The Jones Girls

Today was Savannah’s 1st day as a Daisy Girl Scout.   We have 14 girls in our troop.   Some are Kindy Kids from Savannah’s class and the other Kindy class, some are 1st graders and some are from another school, Jordan School.  

The meeting began at 1:30pm, right after school.   We all met in the multi purpose room and then at 1:45pm we all moved outside and enjoyed the nice weather.  Today it was 77 degrees and sunny.

Since I don’t have a babysitter, I brought the triplets to the meeting with me.  It made it fun and challenging to have the triplets at the meeting while I was co-leading the troop.  The other co-leader, Lyn, is AWESOME.  She was a girl scout for many years and remembers all of the girl scout songs, the Girl Scout Promise and all of the fun activities the troops do.   Our troop is so lucky to have her!!

Today the girls made and decorated daisy necklaces with their names on the to help all of us get to know every one’s name.   They also traced each other’s hands, cut out their traced hand and glued it to the Girl Scout Promise Poem that they need to learn to earn their first patch, which will be in a month at their Investitute Ceremony.   

We had snacks, sang a song, learned what makes a good Daisy and then finished the meeting with a friendship circle squeeze of each hands.  

We will meet 2 Mondays a month.

Today the girls had their first swimming lesson.    All 4 of them are enrolled in the Pikes which is the very beginning class for swimming lesson.   They go Tuesday and Thursdays at 4pm.

They were all so excited to go swimming in the indoor pool.    They all get in…except for Miranda.  She was scared out of her skin.  She screamed, hollered, clung to me like Velcro.     Finally we pulled her off me and it took 3 people to help me get her in the pool.  Amazingly, the instructor told me this is completely normal and they see this all of the time. 

They all hung onto to the side of the pool.    They leard to kick their feet in the water and get their face wet.  They didn’t blow bubbles in the water, that was a little too much for them to do and they got a little scared.  Savannah did fine with blowing bubbles and dunking her head.

Savannah did so well that they have moved her up to Polliwog!!    Her class will be after the triplets, at 4:30.

Miranda cried the whole lesson.    She really was scared and kept saying she was scared.  I think she needs the swimming lessons the most to help her get over her fear.

Amanda was so happy she held on with her strong left arm and splashed the water with her right lucky arm and also kicked her feet in the water.  She had a complete blast and was enjoying it so much.

Maryssa was following the teachers directions and splashing as she was told to do.  She is quite the good little student!!  

They all froze their little tails off when they got out of the pool.  They cried as I put their towels on them.   They were shivering.  We quickly scuttled to the car and I changed their clothes when we got home.

I am so proud of my little guppies!!

After my meeting with Lyn, I went home and packed us all up to go away for the weekend.  Cliff was ready to have some fun after working so much.   We also brought our dog Teddy.

We drove up to Camarillo and I gave them a tour of where I grew up and the homes I lived in..on Merced Drive and on Lemon Street.    

We stopped by Cliff’s customer, Alberto.  What a nice guy.    The girls and I got out, did a bathroom run, then took Teddy out for a walk.  We walked past a building with barrels…it was a winery!!   The lady in the office kept staring at us walking Teddy.  Then she walked out and asked if that was her dog.  I said no.  Then her dog appeard and her dog looked exactly like Teddy!!  Her dog’s name is Lucy.   She invited us in and we had a nice chat,.    I purchased a present for Steven and Reyna’s 25th Wedding anniversary present.    I got them a signature wine from the winery (good bottle of wine..$35) and got them 2 gift certicates for a wine tasting and they can taste fresh from the barrel.   It doesn’t get better for fresher than this!!  I thought this would be a unique gift.

Cliff wrapped up his meeting with Alberto and we continued onto Venture to meet our friend Barbara Hobbins and visit our dog Scottie, who now lives with Barbara.  Our plan was to have dinner with Barbara.  When we got to her house, she didn’t answer the door.  She was gone.  So we went and had dinner at Marie Calendars.

We enjoyed the famous cornbread @ Marie Calendars.  After eating 3/4 of it Savannah started freaking out saying aunts.  There were ants crawling in her cornbread!!   By this time we were already eating our dinner.   The manager comped our dinner and gave us a whole pie.   Barbara was home so we took her the Razzleberry Pie to her house and had a very nice visit.

At about 9pm went drove to Oxnard to Steve & Reyna’s house.    We gave them their present and they really like it.  We partied and had so much fun.   At about midnight we all went to bed.

The next morning we all got up and got ready for Steve & Reyna’s big 25th wedding anniversary brunch.  We all dressed up.     We drove to Five Points Sheraton off of Harbor Blvd.    What a beautiful reception it was!!   Reyna was dressed in a beautiful white gown that looked similar to a wedding gown.     I was suprised to see some old friends there, Janet and Mike.   We had so much fun!!   Steve & Reyna’s son played the piano beautifully and entertained us all.

We left at about 2pm and drove by our old house on “M” Street.  Then we drove home and got ready to go to Disneyland.

We arrived at Disneyland at about 7pm.  We wanted to see the show Fantasmic and it started at 9pm.  They have a new dragon in the show and we wanted to see it before the show goes on hiatus till May.  Tonight was the last night it was running and it was very crowded.  It is a good thing we got there at 7pm to get a decent spot.  It was a wonderful show and the girls really enjoyed it.   We also got to enjoy the fireworks too.   We got home at 11:30pm.

