DLR Movie Review: Nemo

Name of Movie: Nemo

Rated: G     

Owen's Rating: Liked it- Yeah I'd watch it again

Owen's Favorite Part: When the thing in the fish tank looked like a volcano and the fish shot out of it.

Tommy's Rating: Loved it- Wanna watch it again and again

Tommy's Favorite Part: I like the shark, the turtles, and when the little girl got sprayed in the face.

Parent Rating: Loved it- Wanna watch it again and again

Parent's Favorite Part: 

Daddy's favorite part: The EAS, the turtles.

Mommy's favorite part:  What's not to like, it's a movie about believing in yourself and those you love; even when you think they "can't" do it.  "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming, just keep swimming!"-Dory

DLR Movie Review-Swiss Family Robinson

Our first movie was Swiss Family Robinson.  Come to find out that attraction has change to Tarzan.
Here is our review:

Name of Movie: Swiss Family Robinson

  

Rated:G

         

Owen's Rating: Liked it- Yeah I'd watch it again

         

Owen's Favorite Part: The house they built was cool!  I'd like to live in a house like that.  I want a pet monkey. My favorite part was when the pirate's got hit by the logs.

  

Tommy's Rating:

          

Tommy's Favorite Part: Didn't watch it.  Well he was in the room but I don't like he looked at the tv unless there was an animal on tv.

Some of his quotes:

"Baby elephant, so cute."

"Oooh tiger, mad"

"That monkey, so funny"

  

Parent Rating: Loved it- Wanna Watch it again and again

          

Parent's Favorite Part: A great family movie!  Made me smile!

Mom & Dad's favorite part was the race with the animals and the end.

Disney Movies

So in preparation to our big Disneyland trip, I want our family to watch lots of Disney movies, in order to get a better understanding of the attractions at the parks.
I asked for some help via DISboards.com and this nice person posted this list for me:

Adventureland Indian Jones Adventure Indiana Jones - Raiders of the Lost Ark- Adventureland Jungle Cruise Jungle Book- Adventureland Tarzan's Treehouse Tarzan- Critter Country Splash Mountain Song of the South-  Critter Country The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh- Fantasyland Alice In Wonderland Alice In Wonderland- Fantasyland Casey Jr. Circus Train Dumbo- Fantasyland Dumbo the Flying Elephant Dumbo- Fantasyland King Arthur Carrousel The Sword in the Stone- Fantasyland Mad Tea Party Alice In Wonderland- Fantasyland Matterhorn Bobsleds Third Man on the Mountain-  Fantasyland Mr. Toad's Wild Ride The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad-  Fantasyland Peter Pan's Flight Peter Pan- Fantasyland Pinocchio's Daring Journey Pinocchio- Fantasyland Sleeping Beauty Castle Sleeping Beauty- may or not watch Fantasyland Snow White's Scary Adventures Snow White-will watch but will not go on Frontierland Big Thunder Railroad The Living Desert and other true life adventures Frontierland Big Thunder Ranch Toy Story 2 Frontierland General Atmosphere Daniel Boone Frontierland General Atmosphere Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier Mickey's Toontown Chip 'n Dale Treehouse Chip 'an Dale Mickey's Toontown Gadget's Go Coaster Chip 'N Dale's Rescue Rangers to the Rescue Mickey's Toontown Goofy's Playhouse A Goofy Movie  Mickey's Toontown Mickey's House and Meet Mickey The Barnyard Concert  Mickey's Toontown Minnie's House Mickey's Delayed Date Mickey's Toontown Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin Who Framed Roger Rabbit New Orleans Square Haunted Mansion Haunted Mansion New Orleans Square Pirates of the Caribbean Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl- Will Not Watch Tomorrowland Astro Orbiter Tomorrowland Autopia Love Bug Tomorrowland Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters Toy Story Tomorrowland Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin Toy Story  Tomorrowland Captain Eo Tomorrowland Finding Nemo Submarine Ride Finding Nemo Tomorrowland Space Mountain Tomorrowland Star Tours Star Wars - the Phantom Menace

Now I've asked him to do the same for California Adventure Park ;)

SoCal and DL here we come

It has felt like forever since we've been down to San Diego to visit my family!  Well we now have a plan, Spring Break 2012.  Owen will have 2 weeks off (instead of the usual 1 week).  I bought the airline tickets last week, so it's official!
We will also be going to Disneyland!!  It's been like 5 years since we've been there! Yes I'm having withdrawals!  We haven't booked it yet but will soon, it's gonna be huge!  It has to be right? It has been 5 years (compared to the every year trip, I grew up with).
Now if only I can encourage the consignment sale owner to have the sale before my vaca! ;)

Oregon City Soccer Club

The past two years Owen has participated in the Oregon City Soccer Club playing recreation soccer and Josh has coached.  Tonya's neighbors are active members of the board and have encourage me to get involved and maybe join the board.  Well I went to my first meeting and learned A LOT!  I was nominated secretary and I now hold the position.  I'm excited to join the board almost all of the positions are held by newly appointed members. So hopefully some good changes will come to the organization.

