New Year's Eve - 2010

Our annual New Year's Eve in the driveway. We had carne asada, pollo asada and all the fixin's. Then headed outside for s'mores and some not so legal fireworks courtesy of a friend (I'm not naming names, given we live in a high fire area). Good times with friends (who for some reason are in no photos) and neighbors.

Osprey

These photos are completely out of order, but when you thought Drew was hard at work watching inmates, he was really bird watching. This is an Osprey he was able to capture some photos of.



These are photos Drew took appreciating our desert. I, for one, do not care for Joshua trees!



This is a hawk. I'm arguing that the hawk is so much prettier than the osprey. Drew disagrees.


And this is one of the osprey in flight.

La Brea Tar Pits

On Presidents' Day, we decided to venture out and ended up at the La Brea Tar Pits. The weather was great and we found a paleontologist out at Pit 61 working on a camel. I had no idea we had camels in Cali back then. Interestingly, there are no dinosaurs fossilized in the tar pits because dinosaurs became extinct before the tar pits formed.

Brian will do anything you ask him. Here, I asked him to go into the bamboo and act like a panda bear. He did.




Brandon's bling. Now that's a rock!



So Zed is a Columbian Mammoth (not wooly) and can you believe that he and Drew share the same disease?! I almost fell over when I read the sign.

Pumpkin Patch

On Saturday, Nicholas and Samantha spent the entire day with us. Their dad dropped them off at Brian's football game around 9:00 in the morning, where they got to play with some of the other little ones. Then we had lunch at Mickey D's, headed home so Brian could clean up, then headed to Lombardi Ranch to pick pumpkins. Then we came home, took a nap, made dinner, and headed to the park to run it all off. It was a long day and I think I was more tired at the end of it than they were.


I guess I could have at least put the vacuum away.


We read signs well, don't we?

A Pinch of Love

Okay, so we have the boys take turns making sandwiches for their lunches. Last night, Brian made them and told me that he put a pinch of love in mine and sealed it in a zip lock baggie so none of the love would escape.

How sweet is that? He's my affectionate one, clearly.

Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally

Okay, for years, Brian has struggled with math. The excuses for not doing his math homework ranged from I don't understand or the teacher didn't show us how to do that, to my dog ate my reminder binder (just kidding). So last week, Drew and I went to back-to-school night and his teacher (one of our favorites who also taught Brandon and was super excited to have Brian in her class) told us he was really, really good at math. I didn't believe her.

But last night, Brian and I sat together while he did his math homework. He blew me away. Really. He can figure square roots in his head faster than I can with a calculator (and that was using a calculator with a square root button!). He had several problems that required him to use the order of operation. Again, all done in his head. Heck, I could barely remember the words of the order of operation and I don't even know what an exponent is!

In case you're wondering, it goes in this order: parenthesis, exponents, multiply, divide, add, subtract (hense the title of this post).

We all learned something

Took the boys back-to-school shopping on Sunday. I learned that my boys do understand the value of a dollar and can, when asked, spend their money wisely.

Last year, my mother took Brandon back-to-school shopping and she literally spent over $700 on him alone (Brian got his share although he wasn't able to join us for some reason).

This year my mother again promised Brandon that she would take him shopping, but she could not afford to spend as much as she did last year. She had $300 for each boy. We put the cash in envelopes with their names on them and let them make their own decisions. Surprisingly, they did a great job checking prices, watching sales and not buying "just because."

Brandon came home with 9 shirts, 3 jeans, shoes, a backpack and school supplies. Brian came home with 8 shirts, 3 jeans, shoes, a backpack, school supplies and a hat. They both had around $10 left over. Given that most of the clothes were skate board name brands, they did a good job because the jeans alone can run $50 and more if you're not careful.

I'm proud of them for understanding that everyone's in an economic pinch and making the most of what was given to them.