Melissa’s Blog

The kiddos woke up too much last night, ugh. I am so tired today. We walked to pre school this morning. The kiddos wanted to walk with their skateboard toys, kitty and dog. So we were a bit late for pre school but we had fun walking. Pre school was so much fun. The kiddos played in the sand a bit and on the play structure. Justin put gas in the car toys, so cute. The kids made tracks with trucks and paints, so cute. They also made fish bowls with stickers. Nicole was really into this craft. Justin was off playing with trucks and trains. He made a big train and put people in it and pushed them around. Circle time was great, the kids really participated. Nicole is really liking her teacher, Ms. Lana. She even asked Ms. Lana to go to the park with her, so sweet. The kids had snack and then it was time to go already. The hour and a half at mommy and me seems to go by so fast. The kids walked on the way home, who knew that the freeway over pass would be so exciting. The kids loved watching all the cars and trucks. They were waving at all the trucks, the trucks were beeping and the kids just loved it. I think we could have stayed up there for hours. It was great fun! We walked to Orchard Park on the way home. The kids had fun playing at the park. There was one kid though who was unwilling to share his sand toys. So hard to explain to my kids though. The kids made birthday cakes at the play house thing. Also loved going down the slide silly ways, on their backs, on their bellies. We had a great time. Justin took a short snooze on the way home. After lunch the kids went into their beds for quiet time. We read lots of books then they read them in their beds. After we watched some TV. I had to go to Target. The kids love Target. We started in the $ area. Nicole and Justin picked out socks, Hello Kitty and Spiderman. Justin came running up to me telling me he loved this one toy. It was a truck pulling a horse trailer. It was so cute I couldn’t help but buy it for him. At the store he was so excited about the toy he kept saying lets go check out. I finally found boots for Nicole, rubber pink kitty cats. She was so excited. She had been wanting boots like these since our Vegas trip. Justin got some car boots. We got home and I couldn’t open things fast enough. Justin wanting his new truck and Nicole wanting her boots. It was so cute listening to the two of them. Justin was so amused by the truck for a while. We got home to find that our fence was finally being worked on-yeah! Hopefully it will be complete soon. We went to Chili’s for dinner. The kids were nuts. Really crazy, jumping on the booths, wanting to wave to everyone, hang on me, etc. But they did eat really well. We came home and the kids are sound asleep 🙂

This morning we were off to music class. We had to go all the way to Newport for class. The kids had fun-they participated, sang, and danced. It was fun. Then I decided to take the kiddos to Fashion Island. We had lunch there and the kiddos played more than ate. We saw the fish. The kiddos had a great time looking at the fish and jumping over the cement stepping stones. I was worried one of my kids would fall in the water but they were safe. There is a circle on the ground so the kiddos ran around in circles. We took a little walk around Fashion Island and the kiddos looked at all the fountains. We went into Barnes N Noble. I read a ton of books to the kiddos (going to pre school books) and they played with the train table. We were kind of in a rush so we didn’t get to play too long. We met some friends at Jump N Jammin. This was our first time there. At first it was kind of crowded, I was a bit worried. It cleared out and the kiddos had a great time. They loved the ball area. At first I was in there with them playing with them then they headed for the crocodile bounce house. They were so cute bouncing so high. There were balls on the top of the bounce house and the kids were trying so hard to reach them. The toddler area had a huge castle that the kids loved and Nicole decided it was her castle. When they went back to the balls, Nicole wanted me to wait outside. They played so well in there and for a long time. Justin kept running out to say hi to me. They had a great time at this place-it was really cute. They didn’t really go on the climbing stuff too much. I ran out of water and snacks since we were out all day. So we ran to Bristol Farms and the kids ate their way through with all the snacks. We came home and the kids wanted to color with crayons and markers. Then they headed outside to play. The kids wanted me to push them on their swings. New trick though, holding hands while swinging. They were laughing and loved holding hands, so cute and I got a great picture.

You may have to click on the pic to see it better. Sized down, the kids got cut off a bit. After dinner the kids wanted to use the fishy sprinkler, so we had two naked kids in the back yard. They had so much fun together in the sprinkler. Justin was so excited to use the sprinkler. Then it was time for bath and reading books. Justin was pretty tired tonight.

