Playdoh & Valentines

We stayed in today. we had a super long week of school, park playdates and a LONG day at Disneyland on Wednesday for Margaret & Audrey's 5th birthday! We stayed till 8:30. Mommy was pooped out. So today I needed to get a start on a heap of laundry and cleaning since we are having a Super Bowl party tomorrow and I decided to keep the girls busy with playdoh. We make our own since we go through so much. Let me know if you want the recipe. I set it up for them at about 10am and they played for 2 hours! They started a ghost, kitty , penguin, dog factory with some cutters and Emily was the Foreman. When Emily tells you what your job is and that you better get to it, boy you listen.

We also worked on Valentines today. We have been working hard on writing our first and last name and I figured it might take a few weeks to get them all written. Emily wrote 2 today. Sarabeth did all 11 of hers! She is such a little overachiever. I love it. Not every S was exactly perfect, but she sure did do her VERY best! What were we thinking when we gave her a name with 8 letters and beginning with S. Do you kow how hard it is to make an S? It's harder than it looks when you are 4 years old.

Abby is cutting 2 molars today. Poor baby is just miserable. She did not get any teeth till she was 15 months old, so she is a little behind getting her two year molars. she will be 3 on Tuesday! In any case, she is catching up, but she is miserable today. I hope tomorrow is a better day for her.

The trampoline!

These girls LOVE to bounce like nobody's business! Last year for Emily and Sarabeth's 4th birthday Margie and Vern bought them a bouncy house. we actually set it up INSIDE our house on rainy days. They love it. It is great exercise and they get wiped out when we can't go to the park or outside to ride bikes. These girls love to jump, especially on beds and on sofas. We FINALLY found the solution to make them stop. we bought a mini trampoline. You know? One of those kind you exercise on in your home. Nothing really fancy. 48 inches of bouncing fun! They take turns setting the timer and bouncing till their hearts content. For the first time since any of them could walk, I have gone more than 2 days without scolding someone to stop jumping on our furniture or their beds. They are getting tons of exercise and are so ready for bed in the evenings!
Roller Skates: So last year all three girls really wanted roller skates. Ron and I did not really feel they were ready for them, but they were so set on getting them from Santa. Anyway, after a year of these skates sitting on a shelf in the garage, I got them out today! It was soooooooo fun. They are adjustable for size and they also can be adjusted for ability. They had a blast!

Do we really need 3 of everything?....

This is a problem. A big problem. We used to actually buy three of most toys just to keep all three girls happy. Not exactly the most economical solution, but it keeps the peace. Fortunately as they get a little older they do identify with certain toys more than others so that does ease the chaos at times. But the fact still remains that 3 little girls under the age of 4 have sharing issues.
Yesterday morning at 10am on a super rainy day I was ready to pack them all in the car and run over to Toys R Us! Yes, really! They were fighting over these Little People Princesses. Fisher Price in their infinite wisdom created a new type of Little People last year. Instead of those little chubby solid figurines that have no bendable parts, they now have legs that bend! These of course are the coveted pieces. We got several new pieces for Christmas, but there are only two princesses with bending legs. 3 kids....2 princesses does not a happy household make. Anyway, I had this brainstorm of an idea to call Fisher Price and ask if you can purchase additional pieces for your sets. No kidding! You can! And if you are a first time caller, they send you a set FREE!! Not as instant grat as going to TRU, but we shall survive. Can you just picture 3 little girls rolling on the ground fighting over this tiny toy. Yes, a sight to see.
RECYCLING: How funny is this? I'm not really sure how old I was when recycling became a concept in my brain. I know Josh and I used to collect cans, smash them up and take them for money to some recycling place in Alhambra. We were so proud of our money! When did we start having recycle containers in our homes? And recycle cans on the street for trash day?Anyone recall? Well, my kids will never know a time when this was not common practice. Wednesday night Emily was throwing away a few items and pulled out the trash drawer (the cans are inside front and back) She looks at Ron and me and says "which one does this go in mommy? I wanna do it right." (Ron and I exchange glances...then I tell her which one.) Her response with a huge grin on her face, "Boy Mommy, you really know your trash!" LOL We laughed so hard. just how I want to be remembered, a mommy who know her trash!

Happy New Year again! It has been a busy week. my sister Marcie got engaged on her birthday (January 5th) so we are trying to figure out the logistics of flying all five of us to DC so the girls can be in her wedding! The girls would be so excited if they knew! I am thrilled for her. She seems very excited, yet overwhelmed , as any bride is.





