Entertrainment Junction

We returned home on Monday night from a 6 day trip to Cincinnati to be a part of my Mother in law's wedding.
It was an activity packed trip beginning with a visit to the Entertrainment Junction which apparently  holds the record for the largest model train display in the world. It was such a cool museum that we could have all used another couple of hours to take it all in. There was a North Pole section devoted to Santa, Mrs. Clause, a lively skit of the Christmas Carol and a large display of Christmas trains. It was quite incredible! Here are some pictures of the museum.

Totally in love with Entertrainment Junction!

The displays were so detailed and interesting! I couldn't help taking pictures of the actual model villages and scenes.

There was a whole playground area that was a great way to get the wiggles out! 

Such a fun Christmas model.

Mrs. Clause baking cookies for the children...

Anders LOVED Santa! He asked for an orange race car with the #4 on it...

Grandma J.

Pictures of the new place

A few weeks ago I took some pictures of our new digs. We really do feel at home now and we're enjoying the new atmosphere that this new space provides.

Our bed is sort of in the living room but now we have long curtains  separating the two rooms. The t.v.  and entertainment center are finding new homes and we'll have two more comfy chairs in that spot.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

We have so much to be thankful for this year. We're thankful for a good job, health, a great living situation, and most of all for salvation.

Have a blessed and fun Thanksgiving.

A little catch up perhaps?

It has been too long since I have posted. We moved the weekend before last and there is no internet, computer or television which is both good and bad. It's good when Chris is home but bad when Anders is in bed and I am home alone. Let's just say that I've been getting plenty of sleep. Today the cable guy is coming and we'll at least have Wifi so I can catch up a little on my iPhone. We haven't been missing the unhealthy amounts of t.v. watching and since we have a little dvd player/t.v. Anders can watch dvds every once in a while. All of my books, cds and dvds are packed away in storage so I'll be hitting up the library today for a few movies and books. I do have a Kindle but because of a lack of Wifi I haven't been able to download any books while at home. But I will as soon as I can!

I haven't begun to feel settled in the new place yet. The storage is really limited and I just feel like I'm bumping into something wherever I turn. Since the house was unoccupied for almost a year with the windows open, I'm fighting a small war against little buggies that think it's their house too. I've sprayed bug spray around the perimeter as well as around baseboards and windows and it looks like I may win yet! On the upside, it is VERY quiet and peaceful at night and since we don't have curtains or shades up yet we fall asleep to moonlight and mysterious tree shadows every night. Very relaxing. Our friends who live in the front house are so gracious and we're really glad to get to live so near them. The girls have been very sweet to Anders and so far we've only had one "inccident" where Anders wasn't so kind and I had to have a "coming to Jesus meeting" with him. We like having the dogs to play with and the big chocolate lab Charley comes to visit sometimes and "vacuum" my kitchen floor.
I'll post picures as soon as things are in order and we have a computer to post from. Today I'm visiting the computer center at our old apartment while Anders is in pre-school.

Changes

It's finally hot again here in SoCal. We have had the most amazingly comfortable summer (sorry rest of the country) but as of this week it's been ranging from 98-102. Thank goodness for air con, indoor play and t.v....

I haven't been posting much here lately mostly because Facebook has taken over most of my social networking time. It's become hard for me to write anything significant over 3 sentences long. O.k. so part of that is just me or summer melting my brain, or white sugar, white flour and corn syrup, or motherhood, or too much t.v. or not enough reading or engaging in meaningful conversation on a regular basis... The list could go on.

So, the past few weeks Chris and I have been looking in earnest at different living arrangements. It's weird that we would because we LOVE it here. We have a life here. The beach is 10 minutes away and did I mention that we love it here? BUT, Chris is driving so much everyday and we know that our sweet affordable housing deal will expire in a year and rent keeps going up. We've just been feeling... restless. So, when I was at a friends house cutting her 4 girls hair, she mentioned that they had a back house that they needed to rent out. I had a look at it and went home and excitedly told Chris about it. All of a sudden there was this option, a very reasonably priced option out there. Financially we could really use the break. We need to save and take care of some other obligations without feeling strapped all of the time.

As we considered this option we looked around the area where Chris works. There were some really sweet places built in the 40's and 50's with tons of space but they were a bit more pricey. Tempting but we realized that we would be even more stressed financially by making the move and by paying more. We would also have to take Anders out of the great pre-school that he's in because of the distance.

