Happy Leap Year

Happy Leap Year! We all went out to celebrate PaPa KiKis birthday one day early. The kids make dinners out special.... In more ways than one. I tried hard to get a photo of the grandkids with KiKi all smiling. I didn't get that in nearly 25 photos but I did get this gem, which perfectly shows their personalities. Two crazys on the right and D just hanging out on the other side. Happy Birthday Papa!

Braving the beach waves

We had been planning to go to the beach today and catch up with Nicky and Hunter a bit. Usually the kids like to play in the water no matter how cold it is. But today we had a surf advisory for large waves and strong rip currents. So I figured we would go to the beach but just play in the sand mostly. That being said notice I am wearing regular clothes in these photos and that I end up soaking wet! Diego still isn't feeling the best and he wanted nothing to do with the water and the sand for that matter. He mostly just wanted to be held, but I tried my best to get a few good shots of him at the beach. Callie had an awesome time in the waves even when she got knocked down and we were way up where it was dry when the waves went out. They were very large waves, so you can see why it was a bad idea when I knelt down to hold both kids for a photo, although I think the surprised look on Callie and my face says it all.

Lack of cooperation for photos

KMonkey see monkey do is how Diego operates these days. Anything he sees his sister do he does. This makes trying to snap a few photos of them nearly impossible. Diego can't sit still for a second and Callie is always making faces. So without further ado, here are the best of the worst photos from Friday at the park. No photos from today as poor D has an ear infection and isn't feeling well.

Diego swims with lots of floaties

Diego is a crazy swimmer. He has no fear of water even though he is generally the more cautious child. He jumps right in and falls under water. Callie at this age was just learning to swim with swimmies and a noodle. She stayed where she could touch the bottom. Diego is just nuts and jumps right in. So to let Diego safely swim without swallowing a lot of water I rigged up this double floaty system. He was pretty happy about it and then floating all about.

Besides that we played Legos in the morning and it always amazes me what the kids build. Callie decided on a village and Diego wanted a house for his car (apparently I should teach him what a garage is).

Bath smiles

I took this photo this weekend and it always amazes me how much the kids love the bath. Well really it's any water. Sorry for the lack of photos. Daddy has been away on a work trip and so while we are surviving just fine I don't seem to get time to get the photos with getting everything fit in after I get out of work. Tomorrow daddy comes home and we all are excited about that.

In other exciting news I am scheduled to have laser eye surgery in 2 weeks!! That means no more glasses for me. Woo hoo I am excited. I've worn glasses since I was 18 every single day and can't wear contacts so this is a huge deal to me.

Quick zoo trip

We took a short 2 hour trip to the zoo this morning. It was a perfect day, sunny but not hot and not at all crowded. This was probably the slowest day I've ever seen at the zoo. We even saw some new things we have never seen before today including penguins and a spider house. Of course the most interesting things to the kids are the statues, non animals, playground and the mouse house. But I've been on this adventure many times now and have realized whatever is exciting for the kids is fine. They can enjoy it any way they want.

Callie has finally mastered the playground there and was all over it without any help, crossing bridges and climbing over nets. I guess she is trying to prove she really does want a playground for her birthday.

Boots and underpants

Diego wore underpants today. After swimming we were in the garage getting them dressed from the clean laundry pile and I gave him some underpants since I didn't have any diapers there. He loved it and was all excited to walk around in his underpants. To make it fancier he wore his rain boots with underpants. Fashion statement!! He even pooped on the potty today! What a big boy. He also sat on the potty in underpants and shorts and peed right through both layers saying pee pee. Well nice try... I'm sure hoping when he hits two he is as good as Callie was at potty training. He made it 90 min without peeing in his underpants and even went for a walk down the street and back dry. Hopefully that's a promising sign for when the time gets closer.

Riding the bus

They put in a bus ride on vending ride at the mall. Diego thought that was amazing! Enjoy the ride.