In the mean time, the girls have been busy busy of course. They started back to school last Tuesday! Hooray! It gave me a chance to finally give the house a good cleaning post holiday mayhem. Thursday the OCMOM Board meeting was here at our house so that was another great incentive to put the house back together too. Thursday afternoon Betsy & Charlie came over to play. Ron set up the bouncy house on the front lawn, they rode bikes and of course SEARCHED FOR WORMS!




Yesterday we went to the SA Zoo with our friend Kenan and her three kids, Delaney, Devon and Daric. Devon and Delaney are Emily, Abby and Sarabeth's BFF's. We usually play together several days each week. The last few months have been the exception since Baby Daric was just born in November and the holidays and flu season kinda threw us all off our game. In a few weeks we will start back at our Wednesday Mommy and Me Preschool with Miss Jeanette. The girls love it and love spending the special time together. The weather has been so crazy here. Last week it was freezing and this week it is in the 80's. We had a lovely warm day at the zoo. Who knows what the weather will bring next week.

It was a long day of putting away Christmas decorations, taking down the lights and cleaning the garage. Ron has wanted my car back in the garage for like 3 years.......Every few months we clear it out and get it all organized and the car is in the garage for like a week and then it is out in the driveway again.

Ron worked today so I started out in the house FINALLY taking down the tree and clearing the decorations out. Then the girls and I bundled up and headed to the garage. They rode bikes and scooters while I pulled weeds, emptied flower beds and trimmed plants. Then I moved on to the garage........ Meanwhile, the girls are racing around on toddler transportation and digging in the mud for WORMS! Yes, worms! We have 3 girls and they are up to their elbows in mud and dirt in my flower beds and planters digging up worms. Then they fought about who could carry one around. Finally, at one point, I asked Sarabeth to bring the last one they had over to me. Of course they had killed the poor worm. She kept saying "he's alive". Towards the end, they discovered that we had put these fluffy chairs in the garage a few months ago so they took them out to have a rest. Then they found the Costco shelf in the garage and sat down for a snack.

Anyway, it was a tremendously productive day for me. Ron helped me finish up when he got home. We came inside at like 4:30, made and ate dinner, gave baths and now they are watching a TV show. Whew! The big girls start back at preschool tomorrow. I am ready. Abby and I will run errands. Speaking of Abby, she was so wiped out that she fell asleep on the sofa about 40 minutes ago and I just carried her to bed. Poor baby. There were no naps today.

My Dancing Girls

Emily cracks me up on a daily basis...... She has such a strong opinion about everything....and I mean everything. This morning she argued with me about whether she should use a fork or a spoon to eat scrambled eggs. She was in tears over the whole scene. I looked at her and said "Emily, you are the one who took the spoon out of the drawer, use which ever utensil you'd like." She froze and looked at me and dug inside her big brain for a come back. Amazing, she did not have one.
This morning I was listening to some 80's music on Pandora.com and so when I got offline to clean the house, I decided to put on an old INXS CD. Emily starts in on me. "I'm turning this off, Mommy. No music. I don't wanna hear any music, she proclaims!" Five minutes later she is a dancing machine! Did you know 4 year olds love INXS?

They danced for like 20 minutes....and posed for pics of course too. Now they are off playing something else. Something about a sick kitty that is lost in the woods. Sarabeth just told Emily that she can't go find the kitty because she might get sick too. She says she needs to get under a blanket and stay warm. She turns away from her and says I have to hurry home. Wearing this super cute tutu that was a Christmas gift from Aunt Betsy & Uncle Chuck she pulls out her cow keychain with a built in flashlight that moos of course, pushing her dolly stroller into the woods (our kitchen) to head to her home.

Abby all the while, is shouting something about how everyone should be kind to one another. That was part of the bible verse that Emily and Sarabeth had to learn in September for school. Look who else is learning! I think a fight is about to break out between her and Sarabeth. They are eating crackers and cheese on a blanket planning a picnic. Abby is not happy with the placement of the dishes...........

I just glanced back at Emily, she has built a tent with a blanket over a stroller and a chair. I love watching them play!

