Clifford's Sleepover

Luke's Kindergarten teacher has so many great ideas for motivating her students to read. At the beginning of the year, she allowed students to take home Clifford, The Big Red Dog, for a sleepover. Clifford comes to your house prepared. Mrs.Schafer has made him his own sleepover backpack made with Clifford material which comes complete with a Clifford book to read, Clifford's own blanket and pillow for bedtime and Clifford's journal of his many sleepover adventures. Each child adds to the journal and writes about what they did with Clifford at their home. We also added some pictures to our journal page which are posted here. You can see that both Luke and Adam welcomed Clifford into their nighttime routine. Clifford watched tv in the morning with the boys while they ate their cereal, he slept with Luke is his bed and Adam shared his gumballs with Clifford.





The boys were very sad when Clifford had to go to back to school for the next sleepover. But it was a very fun time while he was with us. :))))

Adam Hits The Front Page

This is a picture of Adam taken by Mr.Osvog, Norris Elementary School Principal. The school used this photo for the September 7th weekly Newsletter. Mr.Osvog said he chose this picture because Adam was working away and then looked up and gave him the perfect smile. I can't think when Adam has taken a bad picture! Adam was very proud that his picture was in the school newsletter. Considering that there are over 800 kids attending the elementary school, I would say he has reason to be proud!

Big School- The Boys Go to Kindergarten

August 24th, 2009 was a big day for Adam and Luke. The previous week, Adam, Luke and Mom attended Norris Elementary kindergarten orientation. The boys were very excited to meet their teachers, see the classroom they would be in and tour the elementary school campus.

Luke's teacher this year is Mrs.Schafer. She is the perfect teacher for Luke. She is very organized, has many years of experience as a mother, grandmother and kindie teacher. She is helping Luke to use words to express his emotions; something that Luke does not do very well. She is also helping him to be more socially interactive with his peers. Luke tends to try and direct people. To date, Luke is thriving in school. He loves to bring books home to read. Luke does not like eating in the cafeteria much; in fact he tells me in detail every night what he expects to see in his lunch bag the next day. I think that Luke's one unfullfilled desire about school is the fact that he does not get to ride the bus home. For some reason he thinks that riding the school bus is the pinnacle of the school day. I never hear the end of his requests to be in the school bus group. Sadly for him, this request will probably go unfullfilled this year.

Adam's teacher this year is Mrs. Ramey. She is the perfect teacher for Adam. She is young, pretty and very sweet. Adam fell in love with her the first day of school. He composed a love note for her his first week. Adam struggled a little bit the first couple of weeks in that he needed to figure out when he could be funny and silly and when he could not. Once he got that worked out and his teacher figured out how many times during the day he needs to go to the bathroom- then it was all good. Adam tells me he already has a girlfriend in his class. He is such a happy go lucky child it is no wonder that everyone loves him. Adam loves to eat in the cafeteria. He was also delighted to find out that you could buy extra milk. I am certain that he is helping other kids around him to eat their lunch as well :)))

There will be more on this chapter to come. For sure.

More Disneyland Adventure Stories

So I continue with my tales of our Disneyland adventure 2009. My friend at work wanted to go with us but could not at the last minute; because she is such a nice person, she got the boys $10 gift cards to McDonalds (one for each of them). The boys thought this was great because they got to "pay" for breakfast themselves. Handing the card to someone is a big thrill when you are five. The boys also tended to show alot of love for one another in McDonalds every morning (ie they could not keep their hands off one another).

My boys have also picked up or learned from someone the art of looking cool in pictures. Recently they seem to have worked out the cool pose with your hands look. I was surprised the first time they did it and now resign myself to the fact that this is part of "growing up". I am on alert for any hand poses that are not nice. Hopefully they won't pick up on any of that until much later down the track. It is amazing what they absorb and incorporate into themselves at this age.

Finally, I posted a picture here of the boys and Madison with one of the Disneyland characters who roam the park. We actually got quite a few pictures with assorted characters which is a surprise because often the lines to get a picture are quite long.

Luke and Merry-Go-Rounds

Okay, so here is a little blurb about my Mr.Conservative. Luke took all of the DNA related to personal safety and left Adam with very little or none at all depending on the situation. So when it comes to being on a moving object with both feet off the ground, Luke is not a very happy boy. The first time I attempted to "have fun" with him on Merry-Go-Round was in San Francisco. He cried the entire time, no make that screamed the entire time. The next try was in Sacramento where he refused to get on the horses at all (refer back to previous experience SF) and cried the entire time we were seated on the seats. So here we are, 2009, Disneyland and I thought let's try this one more time. It helped that his friend Madison and brother were both keen to go.

