Game Day...

Aiden had a t-ball game early this morning. Compared from his first game to this game he has improved so much. He hasn't used the tee at all in the last two games and his hits have been really great. I'm really proud of him. He's a little apprehensive to take a bunch of instructions, but I'm stubborn and want to figure things out on my own too, so I don't blame him.

With a little practice at home he really has grown leaps and bounds in his hitting game. He's okay on throwing and I'd say he needs the most work on catching. He's only four though, so that will come with getting to know his body and coordination.

The season is almost over and I am now signing him up for soccer, which starts in September. He seems excited about playing this year- I was the apprehensive one. He kind of fell in and out of liking it last year, so when registration rolled around and I asked him if he wanted to play I was hoping for a no. I kept asking for a month- his answer was always yes. I finally sent the registration in a couple days before it was due. I wanted to drag it out until the last second just to be sure. This year Lucas may be a coach or an assistant coach, depending on what the league needs. Just like with Aiden I kept asking Lu if he was sure about doing it. It's always fun to think of things in your head, but in reality they tend to turn out much different. I know that he would be good with the kids but will he also get walked upon by them and will they ultimately listen to him. He has a quiet voice and some kids are apt not to listen. We'll see, won't we.

Backyard camping...

On Wednesday evening Lucas and Aiden decided that they would camp in the backyard. It was a really beautiful day and so we did the whole shabang. We got a small fire going and BBQ'd chicken, corn and pineapple. I really liked the BBQ'd pineapple. We also made s'mores, which the kids LOVED. I got great pictures of all the love. Aiden was soooo excited to camp that right after dinner annd s'mores he practically asked to brush his teeth and begged to go to bed. He kept asking, "mom, dad when is it bed time, when can we go to bed?" He only ended up going to bed a little earlier than usual, but waking up at 6 in the morning- the downside of camping.

On Friday I took both the kids to an event put on by the Fort Bragg High School. It was about child development and offering enriching activities for young children. They had a ball pit, those collapsible tents and tunnels, a goal with balls, bubbles, floam-type-stuff, play-doh, face painting and a few other activities. At the end the kids got to pick out three prizes after they played with a big parachute. We took Cole back to school (he rode in our car to the event) and then headed home. The kids had a pretty full day and both ended up going to sleep on our way home.

Back to our LA trip...

Earlier in my posts I said that I would write in more detail what we did on our LA trip. I wanted to cover that before I forget.

So after a day at California Adventure with cousin along with us too, we were ready to move to our hotel that was closer to the Estrada's house. We got to their house to drop off the boys and cousin and to hang out with everyone. It was around 3 pm and for the next couple hours we decided to just hang out at their house. They made us falafels for dinner and then we headed back to our hotel for bed.


Lucas woke up in the morning and told me that he felt sick all through the night and had not got much sleep, so we planned for a relaxed day. We met the Estrada's at the ScienCenter right as it was about to open and bought some tickets for the IMAX show called Under the Sea. Then we headed for the Rose Garden out the back of the ScienCenter to pass the time until it opened. The pictures that were already posted with the kids sitting around the different earths were from the Rose Garden. They were having a great exhibit about ways to conserve and better manage our resources, and the earths represented the different ways to do that.



The ScienCenter was finally open so we made our way around. Even though it was a weekday and we thought it would be pretty empty, all the schools were there, so it seemed even more crazy than it would of been on a weekend. Liam was tired and so I left to go nurse him in the car and see if he would fall asleep. The IMAX show was going to start and so I met everyone at the front so we cold all go in together. I've never been to a 3-D show so I thought it was pretty awesome. Liam ended up leaving his glasses on for most of the show so he got to really see how cool it was. It was so cute, he kept reaching out into the air to "touch" the eels and fish that were popping out and coming toward us. I thought that the IMAX show was fun and informative, so it was a hit with me. Lucas was still feeling pretty sick so we ended up going back to the hotel right after the show to rest.



After a couple hour rest and some naps we called the Estradas to see what they wanted to do. We all decided on going to the Observatory. Aiden had been excited even before we were in L.A. for the Observatory. He loves learning about the planets and getting to push buttons and see what happens. I thought that the kids would be more into everything inside, but maybe everyone was tired and hungry. We ended up hanging outside for a good amount of the time that we were there and the kids pulled pieces of the ice plant out and were drawing with it on the sidewalk. I think that they were more into drawing than any of the planet stuff. We went went to one last planet exhibit down in the lower part of the observatory and then decided that it was time to get some food. We went to Marie Callendar's right next to the La Brea tar pits. I had the fish there and it was really yummy. Everyone else had the all-you-can-eat salad bar and said it was good too. It was 8 o'clock at that point and we still needed to make it back to the hotel so we said our "good nights" and headed off.

