Picnic in the Park

July 31, 2013 - Dinner time

With Art out of town, and Meeah's husband still out of town, we decided to have a picnic in the park, inviting the rest of the NG ladies.  Hannah and Holly also came, giving their husbands the chance to work a bit later guilt-free.

It is always fun to hang out with the ladies and chat the best we can with 11 kids running around. :)

The only picture of the night

this looks horrible, and it must have been, because it did not last long.  Apparently T and his sister Z often double swing like this, but Z is quite a bit smaller than Wyatt.  This looks like some form of torture. :)

It sure is nice to have a get together with the ladies to break up the long no-Art days.  He is coming back tonight, late, and we are all happy to see him again!

New Park!

July 31, 2013

Given that our move to somewhere is emanate, I have felt a desire to try out all the parks around our house..all new to us.  Today's directions to us via a road called Newcastle, and the boys were obsessed with seeing a castle, even if it was a new one.  Sigh.

Today we went to a park, brought a picnic lunch, to the playground by Grant Park in Los Altos.  It was a good park.  There was a little school or community center there, so that meant 1) bathrooms on site - whoo hoo, and 2) camps.

Once the boys ate their food, they set out to explore the playground.  First stop, the sand box that had a rock waterfall that turned on for about 5 minutes every 20 minutes or so.  Just long enough to dry off after getting wet.

Wyatt and Yannick playing in the water that came out from under the top rocks.

Finally Zachary gets over his poutiness  at not wanting to come to the park (always wants to stay home of course), and comes to check out the waterfall in the sandbox.  BTW, I have finally learned to just keep the bucket of sand toys in the trunk in case wherever we go has a sand box.  I got tired of it always tipping over, so I bungee corded it into place.  Engineer represent!

Zachary and Wyatt digging deep into the sand after the waterfall stopped so they could find more water.  Which they did.  Well done boys.

We played around for a bit, and then the campers finally left which gave the boys much more room to explore around.

It was a good park, and we will probably go there again.

Multi-kid Day!

July 30, 2013

Today is the first meeting of the Neighborhood Group Ladies book club.  It was scheduled to be at Leslie's house, but when I found out Art was going to be out of town I asked her if I could host it at our house.  She said yes.  Then we found out that another one of the ladies' husband was also out of town, so I invited her to come over with her kids and put them down at our house while we have our meeting.

It was a bit of a zoo of course getting 6 kids ready for bed!

Here are the kids minus baby Caleb, who was with his mom, during bible story time.  They all picked out a bible story, but I did not have the time to read them all.

While it was crazy, it was definitely fun having them all over.  We need to try again when the husbands are in town and the adults can play games or something.  

The baby did not want to go to sleep until the meeting was nearly over, but J and N were plenty good and went to sleep.  They shared the guest room with our pack n play and C was in our room with Meeah's pack n play.  A good set-up.  My boys were bummed that J was not allowed to sleep on the mattress in their room like when T comes for date night.

The meeting went well, and it was fun having all the ladies over.  I made fresh lemonade (from the neighbor's tree), and put out some candy.  Leslie brought some goodies and fruit, so we were well represented.  There were just 5 of us until the very end when Christy brought her stuff to store in our garage for a few days while they were moving out of their temporary housing, into a hotel, then into their 'permanent' housing.  We all helped her unload her overloaded car into our garage then everyone took off.  

I am glad that Meeah was willing to try the crazy arrangement!

Home Depot Trip

July 29, 2013

Today I had HAD IT with the toilet in the boys' room.  It broke a little last week, but you were still able to use it if you struggled a bit.  Well today it finished breaking.  I took it apart, and saw the part it needed to fix it. 

So off to Home Depot to fix it.  

Two things worth mentioning about this picture.  One, we were only going to be in the store for a few minutes while I got a new part to the toilet.  I asked the moment I walked in and was quickly guided to the indoor plumbing area.  Despite the quickness of this trip, they all needed to bring books in with them to read in the store.  LOVE IT!  Desperate to have 3 little readers!

