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I am a wife, a mom, an occupational therapist and a photographer.

Thursday, July 28, 2011

198. Jealous

"Check out the view from Crystal Lake!"
That's what Nicholas texted me today! And attached to the text, was this photo:


I am so jealous, right now!!!

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

197. Griffith Observatory

Anthony and Christina spend their day, yesterday, in front of the TV, watching a Scooby Doo marathon. So today, I dragged them to the Griffith Park Observatory.
They had a great time, and learned a lot. And so did I!
Here are a few photos from our visit:

We will definitely visit the Observatory again some time in the future!

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

196. Homemade Ice Cream Sandwich

2 Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies + 1 Scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream = YUMMY!

195. Angel

This sweet girl is very shy. 
She is one of Greg's three dogs and normally, 
she doesn't come out "in public".
But this year, Greg decided that she couldn't stay inside all day.
So, while everyone was enjoying the pool party, she stayed underneath a table!

Sunday, July 24, 2011

194. Beach Triptych

The beach was not that great today; Overcast, windy and on the cool side.
The swell was not very good for surfing either...
Although that didn't stop Anthony for spending hours in the water trying to catch a good one!
It was weird to go to the beach without Nicholas; 
He left this morning for his one week Cross Country Camp in Mammoth.
He was so excited! I am happy for him to have such a wonderful opportunity.
I hope he has a lot of fun!

Saturday, July 23, 2011

193. Greg's Pool Party

Greg's Pool Party: an annual event we can't miss! Greg is Allan's co-worker and a long time friend. And ever since we moved to California, we have been invited to his Annual pool Party. I can't remember ever missing it.
Greg invites a lot of people: most people have worked at JBL / Harman at some point in time. It's a chance to catch up with old friends and meet new people. But this year was particularly good since we have been spending a lot of time with Greg in the past year and the kids were looking forward to it. And of course, Greg didn't let them down; He got in there, wrestled with the boys, threw Christina around and played with them just like another kid would.  They had so much fun that we had to drag Christina and Anthony out of the pool! The good news is that we will get to see Greg again really soon; In a couple of weeks, we are going to Lake Pyramid for our annual jet-ski day! And, on top of that, Greg will be joining us in Big Bear for some fun days on the lake! The whole family is looking forward to it! And I'm sure Greg is too!

Friday, July 22, 2011

192. Munchkin Mediation

Christina ended her 2 weeks Theater Camp with a performance:
She played the Wicked Witch of the West in
Munchkin Mediation: Conflict Resolution in Oz!
We were all proud of her! She did a wonderful job and really made the character come to life!
Here are a few photos from the performance:

She had a great time, and made a lot of new friends!

Thursday, July 21, 2011

191. Changes

Nicholas had to make a pretty tough decision this weekend. He went to play soccer for another team; He was no longer excited to play soccer and didn't fell like he was learning anything with his coach. So he went to play for the other Magic BU15. It was a difficult decision since he had to leave his friends behind. But he is already making new friends and is already having more fun during practices. Hopefully, this will reflect in his play.
He is also pretty excited about his trip to Mammoth with the Cross Country team. A whole week of camping and away for his family! That should be fun!
Last night, he went with Allan to see the LA Galaxy play at the Home Depot Center. He tried on his new jeans (we bought them in May). And was all upset because they didn't fit him... He needs at least one pair of jeans for next week in Mammoth. So I guess we will go shopping in the next couple of days and get another pair of jeans!
Life is changing for all of us... Nicholas is just not used to so many changes at the same time!

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

190. Flowers and Bows

 I've been making a lot of different flowers and bows to decorate Christina's hats.
Here are photos of a couple of them. 


Monday, July 18, 2011

189. Abby

Our friends, Floyd and Noreen have a dog named Abby. She is a Bichon Frise and still a puppy. She is also very shy... Especially around children.  She spend most of the afternoon, yesterday, hiding under a chair or behind the couch. Even with treats, Christina wasn't able to get her to come to her. But finally, at the end of the day, just as we were getting ready to leave, Christina was able to pick her up and give her some love! Christina was very happy and proud of herself! As for Abby, she didn't seem too stressed out. Hopefully she had a good enough experience with Christina that she won't be so shy around other children.

