Science Olympiad!!!

Quick update...the mission project is finished!!!  I was not a popular mom the other day when I sat Matt down and said, "We are finishing this today!!!"  I knew this weekend would be crazy, so we pushed through and it turned out great!

I am not a crafty person at all.  AT ALL.  But we chose a scrapbook instead of a build.  I can take pictures and write...I don't build.

Finished product!

On to Science Olympiad. 

What a fun day!  The entire experience was met with some mixed emotions, but overall it was a great experience.  Matthew competed in three events: Extinction is Forever, Bottle Music, and Rubber band Catapult.  A couple of weeks ago, Matthew had a bit of a panic attack and it was completely understandable.  Extinction is Forever was a study competition and that meant he and his partner were responsible for not only knowing if the species /animals were extinct or endangered, they also had to know the reason, their habitat, primary location, and when this happened.  It is a lot of information and he kind of hit a breaking point.  As much as I tried to tell him that he just had to do his best and no one would get mad or be disappointed if he didn't do well, it was still so stressful for him. 

Reese Roadrunners Represented!!!

 
Matt and Nicholas having breakfast before their first event.

Luke, Nicholas, and Matt watching egg drop.  These three boys are inseparable!

Extinction group.  They were all smiles, but they were sooooo nervous!

Last minute studying.

Rubber band Catapult.

Matthew and Brian setting up.

Reese cheer section!

Bottle Music group!!

Our cheering section for Science Bowl.

WINNERS!!!!!!!  Matt's team won 5th place for Bottle Music!!

Proud kids!!  They worked hard and did a great job!

A Little Work...A Little Play

Spring break is here!!  And it is like 80 degrees outside and beautiful.  I had to walk into the my hidden stash of summer clothes in Ryan's closet, which he does not know is there (on purpose), to get some summer gear out.  The next two weeks will be full of no make-up, air dried hair, and comfy summer dresses, with maybe a cardigan or two thrown in, and I am going to love every minutes of it.

On Sunday we headed to Fresno to celebrate Grandma Jean's 85 birthday.  The boys had left the day before so that they could suck as much cousin time out of the trip as possible.  We had a great day at Grandma's and then went back to Mike and Stacy's to stay for the night.  And that was a treat because we rarely stay with them anymore due to mostly day trips.  Sunday night Mason had basketball tryouts and we were told "No girls allowed", which I totally get!  However, that left Stacy and Mikayla and I to fill the time while they were gone, so we went and got massages.  That is what you call a win, win!

Monday morning we headed to Carmel for the second leg of our trip.  As I said before, I picked...wait, Matthew picked Carmel as his fourth grade mission project.  And I supported him a hundred percent and told him that we would be more than happy to take him there to help him with his project. We could not have picked a better day!  It was gorgeous there!  I mean stupid, ridiculous, gorgeous, then again begging the question---why is it we don't live here???   Oh yeah...the dough. 

We started our day at First Awakening (that's First Watch to you locals! Hi Noelle;).  We decided to jump start our brains with the proper nourishment for the information we would be collecting.

Ryan chose the Mickey Pancake.

I chose the special...salmon and grilled mushrooms eggs benedict.  Yep, it was that good. 

Excited boy.  At breakfast he went over a list of things he specifically wanted to include with pictures. 

He is all ready.

Unfortunately there was major construction going on and a lot of the mission was closed off.  Matt was really disappointed that the cemetery was closed because he had just done some work on a writing piece for his report.

I thought I would show you all the pictures that I took first.  Because all the pictures I took first had both boys in them because Ryan wanted to be in every picture.  When we kept telling him that they were for Matt's report, his response..."That's okay, she can know I was here too." Again, I have two sets of every picture...one of both, and then one of Matt.

 

 

After we were done we headed to Carmel.  A little drive along the scenic route.

We sat and watched this couple with eight dogs, which we thought might have been a litter, but when we got closer realized that they were all older dogs.  Anyway, they ran around in the water like crazy.  So fun to watch!

Shorts and t-shirts...crazy beautiful weather.

 

This bird kept me company while I watched the car.

Last shot of the day...

