The Jones Girls

We set out to go to the L.A. County Fair today.  They had a good deal, $1 per adult if you arrived 10am-1pm.  We were on the road at 11:30am and still stuck in traffic at 12:30pm with no end in sight when we would finally get to the fair.

So we ditched the scene and decided to go to a park.    We ventured over to the Fullerton Arboretum.

What a beautiful place.   It is an amazing botanical garden with lots of water features, bridges,and water falls.  The girls loved looking at the fishies in the stream and made friends with the ducks and turtles at the pond.  

There were so many different areas of botanicals – woods and forest, fruit trees, flowering trees, vegetable gardens…so much to look and see!

This was a fun way to spend the afternoon.  It is free but they do accept donations so we were happy to give them a $3 donation to support such a beautiful place in our community.

What a beautiful day it was today!!

I had a free coupon for 10 people to go bowling.  I called my girlfriend, Nubia to come join us and she brought her 2 kids down and we met up at Whittier Bowl today.

What a great bowling!!  We had a blast!!   Savannah is doing really well learning to bowl.  She crouches down and pushes the ball with both arms.

I am still using the ball ramp with the triplets but for a few sets I did have them crouch down and push the ball with both arms.   I helped them of course.

Miranda’s ball was slow moving and stopped at the beginning of the lane so I thought I would go out to the lane and get it.   The minute I stepped my foot on the lane I slipped and fell hard.    I had no idea that they was the lanes!!   Oh man, I hit really hard and my arm is really sore from the fall.   Next time, I am going to have an employee go get the ball for me.  Ouchie!!

They all had lots of fun and bowled all 10 sets.    I had crayons and coloring books to keep them busy as each girl took turns bowling.

Afterwards we went to Red Robin.  I had some coupons for free Kids Meals that the dentist gave the girls on their dental visit a few weeks ago.   So everyone had a free lunch.    Poor Maryssa and Amanda were so wiped out and they fell asleep on the chair in the booth.

On the way out everyone got a balloon.

What a great day for activities that were FREE!! YIPPEE!!

I planned a really fun field trip for my girls and for the La Habra Moms Club.  We had a huge turnout – about 26 kids and 15 moms.    We went to Red Robin, a restaurant that specialized is gourmet hamburgers and good food fare.

I arranged to have each child get a tour of the kitchen and how the restaurant operates, work with the chef to make their very own made to order burger, and then they all received all sorts of goodies like free gift certificates, keepsake cups, coloring books and crayons.

They had a private room all decorated for us.   There were balloons tied to each child’s chair.  It looked amazing!!  

Poor Maryssa was so wiped out and fell asleep eating her burger while sitting in the booth with the other girls.  I had to lay her down on the bench in the booth.    The event started at 2pm and my girls got to sit down and eat at about 3:15pm so I guess Maryssa needed to take a catnap – LOL!!

The kids got to sit down and have lots of socializing with each other while enjoying their full burger meal with fries and a drink for a negotiated discount price of $3 a kid.  Each mom ordered their own lunch.  I negotiated some free kids meal coupons so I was able to get my girls and my burger meal free.   I thought they were very gracious to our La Habra Moms Club.

Some interesting facts that I learned from our host that gave us the tour of Red Robin – the 1st Red Robin opened up in Seattle, WA in 1969.  They now have over 500 restaurants nationwide.  

The big informative fact that I learned is that they use FRESH ground beef daily – never frozen.  They chop their vegetables fresh every morning for each day.  They hand slice their cheese and luncheon meet with an electric slicer.  It doesn’t get better than this and for now on I will be supporting Red Robin and recommending them to everyone for a good and wholesome meal.

I have a $10 off coupon at JCPenney’s so I took the girls there to get some school shoes for Savannah.    I was pleasantly surprised to learn that JCPenney’s was having a killer sale called “BOGO”    The deal is buy a pair of shoes and get the 2nd pair for .01 (1 cent).

