California Spring Break: Disney and Days 1-3

You guys! I've been to the west coast and back and I've missed you! Thank you so much for your recommendations on my last post, I wrote all of them down in the little spiral notebook that lives in my purse and we did many of them!

Ready to go! 5 carry-ons, 5 personal items, 1 bulldog who will sleep in the overhead compartment

It was such a wonderful trip. I adore California. I love the coast. I love that I get to be on the beach but it's not hot and no one expects me to get in the water. I wore jeans and a tee and often a jacket, with bare feet buried in the sand, an umbrella overhead, kindle in my hands, and my kids digging holes all around. It was beachy perfection. I miss it and am sad I must work for a living in an office that is neither on the beach nor in California.

But first up- we went to Disneyland!

Our flight out went great. It left about 3:30 our time and landed in LA about 4:50 California time thanks to the magic of westward flight. The big kids sat together in the row in front of James, Cora, and me. Everyone had snacks in their bags and the in-flight entertainment system ensured that no one talked to me while I watched A Simple Favor (a movie that should have been good, but seemed like it couldn't decide what kind of movie it wanted to be) and then The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (fast forwarding all the Frodo parts, of course). The kids were total pros with their carry-ons, amusing our captain who commented on their confident marches up the airplane aisle with their rolling suitcase and backpacks. We bused over to our rental car company, tetris'd our luggage and children into our small SUV, and headed out to Anaheim! Stopping first for dinner at a brewery because it was like 9 p.m. Fort Worth time and we were very hungry.

Next stop was the Disneyland Hotel! Our home for the next two nights. It had the usual great Disney service and I think a lot of nostalgia if you knew enough about Disney to recognize it. Mostly we just checked in, got our welcome packet and tickets, and headed straight to our room.

It was a small regular room (no fancy suite this time and man, did we miss it; we are too many people to sleep within 5 feet of each other and share the same bathroom, though obviously we survived), but the headboard lit up and played music and was a HUGE hit. There were little mickey shapes everywhere- the handles on the sink, the sconces, hidden in the carpet pattern, etc. which was very cute. Most of all it was there and it was close and we were so tired (I think it was about midnight central time) that we all fell asleep quickly.

Monday morning was Disney's California Adventure! A sister park to Disneyland, the two park entrances face each other across a little courtyard, so unlike at Disney World, everything is very close together. We walked over from our hotel, passing first through downtown Disney (you go through security there, so once you get to the park entrances, you're just scanning your ticket, which is nice), and heading in with absolutely no expectation of how things would go, except my realizing I should have listened to the advice I gave everyone else in my family to dress warmer than I thought necessary (I was cold all day, but it was our only grey day and I'm pretty sure my suffering is why we had spectacular weather the rest of the trip.)

And the day was great!

Other differences we found from Disney World is that Disneyland does not do advance fast passes, does not require things to be as planned out, is not as otherworldly and pristine, does not do as many photo opportunities on and off rides, and does not use Magic Bands. Honestly, I missed all of those things.

I've thought about it- and I don't want to sound too negative, it's a great duo of parks and we had a great time, but I think particularly when we aren't experts in the park and when we don't think we'll go often (or maybe even ever) again, it is SO nice to be able to have things planned out more in advance. The logistics and planning- something I thought would be such a downside to Disneyworld (remember, I never wanted to go there in the first place and was pretty eye-rolly about the fact James felt it was so important)- was actually SO great because someone else can do it and then you just get to follow the plans and their careful reservations and enjoy yourself!

At Disneyland you grab your Fast Passes as you go, so not knowing anything about the park made that a little more complicated in judging which rides to grab vs. others and how to order them to avoid walking 10 miles a day which we totally did. I also missed the magic (not a pun, they are MAGICAL) of the Magic Bands and having everything linked to a single bracelet. I missed all the in-ride photo ops since my favorite pics from Disney World are of the kids screaming on rides. I missed the more spacious layout of Disney World; at Disneyland everything is closer together, which I think could be a plus, but on a crowded day in March felt very much like a minus (omg so many people; I will never ever regret taking the kids out of school for that week in November for our big Disney adventure).

