A California Christmas

We managed to have a fairly merry Christmas, despite missing Gramma B. As has become our annual tradition, we went to church, and then to the Hunters' open house on Christmas Eve. As soon as we arrived, we joined all of the children (and many of the grown-ups) and walked a few blocks to a cul-de-sac, on which each of the three houses is beautifully decorated, some with merry-go-rounds for stuffed bears, others with ferris wheels, reindeer, etc. In the midst of it all is Santa Claus, at least until 8:30 p.m. We all took turns giving Santa last-minute reminders of our wish lists. Then we walked back to the Hunters' for an evening of food and fun, culminating with Zenia assigning parts for us all to sing "The Twelve Days of Christmas." Abigail and I were part of "four calling birds," and Frances partnered with Heather and Jaime on "Five Golden Rings," which became "Five Golden Retrievers"! I can tell that we are all growing older; these parties used to last until the wee small hours. Now, many of us head for home before 10 p.m.!

This was the "princess" Christmas for Abigail. From Grandma & Grandpa Hunter, she received a princess scooter and helmet, and from Aunt Linda & Uncle Ralph she got the Belle tea cart and magic mirror. Grampa B gave her a princess cash register and five tiny Disney princess dolls, Frances gave her a princess coach for the little dolls to ride in... you get the idea.

Santa brought Abigail her first bike! It says "pinkalicious," and is white with cupcakes and butterflies on it. There is a seat for Abigail to bring a doll along for the ride, and Santa thoughtfully put an Asian-looking doll in the seat. Santa brought Frances a new skateboard, which she had asked for (but I thought she did not need).

The girls woke up on Christmas morning at 7:30, and we opened presents from Santa. We waited until Grampa B. arrived at 8:30 to open the rest of the gifts. Afterwards, we had breakfast, and played in the front and back yards in the sunshine. Christmas Day brought a break in the rain we'd had for the past week, and we appreciated it. It wasn't exactly warm outside, but at least things were starting to dry out! In addition to playing with their new bike, scooter and skateboard, the girls played with balls, swings and the balance beam. After lunch, Grampa headed home, Frances watched a new DVD, and Abigail napped. I was ready for a nap too, but didn't get one...

A sleepover party - every day...

We've been having a lot of rainy weather, and Frances gets creeped out by the sound that the rain makes as it falls on the metal patio roof outside her window. I won't let Frances sleep in my bed with me (if I ever get married, I will have to share my bed, but until then, it's my mini-sanctuary!). In the past, I have let her sleep on the floor next to my bed, but I had all of the Christmas presents stashed underneath my bed! I suggested she sleep with Abigail, and to my surprise, Frances took me up on it. Abigail was, of course, thrilled. Ab has been sleeping on top of her covers in a sleeping bag, because I can't keep her covered up with blankets and sheets, so it was easy to add Frances and her sleeping bag to the mix. It's been more than a week, and the rain has stopped (at least for a few days) but the girls are still both sleeping in Abigail's twin bed. As long as they are both enjoying it, I don't mind a bit. The only drawback is when Abigail wakes up early in the morning - Frances is not always ready to be awake that early!

Our annual tree-choosing mission

Does it seem wrong to anyone else that it was 85 degrees on the afternoon that we went to pick out our Christmas tree?
We always to go the same retailer - "Sonshine Christmas Trees" - because they are Christian, and they donate some of their profits to local organizations. This year, Abigail is beginning to understand what is going on, and wanted to help choose the tree. "Pleeeease let me help pick one!"

We traipsed all over the lot, looking at the huge trees (and wondering who could spend hundreds of dollars on a Christmas tree) before going to the less expensive section. I showed Frances that the Nobles are much more expensive than the Douglas firs, and explained that we could get "more tree" for less money if we went with a Douglas. Frances carefully considered many trees before we made our final selection.

We finally found a tree that we could all agree upon, that was not too expensive. Everyone was satisfied. It's taller than Frances, so it's a "big" tree. We had it tied to the top of the car, and headed home. Because we'd had several days of hot weather, our tree was dropping needles even as we set it up. But we had a great time decorating it, and it looked really nice with the little twinkly lights on it when we were done. Finally, we were ready for Christmas!

