The Measure of a Man in the News

Dewar's Field Trip

The kids in front of the notorious Dewar's sign.

Nothing beats a Dewar's peanut butter chew except a peppermint ice milk!  Mmmm...  Being a staple in Bakersfield living Evelyn's preschool class got to take a tour of this delicious-making establishment. 

 Evelyn's preschool class minus one.  Preston (unofficial member), Meghan, Zane, Evelyn & Mia.

For the first part of the tour we all got to wear these nifty hair nets. The funny thing is the only kid that cared about wearing one is Preston. He was worried it didn't make him look "cool".  I eventually talked him into wearing one only to have him hid behind me so no one could see his embarrassment.  

 We got to watch a machine stretch and pull the white part and then they added a massive log of the peanut butter part to assemble a GIANT peanut butter chew... If I remember right I believe he said this weighed about 35 pounds and made 15,000 chews!  

 Then it was moved over to another machine that pulled the giant chew into a very long even snake that then got cut and wrapped.  We even got to try a sample! 

Then our guide showed the kids where they make and store the ice-cream. And we learned the difference between ice milk and ice cream. Ice milk has half the fat but double the sugar! 

 "Who wants ice-cream!" asked the tour guide.  "Me, me, ME!" shouted the class.

 Afterwards, the kids got to choose their own flavor ice cream (chocolate, vanilla or strawberry)!

Preston picked chocolate and Evelyn picked strawberry.

 Zane and Troy

 In case you're interested the tour is only $4 per person and includes a scoop of ice cream and a $1 off coupon for your next visit.  Check out their website for more information. 

William S. Hart Museum

This past week on our way home from dropping off Andrew at the airport I happened to see several signs for a park just outside of Valencia.  Thinking it might be fun I pulled off and followed the signs.

The park turned out to be a museum dedicated to American silent film actor William S. Hart (pictured above).  Granted I had never heard of the guy it still turned into a nice little trip.

  The first thing we did was take advantage of the beautiful grassy area.

The museums big claim to fame was that they owned this herd of bison that were supposedly given to William by Walt Disney himself.  In the picture you can see one way way in the background.

We then took a guided tour of Hart's ranch home.

Newhall, California

And checked out the small collection of animals they had just down the hill.

My Special Day

For my birthday this year I was so blessed to get to spend some much needed time with my family! Andrew and I along with Evelyn and Preston made our way down to beautiful Long Beach to visit the Aquarium of the Pacific. It's no big secret that for a huge majority of my life I've wanted to be a Marine Biologist so the aquarium plus my favorite people in the whole word plus a beautiful day at the beach and a walk by the lighthouse made for one perfect day!  Here are some picture of our day...

Preston put his hand in up to his elbow and touched a little shark.  I was proud :)

This guy was probably my favorite of all the animals at the aquarium.  He circled around numerous times, trying to impress us or eat us I'm not quite sure.  Just look at those teeth!

There was a mini outdoor water park for the kids!  It was a little chilly so we passed on getting wet but apparently during this picture the kids were in the "splash zone".   

I love this smile!  Evelyn was watching the sea lions up close when she turned around and noticed her dad taking her picture.

Evelyn was touching a star fish and Preston and I were "getting a hug" from the sea urchin.

Evelyn and Preston watching the birds.

The looks on the kids faces are easily what I loved the most.

 Andy and the kids listening to the sweet sounds of the whales.

 So shoot me, I couldn't resist!  Evelyn shows off a little crack.

 The kids were fascinated by all the little Nemos.  We spent a good amount of time at this one.

A little known fact about me is that my favorite fish is the one Evelyn is looking at in this picture.  

It's called a Copperband Butterflyfish.

Preston was asking me if fish have noses.

Mommy and daddy seahorses.

A Leafy Sea Dragon

Afterwards we took a short walk over to the lighthouse to enjoy the view.  We stopped for a quick photo op.

The kids took off running up the hill.  That's them to the right of the lighthouse.

