That old newspaper era...

So, a funny little conversation I had with Alyssa and Sidney a few nights ago:
We were waiting for daddy to get home from work, as we so often do these days, and my ever-thinking girls were asking me questions like "why don't you work," "do you like to stay at home?" "did you ever work before?" So I began to tell them, as I have a few times, of the jobs I've had before.
After giving just a few details about my pre-mom job as an associate editor of a small-town newspaper a few minutes passed and Alyssa had a question for me, about the magazine I worked at. I said, "no, not a magazine, a newspaper." Both of them looked at me blankly, and said, "yeah, like a magazine?" And I said, "well it's LIKE a magazine, but printed on bigger paper and feels sorta different, and I wrote the stories inside of it."
Finally, after much chatter between them, Alyssa and Sidney decided YES, they HAVE seen a newspaper before, they think on cartoons and even a real one at Grandma and Grandpa's house - one time Grandpa was reading one of those newsy papers for some reason.
I was blown away.
For two years in college, and a few years in the real world, that ugly, oversized, dirty paper thing that gave me years of dry skin and stained fingers, that newspaper thingy, that was my LIFE! That was my bread and butter so to speak - and my kids aren't from the era of humans who know about newspapers on a regular basis! We don't get the newspaper here, we have a tv and the internet! I had to explain to them that writing a news story in a paper is just like writing a story for an internet news site. OH, now they get it.
It sorta made me feel old. But at least they know what a magazine is, right?

Sid's Gladiator Party

Sidney talked all year long about having an "American Gladiator" themed birthday party. Problem - a summer birthday means less friends from school could come, AND sister's party just a few weeks before was tiny (just family) so we didn't want to blow everyone away witha gynormous party for Sid when Alyssa got very little in the way of parties. ANYWAY, it turned out that Bobby and I only made the plans for the party a few days before, and the DAY of the party, just a few hours before it started and guests (grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins) arrived was when we put together the "Eliminator," inspired by the Eliminator obstacle course on the NBC show American Gladiators. The video is almost entirely made up of photos of each Gladiator running the Eliminator and getting a gold medal (hey, the Olympics were an inspiration, too!)
Gladiator names were as follows:
Bobby - JUSTICE
Jessy - AFTERSHOCK (because I'm deathly afraid of earthquakes)
Sidney - CRUSH (her favorite gladiator on tv)
Alyssa - FURY
Jack - BEAST
Grandpa Mike - STRIKE
Grandpa Bob - GRIZZLY
Oma Isolde - HELGA
Grandma Mary - SIREN
Aunt Sophie - CHARGE (as in CREDIT)
Cousin Jeremiah - THUNDER
Cousin Annie - BLAZE
Aunt Jenny - FLAME (red head!)
Aunt Ashly - MALIBU
Uncle Carlos - JET (a former pilot)
Cousin Andrew - POWERMAN
Cousin Stephen - LIGHTNING
Cousin Hannah - DEMOLITION
The star of the kids runs through the Eliminator were probably Annie and Miah, but Andrew, Sidney, Alyssa and Stephen really held their own. I think the average was about a minute. It was a five-step course.
The star of the adults - MALIBU - my sister in law to be ASHLY - she was awesome. I think she had 40 seconds or less. Amazing. She deserves a REAL gold medal...
Great party for a last minute thing! Never saw Sidney and cousins SO happy and smiling soooo much. They had a blast with minimal fighting, crying, whining and competitive ugly! It was great.

Sea World

Super fun day at Sea World, the first time Jack's been big enough to be aware we were there.

Spot's all grown up, and free

Sidney got two tadpoles from her Kindergarten class at the end of the year. One grew up so quickly (Tailia, the girls named her) and I think she was a tree frog, because she could climb straight upward and she was teeny, like the size of the end of your thumb. Then one day we came home and Tailia's skeleton was floating in the water. The OTHER tadpole, who had not yet become a frog, named Spot, had eaten her I think! It was pretty gross. HE was a HUGE tadpole, and a super slow developer - we had him two months before he grew back legs, then a few more weeks until his front legs grew in! He sure turned out cute, though, and the girls have forgiven him for killing Tailia. Sidney and I let Spot go in my mom's back yard last week, where my mom (Oma) has seen many frogs in the soggy areas where she has lots of plants. So now he's free, living just past the horse stables in Oma and Grandpa's backyard - what could be better?

$12 for cotton candy...really?

We took the kids to the RBB&B circus a few days ago - wow. It's more of a musical these days, although there are still a few things that even had me pretty impressed. A few, I said. Anwyay, the ringmaster is now a full-on singer/performer - totally reminded me of William Shatner putting on a Priceline commercial on a live stage. It was pretty funny. Girls loved it...until they spotted cotton candy, we asked for price and were shocked to find out it is $12! Seriously??? There are some folks who paid $15 for there tickets....wouldn't that be weird if they paid $15 for their seat, and $12 for an ounce of crazy sugar on a stick? Weird. Girls weren't understanding the logic too well - Alyssa said "mom, who cares, it's so good!" That's when we knew we needed to stop the crazy summer spoiling...it's been insane. We left the circus, got in the car, and Sidney excitedly asked, "okay, what's next, where you takin' me now!!!" Home little lady....not the answer she wanted. Starting school might be a battle this year....

We had such a great day at Huntington yesterday - the whole family met to have a bonfire and play in the water. My highlight was when some sweet family members took on the job of watching my three kiddos so I could play like a kid in the ocean for over an hour - Bobby and I, Nikki and Josh, and Michael and Ashly went out into the deeper water (where the little kids can't go, and where you're wondering about sharks the whole time!) to swim and throw the football around and catch some waves and body surf (I did not partake in that one - my swimsuit disagreed with waves). That hour was so fun for me - being in the water with some of my most favorite people - nikki lookin' like a supermodel in the waves with her hair dry and untouched, ashly catchin' waves like a 14 yr old kid...it was so refreshing and I wanted to stay there all day long....until my throat and eyes just had too much salt water.
What a nice day at the beach. Here are a few shots....

Ashly and Jack
Alyssa and Carter (Nikki's son)
Sidney and Alyssa
Linsdey, Stephanie, Nikki