Halloween's a scream!

Halloween was a fun, especially for Sophie and I. Since Sophie only had half a day of school, I picked her up around noon and took her with me to knitting group. She loves to go with me whenever she can. Sophie ate her lunch while I crocheted, then she colored. Before we left, we looked for books in the used book room. Next, Sophie and I went to Michaels to pick up some items for my craft group next week.

Back at my house, I worked on creating a Halloween dinner. By the time Jackie, Dwayne, and Holden got to my house at 6:00, everything was ready. We ate Mummy Bread, Vampire Toes, Rattlesnake, Haunted Trees, and Graveyard Jello. The Mummy Bread was made by joining 2 crescent rolls to make a rectangle. Down the center of it, I put pieces of cooked meatballs, black olives, mushrooms, pizza sauce, and cheeses. Then I sliced the sides of the roll and braided it over the filling. They looked like little mummies! Everyone loved them, too! The Vampire Toes were black-eyed peas. Rattlesnake was really baked squash. Haunted Trees were broccoli crowns. The Graveyard Jello was a huge hit. It was a layered dessert of vanilla pudding on bottom, then cherry jello with a dollop of vanilla yogurt on top. I then inserted some little Halloween shortbread cookies.

After dinner the kids got on their costumes and went trick or treating in my neighborhood. Holden's pre-school teacher lives around the corner, so they went to that house first. How cool is that to go to your teacher's house!' To see more pictures of the kids in their costumes, click here.

It RAINED Last Night!

"Yeah, so what?" you're probably thinking. For us, it's a really big deal. We haven't had any rain since mid-August. That's almost 2 months ago! We're down over 12 inches of precipitation for the year. In fact, we have officially been labeled as in "extreme drought". There's only one level worse than that.

I was thrilled to see the wet ground when I got up this morning. The air was cool and refreshing. I swear that my lawn and plants were singing their happiness to me! Not that I haven't been watering them, because I have. It's just that water from the hose doesn't seem to make the plants as happy as rain water. I think I'd like to buy a rain barrel to collect the rain water.

We must have had a really good rain during the night, because here it is, a little after noon, and the ground is still wet. So is my wooden privacy fence. It's a sunny, breezy day and, YAHOO!!!, the ground is still wet!! And, it's only going to be in the upper 80's today! What a glorious day!! It's such a glorious day that I've decided to take some more pictures of things in my yard, even though I haven't finished my landscaping plans. I'm going to share with you what I have accomplished so far and what I still want to do. To see the pictures, click here.

Last Two Days Together

Vacation Days 7 and 8 - Family Time and Bowling

On Monday we took care of some more car business in the morning, then went bowling. Hailey and David bowled by rolling their bowling balls down a ramp onto the lane. They did fairly well until Hailey fell asleep. I thought that maybe all the time I've spent on the Wii playing the bowling game might help me, but it didn't. I couldn't find a bowling ball that fit me right. They were either too heavy for me or my fingers got stuck in them. As a result, I mostly got gutter balls although I did manage to get one strike. Everyone scored higher than me except George (who didn't bowl) and Hailey who only bowled 3 or 4 rounds. Christina won with a score of 99. I was able to take a few pictures of us in the bowling alley but had to stop because of the leagues that were playing. After bowling and eating lunch, we went back to Christina's motel. Click here to see pictures from bowling and the motel.

On Tuesday, we drove to San Diego late in the morning. We had lunch at a harbor restaurant, then headed to the airport. As usual, Ryan was very, very sad to see us go. (It always breaks my heart to see him so sad.) We had a wonderful time on our vacation!

USS Midway Museum

Vacation Day 6 - A Day in San Diego

Christina and family picked us up at our motel at 9 AM so that we could get to the USS Midway Museum when they opened at 10:00. The museum was something that George was very interested in seeing so I took a lot of pictures for him. It wasn't hard to do because the ship was huge! The USS Midway was a naval aircraft carrier commissioned from 1945 - 1992. Ryan and Joseph went in a flight simulator, the kind that doesn't move but lets you "fly" the plane. They loved it! While they were doing that, the rest of us toured the rest of the ship. Hailey and David thought it was a lot of fun to walk through the narrow corridors and climb on the beds. We had lunch at the restaurant on the ship, then toured the flight deck. We were able to sit in the cockpits in a few of the planes. You can see some of the pictures I took by clicking here.

Vacation Day 5

Fun at the Beach -

On Saturday we took care of some business, then drove around the Oceanside harbor looking for a place to park. We wanted to walk around to see the booths and attractions there for Harbor Days. Unfortunately, we couldn't find parking so we drove further south in Oceanside. We found a place to park near a beachside playground and picnic area. We had quite an interesting picnic lunch. A lot of squirrels came out of their burrows to beg for food. Ryan was afraid of them so he kept climbing up on the picnic bench. George kept stomping his foot to try to scare the squirrels away. In the meantime, Hailey kept waving to the squirrels and saying "Hi, squirrel!" and Joseph fed the squirrels chips. I found the whole scene funny. One side of the table was trying to attrat the squirrels and the other side was trying to get rid of them. After one squirrel tried to nibble on Hailey's toe, she didn't want them around any more. After lunch, the kids ran off to the playground and I went walking on the beach. The others stayed at the picnic table and watched the kids, cars, kites, and activities going on around the beach. To see a few pictures from the beach, click here. After our picnic, we dropped George off at the motel, then the rest of us went to Harbor Days. Later, we went back to our motel and took it easy for a while. When you click the link above, you'll see some of the pictures I took of the kids in our motel room.

San Diego Wild Animal Park

Vacation Day 4 - A Trip to the San Diego Wild Animal Park

What a glorious day! The kids and I all wore the camouflaged hats that I brought. This picture shows Ryan, David, and Hailey posing near the parking lot. To see a picture of me with the kids (all of us wearing our hats), click here. I took lots of pictures of the kids in the park, but only a few animal pictures. The highlight of the day was our tram ride to go on an "African Safari". The herbivores have large areas to roam. You can see more pictures of our trip to the Wild Animal Park by clicking here.