The Lion's Lighthouse of Sight in Long Beach, CA. 
Feb. 26th, 2011

Evelyn and Preston's Movie Debut

The very last thing shot for our film was a short scene in which childhood Donald (played by my nephew, Charlie) and his siblings mourn the loss of their mother, Fanchon (played by me!)  The best part about it was that Evelyn and Preston got to be in it!  They played the parts of Patty and Walter, Donald's little brother and sister.  To be perfectly honest I wasn't sure either of them could pull off such a serious scene but they REALLY amazed me and did an incredible job!  They both made me so proud and I'm happy they were able to have little cameos in a film based on their Great Grandpa Bailey.

 

All about Evelyn

Next up it's Evelyn's turn in the spotlight!  In the process of writing this post I went searching through past blogs and ended up running across a post about all the reasons Why I love Evelyn.  I'll admit I got a little sentimental remembering what she was like as a teeny tiny toddler and it reminded me why I started blogging in the first place.  It's been my pleasure to watch her grow up from a precious baby into a beautiful intelligent little lady.  So now, without any further ado here are a few things you might want to know about our sweetheart, Evelyn, at age 5!

Dec. 1st, 2010

She is currently attending Bright Beginnings Preschool where she has an amazing teacher, Laurel, who also happens to be Andy's cousin.  Evelyn loves school and enjoys learning.  She is super smart and a very fast learner!  This past year in preschool she's learned how to recognize and write every letter in the alphabet, how to count, how to spell her name (meticulously writing it on every paper she draws on), she can also write MOM and DAD with no help, she can tell you the colors in Spanish (red rojo, yellow amarillo, purple morado) and recite the entire Pledge of Allegiance word for word.  Andrew and I are very proud of her accomplishments and never miss an opportunity to have her show off her new skills ;).  At home we've been working on teaching her how to read and write simple words like sat, bat and mad.  She does a great job sounding each letter out (C-A-T= CAT) and gets better every day.

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 April 5th, 2011~ Evelyn's Report of Health Examination

I couldn't be more proud if this was her college acceptance letter :)

 Kindergarten has been a much discussed topic in our house lately.  Since her physical back in April she's been really excited about going.  She's officially enrolled in Kindergarten however I've been sadly disappointed with our local school.  It turns out it's easily the worst rated school in the district and has been on what's called Program Improvement Status for 4 years now.  For that reason we've decided to transfer her to another school but so far it's proved to be a much more difficult process than I imagined.  However, she is enrolled with the district and I think I've finally figured out the system.  Now it's just a matter of waiting for the district to pick two better schools that I can choose to send her to and crossing my fingers that at least one of those is near the top of my list of preferred schools.

Nov. 22, 2010
 

Evelyn loves to play with her grandma's dog, Lucy.  She likes to watch movies and her favorite cartoons are Garfield, The Pink Panther and Max and Ruby.  She has her own camera and loves to take photos and videos like her daddy.  She has been obsessed with the color RED ever since she first learned her colors!  100% of the time she will pick "the red one" and according to her teacher she's pretty much claimed the red chair at school.  She loves to read and one of her most favorite places to visit is the library.  We try to go at least once a week.  Her favorite two foods are macaroni and cheese and quesadillas.  She's very creative and loves to draw and make up stories.  She's written two original books!  She's always been a very curious girl and seems to have a question for everything... although she's finally catching on to the fact that I don't have all the answers.  Recently she's taken a sudden interest in the solar system and frequently requests that I read The Magic School Bus Lost in the Solar System.  One day she sat down and drew all 9 planets (notice I include Pluto which in my mind will always be a planet).  Her favorite planet of course is Jupiter because of its Great RED Spot. She's made a hobby of collecting random things like rocks, leaves, shells and pictures and somehow they all end up in her room.  One of her favorite things is to cook in the kitchen with mom.  She says when she grows up she wants to first be a ballerina, then an astronaut and then a cook.

Her best friend is her second cousin Mia who is in her preschool class.  

Feb. 1st, 2011- Evelyn and Mia  

Sep. 27th, 2010 

She is a great help around the house and is good at keeping her room clean and making her bed. She's very passionate towards little kids and loves taking care of her baby dolls.  She is a great big sister to her brother, Preston, and she's very excited for the arrival of the new baby.  When I told her I was going to write about her she specifically asked that I include the fact that she "loves her brother, Preston".  That made me smile :)

Evelyn with her Papa
Jan. 20th, 2011 

I love this girl more than ice cream and I'm proud to be her mom! 

P.S.- Evelyn approves of this message.