Bang Bang!

The ladybugs in our yard are mating like crazy this week.

My cousing Ernie got married this weekend. Yeah, we got a text message on Wednesday asking if we could come up on Saturday morning for his wedding. On friday he finalized details and married Tanya on Saturday morning at 10 am. I think that may be the quickest wedding planning I've ever experienced.

And I got new hair, thanks to my sister.

I haven't blogged since Disneyland!

And so much stuff has happened! Isn't that the way it always goes? Since then, 1) Camille has started a preschool class at the La Mesa Rec Center that she absolutely LOVES 2) we have officially gotten rid of our car 3) My sister's house closed escrow (yay!) 4) I got certified to teach Group Cycling classes at the gym 5) Valentines Day has come and gone 6) well, I always forget something...


As stated above, Camille LOVES her preschool class and I am so happy about that! I was worried, and especially apprehensive since she asked to be pulled out of the last preschool she was going to. Also, she is supposed to start Kindergarten in the fall so I was worried that she would just hate preschool so much that I wouldn't know what to do about kindergarten. Now, I really think that homeschooling is the way to go IF YOU CAN KEEP YOUR SANITY and be a great teacher for your children. I am not sure that I have it in me to do that. This whole kindergarten thing has been a real struggle for me and I am still not sure what the answer will be or what the future will hold for that. Currently, I have applications in for the Innovations Academy (part time school, great idea for me), Liberty First Charter (also half-day kindergarten, which is a biggie for me), San Diego Language Academy (Spanish language immersion program) and Hardy Elementary (just a normal school, close to my house). I am not sure which, if any, of these schools she'll get into. I initially also had an application in to the San Diego Cooperative Charter, but since selling our car and thinking about the reality of going to a school so far away we've decided it's not such a hot idea. We'd be better off to stay somewhere close and walkable, or at the very least bikeable.

So, yeah, kindergarten. Fun times. We'll just have to see what happens in the fall!

we went to Disneyland on Friday

My kids are so spoiled. This is the 3rd time since September. We also have SeaWorld passes, Zoo passes, Childrens Museum passes, (thanks, grandparents, for all of these by the way!)the beach a stone's throw away... How lucky are kids growing up in Southern California with all of this stuff within an easy drive? They have no idea. Sometimes I think we should just not ever go so it could be more of a treat than "the norm." Here are some pictures.

My lovely #2 with her hand in the Swiss Family Robinson tree (now Tarzan - WTF?!)


# 1 and her daddy, my beautiful husband

My kids with my mom

My sister and her baby-daddy in the honeycomb from Winnie the Pooh

Our car hit 100,000 on the way home!

We went to Trolley Barn park today

At C.'s request. I am savoring driving places for the last few days. I measured the mileage on the way home - about a 5 mile bike ride! Yikes =) I know it's do-able, but I am not looking forward to that pain just to take my girls to some of their more favorite, farther-away parks. I talked to insurance lady today and we are not renewing our auto insurance for the month of Feb. It will expire about half way through the month, and then we are done! Anyone want a nice, cozy, family-style CR-V?

Here are some flicks from the park picnic we had today! Thanks, friends, for meeting up with us. It was really nice to see you there and catch up.

E. enjoying some lunch

the # 1 reason why C. loves this park

New blogsperiment

Just wanted to point out that I have started a new collaborative blog that is linked over on the left under "tread lightly". We kind of have a tentative blog title but are still experimenting with that and colors/layout. Pop over and let us know what you think!

Dance Party

We took the kids to their first high school dance this past Friday - what a blast! J., as most of you know, is a teacher at a small charter school here in San Diego. They had their winter semi-formal on Friday and we decided to go and chaperone. As it turns out, they told him that the kids could come because some younger siblings would be there and some staff were bringing their kids as well. Did I mention that this school was a bit unconventional? Anyhow, they had the time of their lives dancing it up! Camille even made me find the "Cha Cha Cha" song online the next day so that she could practice her steps.

Here is a video, I'm sorry it's pretty dark. It's what I've got and it will forever remind me of the fun that they had on that night. None of the pictures that I took quite capture the essence!

On another note, I officially sent in my first query letter today - yikes! I have been throwing around the idea of trying to write more for a while and decided that there was no better time to try than now. I usually have Tuesdays completely free of children so my ambition for that day is to send out one query or unsolicited article (publication accepting) per week. I actually wrote this query last week but had been sitting with it so that I could re-read it and I finally stuck it in the mail today. That leaves me the rest of today to write another...

here, chickie, chickie, chickie...