Aaron asleep

We have a little tradition before bed where we pray and read the bible. Along with that comes what I call the "little movie", which is a short film that actsout the verse we'd just read. We did not get to the little movie but Aaron stayed up for it and said "Hurry up Mommy and play the little movie, before I fall asleep", and as I was opening the app, he fell asleep. Lol!  I love my kids!!!

Token

Aaron put a Chuck E. Cheese token in his karate belt knot and went into class with it. I had told him to leave it, I can tell he didn't since he kept looking at his belt, thru warmups. 😕

Samantha- the tall one 

Matt

Aarons in the other room (outta sight)

Slipper

Last weekend, Sunday 9/4/14, I took the kids to the local pet fish store to buy a new cartridge filter for the fish tank.  We wound up leaving the shop with another fish and real plants for the tank. The second fish (full view above) is a bottom feeder that is supposed to get along with Bettas. She did but she was very skittish. Aaron named her Slipper, because she slipped around so fast.  The next morning, she had jumped out of the tank and we found her dead on the floor. :(.  RIP Slipper!

Sunday September 7th afternoon

Samantha (and Aaron helping) finished building "Stephanie's house" the Lego project.  They played with it afterward. 

It took one large sized carne asasa, menestra (lentils), tomatoes and bell peppers, served twice as a side dish, and three side dish helpings of rice, and two medium cups of apple juice, to satisfy Matt's appetite.  An hour later he ate two small bowls of watermellon. 

Toll

Samantha and Aaron have built a fort in the living room with blankets and pillows. They have barricaded the entryways to the living room, and told me "if you want to pass, you have to pay first. We either take cash or your real blue card."  My debit card is blue. :/. And the passcode is "please". 

Samantha and Aaron's conversation

While driving from karate to home Samantha was telling me about her Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Vargas-she had baby chicks in her class room, and so on. Aaron seemed tired of hearing about Mrs. Vargas and he yelled "Mrs. Poopagas said this and Mrs. Poopagas said that!"  Samantha got offended and I managed to get them to talk about something else. Then Aaron started talking about his teacher Mrs. Roberts and how much he liked her, and then Samantha said "Mrs. Pooperts" and laughed. Aaron said in a most somber tone "Oh...oh no...don't talk about Mrs. Roberts like that", and Samantha said ""Well that's how I felt when you said Mrs. Poopagas". Aaron got silent. Then he said "Mrs. Roberts might spank you for saying that", then Samantha said "well, Mrs. Vargas will spank you for saying that". They got quiet for a bit, and  then busted up laughing and Aaron said "Mrs. Vargas would spank you too!", and they laughed louder, and Samantha said "and then Mrs. Roberts will spank you!", and they laughed open and earnestly again. Samantha then said "and then Mrs. Vargas spanks Mrs. Roberts" and that really did it, they laughed harder. Aaron said "and then the teachers spank each other!"... And the laughter continued...very cute!

Like my dad

Aaron was awake minute ago telling me he could not sleep with the light in the hall on.  I said a quick prayer while sitting next to him but before I finished I heard Aaron snoring. He fell asleep that fast. 

My dad was the same way. Whenever I was scared at night I'd run to my parent's room, flick on the light, and hop in between them and feel safe. But then my dad would complain, he'd say "oh no-I can't sleep with the lights on!", "turn off the lights!", "I can't sleep like this", then an instant later I heard a huge, train wreck of a snore from him, and my mother was so used to it, she slept right through it.  He was sound asleep, from 0 to REM! 

I have never been one to fall asleep so suddenly. They make me laugh and to think I'd see it in my son all over again, is just a blessing!  Lol!

Sam and raw sugar

The kids and I went to Sprouts today and I usually get one if those sample coffees and continue shopping from there. At the end of our grocery shopping, I went for more coffee, but it was empty. Then Samantha took my empty cup and continued to pump the coffee thermos (that's what they use).  She pumped all 3 coffee thermos' and got a few drops. As I was getting in line at the check stand I heard her say "Mmm, this is REALLY good sugar".  I asked her where she got the sugar, and she said at the coffee, they have it out there. Ah!  I said, and let her go back for more coffee. Right before it was my turn to put the groceries on the conveyer belt, Samantha came up to me with what looked like the cup of coffee with a mini black spoon. She wanted me to take a sip. As Sam got the "spoon" closer to me I noticed it was actually a stirrer straw, all bent up, and there was no coffee in the cup. I complained but she only held the straw closer to my mouth and said "taste it, just taste it". I looked at her and the straw and went to suck the coffee drops out of the straw, but it turned out to be packed with sugar. I sucked so hard the sugar shot into my mouth almost to my gag point, however I found my tongue covered in a pasty, granulated sugar that was surprisingly crunchy and wouldn't dissolve. I wanted to let it dribble out off my lower lip to the floor but Sam was right up against me, ready with another straw full saying "wasn't that good?!".  Yeah.  I kept the sugar and swallowed it.  I told her I didn't expect so much sugar, and she said "it's sugar with coffee!  Isn't it good?"  You mean coffee with sug...oh!  Lol!  