Prayer for Sons-my why

I'm participating in 21 Days of Prayer for Sons is a prayer challenge for mothers of boys starting June 8, 2011, based on the eBook Warrior Prayers: Praying the Word for Boys in the Areas They Need it Most.
I first saw it mentioned last month on a blog I follow (Granola Mom 4 God) and have been thinking about joining but I wasn't sure I could keep up with the reading.  This week God clearly spoke to me (through Owen's behavior) that I needed to do it!  I thought it started on Monday. So on Wednesday I franticly was emailing the leader to let me join late.  Come to find out it started that day.  I downloaded the book on Josh's kindle and started reading.  It is a very easy read (big sigh of relief)!
I started another blog (prayer4my2.blogspot.com) where I will be posting my response to the discussion questions at the end of each chapter.  I'm excited to have you follow me in this journey of learning to be a better mom for my sons and help them become more Godly men.

Florida Vacation

Our vacation was great!  The weather was great and we were busy having fun and making memories!

My wonderful passengers!
They were well behaved for the 9 hour journey.

Our ride from the airport, a Limo!  Thanks grandma!
A special ride for Owen's birthday.

Grandma's Gator Fans!
Playing mini golf (on one of the cooler days)

Our favorite place to be!

Lunch break.
I loved this table.

Owen's Birthday cake

Owen's birthday at Typhoon Lagoon 

Tired boys

Lego Store at Downtown Disney

The Lego set Owen bought with his birthday money

Owen's sugary treat at Goofy's Candy Company.
We also got a huge mickey shaped cookie.

Look at these huge rice crispy treats

Carousel ride in Downtown Disney

Silhouette that was hand cut!  A new tradition we started.

We had a wonderful time visiting with Grandma & Chevy, The Hogle's, and Granmy!

(so mad I didn't get more pictures with them)

Owen's Birthday

Happy Birthday to my first born!  You will always hold a special place in my heart!!!

5 months

1 Year

2 years

3 years

4 years

5 years

6 years

7 years

Tommy Tot School-Transportation

Our second unit was transportation.  There are a lot of resources for transportation out there but I mainly used an adorable unit of printable from Homeschool Creations.  We are going on vacation soon via an airplane so I thought this was a fitting unit of study.  I'm quickly learning that Tommy is a sponge and I need to make his learning activities more challenging.
Sorry no pictures. Oh maybe one.  This page is from Making Learning Fun

Oh I also got some plastic drawers for putting activities in.

Tommy Tot School

Working on Tommy's goals in play is getting boring, so the teacher in me wants to have some more thematic stuctured time.  So I've picked some themes and have searched on the web for thematic activities.  Then God led me to homeschooling blog sites.  Yes, stay at home/homeschooling moms write blogs about their children's adventures in learning.  And yes there are preschoolers and toddler.  They even make thematic packets with worksheets and "games" to print out.  All for FREE!  So I have downloaded lots of colorful and cute packets.  Our goal for Tot School is focusing on Tommy's sensory goals like fine motor skills, oral motor, vocabulary, and getting off "Tommy's agenda."

Our first "unit" Garden
We have been working outside to restore our yard and get ready for a planter box for a garden.  So what a better theme than flowers and gardens.

I made a sensory box with beans and included: pots, flowers, and bugs.  We searched for bugs (Tommy's favorite part), planted flowers, picked flowers, and smelled flowers (another favorite part).

Workboxes
-Matching colors folder game- colored flowers to colored pots
-Matching numbers to amount of seeds folder game- flowers have a number on each and the pots have seeds on them.  Count the seeds on the pot and match to the flower.
-Part of homeschoolcreations.com's garden unit; we matched initial letter sounds to the picture and the tracing of the letter both lowercase and uppercase.
-Another part of homeschoolcreations.com's garden unit; we matched black and white pictures to colored pictures.

--Another part of homeschoolcreations.com's garden unit; we put the parts of a flower together and matched the vocab word to the part of the flower (ie. flower, leaves, stem, and roots)
-Read books from the library.
-I made grass, flowers, and flower stems out of felt for the felt board the Easter bunny brought.

Reflection
Tommy's attention span was more than anticipated and I was able to "reel him back in" when needed.  This week I lacked in songs and art, two things I will add in next unit (transportation).  I have so many ideas, but need to keep it simple and repetitive with a learner like Tommy.  He likes to practice and master.

Making money

I am so thankful for the day I found Twice Around the Block Consignment Sale and the world of selling/consigning my kids outgrown stuff.  I had most of my stuff ready to go awhile ago, I just had one or two piles of things I've gathered last minute.  I did recruit a friend (Maureen) to consign her stuff, so I was helping her along the way.  And my friend Kristin puts in one box of stuff along with mine.

Maureen found herself in a time crunch so I offered to tag her stuff. Also her drop off was the day before mine.  Well as I was finishing up her boy stuff, the needle on my tagging gun broke.  Luckily it was only about 9:30 in the morning.  So I found a stopping spot and heading into Portland to get a replacement needle and a few extras.  After picking up Owen at school and putting Tommy down for a nap, I got back to work on her girl stuff.  As I was on the last items, the tagging gun broke again!  This time the trigger part. Bummer!!

