Six Flags

Ooh what fun. This weekend we took the neighbors with us for some roller coaster riding. Ava's first "big kid" roller coaster. She loved it smiling and screaming all the way.
Tori and Olivia waiting for the ride to start.
Olivia was chosen to answer a question and win a prize. This was a huge deal. She has been trying all summer and it finally paid off.
Here's the seal she won!
The water ride we waited all summer to be open was finally running today. After they went on it they were soaked. Dave rushed Ava to the restroom and dried her off under the hand dryer. Liv wasn't too bad and dried in the sunlight. They loved the ride though. I saw "no hands."
Me and Ava at the butterfly pavilion.
Dave's hitchhiker.

Look at that smile. I love that we can make our kids so happy. I also love that they are this happy in general all the time. My angels.
Practicing to be Amelia Earhart.
Up, up, and away!!
The submarine ride.
The final shebang of the day!!

I think the best decision we made all summer was to invest in season passes to Six Flags. It totally paid for itself, was a bunch of fun, and was a great learning experience for the girls while exploring all of the exotic animals. Nothing makes Dave or I happier than to see smiles on the faces of our beautiful sweet girls. I loved to see them running and playing or dancing to the music they heard while we were walking from each ride or animal. It really gives me that warm fuzzy feeling and puts a smile on my heart. I hope we always have this much fun together.

Packed

Unpacking & packing. Packing & unpacking. Is that the main job of the mom?

It seems like I spend every day either putting stuff into bags to take the kids somewhere or the next day I have to put it all away. Maybe we should just stay home. That would be so much easier.

Tomorrow I have to pack AGAIN to go to my mom's house. I'm transporting my kids and the two neighbor kids up there Thursday morning for a long weekend of swimming. When Dave and their mom get off work Friday night they will drive up and hang out too. Their dad is going out of town so he won't be coming and this way we all get a break from being here in the neighborhood.

Thankfully I only need to pack a few things for this trip. We already have all the dog supplies, toiletries, books, toys, and movies up there so we just need clothes and swimsuits and Ava's lovey. I can't wait to relax and sit by the pool. Wish we were there already.

Father's Day

Olivia made this present for Dave before school was over. Her teacher rocks with all the craft projects she does with the kids.

 

And this is Dave on a halibut hunt with his friends...

 

Poofy Heads

Today we went on a stroll through the neighborhood and we met a old man who had some extra lemons from his tree. We filled our pockets and happily strolled along with aspirations of making lemonade. We chatted and sang songs. We searched for pennies. We even found a few poofyheads on a nearby neighbors lawn so the girls both plucked them from the ground and made a wish. I didn't have my camera with me at the time but here's a reenactment of them blowing their poofyheads and making a wish. Olivia wished for "her friends" and blew out her poofyhead. Such a sweet girl.
Ava whispered quietly while blowing, "I wish for my daddy to come home." I almost cried. She looked so serious and truly meant it. God I love them.

And here's the best part...

Right after that we passed a house around the corner from ours. I saw a few people standing there but didn't give it any thought. We were gabbing away when I finally heard the woman yelling, "Ma'am...ma'am." So we walked back and she asked me if we lived around here and I told her, "yeah, a few houses down.."

And then she said, "this is my daughter Sofia and she needs a friend."

Coincidence?

I think not.

Sofia is 3 and perfect for Ava and Olivia. I told her all about Liv's preschool and that Ava will be going next year so she is going to check it out. We exchanged phone numbers so that we can get together in the mornings and the girls can play, or we can take them to the park, or just out for walks since the girls and I usually walk somewhere every day.

Who'da thought wishing on a poofyhead would be the wish that instantly came true? Had I known this, I could have brought my lotto ticket with me and blown out my own poofyhead.

For The Record

I haven't yet done a post about Halloween night. I kinda feel like we did so much Halloween stuff before the actual event that there's nothing left to add but just for the record when the girls read this later they will know we did go out, we did trick or treat, and we did come home with a lot of loot.

