Happy 33 to Me!

Oh Happy Day! Adele came to visit for a couple days between her trip to Taiwan and her trip to Utah! This amazing niece of mine brings fun and happiness wherever she goes (don't let Jade's focused face distract you, she really is having fun!). 

She read stories to Jade while Larry was in class--this one was a library book about Claire the glass-wing butterfly.  I can't help but remember that we named Jade Claire very first after she was born... and then Leanora, and then Jade... random bit of Koberstein family trivia there... anyway, back to Adele...

 Dawna and Adele still share a very special bond as sister-cousins who lived together for two years. Nothing is too embarrassing for them to try together--for example, Adele is trying to get her humming to register on the ukulele tuner clipped to her nose... no luck. So...

 ... Dawna has to try it. Also no luck... but lots of giggles..

The last day Adele was with us, she and Dawna took on the very grown-up job of babysitting all of their younger siblings (7 in all) while all of us parents went out to dinner and then to an escape room in Santa Clara! We were gone about five hours and they had all the kids fed, read, and put to bed when we all got home. 

I called this my "birthday party" even though it wasn't really planned as such, and came a week early. But really, a good steak dinner, an escape room, and lots of friends is the best fun any 33-year old girl can ask for! I had the good company of Becca and Isaac Snow, Angela and Andrew Ringlein, Emily and Jake Biesinger, and Paul and Becca and Aaron and Emily Severson for our attempt to escape detention. 

It was a pretty good escape room. The progression was very dependent on interactions from the staff (who were all very nice, but not excellent actors), which is a different style than the others I've done.  I think I prefer the stand-alone type where there are mechanisms that are more independent of interaction or interference by escape room staff... 

We finished the scenario in 64 minutes! Not quite fast enough to make the wall of honor, but still a good time... especially when I discovered the cool reflecting ceiling picture I could take! (Sorry Becca Snow! You were on the bar...)

Well, friends, thanks for coming to my party! I'm ready to turn 33 next week!

Oh what do you do on a Four-Day Weekend?!?!

The better question is: What DON'T you do on a four-day weekend! NUSD gave the teachers a work day Friday, and Monday was president's day, so we had a fun stay-cation style weekend, including...

Friday at the Children's Discovery Museum in San Jose!
Xochitl walked the most laps of any kindergarten student in this year's Walk-a-Thon, so she won herself a pass to the museum (the rest of us had to pay...big time... not my favorite kind of place in that the parents have to pay the $13 entry fee to watch your kids play all day, but it is a nice place anyway...and PS, my kids would not TOUCH the "organic" ketchup at the food shed. Please bring on the emulsifiers)

I digress... we spent a fun-filled five hours there exploring every inch of the place! Overall, the favorite places were the water play area and the giant bubble place. Other enjoyable moments included face painting (the kids paint their own faces while looking in a mirror) the play food pizza restaurant, complete with menus featuring pizza with broccoli (Congratulations, San Franciso, you ruined pizza!), and an early childhood development intern from Stanford doing research on language acquisition! Poor daddy had to go to work, but we got to play!

Which brings us to...Friday night sleepover! Nana and Papa offered to take the kids for a sleepover! Sweet! We dropped off the kids in Fremont and then went to set up for our massive stake event, then went out for a massive steak at Texas Roadhouse! We were going to go out to a movie, but ended up renting Bridge of Spies and watched at home (Great film, by the way...).

After a great sleep-in with no kids around in the morning, we spent Saturday getting ready for the stake 50th anniversary kickoff party. (I know it's not a great picture up there, but that's a 3ft. 5-0 outlined with Christmas lights, filled in with cupcakes. So cool!) Jon and I are on the planning committee and were in charge of some entertainment for the dance... I mean... party with dancing. We created a pretty awesome crossword of stake presidents and wards of the Fremont stake, a giant word search hiding the names of 100 bishops over the last 50 years, and also brought along our giant Jenga game we made last Thanksgiving.

All things considered, it was a great party. Around 200 in attendance, plenty of yummy goods and live music. I provided a "historical anecdote" and a song from each decade throughout the night. There were not very many young couples there (as I expected). I tried (and failed) to get a babysitter for the night. But at the very end, Becca and Isaac showed up. I don't know why, but I was SO happy to see them--my stressed spirits just lifted when Becca let me pull her around and show her all the stuff we made for the party.  Anyway, they made it in time for a couple dances and a great game of Jenga! 

 My awesome ninja kids stayed out of sight for the entire evening, watching movies in my mom's seminary room. Dawna had her Chrome book and texted me from time to time asking for snacks and desserts... it was fun.  They got to come out at the end to help "clean up," aka, build with the giant Jenga blocks.

For all my stubborn antagonism about the "50th Anniversary" of the stake, I have really come to appreciate the saints that settled this area and worked so hard for the early Fremont Stake. In preparing for the activity, I read (several times) the book: Let This be Zion.

I learned how much the saints had to sacrifice and work to build their own buildings with their own hands and their own resources. They were tough. 

