These Two!

Hello!

These two have the best relationship,
but sometimes they drive each other crazy!

The other night they were having a Nerf fight.

Jack running into the room: You know what is annoying? Sam taking my Nerf gun and holding it above his head! Since he’s a giant, I can’t reach it!

Me: Jump.

Jack: I try and he just holds me down with his other hand!

Me: Laughing due to the picture in my head.

Jack: That’s how I got beef jerky stuck up my nose the other night.

Me: WHAT??

PS: Don’t even ask, but Jack did have beef jerky stuck up his nose, which I told him I wouldn’t believe that he had beef jerky stuck up his nose until he hacked it out.

He did.

Life with boys.

Got Milk?

Good Morning!

When you open our fridge, you will see this…

Yep…the boys go through milk so fast, that I buy one if not two gallons each time I go to the grocery store.  Geez.

Addition: Sam opened up the fridge and saw all the milk.
“Ah! Look at all this chocolate milk!! This makes me so happy!!”

Spring Pictures…

Welcome Back!

Jack has two gray hoodies he wears constantly. We have to ask him NOT to wear them, take them off and wear something different! If one is dirty, he then grabs the other gray hoodie. Many times at six o’clock at night we must ask him to take off the hoodie. Many times we need to tell him, you are NOT wearing that gray hoodie today. He loves those gray hoodies. The gray hoodies love him. They are inseparable.

Jack had spring pictures and we just received them. Unfortunately, I totally spaced off picture day. So when we got them, why was a not surprised to see this…

A gray hoodie.
Zipped all the way up to cover the tee underneath.

I bought all the pictures.

 

I Love Spring

Welcome, Back!

Spring is sprung and things are blooming! The weather is getting warmer…time to plant flowers! Enjoy the outside!

This picture was taken two weeks ago with things just started to burst!

This one was taken just yesterday…what a difference!!

I’ve heard: who can’t love this time of year? it’s perfect!!

Well, in between those two pictures, Jack got a terrible cold!

He couldn’t get rid of the cough, so we ended up at Urgent Care and left with cough medicine and a z-pack.

The cough did not improve and due to all this blooming, his allergies kicked in BIG time = one miserable boy.

So we ended up back at the Pediatricians this time. He’s nasal passages were so plugged that he couldn’t blow anything out of his nose, so it was running down his throat, hence the cough. Left with Amoxicillin for his terrible sinus infection, nose spry, eye drops and two allergy meds.

So many meds on his stomach, he threw up.

(No vomit in this picture. Set up bed for Just-in-Case. He vomited in the sink. Double UGH!)

It’s been a long two weeks.
He is better, though.

I love spring.

Reading Relays

Hello!

Jack is a HUGE reader and this year participated in the district wide competition called: Reading Relays.

First, the kids create a team of four at the beginning of the school year. Then each person in the group reads books from a list of 25 books that need to be read. The groups get together and discuss who is reading which books, a goal being that each book is read by at least two members, if not more, in the group.

Long story short, there are 64 fifth grade teams in the district that are all hoping to score one of the 16 spots in the Relays. Happily, Jack’s team was one of the 16 teams in the finals!

On Reading Relays day, the groups are asked questions about the books they read (oh my, they were very specific questions!) and awarded points.

The four teams that scored the highest, went onto the finals for more questions and a winner is awareded!

Unfortunately, Jack’s group wasn’t one of the four in the finals, but they were all pretty excited to get tot he semi-finals!

Also, the overall Reading Relays winning group was from Jack’s elementary, which made them all very proud!

What a fun day for all those readers!

(Yes, this is a longer post, but I had written before my epiphany!)

Swimming!

Welcome Back!

Summer, somewhat, made an appearance last weekend. The pool people came early last week to “turn on” the pool, which included the heater. So with the nice weather here last weekend, and a heated pool, can you guess where the boys were all weekend?

Notice they have their shorts on? That’s because they got finished with their “outside” chores and then jumped right into the pool!

They swam all afternoon, took a break for a bit and headed out in the evening! Night swimming is the best!

On Sunday, they spent more time in the pool and by dinner time on Sunday, they were wiped out! Jack could barely keep his eyes opened while he sat in the lounger!

I can tell they will be out there any free time (and 70 degree weather) that they may get on their hands! For me, I need to wait until it is MUCH warmer!

Nerf Boy!

Hello!

Jack is obsessed with Nerf guns. He watches Nerf videos (nothing like your kids watching others play with their toys) on how to change them up, take them apart, and build storage areas!

With the basement remodel, we ended up with the perfect wall that Jack soon claimed. He and Jason measured, planned and then built.

He then arranged his Nerf products. He is now ready to protect his family from a Zombie Apocalypse (especially Sam!)

Side note: Sam’s guns are at the very top…only one who can reach them!

Hollywood!!

Hello Again!

The number one thing that Jason wanted to do while in Hollywood was to get a great picture of the Hollywood sign. Luck would have it, during our bus tour, our guide took us to the perfect spot!

It was so cool to get up so close to the sign!!
Hollywood Sign, Hillside, Famous, Icon, Landmark, Hills

Haha…just kidding! I got that picture off the internet!  This is how close we really were!

It looks a lot bigger in person!

Our guide shared the history of the sign, which I found very fascinating!

The Hollywood Sign was put up as the Hollywoodland Sign in the fall of 1923 to advertise the 500-acre real estate development. Hollywood was full of houses, but the “hills” weren’t, so why not build on this “land!” Which is now know as Hollywood Hills!
Hollywoodland Sign

The original sign was outlined with 4,000 light bulbs, which, at night, flashed HOLLY, then WOOD, then LAND, then all thirteen letters. Sweet!