It felt as though we were on the go all day but it was fun! This morning we walked to pre school. The kiddos were nuts this morning. It was a little cool out this morning, so the kids decided to run to pre school. They ran down the street giggling and having a great time. It was fun to watch. The kids had so much fun at mommy and me pre school. There was so much to do. The kids loved playing with the shaving cream in their hands. They liked it but then wanted to wash it off pretty quickly too. Then would go back to it then wash hands. They did handprints with paint! The kids played with play do. They loved making shapes with the play do-cookie cutter and cutting it. They only played outside for a short while today. They liked the watering can in the water table and played with bubbles. They were into the inside toys. They like the wooden trucks and filling them up with card board blocks. Justin also wanted to play trains. The kids are getting so interactive at story time, so cute to watch. I tried to stand back a bit during circle time to see how the kids do without me. They had a snack and the kids were starving. They loved the muffins, of course. We walked home and the kiddos just sat in the stroller and ate more snack. To my surprise Nicole fell asleep on the way home. And the cleaners were here, so we just headed to MV. We were going to the mall for a bit. It took Justin a long time to fall asleep but he finally did. Thank goodness Nicole transferred into the car and went right back to sleep. We went to the mall and had a blast. We ate lunch there. And then did the lights, went into a few stores. They really liked looking at the Halloween costumes. They loved trying on witches hats and wanted to wear fairy wings too. I got the kids from Build A Bear Workshop little stuffed animals on skateboards. The kids pull them with leashes. Nicole got a pink kitty and Justin got a huskly, they were so expensive but the kids loved them. They pulled them all around the mall with big smiles on their faces. As people walked by they had big smiles too watching the kiddos. We went into the play area for a bit as well. We then headed to meet some friends at the Ladera Water Park. The kids got right into the water and swam around. My friend brought some great toys so my kids had a blast, with a wagon in the water and watering can, etc. The kids loved watching all the water at the park, squirting, dumping, falling, etc. We came home and picked daddy up and just went to Carls Jr for dinner. Justin walked home with daddy and Nicole and I drove home. Nicole and I played at home for a bit then went to meet daddy and Justin. We played out front for a while and daddy tried to see what was wrong with our Mailbu lights. We came in and the kids were wild, jumping up and down in their cribs, climbing, etc. We read books, brushed teeth, got into jammies, etc. I am enjoying my clean house now….it had been a month since the cleaners were here.

Wow the weekend went by way too fast. This morning I caught up on laundry and tried to clean up the house a bit. We went to the Spectrum this morning with the mom’s group. The kids went in the fountains. They had a blast! Then we walked the Spectrum. We walked to Carters. The kids played a bit with the legos and toys while the mom’s tried to shop. Nicole got a dress which she calls her ballerina dress, she was spinning around with it on, so cute. After we went to Red Robin with our friends. It was a nice morning. I wanted the kids to nap but no such luck. I decided to give the kids a bath as they love it. Before filling up the water though the kids got in. They got their crayons out and drew all over the tub. Then they didn’t want water in the tub any more. The tub was full of drawings even before the water went in. Finally got the water in and the kiddos had a great time in the bath. I like afternoon bath as there is no fighting and secondly they can take there time in the bath rather than rushing at night. After bath I put big boy underwear on Justin. He said he wanted a diaper, but then he said he loves his car underwear better. Then I decided to do some gardening with the kids. It needs to get done sometime. Luckily the kids were so excited to be helping me that they were really good out there. They picked up all the branches that I cut and put them in the trash can. We were having fun together. Then daddy came home and the kids stopped helping me-bummer. The kids played with these new wooden trains we got them and then they drove their cars. We came in and had some dinner-the kiddos weren’t very hungry. We played with toys and the kids drew for a while. I thought we would be in for a cranky night but then kids were ok. I was defrosting veggies and the kids decided to eat them frozen, they loved them. They were playing balloon together in the kitchen. It was so cute. They were playing catch with it, bopping it in the air, and laughing together. I love when they play together. We went upstairs and Nicole wanted to wear her new ballerina dress. So cute, she was dancing around in it. Then we read books, usual bedtime routine. The kids were exhausted. Justin fell asleep the minute his head hit the pillow.

We got to the camping grounds, O’Neill Regional Park in Trabuco Canyon, around 2:30. We set up our tent and everything. The kids loved playing in the tent.