What a fantastic weekend!!

Last night I dressed the girls in matching Christmas pajamas that I had purchased from JCPenney’s in November during their Door Buster Sale.   They all looked so cute.

Unfortunately, Amanda and Savannah got sick in the middle of the night.  They had a stomach bug.  So I had to change their cute Christmas pajamas.  Maryssa was sick a couple of nights ago and was throwing up through the night.  They must have caught it from her.   Anyway, the girls are fine now so all is good!1

Last night Cliff put together the triplets Mermaid Tricycles.  They have a cute bubble and music machine.    The girls went crazy for them this morning.  These were supposed to be the triplets birthday present back in August, but Cliff was in Arkansas working for 6 weeks and was not here during their Birthday party to put them together, so I just hung onto them for Christmas.

The triplets got digital cameras by Discovery Kids.  I had scored big time on these cameras at Bed Bath & Beyond.   The cameras were on sale for $30 and I had coupons and saved $30 so I spent $60 for all 3 cameras…woo hoo!!  I also got Savannah a real video camera and got it cheap for $25.

Savannah got a neat VTech Pocket handheld video game package.     It is a little advanced for her but she will grow into it.

All of girls got Leap Frog Learn To Read Books.  

They had a great Christmas.

Dad and Fran came this afternoon.   We went for a nice walk.   They enjoyed interacting with the girls.    I made  a nice lunch – homemade tomato & rice soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.

We had a nice dinner together.  I baked chicken.     We watched the movie Julie and Julia tonight.

Today we went to Cliff’s Christmas party at Numatic Engineering in Sun Valley.  It is about a 1-1/2 drive from our house.

The girls wore the Christmas dresses that they wore for the ballet recital.   Cliff had requested that they wear these dresses today.  They all looked so pretty and Cliff was so proud of his beautiful family.

I baked 45 banana nut breads for all of the employees at Numatic Engineering. This is my annual tradition that I have been doing for them for 12 years now.   Wow that is a long time!!  They all look forward to it every year, especially the owner, Steve Leach.

They had a fun raffle and both Cliff and I won prizes.  We won a $25 Gift certificate to Home Depot which we used to buy new vertical blinds for our den and we also won a gift certificate for Best Buy which we will use to buy Amanda’s computer mouse which has a ball on it to help give her therapy for her thumb.    Cliff received a gift certificate to Fry’s Electronics – that is Cliff’s favorite store and he can spend hours in there and thousands of dollars if I let him…LOL!!

They had a nice luncheon of croissant sandwiches with chips and salsa and cake for dessert.   It was very nice and cozy.

One of the most beautiful and festive things to go do during Christmas time is go to Disneyland. 

I took the girls to Disneyland this afternoon.   It was a little chilly and we were all bundled up warm sweaters and it felt like something out of Norman Rockwell.

We started off at California Adventure and we saw Mickey Mouse Club House Live!  Afterwards we had some lunch that I had brought with us and then we ventured over to see Crush which is an interactive Nemo show.  Then we saw the Pixar Parade and the girls went crazy over all of their favorite cartoon characters such as Nemo, Buzz Light Year and Woody, etc.  

We left California Adventure and went into Disneyland Park.   We saw the beautiful Christmas Parade.  It was so beautiful!!      We all ate marshmallows and drank Hot Chocolate that I had brought with us.    It was lovely.  We took a stroll through the crowds and saw the beautifully decorated It’s a Small World.   It was a 2+ hour wait so we decided not to go on the ride.  We had something else more important to see!!  We will go back and see it after Christmas when the crowds are shorter.

After the parade, we went back to California Adventure, bought some Gingerbread Cookies and enjoyed them with hot chocolate and sat down to watch the Electric Light Parade.    This is the most magical parade ever!!     They don’t have this parade often, only during limited engagements so we were delighted to watch it.

It was so crowded that day that I parked on the very last lane of the uppermost level of the parking structure.  We had arrived at about 1:00pm.   Shortly after we arrived, they said Disneyland was sold out and the parking lot was full.  They were not accepting anymore patrons. We got there just in time.    Thankfully when we got on the tram it wasn’t too busy because pretty much everyone was already in the park.     Even though it was a little crowded at Disneyland park, California Adventure was only half as crowded so I am glad we spent a lot of our time there. 

This day really got all of us excited for Christmas!!  Yippee!!

Today was the girls Christmas Holiday Ballet Recital.   They wore their pretty Christmas dresses that I got for them for our Family Holiday Portraits.   They all looked so pretty.

I baked and decorated 4 dozen Christmas cupcakes.  I also brought dip with crackers and a tin of different flavored popcorns.  When we arrived in the auditorium, I was so surprised to see so many people. The ballet teacher mentioned there would be about 48 people…I would say there was about 150 people!!  There were 5 tables full of all kinds of food and lots of hungry people since it was noon lunch time.     There was not enough food to feed everyone.

Anyway, the recital was beautiful.    Miranda didn’t listen to the teacher and wandered off…the little stinker.  This is exactly why I have her in ballet lessons…to listen to instructions from a teach!!   Savannah did really well and Maryssa and Amanda followed the dance pretty well too.

I am so proud of my little princesses!!