Back to School Blues

I've had the back to school blues all week! I was supposed to return to work tomorrow, but I pushed it back until Monday to avoid having to pay for daycare for 2 1/2 days for both kids. Every time I am on break I enjoy the time I have at home with the kids. Once I am working, days are so busy and I feel like I miss valuable time with the kids. I really enjoy walking Kailani to and from school. I've even been able to volunteer at her school a few times already. Jason is back on a ship now, which means I can't really count on him to help out much. The ship's schedule has been pretty intense so far and there are some trips out coming up very soon. I am not looking forward to the jam-packed days when we can't relax until 10pm. Is it Thanksgiving yet?!

A Day at the Races

Today was kids day at the Del Mar Race Track. We've never been to the horse races, so we decided to check it out. All of the kids got a free horse stuffed animal, which of course, Kailani loved. Military and dependents got in free, which was a surprise we weren't expecting. Zachary loved watching the horses race. There were lots of fun activities for the kids, including jumpies and pony rides. By the time we made it to the caricatures, they had stopped doing them:( We didn't place any bets because we don't know anything about horse racing, but I think it would be fun to go back again some day.

Sprinkles

Today we had an afternoon snack at Sprinkles, a cupcake place. Apparently the owner was on Cupcake Wars on The Food Network. The cupcakes were yummy! We even brought some home for the dogs (specially-made doggie cupcakes).

Children's Zoo and the Choo Choo

Today Zachary and I headed to the zoo for the monthly zoo meetup. We walked through the children's zoo looking at the animals to find different colors. After the zoo, we got a free ride on the Balboa Park train!

First Grade

We now officially have a 1st grader! Here are a few pictures from this morning. This year her teacher's name is Sra. Rincon and she is in room 509:)

Kailani had an awesome first day of school! She is very excited to have a binder instead of a folder this year for homework.  The teacher told her the binder is her best friend and it has to come to school with her every day. The class sang happy birthday to her since yesterday was her birthday.

Family Discovery Walk

Today we went on a family discovery walk at Mission Trails. Since our road trip, we've been wanting to explore more places in San Diego that we haven't been to. There are a lot of hiking trails and outdoor places to go and it is easier to do that now that the kids are getting older. Zachary walked the entire trail today and he did great! Here are a few pictures from our walk. Unfortunately, Kailani had a pretty nasty fall on the way back to the visitor center. She's pretty banged up, but luckily she's going to be okay:)

Oasis

Today we went to "Watermelon Days" at the Oasis Camel Dairy Farm in Ramona. I had wanted to go last year, but they sold out before we could sign up. It was in Ramona, so it was very HOT! We bought bandanas to soak in ice water to help keep cool. Unfortunately, they ran out of red, so Zachary also got pink. The kids got to watch a bird show, meet some camels, feed watermelon to the camels, and ride the camels. Zachary was very excited to ride the camels until it was his turn, so Kailani rode by herself.

Super Dentists

Today the kids had a check up at the dentist. I am happy that they enjoy going to the dentist. No cavities again for either of them!

 The sunglasses were to protect his eyes while he sat under the bright light:)

This year I am on the Executive Board for the PTO at Kailani's school. I really want to help in any way that I can and I wish that I could be at school to help out more. Hopefully by playing a more active role in the PTO, I will feel like I am giving more to the school. I am the corresponding secretary, so I'll be sending thank you letters and creating the quarterly newsletter as well as many other things I am sure. We had a potluck at the past president's house tonight and I was able to learn about everything the PTO is going to be responsible for this year. Now I know why we can't get anyone to be a part of Friends of GSDA at my school:) I am looking forward to helping as much as I can. I will be heading up to the school tomorrow morning to help assemble welcome back packets for the students. Kailani's first day of school is next Wednesday.

Loss of Two Generations

Today my Great Grandmother, Nana Meixell (my dad's grandmother), passed away at the age of 102! She was our only living family member of that generation. I remember interviewing her one time for a school project about what it was like to live during the Great Depression. We would go visit her when I was younger and her house was like a museum to us. It was filled with dolls and collectables from her travels all over the world. I would go weekly to cut her grass when she wasn't able to take care of her yard on her own. Several years ago she finally moved into a nursing home. I hadn't seen her in a few years and I don't think she ever got to meet the kids.When I sent my Grandmother pictures of the things we'd been up to, she would take them to share with Nana Meixell when she went to visit her. Even though she didn't always remember who everyone was, she did enjoy looking at the pictures.

