No School

Today Zach and I reaped the benefits of his first teacher work day and went to Disneyland for a few hours. I was surprised that it was as crowded as it was, but none of the lines were more than a 20 minute wait (except Nemo). All in all it was a pretty great day. The weather was cool and cloudy, perfect Fall weather. We rode our new favorite, Indiana Jones, Big Thunder Mountain, and Space Mountain, just to name a few.

Pumkin Carving Contest

My friend Christopher is hosting a pumpkin carving contest. I was so excited, I ran out bought my pumpkin, and carved away. I chose to carve a spider because I knew how much Christopher would love it. Here is my entry into the event. :-)

Budding Artist

My little man drew me this picture yesterday. I thought it was so cute that I had to post it. The edges are all cut off because it was too big for the scanner, but you get the idea. He described the picture like this... "A man went to the animal shelter to get a dog. On the way home his pick-up truck got a flat tire. Superman came to the rescue and saved the day." Kids are so sweet!!

Rained Out

Last night and this morning it rained like crazy, so all soccer games were rained out. The rain and cold weather really make it seem like Fall. Zach was a little disappointed, he was looking forward to his game, but he requested a rainy day activity that I couldn't resist. He thought it would be a good idea to curl up on the couch with popcorn and hot chocolate, and watch all four Harry Potter movies on DVD. We've been going at a crazy pace since Zach started school, so it was really nice to just have a day to chill out and be lazy. Zach has seemed sneezy and sniffly all day, so I'm not sure what the rest of the weekend holds for us. We are supposed to see the LA Galaxy play tomorrow night, but we'll have to see how he feels.

Join In The Fun

All the cool kids are doing it

Crazy Fans

So, my last post got me thinking about some of the highlights from this year's race. It was a chaotic Tour with lots of drama, but sometimes the crazy spectators provide more entertainment than the race itself. Take this guy for example...



and theres this guy... (I couldn't find any clips of it, but it's a picture with audio of some random guy talking about it)

Dogs Vs. Bikes

We are huge cycling fans, and one of the things I love most about summer is the Tour De France. (Yes, I realize I'm a dork) This year was especially cool because the constant coverage of the Tour in our house, inspired Zach to take off his training wheels and learn to ride a two wheeler!

Most people also know that I'm a big sucker for animals. But, here are two examples from this year's Tour De France, demonstrating why dogs and bikes don't mix. I feel a little guilty, but I think these clips are very funny.

Pure Perfection

Pure perfection is coming to a store near you this November, in the form of the Nikon D3. If I had an extra $5,000 dollars laying around, this thing would be mine.

Boys Will Be Boys...

..I hate that statement. First of all, I feel like it excuses bad behavior. Secondly, I don't think it's true. I've always believed that a child's behavior reflects the way the child is raised. Zach has always had a quick lip, and a very smart mouth, but other than that, he's a very good boy. He's never been the aggressive type. If anything, he's the pleaser and the peace maker with his peers. He'll almost always compromise what he wants, if it will prevent another child from throwing a tantrum. A couple times last week I got to school a bit early and saw a couple little boys that would stay in the back corner of the kindergarten playground and fight. Zach was never a part of it, but I asked him if he'd seen those boys, and reminded him, that kind of behavior is unacceptable. He knew that it was wrong, and assured me that he would never act that way. Fast forward to Monday at soccer practice. Zach was dribbling the ball down the field. One of his team mates got in front of him, started playing defense, and blocked his goal. Imagine my shock and horror when Zach pushed this little boy to the ground and sucker punched him!! Naturally I was out on that field so fast letting him know the error of his ways. I made him apologize to the other little boy, and to his coach. But can you guess what came out of my mouth later that night, when I told my mom what he did... you got it..."boys will be boys." Ugh...

Practice Pays Off

Practice paid off for the Tornadoes, they practiced hard this week and it showed in the way that they played. The score was tied 3 to 3. Despite the fact that Zach scored one of the goals for the 'Lightening McQueens', he actually did a very good job today. He was right in the action the whole time. Several times, he stole the ball away from the other team, took it all the way down the field and set up one of his team mates for a goal!! Great job, Zach attack! My mom, sister, and two new nieces came to cheer on the team. After the game we went to Mimi's to celebrate a job well done. Zach isn't the only one that's tired after the game, I think we're going to curl up on the couch and watch King Kong this evening.

Friday Fun

Fridays are spirit days at Lee. If all the kids in a class wear red, the class earns points to a party given by the PTA. The kids really get into the competition. Dropping off or picking up kids is like looking into a sea of red. After school, Zach and I met with Miss Majors for our welcome conference. She asked if I had any questions for her, or anything that I wanted to discuss. I was glad for the opportunity to ask her if she could help Zach determine when it's a good time for him to wear his glasses. He keeps a pair in his cubby, but he doesn't know when he should use them. She asked if I would be able to be "room mom" for the class. Basically my job will be to act as a liaison between our class, our parents, and the PTA. I will help organize events like our booth at the end of the year carnival and our basket for the auction. After Miss Majors spoke to me, she assessed where Zach's skills and abilities are. He did a great job and seems to be ahead of the game. He knew all his letters, letter sounds, rhyming words, and numbers through thirty. After our conference we met Jake, one of Zach's new friends, and his mom at Rossmoor Park. It's about two blocks from Lee and it's really the heart of the neighborhood. The boys have become very good friends at school. It was fun for me to see them interact and nice to chat with another kindergarten mom as well.

