good he is easily impressed :o).  Reggie’s party was awesome, lots of activities and games.  Ainsley watched a show and whenever there is TV involved, my kids are happy.  It was a long day and late night, but everyone had fun.

KOA (Kampgrounds of America)

Our good friends the Williams invited us to tag along for the Halloween experience at KOA.  It has been a long time since we “camped” and thought the cabin experience would be a good start.  It was great…we had our own room and the kids slept in bunks (Ainsley had a sleepover the first night with her best bud Daniella), but we had no bathroom or kitchen.  We happened to be right across from Laura’s mom, who is a fabulous cook.  She just kept calling us over to eat and we enjoyed it so much.  We did contribute our stuff, but Ryan felt bad eating all their food, so next year, he asked her for a shopping list.  I am getting happy just thinking about all the good food.  Our kids tried a few new things and really liked them :o).  K tried smores for the first time and you can imagine the smile on his face.  They had a big pillow jumper that was kina like a trampoline, but much closer to the ground and no springs that the kids wore themselves out on.  We brought the bikes and they rode and rode and had fun on the play structure too.  It was a little cold, but that didn’t stop the kids from going in the pool!  It was a bit tricky keeping track of all the kids, going this way and that way, so it was good there were lots of watching eyes.

Sat. night everyone dressed up and went trick-or-treating.  I guess the weekend we were there is more adult oriented, so we had some blended treats and jello shots.  It made trick-or-treating even more fun.  There were some seriously funny costumes and an amazing showing of people decorating their cabins.  I’m not sure how they got all of the stuff in their vehicles, but we certainly enjoyed viewing all of their hard work. 
They are already booked up for next year, so it is good Laura made her reservation before we got there.  We  are going to stay in the Deluxe Cabin with them…it will be very nice to have a bathroom and the kids are going to have so much fun!!!  

Visit from Grandma and Grandpa

My parents were in town a few weeks ago (can’t believe how time flies).  Now I can’t even remember what we did!!!  The kids had their regular activities, so mom tagged along to see Ainlsey do her first round-off backhandspring and dad got to see Reggie play piano.  We also had soccer and scouts, so I guess we did have a lot going on.  Reggie sitting on grandpa's lap...his legs probably went numb!

The kids were off of school Thursday and Friday which was nice to have a little more free-time.  Thursday we went down to the thrift store in Milpitas (Value Village-here it is called Savers) to shop for some Halloween costumes.  We found a Ninja and Rapunzel costume and we left there with happy children. K was in preschool, but was very excited to see his Spiderman costume when we picked him up :o).  That night we headed to the famous market!  Mom and Dad finally got to experience it, but it was a lot more chilly than normal.  We splurged and got the largest bag of kettle corn and ½ flat of strawberries (where else can you get that for $5!).  Everyone was very focused on eating!  

On Friday, we had our respite provider come to hang with K while we enjoyed a hike at Del Valle and the movie Hotel Transylvania :o).  It was a great movie and a good hike (the kids got to see/smell a dead dear).   We have been taking advantage of the respite that is provided through the foster system.  We get 24 hours per month and can break it up, so it allows for some serious date nights!  

Collecting pine cones...

After Ainsley’s soccer game on Sat., we went to the Livermore Airport open house.  We saw all kinds of planes and an air show.  The kids were kinda bored, but we enjoyed ourselves.  Later that day, we had our respite provider come again to watch all the kids on Sat. and the 4 adults went out and enjoyed some dinner at Sauced (a BBQ place) and shopping around for the MIL (mother-in-law) house on our property.  We then headed to a bar to watch the Huskies play Oregon….the game was a major disappointment, but it was fun to get out and be adults together :o).  

The next day Ryan and I went to the Madonna concert.  We had fun hanging out with friends and looking at the fun people at the concert, but she was a total let down.  She came out over 2 hours late (around 10:30) and sang all of her new songs.  I only knew 2 songs and we ended up leaving early, sometime after midnight.  This was a Sunday, so we were kinda shot for Monday :o(.