Soooo.... On October 1st (Lord will'n and the creek don't rise) we'll be moving into the small one bedroom back house with a gigantic yard with 4 very sweet little girls and three dogs for Anders to play with. It will be an adventure although I'm a little apprehensive about losing some of the luxuries that we have had here. But, I'm ready for it. I'm sure that it will be character building and in the long run we'll have fond memories for this place in our lives.
I've already started sorting through the mass of baby clothes that we don't need and hauled them to the Goodwill. Next will be packing up books, cds, clothes and kitchen ware that we don't immediately need. Most of these will go into storage while we live in this house.

I'll update as we get closer to the first and hopefully I won't have gone packing crazy by then!

Kidspace Museum and critters

Last week we went the kidspace Museum in Pasadena. There were so many fun ways to burn off extra kid energy! Riding tricycles around a track, playing in the cool stream, climbing the indoor structures or the outside climb wall, learning about spiders and insects, digging for dino bones and more.... So much  fun!

I had to add this picture of two kind of cute little frogs that found cool comfort on our patio this week. I posted this on Facebook but thought I'd repost it to balance out all of the picture of Anders....

Trying to stay cool....

It is officially hot here. We've had such a pleasant summer up until now so it's kind of a shock to the system! We went from cloudy foggy mornings with highs of 80 to 104 and HUMID. This change was overnight. So needless to say we're trying to find the balance of staying out of the heat and not going completely stir crazy in our small apartment. There's been lots of Wii playing, Max and Ruby cartoons, reading, visiting the library the water park and Barnes and Noble. One thing that I find really lovely about living out here is that there are so many fun kid activities. There are parks with water fountains, our apartment pool, indoor play places and of course the beach. So although it is pretty miserable right now we are making the very most of it.

Fourth of July

Fourth of July was spent at a birthday party in the morning and then at a nice grassy spot in Thousand Oaks in the afternoon. Our friends Nikki and Peter celebrated with us and we really had a relaxing time enjoying the evening.

 Nikki and I got to hang out and people watch while Chris, Peter and Anders went to the Apple store. We looked pretty happy!

Chris and Peter being goofy before the fireworks started.

This picture was taken before the fireworks. You know how I can tell? Anders looks relaxed and happy as opposed to freaking out and screaming.

This picture was taken earlier in the day at our friends son Gus' 3rd birthday party. It was held at a place called Underwood Farms and was quite the fun party. The kids got to feed the animals go on all the rides including pony rides. (Anders was in heaven!).

Birthday pictures

Anders 4 year old Birthday was quite a success. On his actual b-day we went to Carney's (a train car restaurant) for lunch. Then we hopped on the red line subway and took it down to Hollywood to see Toy Story 3 in 3-D at the El Capitan Theater! After the movie there was a carnival with rides, shows and fun music. What an amazing day it turned out to be! 

The next day was the party and we had about 9 kids over to our apartment for an old fashioned birthday party. The theme was water and trains. The kids all seemed to have a blast and Anders was totally thrilled with the "fishing" game we played. My dad hid behind a blanket and each child got to "go fishing" over the blanket. They would "catch" little prizes to take home. It was a hit! So many pictures were taken but here are just a few.

Carney's Restaurant 

I'm 3...no 4!!

A little apprehensive about the subway trip

The El Capitan Theater in Hollywood

The Ferris wheel and getting to meet Buzz Light Year and Woody!

The train cake that I made

Fun water play at the party

Play Dates and Exclamations

This past week we had a couple of fun play dates and although I didn't get much variety in my pictures I did get at least one with each friend. On my birthday we met my friend Kristy and her daughter Violet and son James who is slightly younger than Anders, in Arcadia at a fun indoor playground. The boys really get along well and it was fun to have some quality friend time.

The top picture was taken with some friends from Anders school. The two boys were in his Sea Stars class and they get along pretty well. The girls are the sisters of the boy in the yellow hat. This family lives in a very large and grand house up Mulholland drive which is not too far away from our apartment. The boys had a ton of fun throwing dust at each other and riding bikes all around the hardwood floors in the house.

