This week Katelyn's toddler room at ICDC had a holiday party on Thursday. It was a great opportunity to see the kids in their classroom as well as socialize with the other parents. A light dinner was served but we opted to bring food that was safe for Katelyn, as well as cookies that she could actually eat after she decorated them.
Here's Katelyn and her friend Harmony with my friend Yoko. (Yoko and I actually did a gift wrapping fundraiser event Friday night at the Irvine Spectrum's Barnes & Nobles. We are both horrible gift wrappers and were understandably nervous. It's free giftwrapping for customers, with the option to donate. Good thing we had a really delicious sushi dinner beforehand with multiple lychee saketinis to help us relax. Great fun!).
Katelyn was really excited to decorate her snowmen cookies. They were everything-free. You name it. No gluten/wheat, dairy, eggs, etc. I used many substitutes (for example: a palm oil buttery spread instead of butter!) and the result was, um, not so delicious. Good thing Katelyn doesn't really know what the real thing tastes like and didn't mind. We even found a frosting that was safe for her to taste too!
Since this was a toddler room event, I didn't really want Tyler running all over the place and knocking the little ones over. Free babysitting/distraction with the iPad! He ate his dinner in the adjoining office area and happily watched Cars 2.
Katelyn's completed snowmen!
Gasp! Katelyn also came home this week with an accident report. Apparently another child had scratched her on the face - multiple times! Grrr... if I could find out who it was ... Poor little girl. I asked her if it hurt and she sadly nodded and made a pouty face. She really knows how to milk it. At school the other day she wanted to go inside the classroom after Tyler ran inside but had to stay outside. I watched her give the cutest pouty face and bat her eyes at the teacher. Then she turned towards the wall and continued pouting. Where did she learn that from? Good thing the teachers find her irresistible!
This weekend we were determined to visit Santa at Fashion Island. We got there almost a half hour before Santa was scheduled to arrive and there was already a line! Doh. Here are the kids in front of the huge Christmas tree.
This photo's better, but farther away. They are so cute together! I saw another family have their kids standing up there and it's pretty high up. The kids were freaking out and crying and the mom kept saying "You're fine!" as the dad tried to snap a picture. Whew, good thing our kids were ok.
The kids got a little restless waiting for Santa so they ran around for a bit.
Santa has arrived! When it was our turn, Tyler all-of-a-sudden got nervous. Katelyn totally picked up on it (she copies him on everything!!). Tyler kept trying to push Katelyn in front of him to see Santa, which REALLY annoyed me. Using Katelyn as a shield? What a chicken! His actions were enough to completely freak Katelyn out. He finally saw how frustrated I was and stopped being so annoying. Too late for Katelyn. Tyler ended up getting a photo by himself.
Here's the photo we bought of Tyler's Santa visit.
We waited around for a while in hopes that Katelyn would come around. It took quite a while and she was still not giving in. Finally I distracted her with the ornaments next to Santa and Will was able to (at least) stand next to Santa. So here's our Santa picture for the year- with Will! I would have been fine with putting a screaming/crying Katelyn on his lap (Tyler's Santa picture when he was 1 was like that!) but the lady working there wouldn't let me. Sheesh, fancy Fashion Island Santa I guess!
See? He's not so scary after all!
This weekend we also had a quick playdate with Tyler's friend Kaelyn. She was in the infant/toddler/pre-1/pre-2 classes with him and just changed schools this year. She's also who he learned to swim with. Her little sister Kourtney is still at ICDC though and is in the same class as Katelyn. Kourtney is 3 months older but Katelyn is (it seems!) 3 inches taller!
Saturday night Will's parents were down in Irvine and we tried out the new Taiwanese beef noodle soup restaurant Chef Hung's at the Diamond Jamboree plaza. It was yummy!
Sunday was a super busy day. We started out the morning with a birthday party at Pump It Up in Lake Forest. The birthday girl (Kaitlyn) was turning 3. She goes to ICDC also and I really hit it off with her mom Amy. Tyler is a pro when it comes to Pump It Up (his 2nd and 3rd birthday parties were both there) but this was Katelyn's first time! She totally kept up with all the big kids!
Video of Katelyn and Mommy sliding!
This was Tyler's favorite part - shooting the foam balls at people. It was really funny watching him with his bucket. He'd go to the "enemy" side and collect balls so that they wouldn't have any to use back at him!
Jumping around...
Katelyn and Uncle Stacy.
Slides!
Group picture!!
Whew, the kids were exhausted and fell asleep on the drive back. Katelyn was really excited about her princess goody bag and fell asleep holding a pack of princess cards next to her ear. Tyler woke up when we got home and wouldn't go back to sleep. Man, he is really starting to fight his naps on the weekends. I think he is ready to outgrow them - NO!!!!
The afternoon rolled by and I took Katelyn to another birthday party. This one was at My Gym in Tustin and was for the littler kids. The birthday boy, Jackson, was turning 3 also. He's the younger brother of one of Tyler's friends Maddie. They're part of our playgroup and only the younger siblings were invited this time. What a difference it made not having the big kids running around! Katelyn was lucky to be there since she was by far the youngest there. All the other kids were 3ish, and Katelyn isn't even 2 yet! No problem though, she LOVED it and I had multiple parents amazed that she was only 1. Her height and her development really make her seem older.
Here's Katelyn dancing with Madison.
She loved playing with the parachute!
Story time.
And lots and lots of swings! This place is quite amazing and if I didn't have this horrible test coming up I would totally bring Katelyn. There are rows of ropes hanging from the ceiling that allow them to hook different swings and apparatuses up. The best part is that they can switch them out really easily to different things!
Ooh, I was really nervous here. Waiting in line for ziplining. What?
Heart attack about to happen. Here's Katelyn getting ready to zipline. Check out the video at the end for a collage of mini videos from the day - there is a clip of her ziplining in it!
And lastly, another group photo. The kids had a great time. Once again I brought Katelyn her own food, but I let her have a little piece of fried chicken that the rest of the kids were having. Mistake. Poor thing ended up with a rash on her legs that evening. SIGH!!!
Video of Katelyn having fun at My Gym! This could be an ad for all the fun things the gym has to offer!
We got our Christmas cards in! Will post them in next week's post. Katelyn giggled and laughed when she saw them and insisted on keeping one. She would lay down and just look at the photo closely. With snacks of course.
Oh, this week our Kumon teacher pointed out that Tyler was on the ranking for the Kumon Honor roll. I have no idea what this means, but I thought it was kind of cool that he was at the top of the list. Of course, it's because he's probably one of the youngest kids at her center, but still exciting nonetheless. Also, it lists him as Pre-K2, but I think he's actually Pre-K1 since I'm starting him in Kinder next year.
And lastly, Tyler's Taekwondo photos came in! Not sure if I like the serious kick-your-butt Tyler, but the photographer insisted that the children all be serious. Hands up!
Have a great holiday everyone!
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