Thursday, October 20, 2011

I HATE earth quakes!!!

Nothing makes me more on edge then a earth quake. Anyone who lived in CA and was old enough to remember the 1989 earth quake we had here, probably feels the same way I do. There is just something very uneasy about them, I think its more the fact there is nothing I can do to stop them or brace for them. They just happen and you have to wait it out and deal with the damage when its done.

Since today is the "Grate California Shakout" (a state wide day where all schools practice earth quake dills) Its a bit ironic we would have 2 real earth quakes on the same day. Did I say ironic lets make that creepy!

Luckily I didn't feel the one we had at 2:40pm today and ether did the kids but this last one at 8:? pm we all felt. I feel so bad both the kids are freaked out. Its their first one and both said they never imagined it feeling like it did. Poor Justin told me he feels very nerves and he's worried about sky. My sweet boy is worried one will hit at night and he wont be able to climb down fast enough to help Sky. How sweet is that? He's scared himself but he's more worried about his sister. My little boy is showing some major maturity lately. Hopefully he remembers to help his mom cause I'm a mess :/ hehe.

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Check out

THIS HAIR!!!!

It was in a bun for dance class and when I took it out it did this. I love it!!! Sky has some beautiful hair.....I'm so jealous LOL.

Friday, October 7, 2011

Night and Day (long)

That's my kids. They are like night and day!
Justin was reading "Super Diaper Baby" out loud and both him and Sky were cracking up.


So in to the story hehehe :)

So back to being like night and day.....
Parent teacher conference are always fun for me. I love seeing what my kids are doing and learning when I'm not around. I am very lucky I have some amazing kids who really do thrive in school (I think its just because Mick and I are not around). At home they both get frustrated when Mick or I try to help and I have to admit our patience with them is low when they start getting mouthy as we are trying to help them. So its very nice to see and hear what their teacher has to say, cause this is their own world to shine with out Mom and Dads help.

Justin is having some problems this year (which is new for all of us) Math has always been a strong area for him, but towards the end of last year he started having some problems, mainly with word porbs. His teacher said it was completely normal all 3rd graders had the same prob. Well this year math is really hard for him. Also he is having problems with reading comprehension, and his writing is sloppy (he doesn't like to write but he is really being lazy in this area). I got some great tips and things to do at home with him from his teacher (who is amazing by the way!!). He opened my eyes a lot to different things that might be causing the probs that I never thought of. I am taking all of his advice and will have Justin start doing the tricks he gave me to help him. On top of that I started looking in to a tutor. OMG don't plan on getting one for your kids unless you want to take out a second mortgage on your house!! Out of the 3 in my area I looked in to, here is what I found.

2 of them have their own curriculum they follow. They don't custom it to help Justin in the areas he is having trouble they just give him MORE work to do on top of his homework. These same 2 are also learning centers so Justin will be with other kids at the same time, not getting one on one help, and I have to drop him during their time (which is from 4-5, so he would be leaving school and going here for another hour, then still have his homework). One of these 2 were WAY to expensive and the other was still a lot, but much more reasonable ($240 a month, for 2 hours a week, but you have to sign a 6month contract). The last of the 3 is a in-home thing. They send a tutor to us they use Justin's homework as a guide to help him and they work with his teacher to find out more areas he is having problems so they can help him more. I really liked this one but its $$$$ its $51 a hour and you have to have a min of 2 hours a week! So at the low end its $408 a month!! So right now I think I will stick to the tip his teacher gave and see how he does. If he doesn't improve by the middle of the school year, then we will have to find a way to get him a tutor.

Skyla on the other hand is the complete opposite in school. She is thriving like crazy and her teacher gave me LOTS of extra work to do with her at home to help her stay busy in class. She is all ready reading at the middle of the year standard, and writes 3-4 sentence stories (which i guess is what they start working on in Dec, so now I have to encourage her to write 6-10 sentences with detail). Also the end of year standard is to write their numbers 1-100 and be able to do equations and understand manipulating numbers 1-10.....yeah she can all ready do this so we are having her learn to write her number to 1000, and work on math from 1-20. I'm so excited she is doing so well, I had such a hard time in school its nice to see Sky do so well and have it come so easily. Also it makes me feel better to spend more time helping Justin. Anyways the only thing her teacher is worried about is her getting board, but we will cross that bridge when and if it ever comes.

