maple chick peas

*A couple weeks ago we had a HUGE rain. It was quite interesting for the kiddos to watched the streets get so flooded...

*The other night I made homemade mac and cheese (I typically make this once a week for the kids). Somehow I curdled the milk in the process, making it nasty looking. Not having the energy to make something else, we attempted Chinese food for the first time with the kids. They LOVED the orange chicken, but not so much the chow mein. How on earth could one not like buttery tasting noodles!!?? Oh, well.

*Today was our first day of homework. It went pretty well. Cam isn't the biggest fan, but it helps that he gets paid, "class cash" from his teacher for completing it. Kendall was really into it and I hope that enthusiasm lasts a while. :)

*Dinner tonight: 

Kids and I: Salmon burgers

Chris: Turkey burger

*I made some yummy maple glazed chick peas today. I thought they were a great snack, but I didn't even attempt them with the kids. I know they would have been a no-go. I will surely make them again for myself, though. :)

pre-birthday party

Next weekend Cam turns 8. Since we'll be up north, we celebrated with my side of the family today. Chris started out by taking the kids to "breakfast #2". But today's breakfast #2 was special because it came in the form of an ENORMOUS donut for Cam.

Yes, it was THAT big. No, he didn't eat the whole thing. :)

While they were gone I got to work on our present for Cam, new room decor.  Numbers and Cameron are good friends. He loves math, time, statistics, etc. I could not pass up this bedspread recently at IKEA. It's full of clocks and compasses. :) He loved it!! :)

Later my family arrived and we hung out for a while before eating lunch.

After lunch and presents, we had Cam's birthday cake.

I think he had a great day. Each time I told him what a fun day we had he would say, "Yep! But it's only the beginning!" (since we will also celebrate up north next weekend). :)

holding doors for women

*The past few school days have been great in that I have kept myself extremely busy while the kids are away. I like to feel like I've accomplished something by the time I pick them up. I've done this by:

-grocery shopping
-working on getting things going with my dad so I can help him with his business
-working on Cam's birthday present from us, a semi-redecorated room (new bedspread, rug, and curtains)
-food prepping (muffins, snack bread, etc.)
-baking for a dinner with friends tomorrow. My sister's family is also going and our friend asked her to bring dessert and myself to bring a salad. I am no bueno at making salads, so I made Susan switch :) I'm making brownies...and these, which I've made before and are wonderful!

*This past Sunday Chris and I split up for the afternoon. He and Cam went to a friend's house for Cam's first ever viewing of Star Wars. He loved it!!!

While they were gone, Kendall and I went to Michael's to get a craft. I hate how I ALWAYS forget to print out the 40% off coupon. Ugh!!

*The other day as we were entering a store Cam said, "I wish men didn't ALWAYS have to hold the door for women. But I guess that is okay because women have to have babies and that is very painful."

school

The past few years we've started a tradition of going out to dinner the night before school starts. We surprised the kids yesterday by also including an afternoon at the Palm Desert water park. We had been once last summer and the kids loooved it!

I cannot believe Cameron jumped off the high dive. Such a champ! Take a look...

Afterward we went to Red Robin for dinner. The kids love this restaurant. Kendall's meal usually consists of 10% meal and 90% fries. :)

So this morning was our big day. Both kids were excited and a tad nervous about starting school. 

I took Kendall and Chris took Cam due to their starting times. Kendall did amazing and showed no signs of fear whatsoever. I was suprised that I didn't cry at all...until I got into the car. One glance in the backseat at her empty car seat and the tears started flowing. 

Chris had suggested we meet afterward for coffee to debrief (and also knowing I would probably be a wreck). It helped a lot to talk to him and get my mind off Kendall by hearing all about Cameron. While a little emotional at first, he also did great.

So now to my new phase as mom. I need to realize that it isn't like my role as mom is ending, it's just changing in that my kids don't need me 24/7. And that's okay...I think. ;)

errands

*This morning we ran a few errands.

We first went to Cameron's school to drop off his, "IEP Cheat Sheet". Each year, I write a letter "from Cameron" to his new teacher. I simply give her a few insights that might help her understand more of how he works. This morning I brought up the one I did for last year's teacher as reference. It was neat for me to see that one of the things I talked about could be deleted, as it wasn't a big enough issue to even mention. Progress :)

We then went to the fruit stand where all of these grapes cost me just 80 cents! They will only last a day or two so I've decided to try freezing them. I'm not a big fan of frozen grapes as a snack, but hopefully the kids will be. :)

After the fruit stand came the library. While I was not searching for anything in particular, I just happened to glance at a book shelf and stumbled upon, So You Think You Know Harry Potter? (a quiz book on the series). What could be more perfect??!!

