Halloween Fun!

It's been another fun Halloween season around these parts. Emma wanted to be a Vampire again this year... yay for saving Mommy a few bucks! :) We did Halloween crafts at Girl Scouts and had a Halloween party too! I did the face painting again. :) Emma's school doesn't allow costumes on Halloween, but they didn't say anything about hairstyles so we went all out on that one. I must say I am pretty proud of how the spiderweb turned out and that it lasted all day long! In the evening we went to the Harvest Festival at church and then trick or treating a bit with her cousins. It was lots of fun!

Highland Pumpkin Patch

 

I found another, closer, pumpkin patch to visit this year so Karen & I decided to take the kids this afternoon. It was a very nice, small, family run place and they had bounce houses! So of course the kids enjoyed it. There were some really cute photo ops set up too. The kids all bounced themselves silly and picked out the "perfect" pumpkins. It was a great afternoon! 

Karen's Belated Birthday Girls Day Out

Karen, and the rest of us, have always been fascinated by Titanic. So, when they brought an exhibit full of actual artifacts to Buena Park, I knew I had to get us tickets. As luck, and scheduling conflicts would have it though, we weren't able to go until this weekend. But it was worth the wait. It was so cool to learn even more about the great ship and to see real pieces salvaged from the wreck site. Check out Emma's expression in the one picture where she is pointing at Captain Smith. Lol! Not a fan...
There was also another exhibit next door about the human body, so we saw that one too. There were all sorts of dessicated remains and ways of seeing all the body systems. You could see all the nerves and spinal cord in one room, how reproduction works (including fetal development) in another section, the way blood pumps through veins in another. It was really interesting, but definitely didn't hold Emma's attention the way Titanic did.
We still had a great girls day out though. We even made it over to Knotts so Mom could have her fried chicken dinner... Yummy!

Harvest Festival

Emma had her school Harvest Festival tonight. The kids had a fun time dancing, playing games, and winning candy. It was a nice evening.

One Year...

Jon & I have been seeing each other for a year now and he surprised me with a trip to San Diego for the weekend. We drove around, visited Coronado, toured the Midway, went to Sea World, and stayed at the beautiful Bahia. It was a lovely weekend...

Ward Street Pumpkin Patch

We made it out to Mentone this week to visit the pumpkin patch with our friends. The kids, as always, had a great time exploring the mazes and fields. The patch was already set up for the nightly "Haunted Hayride" (so not my thing) and the kids thought all the gore was really gross and silly, especially in the light of day! I came across a picture from last year's visit and could not believe how much the kids had changed!

Walk to Remember 2013

This weekend was the annual Alzheimer's Walk to Remember. Emma, Mom, Katie, & I went this year to support our family and, especially, Aunt Pauline. For the 5th year in a row, Pauline's Angels was the highest earning family team. It was a nice morning and Emma had fun playing with her cousin Charlie.

Happy (REAL!) 6th birthday Emma!

Today was Emma's birthday! We started the morning with Emma's favorite breakfast... a sausage sandwich from Jack in the Box! Lol! I took the day off from work to volunteer in her class all morning. Then I left to go pick up Grandma and, in the afternoon, we came back with donuts and juice for the kids. Emma loved having her classmates sing to her and being the birthday girl all day. After school we took Grandma to her worker's comp dr. appointment in Riverside and then out to dinner at the Market Broiler. Yum! It was a fun day!

Humane Society

Tonight Emma and the rest of the Daisies got to tour the Humane Society of San Bernardino Valley. They learned about taking care of animals and how to keep them happy and safe. The girls got to see the exam rooms and boarding facilities and they even donated a whole bag of "happy sock" cat toys that we made a couple of weeks ago.

Believe Walk

For the second year in a row Emma, along with the rest of Troop #250, volunteered to work passing out water bottles at the annual Believe Walk in Redlands. This is one of our main community service events each year and the girls love it. They dress up in their (individually made!) pink tutus and stand along the parade route quenching the thirst of thousands of runners. This year we even met up with Lucy, who was there volunteering with Key Club. I am lucky to have such altruistic girls in our family. So proud of them. Emma also got quite a giggle out of taking a picture by the "boobie mobile." Silly girl.

Birthday trip to San Diego

A few months ago Groupon was running a really good deal on a stay at the Bahia resort in San Diego. I remembered staying there as a kid with my parents and how cool it was to be right on the ocean, so I decided to check it out. Turns out that only a few of the nights were at the discounted rate but, lo and behold, those nights just happened to coincide with our end-of-quarter break at work! So I booked the room, told Grandma to pack a bag, and we headed down to SD for a couple days with the kids. We played on the private beach, went to Sea World, and had a nice visit with Uncle Orland. It was a wonderful little getaway. :)