To start out the week the week though, I had lunch with some of my new Northwood Mommy friends. I'm starting to meet more moms in the Northwood MOMs club, a club made up of Stay-at-Home moms. They're a large group and quite fun to hang out with actually! Surprisingly, one of the ladies I met was a childhood family friend! She's 8-9 years older than me so we weren't really friends back when we were kids, but now the age doesn't even really matter. We met up for lunch at Taco Rosa for some sangrias. :)
It's been hot! Here's Katelyn at school when I went to pick up Tyler for Taekwondo. How cute is she in her little dress? She wasn't even wearing a water diaper or anything underneath! She's been doing so great with her potty training!
Monday afternoon at Taekwondo they did Nunchuck practice. Tyler was in heaven! He loved it! Here's a video of him practicng his nunchucks.
Monday morning was Tyler's intake interview at his new kindergarten. Except... I completely forgot! I have no idea how it slipped my mind, it was even in my calendar but I didn't remember. Luckily I was able to reschedule him to Tuesday morning. A teacher takes each kid in to a separate room individually to chat with him, no parents allowed. They talked about things like sounds of letters, math skills, etc, to get an idea of where the kid is academically and socially. This in turn helps them place the kids in different kindergarten classes. Tyler was in and out so quick! I barely even had a chance to sit down before he was back giggling with the teacher. She told me that he was so fun to chat with. He told me later she had asked him things like letter sounds, counting, and doing simple math. Easy peasy.
We were there right after Tyler's friend Elijah's interview too.
Tuesday was my last day to pick up any last minute items we were going to need for our Houston trip. One thing we had been procrastinating on - Tyler's haircut! His hair was getting super long and was very in need of a trim. Unfortunately, the lady (Helena) who usually cuts his hair (she also does Will's) was off that week so I had no choice to take him to someone else. Will's only requirement was that the lady was Asian, haha! His haircut turned out fine but definitely shorter than usual, not my fault though - I don't know the first thing about little boy haircuts!
Wednesday morning. Bright and early our friend Rob gave us a ride to John Wayne airport. I had gotten my flight times mixed up and we got there at 830 for a 910 flight! Thank goodness we didn't have any issues. The kids were really excited. This was our first time flying out of John Wayne to Houston instead of Texas. We wanted to try it out to avoid the long commute to and from LAX, which is exhausting after a long day of travel! The only problem is that Southwest doesn't have a direct flight from SNA, so we were going to have to switch planes. Shouldn't be too bad... right?
KK waiting for the plane to unload. The kids had a healthy breakfast of Carl's Jr.
It's almost time to go!
As usual, we had Will board first with the carseat and luggage. I stayed off with the kids until everyone had boarded. I always get strange looks and comments from the people at the gate, reminding me that we can board with the Family-Boarding. They also seem a little annoyed that they're going to have to try to clear 3 seats in a row for us. But then I tell them that my husband is already on board, and that I am trying to minimize the time the kids are strapped in their seats which can lead to fussing and crying. They understand immediately.
On the plane! Ready to go! ... The flight out from SNA to Phoenix was pretty smooth, except for Tyler complaining of extreme ear pain. Poor kid, the air pressure really seems to cause him extreme pain. Our layover in Phoenix was extremely short. We barely got off the plane and Will was already in line and boarding our next flight. Not a good sign for the kids, who wanted more time to run around. Back on the plane, the kids fell asleep (good sign) but then when Katelyn woke up she was quite disoriented and... SCREAMED BLOODY MURDER. O M G, I am not exaggerating. We're talking full on screaming and crying, rolling around in the middle aisle, unable to calm down. I took her to the back of the plane and she continued her banshee crying. It was really horrible and exhausting. HORRIBLE. I'm scarred for life. The flight attendants in the back of the plane were completely unhelpful and basically ignored us except to tell us that Katelyn couldn't be sitting near where their seats were. WTF! I have no idea how she finally calmed down but she finally did and sobbed in Will's lap. Ugh. I was VERY happy to get to Houston.
We're here we're here! The kids wasted no time in getting acclimated and playing together. Katelyn loves Annie! She is so good with KK!
Here's a little video of Katelyn playing the piano:
It was very humid and warm in Houston. Very. Just being outside is uncomfortable. We got in about 4pm and by then it was too late to go out and do anything, so the kids happily played in the backyard with water guns and the water hose.
After bath time, Annie helped Katelyn comb her hair. So cute! My sister's kids go to bed super early (like 730pm?), which was even earlier for my kids with the time change. Tyler kept asking why they were going to sleep when the sun was still out, haha! Tyler slept with Adam/Ryan in their room and KK slept on a blowup mattress in Annie's room. I was a little apprehensive since Katelyn has ALWAYS slept in a crib at night, but she did fine! Grace did need to sit in their room for a little bit though. Her presence is enough to make Katelyn not fool around, hehe.
