Sunday Random Randomness

Dear Amazon:

Thank you for delivering this in less than 48 hours after we laid eyes on it for the first time on your website.  Potty training is waaaaaaaay easier when your boy loves his frog-pot.

Sincerely,
Mother-in-training (first boy)

P.S. Erik was moving his legs when this picture was taken.  The carpet shadows makes it look like he has hairy teenage boy legs.  He's not really a teenager, yet.  I shudder.  : 0

**************************************************************************************************************
Dear Random Korean Manufacturer:

Thank you for creating seaweed snack.  You have an admirer.  Isn't she sweet?

Sincerely,
Mom-who-knew-she-was-sweet-way-before-seaweed-snack

***************************************************************************************************************
Dear Southwest Ambulance Company:

If my daughter is ever injured, she would like to be picked up in your fancy pink "hurting car".  Please arrange that.

Sincerely,
Mom-who-would-freak-if-she-ever-needed-an-ambulance-for-her-daughter.

P.S. Just bring the best crew in the fastest ambulance when we call.  Thanks.

**************************************************************************************************************
Dear Chandler Public Library:

There is an empty lot across the street from our house and my daughter has read everything there is in our house.  Kindly build a satellite library across the street for her.

Sincerely,
Mother-of-a-bookworm

P.S.  On second thought, I don't want the traffic.  Can you send one of those mobile vans?  Make it a pink book van and I'll guarantee you another library fan. 

**************************************************************************************************

Breakfast at the Zoo

The Chung gang surely set a lofty goal to start out the weekend.  Up at 6 AM to go to the zoo.  With a heat index warning set for later in the day, we thought we'd beat the heat with an early start.  Not so much luck beating the heat, it was very hot and muggy, even in the early morning.  We grabbed water, sun hats, sunglasses, and three McDonald's breakfasts all before 7 AM to start our adventure.

The zoo opens to members at 7 AM.  The lot had a few early risers, but it was definitely sparse.  We made our way in to the zoo and set up at one of the tables over looking the savannah - antelope, ostriches, vultures, and giraffes.  What we didn't expect was our breakfast guest.  Imaging our surprise when he strolled up to the table.  And no, we did not feed it any food on purpose.  I think the peacock can sense when there's a toddler around.

After breakfast, we made our way back to the new play area, complete with wet pad and rock slide.  The kids quickly changed into their swimsuits.  Notice how you see no one in the photo?  It was practically empty when we started.  By the time we finished, it was getting crowded.  Good planning on our part.  We packed up the wet suits and changed into clothes before heading into the brand new air-conditioned orangutan exhibit.  It's huge!  And enclosed.  The orangutans love interacting with people through the glass.  Erik loved this!  After orangutans, we spent some time in the open squirrel monkey exhibit.  I mentioned it a few years ago when it opened.  Click here. You actually walk right through their exhibit.  No fences between you and the monkeys.  Great fun to see them up close. 

By now, our water was getting low.  We decided to take the free tram tour after riding the "Carris Wheel"  For all of you not in the know, a Ferris Wheel is vertical, a "Carris Wheel" is horizontal, according to the world of Ingrid.  The tram tour did not give us the needed breeze.  I knew if I was feeling it, so were the kids.  We stopped and bought lunch with two huge waters at $4.29 each.  Grrrrrrr - I have a love-hate relationship with entrepreneurs.

The kids were still hungry after a light lunch with water and lemonade.  Plus it was only 11:15.  We really wanted Erik to fall asleep in the car, but not too early.  Woody went up with the kids and picked out snow cones.  Huge snow cones.  Morgan, with food sensitivities, didn't skip a beat and ordered a plain one.  The seller was a bit confused, but then handed her a large snow cone - free.  Morgan and I loved sharing the most yummy shaved ice you can find in 108 degree heat.  That did it - we were finally refreshed.  Time to head home at 12:00.  What a great morning!

Battleship

Annika's game winning strategy:

Old Photo Friday

Notes to School


It has been our family tradition to write notes in the girls' lunchboxes on the first day of school.  Letters from both mom and dad with encouragement and congratulations for the new school year.  We try to use fancy stationery and cool envelopes.  We've never mentioned it, but almost all of the letters have been brought home so we can put them in their baby box.

It was the night before the first day of school when it dawned on us, we had three letters to write this year.  Ingrid's letter talked about her new journey and included a lot of encouragement for a great year.  Annika's reminded her about how outgoing and friendly she is, especially to new students.  Morgan's letter included a picture of her first day of Kindergarten, the beginning of her journey.  Now she's in sixth grade - an amazing girl.

