~I Have Been Found Out...~

The kids and I set out to the Farm today to get our fresh fruits and veg for the next few days... I cannot tell you how delicious the pears looked! They were .30 a piece! Amazing! I bought 4.Tyler has had them before and Katelyne is still struggling with the "I don't like it..." whenever she sees somethings that does not resemble Mac N Cheese or a processed Chicken Nugget.

So, for lunch today I cut up and served them both some of the pear, and decided to tell them it was, in fact, apple.

Katelyne instantly told me she didn't like it. I informed her that she had never had it before and she should try it... I continued that it was an October Apple that only grew around Halloween time and had a sweetness to it like Candy Corn. (You believe me right?!)

I was switching laundry and over heard this:

Katelyne to Tyler - "Bub, did you try this? Mom says it is 'Tober Apple... I don't believe her. I think she just wants us to taste it........... Do you want mine? Ok, me either."

Then the softest whisper ever... "Roxy!!! Rrrroooooxxxyyyyyyy!!!! Here you go good girl."

I am unsure if I should be upset......

~Would CPS Approve?"

Katelyne - "Mom, I am thirsty... can I get a juice out the garage please?"
Me - "Sure Honey, thanks for being polite."
Katelyne - *Comes in with something behind her back* "Mom, you know what would be soooo good for my tummy?!" *Turns around with a beer* "If I could drink this!"
Me - "Are you nuts? Go put that back please and get your juice..."
Katelyne - "But I promise I will take a good nap if I can have this..."
Me - "You have no idea... have a juice" *Hmmmm, maybe.......*

A few seconds later she comes in with a juice...

Katelyne - "Mom? I sure would have like to drink that cream soda!"
Me - "What cream soda?
Katelyne - "The one dad drinks, he told me it was his cream soda!"

*sigh*

~WHAT???? Are you still doing that Blog?!~

*sigh* Yes, I am still doing the bog, but from the last post with Katelyne starting PreSchool, to say it has been crazy is just not even close to touching how life has been.

Being as hectic as it has been, we have managed to make time for oh-so-fun things with the kids pretty regularly. This past weekend we packed up the ol' Acura for a trip to Pixieland in Concord. It is a small amusement Park in the middle of a big park. It is small. Did I mention it was small? I looked it up online before we went and to say the map was deceiving is just not enough... we were there about 2 hours AND we had lunch AND we rode some rides twice AND we stopped to potty AND we waited about 6 minutes for the train AND we bought more tickets... we tried to drag it out a little bit.

The first ride Katelyne rode was the airplanes. She is such a big girl - this was the first time she rode a ride all by herself! I was a little emotional, to which I was told to "get the eff over it...". Apparently my husband lacks in the sympathy department.

She also choose to ride the car by herself! It was so cute... she was concentrating and seemed to really believe SHE was driving that car.

Eric and Tyler followed behind in the red car... It took Tyler a little bit to get comfy with it.

Soon, he realized HE could actually steer! And he made car "zoomy" noises the rest of the trip.

My ever sympathetic husband was unable to take the kids on the TeaCups because of a weak stomach... Pfft! All that means is he is a sissy when it comes to fun things... So, Fun Mom went! I will admit that Katelyne begged me to turn the TeaCup and I did - and I gagged. Twice.

The train was last. And the damn thing was so small that I was sitting next to Katelyne in the car in front of Eric and Tyler and this is the only picture I could get because we were practically on top of each other...

What trip is complete without a tat?

The kids had a blast. It was a fun afternoon and rather inexpensive too! Whoo Hoo!

I know that we will go again because I was told, "Mom?! You know what would be a great idea???" "What Katelyne?" " If you brought Tyler and me back here soon for more fun without Dad!" "Yup, that would be fun..."

~First Day of Pre-School~

Such a big girl. Time has certainly flown by and now I have a real "pre-schooler"...
Here is her new classroom:

She played outside on the new playground:

And most importantly, she made a fantastic Mrs. Potato Head...

She was so proud of her creation:

I will still say, that I am not sad that she is growing. I will still say, that I am happy to watch her grow... and it will still be hardest to convince myself.

I am, however, so very proud of her. She is smart, witty, compassionate and an all around wonderful little person - even at 4 years old.

~Dear Molars~

You suck. You keep my son up at night because he is uncomfortable.

You prevent him from veering out of his current staple diet of frozen blueberries, strawberries and the daily Popsicle, of which he will only eat orange.

But you are leaving for some good picture sequentials: (And yes, I put that shirt on him purposefully - if he could speak in full sentences, he would most definitely say, "Leaf me alone")

And then he gagged himself with the stick.... twice. I guess he really wanted to read the joke.

~Tea Party for a Princess~

*sigh* My baby is 4...

And since she IS a Princess, we had to have a Princess Party for her.

There is a fantastic place about 3 cities over (sounds farther than it is), that is home to SuperFranks! They have an outstanding Princess Tea Party Room...
They do the little girls hair, complete with glitter AND they get to dress up as a Princess - as many times as they like....

Katelyne and I make cupcakes with purple sprinkles, we had chocolate covered grahm crackers as a favor and the kids each took a bucket full of candy... you can see the buckets behind the candy jars here:

We stamped and water color painted cupcakes on a few sticks:

I am not that talented... we bought these:

Cinderella showed up!!!!!!

Your Heiress let peasants such as Mom and Dad get close enough to take a picture:

The kiddies dined on pizza and juice:

And Missy was wiped out!

