Weekend: No Plans

Finally! A low-key weekend with absolutely nothing planned. It's so nice to be relaxing at home on weekends. After two months of living here, the house is finally a place where I can call home. (Well, we're still working on cleaning out our garage and working on our back splash, but those are minor details compared to everything we've already been through.)

My favorite piece of furniture in this house is probably the couch. I think everyone in the family knows that too. I made a little area for me to lounge right in the middle so I can catch up on my literature (US weekly), watch TV, work on school stuff, AND wrestle with the kids! If that's not heavenly, I don't know what is.

 See that corner area? That's MY spot!

Saturday mornings consist of taking Mommy's iPhone and watching Frozen videos on it

I decided our living area will be brightened with hints of yellow

 Family movie night: Frozen

 These kids are so creative...

 These kids are also getting quite independent now

Lowe's building day

 Followed by some Frozen books after lunch

 Another Sunday, another picture (still trying to capture a picture for our Christmas card)

 Frozen Princess

When I asked Lucas what he wanted to be for Halloween, he gave me a surprising answer. I expected him to say something Cars related. Instead, he said he wanted to be a panda. Why? Simple. "Because I like pandas". Being the smarty mother that I am, I asked him why he didn't want to be a lion. "Oh! I want to be a panda-lion!" Genius, mother, genius... I then asked Lucas what he thinks Charlotte wanted to be and he said an elephant. We asked Char if that was true and she said "yes". Now that we have an Elsa dress, I think she might just change her mind... Oh, and Lucas said he wants to be Anna for Halloween now. Oh boy...

Looks mighty happy, doesn't she?

And this is how I feel every Sunday night

Weekend Fun

Have you figured out by now that I love weekends? Although I really don't get to sleep in, thanks to a 19 month old who has an eternal alarm clock that goes off at 6:45 each morning. We get to have fun as a family, I get to clean (I actually don't mind cleaning), and we get to do something different than our now very predictable weekday routine.

When the kids are good together, they are good! However, this goodness doesn't last long (maybe 5 minutes if I'm lucky). When this goodness does happen, I run to get my phone so I can capture these memories. I'm still working on teaching Lucas how to love his sister.

 Shinn kids in a stuffy tent on a hot day (no Mommy allowed!)

 Char randomly walked over next to Lucas and put her head on his shoulders

 Yummy yummy dessert

This Saturday, we were able to host our first housewarming for the Shinn family. After nearly two months of living here, our house is finally presentable (minus the garage)!

 Our first family shot in the new house

 Happy cousins eating dinner

 

 After dinner = cake time! 

While all the other cousins' sugar rush was rubbing off, look who's still full of energy

After church, I suggested trying out Sno Crave & Hot Pot (only because I wanted some snow ice). The hot pot was meh, I think we're going to stick to One Pot instead. I have other complaints about this place, but I'll do my ranting on Yelp instead.

 What this morning looked like (before 8:00)

 Mommy & her silly kids

Dig in, children!

Char suddenly enjoyed eating some desserts over the weekend, however, not a fan of this!

She was a fan of this though

 Another right place, right time moment (FRESH brioche bread!!!)

One happy lady

Boys watching some football (come on Niners, gets your act together!)

And now, I'm going to end with a favorite from this weekend. I don't dress the kids up in their nicer clothes on weekdays anymore since they come home with unwashable stains and holes everywhere. So I'm really enjoying dressing them up on weekends (especially Sundays for church). I'm currently working on getting the perfect shot for our Christmas card. Oh, and I'm loving the camera on my new iPhone!

 My loves

Right Place Right Time

We checked out the grand opening of a big development today. The only reason we went was because it was close by and we were curious about the floor plans and design of this lavish place. I love getting home decorating ideas from staged homes (got a few ideas from the homes we checked out).  I also wanted to prove to myself that I really liked our humble, older SFH more than your typical cookie cutter three story new development homes. And once I went up the third flight of stairs, I knew then and there that I made the right choice with going for an older one-story home.

It all started because of this flier in the mail

 Had arts and crafts to keep the kids happy

 As well as sidewalk chalk

What we didn't know when checking out this development was that there was going to be two food trucks - lunch and ice cream! This was just pure bliss! I had a delicious soft shell crab BLT (something I probably never would've tried on my own). Oh, and did I mention that this was FREE?! It was like we stepped inside a surprise little carnival - free food, free ice cream, arts and crafts, and a caricature! I am definitely coming back when they make their spring debut with their state of the art clubhouse!

