Melissa’s Blog

Nicole has a thing for her bathing suit, she wore it yesterday for part of the day and put it on this morning when she woke up. She decided she wanted to take a shower this morning, so bathing suit on she went in with daddy. She was so proud of herself for taking a shower. Justin just came downstairs and played with his trains. We were organized this morning and didn’t have to rush around. When I took the kiddos to pre school, one child whose mom was working wasn’t feeling good. So at the last minute I worked at the pre school. Thank goodness the kids leave lots of stuff in my car, so I brought Justin’s flashlight in and a Thomas watch. It was fun being at pre school. I love watching the kids play and interact with their friends. The kids got some books at pre school today (had to buy for a fundraiser) so after school they just wanted to come home and look at them. After lunch I wanted to try and run a bit. So packed up the Bob stroller with every toy/book it could hold. The kids impressed me and did really well in the stroller. They liked the books and laptops the best-didn’t even need to go to a snack. But I only got about 25 minutes then it started to rain. We came in and I read all their new books then let the kiddos watch some TV. We played trains for a bit then the fights started so the kiddos took a bath. They can’t bug each other too much in the bath. After bath we just played, too rainy to go out. The kids love playing Candyland, so we played it a lot, read books, and did puzzles. Nicole is loving her new book Pinkalicious, I think it is just because it talks about cupcakes. After dinner the kids practiced cutting with scissors. I was shocked when I discovered they did this for a half hour. Nicole switches hands often but can cut with the scissors in one hand, Justin still uses two hands. Just a little more practice and he will do it right. The kids did boat rides (using their bumper from crib) with daddy upstairs. The kids were cracking up. When dad got tired, they pulled their animals. Books and songs and the kids are sleeping.

I made it to the gym this morning. I am still considering jogging/walking in this half marathon. Of course after 2.5 miles I was done. Hoping it gets easier and easier. The kids had a great time in the kid’s club. So glad they love it so I don’t worry about them at all. Then we headed to Jump N Jammin for some play. The kids had a blast. They loved the balls, the climbing…basically everything. Justin had a big smile on his face while shooting balls and Nicole liked to put them up the tube for Justin to get. They danced on the lights and went in the bounce house. It is a great place for the kids, just a little expensive. Luckily they were hungry so it wasn’t too hard to get them out of the place. We just ate some pizza for lunch and sat outside. It was a relaxing lunch. When we got home the kiddos played with trains for a bit. Then the kiddos watched some TV. They love their TV time. We went outside and tried to take a walk, we didn’t get too far and the kids wanted to go home. They wanted me to carry their doll strollers but they knew they took them they need to bring them home. Justin drove his car and found it wasn’t very fun without his sister. Nicole was inside feeding her Winnie The Pooh honey. We played some games, Hi Ho Cheerio and Bingo. After dinner, I ran to the grocery store with the kiddos for a few things. Kids played trains really well together when we got home then we headed upstairs. I forgot to mention a couple days ago we were reading Cinderella and Nicole asked what the prince’s name-we said prince and then she said no it is gentleman. It was funny and cute at the time but I am sure I will look back on this and think why did I write this. Bret and I are really tired, we are going to watch some tv then to bed.

We got ready for the cleaners and pre school. I worked at pre school-I was snack mom. We didn’t know but today the preschool was going to visit the fire station. Unfortunately I didn’t know ahead of time, so I didn’t bring my camera. The kids had fun. The fire chief did say the word stupid, so not happy about that. N&J gave the fire fighter that put his uniform and mask on a high five. They learned to stay down low in a fire. So pre school today flew by. We brought Reed home with us since his mom had to work at the mommy and me. The kids were excited to bring Reed home with us. They all ate a huge lunch, very hungry kids. They played outside in ther backyard for a while then we made a big train track on the living room floor. The kids played with flashlights up and down the stairs. The kids had such a great time playing, so amazing. My parents came over and took Justin and Nicole away from Reed. N&J played with grandma/pa for a bit. Then I gave the kiddos a bath; they stayed in the bath for so long. We found out today that Bret is safe from layoffs, thank goodness. This is the first layoffs for his company in 75 years. It is just a relief as Bret really likes his job. We decided to go for a walk tonight with flashlights, just went around the neighborhood. I was so tired so Bret was a trooper and became a street for the kids to drive their Hot Wheels cars. Then he read them a book or two. Nicole put Winnie The Pooh in her doll crib to sleep. Justin is asleep and we still hear Nicole fussing with the doll crib.

