Halloween festivities are in full swing in our household. Only problem - we're all sick. Tyler's had a constant cough that I'm certain will pass on to all of us. Katelyn has been coughing and Will spent one day this weekend completely in bed. Good thing Will and I usually aren't both bedridden sick at the same time. Germs, comes with the territory of having kids I guess!
Lately it seems as if we've been busy doing many different family activities and I haven't had a chance to sneak away for any mommy girl time. So, it was quite a nice surprise bumping into my friend Mariam while we were waiting for a table at Sushilicious. Tyler was very friendly too with Auntie Mariam. :) (Side note: we came to Sushilicious with the family for my birthday in September, and the manager gave us a giftcard when Will mentioned the festivities. We used it this night and were pleasantly surprised to find that it had $25 on it! Happy Birthday to me!)
After dinner we headed to our favorite dessert shop YogurtLand. Next door there is a kitty store (which I first thought meant actual kittens but turns out it just has a lot of Hello Kitty items) that caught the kids' eyes so we went in to look around. How a 1-year-old can have a preference for Hello Kitty makes no sense to me at all, but Kately LOVES anything Hello Kitty. We succumbed to her cuteness and purchased a small plush for her. It cost $9.99 and later that night I found the same one on Amazon for $4.99. Swindled! Tyler got to choose a plush as well (to be fair, of course) and chose a little blue soft penguin. They loved their new little stuffed animals!
Saturday morning, bright and early, we headed to the Great Park here in Irvine for their Annual Pumpkin Harvest. The event is free (except for $10 parking) and includes free carousel rides, hot air balloon rides, arts & crafts, carnival games, petting zoo, AND a free pumpkin for each child under 12. Score! This event gets super packed so we knew to get their early (~9:30am, they opened at 10am) to get a good parking spot. The kids enjoyed making some fun crafts.
Then we headed off to the huge pumpkin patch that was full of nice round pumpkins. I thought it might be difficult to find some good ones, but they were all great! We quickly chose two before it got too crowded.
Afterward Will and another dad took the pumpkins to the car while the kids learned about composting. Here are Tyler and Katelyn with their friends Dylan and Madison. Madison is about to turn 3 in a couple weeks, but she and Katelyn still seem to be able to play together. Madison is SO cute!
The petting zoo was quite a hit with the kids. Tyler liked to pet this lazy bunny off to the side while Katelyn really took a liking to a little pot bellied piglet. There were also furry chickens and even a llama!
The kids got to try out some carnival games before it got super crowded and warm, then we decided to call it a day and head to Chick Fil-A for lunch. Katelyn likes hanging with Tyler and Dylan, she really thinks she's one of the big kids.
(The sun was too bright in Tyler's eyes for him to look at the camera. Hence the complaining face...)
Perfect way to end the morning - ice cream cones! The kids both knocked out immediately after we got into the car - what a fun morning - and we had two nice big pumpkins to carve! Another good thing from this event was that I met two other families from our preschool. They both have kids in Pre-2, (right in the middle between Tyler and Katelyn's ages) but I really hit it off with them. One of the gals was actually someone that I could see myself being friends with even if we both didn't have young kids!
It was such a nice day the kids got in a some putting in the yard.
After dinner we went to check out a local Haunted House called Boot Hill, right here in the Woodbridge part of Irvine. Tyler was super scared, and I wasn't really feeling it either. It was quite nicely done actually, very classy (if a haunted house can be classy?). This other family we met told us we could request to walk through the walkway without the monsters (think Knott's Scary Farm monsters that jump out) and they said No Problem and let the guys inside know. We walked through slowly but I was nervous and at the end I saw the scary monsters quietly watching us as they opened these trick doors. I DID NOT LIKE THAT. Tyler had his face hidden in my shirt the whole time so he didn't see anything anyway.
In preparation for Halloween I dug out some old Halloween costumes. The first one was a Jedi robe that Tyler never wore. You will see Katelyn's bad habit of scrunching up her nose to "smile" for photos...
Next is Tyler's chicken costume top - it was quite snug on Katelyn!
...and last was a ladybug costume, a hand-me-down from my older sister Grace! Katelyn was a good sport and really liked wearing the costumes all around the house. :) Good practice for Halloween!
Sunday. Will spent the whole day in bed. I had a bad cough but felt well enough to take care of the kids. It was not a fun way to spend a Sunday. But luckily the day of sleep helped Will immensely, and he felt better enough for us to take Tyler to LegoLand on Monday. I know what you're thinking, but we had free tickets that had to be used this week and Monday was the only day Will could go. Yes, we left Katelyn at school. Don't make me feel guilty! She wouldn't have enjoyed it and it would have just been more tiring for all of us. Plus, Tyler could use some 1-on-1 mom and dad time. It was quite chilly that day and we headed out right after dropping off Katelyn. The park was empty! REALLY empty! We got to go on all the rides Tyler wanted with barely any wait.
Video of Tyler and Will on the rope pull ride. He was nervous at first but then had a good time.
Tyler was very excited to ride the medieval horses. This was his first visit where he was old enough to ride them (had to be 4).
He didn't like the idea that we would be heading home soon...
Video of Tyler and Will on the plane ride:
This was by far Tyler's FAVORITE ride that day. He's never gone on this type of ride before because he was always too scared. He was much braver this time around, and went on the ride 3x in a row! He LOVED it! I'm glad he's starting to overcome some of his fears.
Video of Tyler and Will on the dropping ride:
After lunch Tyler and Will built Lego cars to race down a track. It was pretty cool!
Video of Tyler and Will racing their Lego race car creations:
Lastly we went to check out Lego Star Wars in MiniLand. Tyler loves Legos and he loves Star Wars. Perfect combination!
Video of Tyler checking out the Lego Star Wars scenes:
We had a great time at LegoLand that day, especially since it was so uncrowded. Weekdays - it's the only way to go to amusement parks! Tyler had a great time too and was excited to go home with some new Lego pieces and people. He fell asleep super quick on the drive home.
Tuesday was Family Fun Night, a fundraiser for our preschool at a local restaurant - Jerry's Dogs at the Tustin Marketplace. It was a good event to help raise money for our school as well as have the kids play with their friends. Plus it's nice seeing the teachers outside of the school environment.
Katelyn's favorite teachers Vanessa and Ashley!
Vanessa is definitely Tyler's favorite teacher.
After dinner the kids played around the fountain for a while. Katelyn is so sweet with the parents of her friends (well, our friends too now!). She is quite an attention hog, and wants everyone to hold her. I don't really remember any of the other kids being so friendly with the parents when they were Katelyn's age!
And lastly, a Video of Tyler and Katelyn playing Toca Tea Party together. This is their nightly ritual before bed. It's a cute iPad game where they get to choose what type if beverage and cakes they want, and then they move the pastries to their plates, click on them to eat them, and then get more. They can even spill their tea cup and then wipe up the mess and then fill up their cups again. Very cute!
No comments:
Post a Comment