Actually Friday night we went to the Y for their free dinner and games. The girls had fun. They got to color, paint a pumpkin, spin the wheel for prizes, and show off their costumes. Saturday one of the neighboring cities was having a safe trick or treat for all the stores so we hit that one and went out to lunch. Then later that night we hooked up with the neighbors and went for the real deal. I was literally done with Halloween by this point. The girls were cranky from not napping, and me and my man were tired. We were both like, "Is it over? Can we go to bed now?" But we sucked it up and headed outside and after a few minutes we were all in the swing of things and had a fantastic outing. I didn't take any pictures of the event being that it was outside and dark but I think the previous pictures will suffice.

Early Halloween

This weekend the city put on a Harvest Festival complete with petting zoo, bouncy slide, and an arts and crafts table. The girls made some pretty cute leaf magnets for our refrigerator, fished out rubber duckies from a pool of water for a treat, and ate some cotton candy. Everything was free so it was fantastic.

Later that night, the city put on a safe trick or treat for the local businesses to advertise and the kids to get clean candy. We actually got there early with one of our neighbors and the streets were already filled. The girls fluttered from booth to booth in their fairy costumes and acquired quite a lot of loot. They even were given free ice cream coupons so when we finished we headed to the ice cream shop with the neighbors and ate our hearts out.

Yesterday, I set out the BBQ to cook some chicken while the kids were napping. I told Dave we would eat later but I wanted to get the cooking over with. Well, once the BBQ was hot and I had just put the chicken on, Olivia comes outside to announce her awakening. So much for cooking while she slept. A few minutes later one of the neighbor boys and his mom ran over to play with Liv. We got out some lawn chairs and within minutes our whole family, their whole family, and the family next to them were sitting in lawn chairs, kids playing on the lawn, and the grill was overflowing with chicken, tri-tip, and ribs. We had corn, asparagus, BBQ beans, hot dogs and drinks for the kids. So what set out to be a 15 minute job for me ended up being a 4 hour party with the neighbors and it was great. The kids had fun running and playing basketball. We had fun because the kids were having fun and since dinner was cooked on the grill there wasn't anything to clean up. Once darkness fell we went inside and bathed the girls, put on their jammies, and we all watched a movie together. It was a fun family weekend and it cost us nothing. Why can't everything be free?

The Weekend's Over... Bummer

We were off to a pretty good start too. Saturday morning we ran all of our errands and still had a few minutes to play at the park. Once we decided to leave Ava mentioned she wanted to jog a lap on the track so she and I went for a run. That's where we found Asilly, the praying mantis. Of course we had to bring her home to live in our garden.
And we all had to touch her since she is such a huge bug. Ava braved having it run up her arm.
Then after nap the girls mingled with their friends and watched some basketball.
Here's all the silly kids.

And then they decided to play a little B-Ball themselves.
Ok so maybe they do a lot of rolling around, but occasionally a ball does make it onto the basket.
Like here... Olivia's action shot.
Sunday the girls took a spin in their jeep. Ava's feet finally reach the pedals and she now gets to drive. Awesome.

Like Sisters in a car, these two are typically bickering... Who is watching the road?

Olivia let "B" take her for a spin until the battery finally wore out. She's trying to put her arm around his neck and he won't let her. So cute. Now the weekend is over and we are back to the regular routine..

Art Projects

Featured artwork created by: The Miss Olivia herself

Today was another cut and paste day and boy did Olivia love it. She couldn't wait to jump into the truck and tell me all about using the scissors. They also were given chocolate chip cookies for snack to go along with the theme of what they were cutting and pasting. Sounds like fun...

Today was also 'share day' so Liv brought with her a big Ariel doll and an alligator. She said she let other kids play with them and that she shared. Humm... I'll take her word for it.

Ava and I went to breakfast with a neighbor and ate some giant pancakes. It was refreshing because it was a neighbor I hardly ever see because she works all the time. Ava and I enjoyed ourselves and our special time together.

Everyday Madness

Let's start with the fact that we did not make it to the baseball game Thursday night. Dave came home and was rushed to get the girls' dinner and get out of the house on time. Whenever they are rushed they seem to hit super slow drive and refuse to do whatever we'd like them to do. So as Dave frantically rushed to eat and get stuff ready the girls picked at their dinner, Ava had 3 or 4 meltdowns, and Olivia just didn't care that the timer was set or that it was going to be going off and she wouldn't be able to go. Ava ended up choosing to do timeout in her room and then decided she'd rather be there then come downstairs. She was also NOT going to wear her panties. So the game ended up being a bust. Everyone was pissy, and no one wanted to cooperate.

