Scratch This One Off The List

I have lived in California for my entire life and I have a list of places I have never been. Alcatraz is one of them and now I can take it off of the list. We took the boys to The Rock today. The sun was shining and there was a breeze. It was a perfect day. Jaxon was interested in the history and loved the audio tour we went on. Mason was interested in the jail cells and the fast that he got to wear his very own head set for the tour. He kept asking if we could take the boat back to Our City. After the tour, we stopped by Pier 39 to grab some clam chowder and Fish n Chips. It was a perfect day!

Pajama Day

Friday was Pajama Day at School. Children and teachers alike wait for this specific spirit day because let's face it, who doesn't LOVE to go to school or work in their comfy pajamas!!! Do you notice has his shoes on the wrong feet? That's his signature look, it's very GQ. We are starting a new trend.

Murder Mystery

Saturday night we headed over to my dad's house for a good ol' fashioned murder mystery dinner party. We had all been given our roles about two weeks ago, which was plenty of time for us to find the right costumes to wear. I was Ashley R. Sonnyste (get it? arsonist) who was recently wealthy due to insurance fraud as a result of her convincing her dad to set ablaze their business that was going under. Shawn was Con Iver a well educated chap who spent his evenings at the Gribbley club. Marissa and Val also joined us as Missy, the well travelled lady, and Ham Mactor, a self-admitted murderer/actor. My dad was hilariously dressed as a general! We ended up discovering, after hours of sharing our history and asking lots of questions, that Michelle was the murderer! She had to kill her father, who had already hired her boyfriend to kill her. Quite a predicament! We had such a good time, but who knew you would have to remember so much information! Ha!

Congratulations Mr. President

These words give me goose bumps, even as I hear them over and over today. We had the amazing opportunity to share this historic day with our students in class today, which means I was able to watch almost all of the days events. The emotional moments for me began when I saw Obama walk down the hallway towards the podium on the capital building. He looked so regal, distinguished, honorable, and ready to lead us. Other memorable moments for me were watching him take the oath of office and watching him get out of his limo to walk a ways on Pennsylvania Avenue towards the White House, smiling and waving with his wife. Today made me feel again like our country was about more than greed, money, and being the first to get ahead. It reminded me that we are all here to make this world a better place. And for the first time in a long time, it feels like it is possible.

Happy 9th Birthday Jaxon...again!

Jaxon wanted to have a movie birthday party this year. We booked the birthday room and the new movie theater Rave and were treated like royalty for the afternoon. We had our very own attendant who took our drink and popcorn orders, a reserved row of seats, and enjoyed the movie Hotel For Dogs. Grandparents, aunts/uncles, and all of the kids watched Jaxon open his presents and then he blew out the candles on my super cute popcorn cupcakes! These cupcakes were easy to make, just dye mini marshmallows yellow, cut them in half with scissors and squiched them back together in groups of 3 to look like popped kernals. Then I placed them in popcorn buckets. I got this idea from Jaxon's friend's mom. So cute!

Cupcakes and 911

So I'm sitting here making cupcakes for Jaxon's birthday party tomorrow and the boys run out of my bedroom screaming , "Mason called the police!" Of course, I start to panic, knowing that they will show up at the door any minute. So we send Mason to his room without the tv on and he's crying hysterically (the biggest form of child abuse in our house is no iCarly). That's when the poice show up to make sure everything is ok. I bring Mason out to talk to the officer, so he knows that they do in fact come when you call. He is petrified and hopefully gets the severity of making that call. Lesson learned. This reminds me of the time in junior high, when my parents left us kids at home to watch movies while they went across the street to play cards. We were trying to win a radio contest for a radio station in Sacramento. The area code is 916 and we kept accidently hitting 911 and we didn't even realize it. The cops showed up and searched the entire house to make sure we were ok, (we were freaking out) and then made us go get our parents from across the street. That was big trouble for us back in the day. Ha!

It's All About the Mommy

Well, for now anyways! Today we had Baby Shower #2 for my sister. Last week I didn't have my camera so I only have pictures from this week's shower. We had a blast eating yummy food, playing silly games and watching my sister and her big ol' belly waddle about. She is just the cuttest thing there is and we are extremely happy for her and my bro-in-law.

I'm still Here

Life without a camera makes posting on a blog very boring. This past week we celebrated Jaxon's 9th birthday and my sister's baby shower. I';; post the details as soon as I can download pictures from the camera that I'm borrowing. I miss my camera!!!!!

Happy New Year!

We rang in 2009 with good friends and family. The Tompkins crew came over and we had dinner, played games, watched a movie, and sipped on Cosmos and Martinis. AT midnight, we dragged the kids away from Kung Fu Panda, poured cider and popped the poppers! I don't make New Years resolutions, but there are some things I'm hoping to work on in 2009-

1-Spend less time at school, and more time at home with my kids.
2- Stress less about work.
3- Scrapbook more.


We'll see what happens!