So I think I am coming down with a cold or it still may be allergies. The kids played this morning while I got organized a bit around here. We met our My Gym friends at Chick Fil-A for some playtime. Justin and Nicole said they were so hungry, took one bite then headed into the play area. They were excited to see their friends, but Luke was out of sorts today. He actually bit Justin on the shoulder. I felt so bad for Justin. When Luke apologized Justin said don’t do it again. I was proud of Justin for telling Luke that. All was good again so we headed to My Gym. The kids had a lot of fun. Nicole had a little trouble listening as she was doing what other kids were doing. They played duck duck goose, so cute. I just love to sit and watch them and got a little bit on video for daddy. After we headed to Costco. The kids were so good in Costco. They got to run around in the cold area and watch some TV. They pretty much just stayed in the cart. The best part was trying skittles for the first time. We came home and the kids wanted to watch TV. We then played outside in the backyard and front. I did a little gardening while the kids played up front. We decided to take a walk with the doll strollers. It was a great walk and we just explored. The kids played in the gutter water, they loved watching it move fast. We ran into daddy coming home from work so the kiddos got a ride home with him. After dinner, I cleaned up for the cleaners while dad and the kids played Candy Land. We went upstairs and read books. The kids wanted more books tonight and no stories. That was actually nice for a change, it gets more and more difficult to make up stories.

This morning we headed to Target to get a few things. After we went over to the train path to ride bikes, dad brought his Trikke and I jogged a bit. We all had fun especially when the trains came. The kids watched the cars under the bridge, they were really hoping someone would beep. We just took it slowly and played along the way too. On the grass we played tag and just had family fun! We decided to stop by the Ralphs shopping center and get lunch. The kids wanted blueberries and bagels for lunch. Again we just took our time and played, went to the hardware store and the music store. When we got home the kids watched TV and dad and I played on our computers. The hedges have needed to be done for a while and finally I decided to do it, it took a long time. I haven’t done serious gardening like that in a while. We took out some toys we haven’t played with in a while, Mr. Potatoe Head and also played with the market. I gave them my little shopping cart thing that I had and a basket-they loved using it with the store. We played outside for a while with bubbles and the rocket launcher. That rocket launcher thing is awesome, I should have bought one for me too. After dinner the kids pretended to ice skate. The kids grabbed their flashlights and went upstairs in the dark. They got in their jammies and brushed teeth, we read books and within telling the first story Justin was fast asleep. Nicole really wanted a baby to put in her crib, but she settled on Winnie The Pooh. Nicole fell asleep pretty quickly too. My allergies were horrible from all the gardening that I ran into the shower real quick.

We love Saturdays! We stayed home for a while. The kids sorta sang happy birthday on Alan’s voice mail. Dad and Justin went to Starbucks. We gave the kiddos a bath. Then we decided it was so nice out, so we went to The District. The kids wanted to take daddy car. They love their new boosters.

I took my camera to The District, so there will be lots of new pics today. The kiddos played in the fountain and had a great time. Here are some pics:

We had some lunch at The District then went to Borders and read books. We just played at the other fountain and took more pics.

We came home and the kids played with their Hot Wheel cars and then watched some TV. After TV we played in the backyard. The kids swung on the swings, in their words “we haven’t done that in a while”. They helped me sweep too. We then ran to do some errands. We did bubbles on the green belt, last year the kiddos could barely blow the bubbles. They were blowing them all over, it was fun. Nicole is loveing the gingerbread men from the game Candyland-she even wanted to sleep with them tonight. We read lots of books tonight-kids were tired and went right to  bed.

We changed our plans for the day at the last minute. The weather was so nice I decided to take the kids to Disney. The kids were excited, although I decided to do this while reading books to the kids and Nicole was mad I stopped reading. We packed our lunches and off we went. It was crowded, skipped the shuttle and walked. We managed to play on the fire engines and go in the Tiki room. After we met Vena and kids at California Adventure. We went and saw the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse show which the kids just love. After lunch we went on some ride, the caterpillar, some big box hor air balloon ride, ladybug boogie, etc. I think the kids could go on the rides over and over again. We walked over to the pier area and the kids went on the carousal, Nicole rode a sea horse and Justin a fish. But they were more excited to watch the fast roller coaster. The kids really wanted to go on the monorail, so we walked through Downtown Disney (I didn’t know where else to pick it up). But then it wasn’t running. The shuttle ride made up for it though. We got home and I had to clean up my big mess I left from this morning. I caught up with an old friend on the phone while the kiddos watched some TV. Then we headed out again. We met Paula, Krista, and all the kids at the train path. All the kiddos rode bikes together. There were 7 kids, they looked like a biker gang. They got lucky and there were lots of trains to watch. Since I had only been home for an hour I didn’t even think about dinner, so we met daddy at the Marketplace. We played around the fountain for a bit, ate, and then I wanted to run to Carters. Since daddy’s car now has boosters the kids wanted to ride home in daddy car. We got home and the kids were so silly. Running up and down the hallway upstairs naked just screaming. We were laughing-then they pretended to take a bath. Dad went out and met some old high school friends at a bar. I read books and told stories with the kids and now they are sleeping, Justin is snoring. I am exhausted! It was a long busy but really fun day.

