Melissa’s Blog

We had a great day. It was a little stressful getting out of the house as I had to get the house ready for the cleaners too. It took a little while to get to the aquarium but the kids did so great in the car. The kids loved looking at all the different fish. There was a guy in one of the fish tanks cleaning the tank, so the kids decided he was Dan the Diver. We were outside for the longest time. We went into the larakeet area, scarey all these birds coming at you and they got to pet a turtle. The kids loved the sea lions and the sharks the best. There was a shark who had his mouth open (Tiger Shark), so scary. The kids loved watching him and waiting for him to go around and around. The kids could have watched the sea lions for hours. They loved it when they got on their little raft and went under the water that was shooting down which the kids called the shower. Justin touched a sting ray and they both touched star fish and other stuff found in tide pools. After we just walked around the outside, big grassy area. The kids chased birds and just loved it. We stopped at Shoreline Village on the way home. There was an arcade so the kids had fun doing ske ball and driving games. We walked around and the kids saw the big boat-the Queen Mary. Thankfully there was no traffic on the way home and the kids stayed awake. We came home and the kids just played. They pretended to go grocery shopping and put all the play food in their baskets. Also played in the backyard. They were making mud and I was mean and made them stop. I am tried of cleaning the backyard up. We will have to find an area they can play or just let them do it every once in a while. We did puzzles with the kiddos. Justin is getting really good at the bigger puzzles. After dinner we went for a walk. I mentioned possibly going on an egg hunt tomorrow and the kids grabbed their easter baskets and took them on the walk. The kids looked so silly out in their jammies with the baskets on their heads. They had a great time running together. A police man was on our street, so he gave Justin some badge stickers and one for his sister. Justin ran off so excited to give it to Nicole, so cute. We went upstairs and the kids pretended to be animal rescuers and rescued me. I hid all over the upstairs. The best one was I was in the tent and shook it when they came in the room, they were running and laughing hysterically. Also why looking for me I heard them say mommy are you in the walls and another one was are you in the drain? So funny. We had a fun night with the kiddos, dad read some books. I still hear Nicole but hopefully she will be asleep soon.

This morning we ran out so I could get a blood test for a routine doctor app’t next week. The kids just watched and I smiled the whole time. After we came home. The kids wanted to play at home and I was able to get some stuff done. Lots of toys went upstairs and downstairs. A mess always gets started if I don’t watch 100% of the time. They pretended to sleep on the stairs saying it was their bunk beds. They just learned about bunk beds. Their imagination is just incredible. They read books and played really well. The kids said they wanted pancakes for lunch, so pancakes they had. They thought it was really silly which made it even more fun. We had our My Gym class today. I love Mondays class as it is not really crowded but there is a really badly behaved boy. Nicole called him the green boy today as he was wearing a green shirt. They had a great time at My Gym and did some new things on the parallel bars, crawled on them like a bear. I tried to get to class early so I could play with the kiddos. Mostly we had fun jumping on the trampoline. I had fun watching the kiddos. On the way home we stopped at Toys “R” Us to get a gift for a birthday party we ae going to this weekend. The girl (Jane) is into bugs, that was a challenging present to find. Of course a toy store with the kids takes a while. The kiddos got some big shovels and hulla hoops. They wanted to go to the park right away and use their shovels, however, they needed a bath. They are going on day 3 without a bath. The kiddos had fun in bath. Before getting in they used their shovels to put all the bath toys in. After bath I was getting cranky for some reason-probably just off from the blood test this morning and I was off on eating. So I took control put the kiddos in the Bob stroller and I jogged to Blue Gum Park. The kids were thrilled to go to the park to be able to use their shovels. If I started walking, Justin asked why I stopped running so I ran. Hard to run with the jogger stroller. We had so much fun at the park. They used their shovels and made “sand” cakes. They patted it, stirred it with a stick, and put it in the oven. They also grabbed some books out of the stroller, The Diego Wolf Pup One and Snow White. They books were used as maps. We searched for the wolf pups and the birds from the Snow White book. It was fun hanging out with the kids. The play structure was a boat so we steered it to rescue the animals. We also slid down the slide over and over again. They sat on my lap then one of the kids would push the two of us down. Being with the kiddos at the park was just what I needed to get out of my mood. Dad made some spaghetti and when we got home it was already. We were all hungry. After dinner the kiddos watched a little bit of the Tigger Movie. Now Nicole is pretending to be Roo and we are Kanga. Justin said he liked the movie Cars better. The kids played with money for a bit then we read some books. The kiddos gave us lots of hugs, so sweet.