Dad was out working in the yard as usual (we are still filling the green waste from their visit!) and talking with all the neighbors-thank goodness the guy right next door has a Romney sign in his yard).  Dad thought he found a termite problem and thank goodness it wasn’t!  Mom played a lot with the kids and pondered options for the lay-out of the MIL.  The week went super quick and it will be nice when they can stay in their new house for a longer period of time and enjoy the sun in the winter :o).

Is this Reggie or grandpa???

Foreign Object

Well, we had a bit of an adventure last Friday....Thursday night Ainsley didn't want to say goodnight to K because he stunk.  I had noticed a smell a little earlier, but it had grown to an amazingly strong infection smell.  He had a cold and sounded stuffy, so I assumed he had a sinus infection.  We went to the doctor first thing in the morning and she saw something and thought the smell might be coming from a foreign object.  She got out her tools and started poking around and ended up shoving it much farther up his nose :o(.  Let's just say, I have never had a good experience there and am switching his insurance, so we can take him to the kids' doctor.  Anyway, she said we needed to go to Children's Hospital in Oakland and they would be ready for us.  We started in emergency and got referred to the ENT specialist.  4 hours later and a very hungry (they wouldn't let him eat in case he had to have emergency surgery) and grumpy boy, it was determined they were going to have to put him under to get it out.  Because he is a foster child, that meant getting a court order, so with that and the doctors schedule, we went in this morning.  It was a long 6 days and we were all very ready to get it out...he was quite stinky and his nose was pretty irritated.  So, the big question was, what was it????  I asked him and he and Ainsley concocted a story about Spongebob's hand and it was too weird.  Turns out, they were right, he had a Spongebob paper/cardboard cut-out with felt arms/hands and I remember the hand falling off.  For some reason, he thought it would be a good idea to stick it up his nose!  He had a bloody nose about 3 weeks ago and I think that is when it happened.  I am pretty sure he won't be doing that again any time soon!
I have to say, Children's Hospital surgery center really has it all figured out.  It was such a pleasant, seamless experience.  He was really upset and hungry when he woke up, but other than that, it went very smoothly :o).    Glad its over....
K in his surgery suit:

Backhandspring

We haven't had much free time between getting the house organized and school starting, but we had a little time one weekend and she did this after about 1/2 hour (you have to go to the blog to see the video (arrtwade.blogspot.com):

Disneyland!!!

Notice Ainsley's hair:

Disneyland!  The first day was a day of good weather, much built up excitement, and yes LINES???  Let me get this straight, school has started for everyone and we're in the middle of the week and there are lines??  It's just crazy to think there are thousands of people doing exactly what we're doing (although we did find out later that the largest school district in the area was on a furlough day).  We started out with a quiet 20 minute walk into maham!  We hit California Adventure first thinking we were gonig to go on the new Cars ride but as we walked in we saw the line had already stacked up to 60+ minutes.  So we enjoyed the Mater ride.
We then headed to the Toy Story ride and waited for 45 minutes.  We ended up hitting some little rides on the way that had no wait and the Ariel ride was Ainsley's favorite of the day, so it worked out. 

We hung out with Crush from Finding Nemo and Ainsley and I got to talk with the Crush dude.  Ainsley's name was Aloha Ainsley and I was Rockin Ryan.  It is an interactive show and he picked her out of the crowd and being on the spot is definitely not her thing, but she got through it. 

