painting Grandma's room

The kids wanted to help me paint the guest room (aka Grandma's room) this afternoon. It took longer for me to prep and get their painting area squared away than they actually spent painting once given the tools. And it's always the same thing: Thomas paints a T and a 4, Meredith paints an M.

new t-shirts

Thomas paints a spider & reveals a penguin
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Meredith paints and reveals a blue bird

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the kids are pleased with their new t-shirts

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I love freezer paper stenciling. It's quick, easy and the end products are unique. Last night the kids and I painted simple images on some t-shirts. Meredith has a new bird t-shirt and Thomas has new penguin, shark and spider t-shirts. They love them and loved making the shirts themselves.

breakfast at the bar

Yesterday afternoon our (2) new barstools arrived for the bar in the kitchen. The kids loved them immediately and both wanted to try them out. I explained that the bar is a special place for breakfast, maybe lunch and sometime snacks. Thomas, who doesn't reguarly eat breakfast, exclaimed first thing this morning, "Let's eat some breakfast!" I'm guessing it was just so he could sit at the bar and eat -- which he loved. Maybe this special breakfast spot will entice him into making breakfast a daily occurrence.
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Meredith preferred to eat her breakfast at the kitchen table. The height of the barstools (30" to the seat) makes her a little nervous and neither Mike nor I are complaining about that!

Thomas' bedroom

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after

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When I first suggested we paint Thomas' bedroom, his favorite color was red. This was maybe a year or more ago. He wanted red, but I really didn't want to do red for his room. I eventually sold him on the idea of adding a litte red detail but to do the walls another color. Time passed and we revisited the idea of painting his room several months ago. Then the holidays came and went and now this month I finally got around to painting his bedroom. However, I'm glad I waited because I think this calming blue with a white stripe on all the walls topped with a dark blue is perfect for Thomas. I found these great repositionable, no-stick stickers that made creating his outerspace ceiling very easy and quick. We picked up two packages - one of planets, robots, spacecrafts, etc. and the other one of glow-in-the-dark stars, moons, etc. Thomas had a great time leading me in the design of his ceiling! Again, window treatments need to be addressed sometime down the line...

Meredith's bedroom

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after

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One of my New Year's Resolutions (yes, I make them) this year is to paint the interior of our house. I had in mind a goal of one room per month with the major spaces professionally painted. First on my list was to paint the kids' rooms. Gone are the boring, off-white bedrooms! Now we have colorful paint treatments and, for Meredith, a new twin bed with a trundle. Her room has gone from boring baby room to a fun little girl's room that perfectly suits her. A few things remain yet to do: window treatments, lighting and paint animal prints for her wall (the set of four can be seen above -- I've had crazy thoughts about doing them in a button collage), but I think we're looking pretty good!

our little cutie

Meredith gets a lot of attention and compliments. Everywhere we go someone comments on how pretty this little girl is and I catch other people looking twice at her all the time. It's a little weird, but she is pretty darn cute and loads of fun. I'm dreading those teen years already...

kids at Birch Aquarium

When we moved here two years ago, we were tourists. And we were tourists who wanted to see everything Southern California has to offer. The most economical way to do this was to purchase memberships everywhere because we knew we'd be back again and again and again. It all proved to be a good way to go because we did return many times, often with visitors and the memberships' guest passes and/or discount coupons came in handy. It was all a very good deal for us.
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A year later, we had established routines, signed up for classes, started preschool and made many new friends. And suddenly all those memberships were up for renewal at the same time. It is very expensive to renew all of them at the same time, so we decided to only renew those memberships that gave a great renewal offer (i.e., a discount). For the others, we decided to wait until we had planned a visit to get a membership in order to maximize our membership period.
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This worked great until last week when I went through a drawer of papers I apparently hadn't touched in months. At that bottom of this drawer I found memberships for the Birch Aquarium at Scripps, UCSD. Imagine my surprise when I saw the expiration date is mid-April. We haven't been once this past year. The real bugger is that we have been to La Jolla many times over the past year and I've often thought it'd be fun to stop in at the aquarium for an hour while we are there. But I didn't think we had a membership and I wasn't sure I wanted to purchase one that day.
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Needless to say, we'll be visiting the aquarium often in the coming weeks! I really must go through my drawers of "important papers" more often.

