bootcamp blurb

Really Ryan, that was all ya got yesterday? I am a bit dissapointed in you. I expected so much more out of you.

Once upon a time we saw the sun...

We had a sunny and warm day last Tuesday!! It was such a joy to see the sun and soak up some rays. We packed up all the bikes and skateboards and headed off to the Lincoln Park loop.

Anna (pink coat) and Maria (purple coat) are getting pretty speedy on their princess bikes. i think it is almost time to take off the training wheels.

The sillouette at the top of the road is Daniel and Anna is having fun splashing through the puddles.

I like Maria's reflection in this shot.

Ike finally got to work on his skateboarding skills. It is kinda lousy to get a new skateboard for christmas because the sidewalks are either covered in snow or ice. sorry about that Ike.

Ike's buddy, Ryen, came along for the afternoon out too. and of course it was meatballs for dinner and he just had to stay for that. ha ha ha

It was so good to get out and enjoy the fresh air. the loop was very busy that day. lot of families out enjoying the break. Thanks Mom and Dad for the bike rack you got me for my birthday!! i love it!

Happy Birthday Nicola!!

Keeping up with my tradition of being an extremely annoying friend.......Happy Birthday NICOLA!!!

Kira putting some hot air to good use.
Kathryn went through 4 rolls of TP!!

Kira's artwork!

Sweet success!! so glad it did not rain.

Yes is was Kira that spelled "looser" not me!! i know my spelling is horrendously atrocious, but you cannot pin this one on me. lol

We had lots of fun with the window crayons.

I only say it because it is true.

anyways, nicola, thanks for putting up with us and our childish behaviour. the icing on the cake was as we were running to our cars a cop drives by. i don't think he cared but it woulda made some great pictures.

Mom's 60th birthday

Well my mom turned 60 this year!! we really wanted to make it a special day. and what can be more special than a four foot long cake!! I KNOW!!


She is a beaut! lou and i worked on her for about 2 hours!

Dad tried to take credit for the cake. he just comes across as crazy.

then we lined up all sixty candles for her to blow out. good thing she is so full of hot air!!

Scavanger Hunt and Savages

Well yesterday the kids had the day off from school and my bff, Lanae, and I had the brillant idea of getting them all together for something fun and out of the house. Dan had the idea of a scavenger hunt in the mall. So i called Lanae and we made up a list of 12 items, divided the 13 kids into three teams and gave each team a camara to document their finding. No, we were not spending any $$. i am too cheap for that or as lanae calls me, frugal. i like frugal. doesn't sound as cheap. They had a list of stores and a specific idtem from that store that they had to take a picture of. Gymboree was a boys size 2T outfit.

Sliver Hoop earrings from Claires

Kitchen Aid Mixer from Macy's

Goodnight Moon from Walden Books

Well you get the point. I will not bore you with all twelve items. The kids did great. We did not lose any little ones. And they came back to the designated meeting spot and had to report in as a whole team. It did not count if the whole team was not together. They were hot and sweaty and finished in about 40 minutes.



Afterwards we had packed a picnic lunch for the kids and ate in the food court. We got lots of odd looks as we pulled the tables all together and started un-packing lunches. The crew was fed with minimal damage and we were off to our next adventure.

We took the kids to Savage Land Pizza next. We filled them full of food on purpose because we kept telling them the whole drive there, "We are not buying ANY food!" $2.50 a kid lets them in to play for an unlimited amount of time. they have a huge maze, ball pit and obstacle course. So for a total of $15 dollars we kept the kids entertained from 11:30 til 4pm. We would not give them any quarters to play the arcade games but for some reason Maria and Anna kept showing up with piles of tickets. Honestly i was proud of them but hoping that some poor kid was not wondering around wondering where there stack of tickets when to.

The girls cashed them in for three AirHeads, two lollipops and a handful of tootsie rolls.

Here is Ria with some of the tickets they collected. There was a monkey game that kept spewing them out when they played it. Teaching them that they can get something for nothing. Great.

The winning team got a giant Hershey's bar to share. The rest of them got some reeses' mini peanut butter cups.

We have already planned out our scavenger hunt for President's Day. Cannot wait to let you all in on the plan.

Two days off. what to do? what to do?

Well first off give them a long list of chores to do in the morning. Then dangle a carrot in front of them so they will accomplish them in a timely manner.

My BFF Lanae and I are taking the 13 kids to the valley mall on a scavenger hunt. What could possibly go wrong? Then we will bring a picnic lunch to eat at the food court. Folllowed by a trip to Savage Land pizza where the kids will NOT be allowed to actually eat pizza but get to play on all the toys.