Ho, Ho, Ho!

As has become our annual tradition, we went to Bergstrom's to see Santa. This year, Abigail did not need any coaxing! We got there a little early, but there was already a line. When Santa entered the store, Abigail joyfully shouted, "Santa Claus!" He stopped to talk to her for a moment before taking his place in the big chair. When it was our turn, Frances was pleased that Santa remembered her from previous years, although he never seems to remember that she does not like candy canes! Abigail was happy to help Fran by eating both candy canes!

Backyard fun

We had a blessed weekend afternoon with nothing to do, so we played in our backyard.
We started with the swings. Frances pushed Abigail on the standard swing, and then I spun Fran as fast as I could on her disc swing. We also decorated our back fence with chalk, as you can see. The rain may wash away my art, but I had fun doing it.

I also dragged out the balance beam, and later, the hoppity-hops. We have two hoppity-hops from when Frances was younger, and I asked her to demonstrate for Abigail how you use one. Before she knew it, Fran was having a great time on these "little kid" toys! She and Abby had races across the yard, crashed into each other, and landed in a giggling heap.

The girls also had fun using scooters and trikes. Frances was kind enough to let Abigail win a few times, and they both had a ball. We need more of those afternoons, with "nothing to do." It was relaxing, just what we needed in our busy lives.

Let's Go Fly a Kite...

On a windy Sunday afternoon, I remembered that we have a kite in the garage. It had never been used, and is a big, beautiful parrot shape. I bought it at Costco before Abigail came home, and I guess we've just never had the time and/or opportunity to use it. So one afternoon after church and nap, I packed the girls into the car and we headed out for a park. We had some difficulty finding a park that was not full of soccer games, but were finally successful. We had a great time, even though the wind was gusty and the kite kept plunging to the ground! Both girls got turns flying it, as well as helping to launch it. We need to do this again soon!

Gymnastic season is over...

We were grateful that the state level meet was close to home, since we had to be there at 7:30 this morning! Frances is the only 9-year-old on her team, so she had her coach, Lindsay, all to herself. Frances did well, achieving her highest all-around score yet. She did not earn a medal, but she knew going in that she wouldn't. Our perspective this season is that we want her to get a higher score with each meet. She didn't start training for Level 4 until July (girls usually begin in January) so we pretty much knew she wouldn't be on the podium. Frances was satisfied with her scores today, and she loved the "goodie bag" that the team moms put together. All of us contributed a few fun items, and one mom organized it all into goodie bags for the girls and the coach.
Thus ends the 2010 gymnastic season... although they may do a few meets in the spring!

Veteran's Day, 2010

On Thursday, we went to Disneyland! Our darling neighbor, Janice, signed us in, and even stayed a few hours to take Abigail on the carousel, horse-drawn trolley, Alice in Wonderland, etc., so that I could take Frances on Space Mountain, Pirates, Haunted Mansion, and Indiana Jones. We had a great day!



We were in the park from 8 a.m. to 3:30, and then left to get to gymnastics by 4:30. Abigail slept through her class. Oops! Then we grabbed a quick dinner, and headed back to the park. We were back inside just before 8 p.m., and stayed until about 9:30. Abigail is tall enough for most of the rides, but I knew that there were some which would be too scary for her. Frances was a good sport, and rode the merry-go-round, and then we took Abigail on the Matterhorn bobsleds! I knew ahead of time that she would not like it, but.... we did it anyway! No crying, but Abby told me that it had been scary. I was one tired Mama the next day at work!

Halloween!

Okay, there are tons of pictures in this blog entry! But they were all so cute that I couldn't decide which ones to leave out, and believe me, there are plenty more on the flash drive that I did not choose to post!
This year, Abigail scored with costume selection. She has several Princess dresses, from birthday presents and hand-me-downs, and Frances realized that Abigail has a doll to match nearly every costume!

Abigail has the Tiana dress which matches the Cinderella rag doll, the Jasmine costume to match the rag doll, and she even has a red silk outfit (maybe from China, but more likely from a thrift store) that happened to match her Mulan barbie doll!

