Trick or Treat

Here at Hume Lake, we sometimes move things around to be convenient for us. Like Daylight Savings, we wait a day sometimes so it falls at the end of camp, instead of the middle. And like Halloween, we always have the trick or treating on the Wednesday of Servants week, because they know to bring candy and love to pass it out around the tables at the dining hall. So that was last night for us and it was so much fun! I had finally decided Jaron would just go ahead and be the monkey because it was so fitting for him. Then yesterday morning I had the foresight to try it on him one more time, and good thing, because he totally grew out of it. (which is still funny to me because it was a 0-9 month costume and he still wears 6-9 mo clothes, sometimes even 3-6- oh well) Luckily I had this duck costume in the shed that someone had given Ellie a couple years ago. And it turns out, Jaron makes a pretty cute duck too! Now Ellie was a fairy princess, and she wanted me to be one too, so I slapped on some wings and glitter and some fake eyelashes and called a day. We went to the dining hall, ate dinner, then came together for a picture of all the dressed up kids, then went around to the tables to "trick or treat, then we got a list of all the houses that would have candy to pass out and chose between riding with the masses in the shuttle or driving ourselves. A couple of us decided to drive ourselves, but in the same van. It ended up being three princesses- Ellie, Hannah, and Ellie Mae- SO Cute! The daddies took the little brothers home and the ladies went neighborhood to neighborhood in the "royal coach" of Bunnie's van. It was a blast, and it made me appreciate where I live, being able to just walk the streets with our little girls and not be nervous that freaky people were going to be out there. Plus knowing exactly what houses to go to is really handy!

Pumpkin Patch

Here's a slidewhow of all our pumpkin patch pictures

50's Night

Well last night was another fun theme dinner at Joshua. 50's Night. We got all dressed up and went up for a diner style meal, where we ordered burgers and fries from the counter, along with flavored sodas, it was a blast! Ellie loved dressing up, especially since I put her tu tu under her dress to make it puffy and she got to wear a neclace of mine and a scarf in her hair. She picked out her "fancy" shoes, but wore different shoes until we got inside the Joshua building, then changed into them. It was hilarious, I don't know where she got the idea. But she didn't want to ruin them. I'm all for that, I mean they are play shoes, but she may as well keep them sorta nice. Then Jaron, sported the jeans and white T-shirt with the gelled hair, "converse" and jean jacket. He actually loves getting his hair done, so that is always fun. I mean it only takes a second, but he just looks up at me and smiles, and is somewhat still, which is quite rare for him, so it's great. Then I decided to go for the beehive instead of the usual ponytail, everyone loved it, I think they just love that we get involved in it with them, and it's fun for us, so why not.

This week was full of work on the yard. It was so great, some Joshua students helped out so much and we were able to get steps to the back yard placed, a fence built, stairs to our lower lawn built, sprinklers finished, sod layed, and wood chip and gravel spread! Whew! I have to say that Rich and the students did a ton, my main job was to bring drinks out, watch the kids, and make a few dinners for our workers. One day even Rob and Katie came up for the afternoon to hang out and Rob ended up working on stuff. (you can't keep that boy off a tractor) But seriously it was really sweet for him to jump in on his day off. Plus they brought Tori and so Katie and I took Ellie to throw ball with her on the lawn around the block, and couldn't help but gain a few neighborhood kids, since they don't get to see dogs that often. (Did I mention that Tori is their dog) All to say, it is pretty exciting to see it coming together! Especially the grass-yeah!

