Imaginative play conversations

I love listening to the boys when they are playing. I got a kick out of this one.

William: "ok where should we go next Harr? Do you want to go to Nineveh, Tarshish or Egypt?"

Harry: "I want to go to Jericho."

How cool is it that a 4 and 5 year old know those places?! I love those boys!

Disneyland Adventures

Well I did it!  I took the boys to Disneyland and California Adventure on Wednesday with no other assistance from other adults :)  We took our time getting there.  We left later than normal to avoid rush hour traffic and it worked.  At first, this is how I felt!  

What did I get myself into?  The boys were not great (as you can tell by the picture).  Our stroller was in the truck (at the airport) so we had to rent a stroller.  Of-course, they don’t have double strollers which I find very odd.  They give you a discount to rent two but there is only one of me and I can’t push two strollers.  Anyway, it started out with the boys fighting over who would get to sit in the stroller.  Then the picture above was in line for “It’s a Small World.”  Harry did not want to ride it and now looking at the picture, I guess Will didn’t either.  They soon realized that it was a fun ride and had all their favorite Disney Characters in it.  It turned out to be their favorite ride and we had to ride it a couple times.  I told them after the first melt down that we will go home.  No loss to me and I was not going to put up with it today.  Well for some reason, that actually worked for once.  They were fantastic the rest of the day.  We had a great time.  It was more crowded than any other time we had been there because of Spring Break but the lines really weren’t that bad.

 

I love this picture of the boys together on the train because they are so tired at this point that they are trying to smile.

   

I’m glad I took the chance on venturing there by ourselves because we really did have a magical day.  We were worn out by time we got home and it broke up the week without Scott around.  Although it was sad when standing in line for one ride Harry said, “I wish my daddy were here to ride with me.”  Too cute.  These guys are the best. 

And it's only Tuesday!

We have been busy!!! The boys do not have school this week and Community Bible Study follows the school year Spring Break so we have a free week. I guess I try to fill the time more when Scott is working. The boys have been great and funny. We have been taking Miss Belle for two walks a day and to the park. I have been really impressed by the distance we go without them complaining. And William has been walking Belle. I don't know if it is that Belle is getting over being sick (yep, a nice $589 bill from the Vet for a bacterial infection) or if she really is listening to him as her owner now. Check them out.
We even had 4 different dogs come up to us and William said, "calm down" and she listened. She never jerked him. We also had a lot of fun coloring the drive-way and playing superheroes. I don't know about your kids but you are not allowed to call them anything but "batman" and "Robin" when they are in character. You will get in trouble.

I got to say. They have been a little trying at times. I know there is a "why" stage but oh my GOSH, I did not know it was this bad. I have to hear "why did God make...." about 50 thousand times a day. Whatever answer, that is the same response you get. And try explaining the difference between what God made and what people made since the question about everything is "why did God make this?" Example, "why did God make cars?" Absolutely everything we do all day is now in question. Like today, we went to the dentist. "why did God make Dentist?" "Why did God make us have teeth?" It goes on and on. Speaking of the dentist...

That is all he did the entire time this morning. He did NOT open his mouth at all. So now we are off to the pediatric dentist again. The boys have also been running errands with me like going to the bank, grocery store, etc.

Some more kid talk that I wasn't supposed to overhear:

While in the bath:

Harry:" OH! I forgot to pee, I have to get out and pee."

William (in a very stealth whisper): "Harry, just pee in the bath and don't tell anyone."

OMG! BOYS!!!! So glad Harry did not go along with that! And that I heard so I can explain why that is NOT a good thing.

My proudest moment of the day. William asked for me to take off his training wheels. I hope Scott doesn't mind. I didn't even really think of this being a 'dad' moment and I am sure once Scott sees him do it, he won't mind. But I am so proud of him. With about 10 minutes of practice this is what he can do now!

The best part is when we first started I said, "ok, don't look back at me and have confidence." So of-course I was asked what confidence is. So I explained by telling The Little Engine that Could story. Well as soon as we started Harry was running after us saying, "I think I can William, I think I can, I think I can...." He was cheering his big brother on. It was so cute! I just can't get over how quickly William caught on and I am definitely a proud mommy. I guess I should have taken off the training wheels much earlier. This just means we are going to start soon on Harry.

