As if we didn't have enough to do!

HA! So this weekend we're out and about and I say to Dwayne, I need to get some food for the gerbils, let's run into Petsmart. We walked out with a 46 gallon fish tank and the whole setup, and of course the gerbil food (we're not complete flakes!). Yeah, so we can't add the actual fish for at least two weeks the water needs to balance out so the fish we do buy don't just die. Though evidently our children won't be completely heartbroken if and when we do have a fish die because they were laughing HYSTERICALLY at the dead fish in one of the tanks at Petsmart!! Emma (in her sick little giggle that I adore!) kept saying where's the dead fish again? That dead fish is SO FUNNY! Can we get the dead fish? People around us must have thought we were freaks. So until mid October this is what we have to look at, a fishless fishtank! It is looking quite nice though. The kids picked the gravel color, Dwayne (and I, I guess) chose the large coral piece, Emma chose the bubbling treasure diver who's treasure chest goes UP and down, and Peyton chose the animal skull. He seems to think the bala shark we're going to put in the tank will like to sleep in the skull. HA.

I am a total book nerd right now!

Okay, so Jamie Jensen and I meet up and walk the kids to school and back every day. We're just shy of one mile from the school so we have almost 4 miles to chat everyday. She started talking about this Twilight book series, and I had been starting to hear rumblings recently so I had to hear what it was all about, because Jamie had read them all of course. I was really interested and Jamie said I'll let you borrow it (Twilight, there are 4 books total at the moment in the series) of course Jamie being the good friend she is, is too much like me and couldn't find the book anywhere in the house ha ha ha ha. No big deal, I went to Target and picked up the first two in the series, Twilight and New Moon on Sunday afternoon. Today is Thursday and I have five chapters to go in New Moon. Emma was home sick with a double ear infection (yeah, fun!) yesterday which of course meant we had to go to Target to get her prescription filled, which of course means I got the other two books in the series. I am hooked, I have turned off the TV and the house is quiet at night. Dwayne is laughing at me telling me I need to go to bed and sleep. And Jamie....well Jamie is funny and says I can now be a member of her Edward Cullen fan club! HA HA HA (He's one of the main characters). But I am very grateful to Jamie, it had been a long time since I made time for myself and picked up a book and it really does feel GOOD! Me time, ahhhhhhhhhhhh.

First Day of School 2008!!

Well it's official the kids are back in school!! Today was a cute day, I can't believe I have a first and second grader it's SO WEIRD! We started off on our walk to school and soon caught up to our friends the Jensen's from church who live around the corner. Grace and Emma are both first graders, different teachers but their classrooms are next door to each other. This is Grace's first year at Cedar Point, she went to Bristow Run last year because they were living in a different house and she was a bit nervous to be at a new school. Emma, being the good caring friend she is ran up to Grace on the path and next thing you know they were holding hands and never let go until it was time to part ways and go to class. Emma gave me a big kiss and hug then barely waved to me she was so excited to be back at school and in her classroom (which coincidentally was Peyton's first grade classroom just a different teacher) she's like a fish to water at school. Peyton wanted to hold hands with who else but me his Momma! hee hee So we held hands on our walk, but man once we were at school forget it! He's a big ol second grader, classroom in the second and third grade hallway! No more bathrooms in the classroom for him, his bathrooms are community and in the hallway, they have two in their hallway in fact! So nope...no need to walk me to class Mom (still got a big hug and kiss), I got it, I go right, then left, then right, classroom's on the corner! There went my big boy! WOW! After I knew Emma was settled I had to run take a peak at Peyton, he saw me and waved with a very BIG SMILE and yelled, "Hey Mom guess what Rahmann is in my class!!!" They were in first grade together, I said, "NO WAY!!!!" He said, "yup LOOK!" and ran over next to him and pointed ha ha ha! I said, "very cool Peyton, have a great first day!" to which he simply said, "I love you!" I hope he never stops saying that! I said I love you too! And that was it, I had my day all to myself! To do laundry, go grocery shopping, get dinner made, etc. etc. etc. but I got to do it....all by myself until it was time to pick them up of course! ha ha ha ha It was a goo first day of school!

National Zoo D.C.

Ahhhhhh......so we went to the National Zoo yesterday. Had good weather (it was hot but no rain) can't complain. So we went to the zoo because Emma has been pretty bent since one of Peyton's three first grade field trips was the National Zoo (the other two were Mount Vernon and the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum) and she didn't get to go. She'll get to go this year but of course that's not good enough AND the Zoo is their last field trip of the year so it will be a while. It's great though and we were all excited to go. You can't beat DC, most everything is free and the National Zoo is one of those, it's part of the Smithsonian. I have to say yesterday was great compared to the field trip day because it was no where near as crowded and we weren't rushed for time so we saw EVERYTHING and got to stop and really do some fun stuff! My favorite was watching my two goofballs at the Cheethas. There was a bold yellow line painted on the ground followed by two staggered white squares, a big jump further two more with staggered squares and way way down the pathway another bold yellow line. This was to demonstrate a cheetah's stride and distance at top speed. From the one yellow line to the other would take a cheetah one second and the white squares it's stride. The kids tried the run several times and it of course took them longer than saying one! A very cool fun experiment I'm sure they will share at school since their mascot is....you guessed it the cheetah! These were their highlight photos...

This hippo is HUGE! They're looking for a new home for it though because of the new Elephant house and trails they're building.
Two of the many elephants
Peyton and Emma on the eagle
The flamingos...ahhh the memories of waking up in the morning to having our front lawn flamingo'd

One of our favorite birds in the birdhouse
Awesome iguana
Cute bird

Owl
We all liked the toucan
Posing with the panda

The best view we got of the panda unfortunately
These river otters were cute and frisky
Posing with the otters

Posing with the bear
The bear
One of the several cheethas

These are tamarin and they're endangered they have many of them at the National Zoo and they are very cool! This was a new baby they had this summer with it's Mom.
Lounging lemur
Lemur dining on watermelon

Another tamarin
Gorilla dining on the leftover bag that had popcorn in it earlier
Not interested in you at all!

This gator was cool and looked fake!
Komodo dragon
Komodo dragon close up

Crazy cool spiders and there is no barrier between you and them
LUNCH!
Octopus

Emma's thinking she's having stone crab this night.
Stone crab close up
Being groomed by the chimp

Another grooming
Who's smarter????

Baboons

Tiger
Lion

Prairie dog

They're Green Belts!!!

Breaking news!!! Peyton and Emma tested tonight, and they are officially green belts now! This of course means they will now be doing numchuck training as well as full contact sparring (with protective gear of course). I think we're in for even more fun than we've already had! We're so proud of these two!

Demonstrating their form
Demonstrating their kicking combination.
Emma breaking her board with jumping front snap kick
And she did it!!

Peyton breaking his board also with jumping front snap kick.
Did he do it???
Of course he did YEA!!!!



Green belts Peyton and Emma with Masters Choi and Hoonie.

Outdoor Fun

Saturday, we took a fun walk along the trails in our neighborhood and down by the creek. Good times. Next time the kids want to go all the way in the creek.

On our way to the trail.

The trail head.

And they're off!

First bridge.

Next stop the creek.

Trying to cross the creek.

Touching the little fish and shell fish.

This was a crane (hard to see).

A BIG tree, probably came down during the tornado watch.

Peyton and Emma.

The other end of the trail, time to go back.

One of the MANY butterflies we saw that day.

Ahhhhhh......we're home!