Update 24 June 2012

Arianna’s birthday festivities continued into this week. She awoke on the 19th ready to tackle the many gifts from family members (thank you, everyone!). 

Then her class spent the day on a fun science field trip with other LILA campuses. They returned just before school ended, and I brought chocolate cupcakes for yet another sugary celebration. That evening, we dined at El Torito.

Wednesday found me with even more cupcakes—this time for an early celebration of Carlos’s birthday. 

Arianna and I reported to her allergist on Thursday: the yeast- and dairy-free diet made no difference in Arianna’s health but did leave us all feeling hungry and grumpy.  The allergist decided that there is no point in continuing our torture and affirmed that Arianna will not experience any negative side effects from eating those substances, despite being allergic to them. Oh blessed day!

Thursday evening was a big sleepover event. Arianna’s friend Marotea stayed with us because his mom was in labor with his baby sister, and my parents arrived for a weekend of fun. 

strawberry lemonade slushees

The following morning, we met with other LILA families at Forest Lawn Memorial Park’s Hall of Liberty for kindergarten graduation. Carlos looked simply smashing in his cap and gown and was perfectly behaved throughout the hour-long ceremony. 

It was hilarious to have so much “Pomp and Circumstance” for such little beasties! 

We spent the rest of Friday celebrating the end of the school year at a LILA family’s home, where the kids bounced and played while the parents enjoyed yummy eats.  

On Friday evening, Kirk and I took Marotea to the hospital to meet his newborn sister, who is adorably pink and tiny. Life is such an amazing process!

We enjoyed a serendipitous Saturday at Disneyland with Grandma and Grandpa. After many tedious years of construction, California Adventureland welcomed visitors into its updated spaces and just-completed Cars Land. People waited in lines for more than 100 minutes per ride in Cars Land! 

Happily for us, this left Disneyland unusually empty for a summer vacation Saturday: in about 8 hours, we managed to ride nearly everything in the Happiest Place on Earth. It was so much fun to share three generations of Disney love!

We spent Sunday recuperating and napping, but poor Kirk, exhausted from a crazy work week and Disneyland, had to fly to Texas for yet more work. Hopefully his workload will lighten as he gets more footing in his new role. 

no longer virtual! real-life angry birds game!

Well, summer vacation has officially begun for the Monson family, and we are looking forward to lots of visits and downtime. Yay for summer fun!

update 17 June 2012

Happy Father’s Day to all of our wonderful dads!

This week was full of exciting moments. I met with Carlos and Arianna’s teachers for end-of-year conferences. Carlos’s teachers said that he is ready for first grade, and his next English teacher is excited to have him. Arianna’s teachers reported that her interpersonal skills improved during the school year and then shared the surprising results of her Stanford 10 standardized exams: Arianna scored “Past High School” in Word Study Skills, Language Expression, and Spelling. (She makes her Liberal Arts mama proud!) I was especially glad to see that her reading comprehension shot up; it’s an area that tends to challenge Aspies, which is why I’ve committed so much time to reading and decoding stories with Arianna (ex: the whole Harry Potter series).

On Tuesday, I attended a second interview at Saugus High School. Later that afternoon, the department chair of “world languages” (read: Spanish, French, and Chinese) offered me a fulltime job! It is in an excellent and stable school district very close to where we used to live in Valencia. It is also a job that allows me a lot of creative freedom and career longevity. I spent five hours at the school on Wednesday going through materials with the retiring French teacher, who happily taught at the school for some 30 years. She has been super supportive and helpful, as has the department chair. I was abruptly reminded of the “little Utah” effect in Santa Clarita Valley when I learned that, of a department of seven teachers, I am the fifth Mormon and the fourth to have attended BYU, LOL. I feel so grateful for this wonderful opportunity—for a job that will further my interests and talents while still allowing me family time. Thank you to the many people who fasted, prayed, and commiserated with me throughout these tedious six months of job hunting.

On Thursday, I chaperoned Carlos’s kindergarten class to the LILA-Los Feliz campus for a pirate-themed science fair. The teachers from the various LILA campuses did a great job of collaborating, which allowed them to turn each activity into an exciting, appealing adventure for the kindergarteners. 

