Mendocino

My Mom and Dad gave us a trip to Mendocino at a nice little bed and breakfast while we were visiting for Christmas.  The drive out to Mendocino reminded me so much of northern California where I grew up.  Tanner threw up a couple of times on the windy little mountain road out to Mendocino and Sara barely hung on.  Once we got there it was lovely weather and we had a great time at a little beach.  The next day we took the kids to a local lighthouse.  It was a mile walk down to the lighthouse which seemed like a good idea at the time.  The weather had turned bad and it was Freezing!  Ava kept wanting piggy back rides every 5 feet so I was exhausted by the time we made it back to the car but the scenery was awesome.

Tanner got to open his birthday gift from Auntie Annastacia, Uncle Mike and Audrey and Aurora this morning.  He loves the Husky Webkinz and the Polar Bear Webkinz!  What I love is the fact that as soon as Tanner opened them, Riley said, "Oh good, we can share" to which Tanner replied with a very enthusiastic, "Oh, yeah!"  Then he looked at Ava and said, "Ava, you don't have a Webkinz...well, you can have one of mine" and he gave her the polar bear, which she promptly named Lilly.  What a nice, thoughtful, kind and loving boy you are Tanner!  We love you!!!!  Happy 6th birthday buddy!

Happy Birthday Tanner...The Big 06!

I love to  make treats for my kids to take into their classes.  They are certainly not professional looking, but the kids love them anyway...and they do taste good, if I do say so myself.  So, for Tanner's birthday today, I decided that I would make monkey cupcakes for him to hand out to his class.

I spent a long, long time yesterday making them.  I even made the nila wafers that I used for their noses and ears. Everything was from scratch!  This is what they turned out looking like:

Well, when I went to move them off the counter this morning so I could have more space to make Tanner's birthday breakfast...I dropped them on the floor.  I am happy to say that thought I felt like letting out a few good cuss words, I held them in.  But it was tough!  Needless to say, the cute little monkeys now look like little handicapped monkeys, but I'm sure they'll still taste good...even though they were, technically, on the floor for a few seconds.  I was able to salvage 13 of them for the kids in Tanner's class.  There just weren't any extras for his teacher or the principal.

This is what Tanner took to school this morning:

The very worst part about the whole thing, is that my brand new, darling cupcake holder now looks like the leaning tower of Pisa.  It makes me very, very sad :(

Pinewood Derby

We just experienced our very first Pinewood Derby!  It was so much fun!  My favorite thing about it all, 

was the fact that Todd and Riley were able to spend so much time together building their awesome car.  They went in to Garmin several times to use the awesome tools there.  Riley did the sanding and helped with the painting...Todd kept him away from the bandsaw however!  He loved it! 

The paint job was actually pretty awesome...and in no way, shape, or form was Todd or Riley responsible for it.  Todd and Riley had painted it and left it at Garmin to dry.  When Todd went in to work the next day, it was still tacky.  Well, the painter at Garmin took one look at it and said, "Dude, you gotta let me paint that." Todd declined, but then the guy said, "No seriously dude, I love this kind of thing.  It won't take long at all." Well, how could Todd refuse that!  And that is how Riley's car came to have a professional paint job.  It rocked!

Riley's car ended up with a bent back wheel...and this is the face Riley made when he started losing.  It was actually pretty sad.  Riley doesn't do anything half-way.  It's all or nothing for him.  When he was happy, he was giving everyone high-fives and telling them good luck or good job.  When he started losing, he was so sad.  

It all worked out though.  Not only did he come in 4th place in his very first derby, he also won TWO awards: Best paint job and Best Sportsman.  Only one other boy won 2 awards. 

My favorite moment was when Riley was up getting his awards and Tanner came running up from the other side of the gym and gave Riley a big hug and told him he did a great job.  

What a fun night...and a fun week getting ready for it all.  Riley and Todd did a GREAT job.  And can I just say, I am so happy that Todd is willing and ready to do all this scouting stuff with Riley.  I love it when they work together.  Riley loves his daddy!!!