Hey Mickey

My poor neglected blog! Still waiting on that new laptop (which I have yet to order), so please do excuse my disappearing act.

Earlier this month we spent a week down in Southern California at Disneyland, Legoland and Seaworld. I look forward to the days when traveling with kids isn't such the production and may actually even be a little relaxing. We had a wonderful time, especially Patrick and Molly. Patrick was completely fearless at Disneyland and was pretty much willing to ride anything. His favorites were Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain Railroad and Star Tours. Molly declared everything a "fun ride!", but seemed particularly impressed with anything in Fantasyland. We had lunch with the princesses (per Patrick's request). He told them all his name was Luke Skywalker. Without missing a beat Cinderella replied "Oh, your kingdom is very far, far away!". Patrick was still smitten with the princesses, although he was a little disappointed that they didn't remember him from his last visit with them (at Disneyworld last year).









After Disneyland we went a little further south and spent a few days in Carlsbad. I wasn't quite sure what to expect at Legoland but we had a really, really great time. Patrick was at the perfect age to really enjoy it. We had only planned for one day at the park, but next time I would plan on 2 days (especially since the park has very short hours). The Lego displays were pretty amazing, there was a recreating of Barack Obama's inauguration, complete with a tiny Aretha Franklin and hat. Awesome! Legoland also has a small aquarium, complete with Lego people in the tanks. It was sort of interesting, but not worth the extra price of admission (we had free coupons).











Seaworld was just OK. The Shamu show was awesome and makes me rethink my decision to major in business when I could have gone to school for marine biology and been an orca trainer. But the other exhibits were pretty similar to things we can see at the San Francisco Zoo or the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Yawn. I would definitely skip that one the next time.



More pics on Flickr!

He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother

Patrick and Molly had check-ups with the pediatrician today (one of the benefits of having birthdays close together, they can go in at the same time). For some reason Patrick was super excited about seeing the doctor, even though his last visit to the pediatrician involved 5 shots so we could register for kindergarten. Patrick has a little bit of a problem with the vision test, it was hard to tell if he was having a hard time seeing or if he was just bored with answering the nurses questions. We get to go back in in 3 months for another check. I'm really hoping he doesn't need glasses. Patrick weighed in at a petite 37 pounds and 41.5 inches, which puts his around the 20th percentile. I guess I hadn't realized that he was on thew small side, but it was confirmed today when I tried to put a pair of size 5, elastic waist shorts on him and them slid right down to his ankles. Molly weighed in at 26 pounds and 32 inches, which puts her in the 90th percentile. Go figure! She took her 3 shots like a champ, no tears at all. Not like a certain drama prone boy whose name rhymes with Batrick.

Now that the whole swine flu thing seems to have died down, and Tom is not longer slammed by it at work, we are going on a little road trip. Yeay! We're planning on seeing Mickey, Legos and Shamu. Please, oh please let the kids be angels in the car. Pretty please with a cherry on top. I'm begging.

So Long Mickey Mouse

We're back from Disneyworld! Patrick had an absolute and complete blast, he soaked up every single little detail and loved it all. It makes me want to take them back when Molly is 4 because it seems like such a perfect age for the Disney experience. Plus, at 40+ inches Patrick could most most everything. Patrick's favorites included Thunder Mountain Railroad, the monorail, the Kilimanjaro Safaris, Star Tours, and meeting the princesses (hubba hubba, he has stars in his eyes). Molly's favorites included running around after Patrick, the model trains at Epcot, the monorail, and frozen strawberry fruit bars. It was a wonderful time to go, the lines were pretty much non-existent everywhere we went. We missed the hurricanes, but did get a taste of Florida's rain which was really quite spectacular (I am thankful it doesn't rain like that here!). We all had fun but it was go, go, go all week and when we got home on Saturday night we were exhausted.

Here are a few of my favorite pics. I took about 500 pictures, and uploaded about 100 to flickr (including pictures from Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party), so please look over there too!