We finished up with Soaring over California and we all loved that.  It was then time to head over to Disneyland.  The kids watched the Jedi training class (they are hoping to get picked tomorrow as they pick roughly 20 kids out of the crowd).  Trina almost threw up on the Star Tours ride and was only able to keep her eyes open for the first 15 seconds before she started sweating and getting a watery mouth (she can't do motion as it makes her very ill - she also lost her sunglasses as she was out of sorts)..  Ainsley was so funny on that ride.  She looked over and asked, "Are we in space?"  Reggie's highlight was that he got to build a lightsaber from scratch.  We could have gone home after that.  He's been playing with it ever since :o).  That night we went to the Color of Lights show and it was amazing.  A lot like the Vegas Bellagio water show, but on some serious steroids.  It was a late night, but worth it.  The kids had never seen anything like it.
We woke up early the next day to head to Universal Studios.  Traffic was terrible,  but we still got there shortly after it opened.  We headed to the big rides first to get to them before everyone else did.  That was a very smart plan because we literally walked onto the Jurassic Park ride.  It was awesome.  The kids, especially Reggie, were a little nervous about the drops.  The last one was a big one and Ainsley said it was fun, but didn't want to go again.  Next was Tranformers and Reggie was rearing to go.  Trina knew better than to go on that one-it seems that if they are a 3-D ride, they will make her sick.  Ainsley was unsure, so she stayed with Trina.  It was a very good thing they didn't come.  When we first took off on our mission...... things were fine and then all hell broke lose.  Reggie's head was in my armpit 5 seconds after we started.  Many drops and turns and decepticons attacking our ship and after we survived the initial attack, we fell from a sky scraper straight down and right before we hit and died bumblebee caught us and we survived.  It was the craziest and most real ride I have ever been on.  Reggie was moaning and crying the entire time, I felt bad because you can't get off, but the ride kicks ass!!!

On our way out, we saw Bumblebee and then Trina and I took turns on the Mummy ride.  That was a trip!!!  It was like being shot out of a cannon and going through a dark maze, only to hit a wall and do it backwards!  It was good Reggie read the sign about it being a fast roller coaster because that would have sent them to the car.  From there we went to the animal show and learned about special affects.  That was really fun and the kids were laughing a lot.  We headed over to Water World and ran into SpongeBob, the Lorax, Curious George, Scooby Doo, and Shrek on the way!!!  It was super cool.  Ainsley shot out of the stroller when she saw the Lorax and had a grin from ear to ear :o). 

Universal Studious had some fun people up in a hotel making fun of everyone (can I just say, what an awesome job!) and they saw Reggie in the stroller and were commenting on how smart he was for staying in the stroller as long as possible (they thought he was 7-if they only knew he is almost 9!).  The double jogger has saved the kids.  They could probably walk, but they've been a lot less cranky not having to.  We've not been so lucky :o(.  But, happy kids make for a happy family :o).

You can see the wreckage of an airplane behind us at one of the sets in Universal...

We hit everything there, the new 4-D Shrek ride (4-D because you get wet, air blows on you and your seat moves), Water World, the tram tour and were finished by 4!  It was so much more pleasant than Disneyland and California Adventure.  Much fewer kids and a slower pace.  We did learn that Reggie is very afraid of fire and there were lots of rides with fire, so he was definitely ready to go home and after all the crazy stuff we drug him on, I'll be really surprised if he doesn't have nightmares or scars for life!!!  Horrible traffic on the way back, but we had a nice dinner and went for a beautiful swim :o).
We started out Friday bright and early since the park opened at 8.  We were smart and got right in the fast pass line for cars and got our time slot for 11 o'clock.  Some people told us in the pool to ride single and the wait was only 10 minutes, so we tried that, but Ainsley wasn't old enough.  Reggie and I (Trina) went and he loved it!  I got a little car sick, but I had just gone on Tower of Terror, so I wasn't sure if that was part of it). That was a cool ride....the kids were scared to death after the video, so we exited and then Ryan and I took turns going by ourselves.  We did a lot of hopping back and forth from the 2 parks, but after we all went on cars, everything else was just bonus.  We went to Captain EO (the Michael Jackson 3-D movie that was make in 1984).  It was a riot and the kids enjoyed it-Ainsley really liked the dancing).  We did all our favorite rides, Buzz Lightyear, Pirates and Ryan and Reggie did Star Tours again.  I guess they have different ones and Ryan got a little sick because it was a Pod race.  It was the hottest day and we were looking for a water ride, but the kids saw the drop on Splash Mountain and said no way.  So, Ryan and I went single and they put us in back, so we didn't even get wet :o(.  On our way out, we made it to the Rapunzel line just before it closed.  Ainsley was thrilled and had the biggest smile on her face.  I have to say, she was the nicest princess we've met :o).  Thankfully, it was dinner time and we made the trek over to the Rainforest Cafe and enjoyed sitting, eating and being cool!

