Kansas City, I love you!

Why didn't anyone tell me how awesome this city is? We've only been here one night and Bill and I are kind of in love with it.

We got in around 6:30 and had dinner with Matt and Vann at Johnny's Tavern. We walked around the Power & Light district then drove around the downtown area and the Plaza. It's so pretty here. The buildings - the architecture ... There's art EVERYWHERE. It's just pretty. I could take a million pictures but I don't think they'd do it justice.

Bill and I caught a late movie at the AMC Cinema Suites and there are literally only 15 seats in the entire theater - comfy big leather seats and full service menu. And as dorky as it sounds I was also impressed with the bathrooms too. I made Bill check out the women's. There were huge individual stalls and each had it's own sink and hand dryer, all styled with different actresses.

We saw 50/50. So sad. SO good.

Tomorrow we're going to Oklahoma Joe's for lunch, then manicures and rehearsal & dinner. Maybe I can squeeze in an hour to go to the art museum.

Birthday Weekend

My Ashie is 4 years old. After having 3 kids now, I become more and more amazed at the differences in their personalities. Holden was an only child for 2 1/2 years before Luc came along. And then it was just the two of them for 2 1/2 more years. Asher was born into a family of 4 as the little one. And it's so interesting to see how his personality is made up of qualities I saw in him even as a newborn, and being a product of 2 older brothers. He was named Ash after Bill's favorite series of movies 2nd to Star Wars (Luc's namesake) - Evil Dead and Army of Darkness. The main character is Ash and there is a scene that makes me think of Asher all the time. It's Ash fighting a Bad version of himself. This is SO our Ash. I feel like there is always a conflict going on inside of him to decide whether to do something mischievous or be sweet. What usually happens is he does the mischievous thing and then hugs me and says I love you hoping I don't get mad.

We bought annual passports to Disneyland. Individual tickets are $80 each and that's only for one park = a total of $400 for all 5 of us for just one day. Crazy! We live an hour away, the boys get out of school every Friday at 1pm and Bill is off that day. So we decided we'd just get the passes for SoCal residents and go on these days, or another day that the boys are off school. I paid $400 on Friday and I'll pay $50 a month over the next year which is such a better deal! The boys want to go again this Friday so why not? 

For his birthday Ash only asked for two things - a racing thing and a nerf gun with darts. We moved Luc into a bedroom with Holden, and now Ash has his own room. So we set it all up for them last night. And he has his racing thing mounted on the wall. If any of you know a kid who likes cars, this thing is awesome! It stays on the wall so it's out of the way. No clean up, only set up one time and it's really easy. You can't break it. It pops back in place so easy and they can do it themselves. It is so cool.

Sunday we're going to Marianne's for Isaac and Chloe's birthday party! Then next week we leave for Kansas City for Vann's wedding! And Halloween is around the corner! Seriously October is the funnest month of the year! (This paragraph is full of exclamation points.)

Just how "active" should an Active Parent be when it comes to school?

I wonder about this a lot so I'll set it up for you and I'm curious to know what other parents think.

First of all, I'm really happy with my kids' school and all of the teachers they've had so far. I really trust the teachers because I can see how well my kids are doing and how much they like their teachers. Plus I've volunteered my time in the classroom as well as being a room parent for Holden last year and now Lucas this year. So I also get to see first-hand how things are going.

This is the first year that Holden as a 3rd grader is actually being graded on an A-F scale and not just S/U. I've found myself paying even more attention to every single grade he brings home on every assignment and test. He's received mostly A's with just one B+ here or there so he seems to be doing just fine. But Friday he brought home his first C+.

The assignment called for them to put together a flip book that they had to cut out, listing 5 keywords with definitions of each. They also had to draw pictures for each. Holden only drew 1 picture (a very elaborate one) and his teacher wrote "C+ pictures?" - so because he didn't draw 4 of the pictures, he got a C+. I asked Holden what happened and he said he didn't have time to finish. Of course I had a million questions some of which I asked and some I kept to myself... Why didn't you have time? Were you messing around? Did everyone else finish? How much time did you have? Is a C+ grade appropriate for only a few pictures missing? Did it take longer because he spent too much time on his drawing?

It may seem like not that big of a deal, but I want to make sure my son is getting a fair grade and that he has enough time to complete his work. AND I want to know if he's distracted or bored or doing something else when he should be working. Holden doesn't offer up much information as he's like his dad... forgets things as soon as they happen if he doesn't think they should take up brain space.

If it's just the first time, would you contact the teacher and ask her about it? Or just leave it alone unless it happens again? My first instinct is to ask her. What harm could it do to ask?

But then I step back and think, well maybe I'm being too anal and Holden will be okay. It only happened once and I've told him he needs to concentrate and finish his work. Plus, I want to trust that his teacher is fair and doing what she thinks is best without questioning her every move.

It probably sounds anal me even asking but I just want to know what you would do.

Farm of Tom

Bill's mom has been here for the past two weeks and she's leaving on Wednesday. So yesterday was kind of our last day to do something fun before she leaves.

We went to Tom's Farm in Corona which is a neat place with a wine & cheese shop, antiques, live music in the square, craft fair, food, candy shoppe and rides for the kids like a train and carousel.

The weather was beautiful and it wasn't overcrowded so it was a nice little afternoon.

Arm Parties

I have been really into bracelets lately. I feel like I just want to make a ton of ones I see online that are far too expensive. I'm kind of cut myself off from shopping because I've been shopping A LOT. And I spent too much on a Missoni for Target shopping spree. So in lieu of overspending, I am going to keep sewing and start on some simple jewelry.

Here's what I've been wearing this week.

Jeans Obsession

Trying to post on here from my iPhone for the first time. I hope it works!

I worked on some more jeans last night. Again I got a pair at GAP for super cheap that are too big and too long. And here's the result of my sewing endeavor with them.

I love LA - and my sewing machine, in case you missed that last time.

Did I mention yet that I freaking love my sewing machine?

Earlier this summer I found a pair of skinny bootcut jeans at GAP on clearance for like $3 or something ridiculous. The only problem is they were made for a giant. I'm 5'6" and I ended up cutting off 2-3 inches from the bottom. I was just rolling them up and tapering them which looked cute for summer. But they would come unrolled and then were really bulky if I tried to wear under boots.

So last night I attempted to taper them myself and shorten them another 2 inches.

SUCCESS!!!

 

 

The right leg is how long and flared it was before. The left leg is the one I shortened and tapered. I'm so happy with how they turned out! Upon close inspection it's obvious the amateur hem job I did on these babies. But no one will be staring that closely at my ankles. Plus they'll be tucked into boots when fall arrives. Yippee!! Now I can keep buying weird sizes and lengths in the clearance section and do my own alterations!

Friday, we had a great time in LA with Winston, Bill's mom and the boys. The La Brea Tar Pits were a hit with the kids and they got to run around like crazies in the park until Winston got off work. He works in a building directly right across the street so it was convenient. There are these big hills that surround the museum and we spent most of our time lying in the grass and rolling down the hills trying not to break a limb. Holden said, "I love LA".