August 2010

Post date: Jul 07, 2011 8:56:38 PM

KRISTEN'S HAIRCUT - Kristen got a haircut as part of our back to school checklist. She has had a bad habit of twirling her hair, mostly in the back and in the same spot. I've even seen her twirling her hair while she's asleep. So I just took her to the new Great Clips close to our house and the guy did a good job with it. He convinced me it had to be that short since her hair is so thin. It looks super cute and she can do it herself. She just combs it in the morning and sticks a barrette in it.

OUR NEW CAR - After three years of having only one car, we received a huge blessing. Grandma Harrison is 95 and can no longer drive. She called Bret one day to tell him her car is just sitting in the garage and he could have it if he wanted it. Of course we wanted to jump on that opportunity and Kristen was starting school soon and another car would be so helpful to us. We really didn’t have time to make a trip to Fresno, but we were already going camping with the Colvin’s in San Diego County. So we left from there Saturday morning and drove to Fresno. We got there in the afternoon, went out to dinner with Grandma Harrison and then picked up the car. It is a 2004 Saturn, but it only had 4,485 miles on it. We headed home on Sunday and drove all day. I drove the new car while Bret drove the van with all the girls. It was a nice little break for me, but we talked on the phone most of the trip so I could still hear the girls and their occasional bickering. We got home late that night and Kristen started school the next day. After some thought, we named the car Dori, short for Dorothy which means blessing.

BRET'S BIRTHDAY - We celebrated Bret's birthday with a little staycation at a Marriott resort hotel. (Had to put those Marriott points to use sometime.) Other than that is the night that my computer died, it was a great trip. We had dinner at California Pizza Kitchen, yummy! On Saturday we enjoyed swimming and relaxing by the pool. I only hopped out of the water once to take a few pictures, but we were in the pool/lazy river for hours. After that we went to check out a train museum. Kristen loved it, especially riding around the park on the train. It was pretty hot outside, so it wasn't very busy. They even had a carousel to ride that played Disney songs. They had a little store there and Bret & I got ice cream cones while the girls were distracted playing with a little train table.

KRISTEN'S 5TH BIRTHDAY - I was excited to be able to take cupcakes to Kristen's class. Unfortunately the school has a rule about treats having to be store bought and not homemade, which of course costs a lot more. Kristen enjoyed the extra attention and was the last one in her class to turn 5. Rather than have a birthday party with lots of friends (not sure how much longer I can keep putting that off) I suggested we go to Chuck E Cheeses with her new friend Amy & her family. As soon as Bret got home we stopped by WalMart to grab a cake and then met the Gutwein's at Chuck E Cheeses. We had a great time getting to know them better and of course the kids all loved playing the games. But I think the cake, or at least the frosting was the favorite part.