The second item of note is that Yannick threw a F I T because he wanted to be in the big boy seats.  Unfortunately there were only two of them.  He was crying and screaming about having to sit in the baby seat until i suggested that he sit in the cart instead.  No baby seat, and the entire cart to himself.  Given the size of the part I needed was about the size of my hand, I think there was room.  He was thrilled by this, and we were good to go.

While we were in the neighborhood, we dropped by Goodwill to see if I could find something decent to store their stuffed animals in, since they have outgrown the old home for stuffed animals, and it burst open at the seams.

Also, when we got home, I successfully fixed the toilet.  Take that, naysayers.    

Artsy Yannick

July 28, 2013

Art left for Pennsylvania this morning.  Early early this morning.  Crazy early.  I think the alarm went off at 4am, and the cab was there at 4:30am.  Yannick started crying in his bed around 4:20 or so, and wanted DaU.  Luckily, DaU was still home, and able to hold him for about 10 minutes to calm him down and put him back into OUR bed before DaU took off.  I thought, 'oh no, this is not starting well'...but i was wrong.  He and I both slept in until 8:30am!  Zachary and Wyatt played quietly and patiently until we woke up.  So wonderful after the promise of being terrible.

That said, I left him in my bed "yook at pitchers" (looking at pictures) on my phone while I started getting breakfast ready.  Here's a nice one he took of himself.

Yannick relaxing in my bed, waiting for breakfast.

CA Weather

July 27, 2013 - later that evening

I think we are getting a bit too used to the warm California weather, and have forgotten all about our Chicago suburb days!

Tonight, we were eating dessert outside, and as the sun goes down, I have to admit that it gets a bit chilly.  However, tonight it was still 72deg outside, so saith my iPhone.  Wyatt, got too chilly and went inside to get his light jacket.  

It was so funny, that I had to take a picture.

That is until about 20 minutes later, sitting in the hammock that it really did seem chilly, and I went in to get my jacket too.  :)

Our Duplex For Sale

July 27, 2013

The sad day has come - the 'for sale' sign is up at the corner between our two halves of the duplex.  We are SOO close to being able to afford it..  Right.

That's right folks - our two halves (each one has 3bd, 2ba), are asking for $1 Million, 548 Thousand, and some change.  And, they will get more than asked for.  Our place is the top right back yard, and the three bottom pictures on the flyer.

Sigh.  I am not happy about the need to move that is for sure.  I am really hoping that someone buys it as an investment and wants renters AND wants to keep the rent the same.

Double Sigh.

Largest Memory Game - Ever

July 27, 2013 - after getting out of bed

Once we were finally able to pull ourselves out of bed, we were brought in to see the largest memory game that was about to take place.  

They are using four decks of Star Wars themed cards.  And they really did play the game!  It took the course of the day, but they did it.  And loved it.

Where's DaU?

July 27, 2013

On Saturdays we get to lie in bed a bit longer than normal days.  We stay in bed as absolutely long as possible.  Eventually, however, the hooligans get tired of us being inert, or the get hungry, or they revolt over a dirty diaper...something.  Today however, we were REALLY not wanting to get out of bed.  Payback from the boys - bury us alive.  I escaped long enough to take pictures

DaU is under there somewhere...under Buster, the soccer pillows, the "DaU pillows" I commissioned Stephanie M. to make, under the Cars "husband" pillows, under the couch pillows, and under the duvets.  Hopefully he is still breathing...maybe he has a snorkel under there.

Zachary and Wyatt proud of their work...and ready for us to get up.

To the Pool!

July 26, 2013

One of my disappointments about living here in the summer has been the lack of pools.  There is Blackberry Farm which has two outdoor pools, less than 2 miles from us, but it is not right for our family right now.  Yannick is not tall enough to stand in the shallow end, and Wyatt's swimming isn't good enough yet to hang out with Zachary in the deeper end.  It has one slide, which is pretty boring after Skokie Water Park.  I looked around at joining a community pool, but it is just too expensive right now.  There is always the YMCA, where we go swimming regularly, BUT, it is indoor, which is great all the time except in the summer, when I would rather be outside.  Luckily, my friend Meeah told me that that the Central Y (there are 5 Silicon Valley YMCA, and you can be a member at one and attend any of the 5) has the exact same pool as mine, but outdoor.  It is a bit of a drive - it's near the airport - at 15-20min, but today we were going for it.  I packed a lunch for us too, so we could stay longer.

