Up North

Yesterday (after classes for Chip and Twinkle, school for everyone, and a mad-rush of packing), the whole family snuck away to a cabin in the mountains.

These are good times...times for going to late movies, buying tampico instead of orange juice (by accident) at the gas station, pancakes at 11 in the morning, and Clue.

We haven't told Mickey that "Colonial Mustard" is really "Colonel Mustard" yet. :)

No One Told Me....

for years, one of my all-time, favorite foods since i can remember is.........

RAMEN!

it's the ultimate in comfort, taste, convenience and price!

unfortunately, the Mom has been telling me that this GIFT of food is JUST NOT HEALTHY for my aging body. :-(.

as the fearless leader of my home, what did i do about the RAMEN prohibition? i submitted.....

well, i'm sitting in this investors conference, of all places, to learn that, indeed, RAMEN was no longer appropriate for anyone after college? how did i discover this sober truth? a presenting CEO of a new technology enterprise authored a book titled:

"No More Ramen " http://www.nomoreramenonline.com/



the book appears to be a 'how-to' for college seniors who just don't know what to do with their lives post-graduation... (whaaaa). i haven't read the book, of course, but i'm pretty sure i won't like his philosophies.

-the Dad

p.s. yes, for those of you who are particular good at critical analysis, this post WAS written during the actual conference, in real time. many business presentations, none worth actually paying much attention to... it's a tough time out there..

Catch Up #2

What have we been doing...?


We've been doing school.

Lots of it.

School at home....

A very studious Mickey

...School at the science center...

Our friends--M, N, Minnie and Mickey

...School at classes our church offers (Twinkle and Chip take a bible class together and Twinkle takes a spanish class)....


....School via eating--a nutrition class:)....

Kiley and Twinkle with their first creation

.....School via group projects and parties--this is our medieval celebration. We all ate, the kids taught about different things and then went outside for some medieval games and competitions--Great fun!! Kids from the Jag, Stapes, Davids and Phoenam families

Minnie giving her talk on weapons

Mickey on "How To Become a Knight"

Chip and friends working their shields after Twinkle gave a great talk on heraldry and shield designs

Not pictured: school with a tutor, school with the Dad (he teaches an economics class), school via internet classes, school via Boys Book Clubs ...

Oh yeah.

And school via the Mom.

Until the next update,
the Mom

Our first Catch-up....

So. What have we been doing....

We've been doing BIRTHDAYS--lots of birthdays and parties...the first coming in October.

We celebrated Chip's birthday...

He ate the breakfast of his choice:


And then we all went down to the Science Center for the Narnia display. It was really cool--not only were we able to see a whole bunch of props, costumes and sets from the movie--Lion Witch and Wardrobe--, but since we are studying the middle ages in history this year, it was a perfect fit! And as an added bonus, they showed some early video of the next narnia film--Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

My favorite part you ask? thanks for asking... It had to be the entrance to the exhibit. You walk in to an empty room just like the one in the movie and there is a big wardrobe.... next is a narrator telling part of the story, a lion roars and the wardrobe opens.... you walk through the wardrobe, past the coasts, then pine branches, and finally out into a snow covered room--with snow falling down and narnia music playing in the background. What can i say... the visual effect was stunning. We all loved it. Ok. I loved it especially:)



After walking thru the exhibit we spent some time at the science museum taking in all the fun hands on things they have (we just went last week and there is even more to check out!)




Then it was off to the PGA superstore and lastly dinner at one of our favorite restaurants... they even made a special dessert for Chip.



All in all a great 13th birthday for the boy--but it had only just begun! Just wait until you hear what else we did to celebrate his big day...more on that later

We've been searching for changing leaves

Yes.

You read that right.

We went searching for fall leaves--colorful leaves.

Here in Arizona.

We were told that trees here change color and boy was I excited! All I kept imagining were the rolling multicolored hills of Sugar Loaf---where in one small patch of trees you can find yellows, reds, oranges and greens.... I couldn't wait!

We packed lunch.

We packed warm clothes.

We packed One Cent.

I packed all my memories and expectations of COLOR.


What were we thinking.

After driving for an hour or so, we found a reasonable possible location for fall leaves.... or so our trusty arizona-guides told us. We looked and looked and looked. This is all we saw....


YUP.

One measely tree with a splash of yellow. On our entire drive i think i saw 10 trees with color. An old washed out yellow. That was it.

So much for my expectations.

So we unloaded, made a fire and made the most of it.

One Cent ran like the crazy wild dog she is....
The kids built a fort and shot BB Guns (so as far as the kids were concerned, leaves-shmeaves....!)


Ate smores--again, who needs colorful leaves....Took an 'album cover picture' of all the kids--ours and the Jags...

Found a small branch of leaves--I was so excited I had to take a picture (and I carried it all the way back to camp)


Hung out with a good friend...Hung out with my favorite friend....
Made another great family memory.
OK...I'm with the kids---leaves-schmeaves......

~The Mom
(....but if you do happen to come across some colorful leaves next fall, I wouldn't mind a picture...)

Is It Really February???

How can it be February?? Winter? Really.

Honestly it seems like just yesterday that it was the fall.... And if you look at our blog it looks like we've been living half a life! No birthday pictures, Christmas pictures, activity pictures...what HAVE we been doing???

well.... keep posted ... I plan on filling in the blanks in the next few days.

Stay Tuned!

a multi-thousand word post

so to speak.... Happy Birthday Minnie!