The first picture I took was just after I strapped him to the horse; he is checking everything to make sure it is firmly attached.

The next picture shows his facial expression regarding the upcoming experience. Note, we are not screaming or crying but not really that ecstatic either!

Third picture, the ride starts, the world does not end and dare I say it I think I see the start of a smile!

Final picture, yes miracles do occur in this modern day, Luke actually smiled at the end and told me how much fun that was. I really don't think Luke is going to be one of those people who jump out of planes or free jump off high rocks, just because they are there. Now Adam on the other hand is a different story. Yet another installment of the ying and yang of the twins.

Disneyland Part II

Second installment in the Disneyland story 2009.

As mentioned previously, our friends the Preston family met us at Disneyland. We had not seen them in over two years, so it was really fun being able to catch up at the happiest place on Earth! (apparently). (Note Luke sneaking into their family pic!)

Madison, their oldest daughter is about 4-5 months older than the boys but at the moment she is much taller than even Adam! She is a very sweet quiet girl. She and the boys got along really well and had a great time together over the two days. I even managed to get some great pics of them together. The Prestons also have a set of twins who are two years old-Jacob and Emily. The little twins really liked the Small World ride. Both Madison and the boys were not so sure about the 3D Bugs adventure. In fact at different parts of the show, the boys and Madison took off their 3D glasses. Adam was not game to go on the roller coasters with me this time around (last year at age 4 both Luke and Adam rode Space Mountain and the Runaway Railroad ride; this year they were more aware and not having any part of it!) Adam did go with me on the Indiana Jones ride and absolutely loved it. In fact he jumped out of the car and yelled to everyone at the end- That was Awesome! Yeah! And punched his hands in the air. It was very amusing for people waiting in line to see a five year old, who was barely tall enough to ride, so enthusiastic. I am sure as the years progress, Adam will be my roller coaster adventure partner. And probably by that time, I will be too old to want to go on the roller coasters!

Disneyland Part I

Okay, so here is my first installment of our recent trip to Disneyland. We stayed at the Fairfield Marriott which is right outside the main gate of Disneyland. Best place I have stayed to date in my journeys to Disneyland. Noting the close proximity to Disneyland and also that there is a McDonalds in front of the hotel, a Pizza Hut/snack bar inside the hotel , leads me to my four star recommendation. I am also a little particular about how clean the rooms are and what the bathrooms are like- once again passed the test.

So our first day, we hit McDonalds for breakfast. While there, I placed a call to my Australian friends, the Preston family, who had flown in from Brisbane Australia the day before and were staying at another hotel further away. They had flown nonstop 13 hours with 4 adults and three kids, a six year and two year old twins. They had told me the evening before that they were heading to bed at about 5pm, so I am thinking that my call at 7:30 am would be appropriate given that we were to meet at the Disneyland gates at 8am. Come to find out, everyone was still asleep and we rescheduled the meetup for 10am(and who could blame them for being a little tired!). So that left myself and the boys free for a couple of hours to enjoy some rides together. I decided to hit Finding Nemo first as it can be a lengthy wait later in the day. This picture of Luke and Adam are of us waiting in that line. It was overcast and very cool (lucky I brought jackets even though it was June!) but the wait was only about 30 minutes. Luke was scared and would not look out the window for the first few minutes. After Nemo, we headed off to drive the cars. I was not sure if I would be able to get us all in one car but it turned out great. The boys took turns driving and loved it!! I was in charge of the gas pedal. Then we headed back to the main gate to meet up with the Prestons. More on our time with them in my next Disneyland installment

Luke + Pictures

Is like oil and water. They just do not seem to mix well together. For some reason Luke finds it difficult to look natural in pictures. That is just him. So when I do get a great smile out of him and he looks great in a picture, of course it is in front of a sign advertising for Margaritas! Sometimes you just can't win in life. But he does look great in this picture. We were eating dinner at Chili's in Valencia on our way to meet our Australian friends at Disneyland. Of course the boys were very excited and just had to have some pictures taken at the restaurant. I think they ordered corn dogs, with apple slices and root beer. The picture of Adam (who by the way is very photogenic and almost never takes a bad picture) is us waiting in line to get into Disneyland. He took along some drinks from breakfast just in case he got hungry between McDonalds and Disneyland(note, this was all of a five minute walk, but it always pays to be prepared just in case you get hungry or thirsty!!) Also note Luke in the bottom of the pic doing one of his normal picture poses.

Parents With Daughters, You Have Been Notified!

