Student of the Day

The phone rang yesterday and when I looked at the caller id it was from South Hills Middle School.  At first I thought it must be Devin calling to come home because he was sore from wrestling.  I was a little bit bugged because he had already missed the whole week before while we were in California and 2 days the week before that because he was sick so I didn't want him missing any more school.  When I answered the phone it was the assistant principal calling.  I was a bit worried because I thought something bad must have happened.  I was pleasantly surprised when he told me that he was calling to let me know that Devin had been chosen as student of the day.  A teacher that Devin was sure hated him had nominated him.  This is what his teacher said about him.  "You are an awesome young man with a great sense of humor.  It is a pleasure having you in my CTE class.  Thanks for always working hard, participating in class discussions and being willing to help others who may need help or additional instructions.  You are a super influence to all who have the priviledge to get to know you.  Keep up the great work." I am so proud of Devin and so glad that I am his mom!

The Happiest Place on Earth!

We had a blast at Disneyland!  We usually go in the spring, but decided to go now because we had heard how cool it was when it was decorated for Christmas.  It was fun to see the Haunted Mansion redone as "The Nightmare before Christmas".  Also seeing the lights on the castle and Small World was "magical".  (Becca thinks I am silly to use that word, but it really is!)  It was also fun to see the Burton's and the Rogers' while we were there.  The weather was great.  It was a real bummer to have to come back to snow!

Newport Beach

The first place we went when we got to California was the beach.  I love the ocean and could just sit and watch the waves come in all day long.  The kids had a great time out on the rocks catching crabs with hot dogs.  It was fun to watch the crabs come out of the holes in the rocks and pinch pieces of the hot dog off and eat it.  Devin was even able to get one of them up to the surface, but as soon as Megan saw it she screamed and scared the little crab to death I'm sure.  While we were out on the rocks we noticed a bunch of seagulls by our stuff on the beach.  When we got back to our blanket all of our food was gone.  We had bought bagels, turkey and potato chips and everything was gone so we ended up eating dinner at a resturant on the end of the pier. It was such a beautiful day and the kids had a blast playing in the water and making sand castles.

Las Vegas

We decided to stay in Las Vegas on our way to California.  We stayed at the Excalibur Hotel and when we checked in I was surprised to see that our room was on the 13th floor.  I was a little bit freaked out and so were the kids.  I didn't think hotels had 13th floors.  We faced our fear and survived the night thank goodness!  We went to the M&M factory and the Coke factory and then the kids just wanted to go back to the hotel room.  They think Vegas is a yucky, stinky city.  Hopefully that attitude will never change! :)

Halloween

For the first time in many years I didn't have to go trick-or-treating.  Becca went to hang out with friends and Devin and Megan both went trick-or-treating with their friends.  It was kind of nice to be able to stay in my warm house.  It would have been more relaxing though if the door bell would have quit ringing! lol  After all of our hard work carving pumpkins here is a picture of how they ended up after some hoodlums got ahold of them!  Now everytime I run over them when I pull out of my driveway I think I should clean up the mess.  Maybe tomorrow.......

Megan's Halloween parade

Megan looked so different with her face painted and her hair sprayed black that I almost didn't recongize her as she walked by.  I tried to get her to smile for me, but it was too hard for her to smile with her vampire teeth in.  I was thinking that I will only have the wonderful opportunity to attend 3 more Halloween parades at the elementary school.  Pretty crazy how fast times goes by.

Pumpkin carving

Here are some pictures of the kids carving their pumpkins on Halloween morning.  I have been such a procrastinator this year.  Becca made hers polka dotted, Devin's was a vampire and Megan's was Jack skeleton.  When they were done it was still light outside so we had to go into the bathroom to take pictures of them lit up.

Picking out pumpkins.

A couple of days before Halloween we finally made it to the pumpkin patch.  Of course we waited until after it had snowed so it was cold and really muddy.  Devin thought we should just go to Harmon's to buy them, but I had to have cool pictures to use in my blog! The best part of the pumpkin patch experience was hearing Megan scream when she got close to some chickens.  When she was two we took her to the state fair.  We were looking at the chickens in their cages and she stuck her finger in one and got pecked.  Since then she is deathly afraid of chickens.  I'm sure she would not even remember this happening if I hadn't scrapbooked about it.  Maybe scrapbooking is not such a great idea! lol