The next day Lucas was finally back to feeling normal. We decided that we would go to the zoo. We were there for 4 hours!! Needless to say we were very tired by the end and needed a rest. We headed back to the hotel and planned to get back together with the Estradas for a BBQ. Unfortunately, we didn't end up doing that because I made dinner plans with my ex-coach Phil, who now lives in L.A. I hadn't seen him in almost 5 years and so it was really important for me to see him. So we went to a korean restaurant with Phil and got to reminise and catch up.

The last day of our trip was Thursday and we didn't have anything planned. We packed up all our stuff, checked out of the hotel and headed over to the Estradas. We weren't even sure what time we wanted to leave. We wanted to leave when Liam napped, midday, or later in the evening so that they were tired and would sleep then. I hadn't planned to anything but hang out at the Estradas but they suggested the beach, down by the Santa Monica Pier. We thought it sounded like a good idea, so we left right after lunch. I wasn't sure how the kids would do at the beach since we go all the time at home. I just didn't know if they would be that interested. BUT, they were. It was a fairly hot day and Aiden and Iona went right in. Liam was a little more apprehensive, but took to it just as much as the other two. Although we live by the ocean, it's too cold to go in like it was down in L.A. I really got to see just how little Aiden knows about ocean safety. He took a couple twirls under the water and came up with a surprised look on his face. They had a lot of fun though, and it was a perfect end to a fun week. We grabbed some food from one of the beach side eateries and had a quick dinner before getting on the road. We said our "good-byes" and got going.

We drove until 11 pm and then got a hotel room and continued in the morning. We got home around 4 pm Friday. We had a really great time. yay!

Pictures Pictures...

Our LA Adventure...

Right now I am just getting some pictures up for everyone to enjoy and then I will take the time to right a little more in detail what we got to do in L.A.. There is an earlier posting that I wrote while we were still there that talks about our first day or two, so start there. I am up to my knees in homework though, so it will be a day or two before I can get a posting up with the details of our final days and so forth. Thanks for looking, and enjoy...more pictures to come so return in a couple days...

Mother's Day at Disneyland...

