Cousins came to town!

My cousin and his wife and 4 kids were coming to the area, he had a conference in the city. Anyhow, since I love this family so much, have been dying for visitors and my kids just love love love cousins I offered to have them stay with us. All 6 of them were packed (and were good sports about it) into the castle room. It was awesome. Unfortunately my kids got sick right before and then I caught it and was kind of wiped out by it so I didn't have any energy to go off and do fun things with them. It was annoying because I NEVER GET SICK, Jared and I have awesome immune systems. Our kids are pretty lucky too, whenever they get sick (which is rare) they're usually brief colds and then that's it. But this one knocked us out.

Anyhow, my kids had a blast and so did I. Finn loved playing with his older cousins. And their baby boy was adorable and I loved loved squishing him. They were some amazing little people. It was also wonderful to have another mother around who has a similar perspective of of motherhood. I had so many great conversations about motherhood and am so glad they came to visit, it was so much fun having all those extra little people around.

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Grandma Wanda and Easter

I've been begging people to come visit. We've had one regular, my bro-in-law Lee who occasionally is in town on business and my sister came once last Thanksgiving with her darling baby boy. But, no one else has come. Until March we were so lucky to have visitors two weeks in a row! YAY! Grandma Wand came just before Easter for a few days and we really enjoyed her visit. Sadly I only got one photo. But it basically says it all. She played with the kids and chatted with me the whole time. When I married Jared his Dad was a widow twice, and I was a bit sad to not have a mother-in-law. Well, just after Finn was born his Dad married Wanda and I couldn't ask for a better mother-in-law. She's so much fun and it's also great to have another Californian in the southern mix. Also, she brings the family out here more. Well we were honored that when she came out to do the grandchildren rounds that she chose to come stay with us as well. The kids were on cloud nine.

Then she left to visit more grandchildren and we had Easter. So two things about Easter, my kids can't handle sugar (well mostly Finn) and I don't like to make Easter as big as Christmas so we keep the toys to a minimal. I mean we just got a few jelly beans and a couple of chocolate eggs growing up. I made little buckets with a bouncy ball, like 3 jellybeans and some Annie's crackers and one of those army men parachute guys. Jared hid them outside and they hunted.

We also got a somewhat decent family picture too, thanks to my trusty camera remote and my grandfather's old tripod.

Away

Jared and I got away. For 36 hrs, by ourselves. Last year we went to Sausalito, two years before that was NYC (because Finn was at my sisters in NJ, I had just weaned him and was 5 mos pregnant with Sylvia.) This year we went to Carmel. So basically we are too nervous to venture more than two hours away from our little ones.

We stayed at a place called La Playa Carmel.  I remember staying at it with my family once way back when I was in college or HS or something. We took two to a room, parents, brothers, sisters. One day we took a lazy day. Nothing planned. My sister and I were lounging in bed watching MTV (because we'd never really seen it.) My Dad knocked and popped his head in and said, "you guys can order room service, whatever you want." WHATEVER WE WANT? ROOM SERVICE! This is awesome. Anyhow, when Jared and I went, it was remodeled, still charming but fancier. And no room service. But a delightful few blocks from the beach. We ran along it one morning, ate yummy food. Even drove further down the coast on highway 1 to Nepenthe. A tasty restaurant right over the ocean. My Dad used to take us hiking in Big Sur and then to Nepenthe after. 

The weekend was relaxing and it was so nice to have Jared all to myself.

 Now I know why my parents took a whole bag full of reading material on their trips.

Cozy

Morning run on the beach

Nepenthe

La Bicyclette

Disneyland

We ended our trip with a day at Disneyland. I got to see my brother and his wife and their cute little Snow White. We hit it on a good day. It was beautiful, not too hot or cold and the crowds were minimal. First we hit the Buzz Lightyear ride because the kids love him and I knew Finn would love to shoot things. The best though was driving the cars on Autotopia. For the past several months when we go get into the car Finn will buckle himself into the drive see and ask "Mom, can I drive," with which I always reply "In 13 years." Finn was tall enough to drive so I said "FINN, you get to drive a car today!" Well when we got going he couldn't handle it and was going back and forth from side to side and I just about got whiplash...over and over. Eventually he gave up and said, "I don't like driving." So I took over. He hasn't asked to drive since.

