Boys' Room Day

Straightened and dusted!

Wednesdays are for cleaning the boys' room. I straightened and dusted and vacuumed. I got them to help me with some of the things they have left about. Tom would have a huge pile of change, magnets, sticks, bottle caps (you know, boys pocket things) piled to the ceiling on his nightstand if we didn't go through and clean it up each week, trust me, I know. We didn't used to do this.

Shelves are straightened, books put back, edges vacuumed, window sill cleared of insects, cobwebs sucked away, sheets washed, and beds made up well.

Tom's shot glass collection.

Bins full of toys we only get out when we have company. But at least it's easy to clean up.
We took the doors off the closet because they are the sliding ones that are not boy friendly.
They were always getting knocked off the runners by projectiles!

Jake's pin collection. 

For the porch cleaning week, I found some more things to put away in the garage or throw away, but not much. I'm planning on pulling some weeds in a planter out front tomorrow.

We went to the mall in Palm Springs to find a birthday present for a cousin. The wind mills were in a funky position! The smaller canyon ones were still, the bigger ones along the 62 were pointed south against the mountain, and the ones further down the 10 were pointed north. As if the wind were coming from the north across the desert and hitting the mountain, turning around and coming back north across our desert. That's just strange.

We struck out at many of the stores we went to, decided to have lunch at the mall (one of our favorites), and then went to the bookstore. I got a couple new books, just in time. I'm almost done with the one I'm on now. And we found something interesting for our cousin. Tom got one of those HexBugs and we've been having fun harassing the cat with it.

Oh! And on the way there, the boys asked me if we were going to the zoo. I thought they were bored of the zoo, but they emphatically want to go again. Crazy! We thought about going right then, but we would have missed feeding the giraffe, so we decided to save it. Maybe next week.

I'll start with Friday...

It was one of those mornings to a long day. I don't usually wake the boys up. They sleep till they are done and come out dressed. Jake is a morning person and gets up, gets dressed, runs through his morning chores and chosen studies, and asks for breakfast all before 10am. Tom, on the other hand, is the opposite. He doesn't usually stir until 10am and if you harass him about getting out of bed he will get very ugly and fast. He takes all day to get through the things he had planned and usually runs out of time by the end of the day. But since we had somewhere to be and needed to leave at 8am, I had to wake them and that is when they changed bodies.

Jake woke up teary eyed and couldn't get out of bed. I decided to let him be and see if he got up on his own. Harassing a sleepy boy from bed usually does not end well. Tom heard me wake Jake and got right up and dressed. He ran to his chores, even got some Latin in before breakfast. Crazy. Jake eventually got up, but he was not himself until way after lunch.

I figured since we didn't need to be at our field trip until noon, we could leave an hour early and hit the batting cages on the way down. I really should have researched a location before we left though. We never found one that was open and add to that a bit of traffic excitement, we didn't have time anyway. There was a big rig cab completely consumed by flame on the side of the canyon highway. The boys were all excited because there were Haz-Mat trucks there, just like on 24. We're all going to die!

We did arrive early enough to go to Barnes & Noble before the tour. Yay! Jake got the "Hunger Games" and we are reading it together. He reads at night and then I read the same chapters during the next day so that we can chat about it. I love the story so far, but it is a bit dark and depressing. At least it is only something to keep him until the next three "Roman Mysteries" by Caroline Lawrence arrive. He loves those and they are a bit more uplifting. We also found "Kingdom Keepers" Ridley Pearson about teens trapped at Disney World at night fighting the bad characters trying to take over the world. I don't know how good of a book it is, but when we read it I'll let you know. I couldn't pass it up though, being a Disney nerd. And last but not least "Lots to do in Line" by Meredith Lyn Pierce. You have to have this book if you are going to Disneyland, especially as a passholder. It's a book of trivia and scavenger hunts for each ride as you wait in line. We loved it and now will never go without it!

Jake testing the speed of his arm.

On to the Discovery Science Center for a field trip with our fellow homeschoolers. It was great to do something with our Orange County friends, but I wasn't impressed with the Discovery Center's field trip program. It wasn't really a "tour" but an organized day at the museum. But we did get to see the Star Wars exhibit and loved it. I would have liked to start there and spend some more time, but that is where the tour ended instead. I also would have liked it if they had used the Star Wars exhibit to explain some physics ideas that were presented there. The boys loved it though. They cracked me up when the tour guide did explain a couple physics laws. She began by saying she was giving the 8th grade tour (script) and that some of it may go over their heads. Jake was disgusted that this is what they are teaching 8th graders....seriously. Tom's favorite was a 3D type presentation on the solar system earlier in the day. He said they didn't even mention the magnetic field around Uranus, so he didn't get to use his jokes.

Simulated Rocket Launch

After the tour we got to have lunch with our friends. We were supposed to go to Disneyland all together, but Jake was still in a funk and I thought it might be better if we went alone. He needed time with just his brother and Mom. I felt bad having to tell my friend that, but I think she understood. It wasn't who we were with, but that Jake just wasn't having a "socialize with friends" type of day.

Building Robots

Making a Robot Walk

Highest Parking Spot Ever

The view of Anaheim West of the Parking Structure

At 4pm we headed to California Adventure. We parked on the very top of the parking structure. Cool. The plan was to see World of Color, but by the time we got there the Fastpasses were for the 9:15 show and I didn't want to stay that late, so we skipped it. We went on a ton of rides though. The best was the ElecTRONica stuff in Hollywood. Like a night club or grad nites. Crazy loud. There was an awesome show of a guy that looked like he was moving lasers with his hands. We were all impressed. The boys could not help but dance around. We played some video games at Flynn's. Tom impressed some girls with his knowledge of "Beat It" lyrics and some moonwalking moves. Jake kicked but at Tron and Battlebots. It was a bit disturbing to see my childhood displayed like a museum, but I got over it. I wish Dan were there though. If my Mom were there challenging me at Centipede, it would have been perfect. 

Two New Action Figures

After that we picked up Nikki at Downtown Disney and headed home. It was a great day. I went straight to bed. I had to be up at 5:30am to go to the FATJEF. More about that another time. That's gonna take a couple posts!

Bear Poop

Video Games at "Flynn's"

Playing Tron. It's only a quarter!