Beading

Callie got a big bag of beads for Christmas and today we opened it up and tried stringing beads. Both kids were able to string beads. D used ribbon with a tape wrapped end to make it more stiff and Callie used a real needle (dull one) and embroidery thread. I left Callie on her own as I helped D and cleaned up breakfast. In 20 min she beaded the whole necklace. She was proud and it's pretty cool. Manny got his foot hurt in the morning on our walk (he's fine now) and Callie felt bad for him so she made him a necklace too :)

We even wore the necklace to the park to play and built a castle out of sticks in the dirt. A little country flair even when I don't live in the woods anymore. Creativity can come from anywhere in nature.

Diego on the other hand was grouchy and tired all day. He has caught Callies illness and isn't sleeping well with lots of boogers and coughing. Hopefully he feels better soon.

Future Michael Jackson?

Callie has been all about the gloves. Why she needs to walk around wearing gloves despite her outfit is beyond me. Today I refused to help her as I said no to the gloves. So I let her struggle a few minutes and low and behold she got them on all by herself. If she wants it bad enough she miraculously can do it without help, hmm.

Diego just wants to see what's on the phone as he says "bus?"

Walking miss daisy

Callie is really loving fancy clothes. She loves to be dressed up and puts some interesting things together. Today was a glitter tutu skirt, a matching tank top and Elsa gloves. Hmm... You can't miss her walking around the block.

Happy Valentines Day

This year I tried a few new things to promote giving. Of course you heard we were going to deliver valentines to the senior home. Callie didn't hand out a single Valentine! Yep that's right she didn't hand out any or say a word the whole time we were there... Ugh! Luckily Diego stepped in and delivered nearly all the valentines and even said Happy Valentines Day to a bunch of people. He gave out a few high fives and fist bumps and was adorable at the same time. Callie was cute but hid behind my leg the whole time and was shy. She says she still had fun but I wish she actually warmed up and handed out a few. A few seniors really tried to talk to her and get her out of her she'll but she wasn't budging. There were quite a few dogs at this place and the kids loved that. They got to pet the dogs and they were all very friendly and well trained. All in all it was still a good adventure that I think the residents enjoyed. Callie still did a lot of giving in the making of all the valentines. Maybe with a second visit she will get the hang of it.

The other giving we integrated in was for each kid to go shopping for the other. We set a budget and took the kids out to pick something for the other. Callie wasn't too thrilled at first to go to the store and not shop for herself. But she got the hang of it and was very happy with what her brother picked out for her and seemed genuinely pleased he liked the train she (and daddy) picked. Hopefully this is a tradition we can continue to help them understand that giving is just as important as receiving.

Happy Valentines Day!!

Barbie party

Tia Lupe came into town yesterday on her way to LA and brought Callie an awesome Barbie dining table with 6 chairs. It's hot pink and has a Disney princess table top. Callie loves it!! She has had all her Barbies having a birthday party all day. They all got dressed up fancy and then sat at the table together. What a fun gift! 

It's good that it kept her busy as I was busy most of the day repairing the hot tub and doing some fix it stuff around the house. Diego got a haircut as well. It was a productive day.

Valentine's Day at school

Callie had her valentines celebration at school today. She asked to buy her teacher a valentines balloon and I couldn't say no. She was too adorable in her red shirt and excited to bring the balloon to her teacher. I signed up to bring eggless brownies to school, made three batches which all went in the trash. So we stopped at the store and bought packaged entemanns instead. Callie was fine with that.

And we have been getting ready for Valentine's Day. We are giving to others this year and decided to deliver Valentines to the senior home near our house. Callie calls it the old people house so we are trying to adjust to the word senior by Sunday. She loves this senior home and has said for nearly a year that she is going to live in THAT house. I think it's because it looks like a giant beautiful house she thinks it's just like a castle. Hopefully she isn't shy or disappointed because I think she will enjoy handing out Valentines. I called to ask if we could deliver Valentines and they were excited and said yes we need 75. How could I say I'm that's too many? So instead we have been creating 75 valentines for days. Here are the two putting glitter glue as a finishing touch. I'll make sure to get a good photo of her at the place.