Get Out Your Earplugs (Just Kidding... Maybe)

RJ's school had their annual Spring Sing this week.  The kids from K-5 went first, singing Earth Day-related songs.  Then it was the preschool's turn.  I'm not sure whether there was any rhyme or reason to the songs that they sang, but they certainly fulfilled their mission--sing as loudly as possible.  Jip asked me if it sounded like that in person, too.  Yes, yes it did.

The first song was a second take.  The first time their were technical difficulties and tons of background noise.  So, Mrs. C, the principal, asked them to sing it again as loud as they could.  The preschool kiddos obliged.

And, now for my favorite song, the Marshmallow Song.

There were a few others, but I really don't want to turn you completely off, so we'll just keep the rest of the recordings to ourselves.  But, here are a few stills from the event.

You may remember way back in the summer of 2012 that we were communicating with a family that ended up not getting to come to Japan as a family  (http://mosmanfamily.blogspot.com/2012/07/extending-navy-family.html).  We took the military member, Mark, all around Yoko and Ikego to give him the lay of the land, but when his family ended up not being able to join him for medical reasons, he was able to get his orders modified to come back Stateside.  Well, we finally met the rest of the family on Saturday.  It was wonderful to meet Jiza, see Mark again, and enjoy some time with them and their friends and family at their housewarming/birthday party/baptism party.  Jiza will be taking RJ's birthday pictures, so we are already looking forward to seeing her then, if not before.

Today, RJ got to go to a birthday party for his preschool friend Sebastian.  They were at Pump It Up, and RJ had a blast.  He immediately asked Jip if he can have his party there.  I guess I need to get that booked now!

Then, t-ball was immediately after the party.  No nap for the kiddo.  But, he did great.  He kept saying what we had told him--good hustle, good attitude.  His mantra worked and his performance and his behavior were much improved over last week.  Here's RJ taking his turn at bat in the second inning.

And here are a few stills from the first inning.

 And a couple from between innings:

Since RJ couldn't stay for the whole birthday party, we decided to hit Love Cupcake Cafe after t-ball.  Let's just say that we'll go again.  And again.  And again.

Finally, I made another wreath for the front door.  Yay me!  And, yay for my cutting machine.  140 butterflies (I only put 80 or so on there) later, I had this.

It's hard to believe this is the last week of April!  And, it is going to be a hot one for us!  Hopefully there is good water play and park time in our future this week!  Have a good one!  Cheers!

A (Mostly) Good Easter Weekend

Yesterday we enjoyed an Easter Party put on by the Junior Enlisted Association in Jip's Command (AIRPAC).  We got there just in time for the egg hunt.  Then it was time for lunch, some jumping in the bouncy castle, a few games, pictures with the Easter Bunny, and more jumping.  The kids had a great time.  The JEA did a very nice job of putting on the party--especially given that quite a few of them don't have kids of their own (yet).

After a short nap in the car, we headed to a playground.  RJ immediately found a couple of boys to run around with.  Ryleigh enjoyed having Dad at the playground, as you can tell here.

Today the kids were both up before 7.  They checked out their Easter Baskets (Buckets) and then headed out to see if they could find the dozen hard-boiled eggs we dyed and any plastic eggs filled with quarters that Easter Bunny brought himself.

Here is why we shouldn't dye real eggs and have the Easter Bunny hide them during the night.  Check out the slug that was on one of the eggs (he fell off after RJ freaked out when he picked up the egg).  And another made a nice meal for a bunch of ants.  Dandy!

We then headed up to the Navy's golf club in San Diego for brunch at the restaurant.  Here's where the weekend took a turn.  We didn't get seated until 20 minutes after our reservation.  Then, when our check was wrong, it took them 20 minutes to correct and 10 minutes to run my credit card.  Maybe if I had let my extremely impatient children loose on them, they would have lit a fire under their bums and got things moving along?  At least Ryleigh looked cute while there.

Anyway, the food was okay, but the experience was not.  Plus, the experience started the downward spiral for our children's behavior.  T-Ball was unfocused and frustrating.  Dinner time was just frustrating.  Bedtime, which should have been easy since they were so tired, was far from a piece of cake.

But, I don't want to end the blog post on a down note, so hopefully this will make you smile.  The other day, our friends Lauren, Bella, Isaac, and Nina came over in the morning.  They stayed with Ryleigh while I picked up RJ from preschool.  Then all the kids enjoyed lunch together and some super-fun playtime.  RJ was so excited on the way back to the house from school that he was itching to kill some time.  He took a picture of me driving and then turned it into a "chatterbox" using an app I have on my phone.  The song of choice?  A song that they've been learning at school about Peter Rabbit.

There are lots of activities at RJ's preschool this week for Earth Day and just to celebrate Spring.  So, hopefully we'll have good material next week, too!  Until then, cheers!

T-ball!

Following our mini-vacay last weekend, it was time for work and school again.  After two weeks off, RJ was glad to be back with his friends, and Amy enjoyed getting back to a routine of sorts.  I went back to work, too, so our lives quickly returned to "normal."  There was only one thing prior to the weekend that was blog-worthy.  While Amy went to a pre-season meeting for RJ's t-ball team -- it's the i9 league which is a large group of kids ages 3 to 14 -- RJ, Ry, and I did some painting at home.  Thank goodness we use Tempera paints which clean up easily otherwise RJ would still have...well...take a look.