So Friday after school we had planned to leave and drive down to L.A. atleast part way. We ended up sending Aiden to school as usual, he got home around 2:15 pm. We readied the rest of our stuff and loaded into the car. Liam had just had his nap so I was a little nervous about being in the car. After we had been in the car for a while and were running out of fun things I broke out the DVD player, I know it's not the best way to entertain, but when you are down to the last thing you've packed it just works. The kids watched until we got off of the curves and were getting closer to Santa Rosa. Liam was all the sudden saying, "nip, nip" (his word for nursing) much more desperately than before. I was trying to tell him that we stopping for dinner and Scandia very soon and that we could nurse then. The problem was that he wasn't really wanting to nurse as much as he felt sick. He started screaming after I said no and them all the sudden he is barfing. I don't mean a little barf either. He was spewing (twice) all the food and orange juice that he had drank that day, it was a lot. We pulled over ASAP and got Liam cleaned up with a change of clothes and any cloths we could find. He seemed to be a bit shaky and kind of freaked out and get repeating that he had barfed. We continued on to Rohnert Park to go to Scandia. We had went to Scandia a week or two before and had leftover tokens so we thought we could spend all of those and then play a round of mini golf and head to dinner. Everything, of course, always takes longer than planned so we were at Scandia FOREVER and I was starving and we needed to get back on the road. We went to Fresh Choice and ate lots of food so we wouldn't have to stop anymore then what was absolutely needed. We traveled until about midnight and got to a sign that said we had about 191 miles to go. We woke up (groggy) and got breakfast, brushed our teeth, and changed. I know the kids weren't happy about being on the road again but we reassured them that it wouldn't be as long as the day before. Aiden wanted to know the miles we had left to go everytime we drove by a mileage sign. We were doing a countdown.... 170...159...142....120..108, when we got under 100 he was so excited and when we saw a sign that said that we were is the Los Angeles City Limits we all yelled YAY!!!!!!! for as long as we had breath to do so. Traffic was slow once we got into L.A. so our excitement soon faded, but we were close. See, this was an adventure in itself since we've never drove to L.A. with two kids before. I am happy to say that we made it. We met Lucas's sister, Aurora, in her yard and got some lunch, we arrived at 12:30. The kids said hi and got to playing, as kids do. After getting a breather out of the car and getting some fuel (for our bodies, not the car) we headed to buy tickets to Disneyland (which were 2fer tickets, meaning, we paid the price for one theme park but get to go to two) and then went to Hahn Park. The park was packed since it was the weekend, but we went to go down to the pond and feed the ducks. We ran out of rice cakes quickly and walked around the perimeter of the pond. The kids got these long sticks and were "fishing" the algae out of the pond, which entertaines them for atleast 30 minutes. Liam and Penny were less enthused by the "fishing"- although they did want to try what the big kids were doing. We left the pond and walked up the hill to the playground (which was also packed) and let the kids play for another 45 minutes. It was about to be 5 o'clock so we needed to check into out hotel and get some food soon. Traffic was terrible, and this is from a country girls point of view, not a city person, so I pretty much think that ANY traffic is terrible traffic. We checked into our hotel and ordered chinese food to be delivered to our room. As we were getting to bed and wrapping up story time Aiden said that he wanted to get to bed so that he could wake up and go to Disneyland. I've never seen him so excited to go to sleep. We all woke up a little after 7 and started showering, packing up the stroller and eating. We walked to the Park so it took us atleast 10 or 15 minutes to actually get into D-Land. They had free carnations for all the moms and they were saying "Happy Mother's Day" to all the moms as they came in. We headed straight to Space Mountain because I knew that the lines would be shorter and it was at the top of Aiden's list of rides to go on. I knew if Aiden got to go on it he would be fine with whatever we did the rest of the day. After that we headed out of Tommorrowland to a part that had more kiddie rides that Liam could enjoy too. The first thing we rode on was Alice in Wonderland's ride. It was gentle and Liam got the feel for what riding a ride meant. Then we went to Storybook Land, which was a ride about all the different books we all read to our children. For example, Three little pigs, Pinnochio, Snow White, Aladdin, et al. It was a boat ride and the begginning consisted of us going into a whales mouth, which freaked Liam out. He was crying a little on my lap as if he didn't want to do it, but once we were part way in he saw that it was a tunnel and loved it. We then went to "It's a Small World" which didn't have a long line at all. I think that Liam really enjoyed this ride because of the music and how mellow the whole thing was. Plus there were so many things to look at that were sparkly and flying and dancing and it all kept his attention. The next ride we went on was a Roger Rabbit ride. We got our own taxi cab and it had a wheel that you could spin if you wanted to make your cab feel like it was spinning out of control. This ride was a little jerky and more scary to Liam. It was quick though, so he wasn't too fazed by it. We came out and headed over to a little play area for younger kids and got to relax for a little bit. After that Lucas and Aiden went on a small and short roller coaster. I think that after Space Mountain Aiden wasn't too scared by this roller coaster. Then we were feeling hungry and decided to sit down for lunch. After lunch Aiden mentioned the Submarine ride again, which I thought was too long to wait for before (30 minutes), but when we got to it this time the waiting time was 45 minutes. Liam was tired so I took the stroller and Liam back to the hotel. Aiden and Lucas waited out the Nemo Submarine ride. Aiden said it was really fun because you got to dive down deep and go into the whales mouth. I got back to the hotel at 1 and the other boys got back at 2. Liam didn't nap til 3:30 but that's typical of Liam. He acts all tired out and then holds out for 2 more hours before he actually falls asleep. We returned to Downtown Disney for dinner at around 6 hoping to get into a restaurant and eat because we all went when we were hungry, only to find out that there were 2 hour waits at restaurants. We ended up having burritos ordered from a window and sitting outside. It wasn't horrible, but not the nice Mother's Day dinner I was hoping for. We went back into Disneyland and wanted to ride more rides that were harder to get into earlier in the day. We went on Pirates of the Carribean, Lucas and Aiden went on Star Tours and we got a couple more in. The reason we wanted to go back to Disneyland was mainly the fireworks show. I've heard that it's one of the best fireworks shows there are, and it didn't disappoint. They have special fireworks made just for Disneyland and a story that they play that goes right along with what the fireworks are doing. It was really incredible, and worth keeping the kids up late for. We went to bed with smiles on our faces...

Playdate at Jasper's House...

