Keeping cool in the heat

We recently had record highs in Orange County with it reaching 100 degrees!!!! My little munchkins found relief outside by playing with buckets of water (and yes, as you can see, DD is STRONG and DETERMINED).

Luckily I had just ordered this water play table last week in preperation of summer ... not realizing that we needed it NOW - it couldn't have arrived at a better time! They have enjoyed several days with this too but Mommy forgot to take a picture while doing so but no worries, there will be PLENTY of photo opps in the future. :-) If you are looking for a water table I highly suggest this one and would steer away from the sand/water combos unless you want an EVEN bigger mess to deal with after play time. I also decided to get several plastic art aprons that I can easily take on and off the kiddos when they play with the water table so they don't get their clothes too wet (at least not more then the sun can dry off before coming in, of course, on days like these they were stripped down to little clothing any way). I had DH put up a hook by the garage door to hang to dry and give me easy access to them. I am very pleased with the plastic aprons and they are coming in handy for our "shaving cream" art projects too. I just hose the aprons down afterwards to clean up. If you have never tried this activity, it's a MUST, it provides a lot of (messy) entertainment for active toddlers - the type of (messy) entertainment 3 year old boys like.

It has cooled down quite a bit and today it is only in the high 60's .... I am hoping the less sunny sky will bring longer naps today. :-)

Spring parties in full bloom

Being born in Springtime comes with a wonderful gift ... beautiful weather! It seems like Spring more then any other season brings a lot of BIRTHDAY PARTIES! And my guess is because it seems like the perfect excuse to get all the kids and parents together outside for some fun.

This weekend we had two FUN birthday parties - Saturday was for an adorable little 1 year old and Sunday for a beautiful 4 year old ... and next weekend we will be celebrating the G twin's 1st birthday!!! Party season is in full bloom!

Here are some pics of the kiddos (& DH) enjoying themselves at the festivities.

Hippity Hoppity Easter's on it's way!!!

Yesterday we decorated our Easter eggs. DS is at an age now where he is really getting into these fun traditions. I found the handy egg holders you see in the below pictures at Michael's craft store (for only 99 cents) ... and all our practice with cutting skills and proper scissor holding certainly paid off. He had no problems handling the eggs and dipping them into the dye. DD even got her own pink pair but not quite ready to use them by herself - maybe next year?! :-)

When DH's asked him last night when going to bed what his favorite part of the day was yesterday he shouted, "EGGS!". He even had his first swim lessons yesterday (that he really really enjoyed) and EGGS won out! **beaming with pride as I type this thinking of what a great job he did at his first lesson, even going under water a few times!!!**

I told the kids that if they put out their new big sand buckets (the ones we used for our Palm Sunday Easter egg hunt) by the fireplace tonight EB (Easter Bunny) will leave some treats in it ... DS is already smiling with anticipation of CHOCOLATE (& he won't be disappointed as EB got the biggest chocolate bunny at SEES Candy he could find).

... and thanks again to Chasing Cheerios for a great idea!!! After looking around the web for almost an hour looking for a fun yet easy Easter card craft I decided to stop by her Blog and boy was I happy - the perfect idea for our Easter cards to Grandparents and Godparents. We typically try to do handprint art for holiday gifts but this is the first time he really got into it and had fun. I think because he is now old enough to hold the paint brush in one hand and paint his hand and fingers of the other hand and then pat his hand on the paper all by himself. He LOVED making these and glued the eyes and noses on too. I drew the mouth and wiskers and "thumb" bunny's finger prints on the inside of the card (yes, you guessed it, those would be DD's fingerprints! :-). DS is quite proud of how these turned out and is excited to give them to his family members on Easter tomorrow.

Rice is the pits!

Me to DS: "We are going to buy rice today for our 'rice pit'.".

