A Great Cause

I've been MIA the last few days due to work. But this past Saturday, we attended a very special event for a great cause. Steve and the guys from his work entered an airplane pull at Long Beach Airport to benefit the Special Olympics.

The kids got to see lots of fun things up close including a fire truck and of course, the airplane. We didn't stay long because we are in the midst of potty training.

Steve organized his team's entry for LAPD's Metropolitan Divsion, C Platoon. They had a great showing, twenty guys for their team alone. They had to pull a Fed Ex airplane 28 feet for time. They had two tries and ultimately came in third place behind teams Fed Ex and LA County Sheriffs.

Steve said they had a great time and everyone was glad to see them dressed and ready to go in C Platoon utilities. Apparently, it was great PR for the LAPD. But all that aside, the guys were just happy to help the kids.

Here's a picture of the whole team. Steve is in the back row, 7th from the left, with the baseball cap.

Superhero Practice

Today the kids practiced their superhero skills. J, especially, was getting very good at jumping off the planter. And then she'd yell, "Wonder Woman!" R, of course, was Superman, and K was Super Girl.

There's something very "Laverne and Shirley" about this picture. I just love it.

Yet again, I tried for a good picture of the three of them to no avail. R was starting to get grumpy after a few tries.

I tried to get creative here.

K and her winning grin.

J is just a doll.

Date Night

This is our idea of a date...whoa!

Company Picnic

We went to my company picnic on Saturday. We all had a lot of fun. When we first got there, the kids got lots of surprises, including gift bags and water guns. Of course we never filled the guns with water . . . can you blame us????

We saw our good friend Andy Hudlett and his new wife Pamela.

The kids went on a big slide and then they jumped on a big inflatable jumping thing.

One of the best parts of the day was riding the ponies!

K was the only one brave enough for the water slide.

Then we had way too much candy. No one wanted to leave but by three o'clock there were a lot of tired eyes. It was a great day.

3 Year Check-Up

Today was our three year-old doctor appointment. It's so hard to believe it's been a year. And what a difference a year makes! We arrived at the doctor's office at 11:40 for our 11:45 appointment. As you can see from the first picture, I wasn't thrilled about the hour long wait to be seen. But this year was so different because the kids actually entertained themselves . . . no whining or crying. During our long wait in the waiting room, the nurse brought us in to have height/weight checked along with a vision test and blood pressure check. The vision test was funny because the nurse had me cover one of the kid's eyes and then she would point to
an object on the eye chart, like a star or a heart. Inevitably, we had some cheating going on because one of the other kids would yell out the answer from behind us. Oh well . . . Daddy practiced with them before the doctor came in. He put them on the examination table and checked them out, they loved it. Then the doctor finally came in. The girls did well with the examination, especially K. But R wasn't having any of it. He had to sit in Daddy's lap. The worst part was the shot at the end. But they each got a sticker and then everything was OK. The best part was the elevator ride after we left the office. Everyone got a clean bill of health. R is going to be a big boy. He's 40-1/2 inches tall and 34 pounds. That's the 95th percentile for his height and 75th for his weight. K is 38-1/2 inches tall and 34 pounds, 75th for height and weight. J is 38-1/2 inches tall and 32 pounds, 75th height and 60th weight. They all had 20/30 vision which is good. We are keeping our fingers crossed that he have another healthy year!

Translation

We've had a busy week but I somehow managed to get some cute pics of Daddy and the kids. Anyway, I was thinking it would be fun to list some of the cute "Janieisms" that we hear daily. Then I realized that the all kids have their own "isms," if you will, and it would be fun to list some translations. So here are just a few:

J says, "I'm careds" = I'm scared

J says, "Moke" = Milk

R says, "Naaaahhhh" = No, thank you

R says, "Suuuaaaa" = Sure!

R says, "Let me see a treasure map" = I'm going to take your mouse pad

R says, "That's a pacuter" = That's a computer

R says, "Look, a pacano" = Look, a volcano

R says, "You see that fag?" = You see that flag?

K says, "Airjintaner" = Air conditioner

K says, "I wuv you" = I love you

K asks, "You wanna build a castle?" = You want to take all the books off the shelf, pile them up, and make a mess?

R,K,J say, "Crabby crabby" = Cheeseburger (From the Sponge Bob cartoon where it's actually called a Crabby Patty)

R,K,J ask, "You going to see the sergeant?" = Are you going to work?

That's just a few that I could think of off the top of my head. I'm sure I'll think of more later. Well, Daddy just took the kids to breakfast so off to bed I go!

Summer Haircuts

On Saturday, we finally managed to take the kids for desperately needed haircuts. If you look at pictures from the previous posts, you can see the "before." I knew it was time to take them to the kids styling specialists when I would call K and she would have to tilt her head back to look at me under those bangs hanging in her eyes. Uggghhh . . . anyhoo, these kids stylists were amazing. I never would have believed the kids could sit there so long with some stranger fussing at them. But the ladies gave them bins of toys to pick through and that was just the trick. They put flowers in the girls' hair which made them look like princesses, R played with a little train they had set up on a little table, and afterward everyone got a balloon!!!! The perfect day . . . fantastic!