 This is the only picture I could find with Nana Meixell. It was obviously from a long time ago!

This picture is of me at 9 months old in a cradle that belonged to my Nana Meixell. I used to play with the cradle when I went to her house. She gave it to me when she sold her house.

On June 30, we also lost my Nana (my mom's mother). I have a lot of memories from living with her when we were young. We used to be very close. We lost touch for a while when she and my mom had a falling out. We reconnected again when I invited her to my wedding 10 years ago. I remember taking Kailani to visit her when we went to PA for a trip. Kailani was only 2 years old at the time. She never had the opportunity to meet Zachary. I continued to send her pictures of the kids so she could see how they were growing.

Although I love living here in San Diego, these are the times when I wish I was just a little closer to family.

Five Little Frogs

We decided to buy a larger aquarium for the two African Dwarf Frogs Kailani and Zachary got a few months ago. I had ordered them through Insect Lore and they came with a very small aquarium. When we went to set up the new aquarium, we realized that one of the frogs had died. I never realized until a few weeks ago that the frogs actually make sounds. They sound like the beeping you might hear on a handheld electronic game. When we put the remaining frog in his new aquarium, he continued to make noise. I'm not sure if he was just happy to be able to swim around or if it was something else. Kailani is convinced it's because he was sad he didn't have any more friends. She decided that we needed to get him some friends. Five stores later, we finally found the frogs at Walmart. She used some of her birthday money to buy four of them. Can you tell that Kailani chose all of the decor?!

Time to Make the Doughnuts!

Today we went on a tour of Krispy Kreme with the meetup group. We had about 25 kids watching them make doughnuts. The store we went to was a lot larger than our local store. There was a large window that the kids could look through to see doughnuts being made. They each got a free doughnut!

Day Dreams

Today we celebrated Kailani's birthday with a party at Day Dreams. We wanted to have her party before she goes back to school next week. Day Dreams is a ceramic cafe where you can go to paint ceramic pieces. She invited some girls from school, Daisies, KinderCare, her cousins, and of course her brother. The girls each got to choose a ceramic piece to paint. Kailani painted an elephant and Zachary painted a surf board. We sang Happy Birthday, and we had cupcakes.

Kailani didn't want to open her presents until we got home so she could play with them right away. We invited her cousins over to the house after the party for lunch and to watch Kailani open her presents.

Cow Appreciation Day

Today we headed to Chick-fil-A for the annual Cow Appreciation Day. If you dress like a cow, you get a free meal!

Here's how the "calves" have grown over the years...

2012

2011

2010

2009 *We didn't actually go this year, but Kailani enjoyed dressing up anyway:)

Carsland

Today we work up early and headed to CA Adventure Park for breakfast at Ariel's Grotto. We got to visit with all of the princesses while we ate. The kids enjoyed the characters, but didn't eat much breakfast. Too bad because this was the one place we did pay for Zachary!

Somewhere along the way, our stroller got a flat tire. We tried refilling it with air, but that didn't work. There must be a whole somewhere...We ended up getting the fix-a-flat can you would use for a car and luckily it seems to have worked. We decided to take the wagon in to CA Adventure today and unfortunately we found out that wagons are not allowed in the park. Luckily they allowed us to keep the wagon at the stroller rental area until breakfast was over. Then we walked back to the hotel and swapped it out for the stroller. Kailani wasn't happy because that meant she had to walk! At that point, she was ready to go home. The reason we decided to stop at CA Adventure was to see Carsland that had opened in June. We just missed in during our last trip to Disney in May. We didn't want to waste our last day on the hopper pass without seeing Carsland. So...we walked back to the park and through Carsland. The lines for the rides were too long, so we just walked around. It was really neat.

The kids wanted to go on some rides, so we went to A Bug's Land to go on a few rides.

We ended up going on one ride and leaving the park. The kids were so tired and crabby...we were all just ready to go home. It was nice to be home early enough to get some things unpacked. We were even able to pick the dogs up a day early. All of the animals were excited to see us. The kids missed them very much. Unfortunately, we lost the tadpole during the trip. We'll just have to buy a kit from Insect Lore:)
It's good to be home!