Aunt Linda invited us to go to the Family Musical Morning, Halloween edition, at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. The Pacific Symphony Orchestra played selections from scary movies, as each of the "movie monsters" checked in to the fictional "Hollywood Monster Mansion Hotel." We had a hard time finding a costume for Frances this year. There was nothing interesting at the thrift stores, so we re-used a knight costume from last year to go to the Performing Arts Center. For this event, Abigail wore her Sleeping Beauty dress, and brought along the matching doll!

We bought pumpkins several weeks before Halloween, but waited until the last minute to carve them, because of the heat. Yes, moldy pumpkins are definitely scary, but that wasn't really the look we were going for! Frances sketched some faces that she thought would be appropriate, and it was my job to do the corresponding carving! This year, Frances was a big help in separating all of the seeds, and then I cooked them in olive oil and garlic salt for Franny's favorite autumn snack.

About a week before Halloween, our neighbor brought over a Winnie the Pooh costume. Abigail loved it, but it was really too warm for Halloween in California. She did try it on, and carried it around the house with her for a few days.

We also picked up a few hats and things at the 99-cent store, including a hairband with attached braids, so we can see what Abigail might look like someday with more hair!

For the Halloween costume piano recital and trick-or-treating, Frances finally decided to be a cowgirl. She has some really nice boots that Aunt Judy & Uncle Mike gave her last Christmas, as well as a hat from some Western-themed birthday party. An orange and black plaid shirt completed the outfit. Abigail decided to dress up as Snow White (with, of course, the matching rag doll!). We had a good time trick-or-treating, but Abigail was frightened at a few houses. She wanted to go up to people's porches by herself (like a big girl) but finally consented to tightly gripping Fran's hand for moral support! One house in particular was just too scary, and I had to carry her back to "home base" (Lori & Phoebe's house in Old Towne Orange). Frances noticed that people were only giving single pieces of candy this year, instead of two or three at a time as in previous years. The economy is even affecting trick-or-treating. But it was still a fun night!

Love the faces

Nothing really riveting here, but I hadn't posted in a while. I will post some Halloween pictures soon, but tonight, I am too tired to hook the camera up to the computer and transfer photos! These two snapshots were taken at Jaime and David's wedding in early September. They aren't the most flattering pictures of my girls, but it shows their bright smiles.

A is for Abby

Abigail is starting to recognize the letter A. She doesn't know that it's "A", but every time she sees it anywhere, she tells me, "That's my name!" She's been recognizing, naming, and pointing out the letter W for about a year (not sure why she chose that particular letter) but now I know that literacy is beginning! I am grateful that she has started preschool. She attends three days a week, from 8:30-12:00, in the classroom next to mine! She is there as a "typical peer," a term that Santa Ana uses for including non-disabled children in our special ed preschool classes. Abigail is in a class for children with hearing impairments, but they all speak (the oral deaf class), so basically, it is a regular preschool class. She loves it! And I love the things that she is learning, including how to listen and sit still for a few moments! I think that preschool is helping Abigail at her piano lessons as well. She no longer chatters incesssantly during piano, but is beginning to pay attention, wait, and listen better. Whew! What a relief! My little girl definitely lives out loud, and there have been times when her boisterous spirit is a bit overwhelming. She is still bossy, sassy, grateful and incredibly loving, but now she is able to curb her behavior a bit in certain settings.

My little gymnast

Kathleen and Kariana came out to watch Frances' gymnastic meet in San Bernardino on September 26th. Kariana has a great camera, and she took lots of pictures of my Frances ,as well as some great shots of the other girls on Fran's team. I am going to try and share them with the other moms. Thanks, Yaya!





I am so proud of my goofy, beautiful daughter!

Apple picking at Oak Glen

We went to Oak Glen today to pick apples with some friends. I hadn't been there since Frances was about 3 years old! I learned that there are two parts to Riley's Farms: there is a "colonial" part, with beautiful white-washed buildings, a restaurant, nice bathrooms, a small pond, and demonstrations of archery and tomahawk-throwing. Then, you can take a free "hayride" to the other part (that I was more familiar with), which has a blacksmith, an outdoor barbecue restaurant, portable toilets, a petting corral, cider press, and the "you-pick" orchards and fields.

