Metro and downtown

Well, at the beginning of the summer Grant mentioned that he thought it was unfair that all of the people get to ride the bus and we don't. He was really upset and said, "we have no fun because we always ride in the car." LOL So, we made his dreams come true last week. We (Aunt Diney, Lisa, Grant and I) took the Metrolink into downtown and then took some buses to the clothing area. We had a great time and Grant was super excited. We went to the Garment District, Olivera Street and some other siteseeing. Oh, what fun we had.

The Little Rock Zoo and fun with Aunt Christi

Okay, this is a back entry but an important one nonetheless...when we went to Arkansas at Spring Break of this year (yeah, I know it was a while ago), my fam and I met up with Aunt Christi, Madeline and Tyler at the Little Rock Zoo. We had a great time and walked the whole zoo. As you can see, we had a blast. We went to John's Incredible Pizza...and it was just that, incredible (see last photo of Grant's face).

Wow, cool pics...cool times

Over the years, here is a great memory of the past couple of years....Just found this folder and obviously I had put it together because I was probably (originally) planning on printing these pics out and placing them in my classroom or maybe even giving them to the people in them...well, I fell short of that but I can post them and let you know what fun times we had in these pictures!

Our little paparazzi

Okay for Grant's fourth birthday, we decided to give Grant an autograph book to get all the Disney characters to sign his book. Well, with every signature comes a picture. We actually chased Donald Duck one morning because Grant LOVES Donald and Mickey equally. We are still in search of Daisy. I asked the staff (YES, I INQUIRED....YES, I AM AN ADULT) when Daisy comes. They told me very rarely and I could call each morning to see. Okay, I haven't gotten that bad. LOL

Geisha, Grant and Alaska Socks

Well, as always my dad sends Grant some "pesos" (his exact words) for Back-to-School stuff. He always insists that I "buy the boy some shoes and clothes." LOL So, I did just that. I felt a little bad because he has a pair of tennis shoes that Grandma Carol had bought him last year. He wore them all the time at first, but as the year went on and the weather was hotter, he switched to his infamous crocs (he likes to wear one blue on the right foot and one yellow on the left foot...that is his trademark...so much so that people insist he will have one blue for the left foot and one yellow for the right that are brand new). LOL Hey, I pick my battles and correctly colored shoes, not one I will even consider (especially since I read somewhere that allowing a child to pick out clothes, shoes, etc. gives them a sense of self-esteem and independence....doing the opposite also would stifle the creativity). I like my little non-conformist. LOL

Okay, back to the tennis shoes. He hadn't worn these shoes for sometime. Well, he had worn them but like I said just for a sports class here and there. So, I signed Grant up for two different classes this summer. One class that taught the basics to all sports (football, baseball, soccer and basketball). The other class is just soccer. He loves to go to these and had his tennis shoes on everytime. Well, last week he decided he didn't want to continue to go to soccer. He LOVES this class, so I was shocked. I asked him why? Grant said, "I want to just stay at home and play soccer because these shoes are killing my feet." Oh, the shoes....yeah, that's right I have bought several new sandals (crocs, strapped ones, and flip flops) and he has gone through two pair of Vans by now (thanks dad)...oh man, I haven't bought him tennis shoes in forever and Grandma was the last one who did (last September/October). OOPS...

So, we head to Norstrom (who has very reasonable prices when it comes to kis shoes....so, I know what you are thinking, but seriously they are not over-priced. The Vans I buy there are the same as the Vans shop and I don't have to deal with some punked-out skater kid that doesn't want to measure my kids foot). I digress. Okay, so we go in and my mouth must have fallen to the floor when she said he was a 12 1/2 ...those old tennis shoes were 10 1/2. YIKES. They were TWO SIZES TOO SMALL. Grant is officially my little Geisha... Needless to say I bought him a pair of Vans and a pair of tennis shoes.

Last soccer class, Carol says to me...wow, Grant sure is running good today. He is really picking up his legs and running fast. That's when I had to admit that my poor child couldn't run because I am bound and determined to keep him small. I know, you would like to nominate me for "Mommy of the Year" award... :)

So, today Scott and Grant are at the Angels v. Yankees game. Grant wanted to wear his Vans. However, it would not be that easy because he insisted on wearing them with his new socks that Aunt Tracy sent him from Alaska. Yeah, they made it!!! Anywho, his lovely combination you can see below. Scott commented how hot he is going to be wearing those socks...it is a 12:30 game.