This morning we were greeted by Nicole. It was 7:00 but just so funny to have her come in our room. I was hoping she was going to sleep in but didn’t. We just played at home for a while. The kids were wanting us to play. Dad updated the outlet in our bathroom while I played store with the kiddos. They started playing store together. We had to go to Grammy’s to check on her sprinklers. The kiddos played there for a bit and we cleaned up all the toys. We headed to Little Pickle for lunch, so good! We came home and played outside. Dad and Justin mowed the lawn. Nicole was tired and laid down on the futon. All of a sudden she got up and said I am done with my nap! I did laundry then we worked in the garage. Both cars can go back in the garage. Messes are everywhere, garage is clean but now the house is a mess. The kids drove their cars on the green belt which gave us time to work in the garage. After the kiddos watched Curious George. I can’t believe that is the only thing they want to watch these days. Kiddos had a snack and played a bit then we were headed to a play date at the park with Spiderman. One of the kiddos from pre school had a birthday party @ Settler’s Park. While we were waiting for Spidey, the kids rode their bikes and went on the swings. Justin wasn’t scared of Spiderman but Nicole didn’t want anything to do with him. Justin hung out with the group and played with Spiderman, looked for bad guys, climbed up and went down the slides, did push ups, played games, raced Spiderman, etc.I am proud to say Justin out ran Spiderman.

While Justin played I got some cute pictures of Nicole.

Justin took a break from the party and the kids were on the swings. We were swinging them crazy high. We would run under them as well, good workout.

After swinging the kiddos re-joined the party. The bunny lady was there as well. Nicole got a kitty cat painted on her hand. The bunny lady and Spidey did the bunny fufu song/story so Nicole was ok with Spiderman after that. They kiddos all did the parachute. A great time was had by all, however, it was cold. On the way we stopped for dinner. When we got to dinner Justin said Spiderman made me hungry, it was aso funny. When we got home the kiddos wanted to play in the garage, since it is so clean. They pushed cars and trains and played ball. Then it was upstairs time. I worked on cleaning out the linen closet while dad read a ton of books. Kiddos went to sleep right away, we are all tired.

We are exhausted from a long but fun day. This morning I was up early and went running. We probably did about 6 miles or so. Bret had to work this morning a bit. I talked the kids into taking a shower with me. We went upstairs and the kiddos got naked. I got in the shower and no one followed me. Instead they threw all their toys in. We had fun playing upstairs and read books. When dad finished working we packed up and headed to Carlsbad. It was kids day at the flower fields. It was so crowded. It advertised they were going to have a snow area, well it was just a tiny little ice patch. The kids did sled down. Justin loved it. Nicole liked it until her sled tipped then it was so icey she fell getting up. They played in the play area for a bit,  but again it was crowded. We headed over to the Ronald McDonald show. It was mildly amusing and funny watching the kids laugh. We went through the sweet pea maze. The kids had fun and wanted to do it again and again. We stood inline for the tracor ride. Justin loved it. He wanted a green tractor and we got a green one. Nicole was getting sleepy on the tractor ride. After we headed over to the outlet mall. We just walked around, the kiddos played on the little ride things, and went into a toy store. We were pretty tired as we were in the sun the whole day. We stopped for dinner. The kids and I were hungry! After dinner we went to Wal-Mart to waste time before coming home. We didn’t want to leave early just in case the kids fell asleep in the car. We bought some stuff for Easter and then got the kiddos in their jammies. There was no way the kiddos were falling asleep, they were having too much fun together. So great to listen to them make each other giggle, etc. We had a great ride home. Kiddos went to be a little late-we will hope they sleep in. I am about to follow and go to bed.

Last night Nicole woke up and went potty. She got pretty fussy trying to go back to sleep. Then finally she went back to sleep then I couldn’t sleep. This morning we ran out to the grocery store. The kids went into the car carts which made shopping go by quickly. We needed to get home so the guy could come and fix a scratch in our kitchen table. The kiddos played with water outside, squirt guns, water bottles. We played inside too. When the guy came Nicole got her tools too and pretended to fix her little table. The kiddos went to Kangaroo club at pre school today. It is a drop off for 2 hours. Their favorite teacher, Ms. Lana was there too. So the kiddos took their lunches in their backpacks and off they went. I wasn’t sure if Nicole would be happy or not about it but she was great. When I came to pick them up I was told that Justin was so helpful. He asked Nicole if she needed help with her lunch and went potty with her. Nicole is very lucky to have a sweet brother. The biggest compliment I receive is when people say nice things about my kiddos. The kiddos went in the bike trailer to pre school then I biked around and then to Kohl’s. Bought some clothes for all of us and good thing I had the trailer to put the bag in. We came home and the kiddos really wanted to watch Curious George, so they watched for a bit. Then we packed up and went to the Spectrum. We met Carin, Sofi, and Mylee there. The kids all played in the fountain. So cute when Justin gets wet he lets out a big squel and a smile. Nicole was busy running from the fountain to Target. She loved the automatic doors and pretended it was her parking garage. We did a little shopping as well. We headed home and made dinner. We bought bath markers at the Spectrum so the kids wanted to take a bath. After bath the kiddos and dad played hide and seek. The kiddos read books and stopped looking for dad. We read books in our bed tonight, nice and cozy. Nicole put Winnie The Pooh to sleep in the crib and got into bed. I crawled into bed with Justin for a bit and the kids are sleeping.

