December 2018

Anna's second grade class performed a holiday show! 

Sometimes we don't like to cook on Sunday so we go out!

Dan ordered this "1/2 platter of nachos" for the table as an appetizer. So a full cookie sheet is a 1/2 platter in who's book?? We ate about a 1/8 of it!!!

Afterward we went to strolling down a street in Westminster where they go all out for decorations. Yes, Mia is wearing shorts! We live in California now!

We did bake a few Christmas cookies.

Anna was "Catch of the Week" right before her first bone graft surgery. She loved telling her class all about herself.

This is the first surgery that Anna was really apprehensive about. Her last one was very painful and she remembered that. This one turned out to be a breeze though, except for the liquid diet afterward.

Sheila arranged for all the Collins's to go out and see the harbor Christmas lights! Joey and family didn't come as Brittany does not like boats. We missed them but had a good time. We didn't stay afterward as Anna had just had her surgery and was very tired.

Oliver kept an eye out for crocodiles!!  

This girl has become a part of our family. We have been lucky that almost all of Mia's friends include Anna in everything they do without me having to say a thing.

Anna wanted me to come to her class party. She was a trooper considering she couldn't eat any of the food. She did get some hot chocolate!

We have the best climbing tree at the park at the end of our street.

We attended the Nutcracker for the first time! Anna and I liked it. Dan and Mia, not so much.  Well, Dan would have had to stay awake to know if he liked it or not!

Joey and Brittany invited us offer for Christmas dinner. The kids love getting together with their "cousins" AKA nieces and nephews.

For Christmas we got the girls Knott's Berry Farm annual passes. We went the day after Christmas. Big mistake. You would think it was Disneyland with the crowds!!

Color Run 2018

A Blog Post by Anna

We just moved to California and our school is Hopkinson and a 

few days later... we end up with corn starch everywhere! LOL 

                                                       - Anna Collins

                                                   This is a before they ran in the Color Run, perfectly
                                                clean with nothing.  Later they get really dirty.

                                         

Look at these kids! They need a  really clean bath, 

                                          especially Mia.  
     

                                          Look at little Oliver. He didn't do the color run because
                                          he  is too little.

WOW here are their backs. Oliver's is the cleanest 

because he didn't run!

 

   GRIPPERS. EWWWWW

                                                                                    This page is by:Anna at the age of 8

Thanksgiving 2018

We moved into our house two Saturdays ago. It was not ready for us but we were ready for it! Lots and lots of details were not finished. We spent every night cleaning up dust, sawdust, boxes and general junk that the various trades left after doing their work. 10 days later we had our first houseguests! Beth and family arrived to celebrate Thanksgiving with us. 

I thought letting them play in the dirt would be fun. I didn't think about my new rugs and furniture. Hmm...one day in the dirt was all the poor kiddos got.

We did our best to make the giant hole in the back yard off limits. This folding table is still our dining table as I type but tomorrow morning I'm supposed to get the real one!

We love that we live close enough to walk to stores. A nice after-dinner stroll on Thanksgiving day was just the ticket for a full stomach.

The kids made gingerbread houses!

Anna and Mia organized what has turned out to be the annual Kids' Thanksgiving Show!

Anna played several songs on her violin.

Chase and Paige sang and danced to Baby Shark. So cute!

Mia and Anna sang!

They then got to eat the gingerbread houses!

This pole is now painted so the crazy pole climbing shenanigans are over.

On Friday we all went to see Becky's new house and then to the park.

We walked to Fourth Friday's and Dan bought the kids ice cream.

We then took a trolley ride down Fourth St.

Beth and Greg went home on Saturday. Next year, back to the desert for Thanksgiving!

Seal Beach Tree Lighting

The kids miss snow so we went to the Seal Beach tree lighting where there was some snow to play in.

Mia's friend Jessica lives right around the corner from us!

Do not throw snow...really????

Rocketship Park

Dan grew up a few blocks from Los Arboles Park. Everyone called it Rocketship Park. He went there all the time as a kid and we took our grown kids there many times as children when Grossie and Pop, and then just Grossie, still lived in Dan's childhood home.

I had been feeling a little under the weather during the week so we didn't do much on Saturday, but on Sunday we decided to show the girls where Dan grew up and Rocketship Park.

We had one of these rocketships at the park I grew up at too. This one here was actually removed, practically in the middle of the night, a few years ago. So many people complained that they renovated it and brought it back.

The school in the background is where Dan went to kindergarten.  After that, he went to a Catholic school.

We were here for two hours! I expected to be there for about 30 minutes because the girls are getting a bit bored of parks these days.  But I forgot about the trail going down the hill (no pic) and they played for a least an hour on that. Also, since there was some new play equipment there were a lot more kids here than when we used to bring the older kids. 

I didn't get a picture of the ocean view which almost always shows the fog rolling in and today was no exception.

Becky was in Long Beach working on their new house and decided to come over for a little bit to show the boys this little bit of Collins Family history. She was disappointed that the swings were taken out. The swings seemed to sail out over the hill and were quite fun.

A new sign with the local name of "Rocketship Park".

Halloween 2018!

We are still in the hotel, but only for another 10 days. Mia wouldn't smile because she didn't want the inside pink of her person lips to show. That wouldn't be very wolf-like.

Anna is a cute and cuddly unicorn. She only likes "real" makeup, not paint, so she put a little blush and eye shadow on.

Mug shots.

The girls had a parade in the morning at school. We weren't able to attend as we had some meetings for the house but a friend took this picture.

 

After dinner we went over to the new house for trick or treat. We loved that it was 75 degrees when we started out! All the kids said our house was perfect for Halloween because it looked like a haunted house with all the mess!

Becky said, "What a great picture to remind us of what life was like at this time!" Yep, four homeless kids having fun.