Weekend in Reno

Drove up to Reno Friday morning.  Spent the weekend with Michael's family. Cousins, Aunts, Uncles, Grandmas, Nieces, Nephews and many, many more. We celebrated the other Elizabeth Ann's (aunt Betsy's) bday on Friday night and then Ambers wedding on Saturday. In between, we played games at Uncle David's and swam in our hotel pool which was a golf resort villa.  Kids were in heaven most of the time despite the complete lack of sleep.  Parker was especially happy when Uncle Willie played Light Saber Fighting with him since he had been asking everyone all day.  The girls love their Aunt Lori and really took to silly Uncle David this time.  Betsy was a big hit with all her games and food.  Grammy and Ginny are always a favorite.  Miranda was also quite smitten with Cora, Jennifer's (Michael's Niece) daughter. Also known as my great niece in law. Cora was a big sweetie.  Home this afternoon after a morning at David's again.  Kids are tired, but happy.

Miranda playing with my phone

Second cousin Cora

Word problems

Parker has finished the fourth grade curriculum. I don't think I'm going to start with the 5th grade, but not sure yet.  Until I decide, I'm trying different stuff on each day. Today assignment was to write three world problems for me to solve using any kind of math including addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, shapes, angles, area, perimeter, fractions, etc.

Here they are:

1. Eli was camping with he family. There are five people in her family. Each person is Ely's family (notice the switch to Y rather than I) had three smores each night.  Ely's family stayed for three nights.  What is the minimum number of marshmellows Eli's (And back to "I") family must bring?  (Assuming only one marshmellow per smores.)

2. Max was shoping and he was looking for oranges.  When he brough t them home he took them out and weighed them. The bag of oranges weighed 12 pounds and there were 6 oranges.  If max only bought oranges, how many ounces did he buy?

I like that he threw in the 6 oranges thing but it had no impact.


3.  He drew a right angel and then drew the angel mark on the outside of it (to indicate 270 degrees.)  Then he said what is the picture divided by 3. And he wanted the answer in two ways.

Chips and Nonsense

The kids wanted to spend some of their chips the other day. Parker wanted a bow and arrow, but got distracted by the two sided light saber.  I asked him why he needed another one since he had two already. He gave me a very reasonable explanation, damn him.

Miranda got this hideous barbie purse with fake camera, phone, credit card and drivers license. It was horrible.  I said, "why do you want a fake iphone when you have a real iPod?"  She said, "Mom sometimes I just want to play and pretend."  Jesus.

Elizabeth didn't get anything. She wanted to save her chips for something she really wanted later. She has no idea what that is though.

Sigh

Parker finds words in word searches that aren't on the list.

Dancing

At some point on Sunday, we were all reading in the hotel room while Elizabeth danced around to Katy Perry songs.   Then Miranda joined in.

Calistoga

The whole weekend in calistoga was lovely.  Kids swam and ate. We played cards and read.  There were some instances of annoying kid fighting, but we nipped it in the bud fairly fast and they ended up playing well most of the time. I had a pretty icky massage on Sunday, but one can't complain about having a massage...it's like complaining about a trip to Hawaii.   Michael drove home on Sunday night to get to work today but I stayed with the kids and did some last swimming this morning before heading home.  Everyone was tired from the sun and staying up too late, but I still think it was a good weekend.    I didn't take any pics of the kids being cute (phone battery died), but you've seen them all cute plenty of times.

Next weekend?  Reno!  Yeehaw!

Weekend get away

The whole family drove to Calistoga today for a weekend get away. We arrived about 4, swam a bit (where Eli showed us many laps of a beautiful freestyle stroke impressing some old men), played cards, had left overs we brought from home in the hotel room kitchen and then everyone did some reading together. We'll swim a bit later have some ice cream and call it a night.

So far so good.

Horse Camp

Miranda finished horse camp this week. For how expensive it was (more than any other camp by a lot!!!!), it was a fairly lame.  They rode horse once or twice a day for no longer than about 1/2 hour (out of a 6 hour day), watched TV (a whole animated non horse movie on one day), and played with some resident kittens on another day.  The 'arts and craft" portion of the day was drawing on the ground in chalk, making lanyards, and cutting and pasting pictures of horses from a magazine on a piece of paper. 

And of course Miranda loved it all.