Was this an original idea?  No, other parents do it too, I'm guessing.  Our idea didn't come from others.  It came from my great grandfather - Charles William Springer.  While at my grandpa's I copied a letter that was written by my great grandfather to his one month old son, Charles Walter.  It's a touching letter, written in the era when sons were adored.  To be able to read this, 90 years later, is fascinating.  Here is the letter, this week's Old Photo Friday.

Preparing for Annika's Birthday

Throughout all of this craze of back to school and shortened summer break, I've been slowly working on the details for Annika's birthday party.  She is having a LEGO birthday.  We have a lot of things planned so I won't spoil the surprises here, but here's a peak at the invitation:

1st Day of School

Photos Now - Description Later.  Ingrid's 1st Day of Kindergarten.  No tears, this girl is ready to go!

Update:  Ingrid had a fantastic day of kindergarten and was all smiles when she got into the car.  Morgan was "plucked" for school safety patrol since she was already trained and her permission slip was signed during Meet the Teacher.  That meant Woody had to wait another 15 minutes while Morgan does her duties.  By the way, school safety patrol at Jacobson is akin to valet services since all they are allowed to do is open and close car doors for the kindergarteners.  But to a sixth grader, I guess it's a big deal.

The girls are all excited to be in school and see their friends.  Morgan's friend, Josie, spent her summer in San Fransisco and Wyoming and brought back a keychain for Morgan.  Morgan brought her all kinds of Smokey the Bear goodies and a friendship bracelet from Cut Foot Sioux National Forest.  Each was equally excited.

Ingrid has her dresses picked out for the rest of the week.  Priorities....

And the Adventure Begins Again

Watching the kids drift off to sleep.  In 5.......4...........3...............2...............1...................and that's a wrap!  Summer vacation is officially OVER.  Back to school in the morning.

Charlie? Is That You?

Charlie came back this year.  After being MIA for a couple of summers, look who turned up at our door.  Check out previous posts about Charlie to get the scoop.  He spent a little time on Annika this evening before being taken back outdoors.

Hope to be back blogging

I hope to be back blogging more later this week.  For now, it's hot (not humid, but hot) and I am feeling tired.  It's after 11 PM and I'm finally getting a break.  The girls are home and school starts on Monday.  The summer has flown by - I am amazed at such speed.

Here's a picture from the girls time in Minnesota.  They were playing with the camera at the local Dairy Queen.

Coming Home Soon...

My girls are coming home tomorrow.  Can't wait.

Missing Their Sisters

Ingrid and Erik have been without their sisters for 2.5 weeks.  They decided to share a room while the older two are away in Minnesota. And now they're sharing a bed it seems...

Leggo My Lego

We're working on some fantastic decorations for Annika's 8th birthday next month.  Why did we start so early?  Do you remember the craziness that was Ingrid's birthday last year?  A lot of that was done in the middle of the night while working on some large projects at the hospital.  I nearly crashed after the party - and we still had company coming that evening.  To avoid such sleep deprivation, we're working week by week on the paper parts.

In addition to great paper decorations, including this awesome Lego mosaic picture of Annika, I am working to secure some grandLego displays for the party from one of my co-workers.  His son has several of the   If you haven't guessed by now, Annika wants a Lego birthday party so she can have both boy and girl guests.  Good choice, because there is a GAZILLION ideas on the Internet for Lego parties.  My problem will be narrowing down some of the grand decorations we saw into something more manageable for an indoor party.

A Little La Puente Trivia

Here's a little fun trivia for you - not really a contest, but please add your answers in the comments.

I took this picture at the mall near Woody's parents.  We went out this evening to Todai - a sushi restaurant.  It was a great evening especially since Woody's parents volunteered to stay home with Ingrid and Erik.

This picture was taken from the mall entrance looking out at the parking lot.  Imagine the lot empty at night and look carefully at this picture.  You've seen it before (minus the buildings in the background).  Now imagine a car accelerating and then disappearing in the middle of the lot.  Sounds future-istic, huh?  Can anyone guess the movie?

This picture was taken earlier today.  The image belongs to my brother in law who created it some time ago.  You may have seen it.  This is a trickier one.  This image was used in a print shown in the first scenes of this movie in a scene with Matthew Broderick.  Here's your hint.  Neither Comcast, Charter nor Cox would EVER hire this guy...  Recognize the picture?

Coronado Island

Our second day of our mini-vaca started out leisurely.  We ate breakfast at the hotel and came back to our suite to shower and pack.  After that it was off to the beach.  We stopped at some cliffs for a view and then set out with two cell phones and a GPS to determine the "best" beach.

