Thursday, March 29, 2012

Those Sneaky Leprechauns

St. Patrick's Day is always a good ol' time around here.  I love hearing the girls theories about how the leprechaun gets in the house and about all his mischief.  In kindergarten, the kids in all the kinder classes bring their homemade leprechaun traps to school to see if they can catch one of the little suckers.  Charlie and I worked hard on her leprechaun.  She was very involved on what leprechauns can and can't do and what kinds of things might catch him.  Now, you all probably don't remember Ryan's kinder leprechaun trap because mommy was new to the "kids-don't-really-make-the-projects" projects.  I let Ryan make hers entirely and boy were we surprised when we saw the others with complete pully systems, professional carpentry, and full hardcore decor.  Whoa, momma was NOT gonna screw it up this time!!!  Charlie (aka Mommy) knocked it outta the park this time...lol!  Just kidding... Charlie really did help a lot and I let her come up with all the ideas for how to catch Lucky.


Here is how our (uh, I mean HER) trap works.  Charlie's trap should ideally be placed in the forest or garden where it is camouflaged by the lush greenery.  Lucky will see the rainbow from far away and will come running.  When he arrives, he will see two signs that say, "End of the rainbow here" and "Do not enter."  You should know that leprechauns are notorious for doing the opposite of what they are supposed too.  So, he will WANT to enter since it says not too and which leprechaun could resist the temptation of the end of the rainbow???  Once the leprechaun looks through the hole at the top of the trap, he will see the gold strategically placed below on golden furniture and will KNOW that he has definitely found the end of the rainbow and will jump in!  What he doesn't realize is that this is a trap and he will be forced to remain in our leprechaun jail until we come fetch him out (as Charlie says).

 Once you get to school, all of the kids reveal their homemade traps and the whole day of learning is probably gone right there, lol!  The best one this year was the boy in the picture below with the red shirt.  His name is Brady. (PS... Charlie LOVES to play with Brady!!!)  Anyway, Brady's dad is a fireman so they added a real (working) siren to the trap so that when the leprechaun triggered the wire, the siren would start to wail and the lights would turn round and round.  Guess what happened right as the kids were coming in from recess?  Oh, you guessed it, Brady "almost" caught a leprechaun.  Mrs. Baker was "so close to catching that sucker" she said.   Isn't Mrs. Baker the best teacher ever?  Seriously, we are the luckiest in the world!

 Other St. Patty's day fun for the Grace Girls...


 Top o' the day to ya!

Happy Birthday Ryan!

So... after all the hoop-la of Ryan's big slumber party and then gettting a horrible flu for over a week after her birthday... her actual birthday seemed to sneak by being pretty uneventful BUT... gotta have a blog post dedicated to the birthday girl, right?

 Ryan woke up for school with some gifts to open at the breakfast table and a Hershey Kiss card to go with!
and then that night...
In lieu of our traditional birthday dinner, Ryan had an indoor soccer game.  Luckily we went out to dinner with the team afterward.  The girl is nuts about soccer these days so she gladly and enthusiastically chose soccer over dinner. 

Happy Birthday Ya-Ya!

Monday, March 12, 2012

Fire Safety 411

Charlie and her Daisy Troop visited the SB fire station to learn about "respecting authority" and fire safety.  Mommy is one of the leaders and I am proud to say that my knee was well enough to walk the girls to the fire station!  Lots of good news on this end!

 Firefighter Charlie...
 with Firefighter Jim and all her Daisy friends.
 Learnin' the ropes (no pun intended...LOL!)
Since the SB Girl Scout house is in Old Town and so is the fire station, we got to walk through the fun neighborhood to get there and back.  Look at Charlie leading the way!

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Welcome to the World Baby Annie!

The day has finally arrived! 
Little Miss Anne Marie Grace was born this morning at 9:36am. She is 5 lbs 15 ozs.  and 18.5 inches long!  Congratulations to Jeff & Julie!
We are so excited for you!

(Thanks for the great photo Jill Sotelo!)

xoxo

Friday, March 09, 2012

Cre8, Celebr8 & stay up L8... Ryan turns 8!