DS: "Mommy, that's a Daddy word (lots of laughs in between repeating several times) pit, pit, pit.". (giggle giggle giggle)

Is he a boy or what?! He already finds all those words that suggest smelly stinky things quite funny (you know the ones: fart, (arm) pit, gas, burp, etc.). It reminds me how excited I am for our new baby girl to arrive in August because that means we will out-number them thus hoping to keep the stinky jokes around the house to a minimum. :-)

Thanks to KR for recently sharing the blog Chasing Cheerios. I have found some wonderful ideas for the kids including our new "rice pit". I bought a pink plastic kiddie pool from Toys R Us and filled it with about 7 ten pound bags of rice from Costco (total cost for everything was less then $45.00). Both kids have been having a BLAST and DS has asked to play in the "rice pit" every day since getting it. I added old measuring cups, cleaned/recycled plastic containers and some of their sand toys. Besides being less messy I (& the kids) actually enjoy the texture of the rice better then sand. I bought myself a soft gardening pad to knell next to them to play together (come on - did you really think there would be space for a 3 year old, 1 year old AND a big ol' pregnant lady inside the 'pit - LOL!)

Spring Snow

Okay, so there is no hiding that DH and I can be quite the procrasitnators on certain activities. We had a trip to the mountains planned last month but DH got too sick and we never went nor did we reschedule it. So, no surprise, it took the first day of official Springtime to make us get to the mountains before there is nothing left for our kids to see. (LOL!) It was worth it! When else can you see snow, play in the snow and be totally fine wearing just long sleeves and pants (it was nearly 60 degrees the entire time!)?! I guess our procrastination had some advantages!

The kids LOVED it!!!

Next year, we won't wait so long to get them to the snow (& will be sure to have proper snow attire). :-)

Oh, the last picture is their new thing ... holding hands. We were all dried off and in fresh clothes heading home and DS says, "Mommy look we're holding hands.". AWWWWWWWWWWWWWW, sure melts a Mommy's heart. DD is always reaching out to hold his hand and happy that he is reaching over now too! He's realizing this big brother thing can really be fun!

March Mumbles

What is better then receiving beautiful flowers from your DH? I know - flowers he hand picked and cut from the garden he personally maintains. Thank you Dear Husband, I Love You too!

DS has been into drawing "monsters" lately. They are not the gory scarey monsters but the silly funny ones. His drawings are getting more and more creative. I especially liked this one with the constrasting colors of polka dots around his eyes and his wild green hair! Do we have a little artist on our hands? LOL!

We purchased new paints today. We really didn't need new paints, really. We already own tempura paints, watercolor paints and fingerpaints but we had yet to own a set of Dab paints. But it was only 9:30am and I could tell in DS's whiney 3 year old voice it was going to be one of those kind of days so I thought something new and exciting just might help me get through it (at least to nap time that is). (lol) So while we were at the Craft store today picking up modeling glue (DS and DH are currently building a model Caddilac Escalade that looks just like his motorized version) we picked up a six pack of Crafty Dab shimmer paints. When we got home I gave him several choices of what we could paint together. He chose a sign for Daddy and on it he said to write, "We (heart) you Daddy". He sure can be sweet when he wants to, huh?! :-) It is proudly hanging on our front door anxiously awaiting for Daddy's return from work today. And yes, the Dab bottles of paint kept his interest all the way up until nap time ... awwww!!!

HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYONE!

Rocks!

A great friend's recent engagement and her gorgeous ring (big congrats again to S & S!!!) reminded me of my DS's comment at Sea World a couple weeks ago. As we were listening to the penguin care taker talk about their habits DS turned to me and said, "Mommy, that man is wearing a ring.". My reply, "a-huh.". (also thinking to myself that he is obviously not interested in the penguins eating habits even though I had been trying hard to concentrate on what the man was saying just in case DS started quizing me afterwards). DS continues, "but his ring doesn't have any rocks." pauses and then continues, "It is like Daddy's ring.". Yes, DS, your first realization that "rocks" are typically seen on the woman's ring and very rarely does a man get to have the pleasure of wearing these shining stunning rocks! How did we get so lucky!? A ring just doesn't seem the same without some shining beautiful "rock" upon it. :-)



Happy St. Patrick's Day lads!!!


DS before school this morning (he had fun pinching Daddy for not wearing green today):





And of course, couldn't leave out the little missy pie:

(Ph)at Conversations

(Sitting on the couch watching t.v. after a shared slice of cheesecake)

DH: "I think it is so rude when guys actually diet and work out more often then normal while their wives are pregnant." (I quickly translate in my mind to hear: I don't want to do anything about this extra weight I am carrying when you are growing larger each day and at tremendous speed.)