 This picture sums up everyone's happiness with the little surprise

Another Short Weekend

Why do weekends feel so short when you're working and have kids? This weekend consisted of a lot of going out. We barely had enough time to just sit and relax at home. During the times that we were home, it's either nap time (whole family took an afternoon nap on Saturday) or we're crossing off stuff on our list of house fixing.

A little bit of coloring before leaving the house

 We started our Saturday building binoculars @ Lowe's

Petite diva posing with the cute outfit she put together herself

Then had lunch @ Chipotle (the kid's menu is very wallet friendly)

Cousin's swim party @ the pool

With the help of floaties and blow-up sharks, both kids conquered their fear of water. Guess it's time to finally expose the kids to the beach next year.

Blue frosting = hard to scrub off

 The kids ended the day with an impromptu picnic before bedtime

 We spent absolutely zero time at home on Sunday. Being out the whole day is so tiring, especially when nap/quiet time in the afternoon does not exist! Check out that HUGE Cars backpack Lucas is wearing. It was on clearance at Target for $6 and even includes an attached lunch box! Currently, it's being used to store their clothes and other knick knacks when we're out the whole day.

Teaching Lu how to be a gentleman at a young age

 I can't believe they agreed to pose like this! Christmas card, perhaps?

Poop machine

 Lucas originally said he had to go pee. Of course he chooses Mommy to go with him to the bathroom. His pee turned into a poop session which lasted a good 15 minutes. After five years of Vitamix sampling at Costco, we took the plunge this weekend and finally bought one. Drinking so many green smoothies caused Lucas to have green poop.

 Costco fun

 Ended Sunday celebrating the Shinn grandparents' anniversary

 Mommy + Lucas midweek smoothie treat

Self portrait

Lucas has been in school for a month now. Since then, I realized he's gotten really good at tracing and drawing stick figures of himself and his sister. He can also spell his full name and also his sister's full name. If you look around our office, he's been drawing the same stick figures and writing both his and Charlotte's name all over the place. I'm so proud of him! And yes, I've become one of those mothers who keep ALL their kid's drawings from school. 

Weekends are definitely too short. I can't wait till the next three day weekend. Or Thanksgiving break! Ending on a happy note, our kitchen is pretty much done! We're just missing our subway tile back splash! I've been waiting for this day to come for a very, very long time. You have no idea how happy I was to have all our dishes and kitchen supplies unpacked, washed, and ready to go. And now, it's Sunday night and time to go to sleep.

An Eventful Weekend

I could not wait till the start of the weekend. The kids, however, had other ideas. Lucas asked if he could go to school tomorrow (Saturday). I told him no. Tomorrow is Saturday, which meant he could sleep in and watch iPad in the morning. When I went to pick up Char, she slowly walked over to me and took her dear time getting into the car. Although not as vocal as her big brother (yet), you can tell from her body language that she was having fun at her new school too. I hope these kids continue to have a joy for school for years to come! 

Char's "I don't want to go home yet" pose

This Saturday, we were gone the entire day! I don't think this has ever happened since Char was born. Now that she's a little girl, we can't use the "she's too young" line anymore.

Started off the day building bird houses at Home Depot

Painting it all by himself

The apron is a bit too big for this tiny girl

These kids had more fun at this event than what is portrayed in this picture

Next, we went up to SSF to attend a Red Egg and Ginger. The kids were able to see all their cousins and extended cousins and had a blast!

Quick Starbucks break first (he's not really praying)

The benefits of being the baby cousin (for now)

Home after a long day and all homegirl wants to do is talk on the phone

Little homegirl wanted to "get ready" with Mommy on Sunday morning. Mommy's hair looks pretty gnarly in the morning!

 We're going to have lots of fun doing girl stuff in the future

She loves lying down wherever she pleases now

Lucas claims he wants to watch the Niners game. In reality, I think he just wanted to wear his jersey and not sleep.

"Oh my goodness"

Yup, that's how I felt too with how horribly the Cowboys played. It was a GREAT game!

Putting everyone to sleep but himself...

And that was the weekend! Weekends are going by way too fast nowadays! Why can't every week be a three day weekend?!