High School Musical 2

For the premiere of High School Musical 2, I had a party with my nieces (we kicked out the boys) and some of their friends. We spent all week listening to the music. We decorated the house with red balloons and a Mylar High School Musical balloon, hung up a few banners (we made one that said "East High") and had HSM plates. We dressed in Red, White and Black. We made a ton of food - artichoke won ton cups, BBQ potato rounds, stuffed portabello mushrooms, a chicken club ring, mini brownie bites and a giant M&M cookie! During dinner we played a game that we bought at the party store - it was some High School Musical game - even thought it had absolutely nothing to do with the movie! It was actually really cool and got everyone talking. It was a card game that asked questions like: If your life was a movie who would you want to play you and what television show do you wish could be erased from history. It was a great ice breaker. After dinner, we gathered around the TV and watched the "main event." We all really liked the movie. I thought it was just as good as the first one and if you hadn't seen the first one, you could still enjoy the second movie. The only thing that bummed us out was that our favorite song - which happened to be a bonus track - was not in the movie. (Hopefully it will be on the DVD) After the movie was over, we watched the new Hannah Montana and then went off to bed. In the morning I made waffles and sausage - I have never made waffles before - that's Jason's job! (I only burned one! - I forgot about it while I was eating) We topped the waffles with syrup, strawberries and powdered sugar - they were really tasty! I had a great time and hope that the girls did too!

Zoo Fun

The last stop of the week was the Los Angeles Zoo. Jordan and Dillon didn't get to go with us - Jordan wasn't feeling well and I didn't want to drag Dillon around the zoo in the hundred degree heat. We did another photo scavenger hunt. This time they needed to take pictures of specific things such as a picture with at least two different kinds of animals in it and an animal that starts with the letter D. All day long we teased Ryan to watch out for birds - we told him that the hawks and vultures were staring him down and trying to figure out how to get him. For some reason, the meerkats were my favorite part of the the zoo. They were so cute and fun to watch. They even politely posed for pictures. The zebras were pretty cool, too. They were all standing in a big group and they really did blend in together. My least favorite thing (and Tiffany's too) were the spiders. They had a whole spider exhibit and those suckers were gross... They had big, fat hairy ones and itty bitty small ones - I disliked all of them! I felt like something was crawling all over me the whole time we were in the building. Ick! It was a hot day, but we had fun despite this. Tiffany and I drove the boys crazy on the way to and from the zoo listening to the soundtrack for High School Musical 2. By the time we got back home, the boys were singing along. I forgot my camera so most of the pictures were taken by Tiffany and Ryan (I borrowed Tiff's camera to take a few pictures)...

Soak City

Today we went to Soak City. Jason's brother came with us, plus two of Tiffany's friends - There were ten of us! I was totally excited because I was able to float around the lazy river three times in a row... Jason usually only last a maximum of twice around and then he is so bored he has to get out. My nieces wanted to go around three times, so who was I to complain? This was also the first time that I went all the way into the wave pool. Normally I have Dillon with me so I can only venture in up to my knees, but this time, I was able to go into the deep end. I am now totally in love with the wave pool! I even broke rule number one in the Rachel handbook - I got my hair wet - which is something that I never, ever, ever do.

The food at Soak City is really expensive and really gross. So, this time, since there were so many of us, we packed an ice chest with drinks and food. Tiffany made ten sandwiches and we brought along some chips and pretzels. This was definitely a great way to go!

A Is For Aquarium

Our first adventure was the Aquarium of the Pacific. And what an exciting adventure we had. We started our day out with Ryan puking in the parking lot. Joy. We were just starting to explore the first section of the aquarium and had been there for maybe thirty minutes when the fire alarm went off and the whole place was evacuated. While we were waiting to be allowed back in, Ryan threw up in the ocean. Luckily, this was the last time he had "issues" and luckily, it was a false alarm so they let us back in. I gave the kids an alphabet photo scavenger hunt and told them to be creative with it - and they really were. They had to find something that either started with the letter or represented the letter. They took some awesome pictures!

We thoroughly explored the aquarium and decided that the lorakeets were the highlight. They were absolutely beautiful! They were an awesome shade of green. You could buy bird nectar and the birds would land on you to drink from the cup - at one point Jason had two birds on him. Ryan really liked the birds, but they didn't like him - he got bit by two of them! I guess that I should have prefaced this with they fact that they tell you not to pet or try to grab the birds. I asked Ryan why the first bird bit him and he says that he tried to pet the bird. Oh brother!

Dillon really liked the fish. He was pointing at everything! He also enjoyed the Lorakeets and from what we could tell, he wanted on to land on him, too. But, I didn't dare let him try! He didn't want to be cooped up in his stroller, so we had to carry him a lot - he really just wanted to be down crawling around. But he was a trooper and did pretty well considering that we were there for around three hours.

I really enjoyed the aquarium and highly recommend it. I would like to go back sometime (just maybe without five kids in tow) so that I could read more of the signs and stuff.

Dillon asking for more green beans - what a polite baby :)

Ahoy Matey

From this past Friday night until next Monday, Jason and I have our nephew and two nieces (which is why I was at a football game yesterday all by my lonesome). I have planned the weekdays full of fun activities, of which they have no clue what they are. I made up a pirate themed “travel brochure” giving details of what they should pack – besides the obvious items like underwear and a toothbrush and listed the “port cities” that we would be visiting. They reason that I went with the pirates and ports are because their mom and dad are on an Alaskan cruise and, well, it went along with that. They got their brochures and have been trying to guess where we are going since. Stay tuned this week for our “Port Ahoy Matey” adventures!