Friday we hung around the house, played in the pool, had lunch outside in the yard, and just relaxed. It was pretty much a free for all for whatever the girls wanted to play with. When they wanted their markers, they colored. When they wanted play dough, the created sharks, cows, and of course snakes. Olivia played on her computer for awhile in between completing her book of mazes. Ava chased the dogs around. The dogs chased the cat around. You see where I'm going with this... Basically a pretty calm laid back day.

Saturday we got up and divided some chores up. Dave and his mantra of women went to the front yard and washed the vehicles. I and the animals went to the backyard and began pulling all the weeds in our retaining wall area. I started really early in the morning to avoid the heatwave that came around noon. Dave finished first so he brought the girls in and fed them lunch and put them to bed. Then he came and helped finish the last of the weeds in the rock area. I then took a shower, went to get my haircut, and hit the few stores I needed to go to. I picked up 2 Dora backpacks for the girls since they both wanted to carry the backpack all over the zoo. If I only bought one there would have been a fight over who gets Dora so now that's out of the way. The girls were pleased when they saw the backpacks pop out of the bag. The rest of the day we just did our regular stuff and took it easy. Dave ended up with a terrible sunburn and wasn't feeling too good so it was nice that the girls were decent.

Sunday we walked Lady, played in the pool, and watched TV. We mesured the girls again on the wall. They both have grown an inch in the last 2 months. I don't know how tall they actually are but they are 3 and a half inches apart. Ava's still cutting her top 2 molars as well. So anyway, we didn't do anything exciting or really worth writing about but we did spend the day as a family and that's the most important thing. My neighbors came over for a few hours and we hung out talking about wedding stuff. All in all this was the first weekend in a long time where we just sat around without any plans or shopping or just stuff to do. It was enjoyable.

The Movies

Every week on Tuesday and Wednesday the movie theater by our house offers a free movie at 10 am. I packed the girls and some snacks in the car and we headed out to the theater for Surf's Up. When we arrived our neighbors were there waiting for us and had already bought a huge bucket of popcorn. So we sat down and the previews began. Ava loudly proclaims, "let's get outta here Mommy!" So far not good.

After a bit of explaining that that was not the movie and that it would start soon Ava decided we could stay. We poured ourselves some bowls of popcorn and the kids all ate their ways through the movie. Honestly I don't think Ava ever really looked at the screen but she enjoyed herself. Olivia loved that her 3 little friends were there with her and she was sitting by them. It ended up being a good experience for the kids and a chance for them to experience something that we can't normally afford to do. Next week we will go again and eat some more popcorn.

Farewell

Our neighborhood babysitter is moving away this week...where we don't know. She doesn't know either but hopefully it will be to somewhere permanent and not to a shelter or her car. Her husband lost his job tree climbing and trimming last summer and she is legally blind and can not work outside of her home. She receives government money (SSI) but it is not enough to cover the rent. So they have been living in their rented house without making any payments for the last five months.

It's been a long five months and many things have transpired in that time frame. My neighbor lost her power for a short period of time and we had her family over for dinners. Other neighbors allowed them do their laundry at their house while they were at work. Everyone in our neighborhood that is friends with her offered her something to help ease the situation. Her full-time babysitting gig that she had for a set of twin girls fell through when their own mom became very ill with a liver problem. She too lost her house in the process, moved to an apartment, and became hospitalized several times due to a failing kidney. The outlook for the twin's mom is grim and most likely a transplant is looking bleak. Through it all my neighbor has maintained a pretty positive outlook on life and her situation. I have to give her props because had it been me going through an eviction without any external family around and without any opportunity to earn money I would have become a basket case. She, on the other hand, seems almost immune to the road that lies ahead.

She told me once she has to stay positive so that her daughter doesn't see her cry otherwise it would be difficult for her to go to school everyday and stay focused. I was impressed by this but also very worried and panicked for her. Every day she would tell me that she called another set of apartment listings, was refused section 8, couldn't qualify for public housing, and was called again by the landlord who was again asking for all of his money. I knew at some point her luck at staying in the house would come to an end but I guess it my mind it seemed different than the reality that actually existed.

