Melissa’s Blog

We went over to the open house at the firehouse this morning. The kids had a great time. They got to sit in the firetrucks, get behind the steering wheels, etc. Nicole collected pine cones and gave them to the firefighters.

There was a park right across the street so the kiddos played there for a bit. It was a cute park, the kids loved pulling the sand up with the rope. I think we filled the sand bucket about 100 times. We came home for a bit then headed to Grammy’s. Since Grammy is leaving for NZ on Monday she wanted to celebrate the kid’s birthday early. The kids played really well in her office with all her toys. They wanted us all to come up there and watch them play. The kids got on their trikes and we walked over to the park. They are getting too big for their trikes but they still like them. They had a blast at the park. They pretended they were mom and dad and Pooh was their baby. I got to take care of Pooh. Grammy’s friend Everdian from NZ gave the kiddos a sprinkler toy. It is a toy that spins around and the kids jump over it. Who knew it would be so fun in the house. We were spinning it and the kids were chasing it and jumping over it. They were laughing so hard it was hilarous. I love what they can find more than one way to play with things. More of Grammy’s friends came over to help celebrate. Nicole loved being the center of attention and loved everyone singing to her. Sharon gave them some cute Halloween outfits and they got some books. Grammy gave them 2 Tinkerbell dolls, Geo Trax helicopter and bridge, and some clothes. Nicole is so excited about the Tinkerbell dolls. She says they are her new favorite toy. She is sleeping with both of them. She wants to wear her hair in a bun just like Tinkerbell. Justin loved his helicopter that lights up and makes noise. We will have to set up the bridge tomorrow. We got home a little late, but we read lots of books. Justin fell asleep when his head hit the pillow and Nicole was not far behind. Hope they sleep in tomorrow morning.

Today I worked at pre school. We dropped dad off at work with his bike then headed to school. I was red mom, so outside. We played hide n seek and we made an obstacle course too. The kids got to make pumpkin muffins too. Justin brought his yellow bus to share; he did really well coming up with all his clues. Nicole shared the kiwi bird. I am glad she shared it as many people probably hadn’t heard of the bird. I stayed to do some work so the kiddos joined in on the kangaroo club for a bit. Justin was mostly inside playing with all the cars. He thought it was great he got them all to himself. We came home and had lunch and the kiddos played. They played with the Duplo blocks for a while. Then headed outside with their planes. They swung their planes and laughed hysterically as the plane fell out of the swing. Toddler humor I guess. It was nice to see them play so nicely. I finally convinced them to take a shower. They wanted to take one together and near the end there was just too much fighting. After snack, we headed to the train path to ride bikes with Paula’s kids. Justin is having a great time with Michael. Justin just rode his bike with him and Mikey waited for Justin. Seeing the trains was an added bonus. The kids played with sticks, rocks, etc. just had fun together. We met dad for dinner. Then we separated. I took Nicole to get some pics from Costco while dad and Justin came home. Nicole was asking us all sorts of questions tonight like..”what happens if a baby dinasour knocks on our door” “what happens if a dog gets separated from his owner” and lastly “what happens if a baby crawls away from their mom and the mom can’t find the baby”. Justin is so cuddly and sweet at night-I love just talking to him and laying in his bed. We still look for our star-he gets so excited when he see’s it. Nicole was a little wired but finally fell asleep. We had to give her stuffed dog, Biscuit a bath as he was so smelly. Now to watch TV.

