Lots of Hard Work

Well, so far the new house has been lots of hard work:) Luckily Jason's parents were able to come out to help with packing up the old place and painting the new place. So far, all of the bedroom are painted. We've got a lot more work to do. It seemed like we had a lot of time and that we could move in slowly, but quickly time seems to be getting away from us. We hope to be able to move on March 12, but depending on the painting, kitchen counter tops, carpet, etc., I am not sure that will happen. Unfortunately, Jason will be leaving again soon, we we don't have much time left. I can't imagine trying to do all of this myself.

Petco Park Tour

Today we went on a tour of Petco Park with the meetup group. I came across this on a website of "things to do in San Diego" and thought it would be nice to check out. It was a popular meeting with about 50 people signed up. Although I reminded everyone several times that they prepared two tour guides for our larger group, people still cancelled at the last minute. We still had 34 people for the tour today and they split us up into two groups. Some of the tour was geared more towards adults, but all of the kids enjoyed going down on the field and checking out the dugouts.
Jason's parents came in today too. Kailani and Zachary were really excited to see them. We were able to show them our new house. Jason and I even had some time to get out to arrange the installation of our new countertops for the kitchen. Tomorrow we are headed to the house to get some painting done.

Father Daughter Dance

Jason and Kailani are on their way to the 5th Annual Armed Forces YMCA Father Daughter Dance. I hope they'll have lots of fun. Kailani has been looking forward to it. It's the first thing she reminded us of when she woke up this morning.

DIY

We spent the afternoon shopping today to prepare for our DIY work that we'll be doing in the new house. We bought paint for all of the rooms we plan to paint. We've got a busy weekend ahead of us.

Kindergarten Already?

I can't believe it's that time already! It doesn't seem that long ago that Kailani was a baby and now she'll be starting kindergarten next year. We've started looking around at schools because the Chula Vista district is year-round and starts in July. At this point, we have three options: 1) Heritage Elementary, 2) KinderCare, or 3) High Tech Elementary.
Heritage Elementary is the public school within walking distance to the new house. They only have 1/2 day kindergarten and the am/pm is chosen by a lottery. I am not sure if they provide before and after school care for kindergarten. If she could get into am, I could drop her off before work and pick her up at 11:30 (on my lunch) and take her to KinderCare for the afternoon; although that would be very inconvenient every day. Also, the school is on a different calendar than my district so I'd have to figure out what to do with her when she is off and I work. They do have very high test scores, although that doesn't always mean anything. I picked up an enrollment packet for her this week and can turn it in starting on March 2.
KinderCare has a licensed private kindergarten and is another option. They limit the class size to 14, which is much less than a traditional class size (20-25). KinderCare will have full-day kindergarten. I wouldn't have to make two stops in the morning because I would continue taking both kids to KinderCare. The drawback is that we would have to continue paying $240+ per week to keep her there for kindergarten. We plan to attend the informational meeting at KinderCare on March 2.
High Tech Elementary is a brand new charter school that will be opening in the fall. They are building a K-8 school on the current High Tech High School campus. We went to a mandatory informational meeting tonight. The program is entirely based on project-based learning and they've got a lot of neat components. Every grade level gets fine arts, performing arts, and engineering. High Tech Elementary is full day kindergarten and starts the school year on September 6. They provide before and after school care, which may be free (if they get a grant they've applied for). The drawback to HTE is that they are only accepting 75 students per grade level and they have an overwhelming amount of applicants. Students will be chosen through a blind lottery system, so basically it's up to chance if she gets in. The lottery will be held at the end of March.
There is so much to think about...

Finally got the Keys

Finally, after what seems like forever, we got the keys to our new house today. It really hasn't been that long. We put in our offer the day before Thanksgiving. I've heard from many people that our process went very quickly and smoothly, especially for a short sale.
We're very excited to get moved it, but there is a lot of work we want to do first. Hopefully over the next few weeks we'll get some of those things done. We have until the end of March to get out of our rental.

