Fun and games

Tuesday is Zachary's early day, so I new that we would have to get homework done etc pretty quickly if there would be any time to play. Today however, instead of him wanting some alone time before snack/homework, Zachary decided to join Wyatt and I in a game of Mickey Mouse dominos. The big boys have been on a board game kick recently, and we have been playing all sorts of games, including ones we have not broken out for years and years like Operation. Today Wyatt let ME pick out the game. So I chose the dominos. We played until someone won twice. I think that Wyatt was the overall winner. Then we played one last game to use all of the cards/tiles. Here was the result. I wanted to take a picture of it, then each boy also wanted to take a picture.

So here is the picture I took of the finished product.  For the record Z did play with legos WHILE playing the game, so he did get some pre-homework lego time in!

Then Wyatt wanted to take a picture.  So I got to be in the picture which is rare.

Then I made sub sandwiches for all 5 of us to take to Z soccer practice. I wanted us to all go because I had plans that evening to meet some ladies at a coffee shop on Santana Row at 8pm and Z and art rarely get home from soccer practice before 715, despite practice being over at 645. I thought we could have a picnic dinner there. That plan did work....for Y, W and I at least. Now I see why they get home so late - the ADULT coaches do not want to stop playing the scrimmage! They are having so much fun playing against the whole team they don't want to stop. Sigh. Wyatt wore his cleats and shin guards just in case he decided he wanted to play. He did not want any skills practices but when it was time for the scrimmage he was IN. However he did get hungry and start taking dinner breaks. ;) A few bites then back on the field. While they were playing, N showed me some of his new skills

First he had to show me his bridge

Then he upped it and raised one leg while holding the bridge. I thought "hey, I have to do that in my bootcamp class!"

By the time practice was finally ver it was too late for a picnic dinner. Poor Art and Zach had to eat their dinner at home by themselves. I was getting ready for my night out and W and Y were still sitting in the garage listening to the end of a cd.

My fun and games came next at my night out with Meeah and Holly! Holly had gotten there early and gone shopping at H&M - I am SO doing that next time! It was a fun fun time, and so nice to get away with some new friends. We finally left around 10:30! Poor Art was still working on his report when I got home and then after I cleaned up the kitchen and went to bed. Sad, but, he did leave work at 440 for soccer. The boys had asked Art if they could build a fort while I was gone. Not this time, Art said but maybe they could ask me to go out for coffee this weekend so they could. I, from the garage yelled YES! :)

Uggh. Today we had a taste of some unpleasant days to come our way. It was too too hot today. I think the high was 88. Which in itself is not too bad but it was hot early in the day - already 80 at 9am when it is usu chilly in the morning and climbs a gradual crescendo to the high around 3pm. Then it is only a few short hours until the sun sets and it is all cold again. The temp in the house got to 86 before I had it and let the boys go out with their swimsuits on for some sprinkler and water gun time.

Of course little Nick was meerely a bystander for most of the play.  The water was too cold and unpredictable for him, but he did give it a bit of an effort. I let them play out there for about half an hour then into the bath [total rabbit trail aside. I am currently listening to a book on mp3 that is narrated by an English woman. I have been listening to it for about a week, and now, when I type, the words in my head have an English accent. bath = bahth crazy lady!].

My biggest concern is that we have neither AC, nor ceiling fans in the house. I put an oscillating fan in the boys room during naptime and kept the thermal curtains closed. By bedtime it was not uncomfortable in there, and by 9pm we had to close their door and turn off the fan - it was quite cool outside. We have a few hot days coming up the rest of the week, so I am not sure what this will mean for our rental home...purchase fans, a window AC unit, or if it will be unbearable. Most people say the really hot days here are very few and far between, but we shall see. There seem to be a LOT of fans for sale at Target. :)

[editor's note. as I type this, it is 'really' Tuesday, and today's weather is back to lovely again. high 70s with a fantastic breeze! Hot days coming though]

We have had this Sunday planned for over a month. Our family, plus the P family and the J family were to all meet at the winery for a little hike and picnic lunch. Sadly the J family was plagued with sickness this week, and when the youngest woke this morning with a fever they had to cancel. :( However, another family, even newer than we are, were able to join us. Jen and Tim...no idea their last name.