 Getting new tires on the Cars ride :o)

Today was a relaxing pool day.  We didn't do much except make a trip to target to get some chicken to BBQ and swim and swim some more.  The kids had lots of fun diving for dive toys, playing tag and launching off of Ryan in all kinds of ways!  They sure have turned into fish.  Tonight we had movie night and the kids watched Willie Wonka and The Chocolate Factory (we didn't get to stay for the whole thing when they played it at Rancho).  What a weird movie that is....you don't notice a lot of things when you are little, but watching it as an adult was a different experience.  The kids sure loved it though!
We head out tomorrow morning for our 5-6 hour drive :o).  And then, grandma and grandpa arrive and we have a different sort of Disneyland!!!
So tired.....

School!

Well, we've been in school already for almost a month!  I'm feeling way behind on blogging :o(.
The kids were very excited to start school and we are very excited about their teachers.  Reggie's teacher used to be the science teacher, so he knows her and was happy about that.  I spent some time in the class last week and she is fabulous!  Her classroom is so quiet and she is really nice.  We chatted a bit when the kids were at recess and she told me that Reggie was already tested on his reading and popped up into the 5th grade level.  He read an entire Magic Treehouse book yesterday!  What a difference a year makes (he started last year reading at the 1st grade, 8th month level).  The homework is a little intense because it is nightly now.  We used to get a homework packet that they could do at their leisure, usually over the weekend.  So, it has put quite a bit of pressure on us in the evenings when he is exhausted.  He has spelling, reading, math and sometimes English almost every night.  He is very excited to have his buddy Colin in his class, as well as 5 other cub scout buddies.

Ainsley also has a great teacher.  She is crazy organized and also very sweet with the kids.  At back to school night, she told us that the kids read for hours in the classroom and we can tell!  Ainsley's reading has come a long way in the last couple weeks and I think she is enjoying it more because it is easier.  She has her best bud, Daniella, in her class, so she couldn't be happier.  She has been writing a lot and "teaching" K all kinds of things.

K also started preschool a couple weeks ago and is really enjoying it.  He asks to go everyday, but it is only Tuesday and Thursday.  So, I get one morning free!  Thursday mornings, I alternate helping in Reggie's class and Ainsley's class.  We have been working on our letters and right now he knows the letter O and that's about it.  Seems like such a slow process, but I know if we keep working at it, eventually it will click.  The first day was interesting....standing in line, he saw a classmate and said, "Don't look at me."  Then in the classroom, he was playing at the kitchen and didn't want to share as the toys were his!  Not sure how popular he is going to be!!  Very different from my kids, although I think he's mellowed out a bit.  The teachers there are great and will help him socialize with new kids :o).

So, I think it is going to be a great year!!!  We love Rancho and are happy our new house is close enough to continue going there.  We are going to family movie night on Friday to see Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (the original).  Can't wait to see what the kids think.....
Thought this picture was cute....the kids couldn't part with their kindergarten self portraits and when we were moving, they became interesting again:

The continued plumbing saga

Just when we thought we had the plumbing issue resolved, Trina noticed water on the carpet floor near the shower and her closet.  Against my will, I climbed underneath the house in our crawl space which is barely 18" deep.  Ya, lets just say I was a fat man in a little area.  I had to army crawl clear across the house and maneuver under and over existing pipes.  I finally got to the area (right underneath our shower) and had Trina turn on the shower.  Water began to leak/pour from the pipes that feed our shower.  Interesting that if you just ran the bath it didn't leak but as soon as we would turn on the shower it would pour out.  Anyway, I managed to get back out of the crawl space after almost getting stuck (I thought Trina was going to have to call the fire department).  We called our home warranty again and they explained that they covered the pipe repair but not the access into the wall.  The plumber offered to cut into the wall for $350.00.  Of course, I said no and that I would do it.  So I cut a 1ft by 1ft hole into Trina's closet which exposed the leaking pipe to the shower head.  The plumber came out and fixed the issue and right now we're golden,.  I'm hoping that most of the kinks are now figured out but who knows.  We will send pic's soon of our home with our stuff in it.

