Locks of Love

WOW! Can't believe it. Devyn cut 11 inches off of her hair for Locks of Love. She actually cut about 13 or 14 by the time they evened it out. I thought she would chicken out. She and a friend had planned on doing it all summer. She had to wait until after recital so that we could get her hair up for Irish. She was so bummed when she came back from Jamaica and 4 of them had cut their hair without her! She was afraid she would look "dorky" but I think she looks so cute. She now loves it-we couldn't get her in bed this evening. She kept on playing with it and prancing in front of the mirror. She said she was going to take her brush with her to school! Of course, her daddy is thrilled! No more tangles or brushing conditioner through her hair.....

Jamaica, Part 2

Here are more pics.
1) Dev with new friends at the swim up bar drinking strawberry banana smoothies.
2) Dev with Aunty Pat-the fabulous arts and crafts teacher. Dev spent a lot of time there-tie dying and cutting a t-shirt, making friendship bracelets, making the Jamaican flag, and using pastels. She is an awesome teacher and a neat lady.
3) Dev at Sunset
4) Dev with a cheeky shot at the beach

Jamaica Mon!

Just got back from Jamaica Friday night and boy, am I tired. Remind me to never go somewhere that takes a whole day to travel unless it is direct-Europe, Australia, o.k.....but Jamaica-the traveling KILLED me! We woke at 1:30 a.m. our time here(4:30 there) to get to the airport on time. They only have one road and it takes at least 2 hours to get from the resort to the airport. Stayed in Ocho Rios, the airport is in Montego Bay. The roads are scary! There is no line down the center divider-they do a lot of swerving and honking to acknowledge that they are moving over. On the way TO our hotel, there were 2 accidents. So, the drivers allow for extra driving time. We got to the airport and had to do all of the customs stuff and then wait 2 hours. We had a 2 hour flight to Atlanta, running late, of course (Jamaican time= "no problem,mon!") In Atlanta, we went through customs again and then had to re-check our luggage for transfer. Waited about another 2 hours in the airport and ate lunch/dinner. Had a 5 hour flight home. Waited for a shuttle and the one hour drive home from LAX. Gotta say, it was the first time I enjoyed the ride home from LAX on the freeway. Totally appreciated our freeway system. How many times have I cursed it??? So much more civilized than Jamaican roads. Got home at 10:15 p.m. Didn't sleep much on the plane though Devyn did for a little bit. Of course, I am always over-scheduled so we awoke early Saturday to do recital pics followed by the mommy and me class I taught at the Bee. Monday school starts-ugh!

Anyways, Jamaica had its ups and downs.
Favorites:
1) Tops was probably the swim with the dolphins. Dev and I both did it. We held on to the dolphins as they pulled us, we did the "foot push", and helped with the tricks. Dev kept on saying "this is awesome!".
2) My second fav was climbing the Dunn's River falls. It was 600 ft. up. Dev was scared at first but it was fun! Told her to stay low and climb like SpiderMan. She kept yelling "Spider Dev, Spider Dev"! Was a little slippery but not too bad. It was so beautiful and it felt great-I was ready to do it again. But alas, our driver was waiting to take us back. Will post pic.....
3) Horseback ride and swim-not my fav. My horse (of course) decided to leave the group and head off straight into the deep blue sea with me on his back. My group traveled toward shore while I was pulling back on the reins and yelling "help"! The guides took their time getting to me as I was comtemplating jumping off the horse and swimming back to shore. They dragged my horse back into shore as he "did not want to cooperate". A little disappointing to hear the horse groaning as he was being dragged. Made me sad for the horses....
4) In general-lots of water-spent time on the water slides at the resort, the banana boat, the Hobie windsails, kayak, played at the beach and in the pool, Ron played a lot of volleyball. Dev liked the swim up bar-go figure....
5) Met new friends. Sisters Taylor and Courtney (I will include in Bar pic) and sisters Sabrina and Samantha. Played at Kids Camp, watched shows at night, and modeled in the fashion show (Dev).

