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?!

Laboring on Labor Day

Next year, when the house is 100% complete, when I'm more settled in my new role as a working mom, and when the kids are older... that's when we'll actually enjoy Labor Day. All this house stuff started on July 4 (when we were going to close on July 10) and I think it'll go well into mid-September. Our kitchen should FINALLY be complete in a week (crosses fingers), and I started unpacking most of the kitchen stuff, which has been in boxes since late June. So while other families were probably enjoying the last week of summer at the beach or doing something fun, our fun consisted of cleaning/unpacking house and yet another trip to Ikea. I am officially sick of Ikea food.

 Starting the weekend off with my favorite bunny (dunno why she wanted to wear this)

 Side by side play = the best (no fighting!!!)

I don't know about your toddler kids, but mine are vicious! If Lucas is touching something Char wants or is/was playing with, she would scream, and then slap him on the head. In turn, Lucas will push her, which results in two toddlers screaming their heads off and being very physical with one another till Mommy breaks it up. Sigh...

 Just posing...

I think I bribed both of them with an iPad after church if they smiled in this picture. Bribery never fails!

 Char's newest obsessions: shades + diggin' for gold

 What happens when you stay too long at Ikea (pt 1)

 What happens when you stay too long at Ikea (pt 2)

On Labor Day, we wanted to give the kids some fun, so we ended up going to a park before running more errands.

 My little diva

 Handsome fella

weeeeee

We ended Labor Day with dinner at Sweet Tomatoes. Normally, I would never suggest this. But, since it was Asian month (and I'm all for supporting my fellow Asians), I suggested it and the rest of the fam couldn't say no.

Both thought they were super cool wearing their shades like Mommy

After two weeks at the daycare, we decided to pull Char out and have her start over at an in home play school. The main reason was because we both speculated that all they do is put the kids in front of a t.v. all day long. This was definitely a no-no for me. Paying more money for something that was more quality put me much more at ease. For the past two weeks, Char was very moody and grouchy. Since we started her at a new place (today), she came home super happy and full of life. This was the Char I missed. I was relieved to see how different she was today and this made me feel good that we made the right choice.

Char's happy dance

And now it's hump day when I wake up... every weekend should be a three-day weekend!

TGI Labor Day Weekend!

After looking through pictures on the phone, it's become quite apparent that I definitely stopped taking pictures of the kids. Sometimes I get so busy that I completely forget about it. So, starting now, I'm going to make a better attempt at taking pics of the rascals.

I was really excited about the long weekend when I left work on Friday. However, upon coming home, I wish I had stayed at work a bit longer since BOTH the rascals had meltdowns due to tiredness. Did they both skip a nap or something?!

Lucas passed out on me at 6pm

After a crazy crying session, Char passed out on the floor at 6pm

If you know my little lady, you'll know that she NEVER refuses food. So when she refused to eat dinner and just kept crying bloody murder, we decided to just put her down around 7. Home girl basically slept through the night with no dinner. I have no idea what happened...

Saturday morning happiness on the iPad

Happy boy, grouchy girl

Still don't know what's up with Char's sleeping schedule. It seems like her daycare screwed it up somehow. Mommy is not happy...

"School-like" office for the kiddos

 Before bedtime love

 

Happy Lucas with Mommy's new flowers

I got called up to the front office during the last few minutes of my lunch break. While walking up there, I was thinking, am I in trouble?! I couldn't think of something I did that was THAT bad. Turns out I didn't do anything bad! I just got my first flowers delivered to me from the husband. Back to work flowers from the husband! When Lucas came to my classroom after school, he wanted to take a picture next to the flowers. I told him to smile, and this was the face he came up with... (he was busy munching on chips and was trying to smile at the same time). 

And now, there's half of Labor Day weekend left! Time to continue making our house a home.

The Park And The Kids

Since I only have a few hours with the kiddos on weekdays, I wanted to do something cool with them on the weekend. (Something cool can be as simple as going to Happy Hollow.) However, due to our massive kitchen remodel and other miscellaneous house stuff along with Daddy being super busy at work for the next few weeks, our first weekend with our crazy transition hasn't been as cool as I hoped it'll be. Well, we'll always have other weekends in the future! Anyway, I only had one hour in the morning to go out with the kids and Lucas said he wanted to go to his birthday park (so Cahalan Park it is!).

I definitely noticed how much the kids changed when we were at the park. The last time I took them to the park was just a week ago, but with all these transitions, they seem to have grown up in a flash! Lucas was a lot more adventurous and just ran around everywhere. Char was now able to go up and down the slides by herself AND she wanted to swing on the big girl swings, too!

 Sibs on the firetruck

Push push push!

 Little daredevil ("Mommy, I'm stuck!")

Little Miss Big Girl

Swing swing swing

 "Lucas, take a selfie with your bestie!"

Hola!

weeeeeee

And that was our Saturday fun day (morning)... I can't wait till our house is finally done so when I come home after work, I can relax and lounge comfortably. Hopefully by mid-September!

The Big Transition

 The last three years were spent building toddler friendships. We went to a birthday party this weekend to celebrate a first birthday and managed to get all the kiddos to smile. This picture symbolizes the end of an era. Hopefully we'll still find time to maintain these friendships.

 the Shinn kids practically grew up with this bunch

Today was my first day of work. Today was also Lucas's first full day of preschool. And lastly, it was Char's first day of daycare. The three of us survived. Surprisingly, both kids transitioned quite well. I guess being outside of the house was better than going to Target every other day or being cooped up in half the house while the kitchen is (still!) under construction. Yup, our kitchen is still gutted. Every day after work, I'm hoping that I'll be surprised and come home to a sorta kitchen. Still waiting...

 First day of school (photo by Daddy)

 Showtime!

But before school officially started, I was able to squeeze some "final" moments with the rascals. During the past week, the kids were mainly cooped up at home since I was working day and night. We didn't really do anything that special, but at least they still had fun!

 After dinner dessert @ Sweet Retreats

Hanging out @ Whole Foods

 Char's "smile"

 TV isn't set up yet, so Frozen on the computer it is!

Char's more genuine smile

... and now it's time to pack lunches, set out clothes, put out backpacks, and all this other mother/teacher stuff for the second day of school!