We're alive

Things  sure got crazy after we left Washington.  We had 2 days when we got home before we got the keys to the new house, so we could just chill out, grocery shop and hang with friends.  Then the packing continued and continued and the work on building closets and getting the house ready began.  It was exhausting, but we are starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel :o).
I will blog later about the rest of our trip (thankfully, I wrote the text on the drive back, so I just have to get the pictures together).  It was a new record,  14 hours and 2 minutes.  We had to stop 5 times, 3 to visit the bathroom, so there’s still room for improvement.  The best part was pulling into the driveway!  The kids went right to bed and we put things away.  It went pretty quickly and even enjoyed a little Olympics before bed.  The next day, the kids were up early and I was starting to have a plan for packing.  
We picked up K Tuesday morning and had him for 3 days.  He returned home for a long weekend and then was permanently with on Auguest 14th.
Looking  at the bright side, all the busyness is great for weight loss, which is good because a summer at the lake is not good for weight loss!!!We officially moved on August 19th and I'll be sending out an e-mail to everyone to update their records.  We rented a truck and had 4 guys and we were done in about 5 hours :o).  Thankfully, I had done all the car trips back and forth the previous 10 days and had most everything in its place.  All we had to do was put the beds together.
Later that day, I was doing a load of laundry and checked to make sure things weren't leaking and unfortunately, there was water on the ground.  Ryan had just tightened a bolt in the yard because it was emitting a poop smell.  It seemed that the 2 were related so I asked him to loosen it and water started seeping out.  The bathtub was also a little backed up.  I called a friend and he said it sounded like their was a  block in the sewer line from the release to the road and suggested we take the cap completely off to release the pressure and clear the line.  That was interesting.....nothing like a poop geyser in your front yard draining all over the driveway and into the grass.  The cable guy got more than he bargained for as he was trying to "save" his drill bit from the flow and ended up tipping over our swing and crashing on the grass-but not in the poo :o).  If only we had been smart enough to grab the video camera we would be $100,000 richer, no doubt!!!
We had just gotten the mail and the home warrantly info. arrived, so we gave them a call and they sent someone the next day who broke 5 blades trying to get through the tree roots, but there were no trees in yard!  He said we needed to get the camera down there to check it out.  The camera couldn't even fit through the pipe, it was so clogged.  Thankfully, the camera guy had bigger, stronger blades and was able to completely clear the block and give us 4 inches of diameter.  I pulled up an old picture on Zillow and there was a tree about 5 feet away that was cut down, so we are hoping the problem is solved (gotta love the internet!).  If not, we found a great plumber from our church, who will help us fix it.  We are lucky that the problem is under the grass and not the driveway :o).
So, the week went buy and we continued to cross things off our list.  The house feels like a home now and we just have to hang pictures and empty the garage.  It has a nice flow and feel and we are really enjoying it.
We did have a surprise a couple night ago when the carpet near my closet was wet.  We knew it must have been coming from the shower, so Ryan headed into the crawl space (truly a crawl space) and barely made it over to the problem.  Huge leak in the pipe to our bathroom, so we called the Home Warranty again and someone is coming today.  We knew the pipes were old and going to be an issue eventually, but we were hoping later rather than sooner.  I am very thankful we have 2 bathrooms and a Home Warranty!!
Welcome to home ownership!!!  The good thing about moving is you never sit down and I managed to lose all the weight I gained over the summer at mom and dad's.  It is all about focus and we are choosing to focus on the positive, despite these problems and it has helped lighten the mood.
Oh, I almost forgot....in the mix of all this, we added K back to our family 2 weeks ago and he has been adjusting well.  3 is a challenging age as he knows everything and wants everything on his terms, but we are working through it and coming to an understanding :o).  The kids have been great despite the craziness and being passed around to friends.  We have such good friends and could not have done the move without them!  Not only did we move, but we had to clean the rental house and return it to its original condition.  We did it in a day and it was worth it because we got our full deposit back :o).  I'm glad that chapter is over......

