Pooped

It's been a busy day.

About 5 hours of yard work on top of the normal childcare (except those 2 hours a week that I get to drop Bugaboo off at a friend's house while Bean is at preschool--as I was leaving, she asked me what fun thing I was off to do today and I had to tell her that I would be mowing the lawn for the next couple hours. Not exactly my idea of fun, although it was a great workout!) and housekeeping.

But the house isn't really keeping itself in very good condition. It's hard basically being a single parent. I feel for those that have to do it on a regular basis. And really, I shouldn't complain because even though he is chair-bound, Daddy-o was able to read to the kids while I fixed dinner and Bean and I ran to the store while Buggy napped, thanks to Daddy-o working from home now. So he is still managing to help out. We just have an inordinate amount of yard work right now and only one of us to do it, while keeping the kids from painting the house purple or digging up all our newly planted seeds.

For those who wondered just how bad the ankle is:

I should have taken a picture of the other one for comparison, but that is obviously not Daddy-o's normal color of skin, or size of his ankle. They didn't think he would need a real cast, just the aircast they gave him, but we'll see. The swelling was supposed to be down by tomorrow.

Oh, and my talk with the preschool teachers this morning confirmed that Bean did indeed help with the painting, so since she's no longer angry about it, we're keeping it. The teachers' were pretty amused with her revenge for us not getting her the bucket of toys that she wanted.

And with the theme of "pooped", guess who didn't have an accident today! He did have a couple times that he had to be in a diaper--when I asked my friend if she wanted him in a diaper, I felt like I had to give her the full background--despite the fact that he'd dressed himself in underwear this morning, he isn't really reliable and he hadn't pooped yet, so she understandably opted for a diaper. But he still told her when he needed to go, and managed a poop in the potty tonight. Maybe we're turning the corner. I was ready to give up in light of the extra stress we have in our home right now, but if he's ready, then we're going for it.

Bummer Weekend

It's just been one of those weekends. Daddy-o broke his ankle sliding into third base. He doesn't have to have a real cast, but he is on crutches and supposed to stay off it for awhile. It should be healed in 6 weeks. We tried to officially start going diaper free with Bugaboo--he's been peeing on the potty irregularly for months now, so I thought it was going to be easy and fast, but 2.5 days into it, he pretty much has an accident every time I put any article of clothing on his lower half, so unless he's going to be a nudist, he is not ready for the world without diapers. Bean and I spent all Saturday morning at a church service project, which was great, but between that and Daddy-o's visit to the Urgent Care and the silent auction at Bean's school last night, we got no yard work done on what is usually the best day of the week to get stuff done. And we still have 3 piles of yard supplies sitting in our driveway. We were so excited last night to make our first "real" art purchase. The classes at the school each do a painting to auction off and these are usually the big ticket items of the night. Well, Bean's class painting turned out absolutely AWESOME. We decided we really wanted it, so we outbid another mother who also really wanted it, and got to bring it home and were elated because it looks really great in our house. And then Bean informed us that she didn't help with that one at all. There were a few others, fun things but not quite as striking, or in as good of colors for our house, that they were selling after the auction and she did a lot on a couple of those, but maybe not this one. I'm so dissappointed. And feel really bad about taking something that another mom, whose son probably did help with it, really wanted. I'm not sure I want to keep this $200 reminder of that. I may actually talk to the other mom on Monday and see if she wants to buy it from us. (But now Bean is saying she did do it. Not sure if that's because she wants us to keep it, or if her first reaction was because we showed her that we got the painting instead of the bucket of fun outside toys which is what she wanted us to buy.) But the painting really is beautiful.

Green Things

We have started our garden. Daddy-o did an awesome job on the beds (with a little help from the rest of us) and we finally got them into place and filled with gravel and soil earlier this week, and even a few plants. The second bed is still mostly empty, waiting on red bell pepper plants, summer squash, and maybe some beans and whatever else we find. But for now we have 4 different types of tomatoes, zuchini, yellow crooknecks, and cucumbers, and the one little sweet pea that is our only survivor out of all the seeds we started at the beginning of March.

And we've also started the nightly baths again. Bean was enjoying the soft, fine soil pile in the driveway.