Over the past weekend I had heard from another neighbor that there were trucks in front of the house. So I called my neighbor and she told me about the packing and moving that had been occurring. She said that she had another day or two and then they would have all of their belongings out. It still seemed surreal to me. She's lived in that house since I moved into mine. She's a big part of the neighborhood. It was starting to feel like an end of an era but still not totally real to me. She said she found a place for her daughter to go but as for she and her husband and the family dog it was still undecided...possibly a friend's house, a hotel, the car...somewhere.

I can't wrap my head around all of this. I can't imagine packing up my belongings and not having any idea where I was going. This is the first person I ever let watch my daughter when she had just turned a year old. I remember it like it was yesterday. We had went to dinner for my birthday at a restaurant that has since closed down and I remember how worried and freaked out I was to leave Liv at home with a stranger. Today I would leave both my girls with her and know that I was leaving them with a friend.

I went over to check out the progress today. There's still 2 days worth of stuff to move out but it's do-able. The landlord has called her 3 times today asking if they are out yet. The pressure is definitely on and I could feel it in the house. But the real feeling I got when I walked around the house was that my friend was moving, not my neighbor, not the girl's sitter, but my friend and it was sad. I get know why she walked around as if nothing was happening. It's way more than just moving to somewhere- it's leaving behind the things that can't be trapped behind the four walls of that rundown house. A lot of her friends are here, the kids are here, her memories are here. Every day my girls ask if she's coming over or if that's her voice they hear outside. One day my daughters' memories of her presence will fade and that's sad to me because she loves them dearly and they love her.

I will miss my friend when she finishes her move to where ever. Hopefully it will be somewhere close so she can still hangout sometimes. But if it isn't I wish her and her family well and I hope life turns around for the best for them.

So it's been a long time...

Since adding a new post to my blog. I mean to do it everyday and then life happens and somehow it just doesn't get squeezed in. I left off somewhere before Christmas when we were checking out the neighborhood lights. All of them were really sparkly and the girls had a great time exploring the neighborhood.

Dave began his vacation time from both jobs so it left us with a lot of time to do family activities. We brought the girls to Habitot again. There they helped decorate a giant gingerbread house and this time played in the water. I learned from our last experience to bring an extra set of clothes. It was awesome having Dave be there and be a part of it all. Usually he hears all about their day but going and seeing them in action is a thousand times better. They also had their faces painted by us and they painted Dave's face.



We stopped for lunch afterwards and Olivia devoured my bagel or donut as she called it. Ava happily slept through the entire lunch, train ride home, and car ride home. She was exhausted from all of the excitement and I know I've gotten my money's worth when we leave a place and a second after she's clicked into her stroller her eyes shut.

A few days or weeks later Christmas came and the girls tore open their gifts with much delight. The big hits were the bowling set and the workbench. They used their new tools to put it together with a little bit of help from daddy. Santa was good to them again this year except he was rather surprised when no one left him any cookies or milk...hum...I guess our Santa was on a diet. In the afternoon we exchanged gifts with all of our neighbors and then dug into the honey baked ham we received from Dave's brother. It was the laid back fun filled Christmas just as we hoped it would be. The entire day we had friends stopping by and soon the day turned into night and it was over just as fast as it came.










The next day we brought the girls to the bowling alley. Dave somehow always finds us free stuff to do. He won the bowling tickets in a raffle a few weeks prior.




A few days after that we packed the dog and the girls into the car and headed for Grammie and Papa's house and of course Santa left tons of gifts there too. We hardly managed to get through the door before Liv was ripping and screaming over her new doll house and train set. Santa gave the two of them some really nice stuff. The girls made out like bandits and so did we.

We (Santa) gave my dad a rifle lamp...a lamp that looks like a rifle and a really big universal remote so he can actually see all of the buttons without having to wear his glasses. Mom was given new game for her Wii so we could engage in another tournament. They had been practicing golfing while we were away so we wanted to level the playing field. It didn't matter though. I was still terrible. I did beat Dave in one game of baseball. He took it in stride...

It was nice being at my mom's house and away for a vacation for awhile. We sat in the hot tub, we met a childhood friend of mine for lunch (without kids), we went to a New Years Party, went shopping, we stopped by to visit with another childhood friend's parents for awhile, and we ate hors d'oeuvres for dinner and played until we were tired. It was great as usual.