In the picture below, she is hugging this girl. This girl was crazy for her. I thought that was sweet of the junior counselor to be hugging Miranda so much. After the picture, I said, Miranda is this your favorite counselor?" Then the girl said, "I'm not a counselor."  Then I just felt bad for her since she must have been 12 and was smitten with a 5 year old.  Miranda didn't even know her name.

I had hoped Miranda would be done with horses after this, but she said on the way to the car, "Mom, when can I do lessons again."  Fuck.

End of Elizabeth and Mommy Adventure Week

On Thursday, Elizabeth and I went to six flags with a friend from preschool we hadn't seen in a while.  We weren't there very long, but they had fun, running from ride to ride and watching a sea lion and whale show.

Today, we went to Cull Canyon, a lake near us, for a few hours.  Elizabeth had friend Angelina join us today.  We met a bunch of my twin mom friends there as well.  Elizabeth was in a foul mood and was fairly rude to Angelina and me.  She was tired, but still.

In fact, Elizabeth was pretty rude to me all week, responding to my simple, non threatening questions or statements with a smart ass tone or rude manner.  Despite the fact that we were doing exactly what she wanted with the friends she wanted without any siblings around, she was still ornery, disrespectful and mean most of the time.  For example, at Calistoga she asked me to tie her bathing suit up and I had a bunch of things in my hand that I had to put down and before I could even do that she said, "Mom! Didn't you hear me! I want my suit tied!" in a very nasty voice and then rolled her eyes and sighed.  Each time she did something like this I would say, "It's frustrating when you speak to me that way and makes me not want to help you or even hang out with you. Can you try to use a different tone of voice or way of talking?"

She never thanked me for this week or really even acknowledged it at all. When Michael asked her if she had fun, she sort of shrugged her shoulders and said, "I guess."

So while the week was a success in some ways, it failed in doing anything positive for our relationship I think.  Oh well.  I guess it is just practice for when she is a teenager.

Miranda speaks

At dinner tonight, for no apparent reason, Miranda says, "I wish Daddy's Mommy was here."

I said, "Do you mean Louise?"

She said, "Yes."

I said "Why did you say that?"

She said, "Because she is a nice lady."

Big Horse?

This is the horse Miranda was riding today when I picked her up. Doesn't she look small?  Funny thing is that this is not a big horse.  It's a big pony.  The big horses are simply terrifying.  I really hope she starts hating this sport pretty soon.

Elizabeth and Mommy Adventure Week

Parker is in Science camp this week. Miranda is in Horseback riding camp. Elizabeth is in Mommy Camp.  I gave her the option of going to a camp or hanging out with me and when she chose me and I figured it would be good for us since we aren't getting along very well these days.  So we named it, "Elizabeth and Mommy Adventure Week!" I thought it might be like when I took Miranda to New Orleans and she was a perfect child for 3 days without her siblings around being able to do whatever she wanted.  Unfortunately, that has not happened with Elizabeth (even alone with an ice cream in her hand she complains and is contrary), but we have had some fun anyway.

Monday we went to the Jelly Belly Factory in Vallejo. I let her bring a friend and they were very happy with the tour, their sugar and parting gifts (a Jelly Belly branded bell for Elizabeth and harmonica for her friend.)

Tuesday we went to Calistoga to enjoy the day passes we won in the spa's photo contest a few months ago. It was overcast and drizzling but since the pools were hot, it didn't matter.  She made a friend there and we had fun until she got a tummy ache that was miraculously cured by a strawberry shake.

Today we went to Danville to get a watch we left at Uncle Jim's house, but when we tried to leave to go Roller Skating at the nearby suburban rink, the door on my car didn't work and wouldn't close.  An hour later and a scary trip with the door open on Hwy 680 to the Honda dealership was wasted when it closed miraculously for the technician.

She loved roller skating even though she fell about a hundred times. I finally convinced her to try the Skate Mate which she refused until the last 10 minutes and then had a blast with it.

Tomorrow we go to Six Flags with another pal she hasn't seen in a while.

Friday we visit a lake with a bunch of friends.

It's all fun and exhausting which is how I guess I like it.

Jelly Belly Land with Emma

Calistoga with random girl Paige. They shared Elizabeth's fins.

Roller skating

A nice healthy lunch.

About to wipe out.

Ready for horse camp!

Dog days of summer

Babysitting coop

9 kids.