Okay...let's start a poll.  State reports for fifth grade officially start nine months from now.  Where should we go???  I mean, of course, what state should Matt pick as HIS choice for state report???  Because I have a couple in mind and flights would have to be booked shortly. :)

Date night

On Saturday we wrapped our Upward season with two wins and two happy boys.  Matthew's team ended the season 7-1, and Ryan's team just ended the season.  Even though no score is kept for kindergartner's, Matthew always keeps score to torment Ryan with.  That's how we know that Ryan won...it physically killed Matt to admit that they crushed the last team.  Oh well...on to AAU ball and baseball. 

I love a good date night. But you know what makes a date night more fun....other people with you on the date. Solo coupling is for daters. And daters we are not!  So we asked our dear friends Brent and Sharon if they would like to head over to San Jose and catch a Sharkies (in our house, they are affectionately known as that) game.  Brent is a huge hockey fan like Rich, and I didn't know until dinner that the Sharks are his favorite team.  Which was cool...unless he was humoring me because that's who we were going to watch--and root for loudly.

We had dinner at the fantastic restaurant in downtown San Jose called The Counter.  Food was delish!!  We all loved what we ordered and raved over the three, yes three, different kinds of fries we ordered.

We made it just in time to the game, thanks to the nifty navigation Sharon has in her car.  I only mention this because on the console, where the gear shift is--I think--is a little mouse or joystick that the driver uses to "navigate" around the navigation system.  It occurred to me as I watched Brent drive and try to "navigate" with the mouse, that if we owned this car and Rich was driving...our car would be wrapped around the nearest telephone pole.  No joke!  I am so grateful that the system that is in my car can ONLY be operated when you are in a parked position.  If Rich had access to work this joystick while we were driving...again, not a happy ending.  The headline would read, "Tragedy as family of four crashes, driver's hand found on joystick!" 

The nice man behind us took our picture.

The guys....

The gals....

Okay, so we need to talk about the best part of the evening.  No, it wasn't that we had an amazing dinner...because it was.  No, it wasn't that we saw the Sharks win...even though it was much needed.  No, the best part of the evening happened approximately fifteen minutes after the game was over as Sharon and I were patiently waiting for the guys to exit the restroom.  As we were standing there, talking, minding our own business, this young (very young) guy walks up to us and opens with, "Do you guys know of a bar around here?"  The good news is that he was at least old enough to drink, because it was clear that was what he had been doing for a majority of the night.  The random chit chat conversation that took place was hysterical.  I don't even remember half of what he said because all I could think about was that Brent and Rich were going to walk out of the bathroom at any minute and see this fella making conversation with us.  As they came out, he was walking away and Sharon and I just started giggling.  And couldn't stop.  I do love that Brent opened with, "Did you tell him you were married?" and we looked at each other and said...." Uh, no."  This is the difference between Rich and Brent...Rich would have never asked me that.  He would have just laughed and made fun of me the rest of the night.  And he did.  Sooo funny!!!  That incident will live on as something Sharon and I come back to every now and again, you know, just for the fun of it!

I had to include this next picture.  This is the next morning when Ryan found out that we went to the Sharkies game without him.  Oops.  Cried for thirty minutes straight.  No joke!

Tidbits

Welcome the blog post about nothing. Let's just run through some topics and we will catch up that way.

Basketball--We are approaching the end of basketball season.  This is always a sad time for me, because I do love a good basketball game.  And both boys have really had great teams this season and it has been so fun to watch. 

Matthew has decided to not play baseball this spring!  (THANK GOD!) Last year was painfully long, and ugly, and boring, and in the heat.  So, when asked if he wanted to play again, his answer was no.  Instead, we are going to try out tennis.  He has lessons starting next week and I am anxious to see if  he enjoys it. 

Ryan of course is starting baseball in a few weeks.  But, this is different.  It's machine pitch and moves MUCH faster than kid pitch.  And a bunch of his friends have signed up to play so we are hoping he has some friends on his team. 

TV-- Let's talk about my new obsession...The Following.  Kevin Bacon (or affectionately, Ren McCormack) has a new show on Fox where he plays an disgruntled ex-FBI agent who was brought in to work on a case about a serial killer who he successfully had brought down.  I LOVE THIS SHOW.  I love it so much that I no longer wait until Saturday afternoon to watch it (it is on Monday nights).  After the first episode I told myself that I would NEVER watch it before going to sleep due to the fact that I didn't sleep that night on account of all the noises I heard outside.  I have become a big girl though and I can watch it Monday nights now.  (Disclaimer--I get to fall asleep with lights on until Rich comes to bed...you are welcome!)