188. Old Friends

Went to visit our old friends Floyd and Noreen yesterday. The last time we visited them with the kids, Christina was about 3 years old! Needless to say that it was way overdue!
They live in Agoura Hills, in a very nice neighborhood. They have a beautiful house with a wonderful backyard. Best of all, they have a great pool!
Floyd grilled some tasteful Argentinian Burgers for lunch and we watched the US Women's soccer game on their very large screen TV. The kids went for a swim, of course and we finally said good bye around dinner time. The kids were well behaved and didn't break anything! :)
It was great to spent some quality time with them and hopefully we will see them again soon!

Sunday, July 17, 2011

187. Camping

So, a week from today, Nicholas is leaving for Mammoth Lakes with his Cross Country team. They will be camping for a week and Anthony and Christina are very jealous! Christina has been bugging me about sleeping in a tent for a few days now and Friday night, they set up with their sleeping bags in the play room. After about an hour or so, both Anthony and Christina went back to their respective bedrooms because "it's too hot in the playroom". So last night, Allan helped them set up the little tent that we have in the backyard. They went to bed at 8:00 PM and read for about half an hour. Then they tried to go to sleep. But by 9:30 PM, they were still wide awake and when I told them that it was time to go to sleep, Anthony complained that he couldn't because " I can't find a comfortable position". So they both went back to their respective bedrooms and slept inside again! I guess they finally realized that camping is not that great after all!
 

Friday, July 15, 2011

186. Negative Five Stars Restaurant

Christina is having a lot of fun at Theater Camp; She is making new friends, and playing a lot of fun games. She is also practicing for a Play: "Munchkin Mediation: Conflict Resolution in Oz". She will be playing the Wicked Witch of the West. The camp lasts 2 weeks with the performance on the last day. 
She finished the first week today with a talent show; Yesterday, Miss Jessica asked that they prepare something for a talent show. Christina asked if it could be a skit. The answer was "yes". So last night, she wrote a little skit and this morning she presented it in front of the rest of her peers. Her friend Giana was her partner. She took the little Flip camera and asked the teacher's assistant to video the skit. Here is the video:

And just in case you didn't catch all the jokes, here's what was said:

Negative Five Stars Restaurant
 
Giana: Hello! Is there soup on the menu?
Christina: No ma'am I whipped it off yesterday. Here is your table. You shall be served soon.
Christina: (walks in with bowl and plate) Here's your soup and bread.
Giana: Uh, yes, waitress, what's this FLY doing in my soup?
Christina: Looks like it's learning to swim ma'am.
Giana: I meant how do i get rid of it?!?
Christina: Oh, the spider on your bread should take care of that soon.
Giana: (under her breath) Disgusting!
Giana: Waitress, this soup tastes funny.
Christina: Well then why aren't you laughing?
Giana: (under her breath) Not what I meant...
Giana: Waitress, I'm done with my soup. Fetch me something else, and make it snappy!
Christina: How bout the Crocodile Sandwich?
Giana: That's is!!! I'M OUTA HERE!
A mother enters with her child and asks: What's wrong with her?
Christina: Oh, nothing, nothing... Here is your table...

THE END

Thursday, July 14, 2011

185. Rolling Blackouts

Edison, our electrical company had warned us that today, there was going to be "rolling blackouts" in our neighborhood. So I wasn't surprised to see that the power was out when I came home form work. What I wasn't prepared for was having no power for 4.5 hours. Usually, rolling blackouts don't last that long! Thankfully, it was a pretty cool day, so we didn't miss not having the A/C working.
But the kids had no idea what to do; no television, computer, or video games! All we had left to do was play board games.
So we played a game of Scrabble. I love Scrabble. And Anthony likes it too. Nicholas and Christina joined us because there was nothing else to do. Amazingly, we had a great time! I guess the boys are learning that winning is not as important as enjoying each other's company! In the past, the game always ended with someone in tears (mostly Nicholas). But it looks like my oldest child has finally overcome his "sore looser" attitude and is now able to enjoy a good game even if he doesn't win!
Anthony won by only a few points! I came in second place, followed by Nicholas and Christina. But the score really didn't really matter today... It was just fun to play and be together!

