Happy Halloween!!!

Pumpkin designed by Kyle Wrigley (First Zombie on the left)

First Progress Report

Mrs. Hernandez sent home a Complimentary Report to Parents this week to let us know that Kyle is doing "quite well in all areas". I especially like the note at the bottom telling us that he needs to stay calm and that mistakes are okay. I guess Mrs. Hernandez never met Kyle's Grandma. If she knew Donna she'd realize that getting it right is just in his blood - mistakes just will not do... :-)

Joking aside, he does take his work pretty seriously and he tends to get pretty frustrated when he can't get something right. He will often erase and re-do, or completely start over until it's right. We try to tell him it's good enough, but he won't have it.

On another school related note - part of his homework is to study and recognize sight words. Many of these are words that don't 'sound out' very well, and so the kids basically have to memorize them. Starting during the first week of school, the teacher sent home a sheet of words that we cut out and used as flash cards so he could practice them. Each sheet of words is color coded with a color of the rainbow, starting with red. This week he was able to read all of his blue words, which means he's on purple - the last color of the rainbow. There are only 4 other kids in his class that are all the way to purple already!

Max the Caterpillar

Something for Everyone

This was the last day, heading north out of Cabo San Lucas, with the storm Norbert at our backs. It was causing some high swells and this kid made his own Wave Pool -- it was just a regular pool but the sea waves were causing pool waves and it actually picked him up and out and back in he went. The video gives you a better idea. Looked like fun to me!

The Way You Look Tonight

On this evening, I received a pair of gold/turquoise earrings from Bill before going down to dinner. In the video, I'm showing that I have 'matching' turquoise color shoes -- thus the 'foot in the air action' going on.

Grabbed

At the request of my Youngest Brother, I'm attaching two 'grab frame from video' shots. First one is as we sailed out of San Pedro, before we reached the jetty. The second one is (obviously) us, in our cabin before going down to Formal Night Dinner -- Lobster and Baked Alaska!

These are for you Kenny-Boy.

Night of the Iguana

We're back from our cruise 'Down Mexico Way' and while visiting the port of Puerto Vallarta we stopped at a hotel that we use to frequent 'in our youth' -- and there under the pool-side chairs were a couple of iguana's. Ah, la "The Night of the Iguana" , which was filmed in Puerto Vallarta (it's a movie from 1964, kids!). They were smarter than the rest of us -- they were in the shade. Real little guys that didn't bother anyone and no one seemed to care. Not sure I'd want to awaken from a snooze in the sun and reach down to pick up my water bottle and touch them, instead.
(note, only took video on this trip -- didn't take a still camera)

2008 Marek Fire

Updated map from 9pm.

Added a flag (B) to show the Escoto's house (inside the evacuation zone)

Here's the current Google map showing our house (the A-flag in the middle) and the fires on both sides (Newer Porter Ranch fire on the left and 2-day old Marek fire on the right). We can see (and smell) the smoke around us, but we're about 2-3 miles in from the edge of the foothills, so it's hard to imagine it coming this far into the valley from either side.

The blue flag on the map (just down the street from us) is the evacuation center, and the green horse graphic is an equestrian and livestock evacuation center at Hansen Dam (where Tami did her first triathlon).


The Marek fire was mostly contained by late yesterday, but last night we had winds up to 70mph and now the fire is out of control again.

Melissa's Art Update

Back by popular demand (aka FAN!) we have more of Melissa's latest Works of Art! She starts with acrylic paints in class today! She will be doing a simple cartoon acrylic of her Dad's favorite cartoon character, Homer Simpson.

This colorful Parrot was her last pastel drawing before moving on to watercolor, and by far, my favorite of all the pastels.
This watercolor Butterfly won her the Artist of the Week award. :)

Little Hummingbird is also watercolor with some colored pencil detail. This is Melissa's favorite and she said this was the most difficult so far! She "created" the backgound color herself by blending. The details of the bird were very tedious and hard for her. This one took several weeks to finish.

This little Green Snake is one of my fav watercolors. I just love the swishy strokes of blended color and the detail of his eyes.

TBR - BBSitting K&K

We got to babysit Kyle & Katey on Saturday night! Played games, watched movies, ate PIZZA! Then we walked to the local park on Sunday morning...here...see for yourself:

Big Kid Swing...no seat belt....AHHHHHH!

No really, that's me! I roller bladed. (and didn't fall once!)

While Katey had fun stomping on all of the wild mushrooms!

And the "Jedi Team" (Anakin, Solo & Queen Amidala) met in secret to protect the force (and our little park).

And Melissa climbed the highest mountain. :)

Katelyn's Room Makeover

We also gave Katie's room a makeover to

spice up the new purple paint on the walls

She got Disney Fairie wall clings

Uncle Todd gave her a Tinker Bell cutout
and we hung some light-up fairie laterns on her dresser hutch


And she got Kyle's old toddler bed with some new bedding

Kyle's Room Makeover

After I dropped Kyle off at school this morning,

we transformed his jungle bedroom into a Star Wars bedroom.

He got a new twin bed

New bedding

A Star Wars poster

And Star Wars wall clings!

Blackpool Photos

I'm not really sure what I'm doing here and "onblur" sounds like a dangerous command for photographs, but lets see.

Sunset at Blackpool Beach. I was using a little portable camera and it didn't cope well but it really is a stunning view. Unfortunately, most of the beach was "under construction" as they are building a new sea wall. Rather hopeful to keep the sea out, but what do I know?

The Promenade. Blackpool Illuminations are famous throughout the country. They string lights up across the road and at dusk, as they turn them on, everyone drives along, very slowly. This counts as entertainment in Northern England.

The lights change every year. We were all a bit confused and disturbed by the bissected animal theme.

The promenade facing the other way, the ferris wheel on the North pier and on the right side - that's Blackpool Tower! I didn't go there, I should have. You can see the tower from miles away. Blackpool is a weekend resort and all sorts of people I've met say that when they were kids, their parents would promise an ice cream to the first one who spotted the tower from a distance.

The tram. Not actually the exact tram that I thought I was being thrown off of but the same tramline. Mine was a wooden Victorian thing, quite pretty really. But I was too shocked to think to take a photo of it. This one was "dressed up" for a charity event for the last weekend of the Illuminations.