Kodak Moment Captured

The boys love to pretend that they are superheros. This picture is the result of them "getting into costume" and pretending to be various superheros. Luke is Batman and Adam is The Incredible Hulk. After posing for this picture, they then proceeded to engage in a superhero wrestling match. Luke being at an obvious disadvantage decided to switch superheros and become the Incredible Hulk as well. This switch then enabled the boys to pound on each other at will. Pretty much any excuse to punch and wrestle with your twin brother will do. I just sometimes wish that I could confine those "wrestling, kicking, punching" moments to appropriate venues. Unfortunately those tendencies tend to come out at church, school and public areas. We are working on that but I really think it is a boy thing in talking to other parents. I feel successful when the boys limit their wrestling moves to one another and don't try it out on anyone else not related to them! We will see how that goes anyways.

Little Red School House 2008/09

This is Adam and Luke's school picture for the 2008/09 year at Little Red School House. Both boys absolutely love going to preschool, albeit for different reasons. Adam is all about recess and Luke is all about what happens in the classroom. Adam also loves popcorn day, ice-cream day, baking day.... I think the picture is clear in what those days have in common. Luke is currently working hard on trying to complete ten book reports by July. He is doing fairly well on reading and writing. Adam can also write his name. Both boys love to practice writing, so I have bought numerous little notebooks for them this year. Both Adam and Luke are VERY excited about going to kindergarten. They ask daily when they will be going to big school.

I asked Adam the other day if it would be okay for him to stay my sweet little boy. He told me no that he needed to grow big and strong like the Incredible Hulk. So I guess that means I can't make him stay little and cute forever. Oh well, I tried.

Just a few more snow pics

A couple more pics from the snow that I could not add to the last post!

Trying to be Good!!

Me that is... I am trying to be good and post regularly to this site. If only so that I can remember all the funny things that the boys do!

So from basketball to the snow. This year myself and the boys went with my sister Kari and her family to the snow. We stayed in Sacramento and met up with my sister Jenny's family as well. The plan was to drive to a snow park about 40 minutes out of Sacramento and go sledding and tubing. the park had a tubing hill which you could pay admission to get in and use their escalator to avoid having to drag the tubes up the hill; That was worth the price of admission! The drive to the park turned out to be almost a bigger adventure than the actual park. The weather on the day we went to the park was very snowy. In fact at one point, we were stopped by CalTrans and told to put on snow chains. Peter, Kari's husband, is a fix-it guy and was able to put them on relatively quickly. The unfortunate part is that because it does not snow very much in Bakersfield, Peter and Kari did not know that the chains were supposed to go in the back, not the front. Needless to say, about five-10 miles into the journey, the chains had to be removed because of the damage they were doing to the car. Miraculously we made it to the park even though we had no chains. I like to think of it as destiny.

Once we got to the park, it was evident that the driving conditions deterred many from getting there as we almost had the place to ourselves on a Saturday! The downside to having a snowy snow park day was that the snow was very soft and almost up to my waist in parts. So walking to the sledding area was really difficult. Here is where the twins personality really shone through.

On the tubing hill. Luke went down once with me and then absolutely refused to go again. He stayed in the lodge with his Aunt Kari and Cousin Hayley. Adam loved the tubing so much that he cried when we left. Walking to the sledding area, Luke whined pretty much the whole way. When we got there, I was so over his whining that I almost turned around and went back. Adam meanwhile was having a ball and only got upset when he got buried almost up to his neck in a snowbank. The boys tried to sled but because the snow was so soft, the sled really did not go that fast.

I took a few pics of the day to remind me of all these details. In summary it was a fun trip and hopefully we can make it an annual event!

Me Bad....

I looked at the last post date and thought yikes! Where have the last six odd months gone??? To summarize, it has been a very busy six months for me and the blogging just got pushed to the bottom of the list. But I have emerged from the ashes and march forward to blog.

I thought I would start off by adding some recent pics. Adam and Luke played their first season of basketball this year. I was hoping that some natural genetic talent might shine through for them.... not! But they did have a good time running as fast as they could into the padded wall at the end of the court. I think Luke and Adam both managed to make one basket each for the season during a game. Adam had a funny moment during the last game of the season. Jada was one of a few girls on the team. She is pictured three from the right in the team pic. Jada was more worried about who was looking at her than about the game; and rightly so because the ball was almost as big as she was! Anyways, Jada kind of lost track of where she was supposed to be. So Adam decided that he needed to help her out. As soon as Adam's team turned around to head down court, Adam would look for Jada, grab her hand and run up the court with her hand in hand. It was too cute.