First Day of the Rest of My Life

Today was happy but surprisingly sad in a wistful kind of way. It was the first day of school for both of my children. Oddly, it was a brisk 62 degrees when we got to school. Double A started first grade and has moved out of the "pre-primary" section of her school. Big move. Bumblebee started pre-K at the same school. He has the same hours she does. So both kids are gone all day, every day. I am excited about all my new found free time to get some stuff done I have been putting off. However, I was unexpectedly a little sad. My babies are growing up. No more little ones at home. Let me make this VERY clear. I do NOT want more little ones. Still, them growing up has me a little wistful.

They were excited. Double A seemed to send a vibe that said "when are you guys going to leave the classroom and let me be??" She did great as I knew she would. Her highlights of the day were recess and lunch...of course. Bumblebee was my wild card. We thought he was excited but when you asked him he said no as if he thought we didn't want him to be excited or that he could not let on that he was. He went in and sat in his spot, smiled for his pic and out we went. He was happy when I picked him up but got grumpy with all the attention he was getting for his first day. He revealed more info later and just like his sister, spoke highly of recess. He also mentioned a few times how his teacher explained he could stay late and have snack and play outside if I did not come to pick him up on time. He finally admitted this sounded good! He was excited when he told me his teacher let him pick the books they were going to read. However, he could not recall which books or any of the kids names :)

At bedtime Bumblebee asked what we were doing tomorrow. I said he was going to school. "I go every day?" I worried he would not like this plan but said "yes, except weekends." He smiled and said "okay. good night."

We'll see how it goes from here.

Going back to Cali...

Okay, so we already went and are back again. The kids and I went to Southern California to visit my grandparents. We don't get to see them very often so it was really great to go out there. Man, they kept us busy!!! Got there Wednesday. Thursday we spent a VERY long day at Knott's Berry Farm. It is the place where the jelly started and is now a theme park with Snoopy as a mascot. It also has a whole old west/ghost town element going on. They have lots of rides for kids but Bumblebee kept wanting to go on the big rollercoasters but was too short. Double A was tall enough but did not want to go on the roller coasters. So basically they ended up fighting and crying about who was going on what ride. We did have fun and finally found a roller coaster Bumblebee could ride. He started out so excited but quickly got quiet then as soon as we slowed down he said "Mommy, that was awful for me!" However, by the time we came to a stop he asked if we could ride again.

Snoopy. This pic looks kind of blurry :(

Gramps and the kids in the Ghost Town portion of Knott's Berry Farm

waiting for the log ride...probably our favorite ride of the day!

Then Friday we were going strong again at Legoland. There were all sorts of things made from legos and more theme park rides. They also have a whole area of famous cities in miniature made out of legos. Pretty amazing. They used 33 million lego bricks in the whole park.

Grams with both kids. In the background is a real Volvo and Lego people. In another location there was this same Volvo made out of Legos, life size. Very cool.

One of the many Lego people around the park

The kids really wanted to get their faces painted :) Bumblebee's got wet on a ride almost right away and smeared down all one side but still looked scary.

I just thought this was pretty clever. :)

We took Saturday off. Thank goodness because those old people were wearing me out!! :) hee hee. My grandma zips around in her scooter but we all have to walk. She refused to give me a ride :) but did end up letting Double A and Bumble bee have rides. Saturday night the kids and I went to dinner with an old friend who now lives in San Diego whom we have not seen in almost 7 years. It was wonderful to see him.

Then Sunday we were at it again with a trip to the San Diego Zoo. They have a new baby panda but we were not able to see it because it is too young to be out on display yet. It is a huge zoo with lots of big hills. At one point the scooter gave out on a very steep hill and I happened to catch it so Grams and Bumblebee did not go careening backwards down the hill. We got it straightened out but it was scary at first.

It was nice to have one last "Hurrah" before school starts Aug 31. The kids want to know when we can go back to California and visit grams and gramps again. Today Bumblebee told me he wished he could live with them!

And Grandpa...no need to print these pictures. I plan on sending you a copy of all the pics I took.

Zoo fun

We went to the zoo yesterday. It was hot and humid but not so bad since I didn't have to push 90 pounds of kid in a stroller...they walked!! We had fun and stayed a long time. Saw almost everything...we have a huge zoo so everything in one day with two kids is almost impossible. We took some great pics of butterflies and flowers and animals but thought everyone would rather see pics of the animals I brought with me and took home!

Bumblebee petting a stingray. Double A was scared and actually only touched one just barely

the hippos were swimming laps right in front of us. Double A claims one was trying to kiss her!

crazy zoo animal that was sighted

wild animal seen at the zoo

climbing on a beetle...late in the day

penguin house. This penguin was floating right up against the glass blowing bubbles and Bumblebee thought it was great. Not sure if you can see the penguin very well.

This bird was right on the path in the flight cage. Bumblebee bent down to get a closer look and this bird lunged at him and was inches away from pecking his eye out when I pulled him back. Very scary but the bird didn't even leave...just went back to preening.

Can you tell which ones are the monkeys??? the up close ones or the ones in the trees?? :)

What is wrong with me??

Sooo, maybe I should not be advertising this all over internet-land but I feel compelled. This is what resides in my living room right now as I type (all too often, in fact)...