Trip to Lummi

Well, we had tons of fun again this year.  Lots of searching for treasures and making some really cool things out of our treasures.  Grandma got to keep those to decorate with!  Liha and Spencer got to join us this year and I’m pretty sure he’ll want to go back again next year :o).  

We saw purple starfish for the first time and that was really cool.  We also visited a beach not far from the cabin that had all kinds of really cool rocks.  We could have filled the car with all of the interesting rocks!  Thank goodness we only brought a tiny little bucket.
We had a fire and roasted marshmallows, searched for sea glass, flipped rocks to find tiny crabs and watched a little of the Olympics.  Oh, and ate lots of good food, of course :o).
Unfortunately, I never sleep well there….last year my mom and I had a terrible allergy attack in the middle of the night and this year Spencer was in our room and was having some kind of trouble and was thrashing all around for a good portion of the night (probably because he ate 1 ½ cheese sandwiches!).  When he was finally quiet, we heard Liha walking around upstairs.  She came and got mom because there was a bat flying around!!!  I pretended to be sleeping :o).  They got her bedding downstairs and set her up in the living room next to the kids.  Mom came in and reported that Liha had a drip of something fall on her lip…hmmm bat pee??!!  This was so super funny to us and we giggled hysterically which Liha did not appreciate.  The bat wasn’t finished with her as it kept swooping down lower and lower (probably trying to stop the incredibly loud snoring).  She opened the door and it flew out and then we giggled some more and finally fell back asleep.

Ainsley turned the big 6 yesterday and lost another tooth!  She had all kinds of fun this year for her birthday! The parties just kept coming.  It started with Grandma Peggy taking the kids the Thursday before we left to let Ainsley pick out a few birthday goodies.  I think Grandma Peggy has the same problem as Ryan…they can’t say no to our cute kids.  So, it turned into quite a shopping spree, complete with sunglasses and hair accessories.  I am very glad I sent her with a coupon!  Then they went out to dinner and saw Ice Age 4.  It was quite the fun afternoon for them!

 Clothes from the shopping spree...

Saturday the 4th was Ainsley’s party at the lake and the weather was awesome!  Super sunny, but a little warm.  We took a boat ride and it was so hot that I thought a nice jump off the rope swing would be fun.  Jenisa and I went and thankfully, we didn’t have to call the medics.  Jenisa fell in the rock, but came away with just a small gouge in her leg.  I had fun doing back flips :o). 
Ainsley had a good time playing with the cousins and neighbor, Cami.  I think they were out in the water all day, but we did manage to get her out for presents and cake.  It was fun to see everyone one last time before we headed out the next day.

The weekend we got back to Livermore, we had a party at the Robert Livermore Community Center Pool.  It is the first year we have had a party there with her friends and it was really poor timing with our move.  We were right in the thick of it and it was quite amazing that we were able to pull everything together.  It was actually a nice break and the girls ended up staying to relax at the pool long past the end of the party :o).  She was surrounded by her best buds and had a great time doing what she loves most, swimming!

 We love you Ainsley for who you are:
The giggly girl who we often have to ask to stop laughing
The sweet motherly girl who loves on little ones and her babies
The girl who has to have her hair just so
The little teacher who may just be a teacher one day
The girl who gives up her juice to make K stop crying
The athletic girl who wants to do everything
The girl who needs her hugs and cuddles
The girl who loves to dance and sing to her Kidz Bop and church songs
What a diva, but don't too close to those pits....she's a stinker