It has been insanely hot and humid this week, but this morning started out cloudy. When we arrived at Riley's farms, the sun came out. Oh well. The kids started exploring, and found a little pond with a dock. This fascinated all five of the "big kids" (two 9-year-olds, a 6-year-old, and two 3-year-olds) for quite a while. Karley wanted to know if there were alligators in the pond, Clayton wanted to catch fish, Frances and Colby thought that the dock and bridges were cool, and Abigail wanted to poke a stick into the water. After a while, they moved on to explore other parts of the property, and had a great time just running and playing in shady groves of trees. Abigail got to see a cow up close, and was fascinated! Finally, we parents called them back so we could take the hayride up to the orchards.

That was the hottest part of the day, and the area with the orchards, berry vines, pumpkin vines and cornfields was HOT. We had to walk quite a way to reach the orchards, but no one whined or asked to be carried. We found trees with all kinds of apples - fuji, red delicious, winesap, etc. - and I had the girls pick the smallest apples, because you can fit more into your $7 bag that way! There were also pear trees, but we didn't buy a bag for those. While we were wandering in the orchards, we noticed gray clouds rolling in, and heard the unmistakable rumble of thunder. Everyone was excited at the prospect of some rain! The sky looked really cool as we made our way back to the main part of the farm. It had cooled off considerably, so we all enjoyed the walk much more than on the way in to the orchards, despite the fact that we were now carrying bags of fruit!

As the first drops fell, we realized that we had not visited the petting corral yet. The three older kids had run off to where samples of fruit were available, and because it was late in the day and a storm was coming, the woman at the booth gave our kids all kinds of fruit as samples: watermelon, pears, a variety of apples. The little girls were excited about petting the goats and sheep, so I took them into the corral. Clayton joined us for a few minutes, until the raindrops got bigger and it was time to take the hayride back to the lower parking lot. On the way home, it poured rain, to the point that local streets in Yucaipa were flooded up over the curbs! Very exciting here in southern California. We stopped in Redlands to have dinner together, and came home (and the girls ate a second dinner). Fun day!

Growing up...

Looking at Abigail's back-to-school photos, I can hardly believe that less than two years ago, she was a 17-month-old baby, not walking, bald... and now she is the size of an average four-year-old!! She is currently 40 and 1/2 inches tall, and about 40 pounds! Gymnastics has helped with her postural control and balance, although Abby still trips/stumbles several times a day. She has a high pain tolerance, so falling down doesn't really bother her. She talks non-stop, and asks a million questions. Abigail makes all kinds of crazy faces. My neighbor says that maybe someday Ab will be an actress (because she is also a drama queen). It's funny the things she knows and does not know. I guess it depends upon what is important to her. For example, she only knows one color (orange), but can tell you all about everything everyone said and did at the sitter's house that day, in minute detail, including imitations of voice intonation and facial expressions! She is a loving, grateful child, thanking me profusely for her clothing, for her snacks, for it being a school day, for gymnastics, for being able to go to church. She is a funny little nut, and I love her. On her "family day" (October 21st) I will try to remember to post photos of Abigail, then and now. She has really grown!

Aunt Sister's birthday at Rainforest Cafe

Last Saturday night, our little church fam got together for Aunt Sister's birthday at the Rainforest Cafe. Her name isn't really sister, and she isn't my aunt, but she is the sister of a dear friend. It's a long story, but that's what we call Lori. She was preparing to go on a safari in Tanzania as a birthday gift to herself, so one night while Frances was at the gym, Abigail and I went to WalMart and perused the camping aisles. We gave Lori things like insect repellent, carabiners, a snakebite kit, and a tiny flashlight, things you might need on a safari.

Dinner at the Rainforest Cafe is always an exciting adventure. My girls love the animals and the thunderstorms! There was a guy walking around making balloon animals, and Frances begged me to buy her one. She asked him to make a dolphin (it's the blue thing on the table next to her while she takes bites out of Lori's birthday dessert - the "Volcano!"). Abigail didn't really want a big balloon creation, she just kept asking for one of the un-inflated balloons! The guy made a ladybug "wrist corsage" for Abigail, which fascinated her (and all of us as well). It lasted until the next day, when she started taking it apart. Oh well.