Newbury Park Mud Run & Amanda 5K Race

Daeton and I have been doing 5k races recently.  In the last month we have done three.  He wasn't interested in joining track this year, with Kaela.  He does not like or get along with the man that is the boys' coach for his age group so decided not to sign up.  I don't really like the guy either, so can't blame Daeton.  But we are still exercising.

The first race we did was in LA, in Century City.  It was a breast cancer race and fundraiser.  My dad, two of his friends and sister-in-law did the 10K.  My sister and Kaela walked the 5K and Daeton and I ran/walked/jogged the 5K.  I'm not in good enough shape yet to run the whole thing so I have to walk some and run again.

The next race was the Amanda McPherson 5K.  This was in Simi by a gym.  After the run there was a small carnival and everything was free.  Food, bouncie houses, face painting, etc.


As a joke with Daeton and I, I HAD to take this picture.  We saw this man the week before and he had someone riding a motorcycle and him running after it. I'm guessing this race they didn't allow it, so he raced after the guy on the bicycle.  I'm SURE it is because it helps him pace himself but Daeton and I were joking that there must be a carrot on the motorcycle or bike and the runner is chasing after it.

 The walk were around the new mall in Simi, behind it, and back to the gym.  We did the loop two times.

 Daeton ahead of me.

We saw a few friends there.  Some people told me they were there but we never saw them.  Erin, and her family.

 A group of three artists took people and drew a cartoon portrait of them.  A very nice man drew Daeton and I, I had his girlfriend take our picture with my camera.  He wouldn't let me look at the drawing until he was done, so she held my camera and gave it back when he was done drawing.

 Daeton and Steve from Tutti Fruti.  He has a snow cone business that is mobile. The kids and I LOVE them. At this event they were all free too.  https://www.facebook.com/tuttifruttisv?ref=ts&sk=wall

 Daeton enjoying his.  Yum!

 High school friend and his daughters.  Daeton and I got out pictures taken in front of this 'green screen' too.  The group donating their time and service were awesome.  (Our finished photos is below).

 Our numbers.

 The cartoon portrait of us.  Hard to see but the artist drew a picture of himself in my sunglasses, like he was looking at himself in the reflection.

 Us, on the football field at the 2012 Super Bowl.  ;-)  Cute, huh?  And Daeton held out his hand like he was holding the trophy.

Newbury Park Mud Run was the following week.  I have NEVER done a mud run. It was fun but not sure I'll do one again.  It was very early.  Daeton had gone to bed late the night before and he fell asleep for the 1/2 hour drive on the way there.

 We had to run the high school track one time, jumping hay bales and running through tires then go to the obstacle course. Mirna's friend took my camera and took pictures during the whole thing.  I am blessed he did this or we would have had almost none.

Mirna going through the mud pit.

 My dad going through the mud pit.

 My brother was next.

 Daeton was after my brother but the camera missed him.  Then I was last

 Next we exited the school and ran down the street, up a hill and back.  In muddy, soaking wet clothes and shoes.  Not fun.  We kinda thought the race was more mud and less running.

 After the 5K, we had to go back through, and circle back around the obstacle course, on the other 1/2.  Then we came back through the front of the school and crossed the finish line.

A group picture of all of us.

 We felt more cold and wet than muddy.  It wasn't thick gloppy mud but rather a wet dirt.

 Brian and Mirna had it dried on their faces.

 We ALL had bloody knees from climbing under the flag ropes.  We weren't suppose to crawl, we were suppose to slither on our bellies.

 Pictures are a little bit jumbled but here is Brian on the second half of the obstacle course.

 My shoes and socks used to be white.

 Afterwards we waited for them to tally everyone's times and announce the winners.  I knew Daeton and I did not win.  We were both too tired to do the race well and walked most of the way back down the hill.  He was tired and hanging on my arm.  The Sheriff that was blocking the street from traffic said we were taking too long and said we had to cross at the light, pushing the cross-walk button because he was leaving.

Daeton dug into a tri-tip sandwich from Cronies and thoroughly enjoyed it. I bought one too and he ate 1/2 of mine.

 The winners were announced.  My dad placed in the of the men's (but they only called up the top three of each group) and Mirna placed first place in the women's group.  She beat two high school girls. :-)

These races are fun and make me accountable to exercise more.  I'm glad I have Daeton to run with me.

Valentine Photos Of The Day And Foods We Made

I took lots of fun photos from Valentine's Day but slacked and didn't have time to post them.

So, without further ado, here they are.

Kaela helping make red-tinted, heart-shaped pancakes.  She insisted we both wear aprons.  She made and decorated her's in a class she had last semester.

 Add red food dye, mix it all up and TA-DAH!

 Okay, so I couldn't get them to pour out in a heart shape.  The looked like a blob.  So, we used a cookie cutter and make them heart shaped after they were cooked.

Next we made brownies.  We chopped up Oreo cookies and candy canes (left over from Christmas) and sprinkled them on top.

 WHAMO!  Kaela loves using this food chopper.

 I bought Chocolate-cheese from Trader Joe's for Valentine's Day too.  A friend had posted about it the week before on Facebook.

 I sliced it and put it in the middle of some hot french bread. ... great idea but the cheese was too sharp for Daeton and Kaela and neither of them liked it. I think it is okay, not GREAT.  Tastes good for a tiny bit, but to sharp to consume a large amount.  Slices in slivers tasted better.