We got there at 10:30ish, applied sunscreen to every bit of skin showing and took off for a little hike. My only goal was to NOT repeat the hike we did with Oma and Opa! Too too much, especially since all 3 families had a stroller in tow - one with a 1/2 way flat tire. We walked a bit to the nearly dried up pond and explored there for a good while. We found BABY FROGS which I don't think I have seen in the wild before. So so so cute. I picked one up to show to all the kids. Wyatt wanted to hold it, and of course it jumped out of his hand, but he was thrilled for a bit.

You can barely see one in the V created by the two grassy stalks, and another to the left of the yellowish grassy stalk of the V.  At first I thought they were crickets, as they are about that size, but closer inspection reveals hundreds of these cuties.

I turned many logs over to show the kids what would be under it, and several interesting things. The most interesting thing was I believe the momma frog.  So very well camouflaged that it was quite difficult to see her until she moved just slightly. Then it was alarming because she was so big. Bigger than my hand. We spent a good while at the pond exploring. Zachary had little interest in the pond bed, but spent most of his time climbing the fallen log that we climbed before with Opa and Oma.

A special thanks to Meeah P who took all the pictures. I had a definite mom fail because I did not take a single picture, knowing that the likelihood of an experience with no pictures making it to the blog are slim to none. Whew!

After the big kids were done inspecting the dead lizard, it was time for a bit more hiking. We stayed to the Zinfandel trail this time, knowing we would just do part of it and then turn around. No more loops until it is just us, in case we come across horribly steep hills again. We probably hiked for a good 20 minutes there and back. Nice and easy trail. Went over a small stream with a tiny waterfall. Z constantly on the lookout for bobcats. :) Yannick and his buddy Noah were banned to the strollers as it was a bit of a steep drop from the trail. They made the best of it though.

It was quite comfy out, and the trail was mostly shaded. If we had not had people with us, we would have done the entire trail and back, which was not long, maybe 2m round trip. HOWEVER, I did have another mom FAIL by not making sure we had enough water. I always keep a sports bottle in my oversize purse, but neglected to see that it was only 1/2 full. Yannick and Wyatt drank all the water, and for those of you that know me, having no water available makes me panicky. The P family had plenty, and we got some from them, but just a gentle reminder to me that it is important to check. I had loads of ice water back in the car for lunch, but not enough on the trail.

[Short slightly related story to remember: Long long ago before we had Zachary, Art and I flew to Tucson to visit the Szlemko families. We had taken what we thought would be a short hike with Matt and Autumn, that turned out to be hours in the blazing sun. Art and I had not brought nearly enough water for even half the hike. Matt and Autumn had brought several bottles but most were frozen. It was a horrible game of trying to get a few sips out at a time waiting for the water to melt already!]

We headed back earlier than Art would have liked, but one of the families with us had to leave early, so we got back around noon for lunch. Normal time for most people. We noticed right away that there were new signs posted on the picnic tables. Art glance at it and said that it was the winery's rules. I never even looked at it. We should have though, because one of the winery staff came by and asked us to stop playing with the balls. Then, upon reading the rules, no longer allowed to play any ball games. That significantly reduces the fun factor for our family. I am not sure what entertainment the kids accept (besides iphone, ipad) now when we go. It just means that Art and I will have less time to sit after lunch b/c the kids will get bored faster.

We put 5 of the 7 kids at one picnic table (two kids were infants and stayed in the stroller etc) and the adults sat at the other one. It was an enjoyable time, even if we ended up doing more parenting than chatting with adults. Poor Noah fell off the bench and got a bloody nose, though after about 2 minutes, he did not seem to mind.

we did not stay for the wine tasting mainly because the boys were getting a bit antsy, with the fun balls RIGHT THERE in the stroller and not being allowed to used them.

And enjoyable outing!

And yes, all 5 of us had our tie dye shirts on we made last summer!! Yep, we are THAT family! :)

Still Intrigued by Dexter

Boys still can't get over Dexter wanting to be a library book!

Nick is just not nervous by Dexter yet - no way would I get that close to his face!

