A few days off...

     Trent finally got a few days off school.  Well, more than a few days off, he had a week and a half off.  It was a much needed break.  He had been in school for 10 weeks straight and I could tell he needed a break (and maybe me too).  His first day off school was Thursday and we slept in, well I tried too at least.  In the evening, we had his end of the soccer season party at Chuck E Cheese, which was fun.  On Friday, Tim and I went to Trent's Parent/Teacher Conference and we got a great report from Trent's teacher.  He is doing so well in school and is reading at the 3rd grade level.  He must get his reading skills from me.  After the conference me, Trent and Jake headed to Disneyland for the day.  We had a great time.  Trent and Jake were such good boys and enjoyed spending the day at Disneyland.  The weather was perfect and the crowds weren't too bad.  
     The weekend was filled with birthday parties, one of which was Tim's 35th birthday.  We celebrated at Dave & Buster's with family and friends.  Monday morning came and Trent finally slept in a bit.  We had a playdate with a classmate of Trent's at Jumpin' Jammin', which was so much fun.  On Tuesday, Trent slept in a little longer (yes!).  He was getting back to his sleeping in routine, I was so happy to get some extra sleep too.  We had lunch at In-N-Out and then headed out to see Zachary play goalie in his first Frosh/Soph soccer game.  It was so cold and windy out in Valencia, but it worth freezing to see Zachary play.  The week was going by so quickly and on Wednesday Trent and I ate at our favorite Mexican restaurant where Trent gets a corn dog and Spanish rice.  Crazy kid.  Tim and I had a party to go to in the evening, so Trent was babysat, which is a treat for him.  Thursday, of course, was Thanksgiving and then the long weekend, which was relaxing and fun.  The end of Trent's school break came to an end on Sunday.  We put Trent to bed early because Monday morning was going to come quick and I wasn't looking forward to waking Trent up at 6:30 a.m. or getting up early myself.

     Monday morning wasn't as bad as it could have been.  Trent was happy to go back to school and I was happy to get back to our routine.  It was nice to have this break with Trent.  We didn't have too much scheduled, which was good.  We just took it easy and had fun.  I have said this before, but I am thankful for the life we have and that I was able to take time off work and this is all because of Tim and how hard he works to give us the lifestyle we have.

Trent and Jake standing in line for Jungle Cruise, first ride of the day.

The boys loved seeing Winnie the Pooh.

Waiting for the train.

Last ride of the day and they were still smiling so big.

Celebrating Tim's 35th birthday.

Of course, playing a Star Wars video game.

Two boys and a Pretty Pink Princess Jeep

At the birthday party we went to last weekend Jake and Trent had so much fun driving around the birthday girl's Pretty Pink Princess Jeep.  My Aunt and Uncle have a huge yard, so driving the Jeep around was a lot of fun.  They could go off-roading up the hill and out and around the field.  For boys it doesn't get much better than that, who cares if they were driving a Pretty Pink Princess Jeep.  I don't even think they realized what they were driving, just that it went kind of fast.  They quickly found high gear and put the petal to the metal.

I am sure they will love these pictures when they are older and I show them to their girlfriends.

Driving crazy like only boys can do.

Vader the Goldfish

We went to a Little Mermaid themed birthday party on Saturday.  In fitting in with the theme, the party favor was a goldfish.  The goldfish came in a cute container with colorful rocks and even a little baggy of food.  Trent could not have been happier to have a goldfish.  We have had a few goldfish before when Trent was little, but he doesn't remember, so to him this was his first goldfish. Trent named the goldfish Vader and was looking forward to waking up each morning and feeding Vader.  Hearing all of Trent's plans for Vader, Tim and I prepared him for the likely event that Vader may not make it through the night.  When we told Trent this he didn't seem to fully understand that Vader may pass during the night.  He couldn't believe that goldfishes have short life spans.  After discussing places to put Vader, we decided on the counter in the bathroom.  Tim and I didn't think this was a great place because it can get cold in there overnight, but we thought Vader would do fine.  Trent said goodnight to Vader and told him he would feed him in the morning.  Trent was becoming obsessed with how much to feed Vader and why did he only need a few pebbles of food and the questions just kept coming.  We finally got Trent to bed and I hoped that Trent would be able to feed Vader in the morning.