This morning was really difficult at home. The kids were fighting and annoying me. I rarely get like this. We went to the bounce house place to get some energy out. It was great as one of the mom’s clubs playgroups were there plus Paula and kids. Justin followed Mikey around. Nicole was all over me for a while. Thankfully they played for a bit on their own. Plus being around my friends took me out of my cranky mood. Most of the humor you had to be there for but I am in a better mood. Paula’s kids let us borrow some Duplo blocks and we let them borrow our shake n go race set. I love that they share their toys. Nicole was really into the Duplos. The kids played really well-yeah! I caught up on all my e-mails. They played Mr. Potato head together too. They played so well that I let them watch TV. After TV we needed to head to dance class. The kids rode their bikes there and really liked it. We got there so fast that we were able to go to the pizza place and play games. I just sat and relaxed while reading a magazine as the kids did games. Nicole was so excited about her dance class; she couldn’t wait to get there. She ran in the class and showed her teacher her doggy stuffed animal (Biscuit). Justin and I played crazy 8’s and watched Nicole dance too. Justin loves riding his bike and could have ridden for so long. He started going up the path, Nicole wasn’t too happy about it. But we ended up having a great time looking at all the leaves. The kids crunched in the leaves and tried to find the biggest leaves. Guess there are a few trees in CA that lose their leaves. We played grocery store, duplo legos, cleaned up…After dinner we all played for a bit. I brought out toys the kids hadn’t seen in a while, so they were really into the view finder. We decided to go outside for a flashlight walk. We got to see some Halloween decorations too. It was fun. The kiddos seemed tired. We went upstairs and Justin played trains. Nicole was busy doing a million things. We read books. Justin went right to sleep but Nicole is still awake.

The kids slept in a little this morning, guess I really tired them out yesterday. This morning the kiddos went to pre school. It was picture day at school. I hope they got some good pics. I took some outside:

I had to run to the endocrinoligst today. Grammy came over and picked up the kiddos with me. The kids were so excited Grammy was there. It was a birthday at school but then Nikki said she didn’t get a cupcake. I finally got it out of her that she wasn’t telling the truth. But I let them split another one. Grammy and the kids did a little project, they dipped pretzel rods in chocolate and used lots of sprinkles. The kids had a great time. I think sprinkles were the best part. It was nice to see them interacting and having fun with Grammy. They loved having Grammy here. They showed Grammy how they shared at pre school and shared and shared. Nicole dressed up as Tinkerbell and Justin showed Grammy his costume. After Grammy left the kids begged me to watch TV. After TV Justin took a shower and Nicole took a bath. Dad came home and we made dinner. After dinner the kids wanted to go to a park, so we headed to Hicks Canyon Park (AKA see saw park). We had a lot of fun. Justin wanted to play tag and was cracking up when he tried to get us. Nicole loved playing drive thru. They also went on the see saw for a bit. When we got home we went straight upstairs. We built Justin’s track again, Nicole had messed it up. Justin told her he was sad she messed it up and she did say sorry. Justin said he was tired tonight, in fact too tired to even put the toilet seat up to pee-ha ha ha. Saying goodnight is taking longer and longer these days but the hugs I am getting are worth it.

We stayed at home this morning. It was nice. I feel like we have been running around too much. Nicole played with her ponies. Justin read books and played with all the balloons. I got a couple of our drawers cleaned out. The kids were all over playing, pretending to be babies, playing with letters, trains, etc. I felt like I followed the kids around and cleaned up after them. Our friends came over. The kids were so excited to have their friends here. They all played really well. Justin and Mikey were having the best time with the shake and go cars. They were banging them into the walls but they were laughing. This lasted for a long time too. Nicole was busy swinging and coloring with Lexie and Sarah. I have never seen Nicole color for so long. Nicole invited all her friends to stay for lunch, so sweet. After cleaning up real quick we ran over to Orchard Park. Some of our pre school friends were meeting there. I think the kiddos could have stayed at the park all day-the weather and company was great. We did some errands on the way home. Justin found an Alvin and the Chipmunks shirt-he loves it! The kiddos watched some TV and rested a bit then we were off again. We met some friends at Blue Gum. It was so cute watching the kids play. They were throwing sand in the air pretending it was fireworks. Also put sand on the slide and it was a car wash. Great imagination. Michael and Justin played soccer and Nicole was really into playing in the sand. We rushed off to meet another friend at another park. I am park’d out! We went to Settler’s-the kids had fun but got pretty hungry. It was nice to catch up with some friends. We didn’t get home until after 6:30, so I ate dinner really quick. Then I was off for a photography class, studio lighting. It was really interesting and I have a lot to learn. Bret said the kids went right to sleep, after all the park time I am not surprised.

