A Day Without The Kids... What To Do?

Today we got to do something we've been talking about for months/years. With the kids away the mice played. Marc looked at me and asked if I wanted to go to the Nixon Library for the afternoon. Is that even a question? To make a long story short, we decided to do just that.

INFORMATION OVERLOAD! I don't think Marc nor I thought it would be totally consuming of our minds. We should have figured it out earlier in the day, but was glad we didn't wait until later. All I can say is DETAILS. There was truly so much information to process I think I might want to review some Nixon history before he became President and while he was leading our country.

I never studied history that much and when I was a little girl we didn't talk about politics as it was a very hush hush.

After that our date continues with dinner at Polly's and a stop at the mall.

Oh and when we got home and before I got caught up in watching the last 6 episodes of Season 7 of BTVS we took Abby out for a walk.

Family Game Night

Thought I would post the the pics of all of us around the table tonight with the exception of myself of course.

James
Marc
Bud ( who for those if you who don't know is my ex- Father-In- Law)
Marina
Keil w/ Nickkie to her right
Keil's hand

Getting Ready For School and Other Things

You might ask why we are getting ready for school in July?   With two weeks to go before August starts now is the time to make the decisions for shoes which by the way, Keil will finally be getting those zip up X Hi Converse she's been wanting for the past two years, and James will be finding his feet back in another pair of Nike's.   Thankfully we don't have to put out a lot of other $$ for the school supplies which they both have to bring with them.   See out here in California because our schools don't have money for all the supplies that they need for the classrooms/kids they send nice little notes home with your children on the last day of school.   This year,  Marc's mom and dad bought everything on those lists for us, so that was a BIG HELP.

So we decided this week to stay home from going out and doing things.   I really wanted to go to the observatory today, but I would prefer a warmer day so that the afternoon breeze isn't cold on me.   So maybe next week instead.

Can't believe these temps we're having in the middle of July.   We've really only had two day's of hellish temperatures in the past week, since then we are experiencing no more than 85 degrees which makes it hard to plan a pool or beach day.


Yesterday I did something I have been wanting to do for the past few months.   I cut 4 inches of Keils hair off, and boy does she look so cute.  ( I still want to cut about another inch off maybe I can bribe her with 2 more Webkins)  that should work.   Im a sneaky mom what can I say...

James and Marc

Keil and Marc 

Just a bit shorter than this.

oh and btw 

The bribe worked!!!!  

Gloom - A family game night favorite or not?

So last week while Nickkie was perusing the game section on Amazon she happened to stumble upon this new card game called Gloom. Only she could find a game of this fashion, for if you ever met her you would know why as she is very unique.

At any rate after dinner tonight we all sat down and got comfy in our chairs with our cups of water and the remainders of the Strawberry pie we had for desert sitting close to us Marina began to shuffle the cards while Nickkie handed out the Family cards consisting of humorous characters with morbid backgrounds. You see the whole idea to this game is that you have to kill off the family members and the ones that have the most negative points at the end win. It was quite interesting. Good thing I had Keil by me to show me what cards to play and which one to get rid of. I still managed to lose with the horrific cards I ended up with time and time again thanks to Marina's shuffling.

I guess I can look forward to the next time ... Until then I will insert some photos of the cards

PS. I had one death in the family as you can see from the grave card.

It's a start at least

Well I promised myself that I would start keeping a family blog of all the exciting things we do as a family.   We have been quite busy on our days off carting the kids to various museums and parks to keep their little minds ( and ours) stimulated and learning new things.     Three weeks ago we visited Travel Town in Griffith Park and two weeks ago we visited the J. Paul Getty Museum.   Last week we took a break from going here and there and decided that going to the park for the 4th was sufficient enough, well at least I did.

It has just started to get hot here the past couple of days.   Not looking forward to a hot summer in a small house with no air conditioning and insufficient fans, but it is what it is.  If only we had some $$ what we could do with this place.

Oh well that's reserved for another time and place.

So really I feel that the summer is almost over.   We only have about 6 weeks to go if that.  James will be going to Jr. High this year and I have to say that I am very apprehensive about all that.   Keil will be moving onto the 5th grade.  But the biggest change in their lives will that they won't be spending every waking moment together at the same school.  And the biggest challenge for me will be carting them between two different schools because there is no bus service here to get them back-and-forth. With our time schedule of getting off of work and getting home early in the morning, coupled with the fact that I will be dead tired of doing this routine about the third morning into it... Yeah, not looking forward to all the changes that are coming my way.

The phrase "Jesus take the wheel" is going to be taking  on  a whole new meaning.  Literally.

As the kids are sitting around now slurping on popsicles and playing Wii I realize I am ready for desert.


Until next time....