The kids woke up and were excited to see their new car booster seats. They love the cup holders the best. It was pre school day! It was my turn to work. It is so fun to be with the kids. I wish I could get a break but I never regret working there. Nicole and Justin are so happy while I am there. The kids wanted to make snakes with me with dot markets. During circle time my kids were hanging out with me. Nicole more so than Justin. They were so excited to share. Nicole shared Justin’s skateboard dog and Justin shared a ball. I had a hard time writing the clues for a skateboard dog. They celebrated Grace’s birthday so the kids got cupcakes. It was such a beautiful day out and was very fun being outside with the kids. Justin and Nicole got all wet jumping in puddles from the water table, all sandy and wet. We got home and had lunch. The kids barely ate it though. Then they played in the downstairs bathroom reading books to one another. They played with their otter puppets and chased one another. I gave the kiddos a bath, they were overdue. They had so much fun playing in the tub together. Then their friend Aliya came over as her mom needed to go to an app’t. The kids all played together. We went outside to play. It was so windy but the kids couldn’t of cared less. They drove their cars, rode bikes, and scooters-very busy kids. We were outside until daddy came home. The kids watched Curious George while we got dinner together. After dinner, we wanted to test out the kids new booster seats. We put them in daddy car and went for a drive. The drive took us to frozen yogurt. So fun telling the kids we had a surprise for them, they could hardly stand it. They were so happy it was frozen yogurt-chocolate was the favorite. They loves their new seats-they seem to work well. A little hard to buckle but easier than moving the big seats from car to car. We went upstairs, read books, and told stories. I made up some silly story and Nicole told me not to tell it again-it was so funny. Kids are sleeping.

I worked out this morning. The kids love that kids club, it is so great. It is always a struggle to get them out of there. So nice. After we stopped at park day for a bit. We went to Orchard Park. The kids had fun, wanting to swing, slide, etc. They love pretending they are Curious George and climb. I got to be the man with the yellow hat. The kids listened so well and got right in the car when I said it was time to leave to go to My Gym. I wish I brought the video camera to My Gym, I keep forgetting it. The kids were all smiles and loved that Neil was teaching the class. They listened really well and laughed a lot. Neil asked the kids what their favorite place to go is and Justin said Chuck E Cheese. And when Nicole was aked Justin said Chuck E Cheese. My Gym has a special of two classes a week plus open gym, so we are there a lot. We came home and the kiddos ate a big lunch. They played with the Chute and Ladder pieces pretending the people were Sally and Billy (just like in the stories I tell at night). We played in the backyard a bit then watched some TV. It was such a nice day out so we met some friends at Hicks Canyon Park. The kids love this park and were on the see saw for most of the time. I remembered their sand toys so they had fun playing in the sand too. We came home and picked up dad to go to a fundraiser at a restaraunt for our pre school. I was surprised that not a lot of people were there. Anyway the kids had a great time walking around The District, seeing the fountains and fireplaces. They were pretending like they were the fire dep’t and putting out the fire. They were so talky on the way home, so silly but loud. Read books, told stories and put the kiddos to bed.

We woke up to it windy and cold. The kids had pre school today. I went to the gym and then enjoyed the house to myself. When I picked the kiddos up, Nicole didn’t want to leave. Nicole is definitely developing friendships which is so nice. After we picked up Bret and went to the post office to get the kiddos their passports. So glad that has been done. We all went out to lunch together. When we got home the kids played a bit then watched some TV while I prepped dinner. The kids were a bit cranky after watching TV. With some mommy playtime they were happy. Nicole put on her Cinderella dress and pretended she was in the story. She lost her glass slipper and wanted the prince (Justin) to find her. Justin wasn’t really into playing Cinderella-he was more into sweeping outside and mowing the lawn.

Nicole wanted to wear her crown, dress, and shoes to My Gym for open play. We went into My Gym with both kiddos in dress up shoes. It was funny. Open gym was fun, the kids wanted to play soccer but never kicked the ball. Justin loves My Gym. They enjoyed jumping on the trampoline with balls. We came home and had dinner and played with the kiddos. Nicole wanted to play My Little Pony and Justin was reading books and playing with big floppy dog. Justin didn’t want to stop reading so he just pee’d his pants, I couldn’t believe it. We played drive thru in the tent room. We read lots of books and told stories. The kids are sound asleep.