It's back to the grind here for all of us. Patrick is now in school Monday/Wednesday/Friday mornings, and until the end of fall he'll be taking science classes on Thursday mornings. I think I am going to sign my fearless Molly up for gymnastics while Patrick is in school. My plan to get her down to one nap a day seems to be working, which is better for preschool pick-ups but unfortunate for me because I used to nap with her in the mornings sometime while Patrick was at school.

And on the house front, our hall bathroom is getting completely torn out in about 2 weeks. If you have never seen it it is quite possibly the smallest full bathroom ever known to man. It's the last big house project we have left, I'm really excited to finally get it done. Tom and I are going to pick out tile tomorrow, whoo hoo!

Missing Persons

I've been a neglectful blogger. I can't even blame it on being super busy because school was out, summer camps were over, and we spend most of our time at home. But oh, how those weeks kicked my behind. I decided to use the break from our regular schedule to work on getting Molly down to one nap. Mission mostly accomplished. It didn't help that Molly was teething yet again, this time getting tooth #13 and 14, her eye teeth. Despite being a calm newborn Molly has proven to be just as willful as her brother, maybe even more so. Patrick was beyond bored being home all day and made sure to tell me as much. At least 10 times a day. That boy has boundless energy, it's really rather amazing. Anyone who spends a few hours with him is sure to comment on how worn out they are. Trust me, I know. In the last few weeks they've started to play together, which warms my heart to watch. Molly no longer seems hell bent on destroying anything Patrick is working on. Yesterday she sat patiently with him while he did a puzzle of the 50 states, she just watched and handed him pieces. Patrick continues to adore Molly and loves teaching her new things. Today he taught her how to jump on the bed. I am thinking he may need to run future lessons by me before hand.

Some quick picks of what we've been up to over the last few weeks...

Molly was cute.



Patrick went to his first Giants game. That's cousin Danielle in the background.





It got really hot and the kids played in the "pool".



We went to Chico for the wedding reception of cousin Gina (they got married on a mountain top in Colorado!).





Patrick played a LOT with Legos. New obsession!



And today, preschool started up again! Patrick's in new room this year and will go 3 mornings a week. Notice the ever present Batman cape.



Coming soon, another big adventure! Wish us luck on the airplane :)

Aloha

I'm a bad blogger! We recently returned from a wonderful 2 week trip to Kauai. I thought about blogging while I was gone but I didn't. Then I meant to post pictures when we got back, but I didn't. So we've been back for almost a week now, and while I'm not blogging a bunch of pictures, I did manage to upload a bunch into Flickr, go check it out.

We went with Nana & Papa, and Uncle Nick and Leah. Everyone had a great time exploring the island. Patrick had a complete blast and a good chunk of every day swimming. Molly mostly enjoyed the pool, and thought sand at the beach made a tasty snack. Tom enjoyed having 2 weeks off of work and spending time with the kids. And I just enjoyed it all. So here are a few pictures, check out the rest in Flickr. I promise to be a better vacation blogger in the future :)









And how could a set of Kauai pictures be complete without an obligatory chicken picture. There seemed to be MANY more chickens this year than on our last visit 3 years ago. We were reminded of the growing chicken population every morning at about 5am with a few roosters in the yard :P

Baby It's Cold Outside

I'm a little late in posting this, but we spent a long weekend in Tahoe over my birthday. It had been a very long time since we'd been up there during the winter, and I've decided I am so not cut out for cold weather. Patrick loved it though. He was thrilled to be able to make snow angels and go sledding. Molly tolerated it for small periods. She absolutely hates having anything on her head right now (including my beloved bows) so she would throw a complete fit anytime we put a hat or a hood on her. I am really hoping this phase is short lived, Patrick went through a similar phase at about the same age. I took a bazillion pictures, more are posted on Flickr.





On the way home we stopped off in Fairfield to tour the Jelly Belly factory. It's one of those things I've always wanted to do but never had the chance. The factory only operates on weekdays so I was excited about seeing everything in action. Well wouldn't you know it, Monday was inventory day so the factory wasn't running. We saw a bunch of empty machines and half finished beans but Patrick loved it just the same. He brought home his paper Jelly Belly hat and has been wearing it for 3 days straight now, insisting that we play "jelly bean factory workers". I'll admit it, that one can get old really quickly.