Poor Dexter, just wanting a bit of peace and quiet in a cozy basket

Boys wanting to make sure I took a picture of Dexter and not just them! :)

Saturday PM

So I spent most of nap time and beyond working on blog posts. When I finally roused myself out of bed (my favorite office space), I went to check out all the noise I had been hearing. Art and the big boys were playing Life the board game. The boys were having a good time, mainly because bad stuff kept happening to Art - his house flooded, a tree fell on his house, and then his house was burglarized. All eliciting giggles from the boys.

I walk in Z says "mom I already got married and my wife and I have a LOT of money! Money money money, I am richer than everybody!" Then a few minutes later from Zachary: I am a professional athlete and I am rich rich rich! And I have a full car of kids. :)

Now W who traded salary cards with Art, much to Art's chagrin "hey mom I am richer than rich!"

I guess this is our intro to Silicon Valley. Even our kids have been affected. :)

After the game, Yannick woke up and we started on dinner. We wanted to get done early so we could go to the pool (Y indoor), as it has been awhile since we have been. The kids wanted to go yesterday, but I forgot that family swim was not until their bedtime. Oops. We all had a great time at the pool. Art and I both thought it was the best time since we have been here. I think because the sun was still out and streaming into the windows that the water did not seem so cold. Art thinks it is b/c he was not exhausted, like he often is when we go during the week at night. Either way, we had a good time. I am trying to work with Wyatt now each time we go to the pool on his swimming alone. Since we no longer have the crutch of the YMCA preschool, we have to teach him ourself. He's very close, but not very strong. He can swim underwater and dive for things well, but the on-top-of-water swimming, even doggy paddle is not strong enough to go further than about 8 feet.

Saturday AM

Today Zachary's game was not until 12. Unfortunately for us all, he also had picture day at 9am, which meant we would not have enough time to go to the Family Fun day at the YMCA which we have always loved. We were thinking about our friends Yong, Kai, and the N. family today, as we have done family fun day with them the last 2 years. Art took Zachary to picture day. Sorry, we did not order any, and I'm glad, because two player were not there. Plus we already have a cool team picture in front of their awesome ($16/family) Lasers x-wing fighter banner. I digress. When they got back, we had some time to let the boys practice their biking skills.

Zachary in his orange Laser uniform riding his orange w/ flames bike.  Wyatt is eager to inherit that bike!

Our youngest on his balance bike, loving that he has his own bike! He keeps asking if he can ride Zachy bike; thinking he is the same age. HA!

We took the boys on a ride down to the park to play on the playground. Mostly they just kept riding their bikes instead of playing on the playground. Yannick and Wyatt even took their bikes onto the playground equipment. :) After a bit we had to head home to make lunches for W and N to take with us to Z's soccer game.

The game went well, Zachary played well, and it was the best that Yannick has behaved. Zachary was having a hard time keeping in front of the ball. He would make a good pass, but then sort of chase the guy with the ball instead of going in front of him to give that guy the opportunity to pass to him. After the game, I asked him about it. His reply: Well, they are all faster than me and I get tired pretty quickly. I am more like a cheetah who can run really really fast, but not for long before I need a rest.

A cheetah.

And of course after the game, all the kids had to play Four Square for as long as the parents would allow it. Z has taken to bringing his 4S ball to the games AND to practice so they can play afterwards. All the parents are full of eye rolls at this game. I am just so happy to see that other kids are obsessed by it, and not just Zachary!

Dexter as library book?

Odd the kids are intrigued by this, but since they are, I feel I must include it. Dexter has taken to sitting and sleeping in the basket where we keep our library books. Since the basket is woefully empty at the moment (need to get back to the library!), Dexter is able to sit in it. The boys are forever calling us in to see Dexter, the library book. Endless hilarity.

Unfortunately Dexter is blurry because any time I get the camera close to him, he must jump out of the basket and check it out. There you go, now you are experiencing about 3 minutes of my day, several times a day over the past week.

