Carrot Cutie

Claire was at her friend Indy's house today and came home toting a bushel of carrots. Fresh, just-picked-from-the-garden carrots. I first had to make sure that she had permission to pick these, and then found out that these little girls were in heaven pulling these carrots out of the ground. It is like finding a $10 bill in your pocket... you reach in and pull out a really great surprise.

These little orange "surprises" were quickly washed and cut by their puller... she found them to be wonderful. Claire will be very disappointed to hear that her mother has a black thumb... she'll have to walk down the street to get her fresh veggies from someone elses garden. Just make sure to ask first Claire!

Pretend Player

Dallin has become information central when it comes to the topic of basketball. He is very familiar with the NBA and college teams, and their best players. The player that he is not familiar with, however, is Oswald Jaballie. "Who?" you may ask. Well, apparently he is Peter's favorite NBA player... because Peter completely made this guy up.

Whenever Dallin busts out some of his NBA knowledge, Peter tries to keep up (and starts making stuff up in a really funny way). Oswald Jaballie is a continuous joke in our home (and it drives Dallin crazy). The other day, a conversation went down like this:

Dallin - "Hey Dad, did you know that Jonathan Tavernari (BYU player) is really good at making 3 pointers?"
Peter - "Oh yeah, well Oswald Jaballie is really good at
shooting 4 pointers."
Dallin - "there are no such thing as 4 pointers"
Peter - "I hate basketball"

I happened to be in the next room listening and laughing to this conversation. Good old Oswald Jaballie... causing trouble again.

Close Circus

This afternoon we went to the circus... actually, the circus came to us. We found out that 'Circus Vargas' was setting up shop for the weekend in our town. We purchased tickets this morning, got ready and drove about 4 miles, parked the car and entered the large circus tent (that was resting on the Macy's parking lot). It was actually pretty good!

Spencer spent the first half of the show barely breathing. At one point, Peter passed something to me (covering Spencer's view of the show) and he quickly shoved Peter's arm out of the way so he could see. He particularly loved the jugglers. Dallin was heavily amused by the clowns, daredevils and fire dancers while Claire was entranced by the trapeze artists and high-flyers. I personally loved watching my kids... they really enjoyed themselves.

During the intermission, Dallin and Peter got to hold a large boa constrictor!

Claire was freaked out of her mind (as was I). Apparently Spencer didn't like it either.

As Indiana Jones would say, "Snakes, why did it have to be snakes?". Why couldn't they have an elephant to ride or a monkey to play with? I'm glad my boys enjoyed holding the large, slithery reptile hanging around their necks though :).

We had a wonderful day at the circus... we may have to do it again next year!

Weak Wiggle

Each one of my children has been obsessed with the Wiggles. It is the one show that allows me to get ready, do the dishes, put on some makeup, etc. So just to reiterate... I have been watching the Wiggles non-stop for 7 years now.

I have actually come to somewhat enjoy watching them progress throughout the years (I'm a fan of the newer stuff with Sam), although I have really learned to just tune them out. The parts that I cannot seem to tune out, however, are the times when Jeff is on.
Let's learn a little about Jeff: he's the purple wiggle... he plays the keyboard and accordion... his shtick is that he has narcolepsy "WAKE UP JEFF"... his other shtick is that he is not very good.

He really can't sing, dance or act. He can play the keyboard pretty well, but please don't try to combine that with dancing or singing cause it just doesn't seem to work. You know how some people shouldn't be doctors cause they can't stand the sight of blood, or how some people shouldn't be kindergarten teachers cause they don't like kids? Well, Jeff shouldn't be a Wiggle because he isn't very good at wiggling.

I just reread what I wrote above and I sound really rude. I think I am just venting 7 years of frustration of watching a mediocre purple wiggle make multi-millions of dollars. I guess what I am ultimately saying is: I am jealous and secretly wish I was the mediocre purple wiggle singing and dancing making a fortune in the process. Nonetheless, I will be viewing Jeff (along with Murray, Anthony and Sam) until my kids are old enough to finally turn it off themselves.

Venting session over.

Hyatt Hide-a-way

Over Valentine's Day weekend, we decided to do one of our very favorite things... go on a family staycation. We drove down to San Diego, got a killer rate in one of our favorite SD hotels (Manchester Hyatt), and spent the next couple of days hanging out. Here are some of the happenings of our weekend in San Diego:

We went swimming in the pool (I hope Spencer will someday forgive us for letting him swim in public with bright pink Barbie floaties on... stinks to be the third).

