Weekend SHINNanigans

I think I have summeritis. There's still five weeks left till summer, but it's really just four weeks since the last week of school is really not that academic.

 Lucas out of the woods - no longer sick!

 Trying out Blaze pizza

 Big, Medium, and Small mesmerized by Vitamix guy

Lucas loves the weekend! His routine is to go to the bathroom and get an iPad. Currently, he's into Scout (Leap Frog) and told me he wants a Scout party. I'm kinda hesitant with this and I'm hoping he changes his mind when I ask him again in two weeks.

 Can you tell he loves Cars?!

Since we didn't have any parties to go to this morning, we took a trip to HH. Right when we turned on to Senter, we realized that we BOTH forgot our wallets (aka: don't have membership cards). That was seven minutes wasted right there! What are the chances that we BOTH forget our wallets?

 Happy carousel riders

 Char trying to feed Lucas and Lucas rejecting it

 Cutest firefighter lady I've met

 Handsome fireman

Our after HH tradition has always been to eat at Chik-Fil-A. The kids know that after they eat their chicken strips, they can eat some fries and drink lemonade. And after that, they can play in the play area. Unfortunately, the play area got loud really quickly and the kids wanted to leave.

 Her "boo boo" bandaid

 Picnicking in the living room

Sundays are the same. They're usually slow days with going to church, lunch, and just lounging around at home. This Sunday, we stayed out a bit too late having a church dinner. At least the kids had tons of fun before they passed out.

Ever since Pops put new batteries in Scout and changed the name "Lucas" to "Charlotte", Char's been pretty obsessed with him. This Leap Frog product has great value! Both kids enjoy singing songs with Scout. I heard them singing (very loudly) Twinkle Twinkle in Lucas's room. Around five minutes later, I noticed the singing stopped and it became really quiet. When it's quiet, it usually means they're up to no good. I quietly walked into Lucas's room, waiting to yell at them with whatever bad thing they're up to. And... I catch both of them reading a Bible! Char understand what I've been reading too, which makes me want to read to her more since she's clearly showing that she understands quite a bit. Yup, that was a humbling mother moment for me right there. Sometimes when it's quiet, my kids are up to good!

 Diligent Bible readers

 And a minute later, the "good kids" turn back into their normal selves

 Have been sitting on these steps after church to eat their snacks for ages

 Look at this precious face!

 Pops and poplings

 Been craving some authentic Cantonese food

 No, not kidnapping her - changing her diaper

 Zonked out!

Haven't held her like this in ages... wannabe-NB-who's-actually-2

And that wraps up the weekend!

Shortest Weekend Ever

Weekends seem much shorter when you have to work on Friday night. And that was the case this Friday! I went to our first Silent Auction for school. It wasn't that bad, but I'm just not used to wearing heels and greeting people and coming home "late" (9:30) on a Friday. I'm usually sprawled on the couch by 9:30.

Can't resist a photo booth

We went to the mall on Daddy's birthday (past Saturday) because I was on a mission to get Lucas some new jeans. He had a random growth spurt and he outgrew al his 3T's. He's currently wearing 4T and 5T! I also need to get him new underwear, too!

 When did my baby become a little boy?!

The boys went to the Apple store and whatever else and the girls went to Target, ON, and Disney store. 

 When did this little girl get so big, too?!

She chose this outfit

And here's Sunday night dinner and dessert.

 This family loves Mexican food!

 Why is pineapple out of the rotation now?!

 Little girl wanting to grow up way too quickly!

Not weekend related, but isn't this cute?!

And now it's a couple hours till Game 2. Go Dubs! 4 and out!

40 Eve

There was no extravagant surprise birthday party (note: 5 years ago), there really wasn't anything fancy, it was just a family Saturday. Happy birthday, Pops! 

Okay, so let's backtrack to one week ago where I was still on Spring Break. When we were on our Winter Break, I told Dan that it'll be so cool to go to Alcatraz. I guess after five years of dropping very unsubtle hints (example: "I've never been to Alcatraz before." "I love anything prison related."), I finally had to tell him that I wanted to visit Alcatraz. Since I made reservations for HOPR, I had finally convinced him to go to Alcatraz with me. For me, this trip was worth the wait! My only regret is leaving my selfie stick in the car. The view from there was gorgeous that day!

I would totally commit a crime to live there!

 Listened to every word on that self guided audio

 View from Alcatraz

After we got back to the pier, we headed off to an early dinner. Why does it take 30 minutes to drive 2 miles in SF? WHY?! Maybe it's just us, but we thought that something seriously was wrong with HOPR. The last time we went there was over five years ago. It seemed much fancier back then. There was a changing pad in the bathroom and stacks of high chairs. WHY?! When did HOPR become a family establishment? My Yorkshire pudding was burnt and the prime rib was good, but not great. Sigh... that was a bummer. At least the tiramisu was stellar so it made the trip worth it!