Thursday morning. Woah, their kids wake up early too! I think the rule for them is that they have to stay in bed until 5am. Which means our kids woke up early too. They were excited to start the day. Grace even gave Katelyn super cute pigtails! The kids all know the drill, they do their homework/Kumon in the morning and Adam/Annie take turns practicing piano. Katelyn helped out too!
I have NEVER seen Tyler do his Kumon so fast and so focused. The packet he did normally takes him 20+ minutes since he is so distracted and complaining or fooling around. He did his packet that morning in 7 minutes. Amazing! Also really annoying since now I know he can do it, if he wasn't fussing so much at home!
Things started to slip with Katelyn's potty training. We had had her in a pullup all day for our day of travel, and (lazily) decided to keep her in a pullup for the trip since we were going to be out and about. Ugh, bad idea, but we won't realize this until later. She was starting to get really comfortable back in her pullup and was starting to refuse to use the potty. We bribed her that morning with the promise of heart nail polish! Grace put it on her, it was so cute watching her sit there quietly and not move!
This is Katelyn sitting there quietly waiting for her nail polish to dry. We just put it on her thumbs. It's a clear polish with some shiny hearts in it!
The older kids were very excited about their new BeyBlades toys we had brought them. Tyler didn't even know what they were, good thing I brought one for him too!
Our outing that morning was the Bayou Park. We come here every year! The kids all got pony rides.
Here's a video of Tyler and Katelyn's pony rides. Katelyn's first time ever riding a pony was at this exact place a year ago. She was so tiny and had just turned one!
Next up, the tram ride with the big buckets of food pellets to feed the animals. Unfortunately we had forgotten bug spray and the mosquitos were out in full force. WAAAHH!
Hungry emu!
These antelope-type animals were very smelly and drooly.
A giraffe! Here's a video of us passing by the giraffes.
Bison! This was a tricky bison. Very tricky. He doesn't really have a long tongue like the other animals so I kept trying to tilt the bucket towards him to help him out. He'd move a bit farther away and I'd tilt it more and more until.. Baamn! - he knocked the bucket and it fell out of my hands! Awww man...
By this time I was being eaten alive by mosquitos. Not pleasant. We still hit the petting zoo though.
And we're off!
The 4 older kids sit in the back row of the minivan together, no carseats. Makes me nervous but we'd have to take two cars everywhere if we tried putting in the carseats for them. KK was, of course, in one.
Lunch was at a nearby Cici's pizza! I've seen commercials for this place on TV here in SoCal, but there aren't any here! $3.99 for buffet lunch of pizza/pasta/dessert/salad. The salad sucked but really, it's $3.99! The kids loved it.
And then we headed home. KK knocked out pretty fast.
Back at home the kids got some full on Jedi battles going. Perfect because KK and Tyler both love Star Wars so much!
Jedi down!
Then we got the kids dressed and headed to my sister's community pool. Not a regular pool like the ones we have here, but more of a waterpark - like Ladera Ranch! How cute is KK with her swim hat on? I just got them at Costco and I absolutely love them.
She LOVES the water! LOVES LOVES LOVES.
Video of the kids at the waterpark:
The kids all had a great time and it was nice being in the water for a change.
Back at home Tyler read some books while KK was taking a shower.
More hair combing by Annie.
Back downstairs, Annie started playing lullabies on the piano and Katelyn pretended to sleep on the couch. She got all tucked in and everything like a little baby. Of course, she's hugging a light saber...
Tyler playing with BeyBlades! I'm not looking forward to him wanting the newest fad of toys in the future. Apparently they are quite popular, even with the kids here in Irvine. I had just never heard of them, and neither had Tyler!
Dinner time! Katelyn wasn't being a very good eater, but Annie came to the rescue! She fed Katelyn the rest of her meal at the piano bench. K loves to listen to Annie. I remember Tyler being just like this when he was younger and we were first visiting.
Girl cousins!
Doesn't K have the most beautiful skin? It's so creamy and smooth (except for her leg/butt back region that has eczema!).
Oh boy does she love Annie.
Stories before bedtime. Adam is an amazing reader.
Video of the boys reading a book:
Katelyn was upset about something, but Annie's comforting quickly remedied that.
Friday morning! Started out with Adam practicing his piano again. Look closely, Tyler is helping out with the pedals!
We headed out to the Houston Natural Museum of History this morning. There's a satellite location of the main museum right near Grace's home in Sugarland. Super convenient! There was a reptile exhibit the kids enjoyed.
