spring break in san diego

Since the boys had saved their money for their Disneyland tickets and we wanted to get the trip in before Nora turned three, we decided Zach's spring break would be the best time.  We headed to San Diego first so we could get a visit in with Aunt Angie.  It sure is one of my favorite places!

After mass in Old Town, we hiked Torrey Pines.

The hike eventually leads down to the beach...

The water was cold, but that didn't keep my boys out...

We had a great day with Angie, but she had to get back to work, so the next day we went to Balboa Park.  I love this huge tree there...

When I was young there was no fence and you were able to climb on it.  Too bad lawsuits ruin all the fun!  We had to just imagine what it would be like to climb it.  Then we went over to check out the Botanical Building...

It was quite beautiful and even the kids appreciated it...

Then we explored a few more gardens and other spots before we headed to the playground to kill a few hours before we headed to Anaheim.

Up next is Disneyland!!!

fat tuesday

I rarely get my act together for Fat Tuesday.    It always sneaks up on me and since this year Lent was starting really early, I really didn't get it together.  I usually buy cinnamon rolls in a can to make a King Cake, but I hadn't even gotten that far this year.  Fortunately, a friend was on top of things and had made a large amount of dough (and colored sprinkles) and divided it up for me and another friend who was equally not on top of things.  Jimmy had fun helping me finish off the cake. 

It turned out pretty well, but I made the slits too big and cooked it a bit too long.  It still looked pretty fun.

I was able to throw together some Jambalaya and we had some masks already so it seemed like a real Mardi Gras celebration.  

Nora was super excited to find the baby Jesus...

Now onto Lent!...

nora being baby mom again

I was a very shy child, but apparently one time when I was one, I got ahold of some cymbals and put on quite a show for a party of relatives.  

 I still have the dress, but not the cymbals.  Since Nora wore the dress for about a year, I wanted to buy a new pair of cymbals and take pictures of her doing the same thing.  Well, I never got around to doing that and suddenly I realized the dress was too small for her.  Before I packed it into storage I just had to at least attempt my idea so pot lids had to suffice instead of real cymbals.  She is probably a whole year older than I was in these photos and you can tell my the dress size, but I am happy I did it.  She thought it was fun and now thinks the pot lids belong to her.

new playset

Nano and Nana gave the kids a new playset for Christmas this year.  The kids have put in many good hours on our old metal one, but it was starting to fall apart and we thought it was time for an upgrade. I picked it out (and took forever picking exactly what I wanted because reading reviews is torture). It took awhile to ship so it came about a month after after Christmas.  My dad came over to help Zach and Jimmy build it. Jimmy couldn't have been more excited about building it and was a great helper.

Gus and Nora were looking more forward to the finished product so the entertained themselves by using all the cardboard boxes to make a fort.  It was usually a store that sold sea shells and excepted bottle caps as payment.  Nora would just poke her head out and shout, "Seashells for sale!!" until one of us came to buy one.

 Aunt Erin and Uncle Gene showed up during their visit to give some help, too.

 We got most of it done in one weekend.  Here is the almost completed version:

 The little girls were happy to test it out for everyone...

Nora loves her "cottage" the best...

It has been so appreciated by all my kids.  They play on it almost every day.

I am sure it will bring joy for many year to come.  Thanks Nano and Nana!

helen visits

This post probably would have had Erin and Gene's names in it at one point, but let's be honest about who is the most exciting to see.  It is her birthday as I am posting this so it seems fitting that it should be all about Helen.  Okay, we had fun with those other people, too...

 Nora sure loves here baby cousin...

 We went to the Japanese Friendship Garden and Nora loved feeding thy koi...

 Mimi also got lots of Helen time...

 We wish we could see them all the time, but love when they can come visit...

january

Gus and Nora are such great little buddies.  They are always doing cute things together, like for example, pretending to be turtles...

This is why it was extra hard to Nora to see Gus go off to preschool two days a week.

He, however, was thrilled about it and had his buddy, William, going with him...

 The little sisters were left behind, but at least they have each other to play with...

 It also means I get to have just Mom and Nora time.  This is usually how I would stop her from crying on the first few days we left him.  I would say, "It will be just girls."  It kind of worked and eventually she got used to him going, but she still tells me she will miss him.  However, she also just really loves missing anyone she isn't currently with.  Sometimes she just says in her saddest voice, "I just miss everyone in the whole world."  She is a bit dramatic, but I know she really was sad to see her buddy go even if it was only two days a week.  It means I play with her a lot more.  We have lots of tea parties...

 Our weather was quite beautiful for most of January, but we did get a big hail storm which they kids thought was super fun.  It is the closest thing to real winter weather we can expect.  I like that it is novel and then the sun comes back out.

 January is also prime citrus season in Phoenix.  We have one orange tree that is slowly dying and stopped producing fruit and one grapefruit tree that is still very small and only give about 3 grapefruits.   However, so many neighbors have fruit and were happy to part with it.  The boys had been begging to have a lemonade stand since they are saving up to buy their own tickets to Disneyland.  I told them they would have to do most of the work themselves so they juiced lots of oranges, grapefruits, and lemons...

 Despite all my talk, I did my fair share as well.  Our kitchen was a huge sticky mess after all this and my arms were actually sore from hand juicing, but we had a lot of juice to sell.

The kids set up their stand on a lovely Saturday morning and stayed until the late afternoon...

  I put a notice about our stand on the neighborhood website and everyone told me to charge a dollar which I thought was steep, but they said people are happy to give money to kids and you won't have to deal with change.  Well it was good advice and we had tons of customers.  I couldn't believe it, but they actually made $90!  We had a lot of generous neighbors who gave donations when they heard the kids were saving for a Disneyland trip, but I was still astounded that they made that much.  One lady gave them $10 and said, "I love to see young entrepreneurs."  The kids split the money and put it into their Disneyland fund.  Jimmy was excited that he now had enough for his ticket and Gus only had about $5 more to go.   Once I knew that Disneyland was really happening, I started planning a trip for Zach's spring break.   I was probably as excited about it as them.