Pre-Trip Sewing Frenzy

I went a little crazy the week before our trip and decided that I was going to make a bunch of gifts for people we were going out to see, as well as for my own kids. So I whipped up 5 crayon rolls (these are getting so fast! ***Edited to show the link where I found the original directions, but like I've mentioned before, I do the pockets 7/8 inches which is 1/8 inch bigger than she does because they were just too tight, so that means that the overall length of each peice--3 fabric and one interfacing--are 14.75 inches. Otherwise, I follow the directions. Although I did add a different peice to Bean's which is below so it shows 3 fabrics in the inside--just sew the two strips together and then cut it to the size it should be (5"x14.75)***) and now my kids finally have their own, which they were very happy about.

I also made a bib for one of the new babies we were going to see (well, she's 6 months old, but that is the beauty of giving bibs as baby gifts--they use them for a long time!)

Then I made a few bags. My neighbor, Flori, just put together PDF instructions for making these reversible bags, which she will soon be selling on her Etsy site, and she wanted some feedback on the instructions, so I went ahead and made bags for the kids:

And then adapted the instructions a little to make a bag for me to go with the new dress I got for the wedding:

It's really fun to see how much faster I can sew when I've made the same thing a few times--these bags are pretty simple and Flori has 4 different pocket/side ideas so you can make them all unique.

Now that were back and getting caught up on laundry, its time for me to plan out the next projects. I think some diapers for the dolls at the preschool is next on my agenda.

Disneyland!

I am finally on the last day of our vacation! And I have to start with this story: We decided we wanted to surprise the kids with a day at an amusement park this trip, so we debated about Disneyland, Sea World or Legoland. We finally decided (with the incentive of one free admission thanks to our Disney-employee friend) to go for the big one and take the kids to The Happiest Place on Earth. Daddy-o was so excited to see their reactions when we told them that morning, so we got out the camera to video it and he gets them all set up and then tells them, "Guess what, guys? We're going to Disneyland today!" Bean instantly gets this almost forced look of excitement and Bugaboo looks horrified and yells, "My wanted to go to Sea World!" We have no idea where that came from since he really had no idea what either place was--we'd only mentioned the animals at Sea World a couple times and he saw a big sign at the airport, but apparently that was his dream.

Despite it not being Sea World, they both had a great time that day.

Bugaboo wasn't too sure about his first ride, Peter Pan's Flight, but he loved Dumbo (that's his favorite movie) and luckily he even got the yellow Dumbo. We weren't so lucky later on the tea cups and he threw a fit when he had to ride in a pink one.

Smiles like that make it worth the hundreds of dollars it costs to take a family to Disneyland these days.

Daddy-o's roommate, Will, and his family decided to join us for the day. It took the kids awhile to warm up to each other, but by the afternoon, they were all having a lot of fun which helped with the long wait in the lines.

I think that their favorite time was in Toon Town:

Bean LOVED the rollercoaster. I think she's a little thrill-seeker.

Hanging out in Mickey's house with Will's oldest daughter.

Bugaboo takes firetrucks and driving very seriously.

Catching a ride on the fire truck.

And what's better than ice cream for dinner. The kids actually ate a real dinner too, but I decided that I really didn't need both and the ice cream sundae won.

The kids loved the parade. Bugaboo got down and started to dance at one point. It's nice that they do these a couple times a day so you can see all the characters at once instead of waiting in line to see them at their various homes.

Watching the parade:

I hadn't ridden the tea cups in forever since I tend to get a little motion sick, but the two dads wanted to see how fast they could get their teacups to go, so I ended up taking 3 of the kids with me--luckily, they weren't too good at spinning it so I ended up being okay. The guys weren't feeling so good after their spin.

Daddy-o with the two little boys on small world--I just thought they all look cute--Daddy-o is so big compared to these little guys.

I can't beleive we made it until 10 p.m. The kids really wanted to ride the new Nemo ride, which had a really long line all day, so we waited until pretty late and then still had a 40 min. wait. About halfway into it, the kids all started to lose it, but we pulled out a bunch of snacks and managed to keep them happy until we got on the submarines and it was worth it--that ride was well done and they really liked it. And then we got to see the fireworks as we were getting ready to leave, so it was perfect timing.

And then our trip was over. It was strange driving home from Disneyland and realizing that we weren't just going to our home in SD, but getting ready to fly back across the country the next day. After a week of playing with friends and in old favorite spots, we felt like we'd never left. And honestly, I could have done without the trip home. The kids didn't do quite as well as on the way out there. But we made it home safe and sound and got to enjoy sleeping in for a few mornings while we all adjusted to the time change.

