Science Camp

Raya had an awesome opportunity to attend Science Camp at Pt. Bonita in the bay area for 4 days. She traveled by bus with 3 sixth grade classes and probably had one of the best times of her life! Unfortunately I was not able to attend this field trip so I sent Raya with my little point and shoot digital camera. I guess I didn't give her much instruction because she came back with pictures that, well....an eleven year old would take. I guess if anything good comes from doing the school yearbook, it's getting pictures of your kids that you couldn't take.


















(The kids did a lot of hiking. They hiked this trail and through the mountain)




(can you find Raya? It's not that hard to spot her neon orange beanie!)

While the kid's away....mom will slave away!

Raya left her room a pig sty. I warned her that if she left it that way, I would make my way in (after clearing a path first) and have full reign on that sty! She left it like this:







So I went through the room from top to bottom and cleaned and got rid of stuff. Of course she wasn't happy when she got home and saw how clean her room was. She immediately started searching for stuff to make sure it was not lost in the abyss of "lost" stuff (aka the dump). She, of course, couldn't find anything missing even though I threw out 2 trash bags of stuff!

Raya came home super tired! Long days hiking, late nights chatting, and many many exercises to help with life skills called for a very tired lady!

Her fashion sense was noted by many, including a teacher who pointed out to me that her dinner attire one night consisted of sweat pants, pajama top and her neon orange beanie! All I could think as I stood next to the teacher in my work out clothes was "That's my girl"!


(Crazy shirt day! She got a ton of compliments on her shirt AND it was super easy to make! Raya's teacher "just had to" take this picture of Raya.

Preparations for camp = $75
Camp Cost = $325
Camp Experience = Priceless

Spies Like Us!

My kids are super cool. I love it when they get together and play...nicely that is! Oh, and I love when they get creative...Spying is a game that they play nicely together...and they obviously have some mad dress up skills too!

Found!

I was going through all my old CF cards which I thought that I cleared the pictures from but found some pictures that I hadn't removed from one. I actually can't believe I didn't post about the first day of school. Perhaps it's because I didn't have the pictures to remind me that I needed to do it. So here they are...5 months later, but hey...you know that's how I roll!




Raya's first day of 6th grade:



Malia's first day of 3rd grade:





Ethan's first day of Kindergarten:





and this is Ethan's teacher Mrs. Bhatti. Mrs. Bhatti was actually MY 3rd grade teacher. Malia had her too when she was in kindergarten. If you haven't already guessed, my kids go to the same school I did when I was growing up...

Kid Quote of the Week

Carly: "You have to quiet at church."

Me: "Is it hard to be quiet?"

Carly: "Ya, I need to talk."

big bIG BIG Lollipop!

Oh my Goodness...I have the cutest 3 year old! Many of you who see us on a regular basis or even those of you who occasionally watch Carly probably haven't heard her talk...ever, so here is proof. This is Carly talking about her birthday party. I especially love her facial expressions around minute 1 of the video.

(to view this video, watch "Carly Talking Birthday" on the DVD at the end of this book)

So now that you know Carly does talk, you can hear her sing too. She made up her very own song (well, she actually made up a few, but here's one for your enjoyment). A preface to this video...I asked her if she wanted to sing a Christmas song and she said yes, and then went on to tell me that she can't..."I can't" is sung many times and now you will know what she is singing about when she sings out Christmas... Don't you just love that she starts every sentence with "Because"? I just want to eat her up...she's so dang cute!

(to view this video, watch "Carly's Nanny Song" on the DVD at the end of this book)

Freeeeezing!

Imagine waking up to a house that is 59 degrees Fahrenheit in the middle of winter. Well, that's what we did for a little over a week! Here's proof:



Before we bought our house, we came from one that was an energy gobbler. I'm talking a crazy amount of our retirement went to SMUD each month. So needless to say, we were super excited that we would save money on this aspect in our lives. After receiving our first bill, we were kind of perplexed that it wasn't much lower. Summer came and the bill actually decreased some.

Then, winter came and imagine our shock when we got a bill that was $230 more than the month before!!! Our heater got turned off, kids got lectured for leaving their light on, and showers/baths were shortened!

But then the next months bill came and I thought FOR SURE it would be lower. After all, we were conserving. That was not the case my friends... Get this! Our bill was a whopping $499.75!!!!! Put a stamp on that thing to mail it, and that's a $500 debt people! $500 freakin' dollars!!!!!!

So, the heater got permanently turned off, SMUD got a phone call and after much exploration, we found out that every time our heater was turned on, it went straight into Emergency Mode, using only heat strips to heat the house. THAT my friends is EXPENSIVE!!!

It took about a week to get someone out to come and fix it...$1200 later, we are finally hooked up correctly. It's nice to finally be able to wake up to a 68 degree house and not be freezing my "Royal Rasta Firing Nay Nay's" off!. 10 degrees sure does make a difference!

Thank goodness we had the money to pay the SMUD bill and the AC/Heater guy, but I would have seriously loved to have spent that money on something a little more my style!

Uhhh...

I think I'm in trouble: