Melissa’s Blog

Nikki was in the school talent show. Her and 3 friends danced to party in the USA. It was so cute and they stole the show! Here are some pics:

Today at school was the award ceremony. Justin received an award in reading. It was for demonstrating outstanding performance in reading. Nikki received her star student of the month certificate. Plus both kids received gold reading medals-but yes I probably fudged the reading medal awards.

I love April Fool’s Day. It is so much fun with the kiddos. Although I did a lot of stuff last year so I didn’t have a lot of ideas this year. I always put the kids clothes out for school the night before so I switched them. Justin found them first, ha ha. Nikki noticed something was funny with her ipod first. I made it easy and just switched their covers. Bret bought this awesome horse head mask. Yes I felt the need to wear it. I got a kick out of it. Nikki was a little embarrassed at school but then got over it. I picked the kiddos up with it on. The funniest part was putting it on at a red light and looking at people. One guy was laughing and wanted to take a picture, that was awesome and made my day. The kids and I decided to pick on dad’s jeep. We went over to his work and put a “few” post it notes on it. See pic-we wanted to put more on but it was a bit windy so we were worried they would blow off.

I did the funny dinner where the kids pick a Disney character and they don’t know what they are getting-The Crazy Cafe. Nikki first got ice cream but no silverware. So funny! Justin got a fork and brownie first and dad got fruit and a drink. I put $1.00 bill in the toilet paper roll and no surprise that Nikki found that first.

Back in January the kids got bronze medals for reading. And Nikki was star student of the month. She was having such a hard time since her teacher was out due to her husband being ill and she had a terrible sub. Nikki loves school so much so it was hard to see her so unhappy but she still worked hard!

We had an amazing year using our Disney passes. It was great to be able to go with Bret on Sundays. I hope to get passes again but we are on a little break now. The kids go on all the crazy rides now. Nikki’s favorite is Space Mountain. Justin loves California Screamin and Space Mountain. Thankfully they are big enough to go on CA Screamin on their own-the drops are way too big for me. Waiting in a 2 hour line was worth the picture we got of Elsa and Anna:

At the kids school they celebrated Dr. Suess’s birthday. The kids get to wear their jammies to school. I got to read a book to the kids classes; Justin picked Oh The Pets You Can Get and Nikki picked Oh The Places You Can Go.

I gave it a try to make the kids bodies spell love for a Valentine’s Day card to hand out for school. I had something in mind so it didn’t come out exactly as planned but it worked:

Justin has joined cub scouts. So funny when you ask him why he didn’t want to join, he says that he doesn’t want to wear a collared shirt. So far they have visited the fire station and attended a meeting. They have started working on their pinewood derby cars. So far I think it has been a really good experience, Justin always comes home from the events happy and exciting. He doesn’t have the patches on, etc but here is my little cub scout:

We are working on a setting up a second girl scout troop for Nikki. We had a quick get together at Yogurtland with the moms and girls. I volunteered to be a co-leader so I have had to do some boring training…..

Jog a thon 2014: Memory of a lifetime…..being able to watch my kiddos run the entire jog a thon together. The best part was they wanted to be together too. I am one lucky mom! Here are some pics:

Well Bret has been having lots of fun working on Kate the Jeep. We took her on an off roading trip with the kids to the Desert. It was the same place Bret and I went to by ourselves but this time it was a family trip. The Jeep, it was tight but it fit all of us plus all our stuff for the night, etc. We took our time heading to Palm Desert. We stopped off in Cabazon to see the dinasours. It was the stupidest thing ever but we can now say we went and laugh about it. Then we checked into what turned out to be an awesome hotel. The kids couldn’t wait to go check out the pool. There was a water slide that the kids loved. It was a little cool out but that didn’t stop them. It was fun watching them! The kids hadn’t been swimming in so long so they had a blast. Justin had to go to the jacuzzi a few times to warm up. The hotel showed a movie outside by the pool, therefore, we ended up having a late dinner. I wish we had more time at the hotel but hopefully we will be able to go back. The next day we were off to go off roading. It wasn’t crazy off roading, more simple and exploring. We explored the old mines, etc. It was a great weekend! Here are some pics:

Going back a bit….Hanukkah was on Thanksgiving. So Thanksgiving my parents came over and we made a turkey and potato latkes. Bret made his first brine turkey that was delicious. The kiddos got Skylanders Swap Force for the Wii U and some Lego sets.

The kiddos are now red belts in Tae Kwon Do. We are so proud of them. Unfortunately the day of testing the three of us were up the night before throwing up. They were able to test a few days later at the end of class.