The kids used magnets to search for buried treasure; weighed different amounts of pirate treasure; constructed a lookout tower; purified water; and built storm-worthy pirate ships. They learned a lot while having a great time! After lunch, the kids had an hour to play together as the future Class of 2024. What a great gathering!

https://plus.google.com/photos/113547050139096971693/albums/5754322458216656561?authkey=CJWhsb3m8Jfd3wE

Friday marked the end of our two-week-long elimination diet. We discovered that we all become highly irritable without dairy and yeast, but we did not see any difference in Arianna’s general health. As a result, I plan to campaign heavily against the diet in Arianna’s follow up appointment on Thursday.

that's right -- a zebra striped shirt and guitar

We hosted Arianna’s 10^th birthday party on Saturday. The kids dressed as rock stars and sang along to Disney’s Sing It: Party Hits. They also doped up on the Fanta soda and Baskin-Robbins ice cream cake; the combination made them uncontrollable by the end of the party, LOL. We were so pleased that Arianna's first “boum” (girl-boy preteen party) was such a success, and we are a bit dazed by the prospect of soon having a child in the double digits.

https://plus.google.com/photos/113547050139096971693/albums/5755164030769923201?authkey=CNfeqp2k9-6GgwE

Our goal for Father's Day was recuperation. The ladies at church hosted the men to a brunch and the kids sang their traditional Father's Day tunes. 

Later, at home, Kirk unwrapped a few gifts before enjoying a nap and ESPN. We are so blessed to have a loving daddy in our home!

update 10 June 2012

Tomorrow marks the 1 year date of our move to Encino! We have been surprised to find ourselves so happy in "The Valley" and hope for many more years here.

May's eclipse lit up our house and made crescent patterns through the tree's leaves

Week 1 of the no-yeast, no-dairy diet was harsh. We discovered even more foods that contain yeast (things with citric acid, for example), and our range of options dwindled alarmingly. Rice. Vegetables. Some meats. Some fruits. We exhausted the possibilities within those four categories and yet spent the week feeling empty. One more week to go before Arianna’s 10th birthday, and then we intend to celebrate through pure gluttony. Arianna has not noticed any changes as a result of the allergen-free diet, so we are all hoping that her doctor will allow us some wiggle room with diet’s restrictions after the coming week of suffering. 

come back to me, my love!

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B5Oqp7ge1kfMNGdFaS1OM0JRWnc

On Thursday, Carlos's kindergarten class went to LACMA. His teacher wrote about their experience at http://grandesectionwv.over-blog.com/article-le-lacma-106618915.html.


Carlos played his last soccer game of the school year on Saturday. His team had to forfeit a couple of games during spring break, but they went undefeated for the rest of the season (April-June). Kirk has really enjoyed helping coach the LILA lions; we hope that his transition into a domestic role at Medtronic will allow him to enjoy more father-son-soccer time. Carlos is an enthusiastic fan of Coach Dad. 

Kirk joined us for only a few days this week before leaving on another business trip, this time to Philadelphia. He gets to drop in on some old MBA buddies before returning to us on Tuesday.

This week, I helped host the Scholastic Book Fair at LILA. It’s probably not a surprise that I can’t keep myself away from the combination of a French school + English books, but a real surprise came in our end-of-week earnings: our tiny campus of roughly 130 students netted $870 (gross $2175) in sales!  I love making LILA a better place for my kids!

On Saturday night, I was back with the LILA crowd for an end-of-the-year sendoff party: our principal is moving up to direct LILA’s new secondary campus in Burbank, and a few of the teachers are moving to other states and countries (but not because of the change in leadership). Parents and teachers “gambled” with funny money to earn raffle tickets towards class art projects and other prizes. Since I led the effort for the 4th grade art project, I was glad to see it sell well. 

We are so lucky to have a tightknit family of parents and teachers at LILA; I couldn’t wish for a better education for my kids or a better group of friends!

Tonight, we finished reading the Harry Potter series. It has been such a joy to share these imaginative stories with my kids and to watch their minds light up with curiosity. It's my second time reading the series, and I discovered that I enjoyed the books even more than before--maybe because I had the luxury of savoring each bit instead of rushing to the resolution. When I wonder if our world is full of redundancies, people like J.K. Rowling remind me that creativity has no limits.

only the British version would do, of course!

Update 3 June 2012

Notice the toothpick flags, stolen from Allan's party last Sunday, LOL

For the third year in a row, we celebrated Memorial Day at Zuma Beach. We spent most of the time with some church friends, Kent & Deanna Johnson. They have one adopted daughter from Liberia and two adopted daughters from Ethiopia. The younger two have only been in the States for about 9 months, so it was their first time to the beach; we had a lot of fun playing together!

3 girls under 3? Don't try it!

I also ran into my friend Julianna at the beach. We haven’t seen each other since living in Michigan (9 years), but it felt like we were meeting up again after only a brief absence. Julianna is a true treasure! I am so grateful for social media like facebook, which has allowed us to remain friends and be part of each other’s lives despite so many years apart.
https://plus.google.com/photos/113547050139096971693/albums/5747996698042985649

Unfortunately, neither of us looks like we did in Michigan.