After seeing a photo of one of my colleagues at the famous Coronado Hotel, I knew I wanted to go to that beach with the kids.  With a very accomodating husband, we made our way through San Diego and over the beautiful (Bonus it's now Toll-free) high bridge to the city of Coronado.  It is certainly beautiful and busy.  So much to see and no where to park. : (

We ended up driving a little past the famous landmark hotel to the State Beach park.  And we figured out that paying a little money was going to get our car near the beach, which is what we wanted.  The kids were quickly changed into their suits in the car and we headed out to stake out a spot close to the edge.  The weather was fantastic, the crowds still light.  After about ten minutes, the Coronado Fire Department showed up with their largest ladder truck to tend to a beach victim who bumped her head while surfing.  The presence of a fire truck sent our youngest into a thrill-trum.  (Not to be confused with a tantrum, though it looks similar.  It's where you shriek with delight so hard, people start looking...).  Woody took Erik to sit on the blocks to watch.

After the "show" we took turns taking the kids into the water.  Ingrid made a friend at the beach - Alissa.  She was there with her mom and grandma.  Back and forth from the towel to the water for over two hours.  We finally dragged them away and over to the showers to attempt to get out the sand.  That's not so easy.  Back to our car where we took turns changing into our street clothes.  The back of the car was a sandy mess.  It was nearly 2 PM and the Chung gang was hungry.  We set out south and then realized we needed to get off the island and head north into San Diego.  Back on the Freeway we did everything to keep Erik awake so we could eat lunch.  We succeeded and turned off at In-N-Out Burger for burgers, fries and drinks.  A perfect post beach meal.  We ate outside at the picnic tables and then resettled back into the car.  I switched the music to classical and within five minutes, both of the little ones were sound asleep for our drive back to Los Angeles.   It was a lovely two day trip.

Sea World

Great tip if you plan on going to Sea World twice in one year - get the annual membership before you go.  It's cheaper, and you get free parking.  That's exactly what we did and it turned out great.

We arrived in San Diego around one PM and immediately checked in early at our hotel.  This is a great hotel (Residence Inn) for families.  It has free parking, wireless internet and free breakfast.  But as a bonus we didn't know about, it includes free dinner mid week.  Score!

We headed out right away to Sea World but had a relaxed attitude.  We decided to see what we wanted at a nice pace, rather than rush around as we saw so many families do in order to "get it all in".  Our first stop was a ride to the top - an aerial view of Sea World.  This ride has been around for quite awhile but always had an additional fee.  Now it's free.  Once we got to the top, Erik's only interest was the construction site.  The ride was a revolving one and he cheered every time he saw the excavator.  Nothing for Shamu, the dolphins, the Sesame Street sponsored kids play area - only the construction vehicles.  That's Erik...

Once we had enough for a little bit, we piled in the car for the four mile drive back to our hotel and dinner.  Much cheaper than eating at Sea World.  The kids loved the spaghetti dinner, rolls and salad, plus free milk.  We sat in the open dining area and enjoyed our dinner.  Back in the room to wash up and brush our teeth and we left for some evening fun at Sea World.  The lights came on, the ride lines shortened and we had a great evening with our kids.  The fireworks were AWESOME (that's Ingrid's description).  Much better than Knotts Berry Farm.

After the park closed, we made our way out with the remaining folks and waited in line to get out.  A quick drive home and it is lights out for the Chungs in our comfortable suite.  Gotta love the mini-vacations.

4th of July

At Knotts Berry Farm...Happy Birthday America!

The Little Prince Kids Cafe

We had a great time today at the Little Prince Kids Cafe.  Two Hours of Play for $8.00.  A great place for parents to gather while the kids play.  With gratis refills on our iced coffees, the atmosphere was great and the staff was the tops.  They were so friendly with the kids and always on top of things.  Cleanliness is a major focus.  This place has a special dishwasher just for the balls in the ball pit.  Staff wash them twice daily.  The place was spotless.  All visitors remove their shoes at the door and wear slippers to keep the floors clean.  Kids wear socks. 

The staff are engaging and mindful of all kids.  Erik and Ingrid had a fantastic time.  We'll be coming back for sure.

All Girl - All Fashion - All Ingrid

Ingrid showing off her new outfit for the 4th of July.  This was one of those "take pictures of me, Mom" impromptu events orchestrated by my fashionista.

Old Photo Friday

It's 2nd Cousin Picnic Time.

Time for the next generation to get together for the fifth annual Springer picnic.  I'm glad my children are participating.  Lunch, laughter, and lawn sprinklers.  Does it get any better?


Have fun everyone!!

Anyone notice Chad underneath?