It was just as we were told - exactly like our indoor one, just with the lovely summer sunshine.  All the boys splashed around for awhile until the lifeguard said that Z needs to take a swim test to make sure he can be in the deep end.  And there is a rule that you can't have 3 non-swimmers with one adult.

So we trekked off to the indoor pool for him to take the swim test.  He did great at first, treading water, and jumping in, but then freaked out a bit when he had to swim the 25m.  So he took a rest, then did it again, and was no problem.  Luckily, I figured out that he was missing his goggles, which made swimming "less enjoyable" for him.  Once I got the goggles, he was totally fine.  So now every time we go, he has to go to the lifeguard and get them to look up his name and get an arm band.

Back to the pool.  But they were getting tired, so we got out to go have lunch.  No food allowed on the pool deck, so we went out to the picnic tables out front.  They were also giving away free school supplies, so the boys loaded up.  Lunch was fine, and back to swimming.  I finally made us leave around 1:30pm, so we could get back for naps.

Wyatt and Zach playing with a tennis ball

Yannick practicing his swimming on the stairs

he looks unhappy, but really he is saying "CHEESE".  he played with a cow and a tiger much of the time.

I played with the other two as well, throwing them dive sticks they would retrieve.  I honestly thought, as I was sitting in the steps of the shallow end "now this is the life"!  

Then time to leave sadly!

Zachary got cold and needed to sit in the sun for a bit - of course his little little brother had to do the same!

Such a lovey day!

Yannick cuteness

July 25 & 26, 2013

Just a few cute pictures of Yannick

This was a surprise one morning when Art sent me on a mission to find Yannick, hiding cutely under our pillows in bed

Yannick dressed for an adventure.  What all explorers wear: fire hat - check, Thomas Train jammies - check,  swimsuit - check,  rain boots - check.

The adventurer is on his way with his Elmo backpack

Lego minifigure army

July 23, 2013

An army of minfigures

They are proud of their army!

Zachary climber

July 23, 2013

Today we came to Memorial Park for a bit.  Zachary does not get a chance to come here much, being in school, but Wyatt and Yannick are here more often.  I think the last time Zachary was here was in May when Nana was visiting us.  I am assuming that is what prompted him to ask me to take this picture

Zachary said the last time he was here was with Nana, and he kept trying to climb on top of this tunnel, but wasn't able to do it.  Today, he did it!  And he asked me to take a picture and send it to Nana.

Good job Zach!

Explore CA - Redwoods

July 21, 2013

FINALLY!  Art has been eager for us to go here for awhile.  We intended to go yesterday but piddled our morning away so that by the time we would have gone there we would not have much time until we had to turn around to go home.  So today we are off to Big Basin Redwood Forest State Park (or something like that).

I would say overall, today was wonderful.  Really excellent, minus two things: the drive there, and the drive back.  The drive there was tortuous for me.  Art drove, which we learned was not the way to go.  It was so twisty and turny for nearly 40 minutes.  The entire trip was only about an hour, but that 40 minutes of it was terrible.  I got really car sick, and was fighting to not throw up.  I have never gotten car sick before, so this was new, and unpleasant.  After awhile I could not even look at the map anymore to see if we were in the right place.  Once we got to Big Basin State Park, we thought we were in the clear, but it was FOREVER driving through the park before we finally made it to the parking and visitor center etc.  Awful.  It took me a good 30 minutes to recover, and feel better.

Of course, Yannick fell asleep very nearly when we got there.  However, shockingly, he transferred asleep to the stroller.  We decided against having lunch right away (no WAY was I eating), and decided to get going on the hike.  Good thing we brought bug spray, b/c the mosquitos were horrendous.  However, they did respond well to bug spray and left us alone.  I had to spray the stroller to keep Yannick safe.