Today I was yellow mom at preschool. The kids were so happy I was working and I had a great time. The kids were happy they could share. Nicole brought Biscuit the dog and Justin brought a car. Nicole hung out with me and did object painting at my table. The kids took a potato masher thing and put it in paint and stamped the paper. I love watching the kids at school. They love participating at group time. The kids all helped make english muffin pizzas for snack. Nicole got so much paint all over her. When we got home I put the kiddos in the shower. They were overdue for a bath plus full of paint. Grandma came over. She wanted to take the kiddos shopping to see what they wanted for their birthdays and Chanukkah. I got some ideas too. Shopping got boring but the kids were really good. Grandma stayed and played for a bit. While saying goodbye to Grandma we ran into a new neighbor who has an almost 5 year old girl. Nicole hit it off with her and brought her to her room to play. So cute how easily kids can make friends. Nicole pretended to go camping, she grabbed her backpack, etc. Justin and dad went to go get some dinner and Nicole and I pretended we were in a hotel in Vegas. After dinner I needed to go outside, so I grabbed some glow sticks and we went into the backyard. The kids had so much fun. Apparently a little too much fun as Nicole had trouble going to sleep. We went upstairs and the kids were pretending to be their pre school teacher. They were reading books to us, kids. Nicole has so many books memorized that it feels like she is reading to us. I pretended to be a naughty kid in school and the “teachers” kept on telling me what to do. It was a fun night.

We decided to not do as much as we thought we would. We didn’t want to be running around all day. We had a great day. My neck and back are still sore though-ugh I am sick of it. We read the paper and took it easy for a bit. Then we headed to the grocery store. I am snack mom tomorrow for pre school so I needed to get some stuff. It turned into a big shopping trip. The Woodbury Center had some music on the lawn thing, so we ran the groceries home and packed a lunch. It was so fun, we had a picnic lunch and the kids loved playing. It was a little cool today which was a little nice for a change. The kids were so happy as they are able to start wearing their batty shirts. Nicole’s says “he is driving me batty” and Justin’s says “she is driving me batty”. We had a friend’s birthday party at Pretend City. I think it is my new favorite place. The kids loved it. Justin’s favorite part was driving the cars. Poor kid waited patiently for 45 minutes to drive it. This wasn’t the car he waited for but he had fun riding this police car too.

There was an area where the kids could pretend to build a house. This was a favorite exhibit too. Dad had fun showing the kids what to do.

Nicole was into all the dress up things. There was a stage the kids could dress up and perform. Nicole was really into that and doing shows. There was a fire dep’t area. Nicole was so cute in a fire fighter outfit.

This place was awesome. Had a grocery store and a farm. The kids loved picking all sorts of fruits, etc. I think the kiddos could have stayed there all day. We went into the party room for cake. The theme of the birthday was Blue Clue’s. It was so cute they had little bowls of what looked like dog food for the kids-it was really cute. The kids loved wearing birthday hats and eating cupcakes.

The kids got the coolest goodie bags but couldn’t wait to go play again. Nicole went into the art room and did some crafts while Justin was driving again. There was an area for him to get gas, go through the drive thru, stop lights, etc. The bathroom was even cool with a little potty and a sink the kids could reach. Bret and I were so tired but the kids kept on wanting to go and go. They got to take lots of balloons home too, really cool Blues Clues one. When they got home we put the movie, Cars on. Justin was so excited to watch it. He liked the racing parts. Nicole didn’t seem too interested and went outside for a bit. After dinner the kids really wanted to go to monkey bar park. So we ran over there as it was getting dark. We were only there for 20 minutes but had a blast. The kids were running around and pretending to find our cars. Then I hid and they found me too. It was cold tonight. The kids played in their rooms for a bit, Justin and dad built a track. Nicole was pretending that she was in high school. Thankfully the kids went to sleep.

