Holiday Recap 8

Moonstone Beach

On our way home from Monterey we detoured to Cambria and Moonstone Beach. We spent about 30 minutes walking on the beach, throwing seaweed, running from waves, and looking at rocks. It was cloudy and cool, but we had a great time.

All star soccer

This All-Star soccer thing is time consuming. Two practices a week and two games on the weekend. But she seems to be loving it. I can’t say enough great things about her coaches and the other parents. Watching these girls come together as friends and team mates has been enjoyable. The Pasadena Flaming Roses are a good team and the team to beat (so far).

Some of the games Ellie hasn’t touched the ball as goalie as her team kept it off of her half of the field. But the most recent game saw some dives and catches and she got to shine as a goalie. 

Of course her knees and uniform got quite dirty! Also, look at those curls!!!

Harry Potter mania

Harry Potter mania is in full force in our house. It helps that Es best two friends are way into HP as well. 

Her book report in a box turned out really well. I drove her to Michaels and she did everything else herself.

So did you notice the scar on her forehead? Well her bestie had a HP birthday yesterday and everyone got scar fake tattoos. They also had a potions class and played a game of Quiddich. They also all got robes. 

Aquarium pics

Apparently technical difficulties have been dealt with. So here are pics from the aquarium.

Spelling

So, there are technicality difficulties within the app that I use that is preventing me from uploading photos currently. Should be fixed soon, hopefully...

So this morning I had a conversation with Calvin that went like this:

M: Calvin, this morning I need you to make a birthday card for Matt.

C: how old is he going to be?

M: 40. 

C: I know that number.

M: uh huh. I need you to write you name on it too.

C: what should I draw?

M: doesn’t matter. You, him, rainbows, balls, a cake. I think he would like a cake.

C: okay.

M: I’ll help you spell Matt.

C: I don’t need help. I can spell that, it’s easy. It’s just mmmm-aaah-ttht (he says the pheonetic spelling of mat)

M: Matt is a name so it has two “ttht”s at the end (thit = sound of T)

C: no. It sounds like there is one ttht, so it’s spelled with one ttht. I’m only going to write one ttht! 

Holiday Recap 7

Monterey Bay Aquarium

The kids and I had a blast at the aquarium...well, Ellie and I did. Calvin’s as a little cranky monster most of the day who refused to participate or listen. He did enjoy the wave machine though. 

Ellie had a notebook while at the aquarium and made drawings and notes about the various animals we saw.

The jellyfish scared Calvin. The moray eel scared Ellie. And I did not enjoy the large fish, especially the giant sun fish...eww.


We did enjoy the scuba divers, penguins and otters. Calvin especially enjoyed the wave thingie...basically you stand in a dome and see what it’s like to be under a wave as it crashes. There was also a thing where you designed and colored a fish and then it was set loose within a very large digital aquarium.

But if all the things we saw within the aquarium, I think they enjoyed the 20 minutes tidepooling during the sunset as we waited for John Cork for dinner.

Technical difficulties

This is a test. Having trouble uploading.

The shirt says it all

Can’t stop, won’t stop

She is almost done with the second Harry Potter book and has had a hard time putting it down lately.

As soon as she got up she was reading (it was tough to get her dressed)

She read at breakfast. But I didn’t get any photos...

She read in the car. 

And she insisted on taking the book to school!

I also noticed this on her door:

I guess she has been bitten by the Harry Potter bug! 

Holiday Recap 6

We went on a road trip. And by we, I mean me, Ellie, and Calvin. We drove up to Monterey, saw the aquarium, and drove home the long way.

The first day we headed out and got to Solvang around 11am. We walked around and ate lunch as well as got some bakery treats for the car ride. 

The kids didn’t seem that excited by Solvang. But at least we got to stretch our legs. We stopped again in Paso Robles and the kids played on a playground for about 20 minutes. 

We learned that Calvin, Ellie, and I all have very different preferences regarding what to listen to in the car. So, while Calvin slept Ellie and I listened to Stockard Channing read Beverly Cleary’s Ramona books. (Calvin likes no music or any sound in the car). 

Eventually we made it to Monterey and checked into the hotel. We then headed out to Fisherman’s Wharf where we ate Calvin’s body weight in seafood. And the kids learned that they loved shrimp. We also got some taffy!

Holiday Recap 5

New Years Eve we spent with friends. The kids did well making it till about 10:45pm our od the house socializing with others. But then it was time to come home. Calvin was insistent on making it til lmidnight...but he promptly fell asleep (on me) as soon as we got home. Ellie made it to midnight, just barely, to see the ball drop, 

New Years Day we did our typical wake up before 8 and see the parade flyover as it flys over our house, watch the start of the parade, eat breakfast and get dressed, and then head out to the parade route to see it end. We caught almost the whole parade this year live. Unfortunately Earth, Wind, and Fire has already bailed and we didn’t see them. A float did almost get stuck on a power line right by us, that was exciting. And Calvin was excited to see Thor leading a band from Utah (seeing Thor remove his costume and people dump water on him at the end of the parade was semi-traumatizing though).