"is this dead flamango?"

I am not a huge fan of eating meat, but Liesl loves to eat it when we go to my parent's house. I like to call it what it is, so she knows that pork is dead pig and beef is dead cow. Porter calls dried mango "flamango" even though I have told him many times it is just mango. Porter also calls the flamingos at the Zoo "flamango". Naturally, Liesl has taken to calling flamingos and mango "flamango" as well. In the car yesterday she was eating some mango and asked "is this dead flamango?". I had to explain that what she was eating was a fruit and a flamingo is a bird and we don't eat flamingos. Then she told me that if there was a dead flamingo in the river we could swim to it and get it and eat it. I was laughing so hard and all I cold say to that was "I guess we could".

Beach Day

Balboa Park

Last week Porter wanted to go to the Science Museum, but by the time we got there we only had 10 min before it closed. Porter was happy enough with what we got to see, but wanted to check out the butterfly garden after. We were there a few months ago and didn't see any butterflies, this time we saw two Monarch butterflies flying around and the kids loved it.

Porter's Birthday Party

Every year we celebrate Porter and his cousin Henry's birthday on the Saturday of the 4th of July weekend. On their first birthday we had a big party, but the last three years we have just had a small party for them. Since they were turning 5 this year we decided to have a big party again. The kids had a blast swimming all day only got out of the pool for the pinata and cake.
Porter and Henry both got a set of Bakugan balls and spent a good part of the day playing with them.
The kids had a great time in this boat my mom bought for them. They all took turns riding around the pool in it and sliding down the slide into it.

Me and my sister.

A Long Weekend

Wednesday was spent preparing for our annual playgroup camping trip. This year I decided to go up on Thursday with a few families and without Jason for the first night. I brought so much stuff the kids had blankets and pillows all around them and the front passenger seat was full. We stayed at the Paso Picacho campground in Cuyamaca, just an hour drive away. I set up our ridiculously big tent, I think it could sleep 8, with just a little help from Porter. The kids were great and it was nice to be up there a day earlier than most of the other families.

Friday morning after breakfast I drove back to San Diego with a list of things to pick up and to take the kids to Sea World. We got free tickets and the kids had been asking to go again, so I decided that it was a lot of driving, but worth it. We got home and it was a mad dash to get the kids showered and ready to leave. Since Jason had to stay home and work I invited my mom to join us. By the time we arrived at Sea World we had no time to check anything out before we had to meet for lunch. We ate at Dine with Shamu and the kids really loved it. The food was just okay, what you would expect from a restaurant buffet. I let the kids eat the chicken because that is all they would eat and they both had a huge piece of chocolate cake. After lunch we had a nice tour where we got to see some baby penguins, dolphins and to feed the sea turtles.
The kids wanted to stay longer, but it was too crowded for me and I wanted to get back to the campground. The rest of the weekend was filled with dirty kids and ton of fun!

happy birthday

6 hours old and ready to go home.

One week old

1st Birthday

2nd Birthday

3rd Birthday

4th birthday


5th birthday

Today we had some friends over for breakfast, then went to play miniature golf. Porter loved it and had a really fun day!

it works

Last night and tonight Jason has been working late, so I have been with the kids all day. It is such a drain, by the time I get them into bed I am just so ready to sit down on the couch with a glass of wine and watch a show. If Porter takes a nap he just can't get to sleep and gets up a million times saying "i can't sleep very well". Tonight they both just went to bed and it is almost 10. Not 1 min after I left the room both of them were up and I just about lost it. I took them back to the room and told them that I was really close to getting really mad and that the needed to stay in bed. When Liesl started to get up I put her back in bed and told her that if she got up again I was going to go get the dirty crib from the garage and put her in it. She just looked at me and said "okay". They both stayed in bed, but I don't know why I make empty threats like that. I am not going to start yelling at my kids to stay in bed. I am not going to go get a crib and stick Liesl in it if she gets up. It works, but I still feel bad about making them. It is just really hard not having Jason here in the evening, but the extra money is nice.

a facial

For my birthday in September my brother and little sister bought me a gift certificate for a facial. Here I am 9 months later and I finally got around to making an appointment for one. I was a little nervous about having someone pop pimples, clean out pores, examine my wrinkles and sun spots. That is the kind of thing I do to myself and the idea of having someone else do it was a little uncomfortable. The gift certificate was for Martine's Skin Care in Pacific Beach. Martine was a lovely lady and it was really nice to just relax for a while. My skin looks nice after the things she did to it. I want to go back and have a Brazilian wax done, but I am a little scared about that.