Ice Skating

Today we went ice skating for the boys' first time.
We went with our cousins in Mira Mesa and the San Diego Ice Arena
It was really busy, but still room for us to skate. They did a nice job of making if fun by playing music, changing the lights and playing games. The staff working there were really nice.

I was scared when we first went on the ice. I haven't ice skated since I was 13. So I am trying to find my balance, while holding up Will, and holding Westley's hands. Within minutes my legs were burning and I was thinking uh oh, there is no way I can do this for like 2 hours.
But Will actually found his balance and did very well really quickly. Westley had too much excitement and his legs kept flailing out from underneath him. He always fell with a smile though. About half way through, he got it down and then could skate on his own without falling much.
Both boys loved it and asked if they could go ice skating again next time. Sure, I said, next time. Not sure when that will be but we will go again sometime.

Before Picture:

During (very hard to take pictures while skating)

After :)

12 Days of Giving

To focus on the true meaning of Christmas, This year we started a new tradition of the 12 days of Giving.
12 days in the month of December, before Christmas, my goal was to create opportunities that my boys could experience giving and sharing.

We are not done yet, but here is what we have done so far:
1 A special one -
I told Westley about Finnley - A little girl whose brain does not work like ours. The doctors told her mom when she was a tiny baby that she would not live. But her mom, friends, family, and people all over the world prayed for her, and God helped her live. She is 3 years old and still faces many challenges. Her mom needed money to take her to swim with some whales and dolphins who have shown a magical ability to help heal children's brains. It was an expensive trip. (see the whole story at finnleykate.blogspot.com) Westley asked, "How much money do they need? I said every little bit helped" He got out his sharing bank. I told him since we were mailing the money, we needed to use dollar bills instead of coins. He took all 5 one dollar bills from his sharing bank and put them in an envelope. On his own he then opened his spending bank (we call it his game bank because that's what he likes to do is play games) and he took all the dollar bills from that one. He wanted to give more money, so then he solicited Dad for the dollar bill in his wallet :) I was very proud of him.

2. We made and decorated cookies that the boys hand delivered to their teachers and our neighbor

3. We made sending out our  Christmas Cards a family project. The boys helped put the stamps and return address labels on the envelopes.

4. We donated food to the canned food drive at Westley's school. I talked about how we have so much food, but some families cupboards have little or no food in them.

5. A military family in need was asking for magic toys for their 8 year old. We filled up a Packed 4 Fun Magic and Mind games backpack for the little boy.

6. At church our pastor told us about children in Mexico that sleep in a one bedroom shack without beds. They asked us to bring blankets. I shared the information with the boys, and they took new blankets to drop off at church

7. We have started to clean out their playroom. We have talked about what books and toys we could give to others. We have set toys out to give to their cousin, our friends, and the teen mom I mentor and delivered them to them

8. We made red and green play dough to give as a Christmas gift to our little cousins.

9. The boys wrapped up presents for each other (and did so without saying, "I want that", or telling the other what was inside)

10. We went to a Christmas Service at our church and the boys brought money from their bank and gave it in the offering.

11. Westley agreed to let Will sleep in his room (he has a trundle bed) Will has been afraid in his room for weeks as the heater shares a wall of his room and makes creepy sounds. It's so cute to hear them giggle at night even though I put on my serious face and yell for them to stop talking and go to sleep!)

12. This one we still have to do -  Thank you notes to Santa and others who helped us have a very Merry Christmas.

Do you have a special place in your heart for Children or Dolphins? Please Help Out!

Will's craniosacral therapist has a new non profit organization called Universal Alliance For Family Health (which I am on the board of now)
Our First Project is to help a little girl named Finnley.
Finnley's whole story can be read at finnleykate.blogspot.com but I will tell you a little bit here.

Diagnosed with brain damage and on life support, newborn Finnley Kate was given only days to live. Powered by prayers and love, Finnley defied all odds, astounded doctors, and is a now a precious 3 1/2 year old girl. While Finnley has survived the odds and overcome many challenges, she has Cerebral Palsy and faces all the challenges that can come with it.

Finnley's mother and therapists work tirelessly to do all they can to help Finnley, but  another miracle is needed to help her get closer to being able to walk, talk, see better, and battle seizures. They now believe this miracle has come.

Finnley has been accepted to participate in a research project where she will swim with a wild pod of dolphins off the coast of Spain this month. The research team has been coming from Germany to work with children from all over the world who suffer with Cerebral Palsy and Autism to this spot in the Atlantic ocean to work with the each winter over the last ten years. They have had great success in helping these children heal within their central nervous systems.

