March 27, 2009: Last Day of Spring Break

Circus Time!

Well, thanks to the free ticket Mugger received at school, the kiddos took in their first circus this last week. Sorry the pix aren't great, but it was pretty dark inside the Benton County Fairgrounds Arena. I couldn't even attempt a photo of their highlight-- the (3!) motorcycles inside the giant sphere! Anyways, they did like the wild animals:

Extra! Extra! Read All About It!

We had quite the excitement at our house this morning when we saw that Mugger's kindergarten class made the front page of our newspaper, the Corvallis Gazette-Times (aka, the GT)!

Mugger spent last week doing extra chores to earn money for yesterday morning's field trip to the grocery store-- he spent his $6 on oranges. As for extra chores, I paid him $4 for folding and putting away 2 loads of laundry (his and his sister's) and $2 more for unloading the dishwasher twice all by himself (with some help from the kitchen stool.) He was excited that Papa got to drive for the field trip and help him with his purchases.

The second part of the field trip was the newsworthy part, though. Rather than having the kindergarteners walk all their groceries the 3 blocks to the soup kitchen, they loaded them up on llamas! Mugger even got to lead one of the llamas for a bit and was so excited to learn about how to pack them.

For all the details, according to the GT, click here. We're saving our paper copy-- the online edition doesn't have the photo that was on the inside where you can see Mugger's back as he learns about llama packing.

UPDATE: Found the inside pic in the GT's online gallery! Mugger is in the red coat:

Take Me Out to the Ballgame...

Well, Mugger and Bug went to their first baseball game this weekend to see the hometown Corvallis Knights defeat the Kitsap Bluejackets 6 to 0. Mugger's favorite part was either the score (since he loves it when "his" team wins) or the border collies that ran out in between innings to catch frisbees. Bug's favorite part was the metal bleachers: she was able to jump up and down and make all the noise she wanted! They both liked getting to run the bases at the end, too, so I'd say a good time was had by all.
Update: We saw one more Knights game this summer, one of the Knights last regular season games while Nonnie and Gramps were here in August. They again won in a landslide, so we weren't actually all that surprised when they ended up as the post-season champs!

A First for Mugger and Bug

Yesterday, the kiddos and I went to their first concert. It was only 30 minutes long and they spent most of it playing with Aunt Jen who met us there, but fun was had by all. So yes, it was worth the 3.5 hour total drive time!

So who did they see? Only their favorite "kindie" (kiddie + indie) artist, Justin Roberts. Mugger was a little disappointed that Justin and the band only did one song off of "Meltdown", the only Justin Roberts CD that we have, but it was great to hear some of his new songs off of "Pop Fly" and some others to see what we've been missing.

Aunt Jen, if you need a birthday idea for Mugger, there you go! I'm pretty sure he'll be getting this from us since "Imaginary Rhino" is his favorite song (as witnessed by the fact that he and Bug kept yelling for Justin to play it in between songs. OK, Mama was yelling, too...)

What a Day at Disneyland!

Last week the kiddos and I went to Disneyland with Nonnie and Gramps (gotta love those annual passes for a few hours at a time with preschoolers...) Boy, what a day to forget my camera! It was the perfect day as we seemed to just breeze through all the rides and we learned that Mugger is a Roller Coaster Boy-- he LOVED his first time on the Matterhorn and Big Thunder. When we came off of Big Thunder, some Disneyland "cast members" even handed us a pair of Mouse ears (with the Year of a Million Dreams logo on them.) You can see Mugger, Nonnie, and I modeling ours in this pic:
So why are we standing in front of the Mark Twain riverboat? Because Mugger was invited up to the pilot house by the captain to "drive" it (which he will forever think he did, so don't ruin it for him!) He did a great job steering all the way around Tom Sawyer's island, and he and Bug both had fun blowing the whistle and ringing the bell.
The captain was fantastic and it was an experience none of us will ever forget! Nonnie told Mugger she had been coming to Disneyland since 1956 and she had never been up in the pilot house! Good thing Gramps had a camera on his cell phone!

Mugger's Big Week

Well, Mugger ended up having quite a big week! Monday was Potty Training Boot Camp Day for Bug, so Mugger got to have a day out with Mama at the Discovery Science Center. His favorite exhibit upstairs was this magnetic wall with ramps and balls:However, the exhibit he spent a solid 30 minutes at was this "audio-kinetic sculpture" that I think reminded him an awful lot of his Mousetrap game! He was mesmerized!
So, if Monday wasn't enough excitement, on Wednesday, he braved the drizzly weather for his first trip to Disney's California Adventure with Papa and Gramps. He couldn't stop talking about the Mulholland Madness roller coaster when he got home!

To cap it all off, on Friday he and Bug spent the night with Nonnie and Gramps so Mama and Papa could finally have a Date Night. Such excitement for a 4-year old!

Birthdays at Disneyland

The best thing about my dad and I having our birthdays 2 days apart is the excuse to celebrate together! Though this year, with the Great Pneumonia Battle, we celebrated a week late. It was still worth it, as you can see:
Bug's favorite part of the day was bouncing with Tigger-- she's still talking about it over a week later!

And with that, grandparents, I am caught up. Sorry February isn't chronological, but it will have to do! I'll try to do better next time and not wait until the whole 2GB card is full!

Uncle Bryan! Aunt Elisha!

January meant lots of family visits, as Uncle Bryan and Aunt Elisha were able to come out from Nebraska. The kiddos loved having their aunt and uncle all to themselves-- and they were certainly happy to take them to Disneyland as well!

Halloween '07

Halloween was a great excuse to make Mugger a superhero cape! Papa sewed him a cape for his "Super Mugger" costume. (No, his t-shirt doesn't say "Super Mugger"-- we did use his real first name!) Mugger had a great time "flying" around the living room. Bug got to wear her brother's Tigger costume. Being that she's such a bouncer, it was the perfect choice. She was happy to bounce for anyone who asked her all night long. And no, we didn't head out to go trick-or-treating-- this picture was taken right before we went to the Harvest Festival at church. I may be an evil mom, but so far, Mugger has the impression that trick-or-treating is only something kids used to do. Since we don't get any trick-or-treaters on our doorstep, I haven't felt the need to correct him!

Pumpkin Patch!

Well, the kiddos were giddy to go to the pumpkin patch this year, at least Mugger was. Besides picking out the biggest pumpkin he could lift, his favorite part was the corn maze.
Bug liked that some of the pumpkins were little enough for her to hold, but her favorite part was the tractor ride all around the farm. She was not a happy camper when we had to leave, but it was too windy to stay and ride again.