It is a busy weekend for us. Justin woke up and him and I were out early. One of the neighborhoods by us was having a garage sale. At first he didn’t want to come but a juice box was the deciding factor for him to come. He found some spiderman slippers and a puzzle he loved. It was a transportation puzzle and he wanted to carry it. We found a few things for Nicole too. This morning the kids were all over daddy-it was great and weird at the same time. I finally gave dad a little break since I had to go to a photography class from 10-2. The kids and dad went to an open house at the fire station. They said it was great. The kids got to ride on a fire truck-it was one that is used for birthday parties. The kids loved it. They saw some show, got to use the hose, and see where firetrucks get washed and repaired. I was sad to miss it but know it was fun for daddy and the kids to have some time together. The photography class was pretty good. I really learned how to use my camera in manual mode. I was a little disappointed the instructor didn’t have time to critique all our pics. Plus everyone was all over taking pics of the model-it was hard to push our way through. The kids watched part of Tinkerbell and then were pretty tired. When I got home the kids were outside playing with their kites. We decided to go to the global village festival. Parking was terrible and the kiddos fell asleep on the way to it. We let them sleep for only a little bit, lucky for us the excitement of taking a shuttle made them not cranky. The festival was ok. Most things were starting to pack up while we were there. But we got to the bounce houses and the kids had a blast of course. They painted rocks too. Justin actually said “he loved painting the rocks”-it was too cute. We went out to dinner. We were hoping we would have time to go to the park but it just got too dark on us early. We got home and the kids played with some cars and the Cinderella doll we got today. We went upstairs and read lots of books. The kids wanted to pretend they were teachers and read books to us. Justin and I looked out for our star. Justin fell right to sleep but I still hear Nicole. Ugh it is 9:00.

I brought the snack for school. The kids were so excited. I didn’t have to work though. I made popcorn and the kids loved watching it pop and were so excited. I dropped off the kiddos and walked home. It was a nice walk but weird to be carless. It give me an opportunity to play with my camera and watch a video about photography. It was boring though and I found the need for people to take pictures of. I found some energy so ran back to school. I felt so much better after exercising. So fun to play with the kids. The kids kept on asking everyone who came out of school if they could stay and play. No one was able to play today. The kids were laughing as I was hiding around the car and pretending to be a monster while buckling them in. We found Justin’s car at school, he was so happy. The kids had fun in school. We got home and had lunch. The kids were so huggy but found out they were only hugging as they wanted to do water colors. After water colors Justin played with his cars and Nicole played with fluffy the dog, feeding her and putting he in a highchair like a baby. I should have said Tinkerbell as Nicole wanted to put on her costume. I called some jump house places to get quotes for their birthday party. The party planning is coming along. All of a sudden time caught up with us and it was time for swimming. The pool was cool but it didn’t stop us from having fun. Their swim lesson went great. Their favorite part was diving for rings. By then they were shivering but were too excited to get out of the pool. Nicole actually got a ring on the bottom of the pool by herself. She was very proud. Justin got it too but needed a little help. Nicole accidently dropped her favorite dog fluffy in the pool. She was not too pleased. We ran into some friends at the pool then headed home. Dad came home and we headed to Tustin tiller days. It is just a little version of the fair, carnival games and rides. The kids loved it. The best part for them was riding on a mini ferris wheel. Nicole was really scared to go on it at first. Justin decided he didn’t want to go either since they are chip and dale. Dad convinced Nicole to go and they had the best time. I was so bummed I didn’t bring my camera. They were waving at us, swinging, etc. It was so great we got more tickets and let them go again after dinner. We had a great time tonight but Nicole is still wide awake at 8:30-ugh.  She was looking for fluffy, so we had to show her fluffy was still wet. I get to sleep with fluffy tonight. Justin fell right to sleep.

Ugh, Nicole woke up a lot last night. She said she was awake because she was so excited for her ballet class. We had our class at Coastline today.It was fun; the kiddos had a great time. They were really into playing in the sand and putting golf t’s with hammers in styrofoam. Thought that was such a great idea. After, we went to Burger King with Paula’s kids. We didn’t have much time since we had to get home to babysit T. We were so excited to see T. The kids played a bit then wanted to watch TV. After TV we walked to dance class. The kids are such explorers, climbing up hills, jumping on leaves, stepping stones, etc. Nicole had a great time at dance class. Nicole always wants to give her teacher a hug at the end of class but never has the opportunity, so she was so excited that her teacher waited a bit for her. Justin and I played Crazy 8’s while T hung out with us, pulling my hair and my shirt. When we got home we were sad Uncle Alan was here to pick up T. The kids went out front and played. They drove their cars. Dad and J went to go through the drive thru while Nicole and I got a picnic ready on the greenbelt. We had a great family time on the greenbelt. We came in and I was hosting the pre school board meeting. The kids were so excited to see all these people come over. They wanted to show everyone their rooms; so cute. Dad put the kids to bed and I am just waiting for this meeting to end. Then off to watch TV and relax.