The kids had a little holiday party before the break began:

We are on Christmas break right now. We have had a fun break but it is going by way too fast. Our first Monday off we had a bake cookie play date. The girls all helped bake the cookies while the boys played and ate them. It was a great way to start our break. With me babysitting Shelby it is hard to fit in play dates.  It was just the four of us for Christmas which was nice. I tried to make a nice Christmas Eve Dinner and the kids made cookies for Santa. It was a good thing I made dinner that night because we lost power from about 2:00AM until 5:30PM on Christmas Day. We opened one present Christmas Eve. Surprisingly the kids didn’t wake up at the crack of dawn. Their favorite gift was the Ipod. The kiddos were so patient as they couldn’t play with the Ipods until the power went back on. Poor Justin…here is a video game but sorry you can’t play it! They have really loved being to play their own music whenever they want. Justin definitely loves playing music wherever he goes, outside, in his room, etc. The kiddos were in their rooms listening to music building their new Lego sets! For Christmas they also got Zelfs, Orbeez, some boxing battle set, kaotics (crazy stunt car track thing), furblings, new clock radios to play music and charge ipods, roller blades, etc. It was a fun Christmas morning watching them open all their gifts etc. On Christmas Day we went to the park and just hung out-the kids did lots of roller blading. Justin at first wasn’t to into it but now he really likes it. When the electricity came back on the kids screamed and were on electronics as fast as they could. We did little things this break, like go look at Xmas lights in Tustin, dinner w/friends, Balboa to roller blade, dinner, and lights, and play dates here and at the park. Here are some pics from the break:

We took the kiddos to Balboa and Newport Beach and made a day out of it. We took the jeep, Kate with windows out etc. It was a bit cold but fun. I cuddled in the back of Kate with Justin under a blanket to try and stay warm. We took the ferry over then the kiddos roller bladed on the boardwalk. The kids played on the beach on the play structure-they were so climby. We ate dinner down there then headed to play some games and Nikki wanted to do the jumpy thing. After all this fun we went to look at some Christmas lights. Since it was a little bit after Christmas some of the usual houses weren’t lit up. It was a fun little day.

Another year of family camp. Family camp is amazing; we have so much fun. We were in a lodge with some friends which made it all the more fun for us and the kiddos. The kids were loving gaga ball. I think they would have done it all weekend but we were mean and made them do other things-HA. Justin playing gaga ball:

There were so many things to do at family camp. We did bb guns, archery, sling shot paintball, panning for gold, candle making, carving pumpkins (Mr. Floppy Head), etc. And of course trick or treating. We went on the night hike. The counselors told a story of special rocks you eat and they spark….it was some kind of mint (certs) and in the dark when you bite it, it sparks. The kids were so funny as they didn’t want to eat their mint. They were afraid of the spark.

My monkeys are getting so big.

Justin was the first star of the week this year. He got to take him Petey the Pig and write about having him for the weekend. Below is the Petey the Pig pics and the other photo we put on his star of the week poster.

We had a great fall soccer season. The boys team was the Eagles and a little goofy. Justin played goalie a bit this season. The girls team was the Green Diamonds. This was probably the best girls season as the girls all got along, etc. We made it to the championship but lost it with the tie breaker.

Since Sept., I have been watching Shelby, Mrs. Cook’s little girl. It has been pretty fun but I do miss my freedom a little. Shelby is a year old and has brought back lots of memories of my kiddos.

Second grade has begun. So far so good. Nikki has Mrs. Nakano and Justin has a teacher that is new to the school, Miss Goodrich. Summer went by too fast. I hope the kiddos remember our great summer.

Here are a few back to school photos:

Nikki’s teacher the night before told the kiddos to go to school and she put out the confetti. It was really cute but when we got there all the confetti had been taken. Homework has started, ugh. Justin hates doing homework where as Nikki gets it out of the way. Soccer has begun as well. I am coaching Nikki’s team again. Once you coach once you are signed up for life. Her color is green, so they are calling themselves “the green diamonds”. Justin’s team is yellow and the name keeps changing-I think right now it is “the eagles”. I have been able to get any pics from soccer but someone sent me this one:

As far as Taekwondo goes, the kiddos are now brown belt with gold bar.

I have started babysitting a few times a week. So far it has been pretty good. I am just feeling old and how hard it would  be with a 3rd one full time.

We are no longer blocked from Disney. It was great to be able to go to Disney again. We had a great time and it wasn’t too crowded. Nikki got an autograph book from Disney before the summer and she was finally able to have the characters sign it. She loved it-it was so cute. Here are some pictures from our day….Chip messed up Justin’s hair right before I snapped the camera.

I missed not having a stroller at Disney as I had to carry the heavy backpack. We can’t wait to go back to Disney-I hope we can go at least once every week before school starts. Justin is in his element playing video games whether it is at home on the wii or Disney playing Fix it Felix. I would say his favorite video game is Pirates Plunder.

Nikki has been really into being a magician. She has been practicing and learning lots of tricks. I have watched lots of magic shows. She uses her care bear blanket as a cape with a chip clip.

The kids have been doing swim lessons the last few weeks. They are becoming better and stronger swimmers. The backstroke has been a little hard for Justin but he is working at it.