Friday night

No pictures with this one. Just two items of importance:

1) The boys FINALLY got to show off their biking skills to Art! So proud they all were!! Art was very impressed at everyone's progress, and a bit floored by how much older Zachary looks on his bike. Such a big kid. And little Nick doing so well on his balance bike. Cannot stress a full year before his two big bros. He is also so funny. If he sees either big brother nearby, he rides his bike into the grass to get out of their way "Zachy coming; Bubba coming". FYI, N O the nickname Bubba is NOT sticking. We refuse. It can be a special name Yannick has for Wyatt only. Yet, we sometimes say it to Yannick to make sure he knows who we are talking about. He will say Wyatt every now and then, but prefers his original Bubba. S I G H!!

2) We met some neighbors! They have two boys each a year younger than z and w. I was faced with an interesting cultural difference for the second time here. The first was when, at the house of our Muslim neighbors, when all the men served themselves food first before women and children. So different. Then tonight as we were talking with the other neighbor, I held out my hand to shake it and he totally ignored it and shook Arts hand. Point noted. However he did let us know that many families meet at the playground every night around 7/730 so that might be a good way to meet the rest of our neighbors w kids. And there are a ton. Still, 730 is when I like to start the get ready for bed process. But I will send Art as least once. I have a feeling it is Dads only. But at least it is a start. Especially because I really feel The Lord is pushing me to reach out to people in my community/neighborhood instead of leaning on church friends.

Art and I had a glass of wine, watched our two favorite shows, Parks and Recreation, and Big Bang Theory, and went to bed early. Long week.
As a side note, I have already invited those boys over to my house. I talked to their nanny (who I thought was their grandmother), and asked if they would like to come over some day after school to play. Their oldest is in Kindergarten at Z's school, and they ride the bus home together. It should be a good match...boys near the same age, AND, they live two houses down. I guess now that I have met the dad, I can reach out to the nanny again.

Sacked out!

Today was a big morning because two of the 3 boys had Dr. appointments. Z had one just for a Hep B shot. APPARENTLY he has been attending school these last year and a half illegally. Both his school in Evanston and the one here require 3 Hep B immunizations. Well, he has had three. It finally took a computer system of our new pediatrician to spit out the real deal. In Germany, they give all 3 shots BEFORE the child has turned 6 months. In the US, the 3rd shot has to be AFTER they are 6 months old. So, poor guy, had to get one now, at nearly 7 years. Oops.

Yannick had his 2yr appointment. He passed. :) He of course is doing just fine. A bit of a body type like Zachary - tall and thin. Not as thin as Z has historically been, but in the 25th percentile for weight, and 75th %tile for height. When I got home, I added his 2yr height to their combined growth chart and the little one is taller at the same age, than both of his brothers were. Also, he has dry skin, and she wants us to use lotion on him. ok.

After taking Z back to school - luckily he did not miss much of his walk-a-thon, we did a few little errands. I drove by Blackberry Farm, our local pool, to get a better feel for it, and if we might want to buy a summer pass. It just depressed me. Our Skokie Waterpark was SO GREAT. Blackberry farm is not even as good as inferior Devonshire (which i also loved, because of it's smallness, not in spite of). No zero entry. No fountain garden. No diving board. One slide, while cool looking, can't compete w/ Skokie's 3 slides - one w/ tubes! Sigh. Feeling down in the dumps today and missing our old Utopian life. Except for the weather here is a w e s o m e. Sorry Evanston, but seriously, your lack of Spring this year, and extended snow/winter is troubling.

I digress.....after a few errands we came home to get lunch. Wyatt was giving me a running commentary on his topic du jour (probably black jaguars - rare, and so cool) when we realized that we had neither seen nor heard Yannick in awhile. I sent Wyatt into his room to check on the little guy, and Wyatt comes back and says "ummm, mom, you're going to want to see this".

Here is the picture I took. Wyatt thought it was so funny that he wanted to take a picture as well. Here is his.

I said loudly "Yannick, time for lunch!", but he was totally gone. This was very early too. Around noon. We usually eat about 1230, and they nap at 130. He must have been exhausted from last night's date night. :) He went on to sleep 3 hours, and woke up to have his lunch around 3:30. Wyatt also fell asleep for a few hours, which generally only happens about once a week, so I got a great little break!

