Random acts of life

Gosh, I guess I've been slacking on the posts! So here's a hodge podge of recent activities over the last month. Some lots of fun, some not so fun. Remember, a few posts back, when Tatum presented her teacher with some money she'd raised for the school by selling treats at our garage sale? Well, here's a poster Miss. Lawson made for her as well as the item her money bought for the class. Tatum was so proud of herself and can't wait to raise more money for the school!

We had a play date with some of my MOPs mom's where we met at Lake Poway and fed the ducks. At our old house, we use to be right next to a pond with lots of ducks so Tatum knows them well. But I don't think Ty had ever fed ducks before and he loved it!

He wasn't a bit afraid and kept wanting to pet them like his cat. Too funny.

Here's one of those not so fun moments. Tatum had an ongoing battle with these weird bumps popping up all over her body since September. After numerous Dr. visits, three different medications and a trip to urgent care (one med caused her to have a horrible allergic reaction!), we finally found a Dr. who knew what they were talking about. It turns out she's allergic to fleas! Even though we treat both our pets, I guess she's very sensitive and even a few fleas around will cause the picture above. Well, since this, we've had our house treated, the dog shaved, numerous cream applications and things are looking up. Poor little girl.

On a lighter note, Leanne came down and her, Shauna and I went to the So You Think You Can Dance show. We all love the show and watch it every summer. The concert was fun but definitely not as exciting as I thought it was going to be. I guess after watching it on TV and getting the up close view that you do on the show, watching it from a far just isn't the same. But we had a fun night out!

The next day, Shauna, Tatum and I headed for the Performing Arts Center up in Costa Mesa where we saw the Peter Pan play. Amazing! We all loved it and here's Tatum LOVING the candy area during intermission.

They constructed this huge tent just for this performance, with a round stage in the middle. We'd been told before that it wasn't the same story as the Disney Peter Pan and we understood that as soon as the play began because Captain Hook sliced someones throat (which definitely doesn't happen in the Disney movie) and Tinker Bell was more of a roller derby girl with wild brown hair and wore a white tank top and a huge tutu. Very interesting yet excellent all the same.

My little baby is growing by the day. He's very artsy, creative and loves to dance and sing. My two kids could not be more different. Here he is working on his first masterpiece.

While he was painting, Tatum and I were constructing paper bag outfits. Can you guess who she is? Right, Cinderella, with glass slippers and all! You can tell that she loved this craft...

but Ty was not quite as thrilled with his Handy Mandy bag outfit. I guess he wanted something a bit more realistic, with tools and stuff.

So Tatum put it on. :)

The week before Thanksgiving was our last preschool class till after the holiday so they had their Thanksgiving feast. I wasn't able to be there since I had Ty's music class but my wonderful neighbor, Leslie, took all these great pics.

Here's Tatum standing next to Anderson and Kaitlin, two of her very good friends in class. And look at that feast which consisted of chicken nuggets, apples, veggie sticks and a pumpkin muffin that the class made together.

Tatum and I brought in some treats for the dessert, yummy sugar cookies that she decorated with fall sprinkles. So fun! Unfortunately, later that night Ty got the flu, yuck. I was hoping we would all be spared but by Saturday morning (my birthday), Garrett felt sick and then Tatum was sick that night. No birthday night out for me! :) We headed up to Irvine the next day, as quick as possible, because I assumed I was next in line. We missed our Friends Thanksgiving which we were so upset about (but Lee brought us a plate of all the goodies which was delicious and a very sweet thing) and luckily I was spared from sickness. The kids had no appetite for the whole week and by Thanksgiving day, Grandma was sick. :(

Here's a shot from Sadri's phone when we all went to Ra at the District for my birthday. Too bad I didn't feel well most of the night and left by 6:30! I felt sick for 5 days, during all the sickness, and either it was a mild case of what everyone else had, or it was mind over matter. But at least I got to see my friends and get out for some delicious sushi.