This sounds overly negative - we had two super fun days in these parks, and we particularly loved California Adventure and would totally go there again on another trip to LA, I think I just had super low expectations of Disney World that were utterly blown away at every park during all 6 days we were there, and average expectations of Disneyland that were generally met.

Also, and this is definitely not the park's fault, Cora is no longer into princesses as of the Monday morning we woke up at Disney. She'd packed her princess dresses on Sunday and declined to wear them on Monday. On Tuesday, when we were in Disneyland, she turned down all princess meet-and-greet opportunities. It was shocking and honestly, a little sad. I was never pro-princess to begin with, but she loved them so deeply and so truly for those few magical years, that I found myself mourning that chapter and SO SO thankful we went to Disney World when we did. Even Landon and Claire both commented later how they missed seeing Cora talk to her princesses like they were both real royalty and also her best friends. I think her awe and wonder during those meet-and-greets was an essential bit of magic to that DW trip--something unique to Disney that we didn't experience this time around--that no other amusement park experience can recreate, so I feel very lucky to have had it. I mean, I cried when she met her first princess and her face lit up. It was ridiculous. I think of it all the time and smile.

But if princesses were out, pin trading was IN, and the kids found at least a few of the pins they'd used last time (Landon had been way into it and still had all of his; Claire had been somewhat in and found a small stash; and Cora hadn't traded anything and had apparently given all her pins to her siblings). This time they were all obsessed- even Cora, who couldn't have cared less last go round, was a pin trading fool this trip. And because we'd done Disney before, and many of the rides are similar, we totally let them guide the day, which meant James and I got to hang out alone together a lot while the kids traded with every employee who wears a lanyard at Disney.

And in between pins were the rides. No characters, no parades (I couldn't get anyone excited about it, and we loved the parades last time!), so it was all rides. And the rides were great! But we didn't have the rides + magic I think we all got to experience last time thanks to the our princess-loving magic-believing 4-year-old in Florida and the general novelty of the first go-round.

But on the upside, the benefit of increasingly bigger kids is that they want to ride all the rides together, leaving you and your husband to have frequent dates in the car behind them.

So, now that it sounds like I've knocked it, I'll tell you we had a great time and the Incredicoaster at California Adventure Park is the best roller coaster I've ever been on. We all loved it. Even Claire, who cried during her first upside-down-loop experience at Hollywood Studios loved it and rode it twice.

Cora, sadly, was 1" too short and we had to eat our feelings while the big kids rode with dad. She was absolutely devastated. Next time Cora, next time.

The Pixar Ferris wheel is awesome. You think you're on a normal ride and then bam- your cart flies out over the lake. It was totally a favorite and I could have ridden it lots of times.

We loved Toy Story Midway Mania, Goofy's Flight School, the Golden Zephyr, Indiana Jones, more Incredicoaster, Radiator Springs, other rides I can't remember, and then, in what we assumed was a short sing-a-long, the Frozen show at the Hyperion theater BLEW US AWAY. Even Landon who was skeptical that his presence was necessary at this intermission in the fun he was having, sat slack jawed for the entire hour of this Broadway-like recreation of the movie. The sets were awesome, the singing was awesome, we really loved it.

And we finished it just in time to run over for our Tower of Terror Fast Pass. This was the only ride Cora did not enjoy last time (I mean, she was 4 years and 1 day old), but she loved it this time around.

We had plans to stay for the nighttime show, but after walking 22,000 steps and 9 miles, we decided to call it a day. We ate pizza in Downtown Disney and headed back to the hotel where James and I desperately wanted to lie down, but we supported our children's dreams by taking them down to the pool instead. I drank hot tea and wore pants, long sleeves, and two jackets, and they had the entire pool to themselves because seriously it was cold outside and no one else thought swimming was a good idea.

