Adventure City 2008

This has quite a few photos, but I figured it was the best way to show off how much fun we had at Adventure City with Amber and her four girls - Sariah, Kailee, Tysie and Paige. At the end you even see a new little girl with whom Emilia and Kailee made friends with. It was a great little park. And I do mean little. They had a total of 10 rides and one wasn't even working that day. So the kids had fun running from ride to ride. We stopped for a lunch break and walked to a Denny's just a short distance from there and then headed back for more fun. At the end of the day we ended it with ice cream at Dairy Queen. It was so nice being able to see Amber and her girls. It has been two years (I believe) since we saw them last. It just seemed like two old friends picking up where we left off....It was great!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Hannah Montana Wanna-be

Well Emilia is into Hannah Montana big time. In fact she just spent her money to buy a H.M. game for her new DS. Consequently Jordan just loves Hannah Montana.....not that she has ever seen the TV show or heard her songs. But because her cousin, that she adores, likes her it's good enough for her. Last night she requested curlers in her hair and then this morning she wanted to dress like Hannah Montana - and this is what she came up with....pretty good!

It's a Boy!!!

Margaret is having a Boy! Whoo-hoo. I am so excited for them. I do have a copy of one of the ultrasound photo's with his little profile, but have yet to scan it.....so just the news for now!

Now we have to think of a good first name to go in front of __________ Oscar Asselin! Any suggestions??

Father's Day

Although Steve was 3,000 miles away we called to say Happy Father's Day to him. We also called Jeff while he was on his way to FL to wish him a Happy Father's Day. Steve got his Father's day present when we got back to GA/SC. A new watch....he was excited. My mom had a T-shirt for the kid's to place hand prints for Grandpa. They had a lot of fun doing this.

Uncle Eric and the Ice Cream Truck

We have pictures of Uncle Eric with Nichlas and Jordan getting ice cream from a truck, so when I hear the familiar jingle, I told Eric he had one more child to do ice cream "duty" with and grabbed the camera.

Boston and Concord - Part Two

So technically I don't know if it actually called Boston and Concord.....or if that is just what we called it as kids. I looked around and it had this statue of Paul Revere.

Emilia found this little concrete boat at the edge of the pond.

The kids had fun running around and playing on all the indoor playground equipment.....that is new....I don't remember it from when I was a kid.

They had this two story slide coming out of one of the buildings.

The only big thing that I remember that was missing is they use to have a "stock" there. You know....when they got in trouble it was a wooden thing that they locked their heads and hands into. For those of you with no imagination....

Maybe it will sound weird....but I was really looking forward to taking pictures of my kids in the stocks....lol.

Boston and Concord Park - Part One

I have previously written about Boston and Concord Park. It was one of my favorite places to go as a kid. Well my mom looked up where it was and we decided to visit right after church on the first full day we were there. There were alot of new features and some old ones. They still had the covered bridge leading to the island playground. This used to be the only entrance/exit onto the island. Now there is a wooden bridge leading off the back of the island to were the restrooms are.

The "pirate ship" that I remembered was actually a colonial ship and was a lot smaller than I remembered. Of course I was around my kid's ages when I was last here.

Stories From the Past

Is it true?? You know what I am talking about, those stories that we grow up with and then wonder how much of it was true, or over the years has it grown. This is a story that I recalled and asked my mother about and here is what she said:

James age 5 yrs.

We moved to Bell Gardens in 1985 from Whittier, CA and James would have just turned 5 years and Kenney would be 6 months old at the time. James started kindergarten that September and I was still home at the time, not having started back to work yet. It was the first day of school for everyone. The first day of school is oatmeal for breakfast, a tradition handed down from my mother. Eric, Sharon and James would all be going to the same school nearby. Although the school was only a few blocks, a major highway was between home and the school. Being Kenney was so small and Sharon & Eric older and more experienced (ha!) everyone ate and was packed off to school. School would have started around 7:45-8:00 am. Around 9:00 am I heard a noise at the front door, and when I came out of the kitchen from cleaning up, there stood James. Alarmed, I asked him if he was okay. He said he was fine, that the teacher had asked everyone in class to write their names and as he didn't know how, he decided to walk home. (I am sure that she asked this to see what level of experience the children had.) I asked him if his school knew he had come home, and he replied he didn't know. I called the school and told them that James had walked home. I packed up Kenney and we took James back to school. I went to the classroom and spoke with the teacher. The teacher indicated that James was in the classroom and I explained that no, he had walked home and I was bringing him back. The teacher wasn't even aware that James was missing.

**What is funny is this is exactly how I remember the story going....yikes, I would not have liked to have been that teacher. Of course mind you this was 25 years ago, but had it been recently....heaven help the school had the media gotten a hold of it.

Boston and Concord

I am readying a news series that Steve found for me. It is about the "Winslow" family starting in England coming over on the Mayflower. I have reached book 5 bringing them to the American revolution.

This has all reminded me of a wonderful time in my childhood when my parents would take us to a park called "Boston and Concord" - or that is what I remember it being called. In the middle of the park was an island with a covered bridge leading to the island - the only way to get on it. They had a ship docked at the island that you could explore and I remember buildings that you could play in. Set up like the coloinal days. They also had a wooden thing in the square that people who were in trouble would be clamped into with their head and hands sticking through. I remember my parents sitting on a blanket at the front of the covered bridge, while we went throught and played on the island. It was such a fun place, but the best part is that we would go when we would pick up my (step) brothers and sisters. It must have been close to the place that they lived, because I don't ever remember going without them.

It is funny what we remember from when we were growing up.