Kiersten’s Blog

I think that London is pretty creative.  A couple of weeks ago, she arranged these blocks to spell out her name.  Can you tell?

That same day, Kate came over to play.  Those girls had a great time together.  We miss Kate and her family now that they don’t live here anymore so we were glad she could come over and play while they were here visiting.  As soon as Kristi dropped her off, Kate said to London, “Do you think we could play dress-up?”  London’s response, “OF COURSE we could!”  And they did.  They emptied the dress-up box and had a ball.  We can’t wait for them to come back and play again!

As mentioned in my last post, we took a last minute trip to the happiest place on earth today.

I always love going with people who don’t go often.  It makes things more magical.  We love it there and love being able to go often, but there’s something about it being a once-in-a-lifetime experience that just makes the place more magical.  We got to experience that again today.  We were there with someone extra super special.  They call him Bugg.  (Check out his blog here.)

He’s five.  He can’t walk.  He can’t talk.  He has a lot of limitations, but he is the cutest, happiest thing ever!  It was so fun to experience Disneyland with him.  The Bugg was joined by his parents (Brianne and Brian) and his two sisters and a couple of cousins and their parents.  Because of his limitations, we had some royal treatment.  Did you know that you can get a special car on the Buzz Lightyear ride for a wheelchair?  The back folds down, forming a ramp, and the wheelchair can be pushed right into the car!

There are similar modifications on other rides, including Small World.

I think it’s safe to say that we all had a great time.  For us (me and my kids) it was one of our better trips.  We got there early, left before the crowds settled, the weather was gorgeous, and the lines were minimal.  And most of all, it was fun to spend with great friends.

It was definitely worth the hassle we had to put Krystal through to get us in!

Stay tuned to The Bugg’s Special Life for more tips on doing Disneyland with special needs (and for inspiration).

We had friends to visit while in Oregon.  On Tuesday night, Nick and Karli were gracious enough to watch our kids while we went out with an old friend of Taylor’s from college.  I never knew Darcy.  She had moved away by the time Taylor and I met.  It was a lot of fun to go out with her and hear stories from their college days together.

On Friday, we went to the park in downtown Portland where there is a water play area for kids.  There, I met up with an old friend from college.

Can you believe that adorable chunk of hers is only 9 months old???

Halsey and her husband and 9 month old son are living in Portland for the summer.  It was nice to see her and meet her adorable little family.  We had a good time catching up and letting the kids play for a bit, even if I was chasing them around the whole time.

When we finished at the park, Karli and I took our kids down the street for cupcakes at Cupcake Jones.  Ashton was almost asleep, so I didn’t get anything for him.  I got myself a big yummy cupcake, and London got two mini cupcakes.  I put her cupcakes on a plate, held onto mine, and pushed the stroller with the almost-sleeping-toddler out the door.  As soon as we got out the door, London’s vanilla cupcake was on the ground, frosting totally gone.  The whining and crying started and I headed back into the shop with my sad looking no-frosting cupcake, which they willingly traded for a new one.  I took it back outside to where we were sitting and gave it to London.  She took one little taste of the frosting and decided she didn’t like the frosting.  By this time Ashton was awake and wanting a treat, so I told her to feed the frosting to him, which they were both happy about until he decided to take a bite out of the cake instead of just the frosting.

Even so, all ended well and we headed home, tired from a long, fun day.

Nice teeth

We went to the beach today with a bunch of moms and kids from our ward (church group).  We had a lot of fun, even with London screaming at her friends.

Building sand temples. That's what London told me.

She was really cranky.  Usually that means she’s really tired.  And she was.  She fell asleep in the car on the way home and slept for almost 3 hours.  This is very unusual.  It is very rare that London ever naps anymore.  After 3 hours we decided it was time for her to wake up so she would go to bed tonight.  Usually bed time for the kids is 7:00.  That time is too early for London on the days she naps, so today we kept her up and let her watch a movie.  We chose Home Alone.  I was sure she would think it was hilarious.  I was wrong.

