Melissa’s Blog

I can’t believe how bad I have been about my blog. I can’t even remember what has been going on. We are on spring break and have begun the bathroom remodels (master and downstairs bath). It has been exciting watching the transformation. I am looking forward to having a clean house in the near future. I am having a little bit of a hard time with the mess but know that is just the way it has to be. We also had them re-do the laundry room floor. It looks so much better. I am so pleased with the glass tiles we chose. We also have been ripping out all the ivy along the block wall fence. So much work  but we are getting there. Now to the kids. We have done a few egg hunts. One at school, one at the Irvine Regional Park, and one at some Eggstravaganza sponsored by a church. Today we dyed some eggs. I can’t believe how fast they did it. We used glitter too. The kids are doing really well with the remodel. They are getting lots of big boxes to play in. They also really like the contractor. We took care of a guinea pig for a friend. The kids really liked him. He was very skiddish though. So great to have pets come and go. I miss having a pet but we keep saying not yet-so we just borrow other people’s pets. Today Nikki and Justin were playing mom and dad. So funny Justin called Nikki pop tart, as he has heard dad call me that. Yesterday we went on a tour of John Wayne Airport. The person that gave the tour was so good and took the kids on a pretend trip. Watching the planes land and take off was definitely the high light.

Below are some pics from 4/11 at the Irvine Regional Park. Nikki rode a pony and Justin rode a horse. The kids are too big to ride the ponies but they let Nikki go one more time. Justin picked the big horse and it was so cool to watch him trotting!

Here are a few pics from school, Easter celebration:

Lets see I worked at school on Monday,. I can’t get over how some of these kids act, no manners and just bratty behavior. I know I am bias but I am really proud of how N&J behave. At school most of the time I hear them say please and thank you. I also love how they take the time to hug most people goodbye.  Some kids are just really disrespectful, don’t help clean up, and are just overall not nice. I don’t know if it is a cultural thing but I do see a lot of moms jump for their children. Of course I jump to help them but demanding me around, not going to happen. The kids made cute gardens at school. Also here are a few other pics from school.

The teachers brought out the dress up stuff again and Nikki was devastated the Scooby Doo costume wasn’t out. I hope they have it the next time we come to school. The kids love riding these low rider trikes. In the 2 and 3 day class they only used the high ones. On Tuesday 4/5 we babysat for a friend. Thankfully the kids all played really well together. Nikki really helped me with the 9 month old. She just loves babies. They also had the ball popper we used to have-it was so funny Nikki and Justin loved playing with it. I loved that toy, just brought smiles to my face thinking about when N&J were so young. We also had to get some stuff for the bathroom remodel. So I took the kids out with the Bob stroller and their Leapsters and they were great. They were so great so I rewarded them with a visit to the park. Plus I wanted to go to this park to check it out for picture taking. The kiddos rode their bikes but poor Nikki tried to go over a curb and fell. The kids had a great time playing on the concrete bunnies and posing for me.

We headed over to the park after and the kids had a great time. Dad came to meet us too. We have definitely been enjoying the lighter later and warmer weather. I don’t even think we ate until 7:00 then the kids went in the jacuzzi for a bit., We have been cuddling in my bed reading books at night, so nice.

Yesterday was soccer day. The kids did so well. Here are some pics:

Dad and I worked on the hedge most of the day. We decided it was time to call “the guy”. We went out to dinner with our next door neighbors which was nice.

Today we were heading to the Kidseum museum but ended up at the Santa Ana mall. Nikki and Justin wanted to go to the Disney store. I was interested to see how strong dad could be and not buy them anything. We both caved. Justin got the Dinoco helicopter and Nicole got the Skunk stuffed animal named Flower from Bambi. When we got home I vacuumed the cars while the kids painted and painted and painted. Then we washed mommy car. One car was enough for the kids so they went in to watch TV while I did daddy car. Dad came out too so we quickly waxed it too. While the kids were finishing watching Descpicable Me for the millionth time I ran to the grocery store. When I got home dad was on the phone with work…..he had to do work tonight. The kids and I went outside. We had a lot of fun. Nikki was pretending she was Margo from Descpicable Me while Justin and I were launching rocket balloons. Justin has been riding his Razor trike a lot lately, so I used his scooter. Then the kids got on their scooters and I was the police on the razor trike. They love that. It got dark on us so we came inside and read a lot of books. Kiddos are sound asleep. Justin has big floppy dog and pumpkin on him while Nikki is sleeping with Flower. Dad is still working….

It is April Fool’s Day but none of this is a joke. We started the remodel of our master bathroom and the one downstairs. The workers came bright and early to tear apart the showers, so crazy. Here are some pics:

It is very exciting. I still need to take pics of the downstairs bathroom but it is a little too dark now.

It was so warm today that we ended up going to Ms. Tanya’s pool. The kids were so excited and had a blast. I didn’t go in the water as I still have marks from when I had shingles. This pool had a high and low diving board. Guess who decided to jump off? Nikki did it, it is so amazing to be there for these moments. After doing it she had no fear and jumped over and over again. Even jumped without Ms. Tanya there to catch here. Unbelievable. Justin didn’t want to go on the diving board but he had fun watching people splash. He was really  into the jacuzzi. I think the kids were tired. Last night they went to bed late and were woken up early with the noise from the bathrooms. We were at the pool until 6:00ish. We came home had dinner and the kiddos played a little Mario Cart then off to bed.