theater birthday party

This afternoon Thomas was invited to a birthday party celebration at a movie theater for his pal, Tyler.  I'm not a Star Wars fan and Mike was interested in seeing the theater's projection room, so he was the adult who attended the party with Thomas.  The kids gathered in the theater's party room and began with a tour of the projection room and theater spaces.  After the tour they returned to the party room for a pizza lunch and some awesome cake pops that my friend made.  Once finished, they were escorted to a theater space where the movie would be playing.  Their rows had already been roped off to reserve them for the party.  Lucky!  And by the time they all sat down the previews were finishing up.  Lucky again!  Not a terrible way to spend 3.5 or so hours...

her first bikini

Meredith has been asking for a bikini for about a year now.  We were in Palm Springs last March where she saw a young girl around her age wearing a bikini at the hotel pool.  Since then, she's been asking for one and no longer buys the "wait until you are 16".  I wasn't keen on it because she is four but a friend made a good point: the two piece suit makes using the potty a lot easier.  Earlier this week I had my bikini top on and again she was obsessed with looking at it and asked for one.  Today we found this little cutie at Target.  It's sweet and not revealing -- and she absolutely loves it. 

Daddy's response: "Oh my gosh.  It's so skimpy.  I'm not ready for this."

Thomas' response: "Why doesn't it go down further and cover her belly button?  That looks weird."

cub scouts: police department

This morning the Cub Scouts toured the local police department.  Mike took both kids and I met up with them later at the end of the tour.  They met the sergeant on duty, experienced the holding cells, saw a stun gun, climbed inside a police car, saw the 911 room and got a good overview of the inner workings of the police department.  Thomas' favorite part was sitting inside the holding cell.  Meredith's favorite part was seeing the toilet-sink units in the individual holding cells.  Afterwards, on their way to a birthday party, Thomas told his dad he wants to be a police officer.  

their Friday lunch date

Meredith and her daddy have a standing lunch date every Friday.  It's a special time for the two of them.  He picks her up from preschool at noon and then they go out to a favorite dining spot.  I was invited once when they were going to Chipotle.  I joined them that afternoon, but I felt like I was tagging along.  I love that they have this special time together so I won't be joining them in the future.  It's a daddy-daughter weekly lunch date they both really enjoy and look look forward to.  I love watching their relationship -- both are so lucky to have the other!

jog-a-thon

Thomas' jog-a-thon at school was this morning.  He asked his daddy to come so I missed it this year since we also needed to take Meredith to preschool around the same time.  All the first graders ran at 8:30am when it was still overcast.  I heard from another mom whose daughter ran later in the morning when the sun came out that it was really warm for them.  Still, they had the music blaring, spray bottles filled with water, bottled waters for the kids and a special treat after their run.  The jog-a-thon is a fundraiser for the school's PTA.  They ask for donations based on how many laps your child runs in 20 minutes.  We sponsored Thomas' efforts with a pledge of $2 per lap.  Good thing he didn't run the 1,000 laps he told us he was going to run, but ran his lucky number 13 instead. 

late afternoon playdate

We met some friends at the local tidepools late this afternoon for some exploration and beach play.  One woman brought along her friend's 16yo daughter.  The girl was so much fun and played with all the kids on the beach.  She suggested they build a racecar out of sand so that's what they all worked on together.  The photos make the sculpture look strange, but from the side it really did resemble a dragster.  Thomas and Meredith thought that was really cool.

Today's find: 4 sea stars, 2 crabs and a gazillion hermit crabs and sea anemones.

fun friends

Thomas and Meredith have always had a great time with their friends, Sophia and Dylan.  Sometimes when they are with other kids their age the dynamics are such that one of the kids feels left out or two will buddy up or something similar so the group is divided.  This is not the case when our kids are playing with these friends.  Despite age and gender differences the four get along really well together and actually all play together.  It's really very nice.  We had had these two over last week so their parents could have a romantic Valentine's dinner and the kids have been asking when they could play with them again.  So after school today we met up with them at Legoland to play and ride favorites until the park closed.  It was quiet at the park so we rode any and every ride we wanted - sometimes twice!  We all had such a great time!

dance

When Meredith does her little turn she looks like she could be inside a music box. So graceful for four!

Orange County

We spent the day exploring some old favorites in Orange County.  From Dana Point's Harbor to the beautiful beaches of Laguna to the center of shopping, food and entertainment in Irvine.  It was an enjoyable day for all of us with fun things to see, do and eat all along the way.

gymnastics birthday party

Today was Meredith's 3rd birthday party in just as many days.  A fashion party on Friday, a park party yesterday and a gymnastics party today.  This last one was clearly her favorite -- not because it's a closer friend but because she loves this place and the activities they do.  She couldn't wait to go (and got into her leotard hours before the party) and was grinning from ear to ear during the entire party.  So many fun parties to attend when you are four!

morning hike

Seems kind of crazy that we haven't explored the trails of San Elijo Hills very much given how close it is to us and how easy the trails are to access.  The trails are quite extensive and offer something for everyone.  There are hills and flat areas, paved trails and rocky trails.  We chose the Lakeview Trail this morning for our family hike.  We all enjoyed the hike and look forward to doing it again soon. 

birthday party fun

Pelly's Mini Golf

Thomas had the day off from school (Meredith didn't) so a friend and I made plans for a fun morning with Thomas and her son, Michael.  We went to Pipes Cafe for breakfast and then to a miniature golf place in Del Mar.  This golf place is adjacent to the 5 but you can't really see the mini golf courses when you are cruising by.  Neither of us had been before but it looked like a fun place to check out (from their website) -- and much to our delight, it was.  There are two 18-hole mini golf courses, one with a surfing theme and one with an ocean theme.  The boys chose the ocean theme so we played alongside whales, an octopus, seals, dolphins, sharks, etc.  There was a shark cage at one hole and all the holes had fun names like "Friend or Anemone".  Since we were there at 10:30am on a Friday, there weren't many people playing.  Plenty of people kept the driving range super busy, but the mini golf was totally open for us so the boys enjoyed goofing off while we played.  In all, it was a fun morning for everyone.  I always love spending time with just Thomas and doing activities geared more for his age group.  Meredith would have been bored by hole 3. 