shower for two

If we'd let them, they would stay in the shower and/or bath all day long. Crazy kids. They love taking baths, but showers are a new thing they've started to enjoy over the last few weeks, too. This morning they took a bath and then hopped into the shower when I was done. Thomas was showing her how to draw different letters on the shower glass. They find fun in just about everything they do!

drawing together

It had been awhile since we've rolled kraft paper out on the kitchen table but today I thought we'd be doing some painting with Meredith's little girlfriends so I pulled out the roll. As it turns out, one girl was unable to come so with just the two girls we decided to simply play the entire playdate instead. Later in the afternoon Thomas and Meredith were both super excited when I asked if they wanted to "draw on the kitchen table". I really should do this more often because they get such a kick out of it. The last items Thomas drew were place settings for dinner. Their dinner tonight was equally fun!

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superhero party

partygoers pose w/Spiderman (birthday boy is Batman)

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dinosaur hat by Spiderman ~ T w/pals Griffin & Tyler

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mmmmmm... cupcakes! ~ Spiderman from behind (yikes)

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Thomas' friend Tyler has the best parties (last year it was the neverending and speeding fire engine ride all around town) so when Thomas received the invitation a couple of weeks ago, he was super excited to go. Inside the invitation it read: Dress as your favorite superhero! Thomas loved that and immediately announced he'd be dressing as Spiderman. Little did he know that the real Spiderman would be the other guest of honor at today's birthday celebration!

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Thomas had a great time at the party and couldn't wait to get home and tell his dad and Meredith all about it. Altogether, he and I spent almost 5 hours out at the party and making two stops at stores. It was nice to spend this chunk of time just with Thomas and know Meredith and her dad were having an equally great time together.

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Two weeks ago Mike was super dad while I was in Portland with my family for four days. Again this week he's had to play super dad following my surgery three days ago. Both the kids and he have enjoyed these times together and the adventures they've shared. Yesterday's outing included a walk around a lake, a trip to Fry's Electronics (where the kids were treated to "Astronaut food"), and a visit to the library for a special dinosaur event. Such lucky kids!

volcano

All boys seem to go through the same interests -- cars, airplanes, dinosaurs, volcanoes, outer space... Thomas is pretty into all of them but lately his interest in volcanoes has really increased. I'm quizzed nearly all day long about everything volcano-related. Tonight after dinner we came up with this super quick volcano dessert. The kids loved it for about one minute. Then they both wanted cones without the chocolate. That just means more for this mama!

puzzle crazy

kids & a puzzle from c on Vimeo.

The kids are always coming up with new games for themselves to play. Tonight they came up with this new way to work puzzles together -- one is below the table and the other is at the table. This lasted 1.5 hours as they took turns being the one to put the puzzle together while the other handed them the requested pieces from below the table. When Mike got home from his run the puzzles continued for a bit longer. In total, almost 2 straight hours of doing nothing but puzzles.

Hi Dude!

Yes, "Hi Dude!" is what she's screaming as a City pickup with 4 workers in it drove by. Can you almost hear it? Believe it??

[In her defense, their friend drawing the neverending hopscotch pictured above was actually the one who yelled it out first. He's five years old. The other three kids thought it was hysterical so then they started yelling it, too. I just thought this photo with her mouth wide open was too funny not to post.]

the karate belt

Karate has been really good for Thomas. This first session was for beginners, ages 2 to 5. That's quite a range in size and physical ability in this class! Thomas did very well in all the classes, practices what he learns at home and I've been very pleased with his focus and interest in this sport. Today's class was the last in this short series. The students were asked to demonstrate the blocks, kicks and punches they've learned and then they received their (white) belts. Since I was unable to take him today, Mike did which was really fun for him. I'm sure it was pretty fun for Thomas, too, to have his dad there. Next up: Advanced Karate!