For Ryan's 8th birthday, we hosted our very first slumber party.  The theme was "8"... she invited 8 friends.  We got to cre8 by doing some fun crafts.  Celebr8 with a dance party.  And stay up L8!
What a nice group of girls.  I was so impressed with how polite all of her classm8s are and how nice they are to each other.   It was a gr8 night!

Ryan w8ing for her guests to arrive.  So excited.
 Mommy got to decor8...
 No alcohol at this party but a bar made just for 8 year olds!
 Snacks are the most important part to staying up L8!
 Dance party!  Let's celebr8!
 Dinnertime... chick-fil-a, mac-n-cheese, and pizza!
What's on your pl8?
 Traditional slumber party games...
The girls needed to concentr8.
 Disco lights help to motiv8 a second dance party!
 And then a surprise guest... Coach Hayley!
Ryan was so happy she came!
 Time to cre8!
The girls made their own personalized stationary.
 First a movie and then bedtime was the plan I tried to negoti8.
11:00 seemed to be the magic number to get everyone to sleep.
I consider that a success!

 Good morning ladies!  More gr8 things to cre8.  While Steve concentr8ed on coordin8ing a gre8 breakfast, the girls worked on another craft and watched cartoons.
 Then, all the girls circled around the birthday girl to watch her open her gifts.
They were adorable.  I can't believe how grown up they seem.
 A big breakfast helps the girls to recuper8 from a long night.
French toast, eggs, bacon, fruit, cinnamon rolls, donuts, and fruit smoothies!
Nice job Steve!  They 8 everything on their pl8!
 The birthday girl enjoyed having her classm8s with her to celebr8!
Happy Birthday Ry-Ry!

Tuesday, March 06, 2012

A Quick San Diego Visit

Last Sunday, Ryan and Steve went to an all day Catholic Retreat to get Ryan ready for her first communion (BTW... save the date.  It will be May 5th).  So, Charlie and I took advantage of our day together by driving to San Diego to visit Jeff and Julie.  We checked out their new house, went to lunch, and Charlie did a lot of hanging out with Puffer.  She even got him some new toys and he loved the little stuffed doggy.  Good choice Charlie!

 Charlie and Puffer.
Who would have thought that Charlie was once afraid of dogs?  Look how cute they are together!

Now, we are just waiting for that call that Julie is ready to bring Baby Annie into the world.  Just waiting, waiting, waiting!

Girl Scouts Thinking Day

Trying to fit it all in...
Last weekend after Ryan and Charlie had softball Opening Day, they had to rush over to their Girl Scouts Opening Day.  Each troop picks a country to study and teach the other troops with a skit or song.  Ryan's troop chose Japan this year.  Charlie's troop was brand new this year so they just came to observe and learn.

 Guess which mom was in charge of making the display poster for Japan?  Yes, me of course.  LOL! Ryan helped me to make it just right.
I must say, I was pretty proud.  I was able to fit all of the girls' artwork and origami plus add some trinkets to learn about Japan.
 Ryan's troop sang "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" in Japanese.  So cute.  They all look the same.  Can you find Ryan?
 Good job Brownie troop 407!
 Any girl scouts out there reading this?  Do you remember the friendship circle?  They still do it today.  "Make new friends, but keep the old.  One is silver and the other gold..."

Charlie's Daisy Troop.  Mother of the Year forgot to pack Charlie's Daisy smock because we had to come straight from softball.  She was so mad at me.  :-(

Saturday, March 03, 2012

Softfball Opening Day

Opening Day marks the official beginning of the softball season! 
All of the LAGSL teams meet at a neighborhood elementary school early in the morning complete with banners, noisemakers and other fun gadgets to make each team special and then parade through the neighborhood to the main softball park.  I was in charge of the banners for both of our teams and Steve got lots of Cuties accessories for the little ones from Sun Pacific (the Cuties company).  When they get to their destination after parading through the neighborhood, each team is announced and the first pitch is thrown!  Game on girls!

The California Cuties (Charlie's T Ball team) and Bubble Gum Bombers (Ryan's team) are ready to make their mark this season!