Me (again, no mention of "us" or who this conversation may be referring to): "I actually think it is incredibly sweet when the husband gains sympathy weight.". (Giving not only him an out but making myself feel better about not doing this growing thing alone.).

DH: (smiles) "I must be the sweetest guy you know.".

Me: (nothing but a bigger smile).

Can you tell this house has been filled with pints of ice cream, home made brownies, pizzas and too much mexican food?! ;-)

Playful Parks

DS is at the age when "burning energy" is neccesary for a sane mother. And I used to think it was because he is a boy but DD is right there with him.

In order to keep it interesting for Mommy I try to check out new parks often (taking my camera always makes it fun too!). I have found FUN ORANGE COUNTY PARKS to be very helpful in keeping park visits fresh and new with out too many surprises (is there a bathroom, how far of a walk from the car, etc.). Check it out HERE if you are in Orange County - she also has a section for Colorado Springs, CO too.

Simply Romantic

My DH is not the type of guy to send me flowers for no reason or "just because". Don't get me wrong, he almost always gives me beautiful flowers on the important days like Valentine's Day, Birthday, Anniversary, Mother's Day ... and even some of the less traditional flower giving holidays like Easter and Thanksgiving. But he has never ever sent me flowers or brought home flowers for no reason.

But what he does bring me is special, thoughtful gifts throughout the year. Like this past Sunday when he came home from the store with a HUGE smile and said immediately, "I got something for you" as he was bubbling over with excitement ... and guess what it was: a pair of my very own garden/work gloves from Home Depot. I know, I know, you must be thinking "how un-romantic" but the way he smiles with pure excitement you can just see his thoughtfulness shining through that makes them the very best gift of all and not the gloves themselves (although, I am pretty excited to have nice new dark chocolate brown suede garden/work gloves of my very own, LOL!).

I love you Dear Husband!

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY sweet baby girl!

We love you very much! You were such a sweet, fun, happy girl at your party yesterday, as usual. Your constant smile and laugh bring us so much joy. We are having so much fun watching you grow, learn and explore new things. It melts our hearts to hear you say "DaDa and MaMa" every morning. Have a happy 1st birthday sweet girl.

Hair Do's

I am sitting on the floor wrapping a gift. DS comes over with a comb and starts combing my hair while telling me he is going to "fick my hair". It took me a few seconds to understand exactly what he wanted to do and then it hit me, he wants to "fix" my hair, something he hears me say often to him. I correct him and say, "fix not fick.". He responds, "No Mommy, I said (takes his fingers and draws imaginary letters in the air while saying) A - O - P (then takes his finger and draws a line as if he is underlining what he just wrote and says) "fick". Okay, so I guess he is not the best speller but he certainly has down a pretty good imitation of his Mommy from the "ficking" of the hair all the way to correcting the pronunciation of a word while also spelling it out. :-)

(Valentine) Dress Rehearsal

While DS was napping today we did what all ladies do: we tried on our outfit we are planning on wearing tomorrow to make sure it still fits (okay, correction, I tried the outfit on her that she will be wearing tomorrow). Although DD did not need anything new to fit our party's theme tomorrow (RED, WHITE and ... PINK) as she has plenty of pinks in her closet I still couldn't resist this outfit when I spotted it at Hanna Andersson recently. I absolutely adore Hanna Andersson's clothes and not neccessarily always for the style (I am not a fan of every thing I see there) but always for the undeniable high quality of the clothes and consistency on their sizing. I have yet to find another children's clothing brand that never disappoints me after many wears and washes like the clothes my children have from Hanna Andersson.

Oh, and the headband is compliments of the wonderful ONE DOLLAR bins at Target, gotta love that! (& more importantly, she actually likes wearing it :-)

Happy (early) Valentine's everyone ... where will you be celebrating this year?!

xxoo

Movin' on up

This girl doesn't stop moving. From the moment her eyes open to the moment she goes to bed she is moving, crawling, cruising, talking, screeching, eating, drinking from a sippy cup and ... always trying to keep up with her big brother. I can not believe in less then 2 short weeks she will be ONE YEAR OLD! And to think ... in only 6 months she will become the big sister that some one else will be trying to keep up with.

