Monday Fun Day

We hosted this Monday's play date. Everything would've been "perfect" if our a/c was working! This is the second year in a row where our a/c stopped working on THE hottest day of the year. With three mothers and five kids, it felt like we were in a sauna! I don't think the kids really cared though. With four (very) active toddlers and a crawling baby, things got cray cray!

Messing up my room

Balls are here, there and everywhere! I know that their leader, Lucas, was the one who taught the rest of his friends (and sister) how to pour all the balls out.

 "Cutting" Mommy's hair

 Nice and quiet during lunch

 Hey, I'll trade you my noodles for your noodles

 Lego team building activity

2-on-2 pick up game at home

Throw whatever ball in the hoop!

These kids are growing up a little too quickly. The two older ones have already (naturally) learned how to lie/not speak the entire truth! Anyway, when the Shinn kids' friends left to take their nap, this is what my little clown started doing while his sissy poo laughed hysterically.

Crazy kids...

Oh, and did I mention the a/c broke (again)?! To make things better, I'm sitting here enjoying a nice cold brewski while the kids are sleeping naked.

Monkeying Around

Lucas is a self proclaimed monkey. Charlotte is his giraffe. And Mommy's a bird (because Mommy can't be a lion because her roar scares him). As a monkey, he likes to put together the PBK chairs and pretend that it's his jungle... or trees. On extremely silly days, he also likes to make monkey sounds and look for bananas. 

Monkey roaming around in his jungle

Monkey scared of sissy poo's miniom whistle

 What a typical day at home looks like

 Someone's just monkeying around in the background

 K.O.-ed

Speaking of KO-ed, here's how I found these two rugrats last night when I went to tuck them in. 

 Thing 1

Thing 2

HH Wednesday

Hmm... it's another Wednesday, what shall we do? At 8:30 in the morning, we had decided we'll go to a nearby park so Lucas can play on the slides. Simple. Go there for an hour and head home. At 9:30, I checked the weather (high was 81) and asked Lucas if he'd rather go to HHZ. Duh, what kid wouldn't choose HH over the park? So, in five minutes, I packed up a bar and filled a bottle with water and headed out. Unplanned. Impromptu. Kids had fun. Success. 

Lucas would ONLY ride on the zebra next to the alligator

 Ding ding!

 Waiting in line for Danny the Dragon

 They enjoyed this ride... really!

 Dunno what caught their interest

 Rejuvenating with some snacks

 Lucas's happy face

Final carousel ride

Mother's exhausted.

Toys

Sometimes I wonder why these kids need so many toys. They are happiest with the most simple stuff (usually stuff that's not really supposed to be toys).

Sitting in a "crate" = pure bliss

Stunna butterfly glasses (I guess this is a sorta toy)

Mommy's sandals and (AB)CDs

Making animal sounds

Charlotte is currently obsessed with wo wo's (dogs). Lucas, on the other hand, only likes baby (small) dogs. However, Charlotte refers to pretty much every animal as a wo wo, especially the squirrels that keep running all over the outside of the house. Oh, and she also likes to roar!

These kids are something, though. They can be completely content playing with things that are not toys... but at the same time, the toys they like can also be expensive toys too! Mommy is finally getting an upgraded iPad. Watch homeboy's reaction to the color of my iPad case...

He wins... got a blue case... (sigh)

 Homegirl has her riddick moments too!

Wednesday Randoms

It's another hump day. Even though this hump day feels like a Tuesday.

This morning started with "what do you want to do today, Lucas?". "See ducks." Okay, that should be easy. We can just go to Almaden Park. However, after talking to him a few seconds longer, I learned that he meant he wanted to go to the Duck Pond! Okay, got it. Not a problem - I still have two more free tickets for us to use. And that's what we did this morning!

Biggest caterpillar I've seen

A novelty: playing with Play Doh (grosses Mommy out)

Little girl thinks she's a lion

We came home a bit earlier than usual (Mommy's still tired from the long weekend). This meant we ate lunch earlier than usual and had more down time after lunch/before nap time.

 Finally let Lucas play with this "new" puzzle

Out of the blue, Lucas tells me he wants to put on his Darth Vader slippers. I told him to get Darth Vader so I can take a picture of him.

 Cheese!

Char wanted in on the action too!

And that was Wednesday!

Memorial Day Weekend

Last year was our first Memorial Day weekend as a family of four. I remember Char sleeping in the car seat during our short family trip (maybe a good 1.5 hrs?) while we went to Vasona Park. This year was a tad bit different. We conjured up a bunch of ideas - Oakland Zoo, Vasona Park (again), Almaden Lake Park, SF, etc. for Monday. However, being lazy and unprepared, we just ended up going to a neighborhood park.

Lucas wanted to ride his tricycle, but I had a feeling that Char would want to ride it too. So instead, I had the genius idea of giving him his birthday present a month early. Say hello to his new present!

A balance bike we had sitting in the garage since Christmas!

Now Char has her own bike too

Our little biking duo

Silly lady

We spent maybe 1.5 hours at the park today. I think both kids had tons of fun "biking", going on the playground, and just being crazy kids. Since we've been doing something fun in the morning, we usually spend our time at home after lunch (after nap) to just hang out and relax.

Mighty proud of his block house

 "Let's sleep on all the pillows!" - Lucas

 

Mischievous lad doing everything BUT napping

 Reward for napping

Here's the real reason our Memorial Day was so low key... we wasted all our energy on Saturday doing everything! Instead of renewing our passes at CDM, we decided to get a membership at HHZ. And guess what? We started our morning by going to HHZ... then after nap time, we went to go to our first SJ Giants game! It doesn't sound tiring on paper, but when you're a parent of two toddlers, it is!

Lucas was very adamant about riding on the zebra

Besties!!!

Didn't want the fire truck, just the BLUE police car

Char enjoying her own solo ride

Family shot on Danny the Dragon

 Two freaked out kids

 Everybody loves a turkey leg!

And that was Memorial Day weekend! Back to regular life...

The Before Memorial Weekend Post

Life has just been busy lately. Due to the busyness, I've been taking less pictures of the kids, taking them to the same places (don't think they really mind) and just trying to have enough energy to get by day by day. 

My not so innocent toddlers

We have doubles of a lot of toys now (the cheapy ones)

Char and her love for cars

Staged arrangement? Or not?

 Fun with Uncle San

 Reading with Uncle San

I just found out that Daddy doesn't work on Memorial Day. So now I'm trying to plan out a sorta fun family weekend for us. Wish me luck! (I need more caffeine...)