Raccoon Update...Sort Of

Very little going on with our raccoon family. I have been begging the wildlife people to come and rethink our traps--but they are busy every day catching other people's raccoons!

They finally showed up today and didn't do much--moved one trap and added another. I did something though: I added mini-marshmallows and Hershey's Kisses (to the existing beef liver) into one of the traps--I know this raccoon has a sweet tooth!! So let's cross our fingers!

The wildlife guy told me he had a baby raccoon on his truck and he let me see it:
Awwww! Don't you just want to feed it with a teeny tiny bottle?? I do!!

I Hate This Game!!

OK--I don't hate it--I'm bad at it and I'm obsessed with it and I have a headache from playing it! Every time I play my score is "very low"--even when I come up with great words!! I'm not going to stop until I at least get a "low" ranking! Try it:

Play Wordtwist online for free at Wordtwist.org!

Another Graduation!

I have a double whammy this week--Andy's 8th grade graduation yesterday and Gooser's preschool graduation today. He LOVES preschool so much and I was worried that he was going to get really upset when he was saying goodbye to his teachers--but he kept it together! Onto kindergarten--he's in the big leagues now!!

My "Baby" Graduated!!

My oldest son graduated from 8th grade tonight! It was a beautiful ceremony and he will literally be partying all night long! After the graduation there was a parade with all the kids in convertibles, then on to a dinner-dance, then the boys and girls are divided up for sleepovers and in the morning they will all walk down to the beach to watch the sunrise! What a way to end 8th grade!!

Andy had an amazing run at his grade school! He won the all-school spelling bee FOUR times (and went on the win the county bee).

He was the lead in the school play--Curly in Oklahoma--and gave an awesome singing and acting performance!Plus he played clarinet in the school band, saxophone in the jazz band, not to mention piano! He also went to the state finals for Science Olympiad and won one 1st place and two 3rd place medals!! He was on the football and basketball teams and always on the honor roll. Not too shabby!!
Here are some pics from the graduation:

The Graduate!

Don and Andy in their super cool car!
Andy and a classmate ready to start the parade: Action shot from the parade!
I'm throwing in a couple of Pickle because she looked so pretty!
She wore a corsage LOL!!

CONGRATULATIONS ANDY!!!!

L.A. Trip

We took all 5 kids to L.A. over spring break--it was the first time we attempted to take everyone on a plane. It actually worked out as well as can be expected traveling with an 18 month old. I made the (huge) mistake of not reserving a seat for her--so Don and I had to hold her the whole way--I think I sang "Wheels on the Bus" at least 10 thousand times. But it was a great trip and the kids will definitely have fond memories of it. A few highlights:

All the kids at the ocean (before Andy plunged in and ruined his cell phone...):



The obligatory trip to Disneyland...it was more crowded than ever imaginable! We only got to go on 5 rides (and we were there ALL day) but the kids still loved it! Mouse-Bride!
Gooser went stark-raving Disney! Here he is with his mouse hat (he never took it off the rest of the trip!) and his Disney wallet:We went to Hollywood Blvd. where every freak on earth seems to have congregated (Teddy loved it lol!). Here is Pickle with Ozzy's star:

And Gooser with his hero, Spiderman: And his newest hero, Mickey. Kind of a grungy, "street" Mickey though. I think he had a beer bottle behind his back...seriously! Here I am at the Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum with a two-headed baby:
Here I am at my beloved Pinkberry!! My order: shaved ice w/ original yogurt plus bananas, kiwi, strawberry, pineapple and mochi.
We loved this place! I found out later that it's Snoop Dogg's favorite restaurant!Andy and Patrick enjoying their chicken and waffles:
Here's a link to Snoop Dogg and Larry King at Roscoe's: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nc-AXuDdsIs

Speaking of Larry King, we also went to his favorite hangout: Nate and Al's Deli. The kids loved the "bagel on a string!"Here are the boys on the way to visit Grandma--look how coordinated they are!!
And Pickle having fun at Grandma's! The boys in the hotel lobby. The Mosaic. I highly recommend it!
Having breakfast on the balcony at The Mosaic!
The Tarpits. The kids are playing on what appears to be a Giant Beaver! Pickle enjoying herself at The Charthouse in Malibu! A highlight for me! The Brady Bunch house!!And finally, a lowlight...stranded at the airport, sitting on the dirty floor. Look at the stains on the carpet! Ewwwww!

Quote of the trip, by Gooser, as we were packing to leave: "I have mine chopsticks and mine wallet and mine Ick (that's his blanket) and mine little pot of honey!"

Gooser (age 5) Asked Me...

"Do ghosts have bones or are they like curtains?"
I love the way he phrased that!!

Ballerina at the Beach!

I took Pickle to the beach which was a beautiful background for pics. It was a little cold--but she had fun! It was kind of hard to get a decent pic and keep her out of the water!





I also took her to a woodsy area for a nice backdrop...

Memorial Day Fun!!

We had a very fun and busy Memorial Day weekend! Lots of bike riding and playing in the sprinkler. Gooser got this giant beach ball sprinkler thing for his bday and the kids couldn't get enough of it! Pickle was scared at first of the "wawa ball" but soon got into it!

We also did a lot of cooking! I was making a meal for a family in my area and wanted to do something picnic-like but didn't want to just grill something and bring it to them because I thought it would get congealed and gross. So I was thinking of some kind of casserole thing and I came up with...

Corn Dog Casserole

2 packages Jiffy corn bread mix (plus 2 eggs and milk)
1 package hot dogs (Best's All-Beef)

2 cans Hormel chili

1 package shredded cheddar cheese

Grill the dogs and slice them on the bias. Prepare one pack of cornbread according to directions on box and pour into greased casserole dish. Layer sliced dogs on top. Pour chili over dogs. Put a layer of cheese over that and then the other box of prepared corn bread mix. Then some more cheese on top! Bake @ 350 for one hour. Crazy delicious!!

Another fun thing I made was this Cool Whip/strawberry frozen thing. I'll call it...

Strawberry Dream:

1 tub (8 oz.) Cool Whip
1 can sweetened, condensed milk

2 large containers fresh strawberries

10 Oreo cookies

1 T butter, melted

First, line a loaf pan with tin foil. Mash up one container of strawberries in bowl and mix in the can of condensed milk and 2 cups of Cool whip. Pour into prepared pan. Crush up Oreos and mix w butter. Press onto strawberry mixture. Cover w/ foil and freeze--preferably overnight. When well-frozen, turn onto plate and frost entire dessert w/ Cool Whip. Artfully arrange sliced strawberries on the top!!

Pickle Pics

Here's more pics of Pickle from this weekend! She's holding my creepy doll with 3 faces--one happy, one sad and one sleeping. I love that doll!

Here's a close-up of my doll. Her name is Nora.