Enjoying Christmas Break!

I LOVE having my kids home for Christmas break. We just lose ourselves in all the new toys and movies. I completely forget what day of the week it is...it's wonderful!!! Plus it was even better since Michael was home for 9 days straight!!! 

Ella and I worked on her Dazzling picture. 

It's going to take a long time to finish it! 

Owen rode around on his hover board. He got really good at it quickly. I've enjoyed learning how to ride on it as well. I've gotten pretty good....I've also fell down a couple times too! 

One of the boys hung up one of Michael's paper targets to shoot Jack's arrows at the target. The arrows are like darts and they whistle. They freak Charlie out! 

On Sunday, December 29th we took the kids to see the latest Star Wars movie. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the AMC at Kent Station now has reclining and heated seats!!! The kids and I enjoyed the movie, but Michael not so much. 

One day I walked by Ella's room and peaked in to see her teacher set up with her stuffed animals. I love her imagination! 

On New Year's Eve prior to us going down to my parents house I took Ella to Kent Station to see Frozen 2. She had been feeling bummed since she's the only girl and she doesn't have a sister. It was fun to take her out just her and I. 

The seats we normally get were already taken when I bought the tickets so I got seats in the very back row instead. I wasn't sure if we'd like them, but Ella wants to sit there all the time now. 

Date Day With Zeke!

The very next day after Jack's date was Michael's turn to take Zeke out. He gave Zeke the option of going to Bullwinkle's or going to see a movie. Zeke chose a movie....he wanted to see How to Train your Dragon 3. They went to the AMC in Federal Way that used to be the cheap theater. It's still cheaper, but not as cheap. 

While Michael was getting popcorn he gave Zeke money to go play on the Arcade Games. 

Cute racer! 

AMC has our favorite popcorn out of any movie theater. They had this deal where you bought this bucket for a little more than a regular large popcorn cost, but then you can bring it with you each time for the whole year and get it refilled for half the price it would normal cost. That bucket is HUGE too! 

Zeke and Daddy had so much fun together on their date and I was so happy that Michael took pictures of their time together! 

Captain Marvel!

To keep our good times rolling we decided to surprise the kids with a Family Movie on March 23rd. We wanted to go to Captain Marvel and we figured why not go in style so we bought tickets to the Century Theater with the reclining seats. The kids were so excited! 

I had bought the kids candy at the Dollar Tree so I stuffed the boxes of candy in my purse. In fact that was the only thing in my purse. We did get popcorn and soda though. 

Michael and I sat right in the middle so he could help Jack and Owen on his right and I sat next to him so I could help Zeke and Ella on my left. It really worked out perfectly and the kids loved it. 

We really enjoyed the movie too. I wasn't sure how I was going to like it with the main star saying all that feminist stuff and not wanting a bunch of white male reporters at the opening of the movie. I had also her that the movie was super feminist and I didn't really think so. Most of the main characters were female, but I didn't feel like it was bashing males. I'm all for women getting equal rights, but I get really angry when they start trashing men. I would say it was less politically charged than Black Panther. 

One things for sure....we can't wait to see Avengers End Games! 

The Last Jedi!

On Saturday, December 23rd I went downstairs wielding the only lightsaber we had. It was one of those super cheap ones, but I thought it would be funny. On Saturdays we allow the kids free electronic time until we wake up....hello sleeping in! The kids were all in the living room and office either playing on the computers or their kindles. Jackson looked at me like I was a total loon. I was doing my best or possibly my worst impersonation of a Jedi master. I then stopped with the lightsaber pointed right at him and I said, "Are you ready?". He looked at me like I had lost it again and said, "For what?".  I said it again and then it dawned on him and he was so excited! He was saying, "YES!" over and over. Zeke on the other hand started crying after I told the other that we were going to see Star Wars: The Last Jedi. He wanted to stay home and watch Owen play on Minecraft. Once he found out that electronic time was over and he wouldn't be able to watch Owen anyway he was cool with it. 

