February Fun

We have two 3-day weekends in February! Its a great month! We usually camp during one or both of those weekends but we didn’t this year.  We decided to stay home and enjoy the down time.

But we did some fun stuff this month…fun stuff worth remembering when I’m old and have no memory!

We spend a morning/early afternoon at Newport with our best buds. We had nachos and corn dogs for breakfast and fun at the chilly beach in the afternoon.

Crazy that these 2 are only 9 days apart!!

We are lucky to live in this beautiful state…spending a day in February at the beach…as I’m watching my friends snapchats in Washington, Boston, Philly…where its snowing.

So also visited a local museum.  We drive past this place a few times a month…always saying “we need to stop there!” So we stopped. 

I haven’t been here since I was Owen’s age on a class field trip. And to be completely honest I don’t remember much…if anything from that visit!  We were pleasantly surprised…our kids loved it!  Started with a visit to the live animal exhibit.  They LOVED that!

And made our way around the museum. Did LITTLE reading but lots of looking. The kids were entertained and thats all that matters!

It wasn’t packed so it was nice to be able to kinda let the kids roam…they knew to stay in the room and not leave.

We also spent a great afternoon at the Santa Ana Zoo.

This zoo visit was super short and PERFECT! The kids got to see lots of monkeys, like awake and swinging around. Isn’t it the worst to get to the zoo and all the animals be hiding and asleep! I usually hate zoo’s for that reason.  But this trip they were awake and doing great.

It was fun to get to a few different places for “day trips”.  Keep the kids happy and out of the house, didn’t break the bank AND were totally fun!

Owens Spring Activities

Owen has played Eastvale Little League for the past few years…actually since August 2014.  And he grew oh so much over the years. Baseball was his thang for a while…and I was darn proud since I was a little leaguer growing up as well.
Owen also played a season of flag football…in August 2015.  That was ROUGH but we learned so much!!

This year Owen asked to NOT play baseball. He wanted a break…and I get it. Sometimes those games and practices can be so boring and SO long!  HE asked if he could please play soccer.  So…I am now a “soccer mom”. 

We are playing with Empire Soccer.  He’s on Team Mexico, Pokemon Mexico actually..and he LOVES it! After his first day of practice he gets in the car and says “Mom, no offense but I love soccer MORE than baseball!”  haha.  No offense taken son! I’m happy he has found something he really enjoys.  He’s not the best athlete but I admire his effort and attitude.  He tries so hard to please everyone, his coaches, his parents, his team mates…

But I guess that Soccer just isn’t enough…Owen also asked to audition for the Shrek Musical that our high school is putting on this spring.  Our theatre teacher is amazing and for the past few productions she has “littles” or “juniors” as part of the show…those are kids from close by schools that are k-8th grade. Owen auditioned with 81 other kids….and 78 of them made the cut!! haha

We found out a few days later that he MADE it…heehee. He was very happy, especially since his buddy Addi is also part of the musical. He’s a little man of many talents I tell you!

Can’t wait to see him on stage for all 6 shows at the end of April!! For now our once a week, hour long practice is keeping us busier!

Valentines

I’m not a great mother.

I saw that some parents did cute valentine gifts for their kids….yeah not this mother.  I actually was “lucky” enough to get to stay home from work on Valentines…my girls had fevers so I couldn’t send them to daycare. So we stayed home…

Owen loved getting notes and candy from his friends at school! We made cute ones for him…Love Bugs (Thanks Pinterest).  He also got a “special” present for a friend…thats a girl…ohh heart eyes.

Good big brother posing with his little annoying, feverish sisters!

But Owen is also at a “weird” stage…haha Weird faces are his favorite! haha

But since it was day 4 of fever for Maggie I spent my Valentines night romantically in urgent care making sure it was “just a virus” lol Joy.

 

And Owen got a “special” present from his friend thats a girl…he was SO Happy!

Valentines in our house is just another day! And thats the way we like it.

