Balloon Ride at the OC Great Park

When the cousins came down in October, we went for a Halloween balloon ride at the OC Great Park and spent the morning playing and biking with Noah and Hailey!

Ready to ride the great orange balloon, decked out as a pumpkin for Halloween.

Up in the air.

On to the next attraction…

Such a perfect fall day for a picnic!

Eleanor was napping in the morning, so I drove separately and joined the group when she woke up.

Rock climbing on the playground.

Poor Noah looked confused with the twins’ unique checkers “rules.”

The cousin biker gang.

Meredith and Hailey were so sweet with each other!

Eleanor wishing she could ride a bike too.

Meredith showed zero interest in her Strider bike basically the entire year until just recently and now she’s a pro. She rides all over town.

Meredith was getting ready to knock down her Jenga tower when this kid stole her thunder. I don’t think he expected the blocks to land on his head and hurt. He ran away crying while all the parents couldn’t help but laugh.

Going on a walk later after all the cousin excitement.

Lots of love,

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Fall Bucket List and October

At the beginning of Fall (which we started in October since September here is still pretty hot!), we sat down during one of our family meetings and put together our fall bucket list. “Jump in the cold ocean” was the twins’ idea and the pretty much put that down no matter what season it is. We ended up completing our list, except for paddleboarding and making scones (sadly!)

The biker gang: Maliyah, Allie, Amelia and Samantha, with Meredith, baby Corbin, and baby Eleanor tagging along.

We look forward to going up the mountain to Oak Glen every year for apple and raspberry picking, fresh apple cider, mini apple donuts and picking up yummy breads, jams and my favorite flavored vinegars from the country market. This time, Eleanor and I stayed behind while the girls and Jake crossed off their bucket list item.

Playing at Oak Glen after gorging themselves on donuts and hot apple cider:

Swinging outside of someone’s house in our neighborhood.

Checking out a new park in Esencia.

Putting up Halloween decorations and waving to the garbage man.

Soooo many Halloween decorations.

Checking out another park in Irvine and playing checkers.

Dress rehearsal for family pictures!

Jake and I started a weekly date taking tennis lessons, but the girls ended up being interested, so we signed them up too.

They are super silly during lessons, but it’s really helped with their hand-eye coordination and we’ve had fun going to play at the courts on the weekend with the whole family. Thankfully, Coach Elaine has twins of her own just a year older than our twins, so she’s used to the crazy!

Our yearly cookie decorating date with Maliyah, Allie and Corbin. Jodi makes the best sugar cookies on the planet and her girls are very meticulous about decorating them, whereas Samantha, Amelia and Meredith basically dump as much frosting and sprinkles as possible on their cookies, without even bothering to spread.

I went in to school for a few mornings to help Amelia and Samantha’s classes with their Class Platter that they paint for the school’s auction/fundraiser.

There were no other volunteers to paint the the tree, bird design and names, so I took it home to paint. Let’s just say it was not the best looking plate at the auction since I am no artist… the names looked terrible! But it still got some high bids since every mom wanted a piece of class memorabilia and their child’s thumbprint, despite the mediocre artistry.

I helped Samantha’s class with painting the chocolate chips on their Cookies for Santa plate, which turned out adorable. Thankfully, Mr. Michael is a more gifted artist than I, so all I had to do were the chocolate chips!

 

Samantha was very proud of her planets project.

Eleanor chilling in the playroom.

Amelia taking a break on a walk.

Silly Samantha.

Once it gets close to Halloween, we read “The Chocolate Chip Ghost” story for FHE, complete with stick puppets. The theme is supposed to be about listening to your parents and obeying, but all the girls usually get out of it is asking for more chocolate chips.

Samantha’s block creation.

The girls trying on random costumes at the thrift store while looking for a leather jacket for Jake’s costume.

Normal breakfast shenanigans.

The theme for the school’s Annual Dinner/fundraiser/auction this year was Grease, and it was a blast. The room moms worked our tails off for two months to badger people into donating items and money for the auction, and it all worked out, despite people avoiding us the last week for fear of being accosted to donate. The gift baskets I was in charge of were the “Beauty School Dropout” basket and the “Harvest Basket.”

We decided to take Eleanor with us to the dinner so that my mom, who was in town, would only need to watch the other three… never again! Normally such a happy baby, she screamed and cried on and off for the entire five hours! It was right during her bedtime, but with all the noise, unfamiliar people, and loud music, she was so overtired and just couldn’t sleep. So most of the time, while everyone else was eating, bidding on the silent and live auction, dancing and using the photo booth, I was on the streets of San Juan Capistrano strolling in my poodle skirt with an inconsolable Eleanor, hoping she would fall asleep. Jake took a few turns with her in the Ergo carrier, but to no avail. At least we got some use out of the adorable poodle skirt outfit I got her! Despite her tears, she was the hit of the party for everyone but us.

So many cute baskets up for bid this year.

“Beauty School Drop Out”

A rare moment of silence from Eleanor that night.

There were several bids on the class platters, and wanting to earn more money for the school, I kept bidding up the price, thinking I would definitely be outbid. In the end, I ended up winning both Samantha and Amelia’s class platters, which I hadn’t meant to do! So now we own two very expensive plates that I’ve been trying to get some use of!

Our costume for the night: “Teen Pregnancy.”

Let this be a lesson to you, kids.

Poor screaming Eleanor… other parents commented that she looked like she was singing/screaming into the mic!

Lots of love,

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December Happenings

In December, Meredith geared up for Christmas decked out in her hand-me-down holiday outfits from the twins and spread the Christmas cheer!

Meredith couldn’t make up her mind whether to be naughty or nice this December! We rarely went on an outing without some kind of throwdown… even preschool drop-off had turned into a nightmare because Meredith refused to leave and would regularly throw herself down on the ground, kicking and screaming.

