Berry Picking

I am a few days behind on my posts. With all of the company we have had and me not getting enough sleep I have been going right to bed after KK so I haven't had the energy to make a post. I am going to try to catch up today.


Sunday we went berry picking with Grandma and Grandpa T. We went to a local berry farm called Patrick's. Man are they expensive. Look at the little white bucket Aly has, it costs around 20-25 dollars to fill the bucket. It is actually cheaper to just go down to the fruit stand and buy one of their fresh made blackberry pies. I know, it is all about the experience. I am not sure who had more fun, the kids, or the grandparents. Grandma and Grandpa picked two buckets worth and grandpa really learned how to pick just the right berry. Here are some pics:





I call it, "Guardian of the bucket." Aly loved to carry the bucket around and KK was just as happy as can be picking berries and putting them into Aly's bucket.




KK loved just walking in between the aisles and trying to assert some freedom.




Here is a picture of Aly and Grandpa trying to find that big, sweet, delicious berry.



Here is Aly reaching up to pick a berry.



At the end of berry picking we went to a large grassy field to cool down. The girls played with some balls. Here, Aly is taking a rest. Can you see the berries on her face? She must have ate more than she picked!

Family Day

Today was a day filled with family and fun! Hubby's side of the family was here visiting which included his Dad, Step-mom, brother and wife, along with their six kids. We had a huge water balloon fight and a water gun fight as well. I escaped in the kitchen getting the meal prepared and let all of the fun stay outside;-) KK didn't really want to be outside getting wet so she stayed inside with me watching Dora so I could prepare the food.

It was a long exhausting day and I look forward to going to sleep. I think both of our children will be asleep by 10 tonight. KK normally has been staying up till 10:30-11 but I got her to sleep by 9:30 and hubby is working on Aly as we speak!

I forgot to tell you that Friday I was so lucky that I was able to run errands without the children. Their grandparents watched them for me and I got to jump in and out of my car at each place without unbuckling and re buckling seat belts. It felt so freeing. You know what was even more amazing? When I left I said good bye to KK and she waved her hand and said, "Bye, Bye, see you later." It felt so good to see her happy. Normally she cries and throws a fit when I leave.

If I have a chance tomorrow I will probably post some pictures we took in the yard of the girls. Hubby has the yard looking very nice with flowers in full bloom so we thought it would be the perfect time to put the girls in dresses and try to get some good shots. I think we only ended up with two or three. Hopefully we will have a chance to try and take pictures again while the garden is in full bloom.

Last batch of pics from the beach

There were just soo many of my favorite pictures from the beach that I had to post more. KK loved playing in the sand.






I think I told you in an earlier post that Aly loved playing with the seaweed and asked me to tie it to her waste so I just had to show you a pic of that.






Also, isn't the one of the guys playing playdoh with the kids cute?




KK loved jumping waves with Daddy.



The last picture is the one that made mommy so happy and so sad at the same time. A mini-milestone for Aly. Saturday night she decided she wanted to sleep upstairs with her buddy Nick and have a sleepover. (We slept downstairs in the basement which was only accessible from outside stairs). They have actually been asking to have a sleep over for the past couple of months but I wasn't ready to have her leave our house so this was a happy compromise!

Kite flying

I just had to post some pictures from our first family kite flying day. These pictures are from our Dillon Beach trip last weekend. The kite was given to Daddy as a present for his birthday from Aly. Can you see that the kite is a frog? Yes, we are turning into a frog loving family. Check out how much fun we had. We all took turns flying the kite. Even KK had a turn! Oh yeah and guess who was the only one who let go of the kite? Yes, I dropped it, but fortunately it was when I was bringing it in and it was close enough that it just fell to the ground.

Pizza Day

KK let me put a barret in her hair today and it looked so cute. I had hubby take a picture so I could post it here.

We went to Round Table Pizza this morning so the girls could take a tour and make their own pizza. Aly loved to tour and especially loved making her own pizza. KK didn't care much for making the pizza as she did not want to touch the cheese or the pepperoni. It was pretty funny. However, when it came to eating the pizza KK was very excited and Aly didn't really care to eat it. I took a pic of both of the girls making their pizzas.

If I have a chance tomorrow I will try and post some more pics from the beach and tell a little bit more of what we did.

Wish me luck getting sleep tonight. Last night KK was up somewhere between 3-4 times!!!

Extreme cleaning

Today was an extreme cleaning day. I spent nearly 8+ hours cleaning and doing laundry. The bummer part is I only got the downstairs done. Yes, I still have the upstairs to do. I did a very thorough job though, cleaning things I don't normally clean like the doors of the fridge, the freezer, etc. Of course this was no fun for the kids and they were loosing their patience with my extreme cleaning marathon.

On a positive note KK ate dinner in her own chair at the table. She loved the salmon I made and ate all of it. It was so refreshing to have a family dinner and have KK happy in her own seat. Aly was still negotiating over what she had to eat on her plate. She only ended up eating the broccoli. She didn't like the salmon or the potatoes.

KK is starting to say two sentences at a time. The cutest thing she is doing now is saying Mommy after most things. For example she will say, " O.k. Mommy, or Yeah, Mommy." It is really cute.

We have company coming here Thursday through Sunday so that should keep us really busy. Tomorrow will be a busy day as well since the girls get to tour Round Table pizza and make their own pizzas. After that they will be going to gymnastics. Hopefully I will take the camera and be able to get a few good pictures to post.

