What California Was Like

Since we've been in Flagstaff for the summer, people have been asking about how our year in California went.  Honestly speaking, I say that it was harder than I imagined, but it went better than I would have imagined.  Many times, our situation seemed like this:

And we were often faced with this, everywhere we turned:

We definitely felt a lot like this:

And sometimes things even seemed a lot like this:

The OC is where I am from.  It is my tribe.  And I love the people there.  We just had a hard year and still feel unclear about where we will be in the future.  But during the last part of the year in CA, we had wonderful conversations with friends, lots of good times with my family, and enjoyed some of the perks of living in the big city with year-round good weather and the beach nearby.

CA had MOPS...with my mom as Annie's Moppets teacher.  Who could beat that?  Not too many problems dropping her off at class on Tuesdays!

CA had great teachers for both of the boys' classes...here is Evan with his teacher who came to see him and his friends in the Wizard of Oz production in a local theater.

CA had a great school for the boys (my old school) that had lots of parent involvement and fun activities.  Sam got to be Toto in an odd little class play called "Munchkin Mediation."  He sang a duet with Dorothy and agreed to wear a dishtowel on his head.

At least Sam didn't have to wear an itchy unfortunate lion's mane made out of gift ribbon.

CA had new friends.  The boys grew a lot in their social interactions and ability to share friends and common activities.  There may be a little sibling rivalry growing as well.

Annie made some special new friends this year as well.  I became friends with some of the kindergarten moms and they had enough older siblings and younger siblings between them that everyone had someone to play with.  Here's Annie with some of the little sisters:

Annie also became friends with some of my old childhood friends' kids.  Here she is with Keira, my life-long friend Tricia's daughter.  They were in the same Sunday School classroom at church that Tricia and I probably were in as 3-year-olds as well.

Annie loved my friend Kristen from high school's daughter, Lacey.  She is still talking about her often.

Nevertheless, Annie's best friend in the whole world was my mom.  They were constantly playing games together, doing jobs together, reading, playing house, you name it, they were doing it.  There was no need for preschool this year, just grandma.

Sidenote: Consider this a little product review of games we like...Tenzi is great.

Safari Photo Scavenger Hunt...so cute and fun.

Sequence for kids...and some old games from my childhood like Mickey Mouse Bingo, Mastermind, Critter in the Candy, and Snoopy's Doghouse

They took a break from games for a minute to make a quilt together.

This was a new game to me but the boys LOVE playing it with grandma.  I have still yet to play it!

Here are "Sticks," a game I remember learning at a museum when I was a kid.  You draw on one side of 4 popsicle sticks and then drop them.  You get a coin, chip, candy, point, etc. for every stick that is turned colored side up.

The kids also really like Left, Center, Right and Put And Take.

In addition to fun times with grandma, there were sweet times with Crampaw.  Here I caught Annie and Crampaw talking in the back yard.  She was telling him about a pretend party and all that, but really I saw it as her working on her charm and him being a patient listener.  Thanks, dad.

Evan loved following Crampaw around, too.  And all the kids loved the back of his truck.  Thanks for the wear-and-tear, dad.

My mom and I had fun doing all sorts of local activities and events with the kids.  She got season tickets for a family series of concerts at the Performing Arts Center.  As much as I can complain about what a Big Deal everything in Southern CA seems like, I love partaking in the quality performances and am thankful I was exposed to such accomplished artists, musicians, and other professionals when I was growing up.

Where in Flagstaff are you going to get away with wearing a 4 piece suit?  It's nice to get dressed up sometimes, Flagstaffians!

Even though we got to go to indoor playparks, the beach, huge shopping malls and fancy concerts, our favorite place was the backyard at my parents' house.  Here is Annie on top of the old barrels we used to play with as kids.

Often, my sister's dog, Ranger, would be visiting...and then Annie would have someone to boss around.

My mom, the teacher-at-heart, made this garden with Annie.  She just sent us a picture (a text! on a cell phone! and it was a picture!) of one of Annie's sunflowers that was as tall as the fence!

My mom's garden...lots of time spent there following grandma around with a watering can.

Olallieberries!  One of my favorite memories as a child was olallieberry season and we got to be there for it this year.   

Best berries in the world, sitting fresh on top of my cornflakes.

Lastly, I enjoyed not only the time with my family, but the fun with new and old friends...especially the ones with amazing swimming pool connections :)  Just kidding, but not really.

California had these ladies: my new friends, kindred spirits, fellow moms, support system, daily chitchat...unique ladies drawn together by kindergartners but hopefully friends for a lifetime!

Julie, Fabiola, me, and Sara

Evan's Raccoonee 6th Birthday Partee!

Evan loooooooves raccoons.  I guess it was his destiny.  For his 6th birthday, he wanted a raccoon party, so I suggested we do Davy Crockett because it gave us more material to work with (and the kids loooove Davy Crockett. I love him, too...as long as I don't think about what it would have been like to be married to him as he ran around killin' bars and politickin' and goin' down in a blaze of glory at the Alamo just cuz).  I also like to do birthday parties that aren't typical birthday party themes because it lowers the expectation level for how professional my decorations look and keeps me from spending too much money.  Have I mentioned my love of cardboard, thrift stores and clearance items?  (and free stuff on the side of the road or in the trash--clean trash, mind you, only clean trash).

But this is not about me, it's about Evan's 6th Birthday Raccoonee/Davy Crockett Birthday Party!

We used this picture for the invitations.

The cake was The Alamo.  With a colorful "6" on top of course.  The front of the alamo started to melt in the sun...oops!

Decorations?  Evan's favorite rascally stuffed animals, of course.  And fringe, lots of fringe.

We started with Raccoon/Owl craft puppet things that I found at Michaels.  

We read a Davy Crockett book and sang the song.  It was very educational.  The children stared at us with blank expressions on their faces. 

Oh well, Evan and I loved it, and I doubt there will be a birthday ever again in our family where one of the boys sits on my lap and sings a song with me.  As nostalgic as that makes me feel, it is also totally appropriately true.

So let's savor the moment, shall we?

Okay, moving on.  We hunted for little plastic woodland creatures that my sister and I hid in the park before the kids came.  Then we played "Raccoon Tail Tag," a random silly simple game we made up together where the children were raccoons and someone was it and Jeremy yelled "Nighttime!" and the raccoons would run around trying not to get their tails pulled off and then "Daytime!" and the raccoons went to sleep (see, because they are nocturnal.  Don't you want to come to one of our birthday parties and get your kids edumacated?)

That's basically all it was, running and laying down and pulling the tails off of the littlest and slowest raccoons first, just like in the nature documentaries.

Evan and Stephen, the two buddies from this last year, along with cool kid Cole (we love Cole, my boys just fight over him like he is a movie star).

Typically Evan.

Reminds me of his first birthday and how particular he was about his cupcake...it stressed him out so he ate a chip instead.

My dad made wooden slingshots for the kids so we had slingshot/marshmallow battles.

Well, actually the boys and a few of the dads had slingshot/marshmallow battles...

...the girls stood in line patiently and waited to shoot Diet Coke cans.

Do you like the awesome cardboard Alamo I made in the background.  Found that baby in the trash and in 5 minutes, viola! The Alamo!

The boys raced cucumber boats down the creek with their shirts off (not sure why...oh wait, because they are boys).

The girls named their puppets and properly introduced them to one another...

And had a sweet and well-mannered puppet show all on their own.

My friend wrote about Evan's birthday party on her blog and included some more fun pictures if you want to check them out!

http://derekandsaraleefam.blogspot.com/2013/06/evans-pinterst-free-birthday-party.html