Happy 4th Birthday Ella Bernadette

I can’t believe my little miracle baby is FOUR years old! She keeps telling me she doesn’t want it to be her birthday because she wants to stay small…and I keep telling her that she’ll ALWAYS be my baby girl…even when she is 34..she’ll be my baby girl!!!

Lets take a trip down memory lane with my girl…

We found out that chemo in fact did NOT ruin my reproduction organs while on a Eastern Caribbean Cruise! Why I brought the darn pregnancy test on the trip is beyond me…BUT thats ok. Keep my cruise pretty mellow for the last 3 days.

We found out she was a girl and were OVER the MOON!

And then we had an amazing pregnancy!! She decided to come the day BEFORE her scheduled c-section…and threw us for a loop when she was having respiratory issues and brought to the NICU.  I was a sad Mama. Totally not expecting to spend my time in the hospital without her by my bed.

But she was a little fighter then and hasn’t changed a bit since!!! She's developed into our little spit fire…and man she loves to keep us on our toes.

2nd birthday..

3rd birthday…

And now…FOUR!! Holy Cow!

Thank you for being the beautiful, spunky, demanding, girlygirl that we LOVE oh so much! We nicknamed you The Beast for all the silly crazy things you do…but we wouldn’t be complete without all your craziness.

So we got to spend her actual birthday at Disneyland…Daddy was nice enough to let me take her to Disneyland to do all the princess girly stuff…some Mama/Ella time. And of course Thank you to Mr. Arneson for making our day possible!

First person we saw was Ella’s favorite princess…Ariel. She was so nice! Was chatting forever about her fun birthday parties and what Flounder does to make her laugh. She was sweet.

Another thing that was super awesome is that our best friends have passes and they met us for a few hours at Disneyland. Ella was SOOO happy to see them!

“Ella-Sandwich”

Next stop was Tinkerbell..

I was so happy that Heather was there and agreed to take Ella on the teacups. She ALWAYS asks about them and this Mama can NOT do the spinning rides…so Heather saved the day!

Then we went on some rides…and all I could think of was how awesome Disneyland is when its not a million degrees out! haha Las time we were there was July and it was SO hot. This was MUCH nicer!

 

We laugh when we look at Carter and Ella next to each other…and think just HOW crazy it is that they are only 9 days apart…Its a mix between Ella being pretty tiny and Carter is pretty NOT tiny! haha
And to think that Ella was bigger than Carter the first month of their lives…but he passed her up pretty quick!

Carter and Ella didn’t have a choice but to be little buddies…haha Maybe they’ll be prom dates someday!

I braved the Dumbo ride and didn’t get sick. That was exciting!

We bumped into Peter Pan and for some reason Ella was super shy with him..shes so boy crazy!

Cildermans had to head home so the rest of the day was me and Ella. We didn’t stop. We were go go go for hours!!

Girls DAY!

And then we did the princess meet and greet…so fun!! Ella was originally going to wear her new Belle dress to Disneyland, but we changed our minds because we didn’t want to have to worry about it. I regret not having her wear it…BUT…maybe next time!

We kept our evening going…skipped dinner for a churro and more rides. This little girl wasn’t stopping. I could tell she was getting tired but she would never admit it! haha

When the sun went down the castle was beautiful. And while we waited in that 45 minute line for Peter Pan I was determined to get a pic of it…well…this was the best I could get!

And since the Main Street Electrical Parade is back for a few months we HAD to see it. I held Ella on my shoulders and stayed for half of it…then Ella wanted to get on a few more rides and get some shopping done.

Well…Ella was DONE. I thought great…we’ll head home. I didn’t realize the WHOLE park was also heading home. We stayed from BEFORE opening until it CLOSED! Yes my 4 year old made it the whole time…she never slept, never whined, never nothing. She was amazing all day! Little trooper. We lucked out on the tram line back and it was a beautiful end to our magical day!

My tired girl is a rockstar…but I wouldn’t expect anything less from her!!

It was a great start to her FIFTH year of life…I’m praying that FOUR is a little easier than THREE was. Especially since the baby is getting into the Tantrum Two’s.  haha

We love You Ella Bernadette! Thank you for being you.