L-O-V-E

Valentine's Day was different this year because Mike had to attend a two day work function.  Kind of crazy scheduling by someone at his work given the holiday, esp. when some people had to fly in for the event, but it was what it was.  That aside, it was still a nice holiday.  Meredith had her class party and Valentine exchange at school yesterday and Thomas had his today.  But the highlight of their Valentine's Day was having friends over this evening. 

Since Mike wasn't going to be home today, I offered to watch a friend's kids so she and her husband could have a nice evening together.  Her husband just started a new job that they needed to celebrate and she's a fabulous cook so she put together a romantic, surprise dinner in for them tonight -- and her kids came over to play with Thomas and Meredith!  We played in our jammies, baked pretzels, did some art work, made dinner, rolled out some sugar cookies and later frosted them, did a bunch of dancing on the wii, ran amuck all over the house, all brushed teeth together and ended the evening with 30 minutes of me reading to them.  They all had so much fun together -- and I know my two dropped like flies the second they laid down for bed tonight.  It was a very good evening, indeed! 

Hope your Valentine's Day was special! 

idea for a new dog house

watching the Grammys

The whole family rooted for Adele during the Grammys.  Well, okay, so maybe the kids had already gone to bed by the time the show aired in our area, but they love her and were rooting for her before they went to bed.  Even Greta was rooting for Adele this year.  I think Rolling in the Deep is her favorite song... but she imagines rolling around in deep grass or whatever it is dogs dream about, I'm sure.

weekend wrap up

 

You know those weekends where really nothing gets accomplished but there's just a lot of hanging out?  Yeah, that's the kind of weekend we had.  There was plenty of time to make faces at each other, watch a movie with the family, browse some stores, tease the koi, eat good food and soak up the warm sunshine at the Farmer's Market.  The market was by far my favorite part of the weekend.  We spread out a blanket, ate our picnic and other (purchased) food items, and simply hung out.  I love weekends like that.

goofy M

This is one very goofy girl.  Here she is at the bank today.  This four year old loves to chew gum.  I love her in this sweet shirt she painted.

umbrella fun

This afternoon we walked to the park for some play.  Both kids wanted to bring their umbrellas - not because there was even the slightest chance of rain on this gorgeous high 70* day, but because they wanted to use them for sun protection.  So young and so smart!

morning hike

Greta loves to join us for carpool whether it's taking the kids to school in the morning or picking them up afterwards.  She loves watching the world pass by and the smiles and waves from other children around the school.  Often on our way home in the morning after drop off we'll stop at the trailhead that is halfway between our house and Thomas' school.  She loves to run the trail and sniff around in the open spaces that dot the trail's path.  Meredith collects special rocks while I plan our day and keep an eye on them both.  Today we were expecting rain so we stayed a little longer since it was still dry.

playdate with Daphne

 painting cards ~ painting birdhouses

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Meredith loves to have her preschool friends over to play.  It works well for us to simply take one home with us after school for lunch and play.  I generally plan these for a day when I'm driving carpool so on our way to pick up the big kids we drop Meredith's friend off at their house.  It's worked well with several friends and today it worked especially well with Daphne.  Since Daphne has an older brother at Thomas' school, we were able to pull up for pick up, Daphne hopped out and Thomas and Kaitlin jumped in.  As the kids like to say: Easy peasy lemon squeezy!

Superbowl Sunday

Our friends hosted a fun, family-friendly Superbowl party.  Their house is in a great location with the garage directly across the street from a great park.  The adults watched the game (garage was setup for this), enjoyed adult beverages and ate way too much food while the kids played at the park and inside the house.  It was a fun time for our family!

*One friend was unable to join the party because he was working.  About an hour after kickoff he dropped by in his patrol car -- all the kids loved seeing that!

"walking on my hands"

Meredith is determined to "walk" on her hands, perfect a cartwheel, hold a handstand and do the splits. It might be time to get her back into a gymnastics class.

Pinewood Derby

Today was the highly anticipated Pinewood Derby for Thomas' Cub Scouts pack.  We had no idea what to expect (only Mike had some idea) and we were all pleasantly surprised by what a well-run and fun event this was.  It took three attempts before Thomas' car was finally accepted for entry (a smidge too long so Mike had to sand off a bit of the front end).  Each of the cars raced 4 times in 4 different lanes.  It was a very fair and equal race for every participant.  They didn't race against the other 3 cars but each race was timed individually and these were all put into a computer program and tallied.  In the end, Thomas' car was not the winner for his Den but all the boys received certificates when they picked up their cars.  Thomas' was for Best Workmanship.  Wow!  Later in the afternoon we walked down (the event was held at Thomas' school) to watch the semifinals and finals.  The boy who ended up taking first place for the entire Pack was a fellow Tiger Cub (Thomas' Den).  I love when the young guys win!  But overall, it was sharing this great experience with his dad that Thomas will remember most.  The two went out for a special lunch to celebrate their Pinewood Derby experience.  Fun!   

 Den 7 entries ( there are 6 dens in his Pack)