I have created a nice Christmas themed card that has Finnley's picture on the front (pictured above) and on the inside it has her story as appears above on the left-hand side of the card. On the right-hand side it says "A Donation Has Been Made In Your Name To Support Finnley's Opportunity To Swim With Dolphins In The Wild- A Therapeutic Experience That Can Provide Sonar Healing To Her Central Nervous System"

These cards would make a great gift for anyone this Christmas season - for teachers, extended relatives, hairdressers, as stocking stuffers etc. You can make a donation of any size, even $10 would be great. 

If you are able to donate, please contact me (either by email or leave a comment on this blog post)

Checks can be made out to Donations Universal Alliance for Family Health and are Tax Deductible. 

If you are not interested in the card or receipt, donations can easily be made on Finnley's webpage

Thank you for your support. By supporting Finnley you are supporting a miracle.

The String Game of Surprises

So I did something very similar I think for Valentines Day and Westley has been asking for it since. While the boys were napping, I ran a string through our living rooms and kitchen. Along the way there were hidden little presents.
When they woke up they had to follow the string and hunt for the presents (which were in a drawer or the refrigerator, or under a cushion or behind a chair).
They had a fun time with this, again!

Major's Birthday

Major, our Canine Companions for Independence puppy in training turned 1 year old this month. So, the boys and I threw him a little party.
Will made him a party hat, and Westley made a doggy cake with peanut butter and his food
Happy Birthday Major!

Chalk Outlines

I think tracing our bodies was one of my first blog posts, but this time it was extra fun because the boys were old enough to trace with the chalk, and they got to chalk GRANDMA out on the dirty cement :)

Thanks for being a good sport Grandma 

Making Pancakes at Grandmas

Doesn't real need any explanation,
I just really liked this picture

A Karaoke Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving we went to my cousin's house. We had a great meal and a great time hanging out, and then a great time with karaoke. Will was especially surprisingly into it. He wasn't so much singing and just making noise, so I don't think I will buy us our own Karaoke machine, but it was fun seeing them all have a good time

5x7 Folded Card

Damask Blessings Christmas Card

Shutterfly Christmas cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

Embrace Charity Event

I donated a Packed 4 Fun backpack to this blog www.familylifeinlv.com that is hosting a really neat charity event. It is called the Spread the Warmth Giveaway. There are 90 prizes over $3500 in value up for grabs, and you can enter to win by donating $10.
Embrace is a social enterprise that aims to help millions of vulnerable babies in 3rd world countries through a low cost infant warmer.  Unlike traditional incubators that cost up to $20,000, the Embrace Infant Warmer costs 1% of this price.  The device can work with or without electricity, is portable,  safe and intuitive to use.
It is really a great product, and has a great story behind it. It was developed by college students studying engineering. I encourage you to check out their website and watch video clip about it http://embraceglobal.org/


To participate and donate visit http://www.familylifeinlv.com/2011/10/spreadthewarmth-charity-raffle.html
All you have to do is  read through the post - use the Donation Widget to safely enter a credit card donation. Once you donate please fill out the Google Document form below the donation widget to enter the raffle.


Hurry! This event ends 11/12

Just Hanging Around

Kevin has a pull up bar that can attach to a door frame. While he never uses it, the boys and I put it to use. I will hold them up and count for how long they can hold on. Usually on their first times before they get word out, they can make it to the count of 30.

We couldn't remember whose turn was next and both boys were arguing that it was their turn. So Kevin got out a big coin and showed them how one side is heads and one side is tails. They agreed for Westley to be heads and Will tails. We did it to decide the person's turn, but then before each turn they would flip the coin until it was heads or tails to take their turn (with the other standing there rooting his brother on). It was pretty cute. Flipping the coin was an exciting game in itself.

Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes A Day

A friend of mine blogged about this bread, so I was curious to try it, so I ordered the book, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day 
When the book arrived and I started to read it, I realized there was much more science to it than just following a recipe in a recipe book. So I took the time to learn all about it before I proceeded.
With Will as my helped we made the dough. The reason it is five minutes a day is you make a large batch of dough that can be kept in the fridge for 2 weeks, and then you pull off the amount you need to make a daily loaf. The five minutes is the amount of time you are actually dealing with the dough. It does not include rising/resting and baking time.
So we made the dough, which just consists of flour, water, salt and yeast.

We made the dough two days ago and today we made our first loaf of bread.
The only trouble I had was sliding it onto the hot pizza stone (mine didn't slide) so the loaf was a little flatter than I hoped for, but that's OK.

We had to wait for it to cool before we could try it for the first time.
It was very very good. It tasted like a fresh bread you would get served with your food in a nice italian restaurant. I was very impressed.

There are things Will and I don't agree on... but we both agreed this was some good bread!