On Wednesday, Arianna had an Activity Days event at church. The leaders separated the girls with an accordion-style room divider and taped a Battleship grid on the floor of each “room.” Then the girls used their bodies as ships and tried to sink their opponents. It was a super creative, fun activity.

I joined LILA-WV’s 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders on a fieldtrip to LACMA on Thursday. Having chaperoned the same field trip a year ago, I was pleasantly surprised by the teachers’ decision to study a new-to-us section of the museum. The main exhibit was Chris Burden’s “Metropolis II” – a futuristic cityscape. The skyscrapers are made from a variety of building materials, including Legos and (what looked like) Lincoln Logs. The exhibit also features a massively complex freeway system with about 100 Matchbox cars! 
https://plus.google.com/photos/113547050139096971693/albums/5749967545740965761

Metropolis II

On Friday, Arianna’s class went on another field trip, this time a guided ecology tour of Leo Carillo State Park. Each year, LILA-WV centers its curriculum on some grand educational theme, and this year’s “projet d’école” focused on sustainable development within the earth’s fragile ecosphere. Our principal referred us to the following advertisement when explaining the reason for this trip. (Sadly, I have no pictures of my own, since parent chaperones were not needed.)

“Students will be amazed to discover the watershed, Native American history, kelp forest, sea birds, and marine animals. A visit to the sea tunnel to discuss geology (if the tide permits), a sticky experience with kelp, and a visit to the coastal bluffs culminates into an awesome and educational field trip.”

Do you recognize Leo Carillo Beach from the movie "Inception?"
pic courtesy of Wikipedia 

Meanwhile on Friday, I met with Arianna’s pediatric allergist to get the final results of May’s two rounds of allergy testing. Arianna scored 3s (allergic: avoid substance) for milk, yeast, almonds, and cherries.  This is something of a life-shattering revelation, since dairy and grain-based carbs dominate our eating habits. Kirk returned from Kazahkstan later that day, and we broke the news to Arianna together. As you might expect, she was devastated. We worked together to create a list of foods that she can no longer enjoy and then we listed foods that are still safe for her. The results are not fun.

The NO List

• MILK/DAIRY
• yogurt, butter, cream cheese, whipped cream, ice cream, chocolate, cheese, cream sauces (Alfredo), goldfish crackers, mac-n-cheese, “favorite pasta,” chicken noodle soup
• YEAST
• bread, croissants, cake, pizza, stuffing, bagels, rolls, processed meats (hot dogs, deli meats, sausage, ham with edging), grapes & grape juice, some pastas, some crackers
• ALMONDS
• granola

The YES List

• salad (oil-based dressings), some soups, water, fruit (without skin), vegetables, rice, unprocessed meat, suishi, beans, popsicles, some pastas, some crackers, graham crackers, egg noodles, pancakes & waffles (made with soy milk & butter), coconut milk, soy milk, rice milk

For someone who already loathes the culinary arts (sole exceptions: breakfast foods and desserts), I am really struggling with making allergen-free meals that taste good. We have eaten a lot of rice these past few days and are all feeling rather dissatisfied with the new diet. To make matters worse, Carlos shares my opinion that rice is not a satisfying food, so mutiny is surely on the horizon. The one bright spot on that horizon right now comes from the deal I brokered with the doctor: we can have as much cake and ice cream as we want on Arianna’s 10th birthday. (People might also point out the fact that this new diet may finally allow me to shed some stubborn cheesy carb pounds, but I just can’t see that as a “bright spot” yet.)

Also on Friday I had an interview with a high school in Santa Clarita. I think it went well and did my best to be bubbly despite the allergy news. And I was not above begging for a job at the end of the interview, so I am confident that the principal, department chair, and former teacher know how very interested I am, LOL. Pray for me, because I need the work experience, the money, and the sanity (all of which elude me at home)!

Arianna and I spent Saturday with friends at Hurricane Harbor. We helped Olivia celebrate her 11th birthday by splishing and splashing throughout the waterpark. Not only did the kids have a blast, but we grown-up chaperones had a great time, too. After many perfectly sun-warmed hours at the park, we wrapped up the day with a birthday dinner at Marie Callender’s. (If you are ever looking for a dairy- and yeast-free meal, they offer a great “Tropical Mahi” dish.) We have been so blessed to find friends in Olivia’s family and look forward to many more visits to HH together. 
https://plus.google.com/photos/113547050139096971693/albums/5749974113581495809

Carlos and Kirk spent part of Saturday on the YMCA’s soccer field, where the LILA Lions continued their winning streak. They may even make the playoffs later this month! What a great father-son bonding experience.

Wish us lots of luck this week as we try to become experts in yeast-free bread products, and feel free to pass on any foodie suggestions. Finally, eat well for us, please.