I never take her to the store anymore, unless it’s an absolute emergency because she always manages to make some kind of spectacle. In December, I was at Target with her when she started tantruming in the check-out line over the fact that I was putting the various candy bars and random items she had thrown into the cart back on the shelf. Restraining her in the cart seatbelt is impossible and she can climb out of the cart herself, so I was left with little option but to scurry out of there once I was done with the self-check out. A kind soul felt pity for me and offered to escort me to my car, pushing my cart for me, while I held a kicking and screaming Meredith under my arms like a football so that she wouldn’t be able to kick my stomach! Once in the car, it was another 20 minutes before I could restrain her in her carseat. She is SO stubborn, this one!

Not so cheery today.

Elfie returned and while his hiding spots mostly included climbing candy-cane striped pipe cleaners and literally sitting on shelves, the girls thought his antics were hilarious! They didn’t even seem to mind that he stayed in the same spot for several days in a row (no one ever told them the actual rules, so our elf goes at his own pace).

The twins chatting before their holiday dance and yoga recital.

The twins had just barely moved up into the 5-7 year old class and tried their best to keep up! We had Mele Kalikimaka in our head for weeks.

The girls were mostly excited about the recital because they got to wear a little makeup and received a rose and Yogurtland afterwards.

Sammy the reindeer pulls the sleigh.

Cheese!

I am terrible at any kind of construction project and cringe at the thought of putting together gingerbread houses, but this train wasn’t so hard.

Practicing their ice skating skills.

Checking out the camels and other animals at the live nativity in our city.

Jake was elected to the Board of Directors for our city and enjoyed texting me pictures of his picture in the office whenever he had a board meeting.

We had some warm days in December, which meant doing basically the same thing we do every day… going to the park.

Starfish!

Biking to the orange grove.

Lemons and limes, yum!

The girls rarely wait until we get home to try out their spoils. The blood oranges and clementines here are super juicy, and I rarely buy oranges at the grocery store anymore.

More sunny December days and park shenanigans.

Amelia on a random Daddy-Daughter date to the sporting goods store.

We’ve got a crazy on the loose in the orange grove!

Speaking of crazy, Meredith is a Little Miss Bossy Pants! Poor Bandit!

Lots of love,

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Preschool Golf Ball Drop and Life In Between

To end their first year of preschool, the girls participated in their first golf ball drop as part of a fundraiser for their school. Friends and family purchased golf balls in their names and were entered in a raffle to win cash. The night of the fundraiser, a helicopter dropped all the purchased golf balls onto the golf course, and whichever ones were closest to the designated hole, won the cash prizes. We didn’t win, but, as promised, all the kids were amazed with the helicopter and all those balls! Leading up to the golf ball drop, we were all very curious as to how it was all going to work. How did they label all those balls? How close would the helicopter get? What if there was a tie? We were intrigued!

As the suspense built up, Samantha and Amelia had a blast running around the green with Ella and some of their preschool friends (and, subsequently, annoying all the golfers who were so unfortunate to be there that night). They thought it was funny to see their friends in a context outside of school! After the golf ball drop, the school hosted dinner at the golf course and all the kids ran around the green with the dads watching (i.e. they were completely unsupervised). It was a unique and fun way to spend the evening, although trying to have a conversation while keeping Samantha, Amelia and Ella away from the fire pits after they finished their dinner in only two minutes, on top of keeping an overtired Meredith at bay, was not exactly relaxing.

SO excited.

Everyone cheered as the helicopter hovered, golf balls rained down from the sky and then bounced all over the place, like little ping pong balls.

Run, kids, run!

And the winner is… Gabriel’s mom from Amelia’s class!

I wish I could get the girls to clean up this fast at home. When asked to pick up all the golf balls, the kids didn’t hesitate!

Meredith thought she could run away with a little souvenir.

In between preschool days, we alternate between playing, biking and scootering at the local parks, going to to the library, hanging out at the local pools and splash pads, and feeding the geese at the lake. Meredith is in the dreaded stage between one and two naps, but the majority of the time, she still really needs that morning nap, so we only have about an hour and a half or so to get out in the morning after she wakes up and before returning home for lunch. It’s a tight schedule, but it’s nice for the twins and I to have some alone time while she’s napping and hang out at home without having to rush off anywhere. The twins are in a golden stage of being capable of spending hours coloring, doing crafts, playing tea party, picnic and school pretty much on their own, with the occasional intervention from me when things start to go south.

Meredith is up; time to hit the lake!

Meredith wanted to keep all the bird seed to herself.

The twins love to live on the edge by climbing on the SECOND closest rocks to the water, after I told them not to climb on the rocks right next to the edge.

On typical Saturdays, either Jake or I take the girls to their yoga/ballet class and then we either all meet up with Meredith, or the twins go with Dad on their own for a quick outing. With our move, they’ve been spending a good amount of time at Home Depot lately and on a supply trip, they stopped in for one of the workshops. The girls constructed a mini tic tac toe game and were proud to display their handiwork when they got home!

Nice hammering skills, Amelia.

 

 

We love Sendero park on Sunday afternoons. There are these wavy concrete structures that circle the park and the girls spend the entire time running up and down, pretty much ignoring the actual playground.  I think that’s Amelia in the background attempting to somersault on the concrete. Ouch.

Monkey Amelia.

On any given outing, I usually end up with a stroller full of leaves and bouquets of flowers the girls collect for me. Heaven forbid I don’t put them in a glass of water as soon as I get home… they always notice if I’ve forgotten one of their flowers!

The girls always receive compliments on their bike riding and are really getting the hang of it!

Lots of love,

 

 

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