The only problem she is having in school is BOYS!!! Yep in her class she has 3 boy who I guess are bothering her. They are trying to get her attention, one pulled her hair, when she asked him why he did it, in front of their teacher, he said it was because she was pretty. The teacher told me this today, sky never said anything which I love because that mean she doesn't care LOL. Man some kids start to young with the crush stuff, I'm just glad my kids are not. The other boys are basically fighting with each other, mainly who gets to sit by her on the rug. Her teacher said she had to tell them Non of them get to and has to move them all the time cause they try LOL. She did say Sky is completely oblivious to all of this and is just mad cause they bug her. Socially Sky is amazing she is totally her own little person and loves who she is. She is strongly confident in her self and it shows at school a lot. She likes what she likes doesn't care about others opinions on it, and tries her best to work out problems with other kids before going to a teacher. She is one amazing little girl with a huge personality, I hope she never changes :)

I love my kids and am so proud of the little people they are and are becoming. Its going to be a year of hard work but lots of fun too :)

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Justin's Demo

Well Justin did it he got up on stage and did the demo for his Dojo. They did some group stuff then his Shifu had Justin and one other kid step forward and they did some move just them. It was really cool to see and Justin had so much fun with it.

Set position....

 Doing some long strides....
 Some cool kicks....
 Bring it on Justin's ready hehehe.....

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Justin got his

ORANGE BELT!!!    

We are so proud of him, he has been working so hard for it. During the summer he was going to 6 classes a week (45 min each, 2 classes a day for 3 days). Now that school is back he goes to 3 classes a week, soon to be 5 because there are 2 Saturday classes now. Best part is he LOVES it and wants to be there. We do have a deal though, school comes first so if he doesn't get his homework done he doesn't go to class. Needless to say homework is getting done right when we get home, with no playing around (I'm kinda liking this hehe).

One thing I loved is during class today Justin had to do his testing for his belt in front of his whole class with only one other kid, our friend Jarod!!

Don't they look so cute in set position ready to go :)

Not the best pic but here they are being given their belts.....

Here is Justin with his Shifu......

Justin is so excited about that belt he has even said he will get up on stage and participate in a demo with his class at a festival this weekend. This is a HUGE step for him, cause Justin has major stage fright. Love seeing all the new self confidence coming out in my little guy :)

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Smile

Sky lost her first tooth :) wooohhhoooo bring on the jack-o-lantern smiles!

Saturday, September 10, 2011

My new blog

OK so I'm not getting rid of this one :), this one I use for our family.

But I did start a new blog, my new blog is called Christal's weight loss journey. I have finally gotten some motivation to start weight watchers and I wanted a place to record my journey will all its ups and downs. I also decide to make it a public blog so I would feel a bit more accountable and hopefully someday it would inspire someone else to get started on their own journey.

So if you would like to read it click the link http://christalshealthjourney.blogspot.com and read my first post. :)

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Disneyland (trip #4)

About 2 weeks before school started we took our last trip to Disneyland. We have been lucky enough to enjoy a year of Disneyland Annual passes, and took 4 trips in the past year. We love Disneyland!! We went a bit nostalgic and stayed at the first hotel we ever stayed at (not to mention its our fave place to stay) Back in 2009 on our second trip to Disneyland, our room had these cute folded towels. The kids thought they were so funny (remember this pic)

Well on this trip our room had the same folded towels and as soon as we saw them we all started cracking up. Then Mick just had too.....

I love my hubby he has the best sense of humor
We got a free continental breakfast for our hotel stay so we took full advantage of that.

If you notice we are all wearing buttons. Since it was in Aug we had a lot to celebrate. Skylas b-day the month before, My b-day and our 9th year wedding anniversary is in Aug. It was pretty fun having so much to celebrate.
We hit all of our favorite rides like Indiana Jones.....
 So cool how you can be standing in line and forget you in a huge theme park cause all you see is this...
Of course we had to hit the new Little Mermaid ride first day there.....
 Riding in our clam shells....

 Checking out the fish conga line wile we sing along to "Under the sea".....




The next day we split up for a bit. Sky wanted some girly time with mom and the boys wanted to go on some rides and have some guy time. So whats a girl to do in Disneyland but DUHHU get her hair done and get all princess out.. Before......

 After......
 I love having a girly girl. After she was all dolled up we met the boy over at Pirate Island and the kids got to explore, climb and play...

 Then we headed over to California adventure but we had to take a quick photo stop with the Queen of Hearts.....
 In CA Adventure they have this fun place that is called Wilderness Explorer's Camp. Its a HUGE play area with rope bridges, zip lines, rock climbing walls and of course Doug and Russel from UP....
 If you go at the right time the kids get maps of the area. On the map are 6 challenges for them to complete. Once they finishes you can catch a ceremony at the camp site and become Senior Wilderness Explorer's just like Russel. Its a really cute little show they do and Russel comes out, Keven makes a appearance, and then you get to take pics with Russel and get your "badge" (its a sticker but its super cute).....