Pre school day. The kids woke up a little late so we rushed around a bit but made it on time. I was red mom. We had fun with bubbles and bowling. I blew a zillion bubbles. It was all about eggs today. The kids dyed their first eggs. Nicole loved it. They dyed it and then saw their name. Nicole and Justin loved the bowling. All the kids are so cute at pre school, I have loved getting to know them. The kids were pretty dirty from all the egg dye and paint, so when we got home the kiddos got a bath. Grandma/pa came over too. After bath the kiddos ate lunch and then played. They were outside most of the time. It was such a beautiful day. After grandma/pa left we took the bike trailer to Blue Gum Park. We met some friends there and the kiddos played. Nicole played with Sarah and they went down the slide together. Sarah held onto Nicole’s waist. I love watching the kiddos interacting with their friends. They put sand and water on the slide. At the end, they played with a ball in the volleyball area (sand). They loved throwing the ball to the net. We had a great afternoon and dad met us at the park. He rode his bike to work so he stopped by on the way home. We biked to Kohl’s center and had dinner at Fat Burger. Not a very good dinner but it was fun. We went for ice-cream too. Nicole wanted chocolate and Justin wanted green ice cream with chocolate (mint chocolate chip). When we got home we played for a bit. Dad showed the kids music on the computer and pictures. We went upstairs and the kids were pretending to be Dora and Diego. I pretended I was lost and they brought me to safety. Nicole was silly asking Justin what time it is? They got out their rescue packs and saved lots of animals. I also moved things around in their closets a bit so they both could reach things easier. We read some books and the kiddos are sleeping.

Guess it was a busy night, Nicole slept on my bed in her room and Justin woke up so I just brought him in our bed. It took him a while to go back to sleep-that was after kicking me! At least I slept pretty good. This morning we spent most of the morning at home. The kids were happily playing at home. They were into their dry erase boards. Of course they just make me nuts with those markers. Finally it was such a nice day out the kids wanted to go to the park. We had fun. The kids played in the sand, on the swings, tire swing, etc. We ran into some friends there too! We came home and had lunch. The kids played in the futon room with the cars, the games, the string the balls, etc. Then they watched some TV. I am feeling sorry for myself. One of my friends wanted to do something today, I e-mailed her ok and I never heard back. Also another one called to see if I could babysit-I am just feeling very taken advantage of these days. After TV the kids did their music homework, colored a piano. Nicole’s was pink and Justin’s was green. They also made pictures to give to their music teacher. We were off to music class. We were the only ones there. Glad that my two kids make a class. It was actually really great just being the only ones in the class. The kids had fun and got 100% of the attention. The kids showed the teacher their coloring and got stamps for it. They made notes (watermelons) on the board and rests. They got to strum the guitar while singing the hello song. They played high and low notes on the piano. They got bells, shakers, and scarves to go along with music. The part I liked best is the kids both got a turn. They carried a drum around and as the teacher said walked, they hit it slowly, then she said hop they hit it a little faster, then run and hit is really fast. We had a great class today. On the way home we went to look at a swim school. The kids just wanted to watch. They loved watching all the kids in the water. They really wanted to go in and got to feel the water. Not sure what I am doing yet but am thinking of swimming lessons. On the way home we stopped at Costco for fruit. The kids stayed in the cart which made it really fast. They also got new bathing suits, princess for Nicole and cars for Justin. We came home and had dinner. After dinner I needed to drop some things off at the neighbors so we took a walk. Both kids in their bathing suits and boots, it was really funny. We stopped at our neighbors with the dog Zoe so we could see what they did for lighting in their living room. The kids were loving playing with the dog. Came home and the kids were silly. We read books then cuddled in bed. I got lots of extra squeezes which I love. Had to write clues for their sharing for pre school and off to watch TV.