Spencer screamed throughout the lobby (good acoustics!) like he owned the place

We went on family adventures

We rode the carousel

We waited in line (forever) to get the kids a "character balloon". The guy was pretty good. Dallin chose a basketball player (he has a one-track mind), Claire chose Ariel (so does she), and I chose Blue from Blue's Clues for Spencer. I thought he would really like it until he took it and let it go swimming in the fountain. Afterwords, he bit the balloon until all of Blue's limbs had been destroyed. Three bucks down the drain (or in the fountain).

Spencer loved running (really fast)

The kids rode their scooters all over Seaport Village

We played on the escalators (a Waldron family favorite)

We also loved watching the Olympics in our room, ordering room service, shopping in the little shops, going to the candy store, staying up late, playing basketball in our room (Dallin brought his "door hoop") and hanging out as a fam.

We are so glad to have San Diego as such a close neighbor.

Extemporaneous Evening

At 4:00 on a Friday evening (March 12), we were at the park swinging on the swings with no preconcieved ideas of what to do for dinner or anything else that evening. Within 1 hour, Peter came home, we grabbed the backpack and stroller and were headed for Disneyland... isn't that great?! I love spontenaity... even if it does involve a demanding van full of children.

We had a fun night together riding a few rides (it was pretty darn crowded), eating yummy corn dogs for dinner, watching the beautiful fireworks display and finally getting to ride some of the big-kid rides with Daddy. Claire has been super-anxious to ride the Matterhorn with Peter, and just as Disney seems to promise... dreams really do come true.

Here are the highlights of our spontaneous family outing:
-Spencer screaming on Pirates of the Caribbean (out of fear, not joy)
-Spencer just wanting to run through the crowds of people
-Claire playing 20 questions with me while Peter and Dallin rode Thunder Mountain
-Dallin being the best big brother helper
-the boys running up and down a brick ramp and having a blast (why did we drive to Disneyland?)
-Peter making fun of my Disney knowledge
-watching the fireworks
-walking all the way back to the parking garage to avoid the tram lines at midnight
-getting home at 1:30 in the morning... we are still recovering.

Hooray for spontaneity and hooray for precious family time!

Toothless Tyke

We have been wiggling Dallin's bottom 2 teeth for months now... it has become a regular part of our nightly tooth brushing routine. The other day, we noticed that Dallin had 3 teeth on the bottom... an extra friend decided to pop up behind one of his baby teeth. It was a little weird... he looked like a shark (which he thought was cool).

We made an appointment at the dentist and Dallin was so excited to pull a prank. He was escorted back to his chair, where he sneakily put in some yucky fake teeth that Uncle Scott and Aunt Sara gave to him for Christmas. The dental assistant asked him to open up when he quickly discovered some nasty looking buck teeth. He he he. Needless to say, his bottom 2 teeth were yanked to give his peek-a-boo tooth a good place to call home.

SO, not only did St. Patrick come and leave presents yesterday for St. Patty's Day, the tooth fairy also made a visit and sprinkled Dallin with some heavy money (10 BUCKS!!!).

When Peter toots, he says that it's weakness leaving the body :). If this is the case, then Dallin losing baby teeth is most definitely "baby" leaving the body... he is growing up so fast.

We love our toothless wonder!

Future Florist

Claire's latest hobby is picking flowers (and yes, we have had many talks about not picking flowers from neighbor's yards... the church... Disneyland... the grocery store...). I have given her free reign of our yard however, to encourage her love of floral arranging. She actually does have an eye for beauty. The other day, she came to me with this beautiful bouquet (she pretends she's getting married first, then puts the bouquet in a vase). The combination of flowers was quite stunning. I see a future...

Bisected Birthday

Those of you who know us, know that we love our half-birthdays. Today is Spencer's half-birthday... and not only is he 1 1/2, he is officially a legal nursery participant!!! Woot woot! We have been illegal in our nursery for about 3 months, but I can now be dismissed by the nursery leader and feel good about it. Spencer loves nursery and it has seriously been the easiest transition ever.

For his half-birthday, he threw dirt in the backyard, ran around naked, climbed all over the place (not naked), and did all the funny things that Spencer likes to do. I made him his favorite lunch (mac & cheese), and one of his favorite chicken dinners. For his birthday dessert, Dallin, Claire and I made some fabulous rainbow cupcakes...They took quite awhile to make, but the end result was awesome. We could tell Spencer was grateful (and so were the rest of us!).Happy Half-Birthday sweet Spencer!