Apple Tree

There is a song by Brad Paisley called "Payback" that has a lyric that goes "he's gonna climb a tree too tall and ride his bike too fast....if he's anything like me". We accomplished the second step of that lyric with all the new bike riding, and now, Zachary is onto the first part. He has decided he'd like to be a tree climber. We have a smallish apple tree in our back yard, but it has good size branches big enough to support a big kid (unlike our fig tree which has tiny branches). Zachary has made it his mission to get up that tree. And get up he has

Here's Zachary up on the highest branch where he can sit "like a king"

Peeking through the leaves

He is quite proud of himself for this feat. He worked on it for several days this week, which was a nice change from the fwack thump of the "four square" ball which has owned his life for nearly our entire time here in CA.

Z is even more excited to learn that he is climbing an apple tree which mean he is designated as "highest apple picker" by Art. A title he relishes. Now if those apples will just grow already! :) We have not sprayed the blooms yet, which is bound to ensure that the apples will be full of bugs when they are picked...according to our neighbor.

DATE NIGHT!!!

So tonight was the first time we went our in our newly reappointed date night swap. No pics, sorry, so I'll make it brief.

I fed the boys dinner (tortellini) early, around 5:15. I was aiming to drop them off at the J house between 6-6:30. Art and I decided it would be a bad idea to pick him up from work just to ride to their house with the boys then have to say goodbye. Better to have them not see him at all. So fed the kids, got them in their pjs, and off we go. First non-family-sitting date night we've had in the 13 weeks we have been here. 13 weeks. That seems pretty long. Boys were excited, and well prepped on going to sleep at the J house. Z and W had strict instructions to help take care of Y if he got upset for any reason, or sad when it was time for bed.

Drop-off was easy peasy. Boys all kissed me goodbye, and I was off, no tears, no issues. Helps that they have been over to the J house many times. Our bible study group meets there. Off to pick up Art. As he gets into the car he announces that Apple is putting a damper on our evening...he is to attend a conference call at 9pm. What?!?! Oh no they did NOT (I can't pull that off can I?) interfere with MY date night. :)

Tonight's date night: low key, dinner only. Partially bc of the conference call and partially bc of it being the first time our kids have gone to sleep at someone else's house since January. (the report later was that they were SO EASY, and had zero issues going to sleep, were obedient, etc). Dinner at Red Pepper Grill. We had bought a Groupon for it in Feb. We had planned on using it when my Dad was here, then we did not, then thought we'd use it when Opa/Oma were here, but they encouraged us to go someplace nice that they would foot the bill for. So now is finally the time. SO GOOD! We will definitely go back there and get another Groupon next time it pops up. First of all, yes yes yes to complimentary chips and salsa. Nowhere in Evanston that we went had that. And the salsa was supremely good. I am embarrassed that we went through 3 baskets of chips. My rationale was that 1) the salsa was super yummy and 2) we would eat as much of the free stuff as possible which would enable us to eat less of our entree so we could take it home and eat it again for lunch. Brill! I got a steak burrito, Art got some sort of seafood burrito. LOVE LOVE that they give you a choice of black beans or refried beans, which most places do not. I detest refried beans. Unless there is enough cheese. A spoonful of cheese helps the medicine go down...no matter what Mary Poppins says.

We sat and chatted for a long time, during which Art went into a mini food coma from being so full, where all of his energy was diverted to digestion. he came out of it around the time we needed to head back home for his conference call. He could have taken it at a coffee shop, but I didn't think confidential work stuff should be so out in the open. Plus, I could watch an episode of Ugly Betty. :) Changed out of my cute skirt and top (and it must be mentioned, black w/ polka dots head band) into my velour pants and a sweatshirt. Lookin' good.

Oh the injustice, the call was cancelled and no one bothered to mention it to Art. He waited on the call for a good 10 minutes. Boo them. Finished UB and went to pick up the kids where we got a glowing report.

We have had better date nights, and honestly, we've had worse. But this one must be recorded as it was the first of our swap. Oh, I should also mention, for posterity, Zachary's response to finding a new family to date night swap with. Z: So these are our best friends here? M: They don't have to be. Mainly just W best friend so far, you can decide who you best friend is. Z: Well then these are the people we trust the most here? M: (not yet catching on) Well, we trust a lot of people here, but this is a family that is willing to do date nights the way we do. Not everyone is comfortable with their kids going to sleep at someone else's house" Z: Ok. But can't we EVER make friends with people who have a kid MY AGE?" Oh poor Zachy...he wants us to have friends with kids his age. We are working on it! Still does not change date night, but we'll trying.