While we were in town, we met with some of our family at Uncle Tom's senior living center for lunch. These two are distant cousins I think!

And here's Stephan and my mom with Uncle Tom. He's not doing that well, but has been talking more lately and still has some quick witted things to say. :)

And even though we had to leave Grandma behind on Thanksgiving Day, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving with the Beaston's. Here's Tatum with her beloved Godmother Shauna.

And here's one of Tatum's favorite people, Toni. I couldn't do a thing for her all night because she only wanted Toni. If only I had Toni around more often. :)

And here's my big boy with his Godmother...

and Amber (and one of the numerous bears he found in Patti's house that he loved). Such a ladies man. :)

Here we are with the Beaston sisters. I like to call myself the fifth daughter. :)

And here's Garrett having a fun time with Caty behind the bar.

And with Shauna of course. What a wonderful family the Beaston's are, to welcome us into their family gathering on Thanksgiving. We were definitely feeling the love.

So here's a few random shots of Ty being his crazy self. He loves many things in this world but one of those loves are hats. One of his first words was hat and here, you can see that one can make a hat out of just about anything. :)

One can also make a chair out of anything, such as a dog bowl. :) My little boy has such a silly sense of humor. Well, that's it for this random post, hopefully I don't take a month to get back on here!

Mommy needs a day off

Wow, isn't this a beautiful place? It's overlooking the vineyards of one of my favorite wineries in Temecula, Leonese. Very delicious and I know this because I was able to go with my wonderful Wine Night group on a wine tasting tour last Saturday. We hit four wineries, had a delicious lunch and were chauffeured around all day by...

this beautiful yellow Bummer. :)

Of course, after a few wineries and many, many, many tastes later, here are a few funny moments in the car on the drive home.

Or was that on the drive over to the next winery since 4 wasn't enough? :) What a wonderful way to spend a Saturday.

And in my haze, I had to have my picture taken in front of this Ferrari for Garrett. Some how I thought sticking my butt out like this was attractive. :)

A little wine didn't stop Shauna, Jacquie and I from running in the Champagne Brunch 5k in Point Loma. Actually, Dana, our DD from the day before, was also there running with some friends but she was on a faster pace than us. :) It was a beautiful location for a run, wonderful ocean views and great weather. And the champagne brunch that followed definitely made it worth the getting up early after a day of wine tasting. :)

And after freshening up, Garrett and I took the kids to a festival downtown. There were lots of carnival games, and Tatum had to try most of them. Here she is catching a fish.

Ty passed on the games but here he is fascinated by this weird StarTrek bike. Interesting, maybe we have a Treky on our hands. :)

And even though they had some fun crafts (which Tatum loves), she couldn't resist a ride on the ponies! What a natural!

After the festival, we headed to the Ghirardelli Store where we all enjoyed a delicious ice cream sunday. Yum, we loved it so much, we devoured it before I could get a picture. But here's Ty showing his love for ice cream.

All gone!

Here we are fighting over the last bite. Yum, nothing like Ghiriadelli chocolate! Both children love sweets, which is a total Mommy thing. If Garrett had his choice, he would have steak over chocolate or sweets any day. Not us! Give us more candy! :)

Grandma Dini's visit - Part two

In the previous post, I mentioned how Tatum sold treats at our garage sale and made money for her school. Here she is presenting her gift to her teacher, she was so proud. And the school was very appreciative and plans to use the money to buy art supplies and fun things for her classroom.

On the last dance class of each month, the parents get to sit in and watch. This day the kids got to dress up for class so here's Tatum as a black cat enjoying warm up.

What a ballerina! She absolutely loves dance and enjoys practicing all her moves around the house all week long. :)

Since Grandma Dini was still here, we decided to check out Sea World. The kids had never been and I hadn't been for probably 10 years or something. We enjoying the shark encounter...

the starfish pools,...

Shamu,...

the Sesame Street play area where they have lots of fun rides,...