It was hot though. The tent we got was huge! It took a while to get set up. The kids were so excited and extremely dirty within a few minutes. We brought their tricycles so they were excited to ride. It was a bit hard in the gravel though. The kids were busy exploring and they really liked our friend’s dog, Cookie. Nicole remembered that this was the dog that ate her hot dog 🙂 After setting up we went to find the park. The kids biked over and had fun playing at the park. Nicole really wanted to ride one of the bigger kids bikes, so she had a little tantrum. After the park we went back to the camp site. The kids were having a hard time entertaining themselves. Bret had to run to the store to get hot dogs. So I gave the kiddos turns on the big kid bike with training wheels. After Bret got back from the store, he helped the girls with the grill. So I took the kiddos to the grassy area and played ball. Justin was so into kicking the ball, playing soccer. They both loved watching Cookie run after the frisbee and the kids got a turn to throw the frisbee. We had dinner, hot dogs, mac and cheese, burgers…..we all brought food and helped. We ate a late dinner, so it was getting close to bed time.The kids jumped off some wood stumps for a bit and Justin landed on a rock. We were worried he hurt his ankle but he was ok, thankfully. We got the kids glow sticks so we turned them on. The kids loved them! Nicole slept with hers. We also brought their flashlights (the pig and the zebra). We lit the campfire, then I discovered I forgot the smores-oh man. Well we got the kids into their jammies and Justin went to sleep pretty easily but Nicole was wired. I think it took her about 45 minutes to go to sleep. I guess she was too excited too be camping to sleep. Finally she went to sleep so then we hung out by the campfire with all our friends. We discovered though our air mattress had deflated. We didn’t put the plug on well enough. We decided we didn’t care and we would sleep with out it rather than taking the time to blow it up. It was nice just chatting and hanging out with our friends. Our kids slept all night. I think we went to bed finally at 12:45 and it was really as uncomfortable as we imagined. We both had rocks in our backs. We also put on our rain cover as we had a big window and it was getting really cool. This was not fun in the dark. Bret and I both tossed and turned all night. We got up about 7:00 this morning. The kids both had big smiles on their faces when they woke up. Maybe cause we were right there. The kids were in good moods and went out to play. Someone brought a T-ball game and NIcole and Justin loved it, playing in their jammies! In fact I will probably try and get them one. They hit the ball really well. Justin sticks out his tongue while hitting-so funny.

They also did bubbles and played with their friends while we cooked eggs and bacon. Bret packed up while I watched the kiddos and we were on our way home. It was mildly fun but I don’t think we are in a hurry to camp with kiddos anytime soon. And we are exhausted. We got home around 9:30 and put the kiddos in the bath. We took showers and got clean. Then we went to pick up our friend Ryan and got to Katie, Mikey, and Sarah’s 4th birthday party at Chuck E Cheese. The kids had a great time. Justin and Nicole played lots of games and rode some rides. They didn’t even want cake as they were too busy playing games. Later we went to Grammy’s house for dinner, while there Bret set up something on her TV. The kids didn’t seem like they were going to play by themselves too well, so I played with them. I had a blast with the kiddos in the pool. Nicole has taken such a liking to the pool. She was jumping off the edge and I was catching her. Justin too but he wasn’t as into it-at least not tonight. Nicole was kicking. I think we were in the water for over an hour. I was spinning and jumping the kids like Shamu. I had a blast and they did too. We had dinner then just hung out in the play room the rest of the night. I am exhausted from camping and so are the kiddos.

We are heading to O’Neil Regional Park to camp for the night. We bought a bigger tent, packed up the car last night. Just need to put food, clothes, and tricycles in the car then we are set. We have been talking to the kids about camping and sleeping in a tent. Nicole wants a pink tent! I think we will have a great time. The kids and daddy put together a new track on the train table this morning. A spiral track. The kids were pretty excited about it. I took the kiddos to Lakeshore Learning Center for craft day. The craft was farm animals. Justin made  a cow and Nicole made a pink pig. The kids just glued lots of things on their animals, they both liked the googly eyes. We ran into our friends, Carin, Sofi, and Mylee. Then we just shopped a bit. I bought the kids a new toy with tweezers and they feed the dog bones. It is cute and they both love it. Wish us luck on our camping trip.

