Life as a Preschooler

Dillon has been able to write his name without help for maybe 2 months at this point and every day he comes home from preschool with an art project or two that he's very proud to show off to me. Only problem? They aren't made by him. They're expertly colored, and it's quite ovbious that one of the high schoolers have done his work for him. They have written his name on the back too. I haven't said anything to him really, I just tell him that they're awesome and I'm glad he had fun at school.
 Finally I just couldn't take it anymore and I said, "Hey buddy? Why didn't you color this kite? It's very nice looking and I'm happy you're proud of it, but why didn't you color it? I would much rather have something you made on the fridge." He looked at me and answered "Well, I don't want to, so I have my girlfriends do it for me." "Oh... Same as your name?" I asked. "Yup, it's too hard for me, so Mackayla does it."

Fishing Round 2!

The boys have been so excited about fishing after their first trip that Daddy and Pop Pop treated them to another fishing day, this time at Del Valle. Dillon (who is our early bird... up at 5:30-6:00 every morning waking Karl and I up with super random questions like "Can I have marshmellows for breakfast? Just one and then it's done.") got the fun for us yet not so fun for him experience of getting woken up super early in the morning!! Boy was he cranky about that!! Hahaha, payback my boy! 
 Karl woke them up while I laid in bed trying to fall back asleep and I hear Dillon look outside and say "But dad.. it's still dark outside! See? It's dark out and that means it's too cold!" You can tell from this pic how thrilled he was to be woken up early...

The weather was pretty beautiful that day... I think it got up around 80 degrees!

Dillon waited for a bite...

And waited...

The whole group hanging out and waiting...

Now I don't have any pictures of their catch from the day, but they brought home one good sized fish and a few small ones, all of which are wrapped in foil and in the freezer which doesn't make for very good photo taking :( Maybe when I cook them up for dinner I'll remember to snap a pic and update (I'll be the first to admit the chances are slim of me remembering anything these days, my brain's on overload!)

I can't even tell you how much the boys are enjoying their fishing trips. Cameron spends every single day organizing and re-organizing his tackle box and all either boy talks about these days are fish and fishing.  We've decided that we will spend Dillon's birthday day (May 7th) fishing as a family. That's right...You heard it here first folks, the sad puppy dog eyes from my children have accomplished their task... Mommy's going fishing! We're going to let Cam use his one hooky day from school that day and come along, and they're soooo excited!! Pop Pop is coming too so the kids are in hog heaven!

Boys Day Out!

(Sung to the tune of "I've got a dollar from the Little Rascals Movie) -I got a break, I got a break, I got a break, hey hey hey hey!
What a great day yesterday was! Pop Pop Gene (Karl's dad) has been talking about taking Cam fishing for a while now, and they finally got to go yesterday... with a little twist. Karl threw out his back on Tuesday (I think) and had the go to Urgent Care and they gave him a shot, painkillers, back brace, etc. He went to work the next day, and then on Thursday he got to go home super early (about 9 am) because the work for the day was core drilling and that's how he hurt it in the first place. So... the boys got a very special treat. Not only were Cam and Pop Pop going fishing, Karl and Dillon got to go along too!

They were absolutely exhausted when they got home last night! They left at about 9:30 and got home around 5:00... with 4 extra guests (rainbow trout). They had the biggest smiles on their faces! They didn't fight or bicker, they worked together as a team and had a really good time. Karl was so proud to tell me how well it went. Gene topped the whole day off by treating us to dinner at our favorite restraunt, Red Robin. Yum Yum!

Here's some of the many pics Karl took from the day:

Dillon getting ready to leave...

Cam's first fish. He caught it within 10 minutes of getting there!

The boys hanging out together.

Dillon with his Spiderman pole all set up...

While they were there a man came to stock the lake with trout. If you look close you can see tons of fish pumping out of the truck. The guy specifically came over to Karl afterwards and told him that he told the boys to stay away from his truck and that they were the best behaved kids he's ever seen!

Dillon's fish...

Cam's beard o' fish

Group Shot with Daddy

And with Pop Pop

The boys will remember this day forever. They were so happy and had such an amazing time.

Dillon's Birthday is fast approaching!

Dillon's choice of theme this year: Pirates! His party is in the beginning of May, so we're hoping for some nice weather and planning a backyard birthday bash! I've got so many ideas for this party, the theme is MUCH easier than I thought it would be!

The plan so far: His birthday day is May 7th (Fri.) so we'll do something fun with the family that day to celebrate and then the next day (Sat.) will be his big party with all his friends. I had some custom invitations made that I can't seem to upload but they're really cute!

These will be the plates:

Napkins:

Cups:

The plan is cupcakes- I'm thinking half chocolate and half vanilla with red frosting and these liners:

With these toppers that I found on Etsy, they'll say Dillon and 4th birthday:

The plan is to have a bounce house on the grass with a temp. fence behind it so the kids aren't able to get to the playstructure and trampoline and chicken coop. Honestly, it's just easier for me that way since you can't see all the backyard from any given spot and I think it would be too chaotic with 20 kids all over the yard. This way we have the concrete area with activities and the bounce house.

The activities planned are: Walk the plank (Just some wood elevated on the ground, like a balance beam), Pirate telescopes with jewels and stickers made with toilet paper and paper towel tubes, some pirate coloring sheets, and then we'll turn the sandbox into a treasure hunt with gems and gold coins hidden in the sand with shovels and buckets.

And a party can't be complete without goodie bags!