On Tuesday we were up early, left our bags with the bellhop, and headed into Disneyland Park for the first time. We ran straight to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad because it was one of our very favorites from Magic Kingdom and it did not disappoint. We enjoyed it so much- and the line was short enough at that early hour- to ride it immediately again.

I love that ride and riding it with Cora is the best.

After checking off our favorite coaster, we headed to Plaza Inn where we had breakfast with Minnie and Friends.

This was great- great food, great location, and the only characters we interacted with the whole trip, so I'm glad they were put right in front of us while we plowed through our fourth plate of mickey waffles. We met Minnie (of course), Rafiki, Captain Hook, Dale, Eeyore, the Fairy Godmother, Pooh, and we should have met Tigger but he hadn't made it over to us and we were ready to ride rides again. But it was a great character breakfast, even if I had to know the actual cost since there wasn't a prepaid food plan to allow me to pretend all our meals were free.

After brunch was Matterhorn Bobsleds (so fun!), Storybook Canal Cruise, the Carousel, Snow White's Scary Adventure (more dark/creepy than hands-in-the-air fun, which is true for several of the Disneyland rides), the Mad Hatter Tea Party (only the girls; our boys have weak stomachs), and Buzz Lightyear's Space something. We enjoyed everything, but it was getting super crowded and we couldn't really even see the rides in front of us, it was more navigating off our app and doing whatever didn't require an hour of waiting. We'd already done a lot of the rides at Disney World, so unless we loved them, we skipped them this time around (It's a Small World, Peter Pan's Flight, etc.) just because the waits were long and we were happy to take this whole day a lot slower.

We ended the day with Autopia and that was super fun for the perfect screen shot it provided of each of our children. We had Landon, tall enough to ride alone and old enough to handle that power responsibly- driving confidently, following all directions, and coming to a smooth stop at the end.

Claire, who was thrilled at being tall enough this time to reach the gas pedal, and then immediately hesitant to press it very hard until I finally put my foot on top of hers and pressed it down to the floor.

And Cora, commandeering the steering wheel from her dad, and unable to reach the pedals, but skeptical enough of their speed to press her own little foot on top of James's to make sure they were going as fast as possible.

We headed out after Autopia, totally exhausted in a way that made me wonder how we did 6 days at Disney World, and ready to eat a non-park-meal and switch to a far cheaper hotel that didn't have $20 cotton candies and pretzels around every corner. (Kidding, but only a little.)

We strolled through Downtown Disney, treating the kids to ice cream at Salt & Straw which was AMAZING, and letting everyone pick out one souvenir from the big Disney store. Claire and Cora both got necklaces and Landon decided to reserve his treat for Legoland. These eminently reasonable decisions took 95 hours to make, so I think we finally actually left our hotel around 7 p.m. We stopped for dinner on the way to our other hotel, and checked in just in time for bed. Which is good because the hotel (actually, motel) was kind of gross with very thin walls, but we had a white noise machine and the room had a bunk bed and two queens and whatever it was $100 with breakfast included. The kids thought it was great.

And so that was Disney on Days 2 and 3. Day 4 was our "down" day with plans to head down the coast, stopping in beach towns, and relaxing along the way to Carlsbad. It didn't quite go as planned as we ended up in a car accident 1 mile from our first planned beach stop, but we'll get to that in the next post...

California and Houston and All the Packing

You guys, I don't know where the time keeps going. Tuesday night was PTA Board Meeting night, then on Wednesday I had plans for an update that got lost in just chatting with James on the couch and finishing Rich People Problems (the 3rd/final book in the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy; I enjoyed the heck out of all three). On Thursday I discovered a nail salon near my house that stays open until 10 p.m. and made a friend go get pedicures with me. Last night we cobbled together an unsatisfying dinner and then I typed a short novel to our former nanny (Tara!) now turned pet sitter because we're leaving Maggie for EIGHT DAYS to go to California for Spring Break. I miss her already. Would anyone notice if she snored away in the overhead luggage bin? She'd be no trouble at all.