Right after we paid and were heading out of the store, I saw that Sam had stopped and held captive Matt. She was telling him "no, no, just try it! It's really good! You'll like it!" And with that Matt paused, Sam put the straw to his lips, as soon as he cracked open his lips she shot the straw in there and he grimmaced. He started crunching on the sugar and was about to push it all out with his tongue over and out of his bottom lip, still grimmacing, but stopped when he saw Sam still leaning into him with the straw still up saying "isn't it good". He calmly closed his mouth and munched somemore until it all dissolved and went down the hatch. 

Lol. Sam asked me if that sugar was regular sugar and I thought about it and told her it must've been raw sugar. She said "RAW sugar.  I like raw sugar!  From now on I only want raw sugar!"  Ok. 

Matt Matt sleeping

We still have 5 winter blankets out, in case it gets cold, that I fold every morning and put them at the side of Matt's bed. Technically, they're just being set aside until needed, but every night lately, Matt's been taking one by one, sleeping in each one, picks one and covers himself (from toes to over his head), pushes all the unwanted blankets to his feet, takes Aaron's pillow (he must not like Sam's), piles that one on his pillow, and puts his head on that with his feet partially on the blankets. Lol!  

He must be mimicking his Nana's bed set up, however, she has GERD, and has to sleep on a wedge that elevates her head and upper back while she sleeps. She also has a couple of sheets on her and one blanket nearby to cover herself if it gets cold at night, but that's it.  Matt doesn't want sheets, his favorite is the wool woven blanket (and he has used a different blanket every night, but the wool one more often).  It's 70•F at night, and he still wants that one!  Lol!

That's him!

Samantha and Aaron's Yellow belt promotion June 11, 2014

Aaron is jumping

Samantha's facing the right direction and I think Aaron faced the other direction in time to be in the studio's picture (he us sooo 5 years old!)

Samantha and Shihan Wenneberg (owner/expert) and Aaron's white belt 

Aaron and ink

I had Aaron carry some ink cartridges for me while we walked back home. He looked at it and asked "what is this?" and I told him they were ink cartridges. He said "Oh. What is that?"  then I said "they're cartridges for the printer."  Then he said "Oh. I don't know what this is!"  Lol!  I told him I'd show him. 

Memorial Day 2014

Rose Hills Rose Garden

Rose Hills Memorial Park

We attended this Memorial Service at 11:00 a.m. 

Table of Contents

American Heritage Ensemble during Prelude 

Samantha with the American flag

Aaron found my nail kit in my purse and taught himself to clip his nails! :)

Condor Squad flyby with WWII vintage aircraft (they flew by at least 4 time-awesome!)

We also saw a 21 Gun Salute (the boys loved it- after covering their ears and jumping back when they first started)

Hilda Solis, Former U.S. Secretary of Labor giving Keynote Address

Veteran playing Taps on his trumpet (far rigjt next to flag post)

Samantha and Aaron using the end of the small flag post to clean each other's ears (Aaron already cleaned out Matt's ears)!

Me, in the shade with a little ray of sunshine breaking through on me (no makeup, but again, if I don't take a selfie...)

Raising our flag in unison!

Matt finally let me take a picture of him!

White Dove release!

Leaving the Memorial Onservance seats and heading to the car (Matt's finding the shade). 

American flag lined walkway. 

We went to my daddy's/Granddaddy Wills' gravesite. 

and our uncle Arthur's gravesite 

Kids at Granddaddy's gravesite

Toothless Sammie

Lost two teeth a few days apart!  Yay! 

(pictures taken while she was eating corn, and after she ate a carrot-hence the orange mouth)

Corn tooth (like "Gobber" from "How to train your dragon")

(and wearing my mascara and lipstick)

Aaron and laundry

Last weekend, for the first time, I got Aaron to join Matt and I doing 6 (typical) loads of laundry at the laundromat.  He has helped before but this time I set the expectation for him to put in a 5 year old boy's effort. 

The second we arrived, rather than helping, he ran straight into the laundromat, and then to the 2 arcade machines.  By the time Matt and I got there with two rolling bins full of clothes, he had educated the 4-5 people there about zombies (one of the machines is "Pacman" and the other just happened to be "Attack of the Zombies") and that "they will eat your brains, but mommy says they are not real... but they suck your brains out and eat them...."  Whenever another person tried to say something, he insisted that "no, they'll eat your brains- they eat brains!"  He also made a friend his age, who thoroughly agreed, and they bonded over this zombie game.  They both looked at the game silently, and in awe (Lol!). 

So, Matt and I loaded the washing machines, and no matter what I did or said, I could not pull Aaron away from the zombie machine. He did put two clothing articles in a washer once, but immediately rushed back to the zombie machine and stayed there.  Because of time, I let him go. 

20 minutes later however, he was sitting on the bench by the zombie machine, alone, looking bored even though he was still watching them (gory game, where the player shoots the zombie at least 3 times and blood splatters all over the place).  All by himself, he got up, helped Matt and I unload the washers (fluffing each item that he pulled out of the washer), and helped Matt and I load the dryers, and later helped unload them and lay them flat so I could fold them. 

Wow!

He did a great job and followed my directions, after all.  

Matt's Karate Competition May 17, 2014, 4:30 pm

Age-uke, upper block

Haraiotoshi-uke, lower block

Matt and his award!

I am not familiar with a lot of Matt's moves but he said them while he was doing them (in English). 

Lynn recorded a video of Matt's kata and put it on YouTube (copy it to your browser if the link won't open):

http://youtu.be/hCjvFBvixtU