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Tuesday, April 2, 2013

What We Do - Mornings

I wanted to do a post about a typical day, so I took some pictures of the kids a couple of times during out morning routine a while ago.  I was glad I did, because our morning routine changed quite a bit shortly afterwward.

Rob was working four 10's, so he would go in early and get off early, and he had Fridays off.  I worked from 9 - 5:30, so the kids and I had a couple of hours together every morning and I would drive the carpool to school.

Erin would get up and would be dressed and making her bed right as I was finishing getting ready for  the day, so I would help her with her hair.  Then she'd start practicing piano while I got Robbie up.  He would be ready when Erin finished piano, and we'd sit down to read scriptures together.

After that, it was time for breakfast, usually cold cereal.  But sometimes we'd have cinnamon toast, and sometimes I'd make eggs.  Their favorite was mornings when I needed to run to the store for something.  They loved this because it meant they could get donuts for breakfast! Yay for an unorganized mom!


After breakfast & brushing teeth, they would "do their writing".  We have them write their spelling lists every morning - it's good practice for spelling and it helps their handwriting!  Robbie also works on his Rocket Math, and if they have to work on memorizing any poems, they practice those, too.

 
 
If they got their boring stuff done quickly, they had time to play before we had to leave for school.  For Erin, this was mostly messing with the cat, checking her e-mail, drawing, or listening to music.

 
 
Robbie dawdled a little more, so he didn't always have much time for playing.  But he usually played with Legos.  Erin's best friend and her twin brother would get dropped off at our house shortly before we had to leave, so the girls would do girl stuff together and the boys would try to annoy the girls.

Then we'd pick up two more kids and drive to school.  I'd wait for the crossing guard to get them, and then head to Mesa for work.  This picture is from last year, but this is all our little carpool buddies crossing the street wtih Mr. Glen.  They're all good kids.


Now I have a new job, and I have to leave much earlier in the morning, so Rob changed his schedule around and it's his turn to have mornings with the kids.  I miss it, but it's a good job, and I get home a little earlier in the evening now.  I'm glad Rob gets a turn to have mornings with the kids - it's a good way to start the day.

Monday, April 1, 2013

Disneyland

A few weeks ago, Rob's parents invited us to go to Disneyland with them.  Erin had only been once, when she was 3, and Robbie had never been.  We decided to surprise the kids, so we got them out of school at lunch time one Friday and off we went!

We learned that if you register as a first-timer, you get to ride in the front car of the Monorail.


I can do all kinds of crazy, scary rides, but I can't do spinning anymore.  Rob took the kids on the Teacup ride and whirled them all around.


Erin has been over princesses for several years (yay!) and Robbie is indifferent toward characters, so we didn't have to spend much time looking for any.  But they both liked the Star Wars villains!  They were pretty cool.  Here they are with Darth Maul:

 
Erin chatting up Vader:

 
We rode the rockets in Tomorrowland.  I like this picture, because Rob is in the rocket in front of Robbie, and you can see Sandy and Dan leaning on the railing below us.

 
 
Erin was behind me.
 
 
In California Advendure, we got to go to Radiator Springs and meet Lightning McQueen


And eat a turkey leg.


The highlight for Robbie was Jedi training.  He was SO happy they picked him to participate!  Here he is getting his robe.

 
I love this picture - pure joy for a 6-year-old boy getting ready to become a Jedi!  He was pretty sure his "first-timer" pin is why they chose him.  The training was really cute, and he got to fight Darth Maul with a lightsaber.
 
I was really happy that everyone was tall enough for all the rides and nobody was scared of anything!  We rode Space Mountain first, and everything was fair game after that.  We loved Tower of Terror, and I think the whole family's favorite was California Screamin'.  The line was short for that one on our last day, so we did it several times in a row.
 

Who knows when we'll go back, but it was a lot of fun!