No such luck!  When I got up at 7 the next morning, Vader had passed away.  I thought he would have at least made it a few days.  I quickly disposed of Vader and prepared myself to tell Trent.  The downside of putting Vader in the bathroom was I was going to have to tell Trent as soon as he woke up because the first thing he does when he wakes up is go to the bathroom.  So, when I heard Trent up I quickly got to him before he made it to the bathroom and told him that Vader had passed away and is now in fish heaven.  There were some tears and then Trent said that when he goes to heaven he is going to look for Vader and can't wait to swim deep down in the oceans of heaven to find him. That boy has such a good heart.  Trent and I also discussed getting another fish and I told him maybe we should wait until it's warmer out (I was fully prepared to get another fish that day) and Trent agreed we would wait.  He first said we would wait until Summer and then later that day said how about getting a fish in Spring.  I told him that would be fine.  And so the life of having goldfish begins.

R.I.P. Vader

Halloween

Fall is a great time of year, the weather starts to get cooler (at some point) and the leaves start to change colors (again at some point).  With Fall comes the start of the holiday season (I can't believe Christmas is almost here).  Trent loves Halloween and could not wait to dress up as Captain Rex from Star Wars the Clone Wars.  We had a busy and fun Halloween weekend.  We started off on Saturday at our Church carnival, which was a lot of fun.  Tim and Trent rode the tag along bike up to the park, which turned out to be a bit harder than Tim had thought.  I guess he should have eaten a good breakfast before he set out to climb Lake Avenue.  We had childrens’ church service, lunch and then the highly anticipated games.  Trent loved playing all the games and of course getting prizes. 

Saturday evening we went to the Jones’ 2nd Annual Halloween Party.  That was a lot of fun too.  The boys were all different super heroes and had a great time fighting evil.  The kids played games, ate pizza and ran around like only boys can.

Sunday evening we had some of our family and friends over for trick or treating.  Trent’s cousin Jake was so excited to go trick or treating. He was really into Halloween this year and was trying his best to keep up with Trent and Madison.  
All in all we had a great weekend.

My boys.

 Water guns...my cup runneth over.

Sling shot for the David and Goliath game.

Trent as Captain Rex

Super Heroes

Jake, Madison and Trent ready to go get some candy.

Trent had a unique way of holding his candy bag.

Tim as a pro-cyclist and I am the podium girl giving him his yellow leaders jersey.

Piano Recital

Trent has a bit of a musical side to him, which he definitely didn't get from my side of the family.  He is always singing, picking up a guitar to strum it, banging on the piano keys or beating on his drum set.  So, when he started 1st grade he also started piano lessons; once a week for 45 minutes for 8 weeks.  He has been enjoying the class and on Friday we got to see him perform at his recital. Tim and I asked him last week what he was playing at the recital and he said with a straight face the Darth Maul song.  As we all know, Trent is a huge Star Wars fan and more often than not can be heard humming or singing a song from Star Wars.  Tim and I really didn't take him seriously about playing the Darth Maul song until we got the list of what the kids were playing..."Darth Maul" – Trent Reimers.  I said to Trent your piano teacher sent out an email about what the students were playing at the recital and you are playing Darth Maul.  Trent looked at me like Duh Mom, that's what I have been telling you.  I love that kid.

Here is Trent's big moment...Duel Of The Fates ("Darth Maul") behind the battle among Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan Kenobi Vs. Darth Maul from Star Wars Episode 1.

Trent did an amazing job playing Darth Maul.  He was the last one in the line up and did great.  He had a bit of stage fright in the beginning and I thought for sure he was going to get up from the piano and not perform, but he got through it and I was so proud of him.  He was singing the song out loud while he was playing the piano.  He tries to match how he hears the song with the right piano keys.  So proud of my boy!

The play bill...