Besides all the day activities, I had very serious conversations with the boys. We spoke about never speaking to strangers, taking candy or helping someone find their animals, etc. Why some nice people can be mean. It was such a difficult conversation to have when all these years we focus on being polite to people. But I have seen people on tv and they have gone through something horrible like a kidnapping (God forbid) and they say they never thought of having that conversation with their kid yet. And I feel I am behind. We also spoke about how and when to call 911. For me, I have major anxiety about being home alone with the boys. I absolutely hate when Scott travels. I am fearful of something bad happening mainly with my heart health. I don't know why but I think of it more then and I am scared of the boys being alone not knowing what to do or how to take care of themselves. Yes morbid but it is my anxiety. This is the disadvantage of not living by family. Anyway, I feel we have been super busy.

And to think tomorrow I plan on taking the boys to Disneyland. Call me brave or incredibly crazy seeing that I won't have another adult to help and it is Spring Break and the park will be more busy than usual. I wouldn't be as apprehensive if it were someplace like 6 Flags but Disneyland is 1.5 hours away and it is HUGE. But hopefully I don't chicken out tomorrow because we are all packed and ready to roll. I am crazy!

William's Kindergarten Physical

Isn't it so weird to even write that as a title? How did my little boy get to be at this stage?! He is going to Kindergarten in August/September (start date is dependent on the school he enrolls in). We waited on his 5 year check up because California will not count it towards the Kindergarten enrollment until after March 1st.

He had his appointment on Tuesday. He did great. His hearing is great. There should be no excuse to why I get ignored sometimes. Hearing and listening are two different things though. ha. When he couldn't see an object on the eye chart, Harry called out the answer to him :) lol. But his eyes were still good. Harry just has very keen eyesight! His blood pressure was 96/50 and his pulse was 78. He answered all the questions she asked him (counting, letters, shapes, etc). He even gave more than she asked (counted higher than she asked, spelled his entire name not just his first name). The only part we failed at was he didn't know his birthday. NOW he does. I just never thought about having him know that right now. I also noticed on the enrollment forms, they ask if they know there address and phone number. Guess I need to get to work. The kid has a remarkable memory so it shouldn't be hard. She was very impressed and shocked with his calve muscles :) William is pretty solid. He weighs 49.4 lbs and is 46 inches tall. He is over the 90th percentile for height. That was no shock to us seeing that he is the tallest in his preschool. And he is in the 85th percentile for weight. Now if I can only get him to eat healthier.

The sad part was the shots. He had to get 5 shots and a little prick on the finger. I don't think he likes the site of blood poor guy because that is where he got upset. When the nurse asked if he wanted a sticker, he almost yelled at her with his answer of NO! He is smart enough to know that a sticker was not going to make him feel better. The poor guy looked like he rode a horse by bedtime. His legs hurt him so bad he was walking bowlegged. The next morning he spiked a fever but it passed by late afternoon. Today we had to go back to check his TB test and pick up some forms. The nurse teased him saying he had to get two more shots today. His little face dropped and he just said, "okay." She felt bad for teesing him.

We are still trying to decide on which school to send him to. In California, there is "school of choice." It's not like in Missouri where you just go to the school closest to your house. We have 21 elementary schools in Simi Valley and those are just the unified school district. MY first choice was a fundamental school but it is a choice lottery school and his number did not get drawn. Our second and third choices rank among the highest in Simi and both within walking distance from our house. I got the call last week that he got into both. So we are very happy about that. The only other option I am looking into right now is a Private Lutheran school. It is where they go to preschool now but grades K-3 are at another campus. I really love the idea of a Christian based school. They have religion classes daily and weekly chapel. Not to get all religious but did you ever think that there are all these school shootings right now because Government took God out of public schools? That is a whole debate in itself. I just really love the idea of not being shamed in school for praying and serving God. The issue is that obviously private school comes at a cost. They have a financial aid program and grants for tuition so we shall see if it's meant to be. I just worry because William is this amazing little kid who spreads God's word and I know it comes from home but it also comes from the preschool he goes to (Christian based) and Community Bible Study. We are in between churches right now so he is not in Sunday School. When the school year starts, he won't have those influences anymore and that worries me. So we will just pray about it and put our trust in Him. Even if it doesn't work out, we know that he got into a great school so we win either way :)

Farmers Proud

As you know, I often blog about being proud supporters of Farmer’s Insurance Group.  One can say we are even walking advertisements at times :)  Yesterday I finally came to the realization that we have instilled that into our boys.  I already blogged about our Vegas trip and going to the NASCAR race. 