The boys each wore a Star Wars shirt. I wish I had just had Ella wear one of their shirts although I'm sure that would have resulted in a complete meltdown on her part. 

I had bought the tickets at Kent Station back on the 15th. I did not want to have to stand in line on the day of. 

While I went into the theater to save our seats....our favorites the first row right when you walk in where you can put your feet up on the bars...Michael and Owen went to the concession to get us popcorn and soda. 

The kids did great with the movie....in spite of the 8 or 9 previews. Some of which were a bit scary. At the end even Owen said, "Those were not appropriate for children!" 

After the movie we went across the street to eat lunch at MOD pizza. Of course the only kiddo that ate was Ella. You know heaven forbid the kids have to pick mushrooms off their pizza. I know there will come a day when they actually enjoy food....hopefully sooner rather than later! 

Date Day!

Michael gets banker holidays! He gets more holidays off than the kids do...hence Columbus Day! I normally work on Monday's, but since he was off I asked if I could switch my hours around so I could have Monday off and work Friday instead. It worked out perfect for us to have a date day courtesy of the Federal Way Public School System. 

The weather could not have been more beautiful!

It was a perfect day to go golfing! 

We went down to the par 3 / 9 hole golf course in Kent. 

It was only $20 for us both to go golfing. 

Michael had just recently gone with his co-worker Andre, but I hadn't been in years. 

It took me a couple holes to get in the swing (pun intended) of things. 

We only had to wait at a couple holes, but for the most part it was just us. When we were finished we looked over at the first hole and there was a line waiting to start. 

After golfing we headed up to Value Village to donate a bunch of stuff. For lunch we used my birthday gift certificate to go to Mama Stortini's and then we hit up See's Candy for dessert. I used the rest of my gift card and bought some dark chocolate molasses chips. Oh my word! I did not know that I needed these in my life, but I SO needed those in my life. Amazing!!! 

Once we got home we still had some time to ourselves. Michael ended up working on my computer and I ran a bunch of errands. The kids were jealous when we told them we were going to have a date day so we decided to surprise them and have a date night with them. We picked them up from the bus stop and headed straight to the cheap theater to watch Cars 3! It was such a fun day!!! 

Sing!

Our church puts on family movie nights about 4 times a year. The latest one was on April 28th and we got to watch Sing. We had seen this movie at the cheap theater, but Michael had to take Zeke out since he was misbehaving so he hadn't seen the end of the movie. 

We bring blankets, pillows, stuffed animals and the kids come in their jammies. We get to sprawl out on the floor in the auditorium and watch the movie on the big screen. They do keep some chairs up in the back for parents to sit in, but I really like being with the kids and snuggling on the floor with them. I will say it's SUPER uncomfortable though!!! I need to remember and bring pillows and extra blankets for me. The floor is rock hard and it just kills my back. 

The best part about the whole thing for the kids is getting to spend their money on candy! The church gives everyone a free bag of popcorn, but they have to purchase the candy. It's super inexpensive and honestly a $1.50 would get you enough for the night. I did let my kids bring all their spend money with them....they didn't have a ton since it was the end of the month and they hadn't gotten paid since the beginning of April. I think Jack had the most and I heard later that he walked up, put his baggie of money on the counter and said....I'm here to buy candy! When I came in later Ms. Jenny stopped me and let me know that she had cut Jack off because she wasn't sure if I was okay with him spending so much money on candy. Hilarious! I told her that it was his money to spend so he can buy as much as he wanted too. Of course I didn't actually take a picture of Jack with his pile of candy..figures right! I was hoping that he would get an upset tummy so he would learn through natural consequences, but he never said anything about it hurting afterwards. Crazy boy! 

The movie was so much fun to watch in a big group. The kids got into it and were clapping and stomping and some were dancing and jumping. So fun!!!

The Force Awakens!

We LOVE movies! 

