Spring in CA!

Warning: SO MANY PICTURES!

I think I mentioned a few weeks ago that our summer plans got turned on their ear when the timing didn't work out to visit my niece and nephew in Spain while we were going to be in Europe. Happily,  we discovered that they were coming to visit their mother and Grandparents in CA, so we crashed that party!

Todd flew out a few days early with Caleb and Lilyanna since that was significantly cheaper than waiting the couple of extra days that I had to with the older boys due to their concerts, rehearsals, and tests at school. On a Thursday night immediately after Nathaniel's band concert was over, we went to the Dayton airport where we hung out for 5 or 6 hours waiting for our 5:30 am flight. Incidentally, if you have to be in an airport all night before you go through security, Dayton is an excellent choice. Lovely lounge areas for sleeping!

 Or not sleeping. ;) 

We are so tired.

A view from the San Mateo Bridge. I swear fog like that only happens in the Bay Area. I love it there.

 When we arrived, I was told there were going to be some family pictures. Surprise! So, Grandma took the boys shopping for adequate clothing to wear and I went to sleep. I think I'd been awake for something like 36 hours at that point. There's something to be said for having extended family nearby. I went to sleep and the village took care of my children. It was a lovely thing.

 Nathaniel hates pictures. But the weather was so fantastic, even he couldn't master too much grouchiness about the day.

Lilyanna is ready to move to CA. She was VERY happy to wear her warm weather dresses and sandals again!

 My nephew's English is very good, and my niece's is getting better all the time, but when that fails, the universal language of gaming and technology takes over nicely. ;) 

 Do you see this grass, people?? Caleb kept taking off his shoes just to feel it in between his toes. We'd forgotten about grass here in Ohio. It's been so long.

Oh, yes, and here is Lilyanna with the orange tree in my in-laws backyard. When my father in law is feeling particularly feisty, he texts me pictures of it heavy laden with oranges. He sends it to me in February. I usually send a note back that is impolite at best.

This was taken right after my 12 year old niece tied with my 15 year old cross-country running son. We teased him about that for the rest of the trip.

Seriously. Caleb and Lilyanna are ready to pack up and move.

Sunshine! Grass! Blue skies!!

 There was a shopping day for the girls. They picked these shirts out separately and were excited to model them later. Lilyanna thinks Maite is the best!

 The best part was watching these cousins play together. They only get to see one another every few years, so it makes me happy that when they do, they are able to jump back in to friendship with one another.

Speaking of being silly together, we stayed up late one night to do this to Grandma's kitchen. ;)

Some pranks transcend language barriers nicely.

It was a lovely trip. And we are even more resolved that we need to go visit them in Spain in a few years before everyone is entirely grown up and it gets too tricky to do so!

Life Lessons Learned

This was a weekend of learning for Benjabooboo.

Earlier this week he discovered that it was his responsibility to plan the menus, do the shopping, and cook the food for a scout campout his troop was going on this weekend.

Due to his play rehearsal/dance class/school schedule, and my work schedule, the only time he could do it was immediately after school on Friday. And even at that, it would involve me picking him up at school and dropping him off at the grocery store with his backpacking pack and wallet so he could do the shopping and walk home with the purchases. We would then quickly load up and I would drop them off with their scout leaders to leave on the campout. He knew how much money he had in his checking account, and he had a few dollars in his wallet, so he knew what his budget absolutely had to be.

Friday came and I dropped him off at the store, then quickly drove home to teach piano lessons, hoping that the experience would be positive for him. He arrived home about 45 minutes later all the wiser.

Lesson #1 learned: "Good" hot dogs are expensive. He only had enough money to buy 21 hot dogs, and 24 buns.There was a slim chance that there were going to be 13 people, but more likely 8, so he was crossing his fingers that only the lower number would show up.

Lesson #2 learned: Chocolate bars for s'mores are also not cheap when not on sale. So he didn't buy any, and decided they could all just roast marshmallows and snack on graham crackers.

Lesson #3 learned: When you buy pancake mix, it's important to read what other ingredients might be required and purchase them as well. That didn't happen.

Lesson #4 learned: Two bottles of catsup and two bottles of mustard are overkill for only 21 hot dogs.

Lesson #5 learned: When you spend ALL of your money on groceries, you are much more motivated to turn in your receipts for reimbursement. And quickly return all unused items to the store!

I am so glad that he was forced to have this opportunity. I realize it doesn't seem like a big deal, but really, how many 14 year olds are going shopping for their families or an event these days? Probably not enough. I remember being of a similar age when my Mom dropped me off at the Pathmark in Somerville, NJ with a grocery list and money, and met me there later after her other errands or appointments.Shopping with a list and a budget is an important skill, and frankly one that I probably wouldn't have thought to give him yet.

It made me also remember being dropped off at the laundromat around that same time to wash the giant blankets and sleeping bags. That's probably another experience I should give my kids one of these days so there's one less obstacle to grown up life.

In the past, I've given my kids a few dollars to run up to the grocery store for bread and milk, but that was different. It was my money and with only one or two items on the list, it was a bit of a lark for them. Not that that experience didn't help prepare for this experience, but if the issue hadn't been forced, I probably would have kept on in that way for a few more years.

I'm grateful for the not so painful opportunities my children get to learn some basic life skills.

Lettuce Love

I have been bad about grocery shopping this month. As we ran out of things, I just sort of shrugged, and dug deeper in the cupboards for other things we could use up.

It got bad enough that Todd last week offered to do a nighttime run to the store since we were out of all fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, milk, eggs, and bread. Personally, I think we could have managed until the end of the week, but he was willing to go.

