Woo-hoo! We were rear-ended again!

Well, this was a blessing in disguise. We had been hit on the side of our rear bumper last year in a parking lot and never had it repair. So, since we were rear-ended again, the entire bumper was replaced, as well as the hatch. The back of our van has never looked better, but I wish the rest of it did, too. Our kids have done quite a number on the interior.

Professional Installation

Last year at the end of the summer we had a rear entertainment system installed in our car by Best Buy. It was a great deal with $200 off the TV/DVD and free installation.

Well, this is what we got for our free "professional installation": Screws through the roof of our minivan.

The sad thing is I didn't notice these holes on the roof until May 2008, 9 months later. Who looks at the roof of their van, anyway? Hmmm . . . . so that's why the TV didn't work well in the rainy weather.

Well, we had the holes repaired through the Best Buy insurance finally. It cost them $1000 to fix it. Good thing we didn't try to install it ourselves and left it up to the professionals!

Joseph finished up a year of "Club Basketball."

Joseph played on the Rancho Bernardo Bronco Club basketball team this year. He has improved a lot, but it was a rough season. He was only allowed to play in a practice capacity, because we don't live in Rancho Bernardo anymore. He filled in for missing players, but attended nearly every practice. Hopefully he'll be able to be a full-time player on a different club team this upcoming year.

Aleya's 2nd Birthday

Aleya turned 2! Happy Birthday to YOU!


Unfortunately, all the kids were sick this past week. First Aleya, who had a fever, lethargy and then a febrile seizure. We rode in an ambulance to the ER and had her checked out. She seemed to only have a virus that will pass. The seizure happened because she had a sudden spike in her temperature (the part of the brain that regulates temperature is not very developed in babies and toddlers).

Aleya was better by the next day, but Amara, Orrin, and Joseph all soon had headaches and fevers. Orrin also vomited several times. This kind of ruined the birthday plans, and Orrin also missed two parties he was invited to. I had to pick him up from Legoland from a birthday party, because he was too ill by the time they got there. He even vomited in the parking lot.




Everyone finally started to feel a little better and we were finally able to have a small party for Aleya last night. Aleya chose to wear dance clothes for the day. She enjoys dancing. So, we had birthday dancing.


She opened presents.


She received an "Elmo knows your name." You can program it to say your child's name, age, birthday, favorite color, animal, breakfast, lunch, dinner, siblings' names, naptime, bedtime, sing your favorite songs, and play games. It is pretty darn cool. Hopefully it will encourage her to talk more . . . maybe even say her own name.

Whoopsie!

She blew out the candles with help.

Too scary!!!

Then we all enjoyed cake and ice cream. We'll have a family activity for her birthday later in the week, maybe, if we can fit it in our schedule.

San Diego Scout Fair

This was the Wildlife Conservation Belt Loop.

We had a great time at our San Diego Scout Fair. Joseph and Orrin earned several more belt loops in Belt Loop Alley, enjoyed outdoor cooking food samples in the Boy Scout Area (the food was DELICIOUS!), and enjoyed several other Boy Scout booths, displays, and games.

This was a game for the Language and Culture belt loop.

The kids favorite area was in the Merit Badge (Boy Scout) area. They liked all the reptiles and bugs.

Even Aleya wanted to touch the snakes!

The boys wished we had more time for them to play in the gaming area, but we had to hurry home to Orrin's baseball game.

Rubber-band gun target practice.

Primary Talent Show

Our Primary had their annual talent show. Amara danced her recital ballet dance with her friend, Chloe. Orrin played, "The Indian Song," on the piano, and Joseph played Beethoven's "Fur Elise."



I teach my children piano, so they don't get a regular recital. I figure the talent show is their chance to play at a recital. All the kids performed well . . . if only the preparation wasn't so painful (whine, moan, groan . . . "I hate piano" . . . whine, moan, groan . . . "I hate practicing" . . . "This is NOT a democracy!")


I think my kids are natural performers. They may want to sing a rock song next time. This is their impression of American Idol for kids.

We want some Mohr!

Christian's sister and her family, the Mohrs, came to visit us for 5 days. We greatly enjoyed their company and a change of pace from the normal hum-drum busy days with school and sports. We love having company and our house is always bustling in anticipation of their arrival. The kids must have opened the front door 10 or more times in the final hour before they came, just hoping they had arrived early.



We went to Legoland for two days with them. Legoland was moderately crowded, but they have added so many new attractions, it spreads everyone out pretty well, so the lines weren't too long. We had a leisurely and enjoyable day together. Our kids enjoyed missing 2 whole days of school. No perfect attendance awards for our family.





Our visitors also enjoyed a full day at Seaworld. They enjoyed that the most, apparently. The cousins also came swimming with us at our community pool. We brought just about every blow-up pool toy we had (I only go through that much trouble for visitors).



We had a scorcher of a weekend when they arrived. It was in the high 80s and low 90s, but it cooled off to the 70s by the end of the week. They live in American Fork, Utah and said they had just come from 3 snow storms the previous week. This was a nice change for them.



The Mohrs treated us to dinner at Chic-fil-et. I know that portion sizes are large at most restaurants, but this is ridiculous. This was a medium order of nuggets. It fed both our families and then some.
Okay, I am just kidding. We ordered a medium party platter. 120 nuggets didn't last long, though. They are delicious!


On our second day at Legoland, the kids all decided to bury Orrin in the sand at the Dino Dig site. It was a fitting end to a fabulous vacation for their family. Heck, we felt like we were on vacation when we hung out with them.

Aleya as the Island Princess

Both Amara and Aleya LOVE the movie, Barbie as the Island Princess. There is a song in the movie called "Sun Goes Down," that the girls insist we sing every night before bed. Amara received the barbie for Christmas from her brother, Joseph, and I bought a matching dress for her a few months later.



Well . . . Aleya plays with the barbie more than Amara. If you press her necklace, she sing the "Sun Goes Down" song. Lately, Aleya has been into playing dress-up and decided she wanted to dress up in the Barbie as the Island Princess dress and sing and dance around.





Aleya does love to sing and dance. She is a sweet little princess.