This is the conversation William had with the cashier at the grocery store yesterday:

Cashier: “wow you have a lot of energy.  Can you come home with me and do some chores around the house?”

William: “no, I have to stay with my mom.”

Cashier: “oh ok, well what kinds of things do you like to do?”

William: “I love NASCAR! 

Cashier: “Oh wow, I do too.  And my favorite race car driver is Tony Stewart.  And do you know that he won yesterday?”

William: “YES I KNOW THAT.  I WAS THERE!!!”

Cashier: “oh I am so jealous.  I bet that was fun.  Who is your favorite racecar driver?”

William: “Kasey Kahne.  He’s number 5.  Do you know why he is my favorite driver?”

Cashier: “no why?”

William: “Because he drives the Farmers car.  And I love Farmers!” 

 

I can already see a third generation Farmers employee in our future!  ha ha ha 

Vegas Baby!

So Scott calls me about 4:30pm on Friday and asks, “do you want to go to the race in Vegas on Sunday?”  Why not?!  Farmers Insurance Group is a sponsor for the #5 car Kasey Kahne.  So he got free tickets to the race.  Las Vegas is typically a 4 hour drive so we left Saturday morning.  The boys love “vacations.”  Any other place than home is so fun for them.  I think it is because they like to jump on the beds.  In fact, when we leave the hotel the whine about wanting to”go back on vacation to the hotel room.”  It couldn’t have worked out any better because we had a free Marriott reward hotel room that we had to use before March 31st that we thought was just going to go to waste.  Well, guess not!  We got in and played at the pool.

 

Then we took the boys to Serendipity for dinner and their famous frozen hot chocolates.  They were gooooood!

  The lights looked like marshmallows. 

And I thought this statue walking back to our car was just cool. 

Sunday we woke up later than we wanted to.  Daylight Savings time just messes me up.  But we got to the race before it started.  Harry didn’t start out well because he really wanted “to go back on vacation.”  lol.  But things got better as the afternoon moved on.  We had great seats.  We were right in between the start/finish line and turn 1 (basically right where pit row ended). 

William was his daddy’s sidekick.  He just loved the race!

  This picture cracks me up because we were in row 16.  You can practically touch the cars but I guess binoculars are a must sometimes :)    

And my favorite, #14 Tony Stewart won the race!

And don’t worry about Miss Belle.  She was spoiled  by our dog sitter, took long walks and played with friends.

Our drive home sucked though.  The typical 4 hour drive turned into 7.5 hours because of traffic and car wrecks.  Not fun.  We didn’t get home until 11:30pm and the boys did not sleep one wink in the car.  BUT I did have to wake them up at 9:30am on Monday morning.  9:30!!!!  Good thing there was no school. 

A walk to remember

Our mailboxes are at the beginning of our neighborhood.
This is what a typical walk to the boxes look like. A superhero with winter gloves on!

Beach weekends

The last two weekends have been absolutely beautiful.  Last weekend, we rode our bikes from Santa Monica Pier to Venice Beach and back.

 We ate dinner on 3rd Street Promenade and just had the most awesome family day.  This past weekend, we spent Saturday outside doing a spring clean day and ran all sorts of errands.  Yesterday (Sunday), we had another great family fun day.  We tried out a new church and had a refreshing morning.  Then we headed out early to Paradise Cove for the rest of the day.  It was so hot even at the beach.  We all have some red faces even after slathering on the sunscreen.  The boys love the water this year.  Usually they like to build sand castles and play sports in the sand.  Yesterday, they played down by the water the whole time.  They even made friends with four other children their ages.  The sun went down and we weren’t excited to leave because we were having so much fun. 

  

Harry cracks me up because he also equates going to the beach with eating. He seriously held that can of Pringles for about an hour and even while he was building a sand castle.

 

And you can tell by this picture, we were all tuckered out by time 8pm came around.  Again, Harrison cracks me up because he  is barely handing onto the bed. 

 

I love beach season!