Easter Weekend

Before this weekend began, I was stoked to be on Spring break! Since it was Spring break, I was stoked to be hosting back-to-back Easter celebrations at our place since our house rarely gets any action on a normal school night. Right now, after cleaning our house twice after each celebration, I am ready to call it quits and hit the sack. The only thing keeping me up is 1) I need to shower an 2) my current addiction... Parenthood! Anyway, it looks like this Spring break will be anything but restful for me, but at least I'll get to create memories with my little monsters.

These two are ready for eggs!

Easter egg hunt at park with cousins

Kids looking through their loot

Shinn kids looking through their loot

Happy Char with her chocolate egg

Lucas trying real hard not to look happy

All that happened Saturday morning. We were hosting a family get together for dinner. I don't know why I always forget how much damage six children can do to your house...

The calm before the storm

Still semi calm and contained

Only part of the damage done to the house

When the kids are older (perhaps next year), I'll do a better attempt at explaining to them why we really celebrate Easter. I currently have a whole year to plan out my amazing toddler friendly Easter story! (Hah! That's some wishful thinking right there.)

The best Easter Sunday picture I got of them

Can you spot the Shinn kids?

 Happy Charlie and her pink frog

 Lu in action

It turns out that Charlotte is much more into collecting eggs than Lucas. Homegirl would not stop till all the eggs were gone. She may be tiny but she's a fast one. I have a feeling she's going to be the more athletic one out of the two. Lucas will probably be the brains of the family. 

I was so beat this (Sunday) afternoon that I passed out in Lucas's bed. Homeboy decided he didn't need a nap today. Usually when it's just me at home and I pass out, the kids play quietly and make a minimal mess. When I woke up today, I found dry erase marker marks on the wall, stuffing pulled out of the giant dog in Char's room, and eggs and toys everywhere. Did I do a lot of yelling? YES I DID! After some loud yelling at the both of them, these kids cleaned up their entire mess till the house was spotless again before I allowed them to play. Through this experience, I learned that 1) they take advantage of their father and 2) they are fully capable of cleaning their ENTIRE mess up. Let me repeat... I was MAD!

Calm after the storm

That's Char quietly having a picnic with herself AFTER the entire mess was cleaned up. Okay, now I'm ready to pass out. We'll see what adventures await us tomorrow. Oh I feel like a SAHM again, but with no SAHM friends.

Good Friday

Two weeks ago, I was stoked about having Good Friday off. I realized that Char's spring break coincided with mine so that meant I didn't really have a spring break. Two days before Friday, I randomly asked Lu's teacher if they had school on Friday and she said no. And that was the moment I realized my Spring break would consistent of kids non-stop. 

Since Charlotte had school on Friday, I told Lucas that we'll have some special time together. He's been saying "I never go to Happy Hollow" (meaning: we haven't gone in a while). So... guess where we went?

 Pre-outing selfie

 Stoked he got his beloved zebra

 Oh happy day

 Hello goat!

Lucas asked me if he could feed the goat. I asked him if he was being serious and he said yes. When he was 9 months old, he got bitten by a goat at HH. Luckily it didn't scar him for life because he didn't even remember it! I told him to cup his hand and let the goat come to him. I guess I'll have to bring more quarters with me next time. He had a blast!

 "I want to ride in the fire truck!"

Lucas happily ran around HH without a care in the world! He got to ride on all the rides he wanted to and you could tell that he was having such a great time! Towards the end, he did seem a little bored without Char there. Since these kids are so close in age, I don't think Lucas remembers what life was like without his little sister. I'll take that as a good thing!

 Gobbled down his entire lunch!

... and he still had room for ice cream!

I've always been skeptical about Lucas and the lunches I pack for him at school. He always claims he finishes everything. Now after seeing how much he can eat when he's super active, I believe him. My kids are eaters... the teenage years are going to be fun...

Sick Week

Our family was down for the count this weekend, so it was a bit tough. Luckily it was mainly us parents and not the kids who were going through coughs and all sorts of bad stuff. 

 

There was a lot of this going on this weekend...

 

 Pretending to sleep

 Bottoms up

 So tired he passed out holding a book

 

Since we've been trading off being sick, only one of us has been with the kids. This (Palm) Sunday was my day. The kids were surprisingly very good and it was actually fun hanging out with them! I think a main part of this is because Char's older and can actually communicate with us now.

Trying hard to not miss Sunday OOTDs

"Hold hands when you cross the street" - Mommy

 "Where do you want to eat for lunch (after church)?"

"Charlotte's 1st birthday place!" (aka Sonoma Chicken Coop)

There's only two days left till Spring Break! Spring means playing outside and having fun!

 

Such as riding scooters outside!

 

Two More Weeks

That's right! The countdown to Spring Break has officially begun! And after Spring Break, the REAL countdown will begin with end of the school year festivities! Wooo! 

Anyway, we accomplished a lot this weekend. We started Saturday off with two birthday parties. I forgot to take pictures. But we did go and party our butts off! Both kids were so zonked that they passed out at home right away. 

When they woke up, I let them paint outside since it was such a beautiful day.

Started off like this...

It got really quiet for around 30 minutes. So that means that they're up to no good...

What I saw when I went to check on them

They weren't painting our real house, so it's all good.