And secondly---Scandal---Best Show on Television.  Let me say that again....BEST. SHOW. ON. TELEVISION.

Oscars-- I love the Oscars.  I love everything about them.  Yesterday, from 2:30pm on, I was glued to my twitter account getting updates about the red carpet arrivals.  As we were walking through Toys R Us yesterday I could be heard saying things like..."Really, she went with that color?" or "There wasn't a single pair of pasties available in LA for this event?"  At one point Rich's eyes rolled so far in the back of his head I thought we were going to need to take him in for corrective surgery.  He is clueless about these things...I love me a gorgeous gown!  It's in my DNA.

And can we just talk about Ben Affleck?  Come on!  I crazy love that guy and I am so happy that his film won for best picture.  As darling as he is, I really have more of a crush on his wife.  Is that weird?  I think not.  I'm like 99.8% sure we could be best friends.  I love her.

My favorite part of the evening last night...when my sister text me and said, "Hello darling!  And who are you wearing?"  She gets it.  We are girls. She gets it.

School-- Two more weeks of school then spring break.  I hate spring break.  Only because it is the biggest tease of what summer will be like.  That's all I am going to say because I know it is not normal to have a job where summers are off, along with three other two week periods during the year. 

We will be spending part of spring break in Carmel because Matthew picked San Carlos Borromeo de Camelo Mission.  His mother is no fool.  With a mission report, there will have to be research done.  And with research, there will be a project--we picked a scrapbook.  And with a scrapbook comes pictures of him visiting his mission.  And that my friends is how we negotiate a trip to Carmel, "for school business."  Can't wait to see what state he picks for next years state report ;).

Napa Weekend

Last weekend we took off for our now "official" Napa weekend for Kelly's birthday.  I can call it officially an annual weekend because this makes it two years in a row and that's a pattern, so it makes it official.  We also have restaurants picked out for next year already, so the "annual" part feels okay to say.

By accident, and that is what we will refer to it...an accident, we ended up at this restaurant in Napa called Ristorante Allegria.  It was fabulous.  Best dinner I have had in a while.  All four of us loved everything we had and we will definitely go back next year, on our annual trip to Napa. (See, it's catching on).  I say it was an accident that we ended up here because we were supposed to eat at this other place that Lynn wanted to eat at.  We were all ready to go, I even called to see if we needed reservations (this became the joke of the weekend) and I should have known when the girl semi-chuckled at my question if I needed to put our name down for four, that something was up.  Turns out when we got there, it was like an upscale Butcher Shoppe.  An order yourself, seat yourself, serve yourself kind of a place.  When we walked in, hoping the wait would not be too long, and saw the guy filling the ice machine with a bucket from the back...we all started hysterically laughing and turned around and walked out.  But it was okay, because we rebounded with Ristorante Allegria.  It was a beautiful place and perfect dinner.

This was my dinner.

The next day we headed to this place for lunch that was on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives.  It is called Gott's Roadside.  Because this is my first Triple D experience, you understand how excited I was.  I don't know what it is about that show, but I can turn it on and five hours later I have sat through ten episodes.  So when we showed up...I was super excited.  That lasted about twenty minutes.  I was a little disappointed.  What I had and what the girls had was nothing special or nothing that we couldn't order anywhere else.  And it was crazy overpriced.  I know it was Napa and everything, but I felt like when they put our tray down and we saw what was on it....it wasn't worth the $70 total it was. 

Look at Kelly...she is hysterical!

To make us feel better, we then headed to the outlets.  My mood became better instantly.  I love me some outlets.  After the outlets, we headed to the cupcake place that Kelly had been talking about called Sift.  They won Cupcake Wars on the Food Network.  Overall they were good...but the best one we had was the Samoa...like from the girl scout cookies (middle row, on the right).  Delish!

Saturday night we headed to Bistro Jeanty.  Don't go if you are in Napa.  Well, I take it back, I had a fantastic dinner...but my girls did not care for what they ordered.  And it was a small restaurant and I felt like I was sharing my meal and conversation with people around us.  The only great thing about dinner was the birthday girl and the fact that she had had a little too much to drink.  That made dinner fun....and entertaining....and short.  And french food...not my favorite.

We had a great time on our ANNUAL weekend trip to Napa for Kelly's birthday.  I can't wait to go back next year.  Because we always come away with good stories...like me almost killing myself in the shower...that we can laugh at and talk about for years.