The kids are so silly eating breakfast. They are both screaming MILK and laughing so hard. For some reason we needed to bring our kick boards in the house and play. We got ready to go to Blue Gum for both play group and a little shower for Victoria. The kids played so well at the park. Nicole went off with Ryan for a bit, so cute. They went over to the shade by the volleyball court and were playing. Justin went over too with a bunch of sand toys. The park was a bit hot though-humid. We had a great morning. I decided to call daddy and we met him for lunch. Although the kiddos didn’t eat much, they had fun seeing daddy and playing. Nicole decided her name is Melissa and Justin said his name was Bret, so silly. We went to Costco after lunch. The kids stayed in the cart for all of 5 minutes. Oh well they had fun playing. Justin started walking by the refrigerator doors up on the silver thing and hanging on to the doors, little monkey. And Nicole started leaping like a frog. Both copied one another. This Costco trip took forever but the kids had fun. They liked all the snacks, looking at the clothes, the flowers, etc. We came home and watched some TV. I decided to give the kiddos a bath since it was hot out. This way they could play outside after dinner. The kiddos had a blast in the bath. We did these capsules that turn into little cars, trucks, etc and the kids liked that. Also gave them new crayons. Can I tell you how excited Nicole was to get a pink crayon and Justin picked green. After bath I put JD AKA Justin is big boy underwear. He told me when he had to go pee pee and he did it. I was a very proud mommy! We did dress up, Nicole was a princess and JD was a doctor. It was so cute.

After dress up, the kiddos played in the backyard. They painted and Jose AKA Justin played with the hose. Nicole played in the play house. We had dinner then the kiddos colored with markers and stamps. Then we had to pack up for our little camping trip. I took the kiddos for a walk in the stroller and Bret packed up. This whole time Justin was in underwear too! We got home and went to talk to the neighbors about the new fence. Art and Bernice were so nice to our kids, offering them juice boxes and let them watch TV. The kids were so happy-I was so stressed Justin was going to pee on their couch. He did so well, I was so proud of him. He is hopefully well on his way to being potty trained. I was so enthusiastic. I kept on asking him why mommy was so happy and he said “because I went in the potty”. It was a fun night. We didn’t get to read any books tonight though-it was straight to bed.

It was pre school day. The kids were so excited to go. We walked there. Nicole walked part way and was so excited to help me push Justin in the stroller. It was an ocean theme at pre school. The pre school was all decorated-it was really cute. The kids made coliages with pink fish, orange sea horses, and mosiac tiles. They also fished for letters. It was so cute. The kids were so excited when they caught a letter. The kids kept on catching the letter M, so I was hoping they would learn the letter. The kids went outside and there was a water table, a pool, tons of sand toys. After putting the kid’s bathing suits on, they spent like 5 seconds playing with water. They were really into the sand today. Filling up buckets and dump trucks. Nicole showed everyone how she can put her own shirt on now. We had such a great morning. The kids loved the circle time and the songs and stories. It was so cute to watch them participate. They were dancing with scarves “under the sea” and just loved it. We walked home. Justin fell asleep in the stroller right when we got to Monticello. So I decided to keep walking. I walked and walked and walked-thankfully Nicole fell asleep too. So I kept on walking. Maggie joined me for a walk. I think I walked about and hour and 45 minutes. It was hot but I was glad the kiddos slept. Both kids woke up a bit last night. We came home and Maggie and Aliya came to play for a bit. All the kids ate lunch together and played pretty well. Justin and Nicole were so sweet and gave Aliya and Maggie great hugs when they left. We played so much-the house is a mess. The kids are in good moods. They are playing this little musical trumpet thing and laughing together. They played see saw together and are really playing well. Nicole keeps asking Justin if he wants to do things with her, want to build a big tower with me and we have to take turns…so cute. There was a fire engine in our neighborhood and the kids were so thrilled. They went out to see it and got stickers and hats. We played at home so well, the kids got out toys they hadn’t played with in a while. WE got out the doll house and blocks. We then needed to run to the grocery store. I am baking for Victoria’s shower tomorrow. I let the kiddos watch TV while I baked the cake really quick. Later we ran to Wal-Mart and met some friends at Chuck E Cheese. Justin loved the ski ball and the little carousal. Nicole liked the carousal and the little seat that went around the clock. At first she was a little scared but then really happy she went on it. Justin is getting so good at ski ball-he could have stayed there all night. We had a great time. The kids cashed their tickets in for lollipops so they were ecstatic. Of course they didn’t really eat dinner. So I gave them some fishy pasta that the pre school (ocean theme) gave to the kiddos and fruit when we got home. The kiddos got balloons at Wal Mart-Justin blue and Nicole pink. Justin’s flew away when I put them in the car after Chuck E Cheese. He took it really well. Then I forgot Nikki’s was still in the car and I rolled down the windows-the kiddos love driving with the windows down. She held on the balloon and was so sad it was gone. I felt terrible. She felt better when I told her a baby may have found it. Kiddos seemed wired tonight but went to bed easily-it was a little later than usual. I am going to relax!