His goal was to paint his hand and then press it to paper to see what kind of green hand print he could make.  The only problem was that it was too much fun to only paint one side of his hand, so he painted the whole thing?  For a few seconds, I thought I had a little Hulk in our house.  :)

Back to the t-ball discussion.  There are three large leagues here in Chula Vista--City League, Little League, and i9.  The i9 is probably the least competitive and more for fun learning that any of the others.  For one, it doesn't meet more than one day a week (Sundays for us).  It's a better match for what we are looking for and for our schedule.

Today was RJ's first practice and game.  The format is practice for one hour followed by a one hour game.  Each week the kids focus on one skill.  Today, it was "listening," which was challenging for a bunch of 3 and 4 year olds.  RJ was apprehensive at first, but once we got there and he found an audience to listen to him, he was fine.  I actually got to help out some which helped to ease his nerves.  We had a good time, and I'm sure we'll have plenty more over the next 7 weeks.  Here are some pictures and videos from the day.

Warm-up lap!

Stylish rooting section.

Practicing our catching.

RJ's groupie wanted her own glove and ball so she enjoy the fun, too.

He was more posing than running...

    And the videos.  Let me explain the rules of the game for this league, with these ages.  There are no specific field positions.  The players just stand out in the field and run after the ball once it's hit.  RJ is number 9 if you can spot him.

 Everyone hits once and runs one base at a time.  The last batter in the lineup bats 'em all home.  RJ got to be the first batter for one inning...

the grand slammer for one inning....(note that he passes two other runners on his way around)....

and in the middle of the batting order for the last inning.

It was a fun day and we look forward to many more sports days in our future.  RJ had a good time, too, although he had a hard time understanding that all his teammates also needed a chance to get the ball.  He shed a couple tears after a few dog piles where he didn't end up with the ball.

I think it's going to be a fun season!

-Jip

Desert and Dinosaurs and Mountains and Mining

Week 2 of spring break was a fun one!  Jip took Thursday and Friday off, so we took a mini two-day vacay.



To start off our vacay on Thursday, RJ, Ryleigh, and I introduced Jip to John's Incredible Pizza.  We enjoyed the buffet and played some games.  After the kids were good and worn out, we got in Berry and headed toward Borrego Springs.  Sort of.  We decided to take a scenic route instead of a direct route, and went far enough east to catch the Imperial Highway, which runs northwest into the Anza-Borrego Desert.  We checked into our hotel and immediately got ready to go to the pool.  But, while everyone was getting dressed, I took a look at the guide book that was in our hotel room.  In the middle of the book was an article and map about giant sculptures south and north of Borrego Springs.  We decided that we had to go look at least a few between the pool and dinner.



The sculptures ranged from prehistoric creatures to people to a saguaro cactus.

Did I mention that a number of these sculptures were nowhere near the main road? So, we had to get Berry a little dirty and take some sandy trails to get up close and personal with the sculptures.

When it was getting too dark to see any more sculptures, we headed to the center of town to find some dinner. We found a yummy place with a waiter who was one of 9 kids--so he was always one step ahead, from crackers to hold them over while their meals came out to the extra napkins just in the nick of time.



On Friday, we hit the pool again after breakfast. Then, it was back in the car to go over the hill(s) and up into the mountains to Julian. For you Colorado people, Julian is a mountain town much like Cripple Creek--it had a big boom, then just a few hearty souls stuck with it after the boom went bust. Anyway, we had a nice little lunch in the center of town, and then we headed back east a couple miles to Smith Ranch.



Smith Ranch is home to a family who bought the land and then discovered an abandoned gold mine on their property. The mine had filled back in over the years with dirt that had eroded from farther up the hill. So, the family began digging it out and decided to turn the whole property into a learning/money-making opportunity. They laid metal track and found a bunch of old mining cars, three old electric train engines, and many more artifacts, and they created a slightly cheesy, but fun-for-the-kids place to learn about mining and more.



We took the train on a little tour of the property and stopped right outside the mine entrance. We had a little lecture on tools of the time, some history of the area, and mining techniques. The group split up because it was so big, with half going to a little playground the family built for their grandchildren and the other half going into the mine. Then we swapped.



After the mine tour, the kids got to pan for gold. They then exchanged their "gold" nuggets for licorice. They got to see if they could lift a brick of gold (lead painted gold) and learn why the Pony Express only carried letters (and not gold). After all that, we hopped back on the train and headed back to the beginning. The kids loved it! It wasn't anything like the Mollie Kathleen mine tour, but it did the trick for my 4-year-old and 2-year-old.

We took another scenic drive home on the Sunrise Highway.  It was so chilly through that area that there was still snow along the sides of the road.  Snow.  In San Diego County.  Weird.



The rest of the weekend was routine for us.  Ryleigh had music class.  RJ took another building class at Home Depot and made a bird bath.  We enjoyed seeing an old friend from college on Saturday night.  And, we played.



Speaking of playing, RJ is soooo close to riding his bike on his own.  Enjoy the video of his various attempts today.  And, have a good giggle at Ryleigh chasing RJ and Jip.

Overall, it was a great spring break!  But, I'm ready to find our routine again.  It's back to school tomorrow for RJ and back to work for Jip.