 We made a fruit salad with blood oranges for dinner.

We made chocolate covered strawberries for dessert and scattered red sprinkles on them.

 The brownies were a disaster trying to cut out and frost (frosted with vanilla frosting and more red sprinkles) but they tasted YUMMY!  I really enjoyed the peppermint and Oreo on them.  In hindsite, I should have added the Oreo after they were done.  The creme filling didn't cook well and was a little burnt looking.  It didn't effect the taste but made them look funny.

And, yes, I even made Kaela go to her track practice.  She thought school and track should be cancelled for Valentine's Day! :-)

All in all we had a good day.  No commercialism of cards or special Valentine chocolate hearts and candies..  Just family and fun.

Happy Valentine's Day DIY- Low-Cost Fun

Happy Valentine's Day everyone.


 I'm going to have some low-cost DIY fun with the kids.


Breakfast will be red pancakes (will attempt to make them heart-shaped) oatmeal with red sprinkles. 


Some crafts after schoolwork. 


My daughter woke-up on the wrong side of the bed.  She thinks Valentine's Day is a national holiday and should be a no-school-work day! LOL!  That is NOT going to happen.  She also has her first track practice tonight, which she does not think should occur on Valentine's Day.


So, Yes, she needs to do schoolwork and go to track, but I'm still going to try to make the day fun.

We are all wearing red or pink shirts too.  :-)


This evening I have two single friends coming over (one has her two girls with her) and we are going to make heart-shaped cheeseburgers, strawberries dipped in chocolate and some other yummy, fun stuff for all the kids. :-) Please share if you have some craft ideas for children 6-11.

Knott's Berry Farm Fun

Last week we went to Knott's Berry Farm with my brother's family. Someone I know from my kids track and field was selling tickets for $10 each (adult or child) but they expired 12/30/11. We bought enough for all of us and went the following week.

Parking was about $16 per car but we split the cost.

I hadn't been to Knott's since 5th grade. I went on a school field trip, with my class. There was three cars of people (parents driving) and two arrived and we were waiting for the third one and were allowed to explore the 'outside the park gift shops.' Well, a while passed and I noticed the other kids with me were gone. Long story but they had ALL gone inside without me and I was locked outside the park until about 10 or 11pm, waiting for them. I do not know why I didn't call my dad, probably because the place was 1 1/2 hours away, but I walked around, from the entrance to the cars (to make sure they were there) the whole day and night. I had no money on me for food and the park's intercom system worked two areas 1- outside the park and 2- inside the park. So when I was having them try to locate my teacher and everyone else, they never heard it... and they never did a head check and noticed I was missing!

Finally, when the park was closing they call came outside to leave and saw me. I was trying not to cry and trying to

speak and started choking on my gum and I remember the teacher saying that 'this was nothing to cry about' and to quit it.

and... we all went home. I never got a refund. Not sure my parents ever knew about it. I never got an apology. It was just kind of unspoken in the classroom.

So..... almost 30 years later...I was back at Knott's again. I finally got to experience the fun of it all and (barely) remember things from the last time I'd been INSIDE there, a few years before.


Daeton won't go on any scary rides (he hates loosing his equilibrium, doesn't even like swing sets much) and Kaela went on a few with my brother or his wife that she wouldn't have been able to go on alone or with me (since I couldn't leave Daeton to stand outside of a line alone) so it was great to have extra people there.


When everyone else was in line for the Ferris Wheel Daeton and I bought a GIANT pretzel and ate some, and shared with everyone else when they caught up with us. Normal soft pretzels were $5 and this huge on was $10 and all 7 of us shared it.


We, grungly, dragged the kids to the Merry-Go-'Round, aka, carousel, and they LOVED it! Of, course.

I can't seem to get my words lined up right with the photos but the pictures of the horses coming down the street was a free ride we could go on but we never found it.

I laughed when I took a picture of the batman guy sitting on the bench. He even had bat ears on his hoodie. I need to see if I can find one of those!


The seven of us split a $27 family value pack meal at once of the places inside the park and were all full. It has tacos, burritos, rice, beans and a soda. Not bad considering how high most food items are inside the amusement parks.

Kaela bought a 'Hello Kitty' bow that was a headband. It lights up and has a button to change the frequency of the flashes *yes cute but super annoying.*


The kids did Bumper Cars and I watched. I did not want to be hit in them, since stuff like that hurts my neck (I had surgery on it a few years ago and have a titanium plate in my neck where I had a slipped disc).



Daeton wanted to do the 'shooting gallery' in the midway and, surprising, he did GREAT... I guess all the time he plays with his air-soft gun has payed off. It was an unmanned booth, we inserted $1 bill in a slot for a ton of rounds on the gun, so there were no prizes, but he sure did great.




Since it was right before Christmas the trees and buildings were all lit up. We also saw 'Snoopy on Ice' and it was cute with some EXCELLENT ice skaters.


In the 'craft section' at the end of the park we saw a man painting people's names with animals and other shapes painted inside each letter. He was amazing and the kids were mesmerized.


For myself I bought a 'your name on a grain of rice' necklace.


I had them put Daeton's name on one side and Kaela's name on the other. The capsule that it is in is glass and I don't want to break it so I hung it from my rear-view mirror in my car.




All in all, we had a great day, barely spent any money, had only one melt-down, towards the end, and I'm glad we went.