Psalm 4:8
But you have given my heart more joy than they have when grain and wine abound.

Zip(loc) to an organized home!

So there is an unspoken rule of motherhood that says you should not (ever) leave the house with out a baggie full of "cheerios" or "goldfish". So, like most Moms, I buy boxes of baggies in bulk.

Lucky for me and all my Mommy friends that live in the area we will all be receiving a goodie bag full of Ziploc products (including "baggies") after our Little Sweetheart and Mommy RED, WHITE and ... PINK (Valentine) party (as if treats and fun for our kiddos wasn't enough :-). If you aren't fortunate to live close by (LOL) then you can go and register to win your very own HOUSE PARTY where you too can receive fun gifts to share with your friends at a fun house party YOU will host.

Here is a sneak peek at the fun items my guests will be going home with on Feb. 13th, all compliments of HOUSE PARTY.

HAPPY (belated) 3rd BIRTHDAY SWEET BOY!

On Monday my little guy turned 3. The only thing he asked for was "chocolate cake". Lucky boy got that and much more. Thank you everyone!

He already seems older in just a few short days ... like no longer needing Mommy to push him on the swing to go up and down. It all goes too fast!

I hope I always remember from 2008 ...

• The big words DS uses correctly on a regular basis (for an under 3 year old) like fantastic, actually, similar to, specifically ... and many more.


• DS carrying around packs of gum and offering them to everyone even though he has never tried gum himself and is convinced that he must be 6 years old to try it.


• How DS would rather go on a time out then eat a grilled cheese sandwich (is he crazy or what?)


• How DS actually believes McDonalds stopped making french fries.


• DS pushing a truck around the house all day long.


• DS being picked up in order to see the trains at the Train Expo.


• DS telling me he "love me to pieces.".


• DS eating baby food. (yes, he still loves sweet potatoes, LOL)
  

Now that 2009 is here, DS will be 3 years old in just a couple short weeks. I never want to forget my 2 year old. The above and MANY MANY MORE memories. He brings me so much joy!

Happy New Year everyone!!!

The Giving Tree

A week before Christmas I took DS shopping to get gifts for those on his list.



Me: "We are going to Target so you can get a Christmas gift for your baby sister.".

DS: "I want to go to Target."

Me: "What would you like to get your baby sister for Christmas.".

DS: "Toys."

Me: "What kind of toys?"

DS: "Her own toys.".



The conversation was followed by a trip to Target where he picked out everything he wanted for Christmas so we went home, without anything, to a house where she was playing with all his toys. Humph, I guess he was right, DH and I are the youngest, guess we just thought she was entitled to them. :-)

We did go back to Target the next day as I was now convinced that she really did need her own toys. I helped him narrow it down to 5 things I thought his "baby sister" would like and he was very decisive on which one he wanted to get her (& trust me, I tried to sway him when I realized it was the most expensive of the 5 but he was insistent that she would love that one, "it is pretty and soft.")

On Christmas morning, she gave the biggest smile and squeel when she opened the stuffed golden lab he had choosen for her. It was clearly the winner of the morning and you could even see the excitement in his face as he watched her grab that dog and give him *baby kisses* (you know, the big wet open mouth ones). Satisfied that he had done good, he turned back around to continue playing with his new tool kit ... as soon as his back was turned, she lunged over, grabbed one of his shiney new match box cars and gave an even bigger smile as it went straight into her mouth ....

**lean over quietly, grab camera, snap picture, record first memory of many Christmas morning little-sibling-snatching to come ... I think I might remember some one else's little sister doing the same thing**

Stinging like a beamer or floatin' like a Cadillac

No longer just for the professional athletes, musicians, movie stars and automotive enthusiasts ... the Cadillac Escalade is also for our soon-to-be 3 year old boy who loves all things that move. Shiney rims and all, this car is a beauty (& the driver sure isn't bad either).

His favorite feature ... the full functioning FM radio with volume control. Santa didn't bring this one to our house on Christmas morning though - gotta thank (both sets) of Grandparents for this one!!!

(Christmas) Dress Rehearsal

What the kiddos will be wearing on Christmas Day ....




Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night!

XXOO