Here are two more pics from our trip I wanted to post. The first one is Aly and her friend Nick playing with seaweed at the beach. She loved dragging the seaweed around and at one point had me tie it around her waste so she could drag it behind her. The second picture is of KK just having fun at the beach.

Our Trip to the Beach

Well we went to Dillons Beach on Friday. Our trip started out a bit rocky! We got to the KAO in Petaluma and were shocked to see the campsite. It was sooo teeny tiny and we couldn't believe they claimed there was room for a tent. Needless to say we got a refund and were lucky enough to join a friend at their beach rental for the weekend.


Here are a few pics from the weekend. My favorite part was finding the starfish at low tide. It was soo much fun and as you can see my girls had a blast too.

P.S. You can click on the pictures to view them bigger.

BEETLES, BEETLES, and more BEETLES

Oh my goodness! Well, we have been needing crickets for our frogs and these past few days have been very busy. Needless to say, neither hubby nor I got a chance to get them. So hubby says, "Why don't we just go outside and catch some beatles for them." I am thinking to myself---sure, have a great time! Now, hubby said he would get them but I thought, well, since he will be playing volleyball tonight, maybe I should just take the kids out and see if I can catch a few myself.

This really excited Aly. She grabbed her bug box and was all ready to go. So she tells me all the ways we can catch beatles. "Mommy we can look under rocks, and logs, and bark. That's where Daddy finds them." So I say o.k. let's start with the rocks. I turn over a few rocks and finally find one with a beatle under it. Right then I am thinking, o.k., now what? I don't want to touch those beatles. Now Aly is very into nature so I am thinking, maybe she might want to catch them. So I ask her. She says, "No Mommy I will hold the bug box, you can catch them." So I find a plastic bag on the ground and decide to use that. Of course by this time the beatle is gone so I lift up some more rocks to see if I can find more. I find another one and use the plastic bag to get him. Now, I must look pretty funny chasing a beatle with a plastic bag but I was already getting the chills even trying to catch him with a bag.

This method of catching beatles doesn't seam to be working very well. The beatles are too fast and the plastic bag makes it hard to catch them. So I am complaining to Aly and she says, "Mommy, why don't you just use tweezers like Daddy does?" Tweezers, what a good idea. Man why didn't I ask her earlier. So I run in the house, get the tweezers and catch 4 more beatles rather quickly. You can learn so much from a four year old, can't you!

Tired yet again

What a bummer. These last three nights KK has been sleeping bad again. She is cutting her top molars and it has been very hard. Mostly just at night though. She has been up everynight between 1-3 and can't go back to sleep until after I give her a dose of motrin. She has typically stayed awake for at least and hour. With me being up that long, I have a hard time getting back to sleep.

We had a bit of sad news today. We were supposed to meet a friend and her son at the beach. Unfortunately she had to cancel. I was really worried about telling Aly because it is one of her best friends and she was really looking forward to playing in the sand with him. Do you know what she said when I told her? She said, "That's o.k. Mommy. I love you and Daddy, and KK the best anyway and I will have a fun time with my family! I love my friend too, but I love you guys the best!" These moments are what makes parenting so fullfilling.

You know what is really cute. I asked Aly if she could pick out her clothes for camping and she got really excited. I told her to pick out 4 shirts and 4 shorts/capris. She is in her room right now picking out her clothes. So far she has brought me 3 pairs of shorts and 2 pairs of capris. How cute, my little girl is growing up. See, they are ready for a lot more responsiblity than we typically give them!

Did I tell you that KK can sing the first two versus of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star? She is so cute. The words are always 100% pronounced correctly but you can understand what she is singing.

Yesterday ended up being such a bad day that I didn't have the chance--or the enrgy to come on and write. Bummer. Looking forward to our time at the beach. I will take lots of pics.

Teething????

KK slept horrible again last night. She was up somewhere between 4-5 times again. I was so ready to give up at 5 a.m. this morning and let her just stay in my bed but you know what happened? I pulled her in bed with me and she climbed down and said, " come on, let's go" and went to her bedroom. Pretty funny huh! So I took her back to bed and put her to sleep.

I think last night's sleeping problem could be KK getting her upper 2 year molars in. She hadn't been eating well at all the previous days. She seamed better tonight though. Wish me luck! It will be interesting to see how she sleeps when we go camping. I am going to try and buy those glow in the dark bracelets so KK and Aly aren't too scared. Last year when we went camping Aly was scared of the dark and those bracelets helped.

KK is totally talking up a storm now. It is so cute to watch her. She mostly just talks to herself or the walls, or the toys. ;-) I bet you she is going to be one of those girls that never stop talking--like her mother--he, he. I always got in trouble in school for non-stop talking. I bet she will end up getting in trouble for that as well.

Aly on the other hand likes conversation but she doesn't have to constantly be talking. She seams to be more like her father. She loves the outdoors and loves science as well as nature. They have such a strong bond right now. It is fun to see them together.

As a parent do you ever look at traits in your children and wonder if they come from you or your spouse? Do you only want to claim the "good ones" and pass the "bad ones" off to your spouse? It is pretty funny because both of our children are very strong willed. I think we both take credit for that as parents, but the funny part is that they have different levels of their will power. KK has to always have control of her environment. She wants to make the decisions and she wants do behave on her own terms. She seams more difficult to control. So it gets me asking myself, is she more like me, or hubby? Aly wants to be a leader, she wants to make the rules and have others follow them. She will listen eventually, but has to test the limits at least once. Is Aly more like me, or hubby? WE both have controlling natures and they are very different. Will our children help us see more of our own reflections? What do you think????