We stayed for a week and then came home, spent the night, and woke up to go to another party. This was my college BFF's son's birthday and you can read about her son here. The girls were excited all day long talking about the cake and balloons. Then we got in the car and they took naps...it was nice not having to listen to their movie again let me just add. We got to the party place and the girls ran like crazy, ate cake, snagged a balloon, and sang happy birthday to the birthday boy. We got back in the car and well...all hell broke loose. I haven't had that unpleasant of a car ride in a long time. We hit overload. Ava wanted to eat dinner and I only packed snacks for one leg of the trip...getting there. I know-what WAS I thinking? We decided to make a mad dash for fast food seeing as Ava wasn't going to make it the rest of the way home and for some reason we got off on an exit that the food took 10 additional miles to get to. Ugg. Once fed though they turned back into the cute little sweethearts that I have always known just a little oilier and stinkier from the fries.

Today we are getting over the colds which we developed from travelling and being worn out. Everything is good, Dave starts teaching again tomorrow, and the naps have returned to the normal routine. Life's good at our house. It's a great start for this new year.

The After Party

Yesterday was one of our neighbor kid's birthday party. Olivia has been talking about this party all week. She was told she needed to take her nap so once she woke up she could go jump in the bouncy house and eat cake. Sure enough she fell fast asleep. When it came time to get her ready and dressed, Olivia didn't want to wake up. We asked her if she wanted to go to the party, "no party" was the response.

Oh no. She does not want to get up from her nap. We don't want her to miss her party. What to do...let's turn on the lights. Ok that worked so well that she rolled over, stuck her thumb in her mouth, and covered her head with the blanket.

Daddy tried some subtle convincing- no luck. After awhile Dave picked her up and put her in the shower. At first she was upset, but then started to wake up and what was that....A PARTY...Let's go!!!! Caaakkkkkkeeeeee!!!! Now we were talking.

One down, one to go. Ava's turn to get up. The millisecond her door opened, Ava flew up and yelled out, "daddy up." In a few minutes the girls were dressed and we were out the door.

Here's some photos of the girls at the party:






When the party ended Olivia had a huge smile on her face and was ready to go home. Ava left with a handful of balloons and a grin. We left with two tuckered out cuties ready to go to bed.

As the Cat Sleeps, the Mice Will Play

Dave was lucky to survive this weekend. I knew it seemed to good to be true when it was so quiet in the house. As he decided to nap on the couch Saturday afternoon, Olivia scaled the baby gate by using her bike as a ladder and was found in the kitchen standing on a chair. Doesn't sound so bad does it? It gets better. She had taken her little chair and placed it on top of the kitchen chair and was standing on top of both of them. In her hand was the turtle food container that she was cleaning in the fish tank. Yes, she dumped 2 full jars of turtle food into the tank. So many things could have happened if she had fallen off the chair or fallen against the tank. She could have went into the backyard to play since the door was open, thankfully we had dumped the water out of the pool the day before. I was furious with Dave for being so negligent while he was supposed to be watching her. He's lucky that nothing happened to her.

As for last night's dinner with the neighbors, it was great. The food was good but overpriced I my opinion. The night itself went wonderfully. Our babysitter is awesome with the girls and had them in bed and asleep by 8 PM without any crying whatsoever. She even brushed their teeth. It's nice to be able to go out now that the girls are bigger and know that they are in good hands. It's a huge relief.

Friday, Friday, Friday

Today I worry about my friends. They all seem to be having issues this week. One's having man issues compiled with job issues and caring for the cute new baby. The other is having woman issues compiled with divorce/co-parenting issues which oddly enough shouldn't be an issue at all, but you know how that goes... So they are both frustrated and will eventually work it all out but I feel for them. One's just had a baby and one's cooking a baby. Those are issues to tackle all by themselves even before adding in everything else. So good luck girls. Dave and I love you both and it will work itself out with time.

On another note, I am looking forward to going to dinner tomorrow with our friends down the street. We love them. The woman and I have a lot in common and never stop talking. The man and Dave always have something music, political, or sportsy to talk about. We see each other throughout the week but we don't get to just sit down and relax without the girls and have a good time. We all decided that we'd choose restaurants to try that no one has been to so we have a little adventure. Here's to hoping we picked a good one!