London may have thought the movie was funny and really enjoyed it if she was really watching it and not asking question for the entire 103 minutes.  Instead, I spent the whole movie trying to convince her that it wasn’t real; that the burglars weren’t really real.  I kept telling her that everybody in the movie was just pretending.  It’s a difficult concept for her to grasp.  Now it’s 10:00.  I already spent a good half hour “sleeping” with her, in which I was sleeping and she was not.  She won’t go to sleep.  She’s totally freaked out about the “bad guys.”  Note to self: only cartoons for this girl for a long, long time (unless it’s a musical).

Then

While I was in Sacramento last week, the stars all aligned and I was able to get together with eight of my close friends from high school, who I haven’t seen since high school.  I think I saw only one at our ten year reunion a couple of years ago, but with the rest, I had completely lost touch.  Until facebook.  It was a lot of fun to get together again and catch up.  Most of us have families of our own now so we met at a park where the kids could play together.  Then the next day, a few of us got together again for dinner.  This time it was just the girls.  We sat at Chili’s and chatted for close to 3 hours.  Who knows how long it will be before we all get together again?  I’m glad we were able to make it work this time.

Now

Thirteen years ago, we had a slumber party and made predictions as to where everybody in the party would be in ten years.  Thirteen years later, it’s funny to read again and see how wrong (or in some cases, close to right) we were.  We even predicted hair styles.  When we got together, there was more catching up than reminiscing.  It’s almost like we just picked up where we left off.  It was sure fun to see those ladies again.  I hope it doesn’t take another thirteen years.

Taylor had a long day yesterday.  Cuyamaca College had their 2nd annual Coyote Music Festival, which he helps head up.  It was a 5 hour even, but of course took much longer for him.  Needless to say, he was gone all day.  I took the kids for a bit.  We had a good time dancing on the lawn and listening to some good music.  Last year, London was the star of the show with her dancing.  This year didn’t prove to be much different, except Ashton joined her for part of the time.  He can’t hear music without throwing down some moves.  Even at church he’s a dancer.  London thought it was great to dance with her little brother, but he would much rather dance solo.

Before the music festival, I took the kids to the Family University that was put on by the adult school where I’m enrolled.  London’s preschool class is really a parent education class.  They had a big shindig going on yesterday with fun things for the kids to do, which included checking out a fire truck and a police car.

Ashton thought driving the fire truck was the coolest thing ever.  One of the dads of a boy in London’s class is a police officer so he was there with his car.  The kids all thought that was pretty cool too.  London and Ashton mostly wanted to play on the playground, though.  I sent Ashton down the slide on his own for the first time.  That’s where he wanted to stay all morning.  It’s fun to see how excited he gets about things as he gets older.

We rounded off the night with a visit from some old friends.  Long ago when we lived in Pomona and I had just had London, I had some great walking buddies.  Sarah was one of them.  Her son, Ian, and London were the best of friends.  It’s sad to not see them very often anymore, because the kids don’t remember each other.  But they came down last night.  I watched the two boys (they have 2 now) while Sarah and Tim went to a sealing in the San Diego temple.  They’re living up in Orange County now, so it’s hard to get together with them anymore.  The kids all had a good time playing together and it was so much fun to see old friends again.  I hope it’s not so long before we see them again.

We went to a birthday party for one of London’s friends yesterday.  It took place in her parents’ lovely front yard.  It was so simple yet so elegant.  It was all girls (except for the 2 brothers of the birthday girl, and Ashton).  There were 11 little girls who had a wonderful time.  Since the hostess has 2 older sisters, they have quite a lot of dress up clothes.  The costumes were out and the girls had fun dressing up.  They got all dressed in their tea clothes and sat down for tea time.

London made sure to inform everybody that we don’t drink tea because it’s not good for you.  So she got milk instead.  I’m glad she doesn’t have a problem standing up for what she’s taught is right.  I guess sometimes that strong will isn’t all bad.  After tea, the girls played a little longer before presents and cake.  Ashton, being one of the only little boys around, got dressed up by a bunch of the little girls.  They thought it was so funny!  I’ll admit, it was funny.  London didn’t think so.  She kept yelling at the girls to leave him alone.  She’s sure a protective big sister.  It’s so funny to see the dynamics between these two.