What I was doing while kids were outside and husband was cooking dinner

If you haven't watched Parenthood and you're a parent, WATCH IT! It's that good!

On Sunday, we took forever getting out of bed, which meant we were late going to church (again). I let the rascals choose one toy to bring in the car. They both must've heard "toys" cause they were scrambling around the house gathering a load of things like we were going on vacation or something.

 Toddlers' loot

 Bookstore after lunch

 Nobody napped Sunday afternoon

 Dinner at everyone (but Mommy)'s favorite: Sweet Tomatoes

Spidergirl!

And that was our weekend. Two more weeks till Spring Break!

Another weekend of SHINNanigans

Tomorrow marks the start of my fourth quarter. I can't believe school will be over soon! I also can't believe we made it a whole year with so many different changes happening at once. (New house, kitchen renovation, new job, new schools for both kids... WOW! We survived.) 

We started this weekend with our special "sleepover in Char's room". Both kids were very excited about this because they knew they could talk and goof off till they were too tired to stay up. Now that Char is old enough to converse back, these two are having the time of their lives! Of course there's the sibling fighting every once in a while, too. Overall, they are getting along great. I hope they grow up to be best buddies/siblings.

Sleepover night 1

Sleepover night 2

I just found out that Char really doesn't like Frozen stuff anymore. Hopefully it's a short phase and she'll love it again in the future since we invested so much Frozen into her life. For the time being, it's been all about Minnie Mouse. I'm okay with her loving that, too. They'll be stoked when we decide to go to Disneyland again... one day...

Door sitters

Aren't these rascals the cutest duo ever?! This is what they do every day after school when I unload stuff from the trunk.

We went to CDM this weekend cause of some Play Imagination thing going on. I didn't know it when we went, but we scored free admission into CDM. If I had known, I would've brought a change of clothes so they could play in the water area!

Lucas's creation (with some help)

Char just posing

Fresh off the boat

 Someone was a rebel and decided to use a PC

 Dropped the kids off for date night (Daddy got plastered)

I like to take OOTD pics on Sunday. But on this particular Sunday, these kids were just not feeling it. It's a luxury nowadays to dress them and I always have to explain that on weekends, Mommy dresses you guys. But on weekdays, you can dress yourself (applies more to Char). Lucas doesn't care about clothes that much (which is awesome), he's much more opinionated about what I make him eat.

 Mr. Too Cool To Smile

Sisters!

DST Weekend

Here's a sign that the kids are getting older - DST had absolutely no affect on them! Booyah! Char still woke up at 8 (formerly known as 7) and Lucas woke up who knows when. The boy always does his business in the morning and goes about playing with "his" iPad in the morning till I tell him it's breakfast time.

Speaking of, here's a cute conversation I overheard between the two of them while I was still in bed:

C: Good morning Lucas

L: Good morning Charlotte. I gotta go pee pee, excuse me.

C: ewww nasty!

L: (lol) You stinky beast!

C: (starts singing the wheels on the bus)

Anyway, we started our weekend off with family movie night in bed. All that means is the kids get to watch a movie in bed while I go back and forth between the Warriors game and bed. It worked out...

Friday movie night!

Me and my girl

We started off Saturday morning with a family photo shoot. It was HUGE!

Practicing their cheese before we leave

Youngest cousins

 Bookwormin' after lunch

Unique way of passing out at home

After this, we had a belated LN (CNY) with my side of the family.

 Amazing how both kids are smiling and looking at the camera

I'm so happy that it's nice and warm now. That means we can enjoy the warm California sun after church. It's so great that the kids are old enough now to not really have a really routine/set schedule.

 Happy hip Charlie

 Hipster Shinn kids

Jammin' sista

And that was our weekend. Oh, it was extra crazy since Friday was bring-your-daughter-to-work-day. Not purposely though. I found out Thursday when picking Char up that she did not have school on Friday. It was too last minute for Dan so I ended up working a half day with Char and that was total chaos. I guess that means Monday will seem much more chill... I hope.

Another Weekend Over

This weekend was pretty laid back. We had no evening plans which meant dinner at home. Dinner at home means saving money, so it all works out. I'm trying to figure out some easy and cheap American meals to cook since I only have so much time to meal prep after work. I'm also trying to buy the week's groceries on the weekend so I don't have to go grocery shopping in the middle of the week and end up buying random snacks that weren't really on my list. Another goal is to try to stay way from Target (my kryptonite) because I always manage to find something on clearance that I don't really need. 

 Happy Char and her drawing (scribble)

 Grubbing at a baby shower

Me: We're going to a baby shower this weekend.

Lucas: I don't like baby showers. I don't like babies. I like big kids.

 Weather's warming up!

With spring approaching and our backyard pretty clean overall, the kids are having a fun time playing (not fighting) together in the backyard while I'm cooking dinner. I am now on a crazy CL hunt for cheap backyard toys for them. They're complaining that their (free) slide is too small now and they want something bigger. I'm also on the look out for a rollercoaster. Our backyard will soon enough turn into a toddler's paradise... I guarantee it! Oh, and since spring is in the air, I am going to get off my lazy butt and finally start planting something besides green onions in our very fertile backyard, too!

Two toddlers livin' the life