I'm Going To Disneyland!

We got back from a nice little trip to Disneyland last night, we had a blast but it was soooo cold down there! I packed warm clothes for everyone but we really could have all used the extra heavy duty jackets us Northern Californians save for the few times a year it dips below 55 degrees. I even bought a scarf and gloves for myself because I thought I just might freeze to death out there on one of the rides. The drive down and back makes me wonder what I did in a prior life to deserve such cranky travelers. Patrick has gotten better with age (and with the investment in a portable DVD player) but Molly was at her limit after about 90 minutes in her car seat. Needless to say, it was a long trip. But worth it!

Patrick loved every minute of it all, especially the parade, the Peter Pan ride and the ginourmous Ferris wheel. Molly enjoyed Small World and people watching.

My mom and I made Molly the most adorable little Minnie outfit. Molly got about a million comments on it, but sadly it was so cold I didn't get a better picture than this, you can just see the top of her blinged out Minnie shirt.



Sleeping Beauty's castle was decorated for Christmas. Having been to Disneyworld a couple of times in the last few years I can say with great authority that Sleeping Beauty's castle is much smaller, and much less interesting than Cinderella's castle at Disneyworld.



I bought Patrick and Molly each a pair of Mickey ears. Patrick pretty much wore his straight for 3 days. He plans on taking them to school for show and tell.





We rode the teacups 3 or 4 times, we were even able to walk on with no lines!



Patrick has the same appreciation for churros that his mom and dad do. Here he is enjoying the Christmas parade with a churro snack.



Patrick really loved the huge Ferris wheel at California Adventure. I did not thankyouverymuch. Besides the fact that it was freezing up at the top, there were no seat belts and I was having visions of Patrick jumping up, prying open the doors and flying out. Tom assures me that these kinds of thoughts are not normal. Whatever. Molly and I sat out on subsequent rides.



We got to meet up with some friends while we were down there, Patrick and Calvin had a blast taking Fantasyland by storm. Calvin even tried to convince Patrick to ride the Haunted Mansion. We got as far as the elevator room before we took the chicken exit.



And finally Patrick got to "meet" two of his favorite characters, Mater and Lightening McQueen. He was actually a little giddy about getting to have his picture taken with them!



We have a nice time, but I am so glad to be back home. Molly seems to really thrive on her routine and is sleeping much better at home. I am sleeping better as well, hotel beds just aren't the same.

Up next on the agenda for this week: getting a Christmas tree, doing a little shopping, visiting with Auntie Cheryl who arrived from Holland, going to a wedding and a gingerbread house party. I am exhausted just thinking about it all!

Hot, Hot, Hot

We're back!

We spent the last 5 days in Chico visiting with Gary and Camille (and Anna even came home too!) and we had tons of fun. It was HOT though! On Thursday night at about midnight it was still 90 degrees outside! Gary and Camille having a swimming pool and Patrick had been looking forward to this trip for months. He would talk about the pool all the time and couldn't wait to get in. The first day he was sort of hesitant but by Monday he was loving it and didn't want to leave. He keeps asking me to buy him a swimming pool. The fact that our backyard is tiny doesn't seem like a hurdle to him. Molly also loved the pool, check out these two little fish!









Nana, Papa, Uncle Nick and Leah were all there also. Nick and Leah were attached to their Gameboys, something I haven't played since college. Those little things are rather addictive! And they come in pink now!



Gary and Camille took very good care of us, we had wonderful, yummy dinners out by the pool every night.





But back to the grind today. Patrick started his first real day of school this morning (Thursday was just orientation and my camera battery died so I am not counting it). His new teacher this year is Miss Tiffany and she seems great! I hadn't realized that there were 3 different classes for 3 year olds, Patrick is not in the same class as his two best school friends, Valentino and Aria. He hasn't seemed to notice yet but it breaks my heart because he has talked about them all summer. Apparently I could have requested that they be in the same class but I didn't know that back in January when I had to register him. Just another one of those things I will file in the "I hope I didn't cause any permanent damage" file.