CA or Bust

Right when school go out the kids and high tailed it out of here for an adventure in California.  Our stay was pretty awesome. I think we fit it all in. We even got a surprise visit by Kevin who deiced to join us on our last weekend there.
This picture demonstrates why I gain 5 pounds every time I go home. This is breakfast folks every morning. Oh well I will just run it off.

And that is just what I did with my fantastic Papa. This guy loves to walk as much as I do. Love him.

We had some days where we just hung out and got out all the games, art and toys. Mom bought some water color crayons. I love them and can't wait to get some of our own,  Oh and a spirograph which was also endless fun.

On Memorial day I wanted to take the kids to my brother Mark's grave site.  It was nice to do a little clean up, place some flowers and remember the funny guy and tell my kids about him.

I caught this picture of these two. Lilly loves her Papa.

Next on the to do list we hit the La Brea Tar pits.  The kids were pretty fascinated. I was too I mean you have oil just coming up in the middle of  Los Angeles crazy right. I also learned that there are 2 working oil pumps in the city one in Beverly Hills high school and the other in the Beverly center shopping mall. Crazy right?  Here the kids are seated with their new friend the giant sloth.

I was up for an adventure this time and wanted to so something that we usually don't do.  Sequoia national park is only 3 hours away from my parents house. So lets do it. I was hoping that Papa would join us but his leg was bothering him. I said "hey I'm an adult I can do this" and off we went.  The plan was to go up for 2 days find a place to stay outside the park so I didn't have to worry about camping stuff. Everything worked out wonderfully. We saw the big trees and 5 bears including 3 baby cubs that ran across the meadow and up a tree.

The kids were pretty eager to spend some of their money so we perused a gift shop where everyone found a special something. Luke a black bear, Max a wolf and Lilly a ranger doll. We stayed in a cute lodge outside of the park where we washed up, called home and watched so TV.   Now this is the tricky part, to get to the heart of the park you have to travel 15 miles on a windy road, takes about 30 minutes up and 30 minutes down.  The plan was to go back into the park the next morning but we decided that we had seen what we wanted to so we hung out at the lodge and played in the river. What I learned, we could happily spend a week there hiking and playing in the river, camping would be the best and I wish Kevin was with us. But so so worth the trip!

When we got back we hit the beach the next day.  Always fun to play in the sun, surf and sand. 

The whole reason we went out this time was because my mom was having a retirement lunch to commemorate her years as the school secretary. It was wonderful to see how much the teachers appreciated her and her amazing qualities, among them are her happy demeanor, her willing attitude and kind heart.  

We spent some time hanging out with family when Kevin came into town. LAPD was hosting a big car show so Grandpa took the kids to see all the cool stuff while I was at the lunch.

  Then we happily headed back home on Sunday. Truly a wonderful way to start summer. And for your viewing pleasure a little vacation film.

summer12 cal from Laura Modrell on Vimeo.

June 12th

1.  Breakfast Luke's favorite cinnamon toast crunch.
2.  The shenanigans of the morning, Placing all blankets, pillows, stuffed animals and any soft thing and the bottom of the stairs and jumping. I hate when they do this.
3.  Summer movies 2015. Today's showing Rio 2.
4.  Sometimes I get sucked into the Instagram vortex. Not my proudest moment.
5.  School lunch
6.  When Max's flip flops break while out and about the solution is to run to Old Navy and pick up another pair. And pose with the manikins of course and pet the fake dog.
7.  My buddy getting the mail after a week of avoiding it.
8.  Summer swimming.  We are bumming off friends for pool time. Thank you Thank you!
9.  My beautiful girl and her freckles.
10. Jumping backwards
11. This was our dinner. Kevin was out on a scout trip so each kid picked their ice cream and cookies.
12. When the kids went to bed I treated myself to a little Gilmore Girls. All is well with the world.

May: little things

This face I just love it. And I especially love when his eyelashes are wet because they are so long making him the envy of every woman.

A rare find, 2 cheez-it's stuck together make perfect eye balls.

The day after our last day of preschool I took Luke out for a "YES" day. He got a chocolate shake for breakfast and a trip to the zoo including a run in the splash pad. I sure will miss my buddy when he heads of to kindergarten.

Kevin has started a new job working at color spot. It's a happy job with flowers and a cute hat.  

 One Sunday Max and I were looking for something to do. I pulled up Pinterest and let him choose an art project. I loved our one on one time creating pretty pictures.

On my way out to met up for a morning run, the sky was beautiful. I opened up the sun roof and took a look. Driving in Kevin's car and the lovely weather took me back to living in California with palm trees a blue sky.

Last Day of School

Just like magic the last day of school came an went.  I knew it was coming I had prepared for it but it still takes me by surprise.  All the days and weeks that seemed never ending at the time now feel like they went by too fast.

Luke closed out his preschool year with a small program. They sang Down by the Bay and his verse that he made up was "have you ever seen a fish wearing a dish?"  They sang a few other songs and preformed the story of the 3 little pigs. He did a great job. Off to kindergarten he goes. He is so ready. It will be fun to see him learn next year.

 Lilly and Max were off to school for their last day like pros. Next year we will have 6th grade and 4th. Crazy town I tell you. We are looking forward to a fun packed summer. With lots of heat, water, ice cream, late nights, movies, and friends.

May 12

This really seams all that I blog about anymore. I do what I can. After I looked at all the pictures I took today I realized that there were a lot of selfies and a lot of food. Seriously how vain. 

1. 3 A.M talking to Korea.  I have picked up a job to plan for summer when I'm not teaching preschool. I found a company that teaches English to Korean students all done over the internet. I teach them a lesson as a model of a native speaker.  It has been really fun. It's worked out so we are keeping it for now.

2.  Breakfast: eggs

3.  Water day at preschool. We made boats, had relay races and classified sink or float objects. Preschool curriculum really never gets old for me, I'm still fascinated every time.

4.  Kevin has Tuesday off from work for the time being. I caught him playing his favorite game. CLASH OF CLANS. Oh the bane of my existence.

5.  Trying to catch a little nap. We have a busy night and I will be up late.

6.  Snacky Snack,  protein shake for an afternoon pick me up.

7.  Favorite part of the day picking up the kiddos from school.

8.  Preschool prep. Down by the Bay. The kids made up their own rhymes so I was adding illustrations to them.

9.  Dinner. We were having fajitas. Somehow in the request for help and delegating jobs to help get dinner on, Luke thought I asked him to get out the syrup. After we laughed about it, he had to try syrup on his fajita. Yuck. But no surprise to me he liked it.

10. Golden Scholar awards night.  Lilly received the Golden Scholar award tonight. This is awarded to students with excellent academic achievement. Students have earned all A's with an exception of only one B for the first 3 quarters of the school year. Really I couldn't be more proud. She has really worked hard for this, The best part is of how she beams knowing that she did it.

11. Late night snack. I never ever do this really ask Kevin but, I was really hungry and I was worried about working tonight until midnight and being starving. So I caved and made a yummy snack. It was good and I was happy.

12. Last class of the night ending at 11:55 pm.