Catch up

I'm home sick today, and probably dying of some sort of exotic mommy disease one contracts from taking your kids to too many germ-infested playgrounds. Wes took the girls to swim class and a movie and I'm sitting on my giant arse today, refusing to clean up the petri dish that is my house. So what else is there to do but blog about how I've been too busy to blog? Sitting here in my robe, sipping my Diet Coke while on blogger (I hear Diet Coke holds secret medicinal properties), I'm boycotting anything productive today.

It feels like the last few weeks have been packed full of birthday parties, trips to amusement parks, school events and family excursions. I've been exhausted lately, and it isn't until I load pictures on to the computer that I truly realize how much we've been cramming into these last few days before summer.

Mommy & Me

Corinne and I have been going to a Mommy & Me preschool class every Tuesday. I hate to sound like a Negative Nancy, but it was really a waste of time. I figured she'd want to start off slow with the whole preschool thing, but around the second class, Corinne asked if I could leave. Believe me, I wanted to. But sadly I signed a contract saying I'd be present for each agonizing class. The class itself was great and we loved the crafts and one-on-one time together, but most of the other kids were younger than Corinne. She didn't make one friend, and she's normally a very social little girl with all of her buds. It was just a weird mix of moms who dressed their kids to the nines for finger painting, and still spoon fed their 3 year old (literally). I was glad to say goodbye, and can't wait for the fall when Corinne gets to venture off to the Terrific Tot class- without me!


"The United States of America!"
I'm amazed at how much Taylor has grown and changed this past school year. She has done amazingly well in kindergarten and I can't wait to see how she does in 1st grade. This year just went by in the blink of an eye, and I'm a little sad to see her first year of school come to an end.

She had a part in her end of the year show, but my recording wasn't very good so I had her do it again at home. My little girl, who was terrified to walk down the aisle during her preschool graduation, took the microphone like a pro and said her line loud and clear and with a little umph in it too. Wes and I were beaming!




We also attended her Open House last week and took home a lot of her work. Below are some of her writing samples in a book she made about herself. Please notice the last page, as it's my absolute favorite picture in the world.










That's right. It says, "I'm special because...I was the first baby on Earth." And the picture of the glowing baby above the earth is obviously Taylor. I asked her teacher about this, and Mrs. Evans claims to have talked to her about the misunderstanding to no avail. Sigh. At least she feels special enough to believe in such a thing. Glad the girl has some confidence.


Memorial Day Weekend
Ventura Harbor is a special place for our little family. We always have a great time there. The weather was absolutely perfect on Memorial Day weekend, and the beach was actually sunny for a change. We built a sand castle, collected shells, had lunch at the harbor, and got ice cream. It was perfect.








Birthday Parties Galore
The new trend among our friends is to hold birthday parties after school. It makes the time between school dismissal and bed time fly by, so I'm a fan!








Disneyland...again
I struggled with this one.

The school district paid me to be on stand-by at Disneyland for 14 hours (paid for double time), gave me an extra ticket to bring someone along, and food vouchers. I brought Wes along last year but he couldn't get the time off this year. So I went back and forth with the idea of bringing a friend, or bringing Taylor and paying for Corinne.

Well I ended up doing the unthinkable. I brought one child and left the other one at home. I know, I know! I'm awful. But Taylor had such a great time, and we were able to hang out with some of our bff's there as well. It worked out perfectly and we had such a great time without strollers and nap times to worry about. Taylor and her friends were able to go on all the big kid rides like Splash Mountain, Haunted Mansion, Thunder Mountain, and Indiana Jones (not her favorite). And the Disney gods smiled down on us. We almost never waited longer than ten minutes for a ride, Kaelyn was picked out of a crowd TWICE, we had a great spot for a parade, and had the BEST seats at Golden Horse Shoe.

I owe Corinne a solo trip to Disneyland one day, but she wasn't too disappointed. She had a blast with Nana.


Magic Mountain
We've already gotten our money's worth from our passes and we always have so much fun when we go. Nana and our friends have passes as well, and it makes for a special treat after school to just pick up and go.




Photography

So Becky and I had some fun with baby Hunter this week. We've been planning this photo shoot since his conception. Poor little guy didn't have a choice. But he was an angel during the whole shoot. We only took a few sleeping pictures, as he was wide awake for almost two hours and never complained once. This may be the first of many more sessions to come with this little guy. Thanks, Laurel, for letting us use your child as a guinea pig.



Random Happenings

And then there are the random happenings that keep us busy too.
Last day volunteering in Taylor's kindergarten class. =(