A Day At The Zoo

Today is Saturday and Ron was off. We started our day with a family breakfast at home and then headed for the Santa Ana Zoo. It was like 56 degrees today, but you would have thought it was 30 the way we were bundled up in jeans , long sleeves and fleece. I forgot the camera! Ugh! I hate when this happens. The SA Zoo just added a carousel a few months back and we had not seen it yet so we thought it would be fun to go check it out. It was a great day. We even ran into our friends The Kelleys. Sharon and Jason have twins, Ella & Evan, that are the same age as Emily and Sarabeth and they have a third child, Erin, and she is 3 days younger than Abby. Needless to say, we play nicely together and the kids have been playing together since the twins were like 9 months old. It was fun running into them. We were on the carousel and Sharon said Ella shouted..."Mommy, there's Emily and Sarabeth!" What a small world. Anyway, we ended up playing at the playground together for about 45 minutes after we finished feeding the goats and checking out the farm animals since we had already ridden the train also. The kids were so excited to run into friends!

After the zoo we ran some errands and took the girls to Islands for dinner. They love Islands. If you ever ask where they want to go to eat...it is always Islands. The whole day was relatively uneventful. Just a nice family day. The funny stuff starts when we get home. Emily announces that her pants hurt and that she only likes to wear SOFT pants. Translation: leggings or sweats. She starts whining about how they are too small. Within 15 minutes or so, all three of them are in their underpants. I am FREEZING in the house looking for a sweatshirt and they are running around in long sleeved t-shirts, underpants and socks! They are playing library. They have a stack of books from their bookshelf and are discussing the process of checking out books. Abby has chosen a book about binkies and how it is time to give them up. I said before .....this is a another post. Sarabeth has decided they are going to a volcano in South America and she has loaded up her stroller with babies and the necessities. The best item...yellow plastic binoculars. She's standing in the corner of theroom watching all of us through her binoculars getting ready to start her expedition! Maybe they have been reading too many Toot & Puddle books.......

Silly Girls

So what is it about the announcement of bedtime that makes three little girls start squirming around and squealing? Every night it is always the same....at about 7:30 I say "okay girls, time to clean up, go potty, brush our teeth, get jammies on and go to bed..." Immediately all three start to whine and say they are too tired to clean up toys. Then I walk around the room behind them instructing on what needs to be picked up and asking them where they think it needs to go. Sarabeth is always very compliant. Emmie and Abby on the other hand are very good at disappearing right about now. Emily's most famous line always being the announcement that she has to go potty or she is just tooooo tired. She drags her little body around the room whining and on the verge of tears at the mention of having to pick up toys and when I inevitably end up giving her a time out for not helping and fooling around, she screams at the top of her lungs crying and saying...her famous last words..."I was just about to Mommy."

Finally after the toys are picked up, we head to the bathroom where the true CHAOS begins. Clothes begin to come off and either someone begins crying because they don't want to go potty before bed or they are just so tired that they cry about EVERYTHING for the next 20 minutes. Tonight was one of those really silly nights. You know those,....the ones where you wonder if they snuck into a stash of candy somewhere because they are just soooooo wired up....then I remember, ..... Ron brought home these treats tonight. For lack of the proper term, it looked like a chocolate twinkie with frosting swirled inside and dipped in chocolate! They each got one, which was about 3 inches long. They thought it was the best thing they'd ever eaten. After they finished they asked what they could have next. I said "apples", they cheered..."yeah"!

Back to the bathroom. I've got Abby on the potty and Sarabeth is running around chasing Emily in and out of the bathroom shouting some random made-up song about underpants and naked buns! Are you laughing as hard as I am? I immediately begin my speech about how we don't touch anyone else's buns and how we only let Mommy and Daddy touch our buns. This speech now given at least 128 times I'm certain. They laugh and burst into what they call the nakey dance. It really is something to see. Only the cutest of toddlers can pull this one off people. Prancing about shaking her hips side to side singing..."nakey, nakey nakey....nakey,nakey, nakey!" They just crack me up! The little exhibitionists take after Daddy in this arena, being that they would all prefer to wear nothing but underpants on a daily basis. That's a whole other day's blog.

We brush our teeth, get jammies on, tuck everyone in, give good night kisses, take inventory that all the "correct" dollies and animals" are in their beds. make sure everyone has had a drink of water, find Abby's binkies (that's another blog too), turn on the music boxes, remind Emily and Sarabeth that they better not get out of bed and go play in the bathroom like they did last night, kiss goodnight again and alas...quiet.....

Manwhile, I am fighting a head cold. Chicken soup for dinner tonight was so yummy. It is a cold Southern California night and it was nice to stay home and fill the house with yummy smells of homemade soup.

