A little sad....

My baby is in a big boy bed. The crib is packed away......

Girls' Night

Last night I had an incredible time at Lucille's in Irvine catching up with my good friends Stacy, Emily and Lisa. I can't believe how late we stayed out. It was wonderful to laugh and laugh with these awesome friends. I hope we can make it a regular outing!

Easter

Easter totally took me by surprise this year. It came so early in the year and I felt like I was super unprepared for it! The Easter bunny did make it to our place despite celebrating at a party the night before. After church we had a wonderful brunch at my in-law's. The only downer was that I had the boys all looking handsome in their Easter clothes but by 11 AM they were in the pool- clothes sopping wet. Oh well. It WAS very warm out and I really couldn't blame them. Too bad they looked like rug rats by the time we went to my mom's for dinner. Maybe next year we'll have to go to her house first so she can see that I really do comb their hair and clean their clothes!!!!!

Happy birthday Jessica

Saturday night we got to go out sans children AGAIN!!!! It was an old friend Jessica (Miranda) Conner's birthday party. They rented out a cool loft like space downtown to celebrate. The funniest part was that Jeremy and his brother Dean showed up wearing practically the same clothes. Great minds think alike. I kinda knew about it ahead of time but didn't have the heart to tell him since I'd already made him get changed once. :)

Happy Birthday to me (and Terri and Taylor too)

Thursday night Jeremy's family celebrated all of our birthdays with a fabulous dinner at Taps. It was so wonderful- they gave us our own little room so the kids could be noisy and run around a bit without stressing the rest of us out. The food was fantastic and we had Baked Alaska for dessert. Is it weird that I didn't even know what that was until I tried it??? Yummy!

One of my favorites

My friend Beth got me interested in this kids' magazine called Tessy and Tab. My mother in law ended up getting Derek a subscription for Christmas and it is WONDERFUL! It comes twice a month and my kids (both of them) just love it. Each edition is a story about these 2 characters and each one focuses on a letter and a number. If you are looking for a great gift or just something new to add to your kiddos' reading collections I highly recommend these. Check 'em out!

We did it... we survived an itty bitty trip with the boys. It was neither a dream or a nightmare. It was somewhere in between, with moments of smiles and happiness and moments of wondering why we didn't bring something along to tape our children's mouths shut! In all we had a great time- and given the chance we would even do it again!





Day 1- after almost 4 hours on the road (hey we had to take 2 potty breaks and a caffeine break) we arrived in Santa Barbara and went straight to the zoo. The SB Zoo is wonderful- it's small, never crowded and you get to see all of the animals up close. We had a picnic lunch there which was nice because the kiddos got a chance to run around. We headed back to our hotel which was great. Close to the beach, first floor, wine and cheese, cookies, etc. We had dinner at Something's Fishy on State Street. I thought the boys would be entertained by the teppan style cooking they do there. Not so much. Dinner was kind of a disaster. Derek was unbelievably noisy and Gavin was totally fidgety. The couple who shared our table said they "liked our style of parenting." HA- our style was totally stressed out/inhale your food as fast as you can/grumble the entire meal under your breath at your children/try really hard not to strangle them! But yeah, we got style! After dinner we walked around State Street. It was a beautiful night. It made me really miss living there. So by the end of the day the score was zoo= great, dinner = not so great, State Street= great.

Day 2- We had a great morning. I woke up to the boys singing "Happy Birthday" to me. We went out onto Stearn's Wharf and walked around. Then we took the scenic route through the mountains to Solvang. Jeremy had never been there before so he got a kick out of all the buildings. We walked around for a bit and had lunch and yummy abelskievers. An old guy sitiing by us at lunch told us about a nearby farm who had miniature horses so we went and checked them out. The boys loved seeing the baby horse which was only 3 days old. Then we dove up to Pismo Beach. My friend Shannon told us about a cute inn they stay at up there and we took their advice. The picture of the ocean was the view from the hotel. Pretty incredible. We took the boys down to water but didn't stay too long since a 1 inch wave toppled Derek over and we had to go take baths. In the evening we headed over to downtown San Luis Obispo for Thursday night farmer's market. End of the day score= Great!

Day 3- Yummy waffles for breakfast followed by playing in the sand. The boys were very squirmy and noisy at breakfast and yet another couple told us how "well behaved" the boys were being. If only this nice couple could hear the words I was muttering under my breath the ENTIRE meal! They were being good because I had a death grip on Gavin and had threatened to leave every electronic device we owned at the hotel if they didn't SIT DOWN AND EAT! After the beach, we headed home and were making good time until we hit the mother of all traffic jams in LA. The car ride home was not fun at all. That tape I alluded to earlier would have been nice. Oh well we made it back safe and sound. End of the Day score: beach= great, breakfast= stressful but strangers thought we were great, car ride= horrific.

I guess what we learned was a road trip is what it is- a trip on the road. Kinda boring in the car but worth it for all the sights we got to see and the adventures we had. We will do it again sometime, but we think our next vacation will just have to be kid free!

More road trip pics

Goin' on a Road Trip....

We will be gone for a few days. For my birthday this year I wanted to drive up to Santa Barbara and Pismo Beach for a mini vacation. It's either going to be a wonderful trip.... or a nightmare. Say a little prayer that we have a great time! See you when we get back!

Shearer Wedding

Saturday night was an old friend from high school's wedding. I had a bit too much fun, if you know what I mean! Thanks Tim and Sarah for babysitting and congrats to Brian and Jenn :)

Morning at Child's Play

Friday morning Derek and I met Tracy, Dylan and Sydney at Child's Play in Temecula. It is toddler heaven. Basically it's a giant room filled with really cool toys that you would never want in your own house. Mini roller coasters, trains, indoor slides and ball pits- even a little trampoline. The kids had a great time!

Air Kids

This morning the boys and I met up with a few of my kindergarteners and their moms at Air Kids. It's a place set up with indoor bounce houses and slides. They had so much fun. My students were great and played with my boys (who are 2-4 years younger than them) just wonderfully. And boy did I get my exercise too, pushing Derek to the top of the slides. By the end of the morning he could climb up all by himself but not until I got a heck of a good workout. We ended with a yummy lunch at McDonald's. You know you have great students when you want to hang out with them on your vacation! :)