The Jones Girls

A few months ago I got the girls the Lion King 2 video.    My friend Corrie called me and said the theatrical show Lion King was having a limited engagement at the Costa Mesa Performing Arts for a short couple of weeks in June.   She asked if Savannah and I would like to join her and her girls.

So I had Savannah go on You Tube and watch the theatrical performance and she was mesmerized with excitement and amazement.   I asked her if she would like to go see it and she said Yes Mommy!!  I was so excited, this will be here very first theatrical performance.

So today at 3:30pm, Corrie picked us up and we went to dinner at Red Lobster.    It was a nice dinner and the girls enjoyed visiting the live lobsters in the aquariums.   

At 5:30pm (the show started at 6:30pm and we wanted plenty of time to get there) we packed up in the car and I reached in my purse for the tickets so we could “GPS” directions.   NO TICKETS were in my purse!  I distinctly remember putting them in my purse before we left the house.  But then I do remember Google directions to get to Costa Mesa Performing Arts…does this mean I LEFT THE TICKETS AT HOME…which will put us almost 45 minutes late!!

I call Cliff and frantically tell him I can’t find the tickets.  He goes through my desk…no tickets!!  EEEK!!  Where are they?  I am so panicked, I am going to through up the expensive lobster dinner that I just ate.  

I run into the restaurant…perhaps the tickets fell out of my purse and landed on the floor under that table?   So I run to the table.  It is sparkling clean and no sigh of the tickets.    NO dice…OMG!!

I quickly seek out our server and have him check with the bus boy to find out if he had seen our tickets when he cleaned our table.  The manager came out and handed me a folded up wad of paper that had been pulled out of the trash.    The tickets were in my hand….granted, they were in the trash, but I had the tickets – WHEW!!   Thank you Precious Lord – and I mean I really prayed and thanked him!!!

So this put us behind only 7 minutes.    Our drive was smooth as well as our parking.  We got to our seats.

Savannah was amazed at how grand the seating was in the theatre.  We had balcony seats with a fantastic view.    The curtains went up and the show began.   The Baby Lion King scene immediately began the performance.  The symphony was excellent the dancers were electrifying to watch.  The costumes were mezmerizing and ingenious!!

We had a 1/2 hour intermission.    It was about a 3 hour performance.  Savannah was getting antzy about 3/4 of the way through..not too bad for a 6 year old watching her first performance being that long!!

We left and I got a little dizzy.   We had to go up and down stairs and then go around and down for many, many flights.   The walls were full of mirrors.  It was very disorienting for me.  At last we reached the bottom-whew!!

We waited in a long line to get the girls a little keepsake present.  The line was obnoxiously long.   We weren’t  about to wait in this cattle call!

So we paced to the exit and we lucked out – there was a guy selling Lion King stuffed memorabilia.   Savannah wanted what she called “The Pig”.  So I got her that.

We got home at about 10:30pm.

Last week at Savannah’s Kindy class the kids and her teacher’s fiance, surprised the teacher with a wedding engagement proposal. Here is the video link. Savannah is holding the letter “O” for the word “YOU” in WILL YOU MARRY ME? So cute!!   Congradulations Miss Chrissy Tarbell!!  When the triplets have her in Kindy, she will have a new last name!!

Check it out  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1Om-NDOuQg

Today is a huge milestone for Savannah.  When she was just turning 3 years old, I had her evaluated for speech, development, and physical delays.  She met all of the criteria at the tender young age of 3 and attended Meadow Green school Special Ed Preschool.  Her all time favorite and unforgettable preschool teacher was Mrs. Van Vliet.

Mrs. Van Vliet is an amazing teacher and speech pathologist that specializes in helping children meet the goals in delays.  She did a exceptional job preparing Savannah for Kindergarten.

So Savannah entered Kindergarten taking speech twice a week.    This year she has progressed well and the result from our IEP meeting  a few days ago meant that today is Savannah’s last day of speech.

This morning I decorated pretty, summery cupcakes to bring and surprise her in speech class.  We are going to party..this is a huge accomplishment for Savannah!!

Savannah received a beautiful graduation certificate at her party.  It put tears in my eyes.  I am so very proud of my sweet Savannah!!

I had an appointment today at Savannah’s school for Savannah’s annual speech evaluation.   Corrie, my friend, watched the triplets for me while I was in the meeting.

Savannah’s speech teacher is Darcy.   Savannah was with us at the meeting as well as Savannah’s teacher, Miss Tarbell, and the school psychologist.     We went over the test scores, from when Savannah was 3 years old in 2007 to currently at 6 years old in Kindergarten.  and her receptive language is average to above average.  Her expressive is average.  She scored a little low in certain expressive areas. 