Ghiradelli Square

Ode to Maggie

Well, there we were in the Vons parking lot to meet up with Rich and the Joshua class to head to the Bay area for the first offsite Joshua trip of the year. Starbucks and GPS in hand. Grande light ice chai and the Magellen GPS to be exact. We called her Maggie. I was driving this sweet Hume van that had seen better days, but actually it ran really well for a Hume vehicle and we had no break downs on the whole trip, that is rare for a Joshua trip. But the roomyness left much to be desired. Especially with two carseats. Ellie was behind me and Jaron behind the passenger, so everytime anyone was riding in the back, which was quite often, we had to pull Jaron's seat out, have them climb over the base and squeeze into the back, then put Jaron back in, shut the, not so light, door and be on our way. That was one smart person who thought to make mini vans with a door on each side. Anyway, good ole Maggie took us a farely windy, round about way, to the church where the kids were staying the night, then almost all side streets to the hotel where we were staying. It was pretty special. But she really pulled through bringing us from the suburbs, (antioch, oakland area) to the big city of San Francisco on Monday. We had a fun day there to start the trip before working with Habitat for Humanity the rest of the week. It was so fun, we walked from Pier 39 to Pier 1 for lunch, (Thank Goodness for the BOB stroller!) with the staff, then just our family walked back and went to the aquarium, then to Ghiradelli Square and back, where we met the staff for dinner, then met the students to drive back to the church. The aquarium was really fun, we got to walk through tunnels of sea life, first to represent the bay, then one with deep sea creatures like sharks! I wish I could show you Ellie singing "baby shark doo doo da doo doo, baby shark" on her daddy's shoulders, so cute! Then you get to pet sea rays, starfish ,sharks and other little sea creatures, Ellie was not much for that, but she liked to watch. Then we headed down to Fisherman's Wharf where the sea lions hang out, there Ellie got to bark like them and do a little dance. Then we headed to Ghiradelli where we got to taste a little chocolate of course, on the way back we got a little peak at the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance. Anyways, all to say, it was a fun day, and I love the big city. The next couple days the kids and I just hung out while the students worked in Habitat's warehouse then went to a work site to do landscaping. All in all it went pretty well, except for one kid stepping on a nail and having to go to the ER with Rich. It actually ended up being pretty entertaining because this kid , who hardly ever takes advil, was on Vicadin. He got pretty lupy and left many sentences unfinished as well as at one point talking to his sandwich, besides confessing his love for nearly everyone. Hilarious. So like I said, we were staying in a hotel, yes all four of us in one room, we figured out if we put Jaron in the bathroom, life was much better. Of course when we stopped to listen and heard a little banging, Rich was like, "Is he fixing stuff in there?" and I was like, "no, he's banging his pacifier on the toilet" Now that's sanitary, but there was no way we were going to disturb the little monkey. Then came the last night, we packed up and put the kids to bed, then went to sleep ourselves until about 12:30am when Ellie started throwing up. Oh the Joy! Sleeping bag, pillow, pack n play, floor, baby red, you name it, it was covered. So I put her in our bed while we began to clean. Probably not the best idea, she threw up again, so off came a sheet and pillow case from our bed, and we continued to clean. Of course Jaron was in the bathroom, so no shower for us, luckily the sink was seperate, but it's not like we had extra blankets, trash bags or any other nice ammenity of home, but we made it. She learned the art of the trashcan throw up and tried to get some sleep. Then the way home came, I left earlier than the rest of the group and just brought one girl with us. Well, it started a little rocky, I was sure there had to be a better way than Maggie was taking us, but we figured she'd get us there eventually, then Ellie threw up again, so fun! So we made a stop to Walmart for papertowels, ziploc bags, and pedialite for the rest of the trip. Luckily that was the last time she got sick, but it was so sad to eat lunch in front of her and not let her have any. But once we were on familiar freeways, and both kids were asleep, the ride went really smooth. So, I know this was a long one, but it was a fun adventure, and I'm so glad I went.