The next evening I made a simple salad from the lettuce and tomatoes that Todd had bought. When Caleb came into the kitchen and saw the fresh salad his face lit up with glee as he said, "Lettuce!!! You bought lettuce?! Oh, Thank you, Mommy! I love lettuce!" And then he came over and wrapped his arms around me to give me a hug and a kiss.

Local Shopping

Kroger Shoppers go here!

Euphamisms

I had an hour to kill between seeing a matinee with my family and meeting with friends for an evening performance of "Blithe Spirit". Todd took the kids back to NJ to feed them and put them to bed, so I could have adventures in the city with my friends.

With some time to kill, I decided to walk back down to Macy's to see what the "Spring Flower Show" was all about. I stayed in for about five minutes. It was crowded full of people looking at Flamingos made from fake flowers. They were admittedly pretty fabulous, but not worth the crowds and same old stuff you could get at any Macy's.

The thing that was amusing, though, is my Father in Law's latest gig is doing finances for a company that makes "permanent botanical" arrangements.

"Permanent Botanical" are what those in the biz like to call fake plants. Just like my husband does "direct marketing" and not junk mail.

So, here's to Permanent Botanicals in the shape of Flamingos!! Macy's and I salute you!

RIP

My digital camera breathed it's last horrible breath at the very start of vacation, of course. I am in the market for a new and fabulous one. I need small, user friendly, and decently priced. I do not need fanciness. I'm not a photographer. I'm a picture-taker.

Suggestions? Advice?

WANT IT!

I know that there is no possible excuse I can come up with for how this would be at all necessary in my life. But I want it.

A lot.

C'mon!!!  Doctor Who finger puppets?!?!?!

They might help me be quieter during Sacrament Meeting. 

Except for the Dalek one.  But all the rest would be fine!!  I even promise not to make the Tardis sound during church.   

Shameless Plug

You should all go here immediately and buy something. My cousin, Liz, and her husband make and sell these fabulous purses. I am getting the black one, so if you live near me in Ohio, you can't have it. ;)

Holey Lessons Learned

An important note to self:

When you have an upcoming vacation that will heavily revolve around water, and you also have a bathing suit which is only going to make it to the end of this summer because it's so threadbare AND you hold your second bathing suit in your hand while packing your suitcase, DO NOT leave the second bathing suit at home.

If you do, you may find yourself in the pool at a family reunion swim party and suddenly aware of a little extra water in the backside of your bathing suit. When you reach to the back of your bathing suit, you may also discover that several holes have appeared smack dab in the middle of your bathing suit's backside, which will make it so you will have to back (very carefully) out of the pool and into your cover up as quickly as possible, mostly because you sense that your husband's Grandpa would not find your mooning everyone at the family reunion to be in the best of taste.

THEN, because the next day's family reunion activity is going to a water park, you may find yourself in the unenviable position of rushing from the swim party to Super Target at 9:50 pm while they are shouting over the loudspeaker "the store is closing in ten minutes. please take all purchases to the register." Which will cause you to growl as you realize that apparently there are no bathing suits in the adult section made for anyone smaller than a size 24, which will make it so you have to go to the juniors section and look for something that looks more like a bathing suit and less like brightly colored dental floss. Which may cause you to grab 7 different bathing suits off the racks and run up to the register (all while still in your dripping wet cover up which is still covering up the holey suit) with $150 worth of bathing suits that are incredibly unlikely to fit you.

THEN, you will go back to your sister in law's apartment to try on all of the bathing suits which are likely to be rejected only to realize that your sister in law doesn't own a full length mirror. Which means that once you try on one of the hideous bathing suits, you will have to stand balanced on a chair that you dragged into the bathroom from the kitchen and try to determine how the bathing suit looks while you can only see 1/3 of your body at a time in it.

Ultimately, you find something that you think looks okay, but you're not really sure because you could only see 1/3 of your body at a time in it, but it will be fine for the rest of vacation.

BUT (haha) as you trudge back to Super Target the day after the water park to return over a hundred dollars worth of bathing suits, you will probably reflect on the fact that had you just packed that second bathing suit, the family reunion would have been a little less exciting.

Shameless Plugs

The last two weeks have been full of commerce in the Smith house. While I was in FL, Todd ordered a couple new T-shirts for me from Threadless.com

If you haven't checked out their website, I highly recommend it. You can submit T-shirt designs, users vote on the designs and then there is a limited number of T's made for sale. If they're out of one, you can vote to have it reprinted. It's literally voting with your dollars and helping out artists at the same time. Anyway, these were the T's he got me:

Other than having people stare at my chest and then follow it up by bursting into laughter, I'm loving my new tees.

My next consumer-ish purchase was this:

This little beauty has my kids excited about vacuuming!!! I repeat: MY KIDS ARE EXCITED TO VACUUM!!!! They have fights over who gets to vacuum the stairs! It's small enough that even my 4 year old can easily navigate the stick vacuum portion of it to quickly vacuum the hard surface floors or area rugs, and the dustbuster portion easily comes out for spot cleaning. It doesn't replace my real vacuum for the wall to wall carpet in the basement, but it's great for quick, small jobs that my kids can do. LOVE IT!

And my last consumer-ish thing is this:
These are sliced, freeze dried strawberries like you get in boxes of cereal these days. $20/number 10 can, which is the cheapest I've ever found them. They are yummy on cereal, or just for snacking, and they don't have any icky colors or preservatives which makes the Momma Bear very happy. I ordered a case of 6 cans from emergencyessentials.com They are great for food storage, but they will also be wonderful for camping and hiking oh, and did I mention just snacking by the handful right out of the can when my kids aren't looking?! mmmmm.