This morning the kiddos slept in a bit. Even though it was a bit stressful getting them out of the house for pre school, they needed the sleep. Justin wore his dino jammies, I so need to take a picture. I dropped the kids off at pre school then headed to the gym. Came home and did laundry, cleaned up around here. Went to pick up the kiddos and someone told me during circle time Justin got up and Nicole announced he was using the potty. After school we walked over to Orchard Park with some of our pre school friends. Walking over was an adventure in itself. The kids just wanted to hang out at the freeway overpass. They just love waving at everyone and hearing the cars/trucks beep. We got to the park and had a picnic lunch with our friends. Then the kiddos just played. So great to watch the kiddos all play so well together. It was such a beautiful day out. We were at the park for a couple hours. When I was getting ready to go I told the kids and Nicole said ok mamma 20 minutes. The kids were excited to come home and open the party favors a friend from pre school had given them. They love presents. Then we watched Curious George. After I gave the kiddos a bath, Justin hadn’t had a bath since Friday night. They had a great time in the bath as usual. I could barely get them out. So nice to have clean kids! The kiddos played in the tent room. It was so warm so I tried on last summer’s clothes on the kiddos and finding them too small. My babies are growing. I seem to have trouble getting Justin’s head through his old clothes. So if I get upset with Nicole over something she says ok momma next time I will do that. After dinner we decided to go walk the bunny path. We took carrots and the kids saw some bunnies. Most of the bunnies were scared so the kiddos just left carrots for the bunnies on the grass. It was so nice to go for an evening walk. When we got home, the kiddos got dry erase boards from one of their friends, so they had a great time drawing. Justin made a car and Nicole made a cat for me. Finally got the kiddos upstairs, got into jammies and brushed teeth. We read a few books and the kiddos are sound asleep.

This morning the kids and I went to a friend’s house to play. We had a great time. The kids pretty much played upstairs together, so I got lots of mom talky time. It was really nice. My kids just love going over to other people’s houses and playing. I asked the kiddos if they wanted to go to My Gym, Nicole said no and Justin said yes. Of course they never agree. Christy even offered to let Nicole stay and play, but Nicole wanted to be with me. Very sweet but I also knew she would be happy at My Gym. Such a great class as there were only 4 kids in the class today. The highlight was the space flight. Nicole and Justin aren’t scared to try anything there. We came home and dad was home waiting for the water heater to come. I was so happy when he got here. The kids watched Curious George and I went for a quick run. Since dad was home we decided to head to Disney. We never get a chance to take daddy with us. We loaded the dishwasher-a million dishes were piling up in the sink due to no hot water. We packed up dinner and we were off. Disney was really crowded so that was a bummer. But overall we had fun. First we rode the monorail into the park then got fast passes to the Autopia. While waiting for our time we went on the rocket ships, a favorite ride for the kids. Nicole really didn’t want to go on the Autopia, so I went on Small World with her while dad and Justin went on the Autopia. We met up and then Justin wanted to go on Alice in Wonderland, so we stood in line for that ride. We had dinner then went into the Tiki room. By then it was time to head home. The kiddos didn’t get into bed until 8:45, hopefully they won’t be too cranky tomorrow. I have laundry in and the dishwasher already to go again. And I am off to take a hot long shower.

Still no hot water. So we went to the gym to shower. I took Nicole with me. She had fun. It was so nice to take a shower. We woke up to rain so spent the morning at home. So boring at home, but we made the most of it. We played play doh, colored, cut, etc. Tried to do a load of laundry on cold-who knew cold needed hot wate so now my washer stopped After lunch we headed to Wal-Mart to get a bunch of things. So nice to have dad with us so we got two carts. The kids got squirt bottles and that was the best thing ever. They went outside in the cold and squirted everything. It was all fun until they kept dumping it and asking to fill it up. I am tired of the kids making Curious George noises. The kiddos watched TV. Then we went to our friend’s Trevor’s birthday. It was at Pump It Up. We had a great time. The kiddos loved it. They first went for the slide. They got one of the things you sit on to slide on and called it their blanket. Nicole was wanting Justin to go wherever she went. They loved the bounce house with the basketball net. I had fun in the round bounce house with the kiddos-we were chasing eachother, jumping, rolling, etc. It was so cute watching all the kids sit at picnic tables and eat pizza together. The kids said they loved the bouncing and the cake. We came home and went upstairs. The kids wanted to read a bunch of books. We have dinasour feetie jammies for Justin and he wanted to wer them so badly tonight. It was so cute, reminded me of him being a baby. The kiddos went right to bed tonight.