In 2015 we introduced the kids to lots of different movies....all 3 Back to the Future movies, all 4 Jurassic Park movies, the 3 Hobbit movies, the 3 Lord Of The Rings movies and lots and lots of Marvel movies. We are definitely movie lovers in this house. The best part is my kids really enjoy them and they don't get scared! There are scary parts and we are mindful of that...especially in Lord of the Rings so we tell the kids to close their eyes or we just skip to the next chapter and explain what happened. 

We have always been very honest with them about the fact that this is something that someone imagined in their head and made it into a movie. We talk about how make up artist and computers can make normal people look really creepy or different. IMDB is something we go to a lot so we can show the kids what the actors really look like. They also love knowing what the person looks like that is voicing a cartoon characters. Jack has even started recognizing voices from characters in shows he's seen before. For example when we watched Lord of the Rings he recognized that Lord Saurman voice was the same as Count Dooku's even though the actor portraying both of those characters looked very different.   

Before we went to Disneyland in September 2014 we made sure to let the kids know that the characters were really people in a costume. I'm really leery of people in costumes and meeting the characters is actually my least favorite part of Disneyland! I was definitely going to take them to meet characters if they wanted to, but none of them were very interested at all. They just want to go on rides! 

The kids have seen all 6 of the Star Wars movies as well...not in 2015....we introduced those to the kids a while ago....the 3rd episode was the one we waited the longest to let the kids watch since that's when Anikin goes to The Dark Side and it's a bit scary. So when Star Wars came out Michael and I went and saw it for our date day on December 21st to make sure it was okay for the kids to see first. Then on New Years Day we took the kids to see it. It was fun being in the theater watching it with my kids since it's the first new Star Wars to come out since any of them have been born. 

We got to the movie theater early since we wanted to get good seats. I took Ella and Zeke into the theater while Michael and the bigger boys got popcorn and soda. We got the seats that are right in front when you walk in. We had to wait a good 45 minutes before the movie started and then there were no joke 7 previews! These kids did great considering! 

I figured out my flash doesn't work when taking a picture while looking at my screen. 

Cute little Seahawks girl...she remembered it was Blue Friday all by herself! 

That flash is so bright!  See the guys sitting on the right of Jack. He was an older gentleman and I wasn't sure how he felt about a bunch of kids sitting next to him. He didn't say anything, but I could almost read his face and it was saying, "Oh great noisy kids are going to ruin the movie for me!". Him and his wife didn't move and as far as I'm concerned the kids did great. Zeke moved around a lot going back and forth from Michael and I, but nothing crazy. 

Owen and that hood....he will wear a hood all day everyday if we let him! The movie was AWESOME and the kids loved it. Jack got scared with of the characters dies...not gonna say the name since some people might not have seen it yet. We were at the theater a total of 3.5 hours and it only took 2 bags of popcorn, 3 sodas and 3 bathroom breaks to make it through...not bad really! The best part...no meltdowns! 

Date Night!!!

Last Saturday Michael and I got to go on a date....it had been about 3 months since our last date. With choir, sicknesses and him being on-call it just hasn't worked out. So when there was a chance we took it. First stop was my parents to drop the kids off for their one sleepover and off to the movies we went. 

We saw American Sniper and it was amazing. They are Marines so of course there are quite a few swear words, but nothing super vulgar. I had not read up on the movie at all and I actually didn't even know it was a true story until right before the movie. I had heard from a couple people that it was very moving. I didn't actually cry, but at the end I was seriously holding back some tears. Walking out of the theater was the hardest part. You could tell everyone in the theater was just absorbing what they had seen so it was silent! I would strongly recommend seeing it! Most of the time the movies they pick for the Oscars are just a bunch of junk, but this movie deserves every single one it's nominated for. Bradley Cooper was awesome! 

After that we headed over to Tacoma and enjoyed Happy Hour at The Melting Pot. We got cheese fondue, shared a salad, Michael got an Ale and then we had chocolate fondue all for $40!! Most of the time you can't get out of there without spending at least $100 so Happy Hours is totally worth it!