We miss the M. family!! W said "date night at Tobin's is different from at Morgan's. I miss my best friend Morgan. But it is nice to have a new friend who likes dinosaurs" :)

Wyatt and Yannick have been ready to move up to their next bikes. Yannick especially is so excited to have Wyatt's blue balance bike as his own. He says "Bubba bike MY bike?". We have been putting it off because Zachary did not have a bike to move up to yet. He has way outgrown his red Radio Flyer bike, but nothing to move up to. Art's parents brought up to IL Art's old bike from when he was a kid, and Art would like to fix it up for our boys. However, this had not happened yet. I have been keeping an eye out for bikes whenever I go to Goodwill, just in case something good is there for a decent price. Once a cool Spiderman bike was there, but it was $40...nah. Today however we totally scored at Goodwill!! There was an Orange bike with flames on it, just the right size. I was afraid to look at the price, because I saw that it was a Giant (a good brand for bikes. Art's $500 commuter bike is a Giant). SCORE, only $16! I did not know if it would fit in the car, but I was definitely going to take the chance. So exciting. ESPECIALLY because the bike is orange, which means Wyatt's next bike, in a few years, will be his favorite color! Hmmm, this just occurred to me that we have 3 kids bikes, each one the color of one of our boys favorite colors. Granted, Yannick says that Blue is his favorite color, but honestly, blue is the only color he knows. Time will tell.

So here is Zach's new bike with the flames. Incidentally, Art was fine with this purchase. He still wants to fix his old bike up for we have 3 boys, so any of them could use it. He is happy we got something for Zachary now.

Check out the flames!  And the cool mud flap in the back in case he does any bmx racing. :)

Once we got home, and I put away the groceries, the boys were eager for me to fix their bikes so they could get started. So despite being so so so sore from yesterday's Bosu bootcamp class, I gingerly got down on the stool and adjusted their bikes for seat and handlebar height. Then they were ready to go!

This is Wyatt's first time on a pedal bike. Zachary was able to go from the balance bike straight to a pedal bike with no training wheels in about 5 minutes. We were hoping for the same success for Wyatt. YES! After about two minutes, he was riding by himself. He was struggling with the steering and took a spill of the curb. The red Radio Flyer bike is an oldie. It is a really heavy bike, not like newer lighter bikes. But he got that under control quickly, and was able to ride up and down the sidewalk by himself. He is still struggling with braking. He is so used to using his feet as breaks, as he did with the balance bike, but he's going to get hurt trying to brake with his feet on this big bike. He can do it if he has enough time to think about it, but panic moments are definitely feet-as-brakes.

Yannick did so wonderfully his first time on the balance bike! He is getting the balance bike a full year before both Z and W did. It is a product of his being 3 years behind W instead of 2 like W was behind Z. Wyatt is 5 and ready for the pedal bike, and Y just gets the bike now. He can easily handle it! He occasionally forgets to sit down and tries to walk standing up, but adjusts quickly when reminded. So so cute.

I feel so badly that I did not wait for Art to do this. He was there to teach Z how to ride, and I am sad that he was not there for Wyatt. Art says he does not mind and he'll have plenty of time to watch them, but I still regret not waiting for him. They boys were just so excited, and i knew that tonight there would be no time because of soccer practice and tomorrow night is bible study, so no time there either. Poor Art will have to wait until Friday to see his kids on their bikes. :(

The second time Wyatt wrecked was a good time to stop and go get lunch. Yannick spent the rest of the afternoon talking about his bike.

It's official... we really do live here now. And now we are legal. We have the car tags and the drivers licenses to prove it. Unfortunately, our licenses are so horrible looking that I refuse to immortalize them by taking a picture of them. If you want to see how terrible they look, then you can just ask to see it next time we are together. Also sad that I had to add 5 pounds to the weight that was listed when I got my IL license just 4 years ago. Working on losing 6 pounds. Not working hard mind you, but working. :)
Here's our proof...it still feels odd to be living in California. California. A state I never ever wanted to move to. In fact, I recall when we moved to Evanston and my dad lamented how far away it was from ATL, I recounted with "at least it's not California". :) Me and my big mouth.