Campers R Us

The family has been doing some camping of recent times. We started in June and have been going full force. We camped twice at the beach and once at a lake. Scott, Grant and I went to a local beach to camp. We had fun doing the "basics." For us these include kite-flying, swimming (both ocean and pool), grilling, building sand castles, getting some sun and tooling around on our bikes to the pier. It was just the three of us and the beach. Oh, Grant is the biggest supporter of playing "all the games," too. So, it is not unusual for us to do four or five puzzles and play four or fives games (you know, Chutes and Ladders, Candyland, Elefun, Hi Ho Cherry-Os, Memory, etc.) I do love to play games, even if I do get a little tired at the end of the day. LOL

Next, we met some friends at a beach area in San Diego for nearly a week. Our friend has two boys and one always brings his best friend. So, Grant had plenty of playmates. However, the boys are quite a bit older so G couldn't always hang. He is just a little too little right now. The most amazing thing happened on this trip...he learned to not use his floatation devices in the pool and go under. He would go under water and then swim toward us without the use of any help...well, except for us reaching to him. Oh, don't think he can swim by himself...just with less help. Baby steps to swimming. Also, Grant learned to ride his bike. Chris and Jennifer gave him a Spiderman bike when he was baptized but Grant was not able to do the footwork until this trip. Our friend, Jerms, taught Grant how to ride and get the bike going. The biggest problem for him was learning how to get it going. Jerms taught him to "put his booty" into it. LOL Also, one funny thing is that we got him going and forgot to teach him how to stop. OOPS! So, after flying over the curb onto the beachy sand, he learned that he needs to learn how to stop. We were able to listen to several live bands at this camping facility and Scott & Jerms even blessed everyone by doing some Karoke. Fun times! In the evening, you could go down to the beach and watch the Sea World fireworks too...this place is so great! We also learned that if you stay on Mallard Lane, well you will be blessed with a bunch of ducks (DAILY). We were there for five or six days, therefore we were getting ready to name our ducks. They did seem to really like us (or was it our bread?). Oh yeah, and we went into town and saw the USS Midway! And guess who was playing there that night on the Midway? The Oakridge Boys!

Okay, our most recent camping excursion was to a local lake. It was fun to be at a lake and fishing. We had been use to the beach life, but we decided to go close...real close. We were able to still go swimming in a pool, enjoy the biking life, and play all the new camping games Grant got for his birthday. We played horseshoes, golfing croquet set, kite flying, big bubble wand, giant kick ball, and the list goes on. Thank goodness Jerm's two boys were there to help play all of these. Thanks to Camden and Mason!! Grandpa Gary took Grant fishing (with his Spongebob reel). Oh, what fun. The only thing that was a downfall was that Scott had his Tr*k bike stolen. We had really gotten use to camping and feeling so safe with people around. Turns out, you should lock up your bikes everytime. Scott mentioned having paid $600 for this bike back in 1991. :( Needless to say, we have not yet replaced this item. I am proud to say that Scott did not let it put a damper on his fun and went right on to go fishing.

Golden Birthday!

Several years ago, I heard the term "golden birthday." This "golden birthday" is a name given to the date of your birthday and age meets as the same. For example, Grant will be four on the fourth. So, basically mine would have been when I was twelve and Scott's twenty-seven. Okay, I know that sounds silly but I decided we would "do it up." Well, "do it up" to Grant meant that he should have FOUR birthdays! I said, "I don't think so!" Until I rationalized the whole idea. Okay, he needed to have one at preschool with all of his classmates. It is only fair and he was really concerned because everyone else had one because their birthday is during the school year. Okay, first birthday...school and the theme...Scooby.

Then, my family and I had been talking about taking Grant to Goofy's Kitchen at the Disneyland Hotel for awhile because he LOVES LOVES LOVES Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. The restaurant guarantees that your child will get to meet Goofy and at least two other characters. Okay, I said I would NEVER be one of those parents that supported the paparazzi frenzy of meeting characters. One lesson that I have learned as a parent...NEVER SAY NEVER. Okay, so we all book our reservation for Goofy's Kitchen back in April and I bought Grant the autograph book for the Goofy's Kitchen. Well, it turned out to be a success. The child could barely eat due to the excitement of getting the autographs. He flipped out most over Chip and Dale. Dale had started in the left side of the room and Chip on the other. Well, Dale signed it first, but Grant could not stop looking at Chip and asking us when he was coming over. It was cute, but I wanted him to eat...so, I told him that the characters only come over if they see the boys and girls eating. LOL it worked and he ended up with a full tummy and met eight characters!

Okay, so now onto the third party...we call this the "friends party." The theme of this party was Spongebob Squarepants. We invited all of our friends and had 23 kids there and about the same amount of adults if not a few more! We had the party at a community park where they have put in all new equipment with rock climbing and most importantly a SPLASH PAD!!! So, all the kids came prepared with swimsuits and towels. There was much fun with the splash pad and jungle gym...however, I read on the Internet about some cute games. So, I attempted to play some games like pass the Jellyfish (modeled after hot potato with using water balloons as the jellyfish), ring toss on the dolphin (which was way harder then I anticipated) and the pinata (which would NOT go down...seriously, I had to have some pep talks with some of the older kids and tell them I NEED YOU TO KNOCK IT DOWN). LOL Lisa made the cakes (Spongebob and a separate Patrick). They looked great. We ate cake, opened gifts and then played a little more! It was a fun party and thanks to the family for helping everything along (Grandma, Aunt Diney, Aunt Tracy, Aunt Lisa and Cuz Emily)!!!

Now, onto the fourth party on the fourth. Well, that one is to come. Our theme...Patriotic and LEFTOVER. LOL We are taking all kinds of stuff over to the Grandparent's house and having a pool party/BBQ. Then, we are going to go see the fireworks.