I think the Pete Pan ride was the most magical. Of course the kids wanted to ride the carousel over and over. And we ran into Mary Poppins and Burt. We've been talking about Mary Poppins forever and I was so excited for them to meet her. They were so darling with their British accents. However, both kids were stunned and scared. Later that evening we got to see the Chimney sweepers dance to Step In Time and they loved that. My kids don't really know anything about princesses (lets keep it that way) and Mickey Mouse (accept from bandaids and diapers.)

The worst ride was the Alice in Wonderland Caterpillar. I was on it with the kids while Jared waited in line for Dumbo. Well, one of the Caterpillars got overloaded and shut the whole ride down. It was really weird to see the dancing cards painting the roses red and singing, then...wwwaaaaaawwooooo. Everything came to a stop and the normal lights came on and over the super extra loud speaker this man said "PLEASE REMAIN SEATED AND DO NOT TAKE ANY PICTURES OR VIDEOS" He repeated this periodically throughout the next 15 mins. I didn't take photos, I know from experience that Disneyland has cameras everywhere. The kids started getting scared and so I fed them M&M's. Eventually this woman came and walked us out through a utility room.

The no napping all week finally caught up with Sylvia and Jared took her back to the hotel for a while to sleep and Finn and I pressed on. However, he did zonk out in the stroller (which NEVER HAPPENS or even that he would even sit in the stroller.) So we sat in the shade and I did some exercises.

The whole experience was very magical, except what is the problem with Disney having to put a scary element into every ride. I mean seriously. All in all it was a very magical experience and the kids had a lot of fun and no one got sick!

 

 

 Sylvia kept pretending that she was falling off. She's such a goof.

*I didn't want to lug my camera around again so these are just handy phone picks.

34

I turned 34 last month. I'll have to say it was a pretty grand birthday. Thursday evening I went out with my friends. Sadly I don't have any photos. I never have any photos of me (except for the ones I take of myself.) I wish there were action shots of me and the children and just some visual documentation that I exist.

 Out with the ladies. I finally found some tall brown boots that fit over my giant man calves.

Anyhow, it was great time with lots of laughs that didn't end until after midnight.

The next morning I was awaken by two cute little faces and a plate of brioche french toast and eggs. I LOVE breakfast. Jared picked it up from down the street. He did a good job on that part.

Then I played with the children that morning and that afternoon I made strawberry shortcake and invited lots of my friends over for a little party. Of course the children were whiny and I had to attend to them a lot and couldn't get anything done and somehow baking soda got into the cake instead of baking powder and I think I forgot the eggs. Everyone (except for one honest friend) said it was good. It was gross. However, the strawberries have been delicious extra early this year and of course you can't go wrong with homemade whipped cream. It was fun to hang out with my friends. During the middle of all this Jared had cupcakes delivered (which really impressed me and my friends.) Also someone put HAPPY BIRTHDAY on our garage and I still don't know who it was but made me feel super special.

Then Jared got a babysitter that evening and took me out to a yummy Mediterranean restaurant and to the see the animated Oscar nominee shorts. And the best one won. I just wanted him to plan a night which I didn't have to take care of anything so it was perfect and super fun!

One of the best parts was my new form of transportation. I love pulling the kids around in the bike trailer but they really weren't loving it anymore and I felt really limited just driving in the car everywhere. So we basically got a second car (only cheaper.) And it's easier to pick up other kids because it seats four (and I can't just add four car seats to my car.) I can even go in it with the kids. I love love love riding around in it and love all of the smiles that we get from people. Plus listening to the children's conversations while I peddle.

All in all I felt really special and that's really all I wanted.

Spring in Winter

It's been acting like spring here. These are my "it feels like spring but it's still winter" outfits.