So first things first, we leave for California tomorrow! I need to pack, but I'm doing this first so you can give me advice on what I need. It's not procrastinating, it's practical. What does 65 degrees mean in San Diego? What does a high of 68 mean at Disneyland? Jeans and a short sleeve shirt? Shorts? Long sleeves? I don't understand these numbers in a spring break beachy setting. I travel all the time and used to live in California and yet still the weather reports just flummox me when I stand in my closet staring at my clothes.

Here's our itinerary, please send ALL the advice!

Sunday: Fly to LAX (landing at 5:30 p.m.), pick up our car, drive to Disneyland Hotel, get dinner somewhere either along the way or near the hotel (thoughts?)

Monday: Disneyland! Starting at California Adventure, potentially popping into Disneyland at some point, finishing the day at World of Color at California Adventure. We don't have any planned meals (though we will have a backpack of snacks), so any thoughts on favorite snacks, lunch, or dinner are welcome!

Tuesday: Disneyland! We have a Breakfast with Minnie and Friends at Plaza Inn at 9:30 a.m. and that's the only thing scheduled. The park is open until midnight and we told the kids we'd stay as long as they were upright and cheerful. We'll transfer to a cheaper hotel in Buena Park a few mins away whenever we do finally leave.

Wednesday: Travel/relax day! Our hotel includes breakfast so we'll probably sleep in a bit, get some free food, and then we need to make our way to Legoland Hotel in Carlsbad by late afternoon. Possible plans include Laguna Beach, going back into LA (Landon is totally obsessed with seeing the Hollywood sign; any recs on a good spot?), going to the flower gardens in Carlsbad... the weather should be lovely (sunny; high of 60) and we're open to whatever. We just want to be at the Legoland Hotel by 4 or so because the kids are very excited to explore it and I've heard that's definitely part of the fun.

Thursday: Legoland! Landon is adorably EXTREMELY excited about this. He's been wanting to go since he was 3 and he's his only friend who still plays Legos. We have tickets to the park itself and the Sea Life Aquarium (thank you Lego Movie for your buy one adult/get one kid free special). I'm assuming we can easily get both done in a day. Ideally I'd like to leave in mid-afternoon to head to our condo in San Diego, but we can check in later if needed.

Friday: Mission Beach! We've booked a delightful-looking, rare single-family condo directly on the sand on the beach. 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, a big private patio and space to spread out and just chill for the final leg. We'll make some food at home, but welcome favorite restaurants if anyone has any! We love good, fresh food and local places. Will we be swimming? No, right? Highs of 65? This seems chilly to me, though my kids never seem to find water cold, ever.

Saturday: Mission Beach! Same as the day before. No plans, just sun and fun and sand. Thoughts on activities if we need them? We're not doing the zoo or Sea World on this trip- I figure we'll definitely be back (I love California) and after Disneyland and Legoland, really just want to relax and save some "big" items for later visits.

Sunday: Travel back to LA/home. Wake up for a final breakfast in San Diego and then spend the day driving back up to LA to fly out of LAX at 5:00 p.m. We'll leave lots of time for the drive and potential traffic and plan to stop somewhere fun and beautiful on the coast on the way up. We land back in DFW at 10 p.m. and we should be home to cry tears of reunion joy over the dog by 11:30.

And that'll be a wrap! We're super excited- the kids have never been to California or seen the Pacific Ocean from the US (just the warm and mild shores of Costa Rica), and I can't wait to show it all to them. And to me! I haven't been to San Diego since I was about 4 so I'd say I'm long overdue another visit. All I have to do is pack all the things, give Maggie a bath, and find the check-in instructions for the condo that were mailed to me months ago, hand-written in cursive on lined paper in delightfully (but now inconveniently) old fashioned style.

