Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Week 12

Welcome back!  Is anyone else freaking out that it's the end of March already?  I blinked and the the whole start to the new year disappeared.  Sigh--we're already making summer plans.  I do wish spring break would get here sooner though.  It's super late for us this year because it's always the week of Easter.  We still have 3 more weeks to go and it seems like everyone else has already had theirs.  A break sounds soooo nice right about now.  We can't go anywhere because the kids have commitments, but at least there is no school or work so we can enjoy some downtime. 

Until then take a look last week's pictures:


Day 76- Monday, 3/17/14
Happy St. Patrick's Day! There's no time for me to make corned beef and cabbage, but we can still have fun with dinner and go green.  I found these plates and straws at Target and went crazy with the food coloring ;0)  The boys loved it.





Day 77- Tuesday, 3/18/14
At work I'm processing a lot of horse samples.  These blood tubes are from mare and foal pairs at birth and a few days after to add to an interesting drug trial were hoping to publish this year.  It involves a lot of good and interesting results.  I love working with our horse clinician--he gets things done!  This is in addition to those 5000 horse samples I'm slowly working through.  I think we've tested about 300 so we still have a long ways to go.





Day 78- Wednesday, 3/19/14
Today I spent a lot of time at the pool.  Tyler had his first home meet of the season in the afternoon (that's him the third lane over), and then I raced home to feed the younger kids, get them changed, and headed back to the water for their swim clinics.  Brandon is done and working on his nightly reading while we wait for Justin.  My tag team partner is out of town which makes for a long day.





Day 79- Thursday, 3/20/14
John is in Reno for March Madness working on his basketball brackets which means I'll be heading to work late so I can take over morning duty and see the kids off to school.  Good-bye my little darlings.  Have a good day ;0)





Day 80- Friday, 3/21/14
It's movie night with my boys, and they are super excited I picked up the new Thor flick for them.  Justin in particular is a huge Marvel fan and is loving all the new Marvel movies and shows coming out lately.





Day 81- Saturday, 3/22/14
School number 2 on the college tour.  This is where John and I went to school and where I have worked for the past 19 years which means it may be a little too close to home for these boys.  We'll see.  I think UC Santa Cruz is up next but finding the time to break away and get there might be tricky.





Day 82- Sunday, 3/23/14
Spring water polo is up and these boys are rusty.  They have not been practicing because their true focus now is on high school swim so it was kind of an ugly day.  In the end the combination of some unnecessary roughness, a poor ref. call, and the coach being penalized for his concerns over the welfare of his player did not go down well and very much involved Tyler.  I do want to thank the coach, the players, and all the parents that supported and stood up for my son.  He is fine but was pretty shaken and upset over getting kicked out trying to defend himself from a player pulling his cap off and using the strings still tied around his neck to strangle him.  He had no choice but to fight like crazy.  Can you imagine someone trying to choke you like that while under water??  It left some nice red marks that I probably should have taken a picture of.  This is supposed to be fun and games not kids beating on kids to win and then laughing and bragging about it right after a team pulls from the game.  I'm not exactly sure what this means for the rest of our spring season, but I am glad our coach and parents took a stand and made a statement.  Player safety is no joke and dirty aggressive players with poor refereeing is a bad combination for safe sports.



OK! That's it--off my soap box ;0)  Sorry to end on such a somber note.  I needed to go all "mama bear" on this issue.  Check back next week hopefully for more fun and less drama! 


The Mom Creative

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Week 11

Welcome back and happy Tuesday!  This past week was such a contrast from the week before.  So much sun and really good weather especially the last few days.  It's been in the low 80's and so beautiful out.  I even got some yard work done, and it felt great to be outside in the warm sunshine.  Unfortunately the wind has picked up, but hopefully that will end soon.  Maybe it's time to start thinking about planting a few things or getting our garden beds up and working again.  I also want to move our porch swing and maybe put in a fire pit.  Yep!  The backyard needs some attention so we can enjoy it again and the possibilities seems endless.  It's amazing what a little sunshine and warm weather will inspire you to do ;0)

Until then take a look at last week's pictures:


Day 69- Monday, 3/10/14
It's my turn to wait for the boys at swim.  Even with the time change it's still dark out before they finish and once that sun goes down the temps really drop.





Day 70- Tuesday, 3/11/14
While I'm making dinner Justin is looking for guidance in trying to find a new reading book he can download that's within his lexile--not an easy task especially since he can't read anything that's already been made into a movie and will still hold his interest.  I can't remember what he finally decided on, but he did eventually find something.





Day 71- Wednesday, 3/12/14
The boys were happy and proud to find this Thomas train named Rusty buried in their closet and brought it out to show Rusty our cat.





Day 72- Thursday, 3/13/14
Hello spring!  This is one of many we saw in bloom while walking the dog today.  Who wants to make a wish?





Day 73- Friday, 3/14/14
Someone's still loosing teeth here.  He's moved on to the molars now and made quite a scene at school during lunch when this one came out in a bloody mess.  Of course all the girls were grossed out, and the boys thought it was cool.