I am excited to be able to make bread this good, but also worried, because I could get carried away (there are all kinds of recipes on how to make different breads and flavored breads and pizza, soft pretzels, cinnamon rolls out of the dough) If only I had more time... to make all this, and to work out to compensate for eating all of this :)

Pumpkin Station

This year, we went back to Pumpkin Station in Del Mar, only because I got a groupon type deal and I knew the kids wanted to go.
It is not a pumpkin patch since the Pumpkins do not grow there, but pumpkins of all sizes are for sale, and there are rides and inflatable jumpers and slides, and a few animals to pet.
The tickets for these are pretty expensive (without a groupon deal) Regular price was $30 for 12 tickets. Luckily we only paid $15. That was about right.
I will say though, if it is not busy, they will let the children pretty much stay as long as they would like in the inflatable jumpers and go down the slide as many times as they like (which are huge and of good quality). My boys had the best time in the big jumper. Definitely got our ticket worth there as they were in if for a 1/2 hour before I had to make them leave as we had to get going.The other rides are nothing special, and make me feel nauseous just watching.
The boys had a good time, so that's what mattered to me.

Will impressed ladies with his man strength

 The boys were so cute on the slide. Will was a little scared, so the first picture is Westley telling him hot to do it and that it will be fun. It's hard to see but they are totally smiling at each other. Will was scared though on the way down

Drew and family joined us too- we got a pretty decent picture of 3 boys- all 3 of which have no interest in smiling or looking at a camera on a consistent basis.

Clint Perry of the Boo Hoo Crew

Clint Perry and the Boo Hoo Crew is a band of children's music here locally in San Diego. Clint Perry plays at local kids hot spots, libraries, birthday parties etc.
I will be working with him to sell his CD Jelly and Peanut Butter and his book Pack Rat Pat 

So Will and I went to check him out at The Cal Coffee in San Marcos where he sings and read stories 2 Thursday mornings each month. The crowd here consisted of many 1 and 2 year olds (likely because many older children were in school)Like Hullabaloo, I enjoyed his songs. They are easy for adults to listen to too. I was impressed by how he knew so many of the kids names and he showed a genuine care for children.
The atmosphere and muffin we got there was nice too, my only complaint is that too many of the moms have full loud conversations with each other during the show which I think is very disrespectful and a poor model for the children.

Recycled Tree

I had gotten some packages with long brown paper crinkled up as the packaging material. I thought I had seen in the past where something like this was used to make a tree. So, I have saved the paper, and we finally got around to making the tree. The boys helped me tape it to the door. Then they picked up leaves from outside and taped them on the branches.
We didn't have time to fully leave the tree that night as it was getting dark, so this tree has turned into a work in progress/ongoing fun in our house.

This was an enriching and fun project that didn't cost a thing!

Pumpkin Carving w/ Grandma and Grandpa

Sunday we went to visit Grandma and Grandpa and they had got pumpkins to carve with the boys. Grandpa read that you should cut off the bottom instead of the top. (We weren't sure why but it did make getting the seeds out easier. It was harder to put it back together though for the Jack-O-Lantern though)
Grandma and Grandpa hadn't carved pumpkins in years, so it was a fun time fore everyone!

Lowe's Build and Grow

Kevin brought home a Build and Grow car from Lowes that he made with Will. Both boys were very into it, so on the next trip he got a tic tac toe/checker game box that he made with Westley.

I knew that Lowes and Home Depot have workshops for kids, but we had never been.

We were inspired after making these kits (and realizing that the kits we had done that cost $5-12 in the store but are what you make for free during the workshops)

So, the next day I took them to the Monster Truck Build and Grow event.

You are supposed to preregister on their website but I was unable to because it was full. I called and they said to come anyway as often times people do not show up.
So we did, and got there right at 10am and got in. Good to know that even if you are registered you should go at 10:00am because people were still coming at 10:45am and at that point they were out of Monster Trucks.

Kevin couldn't go with us to the workshop, so it was all me. My putting things together skills are very weak. It's been a weakness of mine since 3rd grade with the puzzle part of the GATE test kept me from passing. The families around us finished before us. I got hung up on using the wrong size nail (in my defense no where did it say there were two slightly longer nails, and Will just handed it to me so we used it). I kept my patience though and we got it made (Kevin made fun of me for putting the monster wing things on wrong, but whatever, real trucks don't even have that).
And Westley slammed his finger with the hammer and has a blood blister under his nail, but besides all that it was a good time and we will go again when we can!

Hurkey Creek Camping

This weekend we went camping for the first time at Hurkey Creek near Hemet Lake and Idyllwild with our cousins.
It was a peaceful place, so most of the activities revolved around cooking/eating and watching the kids play.
They had a great time enjoying the open space for running, exploring and bike riding, and enjoyed the dark evenings for campfire time and glow stick dancing.

They also enjoyed Uncle Fred's jungle gym of a truck. Complete with a swing, gymnastics bar, and homemade zipline.

Even Fred took a turn