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..

When Kids And Toys Don't Mix

This power drill is wound super tight into Olivia's hair. Thank you Ava for all of your fabulous help.

It took a long time but I twisted and twisted the drill to loosen her hair to pull it over the top silver part of the drill.
Nice new hairdo courtesy of Ava
The silver knob that I had to get her hair over.
And where the power tool will finish out it's lifetime...my trash can.

Buyer beware- Not all toys are meant for kids:)

Mid-Week Vacation

So this will be quick but we've visited the library and picked up some stellar books and dvd's, we've slept in bed and snuggled, we rode bikes and went to the park with the neighbor kids who were also on vacation, AND we even went to The Jungle and played all day and had lunch with the neighbor and her kids at Fuddruckers. This has been a great vacation. Everything has been laid back and relaxed. No hurrying around. Simple Bliss.

Our Chocolatey Creation

We are all anxiously awaiting Dave's arrival.

When Duty Calls...

Where to start? First of all this weekend was supposed to be fun seeing as we were going to a birthday party and all. Except we all got the flu shot before the party and since that moment Ava has had explosive diarrhea. What fun. During the party I heard a kid shout from the bouncy house, "what stinks?" I knew it would be my kid. It is always "my something" when it's bad news. Take for example, "someone's SUV has the window smashed out...." My SUV.

So getting back to the stinky bouncy house... Sure enough Dave removed Ava from the bouncy house and she had a boat load of fresh cargo just waiting to be off-loaded in her pants. Great. Just fabulous. So he took her home, cleaned her up, returned her to the party so she could again 20 minutes later drop off another load. Even better right? So at this time she was taken home for good and proceeded to poop herself silly until today. So was the party fun? Yea. I had fun. I also got to hang out without the kids after the party with everyone. But was the party fun for Ava- the intended party goer- not so much.

This week is also Olivia's week off from school. Her first vacation. I was so looking forward to this time to sleep in bed and snuggle, get up late and lounge around in our jammies, and just do some fun stuff together. CC County felt otherwise. I had jury duty Monday. I had called last Friday hoping that my group would be dismissed but that was unfortunately not the case. So on the first day of Liv's vacation, duty called for me and I had to go. It only took me a mere hour and a half to get there with the stalls and accidents on the freeway and I arrived only 30 minutes late BUT I showed up. I waited all day and around 2:30 PM my group was called to the court room. (Secretly I was now crying on the inside: DOOM, DADOOM, DOOM, DOOM!!!) The criminal trial was going to last for 3 LONG weeks. 3 WEEKS. Do you have any idea how long that is? It was hard enough getting up and leaving the house by 6:30AM to get there LATE and Dave had stayed home to pick up the babysitter at 7AM. He would not be able to do this for 3 weeks. I would have to go get the babysitter (she doesn't get her license until December) at 6:15 AM just to make this work. Impossible.

Then as if a gift from the heavens floated down and landed smack on my plate the judge EXCUSED me for childcare reasons. I am the parent who drives Olivia to and from school. Dave can't do it, and neither can either of either of my babysitters. Can you say, "HALLELUJAH?" So remember boys and girls- when duty calls, bring your excuse.

That makes today our first real day of vacation so we lounged in bed together watching cartoons, got up late, kept on our jammies, baked a chocolate cake, and finally got dressed and went to the library. We picked out a few movies for after their nap and a few really enticing books. So far our vacay is off to a good start.

What A Great Day

Today we didn't have anywhere we had to go and nothing that had to get done. Oh was it a nice feeling. So thankfully Ava slept until 7AM and Livynut slept until 7:30 AM. We got up and I brought all of the laundry downstairs and began a load, went back upstairs and made the beds, cleaned up the mess, and brought Sugar out to pee. The girls waited for me downstairs and played for awhile, then Ava reminded me that she was hungry and wanted food so I threw my monkeys a few bananas, some milk, and the all loving Cheerios.

Now that the house was cleaned up, the windows were opened, and the refreshingly cool morning breeze was encompassing us we began our day. I switched the laundry to the drier and added another load to the washer, Olivia built something with her tools, and Ava got out her favorite Dora chapter book and began reading. The morning was very calm. I needed it too. Getting the kids up, showered, dressed, fed, the dogs out to pee, a shower for myself with a little time to primp, a second to put in my contacts, brush my teeth, hopefully eat something, then get the girls to both go potty, get their shoes on, grab Liv's backpack, run them out to the truck, lock them both in their seat belts, stop the arguing over the toys or books, drive to preschool hopefully not forgetting anything and arriving on time, getting them both out of the truck, signing Liv in with her teacher, keeping Ava out of the school toys, then forcing her to leave and get back into the truck...gets a little exhausting.

I realize it is only twice a week but I am basically alone every day all day with the kids. I am the cook, accountant, maid, bath/shower giver, fight breaker upper, trash hauler outer, dogs, cat, and turtle tank feeder, grocery shopper, and I have to put away all the groceries myself with the girls standing there trying to go through the bags as well as schlepping the girls through the store, in and out of the car seats. This is my every day life so adding school on top of all the other crap makes it a long day. Tuesday and Thursday nights are sweet since Dave gets home in time to read a few stories, give baths, brush teeth, and put the girls to bed. Who ever said raising kids was easy must have either had a nanny or dropped their kids off in daycare and did all of their important things alone.

The things that I get done when I am alone take A LOT longer when the girls are around. I love being with them but I also need a break from going crazy. Tomorrow we already have 3 things that need to get done in the morning. Dave and I both have dentist appointments, the girls want to build a lock box at Home Depot, and we need to go get everyone's flu shots at Kaiser before 1PM because then we have a birthday party to attend. Oh and I might need to add jury duty to my unending list of crap to accomplish. I will find out today at 5PM.

Anyway now that I went on a tangent about all the stuff that weighs me down I want to go back and state that TODAY has been a great day. After breakfast we put on our shoes and went to the park to jog a few laps and play on the slides. After being there for awhile we came home and the girls pulled their bikes out of the garage and they rode around the neighborhood. Then we came back inside and made chocolate chip cookies and ate lunch. Now the girls are napping and I am on a break. It feels nice. It is wonderful. Soon the monkeys will be up and running crazy again and the house will be filled with laughter but for now...silence.

Monkeys

Home from school.
Another fancy creation.
This is a ghost that Olivia painted and as soon as she got home it HAD to go on the wall in her room for display when her daddy arrived home.
And who's this monkey? If you could see the back of Ava you would know that she is covered in dirt. We went to pick up Liv and she leaned against the gate/fence and proceeded to scoot up and down. So I got to do laundry... Woo Hoo!

And now we are on a school break. This is Livy's first school vacation. It's kinda exciting. When she goes back to school in a week she will have her first field trip. The pumpkin patch...