Friends and Easter

We are so lucky to have some good friends in San Diego who are willing to let us stay with them when we come. We spent the first few nights at the Mitchell's, who were actually out of town, but were kind enough to let us sleep in there beds and play with their toys as our kids adjusted to the time zone (I think everyone was glad that we were there and weren't waking anyone else's family up at 5:00 a.m.). We did get to see them for a little while on Sunday when they came home, but I totally forgot to take pictures!

Then we stayed with our bonfire and beach friends (and because they don't have a blog, I have no idea if they would be okay with me using names on here, so I won't. I usually just go by what people refer to themselves in their own blogs to be safe--I hate to expose anyone more than they feel comfortable with).
We also got to spend easter with the B. family. The kids loved the egg hunt and candy, of course. I just thought it was hilarious that it took so long to even get a picture with the 5 older kids looking at the camera. And it was hard to get the kids to look up from their candy the rest of the morning.

And just a couple playing around in the yard:

Our last couple nights, we were with one of Daddy-o's old roommates and his family. And since the only pictures I have of that are from our trip to Disneyland, those are coming in the next, and final, trip post. Almost done!!!

The Wedding

Finally, the reason we actually went to San Diego. Terrie's wedding was beautiful and she and Andrew looked so incredibly happy all evening.

Terrie and I had been roommates, worked together in the church, traveled together (and hitchhiked and skinny-dipped together, and I'm so thankful that she was there to catch me when I passed out on the bus in Mexico), and just helped each other through some pretty rough times.

We're so glad that we were able to be there and to share that moment with them. And it was great seeing old friends. We didn't take near as many pictures as I would have liked, but we did get one of the Las Palmas roommates. These were the girls I lived with right before I got married and who helped me plan my wedding. Torey and Christie have also both moved away from San Diego, so it was a fun reunion for all of us.

Run, Kim, Run

I didn't realize how long it was going to take me to update about our trip! So, I still have 3 more posts to go (I think that's all), but I had to take a little break here to just say that I ran my 10K yesterday!

The weather was perfect and the course was pretty nice--through some of the nicer neighborhoods of Charlotte and not TOO hilly, all though there were some good ones in there, including one towards the end that really did me in. But I made it in 1:02:48, which was only 18 seconds slower than the 10 minute mile pace I was hoping to keep, so not bad. And compared to the 5K I ran 13 months ago, I did much better--twice as far in almost 4 minutes less than double the time (if that makes any sense. . .), so I've increased my distance and speed in the last year. I'm totally hooked and want to find more races now.
And if we hadn't come home and spent the next few hours shoveling dirt and gravel to prepare our garden beds, I don't think I'd be too sore this morning.

Bonfire at Mission Bay

We have been bonfiring with a couple families down in San Diego since the oldest kids were all about 18 months. Now, they're all 5, or almost 5, and have one or two younger siblings. We are so glad that they are still happy to get together each time we come into town. The kids all have a blast--wading in the dirty bay, rolling around in the dirty sand, eating all the dirty food (notice a theme?). S'mores and hotdogs--what's not to like? Bugaboo was pretty pleased. . .

The original 4 rugrats:

And with the next round. The other two families each have another baby that's comes since the two year olds.

We got so lucky--the forecast showed a chance of rain all day friday, but it held off until we'd just finished the last s'more (which took longer than normal because we only had one hotdog skewer for all 14 of us who were eating.) Then we got to make the mad dash to the cars with all the kids and equipment--not really a typical SD experience, since it almost never rains there, but it worked out just fine.

Friday Fun

On Friday, my good friend who I grew up with, Stacy, came down to play with us. We were lucky and the weather cooperated, so we spent the afternoon wandering around La Jolla.

It's always fun to watch people who are surprised by the waves :)

We were going to go in the La Jolla cave since Daddy-o and I had never been there, even though it was only a dollar the whole time we lived in SD. Well, the price had gone up to $4 a person and it no longer seemed like such a great deal to hike down to a cave. So instead we just looked at the cave below, which is a different one that can only be reached by the water (and Daddy-o has been in that one when snorkling once.)

Downtown La Jolla has these cows all over--the kids really liked them. But the funniest thing in this picture is the look on Bean's face. She was having a particularly disagreeable moment and we captured the pure anger as she ran from her dad.

Bugaboo was very curious about milking the cow. . .

He was also fascinated by this sign :)