*The manager of Little Caesar's wrote me an email in response to the complaint I sent. Her explanation did nothing to change my frustration on behalf of those employees. However this issue isn't really the hill I want to die on, so I'll let it be. :)

*Chris and I are now on the last season of Parks and Rec. I'm going to be bummed when we are done because we love the show. We've really grown attached to the characters. :)

veggie tales movie night

*I've started being more vocal about things that are unfair and/or rude. I've been a bit feisty lately. :) I spoke up to a woman who was very rude to a young girl and her dad at Costco last week. I also recently went to the Little Caesar's website and wrote the following message.

This is the second time in two weeks I have visited the 6th St., Beaumont location. While the service/employees have been wonderful (very friendly), the temperature of the store was unbelievably hot. I stepped into the store both times and immediately started to sweat. I felt horrible for the employees (one who was pregnant AND manning the oven). I thought it might be a fluke the first time, but the second time made me quite angry to the point that I don't think we will be visiting again. After questioning an employee and being told that they were not allowed to put the thermostat below 80 (per the manager), I do not wish to support an environment which seems so cruel to its employees. 

Sidenote: I actually talked at length with the employee. She and the others were miserable and she was very frustrated that her manager had no sympathy for how unbearably hot it was.

*I'm starting to stock up on healthy snacks for the kids. They won't eat lunch at school, but I will pack them a snack each day. A couple days ago I made a batch of the yummiest homemade graham crackers. While they still probably have the same amount of sugar as store bought, at least they don't have all the other stuff listed in the long ingredient list. Yes, we still have store bought grahams in our pantry, but as much as I can I'll try and keep us stocked with these. :)

Mine do NOT look this cute :)

*Love this pic of Kendall getting her hearing checked for her kindergarten physical :)

*This is a picture of super dad Chris. Tonight our church is showing a Veggie Tales movie and Chris took not only our kids, but the quadruplets from across the street!! They were beyond excited. What a daddy!!!

harry potter

*Back when Cam was first born, I had a TERRIBLE time with breastfeeding. I was so discouraged. One day I unloaded on my sister in an email. She ended up forwarding it to her friend, Karen, who wrote me a super encouraging response. From that point on, the three of us have emailed each other sometimes daily, sometimes monthly, but always consistently. I value our three-way friendship so much. The other night we got to meet for dinner (she is from OC) and it was fun to get together face to face. :)

*We are having trouble in the sleep department due to our neighbor's dog. As a light sleeper, it affects Chris more than me (he was awake from 2am-5am the other night). He talked with the neighbor and she was very apologetic, but it happened again the following night.
Hmm... :(

*We went to Yucaipa Regional this week and had a fantastic time.

*Last night was Cameron and my second Harry Potter date. We finished the second book yesterday and watched the movie last night. It was a tad long (almost three hours!!), but well worth it for how much he looooved watching it with me.

*We've been doing lots of swimming lately. Kendall usually falls asleep in the car on the way home within five minutes. One day she waited until we got home...I was quite happy. :)

two recipes and astronauts

*I bought a big bag of spinach and realized I wasn't going to use all of it before it went bad. Enter what I named, "Green Monster Muffins". :) I tested them out on the kids yesterday and while at first they were a little hesitant with the bright green color, they still gobbled them up. I changed a couple things, so if you want to see how I tweaked them, click here to see my Pin. :)

*This morning I made a new breakfast for Chris. I usually make a rotation of three meals for him: Eggs/egg whites with a piece of toast, cheerios, or an English Muffin with peanut butter. Anyway, he stumbled across a recipe for these egg cup things a while back so I gave them a try this morning. He really liked them, but we need to experiment with a little more seasoning as they were a tad bland. The real clincher on making them again will be if they can be frozen (because they are kind of labor intensive)

*Lastly I'm reading a super interesting book, The Astronaut Wives Club. So far it's one I would highly recommend!

my little girl

We have one more full week until school starts. I think back to when Cameron first started school.  He was only three but needed to be in an Autism preschool. Even though he made tremendous (I mean, huge! ) progress because of that class, I couldn't send my little guy five days a week right off the bat. So I gradually eased him (and me!) into it by picking him up early each day.

So I know that I got through it with Cam and I'll get through it with Kendall. But Cam was so long ago and the feelings of "losing my baby" have long since faded. The fact is, I'm not ready to lose my Kendall...even for a few hours a day.

On a happy note, she has said two of the cutest, most random things the past couple of days.

Yesterday we were headed to my friend's house for a playdate:
"My tummy hurts. I hope they have beds there. In the 1930's, no one had beds!!"

Right now Chris taking the kids for donuts and some back to school shopping. In the car he overheard her telling Cam:
"Cameron, I don't do ballet anymore because I do rock star things. That's my talent."

I love my little girl...