Happy Valentine's Day

Partying all Weekend

Saturday morning started off with a birthday party at Pump it Up for a little boy in Kailani's class. As soon as we went into the inflatable room, Kailani was gone. She loves that place and it's been a while since we've been there.

Saturday evening the kids stayed with Jason and I went with some of the girls to play BINGO on base. I've never actually played BINGO for real. We had a good time, although we were shooshed a few times. There were 9 of us and no one won. We hung out at the rec center for a while after BINGO and played pool. It was nice to get out.

We were up bright and early this morning to get the house ready for our TruMoo house party. We had a house full; about 25 kids plus moms. We all tried the TruMoo chocolate milk, ate heart-shaped cookies, colored Valentines, and played a few games. Kailani already asked when we're having the next party.

Before bed tonight, Kailani and Zachary prepared their Valentines for their friendship parties tomorrow. Kailani wrote her name on about half of the cards before she got tired and asked for help. I am actually off tomorrow, but the kids will be going to daycare so they don't miss the fun.

Ladybugs are Here

This afternoon Kailani's ladybug larvae arrived. She has been waiting for them since we placed the order right after Christmas. She will watch as they go through the different stages of becoming a ladybug. We've decided we want to try raising a praying mantis next.

Tap for Zachary?

Today we got the call from our realtor...we've got final loan approval. We should be closing on Thursday or Friday of this week. The process takes so long and then all of a sudden, it's here before you know it.

Jason couldn't make it to ballet with us tonight, so I took Kailani by myself. She participated last week when Jason took her, so we got her tap shoes over the weekend. She was really excited to get to tappin' tonight. Zachary even got up and was moving around on his tippy toes. He wanted to get right in there and tap dance with the girls.

Super Bowl Fun

This afternoon we headed over to a friend's house for a super bowl party. We left daddy at home to watch the game in peace:)

The kids had a nice time playing together and had some good snacks to munch on. One of the little girls turned 3 today, so we all sang "happy birthday" and had cupcakes to celebrate. Zachary always loves to sing happy birthday. Both he and Kailani at their whole cupcakes.

Just Like Daddy

On Friday after work, I stopped at Old Navy to do some shopping. I picked up a hat for Zachary. Many times he wants to wear a hat to be "just like daddy." I guess he needs an Eagles, Phillies, or Iron Pigs hat to really be like daddy. Kailani tried on her hat today too. When we got ready to leave the house, Kailani wanted to be "just like daddy" and wear a hat, watch, and sunglasses.We did some looking around for a new couch this afternoon. We want to replace the black leather couch Jason had before we got married. We're hoping to find something we like so we can have it delivered right to the new house. We're still waiting on the final approval from the bank, but closing is supposed to happen next week. We think everything will be fine, but are hesitant to start packing...just in case.

This evening we went to Target and Zachary picked up a bag of 100 balls...he carried it all the way over to the cart and tried to put it in the cart. How could we say no? We got the balls and a small blow-up pool to use as a ball pit. It turns out that the pool was a little bigger than we thought, so we need a few more bags of balls to fill it up. The kids are having a blast playing in the ball pit tonight. Zachary runs to the pool and dives straight in:)

Family Pics

I had a friend take family pictures of us over the weekend. We've never had pictures take of all four of us and I am happy with how they turned out. Here's a preview of some of the pictures.

Sick Again

I thought Zachary just had a cold, but I guess my intuition was right...I took him to the doctor and it turns out that on top of a virus, he has an ear infection and an eye infection. He's on two different antibiotics to clear up the infections. The doctor advised us to keep him home from daycare for two days, which means more time off work for me. I have used almost double the amount of sick days I had for the year. This means that instead of getting off on June 17 like everyone else, I will be working through the end of June to make up days. It's either this or take unpaid leave, and right now, we don't want to lose the money.
We are still waiting on the final loan approval for the house, but we should hear this week...closing is supposed to happen next week. We're getting excited, but I know it's going to be a lot of work.

We got a package of craft supplies from Nana and Grandpop today. The timing was perfect since we've been stuck in the house for the past two days. Kailani and Zachary have already each made two crafts.