On Monday we had planned to have a playdate at Aiden's friend Jasper's house. Jasper also has a younger brother, Sampson, about four months younger than Liam, so there was someone to play with for everyone. We arrived at their house at about 10 am and planned to stay for about two hours. It was drizzling outside so we spent a good portion of it inside. The boys played cars, of course, and also fiddle sticks. We played hide and seek and got a snack of popcorn and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. We headed outside so the kids could get their energy out and run around in their beautiful and large garden and flowers. I was more interested in seeing their garden than anything else (I like to get ideas, plus she used to be a gardener). Liam pushed around a toy mower and the kids played tag around the yard. Everyone was getting pretty wet and the littler kids were getting tired. We decided to head in and get warm and dry again. The kids played together in this modern style egg chair that spun around and had a cover that you could fully pull over the open part that made it look as if you were in an egg. Liam liked pushing the egg chair around and around with the two older boys inside. After we played for a bit more it was time to go. We said our goodbyes and headed home.

When we got home we played upstairs for a bit and I tried, unsuccessfully, to get Liam to take a nap. I decided that I had to wear them out a little more before Liam would nap- and it worked.

I had a Board Meeting at 4 pm at Caspar Children's Garden that I had to go to so I headed out for that and left Lucas to fend for himself until 5:30.

We got on dinner a bit later and then you know the rest, the usual, play, brush, read, time for sleep.

On Tuesday we have Music Together and although I usually take Liam Lucas said that he wanted to. So he took Aiden to school and then went to music class with Liam. For this class the kids got to bring a favorite stuffed animal, in which Liam chose Mr.Cow and Froggy. They sing the songs with the animals names and the sounds they make. Liam came back telling me about all the songs he sang and what they did. He loves it! Honestly I can't even remember the rest of the day, I guess that's what happens when you're a mom and you write these things in hindsight. Oh well, it musn't of been that interesting.

Wednesday is GG day, but before we went to GG's we had a playdate at Jonah's house. They live just up Little Lake, not far from our house. We have never been to their house and the boys were excited about visiting. We got there around 10 am and met them at the door. Tonya is Jonah's mom and she is a preschool teacher so she had 4 kids that she was "schooling" at her house that day. When we got there Tonya got out the box of trains for the boys. They played trains for about 30 minutes and then it was time for a project. Liam pretend cooked while the bigger boys did a colored popsicle stick project. Aiden was having a blast making different shapes and making a "helicopter". Liam started playing cars and them saw a kaleidoscope in the window and asked what it was. He wanted all the colored beads out of it, he kept asking me to "open" it. Soon it was reading time and Liam was getting a bit fussy and tired. We left Jonah's and went home to get a bite to eat before heading to GG's. When we got to GG's Grampy Ed was there and GG's had put out some yummy yogurt with strawberries and sparkling apple cider, which the boys loved, since they don't get it at home. I hadn't seen Tom or Alice for two weeks because I had to study the week before. So Alice came and sat down close to me and we talked about what had happened in the last two weeks. Uncle J came in a bit later and we all had some lunch. We played toys down on the table and talked about our impending trip to L.A. We're very excited to be seeing family- it's been over a year since we've been down to L.A. to see them.

Ackshawn's Birthday...

On Saturday we hosted a friends birthday party. We had a potluck dinner and plans to play Soccergolf. Uncle J and Sophia came, plus others, but that was all the family that came. As people started to arrive everyone started chit chatting and heading outside to play the game. I looked after the kids who were loving driving around the Powerwheels John Deere and Jeep. I walked around the loop with Liam and Clyde while they drove, splashing into any puddle they could find. We put on a movie for the kids as it got later and closer to their bedtime. They watched the Tale of Depereaux, which Aiden really loved. After that we brushed, read and sent them to bed. Everyone else stayed up and played poker and sang karaoke. Jeremiah ended up winning the poker money ($35), which I can't believe because he was sitting there looking half asleep, and then he just won the whole thing. Sophia slept in Aiden's bed, which he was soooo excited about. I wasn't that excited because I knew he wouldn't sleep that well. The next day he talked about it all day, but he did say that he didn't sleep that much. All in all it was a success, and probably the most fun I've had in a while, since I don't get out much anymore. Sunday we did nothing because we were so tired from the day before. I didn't sleep much because I got off my schedule and we had people sleeping over so I could hear the kids every now and again.

May is Bike Month...

May is national Bike Month. Get out there and ride you bike instead of driving your car- for yourself and the environment.