 The upkeep sign was not cheap and started to fall apart. In 1949 LA decided to repair and rebuild the sign. It was during that time the LAND was removed from the sign only leaving HOLLYWOOD displayed as a way to state Hollywood as a district and not as a real estate housing development. (Which is now know has Hollywood Hills) 🙂

So cool!!

You can actually take a hike up to the sign, but we decided that our bodies were not in hiking condition and we could do that on another visit! Plus, I wanted to see Justin Timberlake’s garbage!!

 

 

Universal Studios!

Welcome Back!

One place the boys were super excited about going to while in Hollywood was Universal Studios. We spent all day there…and when I say all day, I mean ALL day! Open to close. It was worth every minute. (LOADS of pictures!)

We first headed to Hogwarts…which is the Harry Potter area. Absolutely amazing! The castles were breath taking and the stores contained products you would actually see in the movies. What a fun area! If you are a Harry Potter fan (or not) you will love this area!

Had to get some Butterbeer. There are two kinds: frozen slushie and a regular drink. We, of course, got one of each. Oh. My. Yum.  SOOO good! My favorite was the slushie. Tasted a lot like cream soda!

A picture by the conductor at Hogwarts Express! He was so fun!

A few of the wands in the wand picking ceremony.

Second, stop…Krustyland in the Simpson Section!

We all rode the Simpson ride which 3 out of the 4 of us loved. It is basically a virtual reality ride. The “car” we were in moves, shakes, bounces, etc. while a video is all around you. I closed my eyes the ENTIRE ride, tired to find a happy place, counted to 100 and prayed to get off. As soon as I got off…Dramamine. Can you guess which one of us did not like the ride? The boys actually rode it a second time (vomit)

Off to Minion Land! I loved everything about this area!!

We saw the entire family, but not all at once. So cute!!

Planning a trip to Universal Studios Florida? Videos and tips to help!:

We rode the minion ride, which was also virtual reality. I was done after that ride.

At this point, we went for lunch and the Universal Back Lot Tour…sooo many pictures of that, I am just going to stick to rides for today’s post.

Sam and Jason went on the Jurassic Park water ride. Jack and I wold have gone but the 85 foot drop at the end stopped us.

Waiting to see the boys drop out of the dark hole!

Can you spot them in the very back row…right side?

The boys headed off to Shrek 4D, which I found out I could have done. Its a 3D movie, which become 4D with water sprayed on you and things under your seat. No…instead I decided I could go through the Walking Dead maze. Please remember as you read this story, I have never gone through a haunted house in my entire life.

See Sam contemplating how fast he could run if a zombie just may happen to walk out of the attraction? He went to Shrek.

I had watched this attraction on YouTube and thought…I can do that! I’ll tell you what…It’s a whole different story inside the maze and in the dark! And being the first “haunted” place I had gone through.

You have to turn corners and you do not know what it going to happen around the next corner! I was looking at some shelves through a door and a zombie slammed up against the door. I peed. Yep. I am owning it. I peed.

For the rest of the maze, I hung onto Jason’s shorts. My thought process was that I will put him between me and the zombies, BECAUSE the zombies come at you!! He saw one (I did not) and he slooowed down his walk on purpose…so it would come out at us! Really!! Who does that?

Once we walked out, we got the giggles so bad. Jason had to turn his shorts around. Why do you get the giggles so bad after you have been scared to death?

When the park closed, we headed to a nearby restaurant for dinner. We were so tired, that we couldn’t even think about what we were to do the next day or what time! We just wanted to eat and go home!

The boys passed time looking at all the pictures from the day.

We so wanted to leave and go home, but wouldn’t you know it, our waitress came out and said, “We know you have been here all day, so we decided to give you s’mores on the house!” Yay. Thank you. Any other day, we would be excited.

But as you can see, we took advantage and had s’mores. Sam was really enjoying his! 🙂

Finally back to our room and the boys went straight to bed. I mean, changing clothes while walking to bed and they were out!!

This is the next morning, trying to get them up. I turned on the lights and neither boy moved!!

Once I got them up and going..off to Paramount for a back lot tour!!

Wax Museum!

Welcome Back!

A fun stop on our Hollywood vacation was at the Hollywood Walk of Fame! There are BLOCKS of stars. We didn’t realize it was soooo long, so there were many that we did not see, but still took loads of pictures of stars we did see.

What is interesting about the stars is that in order to get a star, the movie star must be famous for 5 years, pay $30,000 and be willing to be at the event. Many famous stars do not have one because they are not interested in being at the event! Many stars are paid by companies to “up” the publicity for the movie the star may be in…such as John Goodman getting his last week. That was a promotional event by the movie company!

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The walk of fame begins at this statue of four women movie stars. Each actress represents a different ethnicity.

Image result for statue at the beginning of the walk of fame

Another fun place we stopped on the walk of fame was Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. It was a bit creepy at first and disorienting because you get off an elevator walk in to the museum and you can not tell who is real ans who is wax! You can take selfies and tough the figures…just not their face or hair. So people were taking selfies and you weren’t sure who was the wax figure!!

No need to introduce these famous people…will just let you enjoy our pictures and selfies with the stars! (LOADS of pictures!)

(Look at the way Jason is looking at Betty White! I had a dream that he left me for her.)

If you ever go to Hollywood, a trip to the wax museum is a must! So much fun, once you figure out who is a visitor and who is wax!!