Nice to be home. My bug bites are healing as well as the nasty cold sore I got from the massive amount of acidic fruits I ate. Devyn's blisters and rashes??? are healing along with the redness around her eyes. The hole in her foot is healing from walking on the rocky beach. Ron just returned from Urgent Care to get meds for the water in his ears that has been there since Jamaica. But boy, Dev sure has some stories to tell at school Monday.

More cute pics....

I LOVE my little neice, Emma. She is 22 months old and she and Devyn get along really well. If Dev is out of sight, Emma says "where Dev go?". My brother, sis-in-law, and Emma went with us to Kidspace today. Devyn and my other neice, Amanda, (age 11) played with Emma. Here are some pics- (the guy is my brother, the pic of the girls together is Dev with her two cousins :)

I haven't had any baby/toddler pics to scrap for a while so Emma is my new victim- I mean "subject".

Exhausted!

WHEW! The last days have killed me! My husband's family is visiting from Seattle. We have done Disneyland, Knott's, The Pirate Dinner Show, Kidspace Museum in Pasadena, the Swap Meet, and various swimming, shopping and eating activities. It would be hard doing these things alone but I don't tolerate heat well-it makes me grumpy (o.k.....grumpier)!!! After the museum today we went to Old Towne Pasadena and had Frozen Yogurt. My daugter and niece had to use the bathroom. Every door said "no public bathrooms". We asked people and FINALLY found a bathroom through a courtyard near the movie theater. However, it was not even marked. We had to ask numerous people. I thought my daughter was going to pee her pants! So frustrating. I hesitate to ever consume any foods or liquids when in Pasadena again....Anyways, here are pics from the pirate show and the kids museum. If you haven't been....you should go! We were there for almost 4 hours! The water features were a hit by I was surprised how much the big kids enjoyed riding big tricycles with helmets on!!!

Recital

June 12, 2008

One studio recital down, one studio to go. Glad that is done. Took 63 curlers and 2plus hours to do her hair! Were dropping one studio and sticking to Val Weaver's. Probably will add Hip Hop. We will be up to 4 hours of dance a week. I'm a little concerned with 4th grade starting in July. Lots of homework-they drag books home over the weekends....ugh!

Devyn got an award for Super Speller at school. She only missed ONE word ALL YEAR! They had 33 spelling tests!!!! So much like me-I always loved spelling. (In case you are wondering, she missed "design". It was killing me so I asked the teacher). It was a little sneaky. That test had all of the "ight" words (sight, fright, knight). SO, she added an "h" after the "g" in design. Oh well, probably won't forget that again.

Turned 36 yesterday-that was traumatic. Funny, my friend at school turned 28 and celebrated her birthday for several weeks. Oh, those were the days. A kid at school asked me how old I was. I said "old". He said "sixty???". Gotta love those little guys.....five more days of school but who is counting???? I think I can, I think I can, I think I can....... :)

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day. It has been a long time since I have posted. I have no excuse. Just busy.... Went to Bobby Mcgee's for dinner last night. The service was terrible and we were there forever! I am just sitting around in my jammies today. Since it is MY day, I choose to do nothing! O.k...I do want to do some scrapbooking and reading would be nice. I have been really bad and have not put my pages in books in several years. It has gotten so out of hand that I don't even know what order to put my pages in-they don't ALL have dates. Live and learn. I keep saying I won't let it get that out of control again but I know that will be a hard promise to keep.

Devyn's Brownie troop went to the animal shelter for Community Service day yesterday. It was really nice-well organized and informational. I had a hard time not wanting to take them all home. Devyn REALLY wanted another cat.

I wanted to post some pics of Cal Poly Pomona. Who knew that there was so much to do there? It is a really beautiful campus. They have a lot of animals, asian gardens, strawberry fields....go visit sometime!