Kindergarten Round-up

I can't believe this day has come. I thought he would be my baby forever, but as all children do, Jack is growing up. Yesterday we attended the Kindergarten registration for our local elementary school. I never intended on living here when our kids started school, but here we find ourselves. Jack was so excited, the registration packet came in the mail about six weeks ago, and he insisted on looking at every scrap of paper, he couldn't read a word of it, and almost all of it was actually for me, you know, forms and such, guess a kid can't start school now a days without at least 20 shots under his belt. Any way thanks to a very kind neighbor it was just Jack and me, he kept saying he was so nervous as we walked into the seemingly average looking school....amazing how they all smell the same. I kept telling him that we were just here to give them his paperwork and look at his future classroom, not to actually attend school or anything. He asked me twice if he looked OK, "of course" I told him. The lines were long and by the time we made it all the way through them and to the school nurses to get final clearance Jack had warmed up a little, he answered all the questions correctly, full name, phone number, age, birth date. Whew, at least they didn't ask anything hard, we still have a lot to work on before he's ready for school this fall. They even gave him a little packet with things to work on over the summer, it was a cute little book.....with one small exception. When Jack came to this page in the book, he was a little confused, his answers were definitely NOT what they were looking for. Can you see why?

Disneyland 2009

So, for a year we've been saving up to take our little family to Disneyland, and last week we finally made it. We asked other family members to join in on our little vacation, but in the end it was just us. Many doubted us, thinking taking a 5 year old, 3 year old and 20 month old twins would be just too overwhelming for two adults and ruin the experience for the boys. Well we've just returned and I'm happy to report that we had a wonderful time! We drove and were able to do the trip in just over 11 hours, and that's stopping to let the twins stretch their legs and many little boy pee breaks. Mostly the drive was uneventful, thanks to our wonderful new little Garmin navigation system, that thing is awesome and could direct us to the most obscure little neighborhood parks along the way for a quiet and free lunch packed by yours truly.


When we finally arrived in Anaheim we checked into an awesome two bedroom condo(Thanks Bob!) and were told that unfortunately there were no more cribs available, you see they were booked to capacity...blah...blah...blah, enter the screaming twins, one look at them and we had all the desk clerks on phones finding us cribs. The cribs arrived at our room before we did, never underestimate the power of tired whining twins!

Disneyland was awesome and lived up to all our expectations, Jer and I both love it there and we were so excited to share this magical place with our kids. Jack and James were in heaven, Jack told us multiple times every day that "THIS was the best day of his whole life!"



It was wonderful to see the amazement in their eyes as the real life, full sized Mickey Mouse, they'd been watching on TV, actually came up to them and gave them a hug, seriously, I could have cried!

We spent hours in the park and rode nearly all the rides, Jack got to ride twice as many times as the rest of us because Jer and I took turns waiting with the twins, and usually took Jack with us on our turn. James rode as many rides as his fearful little mind would allow, but after a ride or two on the Pirates of the Caribbean and The Haunted Mansion he ruled out any further rides that might contain skeletons or ghosts. Jack loved the Indiana Jones ride and Space Mountain but his personal favorite was The Tower of Terror, I think he rode it four times, that kid is fearless!

The twins were champs, napping each day in their strollers for an hour or two, we never went back to the condo for naps, just played in the parks from open to close. Greyson quickly decided the way of James and became leary every time he heard the ghost music, shoving his face into our shirts until we were a safe distance from the offending ride.
Addison on the other hand took it all in stride and looked rather amused at her wimpy, whining older brothers (minus Jack of course) the only thing that made her nervous was if the live Characters got too close. From a distance she was so excited to see them, but as soon at they got close enough to touch her, she completely lost her cool composure and fell into screaming hysterics. We ate way too much, and paid way too much for it, seriously who pays $7.00 for a single corn dog?.......well, I did...twice! They are the best corn dogs in the whole world.
We spent three glorious, exhausting days at Disneyland, it was everything we'd hoped, it was wonderful to spend so much time with just my little family. Even today, with the piles of laundry, a dirty garbage laden minivan, bags of strange souvenirs still to go through, and Jer back at his daily grind, the Disneyland high still hasn't worn off, we can't wait to go again!

Two Heads

This is a case when two heads are NOT better than one. One more thing you get double of with twins....bumps and falls.
They were playing a cute little game where they chase each other from one corner of the room to the other, so cute except Addison's a little slower than her brother and they met "head on" in the middle.
Addison is currently sporting a dark purple eye and
Greyson's got the lumpiest head on the block, seriously that bump stuck out nearly an inch off his head!