What you see here represents at least 11 loads of laundry. Some of which has been deposited here today and some of which has been in these baskets for about two weeks now. Some of you will look at this and think about the ensuing ironing from being crumpled for two weeks. Like my mom. My mom is something of a "militant ironer." She will iron for hours on end (and she doesn't even crumple for two weeks!). Impressive but I think I would rather walk barefoot on broken glass scattered over hot coals. Upon seeing this picture my mom would roll over in her grave, were she already dead. Thankfully she is not, so she will likely just shake her head and smile ruefully and think I am crazy and wonder what have I been doing for two weeks that prohibits me from folding 11 loads of laundry? Well, maybe I am more like my mom than we knew...I am thinking the same thing!!

The other issue that this photo brings to light is "what are we wearing if 11 loads of laundry reside in my living room?" Sadly, we still have plenty of clothes in our closets. Maybe I need to set aside my laundry folding problem and focus on my other problem first...a shopping addiction? I will say Husband #1 gets the worst of this and has to sort through the baskets to find clean underwear. Maybe I should just buy him more underwear and then I don't have to feel bad about it?! However, being the great husband he is (and why I am still on #1) he does not complain. Maybe he is just fearful he will be the one folding it if he complains. Either way, he is approaching sainthood in his tolerance of clean but unfolded laundry.

Well, maybe I should get off the computer and fold laundry!? Hmmm, that brings up a whole other problem I might have...internet addiction. Geez, I am a mess!

Double A celebrates 7!!!

I am not sure how this happened. Where did the time go? It just does not seem possible. My sweet baby girl with the big blue eyes, kissable dimples and golden ringlets turns 7 years old today. Something about 7 just seems older.





In the last 7 years I have noticed there have been milestone birthdays. Obviously 1 year old is a big marker in a baby's life. Five hit me kind of hard because it seemed like a move from toddler/preschooler to "kid." For some reason I was okay with 6 even though that marked the year she started Kindergarten. However, 7 years old seems like a huge change. She will be starting first grade the end of this month. Husband #1 and I have both noticed changes in her from going from a little kid to a new thing we have not yet dealt with :) Others notice it, too. She has grown taller obviously but it is more than that, something about her manner. She seems a little more poised, her thought processes have changed, her knowledge base has changed; it is hard to put your finger on. It will be exciting to continue to watch these changes and growth in her as she matures even more.





Happy Birthday to my sweet Double A!



We have quite the birthday extravaganza planned but more on that later (if I survive!) In the meantime check out these photos of the past 7 years.

one day old

six months old















one year old















two years old










two years old














three years old















four years old












five years old

six years old

Back Porch Paintin'

Soooo, we have been diligently painting our back porch, a project long overdue (like most of our projects!). I did most of the scraping and painting but Husband #1 helped a fair bit when he was home and the kids even did a little bit. However, keeping them from helping was the bigger challenge. Just too worried about slopped paint everywhere.

scraping paint off the door to the garage

painting the porch steps while detached

I think the project is mostly done now. We just have to paint the porch floor. I think we will go with some kind of light khaki/sand type color. I scraped the big chunks of paint off before we started painting. Husband #1 took off the steps and replaced some rotten floor board sections. This also led to replacing some rotten floor joists and installing some additional lag screws for support. Much sturdier now.

The pictures in white are the "before" pics and the brown are the "after" pics but, by golly, I would have hoped you could tell that on your own!!

Notice the missing ends of some of the floor boards...just rotted out!

We even did the back door and window to the garage. Everything looks so much better. At least the temperature was lovely this past week or two that I have been working on this project. Only problem has been that every time I paint it starts to rain before it is all dry!

Well, it is done now and off to another one of the many projects on our list. I think the kids are finally to an age where I can get some stuff done while they are around and don't need my constant supervision. Problem with that is I don't have that as an excuse anymore!

What a busy weekend

We had a fun but busy weekend. Friday evening Double A had a horse show. She did a fantastic job and did not seem too nervous this time. She got three ribbons in her three competitions: 6th, 3rd and 2nd place. She had fun and then afterwards we went to dinner and picked up some things at Lowe's. This is a picture of her doing Simon Says on Zema. He other two events she rode Trucker.

Saturday we finished painting our porch (pictures of that in another post) and I ran some errands to get ready for our party on Sunday. Midday we all went to a surgery picnic at a local park. There were tons of things for the kids such a petting zoo, spin art, balloon animal clown and face painting. The kids each selected their own face design. BumbleBee was very proud of his Spiderman and Double A looked lovely in her butterfly art. In this picture we were trying to get BumbleBee to do the Spidey hands but he didn't really understand :) so he got them backwards.

Sunday we finished getting the house and yard ready for our BBQ. Husband #1 had several people over from his lab. We had a great time and the backyard was lovely. We don't have any pictures from the actual party but here is a picture of my clematis vine which has finally started climbing and blooming. Husband #1 built these trellis things next to the patio and we planted these vines.

I was exhausted by the end of the weekend. We felt good because we got so much done and had fun activities, too. I REALLY did not want to get out of bed this morning. Went to the gym and my trainer "woke me up." UGH! We'll see if I can move tomorrow :)