Every trip we do at least one Family pic that we buy as a memory to hang up at home of our trip. This time we got one from our first ride as a family on CA Screaming (I have to scann it so I can put it in here).....
Its a huge, fun, fast roller coaster with a loop, lots of huge drops and the best part a super fast take off. Every time we have gone Sky was not tall enough to go on it (you have to be at least 48 inch). It has been the only ride she couldn't go on for so long, and has been calling her name like crazy (she is my thrill seeker). As fast as my kids grow I knew she would be tall enough in no time but I was a bit shocked that at 6 years old she hit the mark. She was just tall enough for the ride and loved every bit of it. I think we hit it like 4 times on our trip. It was so fun seeing her face on it, I don't think she really knew how fast it was, so it was pretty funny watching her reactions. I'm a little more frightened by the fact my 6 year old is 4 feet tall (only 15 inches shorter then me what the heck!!).

It was such a fun trip, we always have a good time at Disneyland but this was our last trip for a few years.
Thank you Disneyland for all the wonderful family memories we have made with you. We will be back, we just need a bit of a break. Hhhhhmmmm Maybe we will do a Disney Cruise to pass the time? :)

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Hurricane Irene


So as most of you know my Mom and Dad and a lot of family live in Connecticut. Right now they are threaten by Hurricane Irene. Its kinda scary because there isn't much I can do to help and we pretty much just have to sit and wait to see what type of damage it causes. So please keep them in your prayers :) Also its a bit out of the ordinary for hurricanes to even hit CT but this one really seems like it will.

On a funny note the last hurricane the hit CT was named Gloria (my moms name) this one is Irene (her sister, my aunts name) hehe.

Monday, August 22, 2011

School

This year I am PTA President for the kids school (I have officially gone crazy and need to be put away for taking on this job). In my defence I was hijacked in to this position. ANYWAYS.....

The kids start school tomorrow ALL READY! So to day the last day of summer what are they doing?
Spending the day with their Auntie Kamie, wile mom works at the school doing PTA stuff :). At least they get to play with their cousins today and I know they will have fun cause they love it over there.

Summer was way to short. They only had 9 weeks of vacation and to be honest I'm not ready for them to be back in school all day yet. I have loved having them home and we have had a fun summer. Its so sad to see it end. Both will be in school from 8:45-3:25 that's a long day. Not to mention that 1 or both have something after school tue, wed and thur.

LET THE CRAZINESS BEGIN!

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Happy Birthday to.....

ME!!!!!

Yep today is my birthday and I'm very proud to say I'm now 30!
Its been a pretty fun and relaxing day which is always nice. This morning I was woken up by 2 very happy faces wishing me a Happy B-day with a plate of toast and waffles. Dad gave them the run down on how to use the waffle maker and before work today made the waffle mix, brought down the toaster and waffle maker, and wrote down directions to remind them what to do. They were some good waffles and I'm pretty impressed and proud by how independent my kids really are.

How cute do they look! you can totally see how proud of themselves they are its so cute.
Check out these waffles don't they look yummy!!
the best part I don't have to clean this....
Later on once I got over being lazy we head to a friends house and hung out most of the day. She gave me some yummy treats from her garden which I'm still debating if I want to share :). Now I'm off to a PTA meeting and night at home with my family.

Cake pops 2

So I never finished my cake pops post. Anyways here is how you make them.
1) get any flavor cake mix you want and back the cake according to the directions. Let them cake completely cool (best if left over night on the counter, do not freeze.)
2) brake the cake up with you hands till its all crumbled.
3) Add 1 can of frosting (I found Pillsbury was WAY sweeter then Dunkin Haynes so its up to you what you want to use but just take note)

4) mix cake and frosting really well together (it was easier to use my hands then a spoon)
5) take about 2 table spoons of cake and roll in to balls. Place on cookie sheet lined with wax paper.
6)Put cake pops in the freezer for about 10 min just to firm up.
7) Melt your chocolate (1 bag of candy melt from Michael's does about 30 pops, and you can get them pre colored)
8) dip one end of your pop stick in to the chocolate then stick in to the cake ball. Let harden (about 5 min)
9)Once you have sticks in all the balls. Dip completely in to the chocolate to coat. Make sure to let the extra drip off for a bit.
***For a special touch I put sprinkles on top wile the chocolate was still wet.
10) place in your cake pop stand and let them harden all the way.

Here are the ones I did for Skylas b-day along with the tigger tails which were SUPER GOOD!!!


I even got to make them a week later again for my friends Twins. Of course she has Boy-Girl twins so I got to make green and pink ones.

