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.

Garden

Yesterday I took the kids to City Farmers Nursery for some fertilizer and new plants. The kids always have a great time there playing in the playground and running around. When we were in the office checking out, the kids saw some poults in a cage. I asked the owner about them and he said what they don't eat they are going to sell. I put my name on the list to buy one, so if they don't loose anymore we might have a locally raised Thanksgiving turkey!
My pumpkin plant is doing well, but the zucchini and cucumber are not. I have two turnip plants that are coming back from almost dying and I planted a mint where some lettuce was.

I cut this tree down a few months ago to give the vegetable box more light. I love how it has turned into a little bush. I think it is so cute!

I planted another tomato plant, tomatillo and some Japanese eggplant in this box. The two tomato plants that I have in there were over watered and grew all crazy instead of compact. I hope I have better luck with my new one. I really want to just rip them out, but there are still some tomatoes on them and I just can't kill them.

gone

Okay I had to delete that last post. I really don't want to start shit or talk about it with anyone that is not my friend, so why put it here. It has nothing to do with my family, so don't worry.
I was outside working on the garden and I came in to find Porter sleeping like this.

Skate Park

Today we met up with some friends at a park in Chula Vista that has an area where the kids can skate. Porter was talking all about going skateboarding, but decided not to try it and had more fun riding his scooter around. There was a really nice playground that had this water mister pole that the kids had fun with. It seems like new parks these days are incorporating a water feature into the playground. It is really nice and needed on hot summer days. Liesl had a lot of fun going on rides on the skateboard with Gregg. I had some help dropping in on the little ramp, but never had the guts to do it without assistance. It was a fun afternoon that ended with lunch at In n Out and a short nap for me. Here is a video of Liesl on the skateboard.

palm pre

On Friday Jason and I bought new phones. We both had the the Blackberry 8830 and now we have the new Palm Pre. There are a lot of things I miss about the Blackberry, but I am starting to really like the Pre. I love that I have some of my music on it and can listen to it in the car. I really like that it has a camera and the touch screen is nice. Over all I like it a lot, but I do miss how simple my old phone was.

Last day of school

Today was Porter's last day of school. My mom came to hang out and see him receive his certificate. Porter was really excited that his grandma was coming and told all the teachers about it. It was a really nice and special day.


After school we went to a local park and met up with some of his classmates to play.

Last day of preschool

Tomorrow I will wake up and take Porter to preschool for the last time. It seems like just yesterday I was taking him to his first day. Looking at those photos of my little 3 year old going to school for the first time makes me cry. Kids grow up so fast and in two years from now my little Liesl will be doing the same thing. I am really looking forward to having the summer free. I don't like to have to wake up and rush around to get out of the house. It is really just a pain and I don't like it when he is in school. I am really dreading kindergarten in the fall. We are just going to have to get on some kind of schedule in order to get to school on time. I have enrolled Porter in 3 schools so far and I have no idea what one he will be going to. I don't love any of them, so we will see what happens closer to the start of school.

Master P

Hard Rock Hotel

Friday night I went to the Hard Rock to celebrate my friend's birthday. My friend rented a room for the night, so we got there in the afternoon and relaxed for a while before dinner. We had dinner at Nobu and it was good. After dinner we went up to the bar at the pool for some drinks then down to the bar on the bottom floor to dance. Since we were hotel guests and had talked to the bouncer before hand, we got in with out having to wait in the line which was really nice. The next morning we got up early for breakfast at Mary Jane's and spent the rest of the afternoon lounging by the pool. It was a really nice and relaxing little staycation.

Elephant Odyssey

Today we went to check out the new Elephant Odyssey exhibit at the zoo. It just opened a few weeks ago and I really wanted to go check it out. The kids were not really interested in going, but once we got there they loved it. It is really geared towards kids and has a nice little play area at the end for them. It flows really well, is at least twice as big as the old exhibit and is just really cool. The only problem is that Porter freaked out when I told him it was time to leave. He wanted to go back to the beginning of the exhibit to play on the sculptures. It was a fun long walk to the exit with a screaming kid. If I didn't talk to him or answer the same questions over and over he would scream even louder. Here are some photos of the fun time!
Porter did not want his picture taken.

Liesl had fun running through these tracking collars.


Porter is really into climbing these days and he had a lot of fun on this tractor.