 My family is well represented in the book, since my parents moved to Fremont over 30 years ago. One of the earliest memories of church service is my dad being in the stake presidency. I got to know President "Grandpa Turkey" Taylor and Bro. Stewart very well over the decade my dad served with them. Pres. Taylor later sealed Jon and I in the Oakland Temple and and Bro./Dr. Stewart is still the only dentist office I've ever gone to. We were and are greatly blessed by my dad's service; and I was blessed to have the assignment to learn about my family's place in the history book of our stake.

 Monday, Jon and Lynn headed out to New Melones to go climbing and the kids and I cleaned up the house and then went to the brand new NewPark AMC theater to see King Fu Panda 3! Whew. Good times on the weekend... Time to face up to school.

a month late...

Now that Xochitl is 7 months old, I thought I should maybe post a couple of her 6-month snapshots that I took. To celebrate her 1/2 birthday, I broke out a new 6-9 month outfit from our friends Becca & Isaac. I love the color on her! My beautiful baby is getting so big!

Thanks "auntie" Becca!

Springtime!

Over the past week, it's been warm and toasty outside! The sun has been shining almost every day this week and many exciting and fun things indicate that spring is there!

Springtime is when we often celebrate new life. I had a chance to do just that with my good friend Becca, who had her baby last Saturday. He has perfect skin just like his mama and makes the perfect addition to their family and our "Riviera 15" group of roommate kids :) She let us come see her in the hospital on Sunday... when we got there we realized we were just one in a line of many visitors she had. Hopefully it wasn't too tiring to have so many people come visit...
On Thursday, my WHS friend Ginger and her daughter Izzy came by for lunch. We ate and enjoyed... and then she brought out something very special for the girls: painting crafts! I'm not as crafty as a lot of moms, so it's a special treat for my kids to be able to paint. Dawna and Larry and Izzy had a great time painting butterflies, birdhouses, shirts... and themselves...

Consequently, they had a "run through the sprinklers" session after completing their painting projects (notice Larry's conspicuous absence... he's still no fan of water flying in his face):Yesterday, with the continuation of good weather, we headed over to Birch Grove park and with the slight breeze, let out kites fly high! Dawna has been dying to do this for a really long time! Jon won the prize for keeping his kite up the longest...


...but Dawna won the prize for having the most fun! She flew her kite sitting, standing, and walking around!

Larry wins the prize for flying a kite without even looking at it :)
And I win the prize for being the least likely to be carried away by a kite:
This is week 34... as of today, I'm at week 35! So close! Hey! Nesting is yet another springtime activity! Sweet! Has spring sprung anywhere else in the country? Or are most of my siblings still deep in snow?? :)

What a week!

This week, my dad, four brothers, one sister-in-law, and one Reeves went backpacking in Yosemite. I was kind of jealous that I couldn't go... so Jon and Mom and I had a super-busy, super-fun week...

Monday, we got our new fridge. It's awesome! Already I love having the fridge on top and freezer on bottom. It's so bright white that everything else in the kitchen looks offwhitish dull now:



Tuesday, I babysat during a funeral... I had a great time with the kids. Sarah and Edwin came over and we played baseball and kickball in the backyard. Sarah and I were on a team against all five of the kids... and we won :) unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of all our glory :)

Wednesday, mom and I took the kids out to Merced to visit Becca (Paul was backpacking with the Yosemite group). We swam and laughed and looked at yearbooks and made dinner and had a wonderful relaxing day.



Thursday, Dawna, Lawrence, and I met Ginger and Izzy out at Ardenwood and had en enjoyable day petting horses, sheep, chickens, etc. Then we enjoyed the Dawna and Izzy show on the dance floor, then we rode the horse-drawn train. We finished out the day getting soaked at the water pump. The girls had a blast together (old and young).





Friday, mom's platinum birthday... as in 08/08/08!!! Even she just took it easy and enjoyed the day...she sat and just watched a movie in my room! For those of you that know my mom, you know how amazing that is...

In the afternoon, we went out to Barb's house to enjoy her spa, massage chair, and grilled kabobs. I made a chocolate Zucchini cake and we bought a raspberry ice cream pie. I was proud that the kids liked my cake better than the ice cream cake. Jon joined us for dessert after work and then we watched the opening ceremonies of the Olympics!





Jon and I went strait to Antioch, arriving about 10pm, then staying up way too late chatting and enjoying the family up there. on Saturday, Jon went running with Dan, and then I made all the boys come play sports at the church so I wasn't left alone while they all played Warcraft... we played volleyball, basketball knockout, dodge ball, and then ended the day with a rousing game of four square (yeah, we were a little tired by that time). Then we enjoyed home made pizza and carrot cake for Lynn's birthday. Again, we left way too late and arrived home in Fremont way too late. Sunday was sort of difficult with a tired Dawna all through church, but we made it! We even had the Dents over for dinner and made home made pizza again! Mama K's recipe for pizza dough is the best ever!





It was a fun week... although part of me hopes to have a quieter week this week so I can, you know, do laundry or something :)

And, just because my babies are so cute, here's Lawrence:
Don't you think he should be a model for The Children's Place?? What a cutie!