The Jones Girls

Today we went to a friend’s birthday party, Daniel who is turning 6.    The party was at John’s Pizza in Buena Park which located adjacent to Knotts Berry Farm.

The parking was unbelievable that day.   We had to park a long distance away from the venue.    I was so proud of the girls.  We all held hands and walked through the busy parking lot then into the mall, into an elevator and then sifted through the hundred’s of people to enter John’s Pizza.

This place is like Disneyland on steroids.   There was an hour long wait for people to get into the place.    Thankfully we were attending a private party so we got to go into the side door.   Then we had to wait in a long line to check in.   This was our entry into the land of total chaos and unruliness.

We had to pass by the buffet stations where people were clamored around pizza, pasta, and salad stations filling up their plates as quickly as they could.   I saw little 2 year old toddlers walking around with ice cream cones with sprinkles on them, the ice cream smeared all over their faces, dripping on their clothes and on the floor.    The parents were letting their kids run around like wild banshees.    It was really disturbing and gross to look at.

I found the private room where the party was.   We greeted Daniel and his sweet Momma, Liz, gave us cute ID necklaces that said we were attending Daniel’s 6th Birthday Party.  Now I was impressed.   This is how all of the other parents in this place should do with their kids.  I mean, there must have been over 500 people in the whole place!!

We saw some friends and sat together at their table.  I left the girls with their little friends and braved the storm of hundreds of people to get to the buffet tables and trudge through the lines of people to get back to my girls.  I felt like I was a penguin trying to bring her little fishie food to her little baby penguins!  It was just a mad house.

The “clean” forks and spoons had caked on food on them.    I was grossed out.    I had to go get more silverware.     The food was your typical tasting buffet food.

But to be honest with you, we were very grateful and happy to be celebrating Daniel’s birthday.  We would have been just as happy celebrating anywhere, but this was the place where the party was, and we were happy to be there celebrating with him!!

We sang happy birthday while he blew out candles on 2 cakes.   That tells you how many people were at this party…over 100 people!!   His momma Liz is so amazing and she loves her little boy Daniel so much.  She put so much energy and love into his birthday and I just respect and love her so much for being the best parent for Daniel. 

Liz is the president of our La Habra Moms club.   She spent a lot of effort, time and  money for each person to attend this party, and she was so generous in inviting some of us from the club to Daniel’s birthday party.  She is an amazing women and I love her dearly.  She is my sister mom!!

After we ate the cake, Liz passed out the most amazing Mario themed goodie boxes filled to the brim with the BEST candy ever.  Then she gave all of the kids special passes which can be used in the game room to do bumper car rides, play video games and do all sorts of fun things.  The game room was the highlight of John’s Pizza.

 Everyone adjourned from the party room and went to the game room to have a blast.  Since I was by myself with the girls, I was too intimidated to take them in the game room among I would say at least over 200 people in the game room.    I decided we would come back another time during the week when it was slower and have fun in the game room. 

Happy 6th Birthday Sweet Daniel!! xoxoxo

I coordinated a fund Meet a Critter tour at Pet Smart in Fullerton for my La Habra Moms Club.   We had about 25 moms and kids come to the event.

The kids got to see cute guinea pigs and  pet their mascot Lucy, who is a sweet mouse.   We saw how they groomed dogs.   Then we got a tour of the pet animal hospital and meet the Vet and visit all of the sick animals.   We saw a surgery room and even X-rays of a dog’s broken leg.  

Poor Amanda got her left hand slammed in the door, but the good news is we were in the pet hospital when it happened so we had immediate medical attention to our rescue.   Within minutes she was over it and all was fine again – whew!!

Our last part of the tour was visiting all of the different kinds of fish.   We also saw a huge bin of live crickets that they sell by the pound and they are used to feed lizards, snakes, etc. that people keep as pets.  My little insect lovers thought that was fascinating.  Of course off of my girls worked my really hard to buy some fish to take home.  I told them when they got a little older and got more responsible with helping feed the fish and clean the fish tank, then we would get them some fish.   I gracefully bowed out of that one…LOL!!

At the end of our tour each child received a fun goodie bag as a present.    It was a fun time!!

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!!

If I wasn’t busy enough, I have taken on the position of co-leader for Savannah’s Daisy Girl Scout Troop #7274.   I will be working with Lyn, the mother of  Tess, who is Savannah’s classmate and friend in Kindy.    The beneft with being a leader is that I can bring the triplets with me and I won’t need a babysitter – yay!!

We had a meeting today to familiarize ourselves with starting the troop and get things under way.   I really like Lyn.  She is an event planner for the city of Whittier and I really appreciate her organizational and planning skills.   She and I are very similar…very detailed oriented with great imaginations.  I believe we are going to have a blast with our new troop.

The Daisy troop will meet 2 Mondays a month at Savannah’s school, El Portal at 1:30pm right after school in the multi purpose room.   There will be 11 girls in the troop, most of them Kindy and a couple from 1st grade.     We have our agenda all put together and our first meeting with our troop is on Monday January 11th.

All of the girls will be earning petals patches.  Our goal is to earn 10 petals by January to make the daisy on the girls smocks.    The Daisy troop will be for 2 years. Then I will be the leader when the triplets start Kindy and Lyn will be the leader for the Brownie Troop when Savannah becomes a 2nd grader.

Daisies don’t sell cookies and we don’t do fundraising which is really nice.  We have snacks each meeting, sing a themed Girl Scout song and Girl Scout Promise and do our activity.

Savannah’s 2nd top front  tooth has been loose for a while.   Tonight she came to me and said it HAD to come out NOW.  So she loosened it and then I did the final pull.   She couldn’t believe it was out. That makes 5 teeth she has lost.

Something kinda funny… Our next door neighbor called me a couple of days ago and he said both of his top front teeth broke off and he has no front teeth.  He has an appointment at the dentist on January 4th to get some caps.   

I am going to take a picture of the both of them with their missing front teeth!   LOL!

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.