Ryleigh's Third Birthday Pics

We received our pics from Jiza of Jiza Zito Photography from our early morning birthday shoot.  They turned out just great!  I'm going to let them speak for themselves...

Another Season Done

Soccer has ended. We're so very glad. We have a couple months before winter t-ball starts. We may need that long to psych ourselves up. Ry says she wants to play, too. 3 hours every Saturday night. The wagon won't have to haul the umbrella anymore, but snacks will surely fill up the space left by the umbrella. At least with it being winter, it should be laid back and fun.

Anyway, back to soccer. RJ's team had to make up a game because of a muddy field. So, after much negotiation with the city, the coordinators were able to get the kids a chance to play under the lights. The kids got to have their names announced over the loudspeaker. It was a treat!

By playing at night, the kids got to experience a desert chill. Ryleigh prepared earlier in the day, wearing her Anna hat.

The kids stayed warm by running around before practice started.

And a couple pics from the game.

Saturday was the last game of the season. RJ's team ended up finishing the season 6-1-1. Not too shabby.

Ry got to go to her first birthday party without RJ on Saturday. It was for our friend Sydney at Build-A-Bear Workshop. Ry had a total blast making "Joey Girl Bear." We have shortened it to Joey G. around the house.

We are enjoying Thanksgiving week, with our weirdly warm weather again and putting some finishing touches on a Christmas decoration craft.

We hope your week is great!!

Another Good Week

It was another good week for us. Jip actually had a shorter week thanks to the Veterans' Day holiday falling on a Tuesday. And, RJ had Monday off in observance of the holiday, so he enjoyed a shorter week, too.

On Monday, we decided to try out a recently remodeled theater in Chula Vista. They turned an old, run-down theater into a luxury theater with recliners. They serve more hot foods and even serve beer (to grown-ups). We saw Big Hero 6. The movie and the theater were great!

Wednesday was our roughest day. Jip had overnight duty. I took the kids to a dining-out fundraiser for RJ's school. It was at a restaurant that also boasted of an arcade. The arcade games were inappropriate for kids, in my opinion. But, the kids didn't think so, of course. So, we indulged in a few shoot-'em-up games.

Ryleigh had a collision with another child that resulted in a huge black eye. She looked cute in the outfit she picked out before that happened, though.

Saturday entailed the usual soccer. RJ's interest in soccer has waned considerably.

Tonight it was "cold" enough to build a fire. We enjoyed our dinner outside, jackets and all.

We hope your week was great. We're sending everyone outside SoCal warm thoughts!!

Getting Back to Normal

Jip was back at work. RJ was back at school. Ry and I were back to our usual. It was a good week after the household bout with HFM.

When it comes to pictures from our week, Ryleigh is the name of the game. She had her birthday pictures and she stood still long enough for a couple others through the week. Enjoy!

We made homemade silly putty with some other moms this week. The feel of it wasn't exactly Ry's cup of tea.

Ry's birthday pictures were at sunrise at the Coronado Ferry Landing. It was an awesome morning!

We tried to play miniature golf this morning at a Navy recreation facility. Ry had her own technique for using the club.

Thanks for stopping by this week! I hope this week is great for you!!

Another Halloween has come and gone.

As a follow up to last  week's blog, RJ fully recovered from hand-foot-mouth (HFM) disease and went back to school on Thursday.  That was good.  Now for the bad...I got HFM.  My bumps starting appearing on Monday, so I went to work that morning, confirmed with the doctor that I should not be around my coworkers and came home to work from here for the rest of the week.  I was able to make all my commitments and actually got quite a bit done, but it was hard for the kids because they couldn't really understand why I was home and couldn't play.  I don't think that I had HFM as bad as RJ did--only a couple sores in my mouth, my feet had some red dots that hurt and itched but no blisters, and my hands had several blisters and an equal number of sore red dots.  I'm not sure what my problem is, but I seem to be a magnet for childhood diseases that you're supposed to have when you're young.  I had chicken pox as an adult (back in my mid-twenties) and now I've had HFM!  What's next?

Luckily Amy and Ryleigh continue to be free of HFM, but we're still watching.  With an incubation period of up to a week, it could still be lurking.  Until then we are persistent, insistent, and consistent when it comes to washing our hands, no kisses, and not sharing drinking glasses.

Even though most of our time this week was spent being all cooped up, we did prepare for and had a pretty good Halloween.  I walked the kids up just two streets in our neighborhood and they made out like bandits.  As for what kids got at our house, we went with a non-treat this year and handed out glow-in-the-dark bracelets/necklaces.  Last year, we handed out over five hundred of a similar item.  This year, I'm not sure we even broke two hundred.  There were not as many trick-or-treaters this time around for some reason.  Maybe it was a Friday night thing, or maybe our neighborhood has lost some of its appeal....who knows.  Bottom line, though, is that if the bracelets/necklaces last in their     boxes for the next year, we should be set next Fall and don't have to buy anything in preparation.

Here are a few pictures of Optimus Prime (a Transformer for those of you who might not know) and Anna (from Frozen).  Enjoy!

A comparison with the Anna toy.  The one on the left is certainly cuter!

RJ and Ryleigh at RJ's school Halloween Carnival on Friday.

RJ's good friend Joshua also happened to be Optimus Prime.  Lookout Megatron!

Our two (post trick-or-treating) out trying to get more kids to stop by and get bracelets.  They were yelling up and down the street to come get bracelets at our house.

Amy was also able to get the kids back to Pumpkin Station again.  Pumpkin Station is a little podunk amusement park that shows up each Halloween in a big parking lot near the local community college.  We went there a few weeks ago.  The kids had a great time, so they went back again. Here are a few pics from those visits.

We hope your Halloween was fun and that no one in your house gets HFM anytime soon!!!
-Jip