184. Cupcakes

Christina loves to watch "Cupcake Wars" on the Food Network!
She has been bugging me to make cupcakes for a while now. 
She even found some recipes on the internet!
So yesterday, we made some...
With my good friend Dunkin Hines! :)
 
Red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting.
 

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

183. Hats

Christina's taste for fashion is reminiscent of the 60's and she likes to wear hats. So I made her a couple of hats. I usually prefer knitting but these hats were crochet. They turned out pretty good, I think. She certainly likes them! She wore them at Theater Camp and got tons of compliments!

Sunday, July 10, 2011

181. New trick!

What a beautiful day today was; it was sunny and warm at the beach! Probably the best beach weather we have had so far! However, the waves were huge and not so good for surfing; Anthony called them: "violent waves". He managed to catch a few good ones though. And Nicholas and Christina got plenty of skim boarding. Christina is even learning how to do a 360°!
Although she fell a lot, and even had a pretty bad "face plant" (where she lost a tooth), she continued to try and succeeded a few times. I am sure that in another few weeks, she will have mastered this trick!

Saturday, July 9, 2011

180. Behind the Scene

Nicholas and I are going to Six Flags this morning... But we are going "behind the scene". The father of one of my past client is a roller coaster engineer and when I told him that Nicholas wanted to be a roller coaster designer, he offered to take him for a tour behind the scene. This is an exciting opportunity for Nicholas to see what it's like to work in a roller coaster park, ask questions about the job and figure out if this is really something he wants to do.
The tour should last only a few hours, but I am sure that he will get tons of information.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

179. Stratocaster

Anthony got his new guitar yesterday.
Here are a few photos:
 
Needless to say that he loves his new guitar!

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

178. Coasters

I took the kids to Six Flags again today. It was a good day and they got to ride 11 Coasters in 4 hours. We were there from 11:30 AM to 3:30 PM. The first and last coaster they rode was Viper. This was Christina's first time on Viper. She also went on Riddler's Revenge and Batman The Ride for the first time.
She is a little daredevil and would have gone also on X2 if the wait had not been a 2 hours wait. But she promised the boys that she will go on it next time!
I can tell she was proud and excited about her achievements and shortly after dinner, she asked: "When are we going back?" I guess having two big brothers to keep up with has something to do with it?

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

177. LA Galaxy and Fireworks!

Here are a few iPhone pictures from last night's LA Galaxy game and fireworks.
It was a good game, and the kids really enjoyed the fireworks!



Monday, July 4, 2011

176. Happy 4th of July!

As I said in my last post, we are going to see the LA Galaxy game tonight. We are hoping to get there early enough to get free t-shirts and will be staying for the after game celebration in honor of the 4th of July. So today, my post is actually a little movie I created from video clips and photos I took from our first day at the beach, on June 22nd.
Here is the link to the movie: Beach Fun - June 2011

Sunday, July 3, 2011

175. Beach Volleyball

 We went back to the beach again, today. 
We were joined by the Moultons: Ken, Kelly and Jillian.
The weather was pretty nice, despite the fact that it was overcast.
And even though the sun didn't come out at all, that didn't stop the kids from enjoying all their favorite beach activities!
Anthony went surfing and finally was able to catch a good wave and ride it all the way!
Nicholas and Christina did plenty of skim boarding,
and Allan and myself even enjoyed some boogie boarding!
Jillian didn't really go in the water other than to dip her feet...
But she had fun burying Anthony and Christina in the sand 
and playing a little Beach Volleyball witht he boys!
Here are a few photos of the three of them playing volleyball:







Another great day is over...
Tomorrow is the 4th of July and we have tickets to go see the LA Galaxy!
Tickets include food, watching the game and enjoying some fireworks at the end of the evening...
It should be a lot of fun!