Day 74- Saturday, 3/15/14
San Francisco, SLO, and sushi!  I had to do some outreach work Saturday but was blessed with a gorgeous day and an amazing view from our meeting room in San Francisco on Crissy Field.  Meanwhile, Tyler was on road trip with the Wong family to check out Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo and enjoyed trying some new food.  Thanks to Sharon and Richie for taking my son with them and keeping me in the loop with pictures of their adventure.





Day 75- Sunday, 3/16/14
Flip flop season has arrived.  I picked these up in Hawaii over Christmas when the pair I packed broke on an evening outing (haha--remember Sharon?), and I haven't been able to wear them since.  It sure felt good to slip them on for such a beautiful spring day.  I spent most of my time out back with the birds, and the bugs, and the weeds trying to tame the jungle that is my yard and enjoyed every minute of it.



That's it for now.  Thanks for stopping by, and I hope to see you next week.


The Mom Creative

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Week 10

Happy Tuesday!  The morning starts this week have been harsh with the time change, but it will get easier and it is nice to have the extra light at the end of the day.  We're ramping up swim season so you'll see lots of pool pictures because that is where we spend most our free time.  There's still a lot of rain too which is good and it hasn't really slowed spring down much.  March is in full bloom.     

Here's a look at last week's pictures:


Day 62- Monday, 3/3/14
It's the first day of swim clinics and it poured rain on my little swimmers.  Nothing a nice cup of warm cocoa can't fix.





Day 63- Tuesday, 3/4/14
Brandon is moving up in the karate ranks.  He was just promoted from a green belt to a brown belt.  A couple more years of hard work and he'll have his black belt.





Day 64- Wednesday, 3/5/14
Tyler had his first swim meet of the season which was an away meet so he missed his academic award's ceremony.  Luckily he was still able to pick up his certificate just after stepping off the bus on his return.  Then he came home to pizza and gelato from a water polo fundraising night.  Today was one of the busiest days ever.  At one point in time I was supposed to be in 6 different places.  Yeah--that didn't happen!





Day 65- Thursday, 3/6/14
Brandon just got out of the pool for his swim clinic and now waits for Justin to finish.  I love his wet little footprints that trail from the pool to me.





Day 66- Friday, 3/7/14
Justin is thrilled it's Friday and is happy school is over because now he's off to a sleepover.  I haven't seen him this excited in awhile, and he has another one at a different friend's house tomorrow.   Popular kid!




Day 67- Saturday, 3/8/14
We're ahead of schedule which is never a bad thing.  We banged out Justin's experimental trials today using that catapult he and John built.   He learned a lot about how what you plan to do in science doesn't always work and often modifications need to be made.  Later John and I escaped for a date night at Cheesecake Factory.  It was fun and yummy but REALLY crowded.  Even so, we should do this more often.





Day 68- Sunday, 3/9/14
John made the family chicken wings for dinner.  It's one of our favorite Sunday night meals.  He made 3 batches each with a different flavor--BBQ, honey lime, and buffalo.  That's a lot of wings, but they don't last long in our house with 3 growing boys.  Just for fun: my favorite are the honey lime, Justin's favorite are the buffalo, Tyler and Brandon's favorite are the BBQ, and John pretty much likes them all ;0)




That's it for this week.  See you next week probably with more swim pictures although I'll try to switch it up a bit.


The Mom Creative

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Week 9

Welcome back and happy Tuesday!  We're catching up on rain here in California.  It was a wet one last week but much needed so we'll take it.  This next week involves a lot of swim for all my boys so I'm hoping it's not too cold and stormy although we did get off to a wet start.  March is shaping up to be super busy.  I'd kind of like to just fast forward.  Is that an option?

For now we'll rewind and take a look at last week:


Day 55- Monday, 2/24/14
John is helping Justin build a catapult that can be used in his science fair project this year.  It involved a lot of gluing and drying so I'm glad they didn't wait until the last minute.  We have a few more weeks before the actual experiments need to be done.





Day 56- Tuesday, 2/25/14
Today was a nice day but this evening it started to turn cold and ugly because we're expecting a storm early tomorrow.  Rusty is happy to have the fire burning.  This is his favorite place in the evenings before we head to bed.





Day 57- Wednesday, 2/26/14
Hello rain!  It dumped and dumped today.  After school the boys had to bring in garbage cans so they enjoyed a few minutes standing and playing in the rain.





Day 58- Thursday, 2/27/14
I'm working on getting these kids settled down and off to bed.  They are looking forward to tomorrow since it will be Friday.  That makes everyone happy.  It's been a long week.





Day 59- Friday, 2/28/14
Yep--still raining.  The after-school pick up was worse than normal with more people driving to collect their kids in the rain.





Day 60- Saturday, 3/1/14
Happy March!  It's coming in like a lion so that means it will go out like a lamb, right?!  Justin's birthday is in March and his favorite color is green so he was happy to pose with my monthly marker.  After the morning rain passed John and I headed to Old Sacramento for a picnic that paired with wines at this tasting room.  I had a Groupon and it turned out to be such a fun outing with friends.





Day 61- Sunday, 3/2/14
We had fajitas and tacos for dinner yesterday and there were leftovers so that meant nachos for dinner today which is one of Tyler's favorite meals.  He was a happy boy.  It was a nice warm treat on another gloomy and rainy day.




That's it!  Come back next week for more fun and probably more rain.

The Mom Creative