Monday, August 8, 2011

Disneyland

Anyone who knows me knows I LOVE DISNEYLAND!!! It was a place I always wanted to go when I was a kid but never got to. Its not like my grandparents didn't have the money to take me, it was that they were a bit to grouchy to enjoy much of anything. I didn't do much as a kid.
Anyways I remember drooling over the theme park commercials that came on Disney Chanel. The old Mickey and friend cartoons are some of my fave and I have seen every Disney movie ever made. I'm undefeated at Disney scene it and pride my self on my Disney movie knowledge. LOL :)
Then I grew up and met Mick and found out he wanted to go to Disneyland just as much as I did and that he never got to go as a kid ether. Well 2 kids and years of want later, we finally had the money to take our kids to a place that always seemed so out of reach.
Our first trip happened in June 2008 and was as magical I we hoped it would be. Its crazy to think the kids were only 6 and 3 that first trip. Last year with our income tax we got year passes to Disneyland and have used them like crazy. They were well worth the money and we saved so much on each trip with all the discounts you get.
Sadly our passes run out on the 25th of this month, so tomorrow we leave for Disneyland for our last trip for a wile. I think 7 trips in 3 years is pretty amazing (and 4 of those took place in the last 12 months, making up for lost time lol) and we have so many amazing memories of our trips. The best part is we were able to give the kids something that meant allot to us, and they have loved every bit of it.
When we get back of course I will post our pics. This really has been a year of magic and memories and as sad as we are to see it end (for a bit) we are excited for other adventures we will have as a family.

Friday, July 15, 2011

Cake pop stand

On top of the tigger tails for Skylas birthday I am making some Winnie the Pooh, and "Hunny" pot cake pops (ill post pics of those as I make them). I was trying to think of how to display the cake pops and tails when in the recipe it called for using a Styrofoam block to let them dry. I thought why not get a big one and use it as a stand.
I didn't want to spray paint it cause I was worried it would crack when I stuck the pops in so I opted to leave it white but got some ribbon to decorate it.
First I stapled the ribbon around the side.


Then I made a bow with some tails. This was the first time a made a bow and it was surprisingly easy.


I hot glued it to the front and fell in love with how simple and pretty it looks.


I cant wait till Monday to see it with all the cake pops and tigger tails on it.

Tigger Tails

 For those who don't know Tigger Tails are chocolaty, caramely, marshmellowy goodness on a stick sold at Pooh's Corner in Disneyland. These yummy treats are Skyla and Justin's favorite thing at Disneyland. We even have a tradition every time we go, we hit the candy shop first thing just to get one.

What beings them up is Skylas upcoming birthday and she has decided she wanted a Winnie the Pooh themed b-day. So I got the idea to make a few cute treats instead of a cake this year, one being Tigger Tails. It was fun and super easy to do so I thought I would share the "how too's"

What you need:
Jumbo Marshmallows
Lolly pop sticks
Orange colored candy melts
dark chocolate
Caramel (I did homemade, it was really easy)

You can ether by caramel candy's and melt them down or make it from scratch.
I made mine....

Caramel:
2 cups sugar
2 cups lite corn syrup
1/2 cup butter
2 cups evaporated milk
1 t-spoon Vanilla
Cook sugar and syrup on medium/ med-high heat till its at a nice boil.
Add the butter in small chunks and mix till melted.
Once melted, slowly add the milk making sure you keep the mix at a boil.
Boil wile stirring occasionally till a candy thermometer hits soft ball stage and its a nice golden brown.
Take it off the heat and add the vanilla. I let the caramel cool just a few min before i used it so it wouldn't melt the marshmallows.

Wile the caramel is cooking get the marshmallows ready. One Tail uses 3 marshmallows, 2 whole and 1 cut in half . This is what gives it a nice bumpy look.

Slowly slide one marshmallow at a time on the lolly pop stick. Make sure to alternate with a whole and then one of the half marshmallows.
When you have them all done stick them on a cookie sheet covered in wax paper and pop them in the freezer for about 10 min.

Once they are cold start covering them in the caramel, making sure to drip off as much of the caramel as you can. This is what gives them their nice smooth look.

When your done pop them back in the freezer for another 10min.
In the mean time melt the Orange colored chocolate melts (one pack does about 6 tails).
When its nice and smooth dip the tails in the chocolate.
Put them back in the freezer and melt your dark chocolate.
When the chocolate is ready you can ether put it in a decorating bag with a small round tip, or just use a spoon and slowly drizzle it over the tails using a long back and forth motion over them so the chocolate comes off in long lines.

I'm so excited about them, they came out super cute hope they are just as yummy.