Early in the morning the kids were already fighting a bit. Nicole is so screamy. She had trouble falling back to sleep after going to the bathroom in the middle of the night. I think I fell asleep on her floor before her. The kiddos woke up early this morning. We got ready to go to music class. I had to move the class to Newport for this month due to mommy and me pre school. We took Grammy with us too. The kids didn’t mind where music class was-they were just happy Ms. Judy was teaching it and that she had the big drum. The kids had a blast in the music class. They were sitting by themselves on mats instead of my lap. Made my sad but I know it is great they are getting a bit independent. Justin and Nicole were so cute as I laid down on the ground, they bumped jumped on me and gave me the biggest hugs ever. After class we went to the Fashion Island food court for lunch with Grammy. The kiddos loved playing on the bench and Nicole was pretending to make cakes. Silly girl. Nicole was almost asleep when we got to Grammy’s so we just dropped Grammy off and came home. Justin fell asleep too. The kiddos napped a bit in the car. After nap, we came in and played. The kids were into coloring and using their stamps. They made sure stamps were up and down their arms-it looks like they have a disease. They played really nicely. Nicole had the stamps and willingly shared with Justin. It is rare when they share so nicely but when it happens it is so sweet. Then we packed up and met some friends at Hick’s Canyon Park. It rained a tiny bit and the kids were excited. There was a little 6 yr old boy there and Nicole took a liking to him. He poured big buckets of sand down the slide and the kids loved it. Nicole wanted to take this little boy home with him. Justin of course was playing in the water fountain. They had a great time at the park. We decided to go to the library for story/craft time but came to find out they didn’t have it today. So we read some books then played outside. The kids pretended the gazebo was a bus and we did ring around the rosie a zillion times. We came home and the kiddos painted for a long time (water, buckets, and paint brushes). After dinner we went for a little walk and the kiddos were wild. We played on the greenbelt for a while. It was 8:45 and the kiddos were just getting in bed. They took a while to go to bed.

We hurried out of the house this morning to walk to pre school. The kids had to go in the stroller so I could walk fast or we would have been late. They had so much fun in pre school. Justin played with the big track and trains on the floor. He made a big train. Nicole played with baby, of course, pushing the little cart. They painted and played outside for a bit. Then we made cookies. The kids had fun touching the dough, rolling it out, and making shapes. Both kids made sharks and fish cookies. It was fun making cookies with the kids but what a mess. It was an ocean theme today so everything ocean,blue water in the water table, fishy themed stories and songs. They even got fishy stuff to take home with them. We had a great time at pre school. We came home and Carin (Sofi and Mylee) came over to play. The kiddos played pretty well together. Ate lunch together and did artsy stuff together. We played outside. Nicole pushed baby Mylee in the swing. Justin was so cute playing with Sofi so nicely. Nicole and Justin did fight over a lot today-Nicole was pretty screamy. We went swimming at Paula’s pool with Paula and Krista. The kids loved it. Totally put them in good moods. We stayed in the kiddie pool though. Justin and Nicole used noodles for the first time and Nicole loved the pink one. Pink everything she loves. They even wore Paula’s kids goggles, so cute. My kiddos were jumping in from the edge while holding my hand. Nicole went under and she seemed ok with it. She said I went under like Sarah. The kids didn’t want to leave the pool. Nicole doesn’t talk when she is sad about leaving some place. We came home and had dinner. The kids were still a little fighty and screamy. So we did bath. Of course they even fought in the bath-Nicole would say Justin is touching me. Usually Justin gets out first but we had Nikki get out first. She was not pleased but it is only fair. Almost 8:30 and the kiddos are sleeping.