Here are some trees before we got to the start of the trail, which we thought were amazing....until we got to the heart of the traill!

Wyatt in front of one of the redwoods we thought was big.

Shayna, Zachary, Wyatt at the beginning of the Redwood Trail for families (aka, very easy, very wide, lots of cool things to see, not too long - a mile loop I think).  Yannick was still asleep in the stroller.

here is our official trail guide.  We bought a trail guide for $0.25 and Wyatt made sure we read the facts associated with each numbered hot spot.

Wyatt consulting the bigger trail map of the entire park.

Hey, look who woke up in time to enjoy some redwoods!

Boys by a half burned redwood tree

Here, the tree burned out from the inside but the outside was still amazingly alive, and came back together at the top to continue growing

Looking up.  many of these trees have been burned by lightning and fire

This was a group of trees all growing together, like in a friendship circle

This tree did not survive a fire, is burned up from the inside and looks like a teepee.

This is Shayna & the boys standing inside the burned out tree from above

Father of the Forest tree

Shayna with the Mother of the Forest tree  Wyatt thrilled to be taking more pictures!

We stopped at the Father of the Forest tree to have lunch.  There was a long bench there, and we all ate a bit from the picnic lunch we had - turkey, tomato, cucumber, cheese wraps, oranges, goldfish, etc.

We walked a bit more, then the trail loop was over.  It ended at an amphitheater whose benches were made out of downed trees.  Alongside the seating was a fallen Redwood which the boys had to check out thoroughly.

Here is Yannick investigating (with my keychain flashlight courtesy of the Chamblee Police) the root system of the downed tree.

Shayna on top of the tree with Zachary hiding out with just his head peeking out

Zachary and Wyatt peeking around the roots

Zachary and Wyatt both on top of the tree

We did not let Yannick get on the tree because it was just too high up and a bit dangerous getting him up there.  Even Wyatt was tentative.  Zachary of course was eager to get up there and start climbing.

We stayed in the amphitheater for quite some time while they played on and around the tree and finally graduated to the stage for some impromptu performances.  It was a good opportunity to finish off the pita chips and salsa!

Finally, we needed to start heading back if we wanted to be on time to church.  In an effort to lessen my car sickness, I drove home.  Which helped tremendously!  I did not feel sick at all coming back.  I felt tense around all the curves, and pulled over many times to let people pass me, but no nausea!  FOR ME.  Unfortunately, Yannick did not fare quite so well.  Zachary and Wyatt had drifted off to sleep, and we were hoping that Yannick would too.  He started crying, and would not stop even with his paci, and then, bleech, the threw up.  Ick.  But he stopped crying.  I pulled the car over to take care of everything, and of course Z and W awoke.  Unhappiness abounded in the back seat. :)  But we survived.  We missed a turn, and went home a different way, which was really great because we got to see some wineries, some horse ranches and some incredible houses.  We had just enough time at home for me to throw on a skirt, Art to change Yannick's shirt, and clean up most of the throw up in the car (it was not a huge amount to start with - more like a large verp), then off to church.  Z, A, W all dirty from hiking, but no time to change.  And we were even almost on time!

It was a long day, but very enjoyable.  I would do it again - if I am driving!

Explore CA Saturday - hiking

July 20, 2013

Today on the docket, after laying around in bed, eating a leisurely breakfast, is a new hiking spot.  It is so lovely to drive less than 10 minutes and be in the forest near the Stevens Creed reservoir.  Today we chose a spot call Cooly picnic spot.  We, shockingly, had plenty of time before lunch to explore.  We explored a little creek that ran by the picnic area.  Zachary found a "crab" (probably a crayfish) that was hiding out under the water in the hole of a tree trunk.  He was desperate to see it again and show it to Art.  We managed to tear him away long enough to go on a little hike.

Unfortunately,  the hike ended up being cut short by poor Wyatt.

