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12
09.27.14 | Permalink | | Comments Off on 12
Our nephew, Luke, turned 12 recently and asked for the best birthday gift- for our whole family to get together like we used to, before Mom and Dad moved to Idaho. Miracle against miracles, we did it and 100% of the Hansen clan got together. If was a fun day!
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The Magical Floating Leaf
09.22.14 | Permalink | | Comments Off on The Magical Floating Leaf
Every Wednesday our kids have an early release. The most recent one was spent exploring the park and seeing the wonder of the world we live in. They trampled through the valley, explored stumps, and even suspended leaves magically from their hands!
Have you ever been walking outdoors somewhere and seen a leaf just floating magically in the air? When we go to St. Edwards, we see them all over the place, so rich in spiders and falling leaves, and Bradley has taught the kids how to capture them and make them their own.
This is a worthwhile way to spend our time. This is the homework that is important. This is knowing our world.
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School Days
09.21.14 | Permalink | | Comments Off on School Days
Almost every morning I get a text a little after 9:00, when Bradley has left the kids at school, of the kids. It’s our last ‘see ya later’ of the day before we all come together again after I get home. It’s really nice. This year, with the added commute and shift in my start and end times, I’m leaving the house at the same time, 7:30, but my return home time isn’t until around 5:00, compared to the 4:00 time over the last decade. Little things like my daily kid pic help to keep me connected and in the loop. I love this little Littlejohn tradition!
And if you’re wondering how the little one is doing with this transitions into full time first grade, here is what he looked like at the end of this last Thursday:
Someone is worn out, tired out, exhausted and ready for more time with his Papa Bear. I think the papa misses the boy just as much. He drew this the other day as a response to missing his lil’ buddy:
We miss them too, as they go off into this big, wide world.
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Back to School
09.20.14 | Permalink | | Comments Off on Back to SchoolJude and Guinevere started 1st and 5th grade this year…
First day fun
Gigi’s seat (at meet the teacher)
Jude’s seat (at meet the teacher)
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Disneyland 2014
08.09.14 | Permalink | | Comments Off on Disneyland 2014
We went to Disneyland again this year. I had to admit that, while we love Disneyland, we also recognize that each trip is fairly different. There is usually one theme that we remember- the trip where we ran into that guy, Ben, over and over, the trip where Jude was a baby, the trip when the kids couldn’t stop talking about spending money, the trip we realized was too long for Jude, the trip when we were too tired- you get it.
This was the best trip we’ve ever had. That’s this trips theme- sheer awesomeness! I said it it was our best since before we had Jude, which makes it our default best because everything is better with a lil Judelbop added in. We were like a well- oiled machine this time. We knew what we wanted to do, we’re faster now and we know how to work the day (get there as the gates open and leave around 1:00 when it gets hot and crowded, play at the hotel pool lthen go back for the shows).
This was the first time we didn’t stand in all of the lines for the characters. It was close to 100 degrees for most of the time we were there, so we would see Mickey, get excited, then observe the line that wrapped around the corner and the kids decided to skip it. It was a little weird, a little less magical, but a lot less sweaty and we felt like we accomplished a lot while we were there.
Jude was super cute as a dancer while we were in Disneyland. When asked if he wanted to dance for the Mad Tea Party, he said, “Don’t mind if it do!” Then proceeded to school us all in the art of floor work and expert level moonwalking. Whenever Phinneas and Ferb’s dance parade would make its way past us, Jude would scurry through the crowd to score and up-close and centered spot where he would showcase his acumen of their dance steps. By the end of our trip, he had partied with Phinneas and Ferb enough that he knew all of their moves!
Gigi was a pleasure to watch as she un-grew up. She’s at that interesting age where at one moment, she is clearly a teenager- attitude, intelligence, sense of humor and all right there I my face, and the next moment she seems lie, she’s about four years old, a little mewling toddler with big eyes, wonder and a desire to purchase and wear a Jasmine princess outfit. In Disneyland she let her little girl out to play, wore a Jessie hat from Toy Story and it was so fun to play along with her and remember when…
Bradley got to be the rebel spy on the Star Tours ride. While this may not seem like too big a deal, to us it was tantamount to meeting a celebrity or something. We’ve been waiting for years for one of our brood to be chosen, then it was our kind who got it! How perfect! Afterwards, Jude was making some decisions about which Star Wars cars he should buy, and he used his own saved-up allowance to buy his dad a Wookie/Chewbacca car as a birthday gift. We were both blown away by his generosity.
As for me? I finally took Henrietta and the Lurid Giraffe on a real tour of Disneyland. Henrietta is an extremely appropriate English hippopotamus and the Lurid Giraffe is exactly the kind of character he sounds like. Anyhow, they have relatives that live at and work on the Small World ride and have stowed away before, but this time I photographed them all over Disneyland and it was a really fun ending to our trip. I felt foolish, at times, but the memory of taking them with us was pretty unforgettable!