I will be blogging about our little adventure and if we a lucky we will end up on the 5 o'clock news. Keep you posted.

just a quick update from my last thursday's bootcamp

Luckily Ryan did not read my blog before camp. WHEW! but as we were going easy the last few minutes we were doing planks for three grueling minutes. man, time goes so slow there. must be another sign of hell. anyways, i guess i had my butt to high in air. so my back was not flat. he comes by and shoves my butt down with his foot and is yelling LOWER! LOWER!! and i am yelling NO! NO! well he won. and walked away muttering "Geesh, you are mouthy" and i am muttering "sometimes, no means no." lol. it was all in good fun. except for the part where i am in excrutiating pain. that part is real.

The circle of trust has been breached!!

Ryan, Mr. Boot Camp, has gotten access to this blog!! And so Ryan, first off......NO i did not like doing 60 sit-ups and you telling me to "BLOG ABOUT THIS!!" yes, i nearly hit you in the head with the medicine ball. no, i don't really think it was an accident either. yes, i tried to cheat at BINGO and i did not know you knew how to read lips. DANG IT! will make mental note of that ability.

We are to hand in our three day journal off all the things we ate. I was seriously going to fast for three days. and i did great the first 7 hours. then i woke up. CRAP. so now i have a small novel to hand in tomorrow evening. it should be a good read while on the pot. please feel free to use it as toilet paper when done. i am seriously glad we did not go to the seafood buffet and northern quest casino, Tuesday, (it would have been for my mom's birthday so don't judge) cause that would have been an chapter in and of it's self.

as i write this i have a cookie jar of No Bake cookies taunting me and next to that a bowl of clementine cuties. which one do you think is calling to me?

so we will meet up again tomorrow night. same time, same place. who knew that hell was in the basement of a Presbyterian church? i sure didn't. but i know better now. and the devil........well lets just say he is a warped man with a twisted sense of what is considered fun.

Why? then Hoy?

I walked my the dogs water bucket. yes it is a bucket. and i see four rocks at the bottom. this caused me pause because although i have see alot of things in their water bucket, ie. chocolate (whew i was so glad it was chocolate), barbie, laundry soap, a small child, well you get the point.

so i asked who put these rocks in the water bucket. Anna piped up, "They are not just rocks. They are my pet rocks. And I wanted to see if they could swim. They can't. They drowned."

So now gentle reader i must pose a question to you.......How do you bury a pet rock? I have four that need to be laid to rest. I know that flushing them is out of the question. I think that would be too cruel rubbing in the fact that they cannot swim.

because i am sick in the head......

That is why i signed up for ten weeks of bootcamp. and hey, i might not even stop at ten! anyways, i started this past week. it felt good to be back in the saddle again. Ryan ( a sick, sick man who like to make little girls cry, well i don't know if he makes little girls cry...but he has made me want to cry and i totally think that counts) asked us to write out our goals for class.

1. Not to die. needless to say i will very dissapointed in myself if i don't fulfill this one.

2. To stop thinking bad, bad things about our instructor, Ryan.

these will be posted on the board for all to read. luckily we did not have to sign our names. mwaa haa haa.

we also have to log what we eat on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday so he can read through them and see what we need to change in our diets. I dunno about you, but i see a three day fast in my near future.

He has us play "Games" after we stretch, warm up, and do our circut training. I must warn you.....THEY ARE NOT GAMES!! i was so dissapointed when i found this out. At least i don't think pushing a 50lb weight up and down a basketball court a "game" and then going back and sitting in a wall sit while the other 30 people have their turn. i have way long legs and short arms. i was not meant for pushing things. unless it is my sister, regina's, buttons. i am REALLY good at that.

dan is going to come on Monday and try it out. if he likes it we will put his name on the waiting list. I am going to sign up Daniel though. It would be great to do this with him.

New Years, Brown style

So we had a party at our house. Lots of friends and family came to entertain us. It was so much fun. Sadly Daniel could not join us. He is off camping in Hell's Canyon with his scout troop. He really wanted to go but he ask that I make a plate up for him of all the yummy treats.


Max (Blair and Linda's little boy) enjoyed hanging up all the fallen ornaments for us.
He also had fun with Raquel.

Our friends the Tait's brought over Just Dance for the Wii. Oh my gosh, it is such a fun game!! kept the kids fairly busy along with the little girls playing dress up, jakey chasing LeJune around the house. He was crushing on her hard. LOL. and keeping them all hopped up on hot cocoa.

As you can see, i got a bit carried away with videoing the kids dancing. It was just too funny.