On a side note I have to share Anders exclamatory words as of late. More for my memory down the rode.  Anders is very exclamatory. He loves getting a rise out of me and he loves saying things that sound "on the edge". A few of my favorites are, "OH PANIC!", "SHUCK IT OFF!" (We think this one comes from us telling him to "shake it off" after a tumble.), "BAM-IT!",  "YOU NUDY" (not sure where this one comes from because we have never used the word "nude" in our house), "BOSSY BOILER!" and "STINKY STEAMY!" (Thank you Thomas the Train....)

I've been trying to curtail some of the more negative phrases although Chris and I have to really work at not laughing....

Hanging out with our German/Swedish friends

James and Anders enjoying lunch at Cheesecake Factory on my B-Day

Birthday's and other busyness

The last week has been filled with busyness including a surprise Birthday party (for me), major house de-cluttering in preparation for Anders Birthday party this coming Saturday, friends and parents visiting and Fathers Day.

Last Wednesday I had plans to go out for coffee with a friend. She was supposed to show up around 6:30 with some left overs for dinner. I was quite excited about not having to think up dinner! At 6:30 the door bell rang and I opened it to see another good friend and neighbor, Nikki standing there! She informed me that she would be babysitting for me. Hmmm. I was confused. Then the coffee friend, Jennifer showed up but with no dinner in hand and all dressed up..... another hmmm.
The story was that Chris couldn't get home in time from work to relieve me so he called Nikki to watch Anders. Jennifer said that she thought it would be more fun to have a "girls night out" and told me to go get gussied up.
While this is all going on Anders is crying/screaming because minutes before Nikki arrived he had slammed into the bathroom counter and had a nice little gash next to his eye. I had been cleaning all afternoon and so I looked really frazzled. Messy ponytail, maternity culottes and stained t-shirt (the picture of domestic bliss). Mind you, I thought I'd have a few minutes to clean up before a nice quiet dinner and casual coffee out with a friend....

Luckily Anders thinks that Nikki is pretty fun and started to cheer up. I ran and did a quick mini make-over and was able to pull it together enough to get out the door and not scare anyone. Jennifer had forgotten a coupon at her house so we made our way over there to pick it up. Since I had never been over there she insisted that I come up with her to see her place. I left my purse in the car and ran up with her. As we walked in the door I realized what all of the confusion was about. Six good friends all jumped out to surprise me for my Birthday!  Chris and Jennifer really pulled it off without me guessing anything. I was completely surprised and really glad that I had put on deodorant and face powder!
My parents came out on Saturday to cap off the festivities and our friends Nikki and Peter joined us for dinner and late night game playing.

Birthday #34 ranks up there with some of my favorite Birthday's so far.

Tomorrow my Mother-in-law flies in from Cincinnati and this week will be filled with party planning and fun.

Last day of preschool!

Today we officially start summer. Anders commemorated the event with a preschool ice cream party and face painting. I have to admit that I am more than a little sad that the year is over but excited for all of the fun that comes with summer. We have lots of activities planned including vacation Bible school, family reunions and lots of pool fun!
When I got to school today Anders had his face painted like a pirate. A little after I arrived he accidentally got bumped and fell down. He roared at the poor little girl who bumped him and then proceeded to have a major meltdown. A lot of the paint came off of his face but I was able to get an "end of the year, next to the cubby" picture despite the scowl.

I thought it would be fun to put the beginning of the year picture next to this one to see how much he's grown.  It helps that he was wearing the same shirt both days!

Just the facts Ma'am.

Here's a list.

1. Anders and I had lower intestinal bug last week. (it lasted a WHOLE week)
2. Now Chris feels lousy.
3. This is the last full week of pre-school.
4. I'm sad about that.
5. I'm looking forward to a family gathering in Flagstaff at the end of July.
6. I hope Flagstaff in July will won't be sweltering.
7. Chris' 20th, yes 20th high school reunion is in August.
8. I hope we can scrape enough mulah together to make it to Cincinnati in August.
9. I'm looking at a never ending pile of laundry.
10. I'm reading a great book called "Parenting with love and logic".
11. It's helping.
12. I need to color my hair.
13. You probably don't care.
14. This list is getting random.

O.k. that will do.

Strawberry Festivities

I'm sorry to say that we didn't get even one little picture of the beautiful strawberries at the Oxnard Strawberry Festival.... But I did get pictures of us on the shuttle that took us there....
....Of Anders looking apprehensive.....
.....Of Chris looking weird.....
.....Of firemen outfits and
carnival rides.....

That will have to do.

The end.