Daddy is off work tomorrow. I hope I am feeling well and we can do something fun!

I just finished proofing this to post and as I was reading it I hear this big "CRASH" I turn around and look at Ron and my mom (she has been here a few days) and they both look at ME like..."what was that?" MInd you, neither of them budge.... That's another blog too!

It is now a little after 9 I run down the hall to find Sarbeth at the door of her bedroom telling me in tears how she still needed one more drink of water, which of course made Emily need one too and then , of course, Abby starts shouting from her room..."Mama!" Yes, the excitement never ends and it is never quiet for long......

Happy New Year!

So yesterday my mom got here at like 8am and we dressed the girls and took them down to East LA to this mexican deli that makes awesome Tamales. I know, I know, most people make their own this time of year....but we are just not Tamale makers to put it bluntly and in my opinion....who wants to do all that work when you take a short drive and buy these delicious tamales for $16 a dozen! Then of course we made a detour to this amazing mexican bakery (El Gallo on Caesar Chavez) It has actually been featured on Food Network and in a few magazines, which I think is hilarious since it is this hole in the wall that seems to be about as big as my family room.

The girls thought it was so fun to see all the mexican pastry and pick out a special cookie. Being as fair as they are, they got a lot of looks from the locals and many sweet comments about how beautiful they all are. They were chatty with everyone,as always, wishing anyone who would listen a Happy New Year and hello! The thing they were most impressed by was a 1/2 life size Santa standing by the front door who sang songs and spoke when you pushed a button. We actually had to go there twice since one of the types of bread we wanted would not be ready for 30 minutes, so we went back.

Anyway, after our foodfest through East LA we came back home. I asked my mom along the way if it was just me since I don't drive a lot anymore....but the roads just seemed chock full of terrible drivers making really stupid decisions! The icing on the cake of the day.....we are in the parking lot at the bakery and some guy in a Chevy Silverado parks behind me and blocks me in! The parking lot is super narrow and only has maybe 6 spaces plus one handicap spot. So this guy and another blue truck arrive after me and park along a wall and block me in! Then a HUGE van conversion comes in and blocks some other lady in. Luckily she had a Honda Accord and was able to get out after like 8 attempts at a 3 point turn . Poor woman. she was really a good spot. Then the van guy backs into her spot. Meanwhile I am sitting in my Expedition watching this all go down while my mom is in the bakery. (this was the 2nd visit there). Finally, my mom comes out and we sit there trapped, waiting for the truck guys to come out and move their vehicles. About 5 minutes later the Silverado owner comes out and gets in his truck. So I get into position and think, okay, here we go.....I wait....and wait.....and wait.....and turn around and HE IS EATING in his car. I can't control myself anymore and I lay on my horn! The wife of the driver of the Van comes running out to make sure all is okay and probably to be sure nobody has hit her new van, but also to be sure that nobody is ticked off because her hubby parked between two spaces. Finally, the Silverado guy backs out of the parking lot and I can back out. As I am backing out I notice that someone else has pulled in next to me and has left their TWO KIDS in the car in the backseat in their carseats ALONE! I look at my mom and say, oh my God, are those kids alone? "I'm done, we need to get back to Orange County!" As I continue to back out I see another car that has a sticker that says..."I'm tired of stupid people" I just had to laugh.

All in all, it was a fun adventure for the morning, but we were ready to be back home. On a side note when we got off the freeway, I was talking to my mom about the city planning of LA vs OC. It's so odd, our streets are wider and homes are further apart. They are all just crammed in small spaces and my next question was....why are West LA streets so clean and East LA street not? They are all part of the same LA city? When we got out at the mexican deli, Emily asked why there was trash on the ground and Abby said "the sidewalk is dirty Mommy"..out of the mouths of babes.......I'll get off my soap box now....

When we got home, we rode scooters and played outside for a few hours and before we knew it, it was time for dinner and bed. New Year's Eve has never been a big party situation here. With 3 kids under 4, we are all fast asleep by 10pm since they are all awake again by 6:30AM.

They woke up right on time this morning and I forced them to watch the pre-parade highlights and then the 120th Rose Parade. When it ended and started again Sarabeth said, "Mommy, there is something wrong with the TV, it's on again" I told her that on New Year;s Day they show it all day....her answer......"Why?"

Happy 2009 Everyone! We hope this new year is full of fun, laughter, good fortune, love and peace for you and your family and friends.