Let's go back to last weekend when we last packed a few suitcases! The kids (furry one included) and I headed to Houston to visit my parents one last time in the big lake house. Maggie was co-pilot and performed her duties admirably. If her duties include sleeping, snoring, and heavy sighing while sticking her tongue out at me.

nailed it

My parents are moving in 3 weeks to a smaller house across the street from a new lake (rounding out their tour of living on every lake in the Houston area), close to my brother, and about an hour closer to me. They're preparing for future retirement and plans to live in Colorado at least 50% of the time. They'll miss the big house- the house that was once their dream, but quickly had too many bad memories to feel the same.

Maggie was a big hit, quickly learning that my dad will always pet a dog that is in front of him.

My mom and I were able to get out for some birthday shopping, which was great fun. I will admit, while I'm feeling chatty, that I've gained about 10 lbs. from this point last year and am definitely struggling with it. I'm a full 17 lbs. up from my thinnest after Cora was born, which I can rationally recognize was never a goal weight, but the 10 is harder. I am constantly bouncing back and forth between loathing every extra ounce I can feel in my middle and vowing to diet back to the pants in my closet (which I used to fit into without any dieting at all; is this 36? I don't like this part), and shrugging and believing it when I tell myself that a size 4 is perfectly acceptable at this stage of life and I enjoy my vices of cheez-its and frozen margaritas far too much to consider giving them up, so bring on the new pants! I also think the anti-depressants have genuinely increased my appetite, I never used to be hungry between meals and now I find I constantly want to snack. I'm not giving the medicine up any time soon (any hope of that was thoroughly crushed by my furlough spiral), but I do know that I could work harder on controlling that particular side effect. I just flip back and forth between deciding if I want to. Size 8 high school me dreamed of being the size I'm at now; adult me that somehow found her way there sometimes desperately wants to claw her way back. So I'm still working on it, and doing some shopping and buying some new jeans a size up was a positive part of the process.

Well, that took an unexpected turn. Clearly I miss my online diary and writing things I later contemplate deleting but am secretly glad I worked through. Back to Houston!

We enjoyed a lovely birthday dinner of steak, asparagus casserole, oven fried potatoes, roasted beets, and cake! It's so fun to be home for your birthday- it's a day that you started celebrating with your parents after all, and we had such strong traditions of home-made birthday dinners in the dining room with my great-grandmother's dining set. My brother and his girlfriend came over too and it was so great. (And they also loved Maggie.)

Speaking of Maggie, she was a perfect house guest and became best friends with my parent's dog Shadow (Maximus was largely indifferent to her existence), but, we discovered on Friday night, she felt very strongly that dogs do not belong above ground.

She trotted upstairs numerous times to check on the kids or find me (when you're deaf, you do a lot of running around looking for people) and was fine with them, but when it came time for bed, being above sea level made her VERY uncomfortable. She refused to come up on her own, so my dad carried her up like the queen she is.

Then, she raced back down, so I carried her up myself. Then I had to do it THREE more times as she kept escaping through various open doors. Finally I got my act together, got everything closed, carried her upstairs, and then patted her to sleep like the fussy infant I no longer have until she was snoring peacefully, a state she stayed in until morning. We repeated the same thing on Saturday night (eye roll).

She had the best time with her doggie friends and doting grandparents. My dad fed her peanut butter bones and Maggie discovered yet another source of joy in life.

My parents loved her, and my dad in particular a concerned grandfatherly eye on her. "Rebecca, come here and check on Maggie. I think there's something wrong with her eye. It's like a dried up apricot!"

"Oh, yeah, that's just her normal face dad.

We drove home early Sunday morning so I could teach my barre class at 1:30 and my parents could start to pack. Maggie reported for copilot duty once again, sleeping the ENTIRE way. When we got home and were unpacking (the kids were SO good and helpful all weekend; I love that we're at a point where traveling alone with them is easy and genuinely fun), we realized Maggie was missing and we found her sitting back in the front seat of the car, ready for her next adventure. I tried to get her to leave and she literally stuck her tongue out at me.