It was so much fun, but the best part was on the way home when she told us, "it was the best day of her life..."

~How Does Your Garden Produce?~

When Katelyne and I decided to plant this garden, I imagined a few tomatoes, maybe one ear of corn, and one or two zucchini....

To date the corn is about 4 1/2 feet tall, the tomatoes number about 20 and I just cut zucchini #2-4... and they were rather sizable (can you see the ruler at the top ???):

"Holy Shit!" Those were my words exactly... I am sure the neighbors heard. And between you and I, the kids did too.

Here are some pictures of the garden in it's entirety. Remember when I mentioned before that Katelyne was set on planting everything so close? Well, let this be a lesson to my Jolly Green Girl: THAT was a bad idea.

I am sure that in a few weeks we will have successfully crossed zucchini and corn... and you will be tasting the sweetness of Zorn soon.

Don't laugh.

~We Are Lake People, We Are Beach People~

I guess that makes us "Bakes"? Or "Leaches"? Well, whatever we are, we are pretty much happy no matter which direction we head... this past weekend we headed south-west, to Santa Cruz.

It was a little foggy, but beautiful as always.
It was the first time Tyler would get close enough to the water to get a little sand stuck between his tootsies... He would only go as far as Dad.

It is funny how you realize how small your kiddies are when they stand in front of the ocean... I love this picture of my Lil' man.

Daddy dug in the sand and built castles and bridges with Katelyne - who was camera shy for the most part...

...Until I caught her not paying attention and snapped this gem of a face!

She looks so pissed! And she would not even look my direction if i had the camera for the rest of the day - such a stinker.

~Dresses Are For...~

...anyone who will sit still long enough, if you ask Katelyne.

I still have no idea how she managed to get him to put the dress over his head, let alone the fact that she got him to come down the hallway wearing the dress!

She helped him out on the Fairy Shoes...
And then, he realized the dress was pink...

Yes, this is in the "Oh, let me show you Tyler's baby pictures..." arsenal.

~Have You Ever Been So Tired...~

...You couldn't even make it through lunch?

Poor Tyler, so wiped from playing hard all morning that he grabbed Katelyne's Woobie because it was within reach! No discrimination here!! If it snuggles, it sleeps!

And no, I did not leave him there... I put him to bed, only to have him roll over, fart and let out a sigh... Such my little man.

~Discipline - "If It Works, Go With It"~

"If it works, go with it". This is always my advice when people ask what our opinions are for discipline.

I was spanked as a kid. Not constantly (I heard you mom, before I finished typing), but when we were really bad and my parents were really fed up, we were spanked. Nothing that required a Dr. Phil session, but something that made us stand there and realize that we better think twice next time. It worked for us and for our parents.

When it came to child rearing of my own, I never said I would not spank. It was not my first choice, but I knew that it worked for my brother and I; we are pretty OK adults now.

With Katelyne we have tried everything... we did time-outs - did not work, we tried taking items away - did not work, hot sauce - no workie, and yes, we did spank - way do not work. Katelyne is my clone, I know how she is working and thinking most of the time, when we would raise our voices or even spank her (the 2 whole times we did), it only pissed her off even more.

This made me realize that she is a "positive reinforcement" type... it is working, I am going with it. I made her a chart for her chores with a space for her attitude. With Tinkerbell... On the left side, are her chores. As she completes a chore, we move one of the Tinkerbell magnets over the chore...

On the right it says "Happy Toot". When she was a little bit younger we called her "Toots", so when she is "caught" being nice and doing something good, she gets a smiley face (I make it a point to "catch" her doing good - it is usually easy to do). We have a set goal of 4 a day.

So, at the end of each day, if she has done all of her chores, and has been a fantastic "helper of the day" (these are her words), and gotten at least the 4 smilies, she gets a prize from the prize bag. And, I must add, my prizes are awesome. There are Hello Kitty things, fun socks, color books and stickers... she LOVES it. So far, she has only had 3 or 4 days of no prize and we have been doing this for about 3 weeks now.... I figure that we are doing great! Katelyne is a smart girl and really a natural please-er, so if we are out and I say, "Thanks Babe, that was really nice/sweet/helpful of you" she will look at me and say, "Did I earn a smiley at home?" and as soon as we are through the door, she is adjusting a magnet... Positive reinforcement is our Mojo right now. Whoo Hoo!

I planted flowers today..... Mmmmmmm, I love Dahlias... beautiful.

~First Day of Summer~

Now that I am officially a Stay At Home Mom (SAHM), I have taken the proverbial deep breath and started to enjoy these fun years with the kids. With lots of trips to the library, which they love, we decided to spend a little time in the ol' backyard with my furbaby - RoxyAnne - and play in the water...

Tyler enjoyed throwing the ball for Roxy. I am pretty sure she would have enjoyed it as well, had he not kept throwing it just in the pool... She is a distance kinda dog; I am sure Tyler will be a tad more accommodating in a few years.

Katelyne requested that I set-up the sprinkler. Who knew!!! With all of the money we put into getting toys and such, she is thrilled with a regular, 9 year old, cracked plastic, spiders living on the underside sprinkler..... I did not mention the spiders to her. I am not dumb.

Tyler was interested and she taught him how to jump "super high"... Yes, I had to use the wide angle lens to catch their high-ness....

Good times. Good, simple times...