More Pumpkin Pictures

Pumpkin Patch

Oh, it was so fun! A bunch of the moms took our little ones down to a pumpkin patch in Reedley. (a little town outside of Fresno) We got to walk across a rope bridge, and up a trail up to the top. Then there was a cool little train they could watch go around a little track. Then we got to ride a a big train, it was so fun, it went all around the farm, where we saw groves of Christmas trees, lots of corn and mostly just the thrill of the ride. Then we got to hike down and see a ton of tractors and little farm tools, some they were able to sit on. They of course, pretended they were driving to Target- so cute! Then, we went on a hay ride, which was great, except that Jaron kept eating the hay. Finally, we got to see all the pumpkins, a lot of the kids got to pick one out. Ellie loved sitting on this tiny John Deere and pretending to drive her friends around. We finished off the day by driving to Bear Mountain Pizza for lunch. The kids and I went straight from there to Fresno where we met up with the Joshua class and Rich to go to the Bay area to work with Habitat for Humanity. But, you'll have to wait for that blog to hear about that fun trip.

Chair Delivery

Yeah, Dad and Judy, (or Grampa Dennis and Gramma Judy), came up yesterday and brought me an amazing chair from IKEA that I had wanted. It had gone on sale for like 3 or 4 days and since the closest IKEA to us is LA or Sacramento, I enlisted my San Diego family to pick it up for me. And then they were so kind to actually drive it to us. It is beautiful, I love it! And we got to visit with them, which was so nice too! It was nice for the kids to just have some quiet, exclusive time with the Grandparents. Well, quiet, I suppose, is relative. Dad and Ellie played hide and seek, did flips and had all sorts of fun. They also got to experience a Joshua theme dinner. It was 80's night and it was quite exciting, and not quiet, I bet you could check out the joshuawilderness.com website to see some good picts of that! Before they left this morning we also got to have some more visiters, as I was babysitting Kai and Kale, so I guess I really don't know what I was talking about with the "quiet" comment. Ha!

Rainy Days

So what, you ask, do you do with a toddler on a rainy day?

Well, easy, first, you get your raincoat and boots on and splash in the puddles, then you find a secret stage in the bathroom and do a show dressed as a princess, then you take an imaginary boat ride in a laundry basket with your little brother, then you finish the day off by painting a masterpiece at the dining room table.

Life is good.

What to Wear, What to Wear?

We are trying to figure out what the kids should wear for Halloween. I saw this monkey costume for Jaron, and I thought, "perfect, he is a monkey", but when I tried it on him it fits really weird so we may be returning it. The funny thing is, it is small on his body and big on his head, which just doesn't seem right, because he kinda has a small body and a big head already. Ha! But I also kinda wanted to do Jack Jack from the Incredibles, because everyone says he looks like him. Then for Ellie we've been wanting her to be Annie from Little Einsteins, she kind of looks like her and she loves to sing like her so we thought it would be good, but, the outfit would just kind of be normal clothes, so we are not so sure that's very festive, so she thinks she wants to be a princess, but maybe with wings, and maybe with a microphone, and her face painted, so, we'll have to see what happens. Stay tuned to see what we decide.

Free Labor

Since it is still early in the year, the Joshua students are jumping at the chance to volunteer and help us out, so we put them to good use digging trenches, laying sprinkler lines and working on the deck. They were troopers, it was a lot of digging. Here are some pictures of the progress, it's getting there, slowly, but surely. Rich stained the deck last weekend, then we got some rain on Tuesday, but as you can see, he did a great job. One of these days we will have proper steps on to our deck and I will not have to sneak around the side balancing a carseat in one hand and holding Ellie's hand with the other, tip toeing over trenches. It's pretty funny to watch. Well, today they are suppose to lay the concrete for the steps to go on so hopefully it does not rain until tomorrow as the forcast says. Although we are having a neighborhood bbq tomorrow, so I kinda hope it doesn't rain then either. Speaking of neighbors, Little Jonathan, (3) and Joshua (6) live two houses up. They are pretty funny and love to play outside. This is Jonathan with Ellie on her motorcycle riding on the not quite finished deck. Cute for now, crazy scary for later! Well, thanks for reading, hope to update again soon.