Transformers

Last night Thomas saw the Transformers movie for the first time. Did he like it? He LOVED it. All day today I've heard things like this...
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"I wish I had a Transformer friend. He could stay with me and take me places the next time you and daddy are on a date somewhere in America. He could sleep on my top bunk. If that wasn't comfortable, then he could sleep in the driveway and be cozy. If we couldn't reach something, he could reach it for us... like something behind the couch. He'd have a grabber and could get it. Or he could push the sofa and get it for us. Buzz (Bumblebee) is the Transformer I want for my friend."

Who loves a sunny 76* day??

WE DO!!

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day will always remind me of the day our family embarked on this fun California Adventure. Two years ago today we packed up the remaining items in our Portland house, posted the FOR SALE sign out front and began the journey that would take us 1000 miles away from all our family and friends. What an adventure it has been!

air & space

kids hanging in the fusilage

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fun in the atrium

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flying aces

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picnic at Balboa Park w/planes overhead ~ M checks out an astronaut

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I'll never understand how two little kids can have such busy social calendars. I don't think mine has ever been as busy as theirs is. Yesterday we started the holiday weekend with a Valentine playdate, then Thomas' preschool class celebrated Valentine's day with an exchange and party, and the day ended with a third Valentine's Day party with friends while Mike and I enjoyed a dinner out. We had such a great time dining with friends that we lost track of time and by the time we got the kids home and in bed it was almost 10:30pm. !!! Then we got up this morning and spent a few hours at the San Diego Air & Space Museum before ending our day with a birthday party at a tumbling gym. It's been a non-stop party for these two kids!

karate practice at home

M: karate chop from c on Vimeo.

After karate class today Thomas wanted to practice his kicks and blocks at home. Meredith wanted to learn so here he is teaching her the front kick. The two are so silly and had a great time practicing karate this afternoon.

together again

Today was my first full day back with the family. Last Friday evening my (maternal) uncle passed away in Portland. It was hard for me to leave Mike and the kids behind but I needed to be with my mom, my brothers and and my family. Mike took two days off work and did an amazing job taking care of the kids all day long, every day that I was gone. I know their time together was very good for all of them, but I still missed them terribly. I was away for three nights and four days. It was the longest I'd been away from the kids and the first time I'd been away from Meredith. Today was spent together. Thomas went to preschool, but aside from that time apart from him, the kids and I spent a lot of time just cuddling, laughing and being close to one another. It feels really good to be home.

our new ride

Last week we purchased a new-to-us car. The kids are loving it (as are we!). During Thomas' first ride in the car he said, "This car drives like a Honda!" Grandma has the same car so we're all very familiar with this model. The Accord is my new primary vehicle, Mike is driving the Ford Explorer and the Merecedes is getting some much needed rest parked in the street. The SUV was great to transport kids, strollers, etc. but I haven't needed that much cargo capacity lately and with the gas mileage being what it is for an SUV, it just made sense that the next vehicle we purchase be a car. It's nice to be driving something more compact and fuel efficient. The kids like that they can now hold hands. I like that I have heated seats again. Mike likes the XM radio.

the 8.5 hour playdate

We've decided to participate in some drop-off playdates for the kids with members of our playgroup. Every Monday morning Meredith and two little friends will play at one of their houses while Thomas and I have some "special mommy time". Every Friday morning we'll do the same but Thomas will play while Meredith and I do stuff. The groups are small with only 3 children in each group so the mom who is hosting doesn't get overwhelmed since we all have a second child, too. This morning we hosted the first meetup for Thomas' group which includes a boy and a girl. I think both groups for the kids are going to work out great and having that "special mommy time" with Thomas will be really nice. I know he's really looking forward to it.
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The rotating playgroups are for 2 hours but today we also had our little friend Grace over to play all day long with us! Talk about a fun and long playdate for my two kids! We made volcanoes and erupted them (twice!), we walked down to see the horses, we took turns putting on puppet shows for the others and we snacked together. Later, after the two friends had gone home and Thomas was in preschool, the girls and I baked cookies, colored, read books, and made an obstacle course in the living room. Such a fun day!

Griffin and Thomas stir their "magma"

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Meredith adds the secret ingredient to "erupt" her volcano
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Meredith and Grace with their cookies

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Meredith, professional baker