Highlight of dinner: DESSERT

We had an early family celebration Tuesday night at Benihana's. I think this might become a Daddy birthday tradition. As of now, we're on year two.

The kids look so much older here than they did a year ago

 Shinn girls

 Shinn boys

I really wanted to make something special for the hubs for his birthday. Unfortunately, I had absolutely NO idea how to set up my sewing machine! I read the manual AND YouTubed it! I had the husband set it up for me and I tried to do something simple when I came home from work the next day. Unfortunately, I messed it up so part of his present is a bit belated. At least I was able to give him his card! Note to self: learn to sew!

 Husband hard at work setting up my machine

Okay, so today is the big day! The actual birthday!

Me: "We're going to celebrate Daddy's birthday on Saturday. Where do you want to take him?"

L: "Why?! We already celebrated on Tuesday!"

Me: (Hah!)

 Brunch @ Country Inn (mediocre, will stick with Scramblz & Bill's)

 Family afternoon watching the game

I guess this is what happens to birthdays when you become a (young) family. Honestly, it was a long (work) week and I didn't have much time to plan much. But, hope you had a great birthday celebrating with us crazies. Thank you for being a very selfless husband and taking ME to Alcatraz, letting the kids "take" you to Benihana's, and just spending a day on the couch with the family watching the playoffs. Taco truck next year!

The End of Spring Break

Okay. It's official. This is it. It's Sunday afternoon and I am seriously dreading going to sleep tonight. It's going to be hard to wake up at 6:30, be at school by 7:30, and start teaching around 8:30. I've been creeping out of bed around 8 this whole week. This is going to be tough! 

Anyway, to end Spring break, I hosted a baby sprinkle for a good friend. This was the first time I've hosted an adult only party in a long, long time. It was nice and refreshing not having to worry about chidren for a good two hours.

 Brunch spread

My little princess didn't really have a boo-boo. I put a band-aid on forehead and she refuses to take it off. Today she wanted to go to church with this on and I had to tell everyone who inquired that it wasn't a real boo-boo, simply a fashion statement from a two year old.

 Jammies in the afternoon FTW

 Selfies

After the baby sprinkle, we had friends over at night. Char was surprisingly very, very good with a baby and did her best to entertain him. Lucas did not give babies the time of day. I think he was actually a bit scared of babies. He shared some toys with baby, but always stood behind me. It turns out Lucas isn't afraid of feeding goats, but he's afraid of monster babies. Go figure!

 Good-with-baby Charlotte

 On the way to church

 Yogurtland after church

By the way, Daddy thinks both kids look like him and claims I'm in denial. I am NOT in denial. Charlotte is too beautiful to look like him!

Planting my garden

In my previous post, I mentioned that I wanted to start a garden. And look who's doing all the work for me. And no thanks to this ridiculous California drought, my grass is turning yellow again! 

And that is the end of a wonderfully tiring week! Bring it, work!

Spring Break 2015 Pt 2

I can't believe this is the last day of Spring break! I had all these things I wanted to do and I accomplished absolutely nothing! I do feel sorta productive though. With both kids not napping today, I was still able to work on some stuff for a friend's baby sprinkle tomorrow. If that's not productive, I don't know what is!

Part 1 of this post is dedicated to all the weird stuff that happens at home. 

 Princess acting like a tomboy

 No words...

 Sissy poo copying big bro

 "Lucas, kings don't smile."

I started off strong at the beginning of the week by bringing them to HH and Rockin' Jump. Things started to simmer down towards the end of the week (hence no naps for the most part). 

One hobby I really wanted to get started on was gardening. The idea of it sounds cool, the kids had a blast picking out (on sale) veggies at OSH. Now the hard part is getting to work on this. When we lived in Mountain View, I had convinced Dan that we should have a little garden in our backyard. After it was done, I found out I was pregnant (with Lucas) and completely forgot all about it. This time around, I'm older (and wiser) and we don't plan to move at all in the near future so I will learn to have a green thumb!

 Happy Lucas

 Silly Lucas

 Flying Lucas

The kids love going to the playground. I need to check out SV Toddler's page for cool playgrounds around the area. Once they are out of the car, they know that it's okay to run towards the playground. This free activity also helps them get tired so they nap.

 Fake surprised Char

We went to visit Apple Daddy before our Spring break ended. I can't believe how big the kids have gotten. They are capable of feeding themselves now and can communicate what they want. Over break, I noticed how much Char is trying to talk. She would ramble on and on about something and the most I can do is respond "yes" since I still don't understand 75% of what she's trying to say. Homegirl's trying though...

 Happy Charlie

Happy Lu Bear

... I can't believe it's the weekend and Spring break is over. Next milestone: END OF THE SCHOOL YEAR!