Up in North Texas, James had been at a swim meet for the weekend! He's been working so hard on his training and this was his final meet of the season. His goal, which I secretly thought was crazy, was to make Nationals in the 100 breast. The nationals cut is a 55.9. That is VERY FAST. His best time of the last decade has been a 56.5. His best time ever- back in 2002, when he was a junior at UT, was a 55.25. I was nervous for him- he works so hard and then gets nervous and I just wanted him to do well.

He called midway through our drive home and yelled into the phone, "55.26!!!"

"What?!", I asked, incredulous.

"55.26! I did it!!"

You guys, that is so so fast. He's 37. He wasn't even going that time for his last two years swimming at UT at ages 21 and 22. The oldest kid in his heat was 15 and the deck judge tried to send him away because "recreational swimming is closed right now." He's the old man and the pool and I was glowing with pride for him.

So we're going to Nationals! In Atlanta in December. We'll be there in full Lag Liv family force, with signs and screaming, for our dad and husband who for reasons I truly deeply don't understand has always found time to still train every day (like 5 a.m. after driving 30 minutes the wrong direction in Chicago and then driving back an hour the other way to get to work after getting up with Landon at 4 a.m. and heading out) and loves swimming as much as he ever did.

throwback to 2002; taken about 2 weeks after the 55.25

We went out to dinner to celebrate of course.

Maggie says Hook 'em

The rest of the week has been good- busy, but good. Our nanny was off living her best life at Mardi Gras all week, so it made things a little hectic, but we got through. Maggie joined me on all taxi'ing of children around town and was always a little offended when I asked her to leave the vehicle.

Alright, I can no longer delay the packing and need to get to work. James took Landon to his 7:30 a.m. climbing competition an hour away because I am the far superior packer, but so far I've made tea, typed out a blog post, and watched 1.5 episodes of The Great British Baking Show. Nobody tell him, it'll be our secret. Send help via comments on California clothing, weather, food, and activities! Maggie will be here to gaze soulfully into my eyes and offer moral support.

I hope everyone has a great week!

Birthdays and Bully Dogs

Helloooo! Last time I wrote I was 35 years old. A mere child. Today I am 36 years. Actually, 36 years and 4 days, and I am a wise and mature woman who eats overnight oats with chia and flax seeds and unsweetened almond milk for breakfast.

That's right! I eat breakfast! Out of a mason jar I lovingly layer the night before with ingredients I'd never purchased before I turned 36. So watch out world-- it's a whole new me. And that me is not afraid to eat the gelatinous result of a chia seed and almond milk left in the fridge overnight. She's bold and fearless maybe even going to learn how to use a curling iron/wand/thing by the year's end.

skeptical

My birthday was Monday, which is the most boring day for a birthday. I jazzed it up with a new outfit (top and necklace) I picked up with birthday coupons and half of my grandparents' birthday money at Loft the day before, and then took it to another level with a photo shoot with the dog at 7:15 a.m. Claire was photographer, Maggie was model, and I received as much joy from our matching party hats as I did dog fur on my black jeans.

I had contemplated taking off work for the day as a present, but then I remembered I'm an extrovert who spiraled at great speed down a depressive black hole during our furlough and decided I should go to work and interact with people. So I did. There was a meeting, I worked on my memo much harder than the Oscar coverage and birthday excitement foretold, and then I went to lunch at one of my very favorite places (the "fried rice" with over easy egg and honey garlic roasted Brussels sprouts will blow your mind).

In a testament to what happens when a lot of people leave the government and there's a 2-year+ hiring freeze, my birthday lunch attendance went from 12 last year to 2 this year (to be fair to my reputation and likability, two are also on maternity leave), but James joined and made us a table of 4 and it was lovely.

After work I arrived home to a decorated table which is our family's favorite thing. A tablecloth from 2008, cards from my parents and grandparents, an assortment of our traditional animal candle holders carefully selected by James ("the elephant kind of looked like Maggie"), and a cookie cake from my new favorite place- Insomnia Cookies.