Since we had such an early dinner we decided to stop and get a movie at the Red Box. Michael and I both LOVE movies so this is pretty typical for our dates. We got another war movie...this time WWII. It's Brad Pitt's movie Fury. It was not a true story, but it was actually good. There was some vulgar language from one of the actors...he played Shane in The Walking Dead. I could have done without that, but other than that it was decent. Since we saw two war movies I kept getting them intertwined when I would think back to what happened at a certain part...oh well! 

We actually got to bed earlier than normal which was awesome. I was teaching preschool at church the next morning so unfortunately we didn't really get to sleep in. It was just awesome having over 24 hours of no parental responsibilities! 

Nature...At Last!

Michael was on-call the ENTIRE Christmas vacation! That meant that we basically couldn't do anything as a family and since we got sick the week before he went on-call that means that we really hadn't gone out and done anything as a family since The Living Nativity at the beginning of December! Boy that was a long sentence! 

So on Martin Luther King Day I was determined that we were going to get out and do something as a family. Since it was closer to the end of the month we didn't really have any money to go do anything so mother nature it was...most of the time she's free! We packed a lunch and headed to Owen Beach in Tacoma. Even though we've been here three times Owen still gets excited that there is a beach named for him! ;)

We got a late start since it was a day off for the kids and Michael so we weren't in a hurry. The first thing we did was sit down and have a bite to eat. 

Family friends Jim and Norean got us a Hillshire Farms package with sausage and cheese for Christmas so we brought that stuff for us and then packed sandwiches for the kids. 

Michael was sporting his Hawks coat that my mom got him last year. We were still riding the NFC Championship high and in a bit of shock that we were actually, seriously going to the Superbowl...again!  

For dessert I brought the leftover cupcakes from Owen's party and realized I never took a picture of what they look like on the inside so Owen showed me. 

Then is was down to the water for tons of fun! 

Owen literally threw so many rocks into the water that his arm was sore for about 3 days! 

Jack and Ella are all about finding shells and rocks they want to keep. It's fun seeing the different personalities they each have. Owen and Zeke want to play at the water, Jack and Ella want to search for treasures and climb on logs! 

If this girl could be eating something every minute of the day I think she would. She is always hungry! 

Handsome boy with Nutella on his face! 

Look at me Mommy! 

One of the times Jack came over and showed me shells he had found I noticed that his new teeth were growing in. It's so funny how they always start out so pointy at first! 

Zeke did really good about being careful around the water at first and then closer to when we left he was just walking in so his pants and shoes were soaked. Thankfully I still have a bag of clothes for him in the van. 

It's hilarious to watch him throw something in the water. It doesn't matter what it is...rock or twig...he will throw it as hard as he can and it will go about 1 foot in front of him. Kurplunk! 

After we had been there a while the sun really decided to come out and it felt so good on our faces and backs. Ella has such beautiful goldie locks! 

Michael and I were just sitting on a piece of drift wood and then I thought it would be fun to see the kids work as a team so I asked them to try to move this piece of wood that was in front of us. 

Jack and Ella were really trying. They needed a little coaching strategy wise, but they got it moving. 

Once they got it out of the rut it was in Owen came over and took an interest in helping. 

Trying to figure out how to move it the most effective way. 

We told them to try just pulling one side instead of both.

Then they had to start pushing. This was when they started to get frustrated. They weren't pushing from the trunk of the tree so it was just digging into the beach instead of sliding on it. 

We tried explaining how they needed to squat down and push from the trunk, but they just weren't getting it. 

Daddy had to intervene a little to get them moving again and then they finally got the log into the water. Overall they did great working together! 

Jackson's most favorite thing he found on the beach were these sharp looking shell pieces that looks like dinosaur teeth. Ella and him had pockets full of stuff by the time we left. On the way home we weren't in a hurry so instead of taking I-5 home we drove on 509 over the suspension bridge and then up by Brown's Point, Dash Point and Redondo Beach. It was fun being that close to the water the whole time. We made a stop at the Redbox and got How to Train Your Dragon 2, came home, made sticky corn and had a fun family movie day. It was really nice getting to do something as a family after such a long drought!