He got stung by something on his bottom lip!  Poor guy.  He just started screaming that a green thing fell down and landed on him.  We could easily see the puncture spot and then the swelling started.  Wyatt refused to speak for a good 20 minutes.  

We headed back to the picnic area, and I doctored Wyatt up a bit, and got some ice on his wound.  I started setting up lunch, and we again, had to tear Zachary away from the stream to eat.  After lunch, back to the stream, then another attempt at a hike.

First, some fun with bubbles!!

This hike also did not last terribly long, because Yannick started getting tired and pathetic as it approached nap time.  Back home for naps.  Not a huge success, but they are eager to go back and try out the trail again, so in that sense, for them to be excited to go back, it was a rousing success.  After naps and snack, we realized that the power was out.  Not expected to be back until 7:30pm or later.  So our idea is to go back to Cooley picnic area, this time NOT try to hike, but to explore in the stream a bit.  I brought extra clothes and towels in case they got soaked.  We planned to eat dinner out, using some coupons Nellie gave us.  She is being increasingly generous as the date for a showing gets closer.  I know she feels badly about us having to move after the house is sold.  Especially since we have not even been here 6 months yet!

So back we go armed with nets, a jar, and other explorer items!

Boys have discovered the rope swing.

It was good that there was a rope swing there, because it distracted Z from his disappointment.  The "crab" was still there, but two ladies were in the water with a crab catching cage, and finally caught him, put him in a bucket with many others, and took off.

And now our evening changes from Creek Explorer evening to Redneck Holiday evening. (no offense to rednecks of course).

At this point they are still fully dressed, and not yet soaked.

But we can see that trouble is coming

Yannick conflicted between being an explorer and heading over to the rope swing swimmin' hole with his brothers.

And now we are shirtless.  Ok, they are shirtless. 

Even the little guy is shirtless and getting soaked (yes, we did pack a change of clothes for everyone, anticipating they just might get wet :) )

Check out the sun shining on my little angel, who is "being strong" and picking up rocks.

And the part of our evening that truly makes it a redneck holiday is the parents, sitting by in sports chairs.

You can take the parents out of the south, but can't take the South out of the parents. :)

It started getting later and later, and we needed to do something about dinner.  Unfortunatley, our boys were beyond disgusting.  Even a towel dry and new clothes could not help.  What now?  No power at home, too gross to go out.  We settle on a Staci-approved meal for dinner - cereal.  At home.  After they got baths.

A very enjoyable day!

 

A Crazy Friday

July 19, 2013

Today did not start off the best.  I had a migraine - like issue this morning after breakfast and went back to bed.  I was rarely bothered, but the boys did come in and out to check on me.  As Art was leaving, he snapped this picture

I was alternating between using my sleep mask against the sun and talking to Yannick about the pictures in his baby book.  After about 11am, I felt much better, and finally got out of bed.  By then it was too late to join the Garden City moms at Happy Hollow.  

Worked out fine because we had the J family over as a pseudo date-night.  It was their turn, but they had just had one, and so we compromised by having them over for dinner, and putting the kids to bed so we could all play some board games.  An easy dinner of tortellini and homemade french bread.  Holly brought a yummy salad, and we decided to feed the kids early,  and let them play while the adults ate.  We ate outside, which is always lovely!  No mosquitos.  No humidity.  Their son E was not as thrilled with this arrangement and did not want to stay inside playing. :)

We finally put the kids to bed - all in the same room tonight.  It's a party night!

On normal date nights, we split the J kids into three different rooms, but tonight being festive, we went for the kid party.

Six kids in one room!  We used the bunk beds, the mattress, the toddler mattress, the pack-n-play, and yannick's bed.  wow.

It took FOREVER for them to go to sleep, but we suspected that.  The J kids had a very late nap and were exceptionally well rested.  i think Zachary was the first to fall asleep. Yannick was so excited that kids were getting out of bed, and he wanted to get out of bed.  Needless to say, the adults had to go in there several times!  But they did calm down, and go to sleep, eventually.  And the adults got to play the train game and chat.  It was a great time!