I took the girls to my favorite margarita place that also serves food. My friend and her kids met us there, James and Landon joined after their activities, and I drank my frozen margarita out of my pink birthday cup. We came home to the Presentation of the Cards by the kids, which is just the best (when will they outgrow this? never, right?).

Landon, who had objected heartily to doing his science fair project on Sunday- something that culminated in a bold declaration that I would not be getting a birthday card, made me an awesome collage with words cut out from his magazines that reminded him of me. It's one of my very favorite things.

And then he added some Swedish fish from the dollar store, purchased with his own money, and the memories of the science fair were banished back to Satan where they belong.

Claire made many cards and each had her heart on the page.

Cora worked very hard with her stencils and colored pencils and made me a beautiful picture I failed to get a picture of, but we did get the cookie cake and that's important too.

Oh! and James got me a wine glass that says "I just want to drink wine and pet my dog" which is pretty much exactly right.

And so I went to bed, 36 years old, with a washed face and all the face products, overnight oatmeal in the fridge, and joy in my heart.

Zooming backwards! When I was a young and unchia'd 35, Cora had Kindergarten round-up at our sweet elementary school last Friday!

She was SO excited and is VERY ready for "hard work" which is the only work she accepts at school anyway. She's such a big girl and she seems so extremely ready I'm not even sad (not to mention we will not have a daycare payment for the first time since 2007!). Plus we adore our school and I'm just glad we'll have 6 more years there thanks to our bonus baby. (Now Landon going to middle school is a whole other kettle of fish and emotions.)

On Saturday, Landon ran the kids 5K at the Cowtown Marathon!

The actual marathon runs by our house every year on my birthday weekend, but we'd never actually participated in any of the races. Landon has done running club after school the last two years and this year they were able to put together a team to run! He was so excited.

The girls went as cheerleaders (we picked up a friend's little girl too; we fluctuate between 2-5 children at all times).

Landon had never run a full 3 miles at once before and probably didn't pace it quite right, but he enjoyed the experience thoroughly despite the stomach ache at the end. And we found out later he went 26:02 and got 34th out of 457 in his age group! Which seems pretty great. I mean, I've never run 3 miles at all, so it all sounds great to me.

Sunday was science fair. I LOVE science and I enjoy a nice fair, but I have come to dread science fair weekend. Landon morphs into an unreasonable mess and I just want all school to stay at school. But this was Claire's first year and she was an enthusiastic participant! So that was different- and almost fun! She decided to explode various numbers of Mentos in soda bottles, so I bought a bunch of them at the store in preparation. After we'd put away all the rest of the groceries, Cora spied the bottles and cried out, "Mom! You forgot to put away the wines!!"

"The wines?" I asked. "Oh, those are sodas for Claire's experiment, they can stay out."

"Ohhhh, I thought they were wines. For a party. You know, for the moms."

Claire's experiment went well and she diligently went to work on her board while Landon continued to... not do that. Maggie wanted to do a science project and was sad she couldn't participate.

Other highlights of the last few days include this picture I got while we were cheering on the marathon runners Sunday morning as they ran down our street (Maggie went to cheer too, she was very motivating).

Cora calling question marks "mysteries" and sneezes "bless yous" and saying out loud, while alone in the living room, "ahhh, it feels so good to stretch my legs."

And Maggie being too tired to say goodnight to Cora, but allowing herself to be loved on anyway.

And finally - food this week!

Tues: Big Salad Night (romaine, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, hard boiled eggs, cooked farro, kalamata olives, cotija cheese, flax seeds, homemade balsamic vinaigrette), Balsamic Honey Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Wed: Greek Turkey and Rice Skillet, Naan, tomato, extra feta, and cucumber slices. (This was great!!)

Thurs: Crock Pot Red Beans and Rice, corn bread.

And now the kids (including Maggie) and I are off to Houston to visit my parents one last time in their big lake house! I've never driven alone with them (James has a swim meet), so this should be an adventure.