New plates on RedCar, as Zachary used to call it, and OurGo, as Yannick calls it.

And for the record, they DMV was super nice to us and did not charge us a fee for getting our registration so late after we moved here, NOR for being expired tags.  We were able to use a bit of a loophole because I am a stay-at-home mom, and the car title is in my name only. She asked the question "what date did you start working or receive your license in CA", and since I do not have an outside job, the only date to put was the date I received my license, that day, April 23rd...so no fee!

It should also be noted that the next time I have to renew my license, if it is here in CA, I might want to actually study for the exam. First timers are allowed to miss 6, and I missed 5. Renewals are only allowed to miss 3 to pass. :)

Vegetation

One of my favorite things about this area is the variety of vegetation. You can have a cactus and a palm tree in the same yard.

Here are two of my favorite trees that are on the way to Zachary's school.

This is one of my favorite trees.  I love how it looks like little puff balls at the end of each branch.  Like a cake pop bouquet.  I might need a better angle to get perspective.  Love it though.

I love how this tree, or set of trees has so many trunks coming out of the same place. Looks very cool.

Wyatt commented that he doesn't really like trees that much, but he would like to take a picture of what he DOES like. Here it is:

He loves his orange shorts

And he loves himself.

There you go. Why care about trees when you can care about taking pictures of yourself and your cool orange shorts. :)

Mom's morning out

Soooooo...a few weeks ago, The Lord put it on my heart to reach out to the other soccer moms from Zachary's team. I planned a coffee outing at a cafe that 'just happened' to be near our house; close enough for me to walk or ride my bike to. I think .3 miles away. Andes Cafe. And today was that day. First of all, it must be said that Art was great and encouraged this, and was happy to stay with the 3 boys by himself on a Sunday, which was usu reserved for family time. I was able to talk a bit about our church, since it meets at 4pm, which gives me the time available in the morning to meet with them. After a slow start (needing to fix my handlebars etc), I made it just as the first mom showed up. Only 3 of us came, but hey, it's a start. It MUST be mentioned that the guy behind the counter was like a caricature of a high school surfer/pot head. I had a hard time looking away from his gigantic frizzy fro (this was a white guy btw). I could have stayed there just checking him out (in a scientific way) for quite some time. The other two moms were also moms of boys, one of 2 boys, and one of 3 boys. It was fun to talk to the mom of the 3 boys, bc her youngest plays on Z's team, so it's our life in 5 years. It was great conversation, and we finally had to break it up at noon, a full 2 hours after chatting. They all agreed it was and enjoyable time and that moms really need this break (yet they both work full-time, both with phDs) and we should do it again. So I'll plan one for May. However, the 'real' reason for this post was to show you what happened while I was away! Sigh. I had forgotten all about fort building...I guess it has been many months since I have left the kids with Art while they were awake. Need to remedy that, because they ALL 4 had a great time.

Of course the kitchen did not get cleaned up.  It was still a disaster after this morning's breakfast.  I never expect it to get cleaned when I am gone, but I always have hopes that I will not come home to this!

Art had even fed the boys lunch - cereal, mac n cheese, and other odd bits.  I was summoned to come find the boys.  Uh oh.  I headed towards their room and was surprised by this:

Art had created, with the help of the boys (Wyatt's idea btw) a massive fort in their room, using the couch pillows, Yannick's mattress, Buster, the covers from their bed, and the pillows and covers from our bed. It was a maze underneath, and it took me a bit to find them. Later after it was cleaned up, the boys told me that Art had taken pictures of them hiding, and I was to look at the pics to see if I could find them hiding. It was like "Where's Goldbug" challenge. And it was tough...some of the pics I had to blow up to see. AND, at dinner, it was casually mentioned that Art had also let them jump OFF OF ZACHARY'S TOP BUNK onto the mess of pillows. WHAT?!? Glad they have a dad who will do that stuff with them, bc no way would mom! Art mentioned later, after the kids were in bed that it was really nice to get some time with the boys when he wasn't just waking up, or tired from the end of the day...a time of day when he had energy etc. DONE, I will make sure I leave more often!