Well you know what this means….I would be able to get all of the girls new shoes!!     We spent an hour trying on different sneakers, cute flats and sandals.    We got 14 pairs of shoes for a steal!!    Gotta love the deals.

They fitted the girls feet while we were there.  Savannah is size 11-1/2, Amanda and Miranda are size 9 and Maryssa is size 8.  When they tried all of the shoes, everyone actually fit in a size smaller.  We got lots of attention.    Everyone was treating us like celebreties.   This was the store’s first time to have The Jones Girls shopping for shoes!!  LOL.   

Miranda, my shoe diva, was in all of her glory trying on women’s high heeled shoes and looking at herself in the mirror.  Then all of the girls started doing it.  It really looked so cute and adorable to see all 4 of my girls in shiny, glittery and colorful high heel women’s shoes.

It was a ton of work for me and I had to work hard not to lose my mind amongs the organized chaos.

Cliff’s niece Mindy has been visitng with us since July 13th.  She flew out to CA with us from VT.

Today was her last day here.   We drove her this afternoon to LAX.  We had to wait in long lines at Southwest and the service at Southwest sucked.   They told us Mindy’s luggage may not make it to the plane and that it may show up on the next flight out.     If that happened, they could either wait for the next flight or have the luggage FedExpressed to their home at their own expense.    They told me the luggage needs to be checked in at least 2 hours before departure.   Sheesh!!  We waited at least that amount in line.    What a crappy airline.  I have never flown Southwest and after this experience, I will try to avoid using them.

Me and the girls got a pass so we could walk with Mindy to her gate. 
 
It was a tight time frame but with no time to spare she walked right onto the plan.

We had so much fun with Mindy.  We all cried and watched her plane take off down the runway.     The girls cried through the airport missing Mindy.

We love you sweetheart and we can’t wait till you come visit us again – sooner rather than later!!

Today was the triplets 3 year old birthday party at a really fun place called Scooter’s Jungle.  It is an indoor child’s fantasy place and has a 2-story bouncy slide, a 100 foot bouncy activity center and another bounce house.  There were tons of different activities for the kids to play and do.  

The party began at 2pm.  About 20 adults and 22 kids were there.     At 3:45 we all went into the party room.    Each child had their own lunch sack filled with munchie goodies.    Then we sang happy birthay, the girls blew out their candles and everyone ate cupcakes, cake and ice cream.  

The party ended at 4:45pm.   Each child received a special plush Scooter monkey with balloon as a party gift favor.   

There was a ton of presents for the triplets. 

When we got home, I gave the girls dinner.  Then our neighbor Sid came over and the girls opened all of thei presents.  They had so much fun.    Lots of cute and fun stuff.    Then we all had more cake and dessert.

Happy 3rd Birthday to my sweet girls – Amanda, Miranda, and Maryssa.

We decided to go back to Disneyland and do some more fun stuff in Fantasy Land and ToonTown.  The girls had a meet and greet with Mickey Mouse.    They saw the “Celebrate” Parade and then we headed over to watch Fantasmic again.   

Last night we learned that if you want to get a good seat to watch Fantasmic, you need to be there at least 2 hours before the show.    I know, I know, it is totally ridiculous.   Apparently, Disneyland has been advertising their new dragon character for Fantasmic in attempts to draw huge crowds.  Well  it worked!!   It used to be that people marked their territory about 1 hour before the Fantasmic Show.

Last night we had a horrible spot to watch Fantasmic.  It was a bit disappointing for all of us.  I was determined to get a good spot this time.  After all, my girls are the biggest Fantasmic Fans ever!

We found a great spot.  I went and grabbed some dinner, laid out some blankets and we had a picnic dinner while waiting for the show.

We enjoyed the show a hundred times better tonight.  Then we saw the fireworks.  Totally amazing!!

On the way out, we stopped at Mad Hatter on Disney Main Street and I got the triplets cute Happy Birthday Mickey Mouse Ears and Savannah got a Fantasmic Mickey Mouse Ears hat.   We also got our traditional departing Mickey Mouse lollipops too.