Egg huntin' with my boy...

We went to an Easter Egg hunt this morning with some of our Mom's group friends. Lauren was at school, so fortunately for Jake, he made out with a lot of Easter eggs:


And once he figured out that there was actual candy in those things, he quit searching for eggs and instead started grubbing on his candy. Smart kid that Jake!

Knotts Berry Farm!

The plan today was to go on our monthly Disneyland trip (we have the cheapest pass, so it doesn't cost us a fortune to go). Buuuut, we realized it was Spring Break and it was a black out day :( So since Justin had taken the day off, we decided to go to Knotts (a first for both kiddos).

Okay, before I go any further, I realize I took a ridiculous amount of pictures. What's even more ridiculous? I posted most all of them. And that's because I use this blog not only as a journal, but as an extension of their baby books. So there you have it. Feel free to skim away :)

Waiting in line to go on Lauren's first official "big girl" ride.


She passed the height requirement for this one, and she wanted to go, so we let her. I was pretty worried she'd hate it and she'd be stuck up high crying, but the minute it "dropped", her eyes LIT up and she started giggling. The other parents around us were laughing too because her giggling was so contagious :)


So proud of my girl!

Then we saw a live show:


It was cute, but the kids were more interested on riding the rides surrounding them. As you can see, they could have cared less about Charlie Brown, Linus and Lucy playing baseball:


Ha! ;)

Then the kiddos went on a "hairplane" ride. I was a nervous wreck, because Lauren had control of flying high and low, and I was terrified Jake would get scared and try to bolt. But Justin insisted we let him go, so I bucked him in so tight he couldn't breathe snugly and let them go.


And I'm so glad I did, because he was having SOOOOO much fun being a big boy:


After stopping for a snack, we met some of the characters before continuing around Camp Snoopy.


PS- Have I mentioned Lauren has NO fear of characters? Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, Snoopy, Chuck E Cheese, the Easter Bunny, etc... she adores them all!


Next up was the balloon ride. Lauren said "girls will sit here, and boys will sit there", as she pointed to another balloon. So that's where the fellas sat:


and where "us girls" sat:


We also went on the Race cars. Both kids really enjoyed this ride, although I figured they would due to their daddy's love of Redneck racing :)


Then we went to the Snoopy Bounce House. As you can see, they loved it:

After jumping "my jumps out, mommy!", we wandered around, had lunch and explored a little bridge/cave thingy:

By this point, the kiddos were tired and on the verge of grumpy. So we went on two more rides; this one, which made both Brownies grin ear-to-ear:


and this one, where the littles "drove" us around (we sat on top of the trucks). Again, it was a hit!


And finally, a pic of us smiling.... because we were DONE and it was nap time! :)

No really, we had a great time! It was fun to see the kiddos be able to do so much by themselves, instead of them having to ride with us every time. It wasn't as pretty as Disneyland, but there was a lot for toddlers to do, and it was cheap. So cheap that my cheap frugal husband didn't complain about it!


Great day!

Most ridiculous...

"smile" I've ever seen:


It's more like an, 'I'll-close-my-eyes-and-show-my-teeth' kind of grin, but whatever... he's happy, right?

My loves...

"No matter what you've done for yourself or for humanity, if you can't look back on having given love and attention to your own family, what have you really accomplished?" ~Elbert Hubbard

I think it's safe to say...

that my boy is diggin' this weather:


Short sleeve shirt, shorts, hat and "nakey piggies"... yeah, we like Spring :)

Within the past 20 minutes...

I so wish I could say that I added a couple of made-up incidents to this blog post for some humor. But nope, this ALL really did happen. Just my luck I suppose ;)

So the little's and I come home from the gym and Tar-jay to find that our dog Sammie, has peed all over the carpet in the family room. Now she's 13 years old, and doesn't have much longer to go, so she has an occasional accident every now and then. But I should mention that she's not a small dog, so suffice it to say it wasn't just a little wet spot.

So I pull out the steam cleaner and as I'm about to start scrubbing, Lauren tells me that she has to go poop but the light is off and she's scared, so I stop what I'm doing and turn on the light. Now normally I stay in there with her and help her wipe/wash hands/etc, but she's been insistent on "being alone" so I go back to steam cleaning.

Within minutes, she comes out with a look of horror on her face and tells me that she got "poopy on her arms (?!?) and dress".

Greaaaaaaaat.

Again, I stop the steam cleaner to find that yes, she managed to get "stuff" all over herself and the bathroom. So now I clean her up, and I'm in the process of cleaning up the bathroom when Jake comes in with a pair of undies and says "Thomas peas mommy". So I took a quick moment to help him take off his diaper and put on his chonies.

I then return to finish cleaning up the dog pee when out of the corner of my eye, I see Sammie hunched over dry heaving! And before I have a chance to put her outside, she vomits up 12 freakin' days worth of food. No joke, it was a huuuuuuge pile. I guess the kids had been sneaking her food and her stomach, by the looks of it's contents, just couldn't hold it any longer.

Double great.

So now I still have to finish steam cleaning the dog pee, sanitize the messy bathroom, put my daughter in clothes (because she took the dirty one's off and is running around in her Birthday suit), scoop up the dog barf and then steam clean the barf spot.

And no lie, I turn around and find that Jacob is sitting on the floor and he smells of poop. And if you forgot, he's wearing UNDIES. I stand him up, and yep, it's on the carpet now.

Anyone have a few grand they'd like to donate to new carpet? Ours is SCREAMING uncle right now...

Nap pants (or lack of)

We've got an array of "nap pants", "snuggly pants" and "cozy pants" that Lauren wears during "rest time" because really, one needs to be ridiculously comfy to take a nap. So yesterday after bringing her home from school, I asked her to pick out some nap pants so she could get ready to take a rest.

After laying Jakey down in his crib, I walk into her room and find her wearing this:


Uh huh.

Now I know the girl's got some questionable fashion sense and all, but the article of clothing around her waist? That's a bathing suit top:


I guess she opted for "risque" instead of cozy this time...

This is what happens when she doesn't nap...

This is what a three year old does when she's refusing her nap and she's bored in her room. Because she has no puzzles, books, dolls, coloring books, or various toys to amuse herself with for the measly hour she was in her room. By the way, for any of you wondering, she came out of her room 'meowing' and showing us her "whiskers".


Cute. Real cute.

I try to think that she's just exceptionally artistic, but really, aren't there better ways to show off her creativity than drawing on her FACE (and feet, belly and fingers for that matter)?! As a kid, I remember coloring on paper, maybe the occasional coloring book or book of paper dolls. My daughter, however, prefers different mediums including, but not limited to, her rocker-glider, the back of her door, the carpet, powder, yogurt, mud, and lotion.

All I have to say is - she better get all "A"s in art!