The end result is that Savannah has progressed so well, making it by leaps and bounds since she was 3 years old….. she is graduating from speech!!    We did discuss the idea that I would like a progress report the 1st trimester of 1st grade to make sure she hasn’t fallen behind and to re-evaluate if she needs more speech.

I cried my eyes out.    At that very moment, I was the proudest momma on earth!!     I love you my dear, sweet, smart and amazing Savannah!!  I love you!!

Today Cliff had to visit one of his customers who owns an airport in Perris.    This customer built an indoor skydiving simulator.   Cliff wanted all of us to go with him to see the airport and check out the sky diving simulator.

So we headed out at 8am and it took about an hour to get there.  The weather was chilly and the clouds were getting dark and the wind gusty.   Cliff met with his customer for about an hour while I took the girls and we ventured around the airport.    There were all sorts of private planes and jets.  There were many Sky Diving shops.  We saw a lot of sky divers with their equipment getting ready to take a flight up that morning. 

We rain into an 85 year old WWII veteran who flew planes during the war.  He was fascinating to talk to.  He lives in La Puente.  I got a picture of him with the girls.  He said he hoped to fly another 15 years and then retire.    I really enjoyed his zest for life!!

We met some skydivers and the girls ran around on the grass and kicked a socker ball around with some boys.  Then raindrops started coming down then a huge downpour.  We headed into the restaurant where Cliff was having his meeting.  He was wrapping up his meeting just as we arrived.

We had a bite to eat.  Dave, the manager, and Bob, the owner invited Savannah to try out the Sky diving simulator.  She was beyond excited.     They had a slot for her at 12:30pm!!    So we ventured over to this 4 story building that contained the flight simulator.   There were loud engine noises to pump the huge amounts of air into the simulator.  It looked just like a rocket ship!!

We watched with fascination at the instructors teaching people who signed up to try out the skydiving simulation.   Savannah was called in to take a class on what to do and learn certain hand signals.  Then she got to put on a really cool flight suit, goggles and a flight helmet.  She looked so cute!!

She was so brave as she walked confidently into the flight simulator.  She laid on the ground and followed the instructions on what to do.   She floated and flew around.   I was in amazement and so proud of my baby!!   I couldn’t believe how good Savannah did!   When she finished, the first thing out of her mouth was….when can I go again!!

After the Mother & Daughter Tea, we drove home to change and then we went to the La Habra Heights Avocado Festival.   Savannah wanted to stay and play at her friend Madeline’s house and Madeline’s sister, Analiese, wanted to come with us to the Festival.  We sort of did a kid swap thing…LOL!

We saw so many cute little animals, watched a weaver make homemade wool, petted little critters.  We visited a Dog Greyhound rescue booth.  I am going to have her be a guest speaker this summer for our La Habra Moms club and she will bring the dogs for the kids to meet and pet.  

We then went over to the Bee Keeper.  That was so neat!   They had a live exhibit of bees in a bee hive making honey.   I purchased some honey sticks filled with different flavored honeys.  They girls LOVED them.   I am going to ask Lynne the Bee Keeper to be a guest speaker this summer for La Habra Moms club also.  I referred the Bee Keeper to the school principal, Kim Likert, at Savannah’s school.   She really liked the idea and they are going to incorporate an event next year at school.  How cool is that?

Then we went over to the bouncy houses and the girls spent what seemed to be forever having a blast there.   Afterwards we did a little shopping and I got the girls beautiful butterflies. 

It was a fun day…and tiring too!!

Today I took all of the girls to a Mother & Daughter Tea that I organized with both of my moms clubs.   The girls wore beautiful and adorable dresses with Pet shop material, made by Grandma.   We had 26 people there.   I made cute Pet shop packages for the kids.   I made hair bows that sported Pet shop characters and were very time consuming to make.   But well worth it..the girls loved them!!

It was the first Tea for the triplets and for the most part they behaved.   We had some challenging moments for THREE 3 year old triplets!!    They munched on their lunch of chicken nuggets, fishie crackers, tea sandwiches and a blueberry scone.  They had lemonade as their tea in little porcelain tea cups.

We had some a fun game of pulling numbers….everyone one a prize.    I had made beautiful decorated sugar cookies in the shape of teapots and teacups. I had gotten the cookie cutters at East Poultney General Store last summer with the intention of using them for the Mother & Daughter Tea.  I also gave out beautiful gift baskets to each mom with baked goods and chocolates inside.   Then I gave each girl a rice crispy treat. 

Everyone had a wonderful time.  I can’t believe this was the 3rd annual tea!!     We look forward to doing it again next year…