Happy 2nd Birthday Yannick Arthur Counts!!

Our little guy has had an extended birthday celebration! He has gotten so much attention that he now says "my birfday", and "I turn 2!" with zeal. It is all very cute.

It started Saturday night, before his birthday. We watched the movie The Incredibles and ate pizza. He for some reason, loves "JackJack baby", despite never having seen the movie (we have a toy and some books w/ JackJack). So we thought he would enjoy it. He watched the entire movie which is saying something...it's pretty long!

Everyone in their spots for movie time!  Yummy deli pizza and veggies.

That night, Art and I spent a considerable amount of time blowing up some balloons.  Each year Art's tradition is to dump balloons into the bed of the birthday boy as they are waking up.  We forgot about it until the very last moment before bed, so there we were blowing up balloons and decorating Yannick's chair.  I even made some balloon animals and balloon swords for something a bit different.

Morning of his birthday came too early, as it often does.  We quickly ran in to get the balloons ready to dump on him....only it was not the big hit it was for the other two boys.  He smiled a bit at the attention, but was not thrilled with the balloons.  He avoided the balloons for the rest of the day, and I had to keep them out of his room.

However, the big boys enjoyed some time with the balloons.

After the big boys played with balloon swords for a bit, it was time for breakfast. I made blueberry muffins with a chocolate chip heart for Yannick and a chocolate chip smiley face for Z and W. Poor mommy and DaU got no such nice treatment. We put a #2 candle in the muffin and sang to our big guy.
After breakfast we had a bit of time to play before our next fun thing - going to McD for lunch and playplace. It was pretty hot out there. In fact, Art left his phone in the sun, and got a temperature sensor warning message. Good thing it didn't get fried!
We were hoping that Yannick would fall asleep in the car on the way home. We needed him to take an early nap so that we could go to Pump It Up at 2pm. One of Z's classmates had her birthday party there, with siblings invited, so we decided it would be a good opportunity to 1) meet some of the parents in Z's class, and 2) go to PIU for free...perhaps Nick would think it was for his birthday! :) Back to the drive home, NO, he did not fall asleep. We put him in bed when we got home, but he never fell asleep. So of course he fell asleep in the car on the way to Pump It Up. He stayed asleep in the stroller for the first 30 minutes or so. I felt terrible that he was missing all the fun. But he awoke with plenty of time for play!

Art enjoying himself on the obstacle course!

Boys in the basketball jumpy place with DaU

Yannick in the cute car

Oh my word this one scared me. Yannick was loving going down the big slide, but only with Mom and DaU. So this one I went down, and turned around to take a picture of him going down with Art, and then to my surprise, he went down by himself. Eek!! After that, he only wanted to go by himself! He's too little!

After much much much fun on the slides and obstacle courses, we went into the party room for pizza and cake. We let Yannick sit on the birthday throne...it's is his birthday after all!

The birthday boy!

After the party we had to beat it to church, then off to a cookout at Shea & Julie's house which went pretty well despite Yannick only getting a 45min nap. We left there late and piled everyone into bed. We knew we would have a family party for him once presents from the family arrived, we just did not know when we would have it. Turned out that with the schedule, Thursday night worked well. It also happened to be the first night for date night swap with the J. family. So Yannick's buddies Tobin, Zoe, and Ezra were there too to help him eat his brownie (which he did not even like!) and watch him open his presents.

And finally , I believe the last of the presentz.  On Friday night, , our neighbors brought over a a gift bag for Yannick birthday with a Thomas the Train helium balloon. All the boys were busy watching a movie and eating pizza. Art had a work dinner and was going to be late. so I did not even show Yannick the bag until the morning. Saturday morning, he got to open it, and we discovered that Naila had packed a present for ALL the boys!! So generous!! Yannick got shark jammies (sorry Staci!), and a train from the Thomas series, Charlie. They also gave Wyatt some pokemon action figure, and Zachary a very cool lego set. Way too much! So grateful! That ought to do it for his birthday celebrations...though he keeps asking "birfday party?". :)

Yannick was especially excited to get a card from Aya.  He is quite infatuated with her...probably because she actually plays with him and does not boss him around.  He loves aya!