Video of the kids at the reptile exhibit:
How sweet, Annie and Adam both helping Katelyn up the stairs.
There was also a dinosaur exhibit as well, complete with moving dinosaurs!
Check out the T Rex. He roars and moves his head side to side and looks at you.
Video of Katelyn with the dinosaurs:
There was also a section about woodland life or something. It was very interactive and the kids played in there for quite a while.
Katelyn doing a puzzle!
Here's Tyler and Annie playing in a log with raccoons. I think you could actually put on a raccoon costume as well!
Checking out the "science" part of the museum. Reminds me a lot of the Discovery Science center with different things for the kids to try out and think about scientific things.
Next stop. Planetarium! They had an inflatable planetarium (I know, that sounds weird huh) and we were the only ones at the morning showing. The kids hung out on the floor (I tried not to think about germs) which is apparently where all the kids usually watch the show from since you're looking straight up.
Last stop - digging in the dinosaur pit! This is always a hit with the kids every year. They get little shovels and brushes and they dig through this giant pit that has a large dinosaur skeleton in it!
There was also a ball pit for kids 3 and under. Katelyn was supposed to only go in the ball pit but we couldn't keep her out of the dinosaur pit. She got to enjoy both activities. :)
Later that afternoon, we headed to a different community waterpark. Will/Ken took the older kids first while Katelyn napped at home. This was a little bit farther but had a lazy river as well as an even larger slide for inner tubes! The boys LOVED the wide water slide.
Katelyn had fun in the water too after we got there. I didn't end up going in - the water was a little too murky and cloudy for my taste!
Will got to enjoy the inner tube slide!
Here's a video of the waterpark:
Whew, the pool is quite draining. Actually, just being outside for a period of time is draining enough! The kids were pretty tired that day. It didn't keep them from more playing though, of course.
Lounging Katelyn.
Saturday! Another big day! Our destination - the Houston Space Center! Ooooooooohhhhh. By this time I had been heavily bitten by mosquitos. Probably 10 already. All of them huge and swollen and super itchy. It was so bad that we actually stopped to get some benadryl oral medication. I was pretty miserable. The kids didn't seem bothered though.
A fake space shuttle head!
Inside the fake space shuttle there was a cockpit. K was very intent on squeezing her fingers under the glass to try to push some buttons. Hah!
It's exciting to see exhibits about the space shuttle and rockets. It was nice to explain to Tyler how his mommy used to work on some of these things!
Kid group shot!
They had this cool little area where you could try to fly a space shuttle. We didn't really know what we were doing.
Katelyn gave it a whirl too!
Then we tried on some astronaut helmets! They were really heavy.
NASA!
In the middle of the center they had this exhibit about emotions. The kids had fun copying the emotions of the pictured people.
Love Katelyn's sad/grumpy face here.
Moon capsule! (Actually was a photo booth)
Next we took a tram to see some real live rockets and the Astronaut training center. This was pretty cool. There was a life size mock up of the International Space Station, and this was where the astronauts actually went to train before their space missions! Amazing! It was really hot on the tram though, and the kids were so tired.
Looking at the training center. Tyler started to melt down a bit here though, he was SO tired and hot.
Katelyn fell right to sleep after the first stop of the tram. She slept through the whole visit to Rocket Park.
It was very heavy carrying a passed out Katelyn. Add to that the intense heat from the weather and her body temperature? Not fun.
Back at the center, the kids played in this crazy huge 3 story play gym. It was amazing! A groggy Katelyn played in the ball shooter area at the bottom.
Future Astronaut?
And lastly, a picture with a real life space shuttle before we left.
It wasn't time to go home yet though. Our next stop was the Aquarium in downtown Houston. Grace had some great coupons and we paid about $20 for the 4 of us!
Treasure!!
Sting ray petting area.
White tigers!
It started to rain outside but we waited in line for their Shark train ride. KK did some pole dancing while we waited. This train ride is pretty cool, kind of like a tram ride that goes through a tunnel inside a shark tank!
Saturday night. Boo, the trip has finally winded down. We took our usual pictures of the cousins that we take every year. They are all so cute!
And then the night ended in some piggy back rides.
With it being the last night and all, the kids all wanted to sleep together in the same room. Worrisome. But they did it and had a great time! Katelyn is totally hanging with the big kids! :)
Whew, what a great Houston trip. It took me quite a few days to get over my bug bites though. I don't have the willpower not to scratch. It's good to be back in California weather - no more humidity! Now time to get serious about planning for Tyler's birthday party coming up!
And lastly a quick video of Tyler and Katelyn talking about Avengers:
1 comment:
the trip looked like so much fun, except for the aquarium part. haha
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