Meghan Aileen Photography

If you're ever in need of a photographer, she is amazing. Meghan photographed my sister's wedding this summer and the pictures are stunning. I love her style and she's a super sweet person. A couple people have asked me about the pictures from the wedding, and I've unknowingly been giving out the wrong address (oops)! So if anyone is a sucker for wedding photos, feel free to check them out at www.dougandloriswedding.com and check out Meghan's website for more of her work www.megfoto.com

Six Years Ago

I remember it like it was yesterday. I was five weeks pregnant with Zachary, I was at home in Fairfax, Virginia, getting ready to go to an eleven o'clock class. Before I got in the shower, I flipped on the tv, so I could watch some local news. It was just before 8:50am when the station broke to cover the first tower being hit. The commentators clearly didn't know exactly what was going on, they were speculating what exactly could have happened to cause the plane to become so drastically off course. They clearly thought it was some kind of freak accident. I called my mom at work to tell her about the news, I was on the phone with her while I watched the second plane crash into the south tower. I sat on my bed, in my towel all day just watching the coverage. I watched as flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon just miles from my house, I watched the chaos ensue at ground zero, I watched countless people jump to their death out of desperation or perhaps defiance, choosing to die on their own terms. I watched flight 93 go down in a Pennsylvania field thanks to the heroic efforts of the passengers on board. I watched the towers collapse into a cloud of dust and debris. My world changed on this day... And yet our government still refuses to secure our borders, It amazes me.

Our House...

...Is almost finished!! I just wanted to share some pictures. Most of the outside is done. We still need the gates for the driveway, the tile inside and out, the interior paint, cabinets, etc. We should be able to move in by the end of October. I can't wait!!

Game Day

Today was the long awaited opening day for soccer games. My mom, dad, step-mom, and sister all came out to cheer on #5. Zach has been looking forward to the opportunity to play a real game for a while. The Tornadoes and the Dragons faced off this afternoon. Our boys played well, but the Dragons were too much for them. After the game, the coach huddled the boys up and asked them what they thought they needed to work on during practices. One of the boys said "we should learn how to score goals!" It was pretty cute (and very true). Their loss didn't seem to phase them though. They all had a great time, which I'm told is the most important thing...

I however, am voting for going to a 5 a week practice schedule. :-)

New Friends

Zach and one of his new friends, Jack, walked out together when school was dismissed. Apparently Jack had invited Zach (and me, by default) to his church carnival. After some discussion between myself and Jack's mom, I said that we could probably go. I think friendships are so important for school age kids. Even though Zach is a super outgoing kid, I feel like right off the bat he's at a slight disadvantage because he lives so far away from most of his classmates. Because of this, I plan on being very intentional about encouraging every opportunity that he has, to develop those relationships. All afternoon, all I heard was, "when are we going? when are we going?" We got to the carnival around 7 o'clock this evening, immediately I wished that Jack's mom and I exchanged phone numbers or something. We hung out on our own for close to an hour before Zach and Jack (literally) bumped into each other. The rest of the evening we spent with Jack and his mom. The boys had a great time sword fighting and spending lots of money on games that resulted in lots of useless junk, but that's what being a kid is all about, right?!?! The way home was really cool, he was so happy! He couldn't stop talking about school and "his new best friend". He says that he can't wait for Monday to come, so he can go back to school. I wish a got some pictures of the new friends, but you'll just have to take my word for it.

First Day of Kindergarten

Both Zach and my mom predicted that I was going to cry. They were right... I did get pretty emotional when I was driving him to school, especially when he asked my to pray for him. I was very proud of myself however, that I kept it together quite well once we got to school. He's been so excited for this day to come. My little leopard has had his 'first day of school' outfit picked out for over a week. I don't know much about his teacher, Miss Majors, but our friends from church had her as a teacher last year, both mom and son really liked her. She's young, sweet, and very pretty. I think Zach already has a little crush on her. This is going to be a good year!

Last Day of Summer

Zach starts kindergarten tomorrow, so today was our last day of summer. As our last hurrah before school, we decided to spend the day at Disneyland with the idea that it wouldn't be very crowded since most school districts have already gone back. We were right, every ride had a wait of 10 minutes or less, except for Nemo which was still 90 minutes long, despite the light crowds. The main purpose of visiting the Mouse today, was so Zach could ride Indiana Jones for the first time. He finally made the 46" cut. He has been wearing shorts and flip flops all summer long, which I guess is the reason that I hadn't noticed how much he's been growing. I started to suspect a growth spurt right about the time of my sister's wedding at the end of July. He was measured for his tux and shoes about a month and a half before the big day. When we picked it up, his feet had grown so much that he couldn't even get his feet in the shoe. He was a size 11 shoes in June, and in July he measured at 12.5. geesh!! Indiana Jones was a big hit. We rode it three times. Zach says it's his new favorite ride. What a fun day!!

Puppies

People often ask me about the puppies. Nikki and Fiona are now 7 months old. Fiona weighs in around 110 lbs. and Nikki is about 95 lbs. They have really been suffering through this heat since the rental house doesn't have A/C. It was over 100 degrees today which means that the house felt like a sauna. We spent the day in the backyard playing with sprinklers, hoses, and a baby pool to keep cool. The girls are so funny. Nikki LOVES anything to do with water but Fiona is far more reserved and much prefers to bite the water coming out of the hose.