Jelly Fish are like Spring Blossoms - They Never get Old

The four main attractions during Marie and Antione's visit were:

1) The Aquarium

2) Bubba Gumps

3) The Baby;)

4) Jada's crack dance at the beach, HAHAHAHAHAHA!  Sorry, that video is for the eyes of the family only......unless her mom gives me permission;)

Hollywood Style

Cora is a girl with big ideas. 

Sometimes I say yes.  Sometimes I say no.  Sometimes I help.  Sometimes I don't.  Sometimes I'm "busy".  Sometimes I don't think it's possible.  Sometimes she finds a way to figure it out anyway.

I hope I don't ever stifle her creativity, her ingenuity, her excitement to try new things.

Well, Cora turned TWELVE, and she had a big idea for her birthday party.  She wanted it to be a movie-themed party, but instead of watching a movie, she wanted to MAKE a movie, and then watch it at the end of the party on our big screen with the projector.  I was not sure if that would be possible......but I agreed to it......and I worried about it all the way up until the night of the party.

Invitations went out.

 Decorations went up.

 And the guests arrived.

They played a quick game, and ate pizza.  Then they disappeared into the "dressing rooms" and got themselves in costumes/makeup.  Cora was the director - she told everyone the plot of the story she had in mind.  Everyone picked parts.  Cora told them what to say and what to do.  I was behind the camera.

And.....ACTION!

The filming went fairly quickly.  Afterwards, the girls just played and hung out and did what girls do.  Meanwhile, I was editing FRANTICALLY, trying to get the movie ready to watch before parents started picking the girls up.  Miracles do happen.  I finished just in time.  Everyone settled down with a bag of popcorn and enjoyed the movie.  Then Cora handed out awards to everyone.

I will post the video below, but first, let me take a moment to celebrate 12 years of Cora with some of my favorite pictures of her.

I had a few big ideas when I was a kid, one of which was to grow up and become a mom....and I did.  How lucky am I?!!!  Love you Cora.  May all your big ideas come true:)

And now for the video.

Afterschool Specials

The thing I hate most about the schools here (and there's a list) is that every Wednesday is a half-day. 

EVERY!!! WEDNESDAY!!!

I love having my kids home, don't get me wrong, but it messes with my schedule.  Especially now that I'm homeschooling Cora, who does NOT have a half-day every Wednesday.  It makes me want to scratch my eyes out.

I've been trying to make the most of it.  So most Wednesdays, when the weather is nice (and sometimes when it's not), I take the kids on an outing.  We get out of the house, we have some fun, take a break, and then we come home and finish school/home work.  My kids look forward to it every week.  Sometimes we invite friends, but mostly we go on our own.

Some of our outings have been to the frog pond...

 The duck pond...

 Different parks....which I have no pictures of.  And, of course, the different beaches...

 As much as I DON'T like the half-days, I DO like spending time with my kids, and we're having lots of fun.

The State of Affairs

"I'll have to try and post on here every day for a few days"

Well THAT didn't happen.  I guess I'd better just do a bunch of posts today to get caught up.....if I can.

I'm not just behind in blogging, I'm behind in everything - at least I was until very recently.  My sister Marie came to visit, and I nearly had to work myself to death in order to get ready for their arrival.  I was sooooooo behind.

I was behind on dishes.

 I was behind on laundry.

 And my sewing room, where my guests were supposed to sleep, looked like this.

Perhaps some of you had similar conditions in your house this month - everybody gets behind on dishes and laundry sometimes, right? 

But......

I was so behind, that I still had a Christmas wreath hanging in our front entryway.

I was so behind, that I still had red and green nail polish on my toes from Christmas.

Well, Marie has come and gone.  I was all caught up by the time they got here:)  And now?  Well, I'm a little behind again.......but the Christmas wreath is down, and my toes are a different color, so that's something;)

Crazy

Behind again.  I'll have to try and post on here every day for a few days.

Do you realize that we only have like 9 months left here?  What the heck?!  I have things I want to do and see, and time is quickly running out. 

We crossed one thing off our bucket list last weekend.  Legoland!

What do I think of Legoland?  Well, it was fun, but it really seems to be geared more towards small children as far as the rides go.  I don't know if I'd ever pay to go there again.  Of course, the rides aren't the most important thing at Legoland.  You really go there to see all the cool stuff made out of Legos!  Best of all was all the StarWars stuff - we LOVE Legos, we LOVE Star Wars!!!  I took way too many pictures.

This next picture is the best of the bunch.  Joseph did NOT want me to take a picture of him on this ride - I think he thought he was a little too old to be on it in the first place.  But come on, I'm his mom, it's my job to take embarrassing pictures and post them on line......right?

Overall, it was a fun trip, and a much needed get-away - Joe had a really hard week in school.  We loved being down in Southern California.  Carlsbad, where Legoland is, is really beautiful, and the hotel we stayed at was fabulous.

I had a bucket list in Korea too, and it was great.  The problem with my bucket list here is that everything is so dang expensive!  Whale watching is expensvie.  I don't know if we'll get to it all.  Maybe I don't really need to see whales in their natural habitat.....but it would be nice.