The next day I asked Kelly the owner of the sale if I could borrow one of hers.  She saved me!!!!  I got all of the tagging done, loaded up the truck and made it to my drop off on time.  Boy it was a busy morning!!!

The truck is packed and ready to go.  I even had to put two big items in the backseat.

I worked most of the weekend!  It was exhausting but I felt a since of purpose.  Plus I love working the sale with Kelly and all of the other volunteers/moms!

I did get to shop first and spent about $110.  My big win (at least in my eyes) was keen sandals for the boys for $25 that's 2 pairs!!! Which is a steal, they go for about $30 each at the store.  I also got these little figure animals that Tommy loves.

Tommy cleaning his new animals.

One negative to working all weekend is the opportunity to shop.  So my total was probably $125 at the end of the weekend.
Oh wait...there are also vendors at the sale like Scentsy, Miche purses, and...Thirty-one gifts.  I fell in love with Thirty-one gifts.  It's these cute practical bags and storage items.  I got a small wristlit purse to go from my miche purse to the baby bag, a cute bag for snacks and water bottles, and the blanket for the park or baseball games.  And I ordered this wall organizer.  I can't wait for it all to come in!

I was happy to bring home half of what I took including ZERO toys (those are popular)!
Total items sold 166 and Total Sales $663.00!   Now I'm just waiting on my check!

The whole process had me thinking about tagging as a business.  With my organization skills I think it'd be a good stay-at-home job for me.  Josh see's it as a write off, I see it as helping moms.  We did some research and I think it may work.  So I'll be praying about it and we'll see what happens.

Baseball and Grandpa

First I have to gripe about how expensive sports are and he's only 6!  What is it going to be like in 3 or 4 more years?  Registration fees, equipment, snacks, a coach's gift, a trophy, and then over priced pizza at the local pizza joint. Josh and I have decided to start saving now.
On that not we asked Josh's dad for a "scholarship."  He so kindly offered to pitch in $50.  Plus he offered to meet us at the store in Beaverton then take us to lunch.  "Okay!"  You don't have to ask me twice!  Plus it was at Spaghetti factory, yum.
Owen had fun making music with the bats.  I found this very interesting that he tolerated the racket.  But I guess when it is his racket he takes it differently than when it is someone else making the racket.

Sorry I don't have a picture of Owen in his baseball gear yet.  Maybe on the first game day.

At lunch, I put on a weighted vest I have on loan for Tommy.  Hoping that it would make the restaurant experience better for Tommy and us.  Guess what, it did!  After we left Josh and I talked about how shocked we were with Tommy's calm behavior.  Now we really need to invest in one of these.  Well God bless Gary and Linda (Grandpa & Gma)!  The next day they called Josh and offered to buy Tommy a weighted compression vest.  They bought Owen baseball equipment and wanted to be fair.  Yea!

March in Review

I didn't do as many pictures of the day this month.  I don't have an excuse.

Highlights of March
Owen finished up playing basketball.
Owen had a singing performance at school.
Owen's parent/teacher conference: He's doing great!
We went camping at the coast during spring break and visited the cheese factory
Tommy enjoyed playing, discovering, and being cute!

Camping Spring Break-Day 2 & 3

After breakfast we packed up and headed to Oceanside Beach, south of Tillamook.  It was a beautiful drive down 101.  We arrived at low tide and made the walk to towards the cliff to a cool man made tunnel to lead us to the beach on  the other side.  We saw many tide pools but no creatures in them :(  I accidentaly left the baby carrier in the car but I figured this would be ideal conditions for Tommy to walk on the amooth packed sand and we'd carry him the short walk over the rocks.  But of course he didn't want to walk on the sand, so we carried him most of the way.  We found neat rocks, Owen found one the shape of a pryamid. After our beach adventure we headed to the Tillamook Cheese factory. 

Josh and Owen "calling the waves"

back through the cave, before I stepped in the puddle

It was packed!  We ordered lunch (grilled cheese sandwiches) and took the self guided walking tour.  When we finished the tour, found a table, and our lunch was ready (perfect timing).  After we ate lunch we had ice cream (the true reason we went).  Owen had a jr. cone of cake batter and Josh and I shared a waffle bowl of utterly peanut buttery and mud pie. Tommy was too busy, to want any ice cream which is ok by me.

We love cows!

We love cheese!

We love grilled cheese!

When we returned it was such a beautiful day, we skipped Tommy's nap and went to the beach.  It was windy (of course) but gorgeous!

After dinner and just after smores it started to rain :(  Bad enough that we couldn't enjoy our campfire.  It rained all night and continued during breakfast.  We decided to scrap our plan to go hiking.  We packed up in the rain and left.  That was the end of our camping trip, we are so thankful for the previous great weather.

Well we beat the rain home and unpacked in the sunshine. :)