Five...Four...Three...Two...One, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Okay, and where is mom? She is standing in line to get apple fries and popcorn. Yes, I missed the huge lego brick drop at midnight (6:00pm kids standard time). And, I stood by myself with the apple fries and popcorn to watch fireworks. When they were finished and I found Pete and the kids, Lauren with tears in her eyes was so sad because I missed everything. Ugh, I felt horrible. As we ate apples and walked to the car, they realized that it was only 2009 at Legoland and that we still had six hours until the real new year. I hope that everyone had a safe one and I look forward to stories and pictures.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAUREN!!

Two posts in one day....Are things starting to slow down??????

Well, the day started off with homemade crepes (made by me). Then a quick game of Rock Band and showers. We headed out to Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate Lauren's birthday. After playing lots of games and collecting almost 1000 tickets, the kids cashed in all the tickets (I think they each got a piece of candy and a plastic dinosaur) and we headed out to the bowling alley! One quick stop at Target to see if they had any good sales. Didn't see much but did grab a huge bag of m&ms that would later spill out in the floor of the car. I won the first game, Peter won the second. We all had a great time! Lauren was thrilled with her new Acer laptop, and a new wardrobe for Baby Alive. Now that both kids have their own computer, I should be able to use mine more. No more sharing ;-)

No, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth....

Geez, December has been a busy month for me. Where did I leave off? Christmas Eve we took the kids to Build a Bear Workshop. Riley made a monkey and Lauren made a cat. For Christmas Riley got Rock Band, So there is no "down time". When things slow down, someone always comes up with the idea of playing and one person can't make up a band. So, before you know it, TMFB (The Munson Family Band) is all jammin out in the family room. We did manage to pull away a bit and we headed out one day to see our local natural history museum. Pictures are proof.

Going Buggy......

Well, back in the day we practiced our Christmas songs and put together a sweet little story about a baby in a manger. Well, times have changed and it appears that public schools have taken Christ out of Christmas. As a matter of fact, Christmas or holiday couldn't even be used in our class party invitation. We are having a "winter party" the last day of classes before the "winter break". Okay, back on track..... Lauren had her "winter play" last night. It was titled "Going Buggy". It was a cute little play, the children were dressed as butterflies, bees, lady bugs, crickets, and a few other types of insects. Lauren had a small part and played it as if she were on Broadway (haha). She is so theatrical. Enjoy the "holiday performance photos" they are mostly of her....

Happy Birthday to me.....

Today was a trip to The Nutcracker by the City Ballet.... Two hours with no talking or singing, just dancing.....I wasn't sure what to expect from the kids. Pete's been wanting them to have this culture of performing arts for a few years now. I just didn't think that either one of them would sit through it. This year I lost the battle and it was settled. Pete was taking his Munson family to the Nutcracker for my birthday. The plan was that we were getting dressed up and sitting in the best seats in the house. Everything was fine...we made it downtown, valet parked the car and headed to our seats (amazing view, just four rows from the orchestra). They did it! I can't say that they loved it....But, THEY SAT THROUGH IT!!! BTW, I think that Lauren's finger is going to be fine. She is trying to hide it the best she can in the pictures. Poor girl.

Mom, Santa isn't real.....

How many years can you get away with "Well, if you don't believe, he won't come?" We headed out to the squadron Christmas party yesterday. I had forgotten how much fun this could be for a small child. Lauren was excited and couldn't wait to see what Santa had for her. Riley couldn't wait to see what he had for him but wondered where the gift really came from. The funny part is that I didn't buy the gift. The squadron supplied the gifts and I didn't know what he was getting either! The kids were thrilled with their gifts. Riley got a glow in the dark action figure, and Lauren got a velvet color it yourself puzzle. Riley played with his action figure most of the day and even carried it up to bed to see it glow. Peter wasn't with us, he had a flight to Arizona and we picked him up at North Island last night. BTW, when we went to go pick up Peter...I thought I would take the kids in the NEX to look around and when we got out of the car, I slammed Lauren's hand in the door. She has a broken finger. It was horrible, I had to unlock the doors to get her hand out. Enjoy the pictures from the party.

Peter J. Munson...I really am sorry!

Never in my life did I think that I would ever be married to an author. Three years ago when Pete was working on his masters degree he decided that he would write his thesis on Iraq. What better subject for a student studying the middle eastern region. Some of his teachers were intrigued by the subject and thought that it would make a fantastic book. Well, he and I both knew that writing a book is something that takes time. Time is something that he didn't have a lot of. After the thought of him writing a book and a good laugh, the subject was dropped. HOWEVER, he started coming home a little later, staying up a little later, and spent some of the weekend closed in a tiny little office in our home. I remember him coming to me and saying, I think I am going to write the book. Still laughing, I said great, and good luck. I seriously thought that he was wasting so much of his time, my time, and time that could be spent with the kids. Even though he really didn't spend that much time away from us, I still thought any time working on this "book" was wasting time and even nick-named him "time waster". Well, I think I owe him a huge apology because, the book can be pre-ordered at Amazon. It will be on the stands at bookstores (still not beliving this) in June.

San Diego, it just keeps getting better!

I thought that living in the middle east and traveling to Paris for Christmas was the best way to spend the holiday....well, I think so far this year we have trumped that. We headed out of San Diego for the day and drove up to Big Bear Lake. Let me just say....WOW! We went to a huge tree farm 8,000 feet up in the mountains, cut our own tree, and even stopped to have a snowball fight (it was COLD and 45)before heading back to Rancho Bernardo (it was warm 70s). I've got all my shopping done and the house is decorated to the MAX. I've got my cookie recipes in order and I'm ready for Santa! Hohoho!!!