I can't wait!!

Wordless Wednesday

BUSTED!!!

This is how I found Dillon this afternoon... in the middle of making a Pixie Stick Cocktail... Mmmm.... you can almost feel the sugar high just looking at him! (Love his quilty smile btw)

A close-up of his creation...

1 Month Later Garden Update!

Thanks to my hubby's mad skills with the table saw, this year's garden is off to a great start! We planted everything in the boxes on my mom's birthday weekend, so March 11th ish. It's almost a month later and we have the beginnings of onions, carrots, 2 kinds of cherry tomato, lettuce, radish, strawberries, soybeans, and PEAS! Can you tell which one I'm most excited about? :) The peas! Which is funny, because I do not like peas, Sam I Am....I do not like them here or there, I do not like them anywhere! The boys do though, and that's what I'm most looking forward to with this garden. Karl built an add on for the peas to grow up and it looks really nice!

Here's some new pics to enjoy...

The strawberries and yellow tomatoes... Karl built a chicken wire cover over the top since we lost almost all our berries to the birds last year.

We found a home for the zucchini over by the back door. We have to get pretty creative this year since the back garden will be corn so we can't plant back there. We have pumpkin, watermelon, and zucchini and not a ton of yard to plant them in since they all get so huge!

Karl suprised us when we got home from Disneyland (oops, I haven't posted those pics yet!) with a new coop for the ladies! They have much more room to roam in this new cage, and a nice little house with roost post and nesting box to enjoy. I think we will leave them in their cage and not let them roam the yard as much this summer, they eat all my plants!!

Disneyland/Universal Studios Trip

We had the very special treat of going to both Disneyland and Universal Studios Hollywood! My dad took me & the boys as well as my 2 little sisters down to LA to celebrate his engagment to Penny. (Where he actually got down on one knee and asked her to marry him, I guess he didn't do it right the first time...)  We stayed at her house over the weekend and we had a wonderful time.

We left the house at about 6am on friday, spent Sat. at Universal Studios and Sun. at Disneyland, then we drove home for school/work on Monday! It was a crazy bonsai trip, but we made some wonderful memories.

The most important thing I learned: Dillon thinks everything is real. From the witch on the Snow White ride to the simulated car ride on the Simpsons Ride, everything was real to him and a bit scary. He never complained though. He would wave at the Pirates on the Pirates of the Carribean ride and I could feel his little heart pounding. He ducked when they were "shooting" cannonballs over our heads, I felt really bad for him but he was such a brave little boy! It was a good realization because it made me more aware that everything he sees on t.v. is real to him. Even the cartoons, so I need to be more dilligent about monitoring what he watches.

I really, really enjoyed spending some one on one time with Cam. We did a few rides just him and I while someone else went off with Dillon, and man does that boy LOVE roller coasters!! He would contantly make fun of me being afraid, and even though I'm not, I let him live in his macho little fairytail... We hit up Space Mountain and the ThunderMountain Railroad at Disney, and the Mummy Returns and Jurassic Park rides at Universal. Fun Fun Fun Fun is all I can say!!

Universal Studios

Dillon on the way down... it was a long trip, but this was probably the best road trip EVER with the 2 of them!

On the studio tour tram... (His favorite ride of the whole weekend, it's all he talks about!)

Cam grabbing a few cold Duff Beers from the Simpsons Ride...

Waiting in line with Auntie Nessa...

Cam and I after the Jurassic Park ride... soaking wet... at night... But you gotta love his grin!

Disneyland

Meeting Mickey

Can you tell I got a lot of cute brother shots this trip? It was awesome!

My Fav!

C for Cam!

California doesn't have any D's for Dillon, so we settled for L, which he has 2 of...

The end of the day, hangin with mommy

You think I posted enough pics? These are only a few of my stash! It was soooo fun!!

Happy Hollow Finally Re-Opens!

      The day has finally come! Happy Hollow Park and Zoo, the stuff my childhood was made of, has re-opened after 2 loooooong years! I've taken Cameron before, and Dillon went 2 years ago when he was just a baby, but now it's totally renovated which is wonderful but totally PACKED full of people, which isn't. I'm hoping the thrill dies down and people find something else to do :) Sorry, complaining over.
      There is a petting zoo right when you walk in the gates, complete with triplet baby goats that were born the day before we got there! You couldn't pet them, they were in an enclosure but they were right in front of you. I was amazed at how tiny they were! (There's only 2 in the pic btw... the other one was off with it's mommy)

       The kids got to pet the goats, feed the goats, and since it was so hot, brush the goats with wet brushes. The ratio of kids to goats was like 1 to 20, but somehow Dillon managed to get a brush and a goat :) That's my boy!

Next we headed to the playground while Cam waited in line right behind us for the roller coaster (an hour wait!) It was a huge wood play structure, really cool! Here's the scene:Dillon was King of the Mountain...

And King of Another Slightly Smaller Mountain....

Climbing through the tunnels....

Cam waiting in line for the roller coaster... Of course my camera died as I tried to take a pic of him actually on the roller coaster. This one turned out well enough for me to not be mad :)

Dillon sitting in the shade waiting for Cam to get off the roller coaster, he was SO exhausted!

I leave you with a great pic of the boys. At the entrance/exit they had gold statues and the kids ran right over, posed and asked for a picture. Niiiiiice!

We bought season passes so you know you'll be seeing many more pics from Happy Hollow. We only got to one ride and a few animals, we have days worth of adventuring to go!