Ty's first character meeting, (he LOVES Elmo!)...

bounce area,...

blocks,...

large play area above ground with bridges, tunnels, and rope climbing,...

and funny mirrors of course. Garrett and I enjoyed these the best. :)

Tatum's preschool put on an Animal Parade so here's Tatum dressed up as a black cat with her friend Anderson the lion and Miss. Lawson the dog. Ty was so wishing her had a costume too. :)

Here's Tatum with two of her BFs from class, Sara the monkey and Kaitlyn the cat.

Tatum loved the parade...

and here's her whole class.

Poor Ty, if he could talk he'd ask when does he get to start preschool? :)

Ty got to dress up for his music class that he takes with his friend Shark, er, I mean Jack. :)

We got to swing the boys in blankets and Jack loved it!

Ty, not so much. The first time he cried and this time he gave the sign for all done as soon as the swinging started. :)

Oh, Grandma Dini is so funny!

We went out to an orchard in Julian and did some apple picking. If we do it again, we'll plan ahead and go earlier in the season, like the beginning of October. But we still found lots of apples and had fun picking!

Ty loved eating the apples. We'd bite into one and he'd go to town, I think both kids ate at least 3 that day!

Ty loved running between the apple rows, of course gripping an apple. :)

We finished off our apple picking fun with some wine tasting!

Garrett and I got a night away where we hit a few bars downtown and then stayed at a hotel. We didn't take many pics but this is from the Altitude bar where we were trying to catch the sunset. Stopping at three bars prior to this made us a bit late. I love Garrett's cheesy smile. :)

We also hit the Wild Animal Park. Our pass was expiring the next day so we got one last visit in. Here we are on the Journey into Africa tour.

Grandma and Ty loved seeing all the animals.

And Grandma Dini owns a hair salon back in IL called The Mane Place so she had to get this great shot of the lion!

Then Grandma and Tatum took a hot air balloon ride high up into the sky where they could see for miles.

And while they did that, we stayed on the ground and played at the kids park.

As we were heading out of the park, there was a guy singing kids songs so we had to stop. He put wings on the kids, which Ty loved.

All the songs were about creepy crawly bugs and bats, fun.

And he also had instruments, so much fun for all!

Next was pumpkin carving time!

Tatum designed this pumpkin, see his ghost face? And this is Tatum's new smile, cocking the head. Does every child go through this? :)

The wather had been pretty bad for most of Nadine's stay but finally, on the last day, we got her to the beach.

Ty loved the ocean and getting his feet wet. It's so funny how my kids look alike but are completely opposite. Ty jumped in teh water and ended up soaked, and Tatum wouldn't even get her feet wet. :)

Ty found a whole and couldn't resist sitting in it. The sand went well with his wet clothes, we had to hose him off at the end so we could get back into the car.

Our last adventure was Halloween! We were invited to a neighbors Halloween party where the kids dressed up and did lots of fun things. Ty loved this scooter thing, we'll definitely be getting one of these for Christmas.

We all dressed up as you can see. Daddy was thinking he wouldn't dress up and Tatum told him, "If you don't dress up Daddy, you don't get to go to the party." Our little teacher Tatum.

And here are all the kids, lots of them. Colin, Ty's BFF is the Girafe. We had a hard time getting the boys to stand still for this shot and as you can see, Colin wasn't happy about it. Hey, we were happy they actually kept their hoods on! :)

Yummy food with Tatum's friend Anderson.

Everyone got a chance at hitting the pinata. Go Ty! He was a little confused since he's use to a golf club. :)

Tatum lost her wig but did a great job with the bat.

The big kids took care of breaking it. Lots of fun Halloween toys!

Tatum loved going with the big kids Trick-or-treating and did a great job running and keeping up. A few houses were a bit too scary and a few she came back saying she didn't get any candy. She tended to hold back and wait her turn and then not get up there in time. She'll be bigger and quicker next year she said. :) I didn't get a good picture but Ty rode in the wagon and enjoyed playing with glow in the dark bracelets and throwing things out of the wagon for Daddy and Mommy to pick up.