Monday morning, back to Chinese school for Katelyn. The week before this she had horrible drop offs both Monday and Friday. Horrible horrible drop offs. (The previous Monday was a little off since we had a crazy weekend and Tyler wasn't there to drop off with her. I listened in the lobby and she stopped screaming after a few minutes. The following Friday she promised me the whole way that she wouldn't fuss. But then still did and Tyler and I listened to her scream in the lobby until we couldn't wait around any longer.) I was really not looking forward to how drop off was going to go this week. It's probably the worse way to start off a day! Plus it was starting to give me anxiety about Katelyn starting her new Montessori school in a couple weeks. A lot of anxiety. This morning though, I showed her a princess castle I had purchased a while back for her and was hoarding away. I promised her that she would get to play with it if she didn't fuss at drop off. And then held my breath. ... and she did GREAT! Great mood at drop off, gave Tyler and I hugs and kisses and ran off to play. Came back to see her having a grand old time with a new girl who started in the class - Rykyn. 4 year old, almost 5 year old starting Kindergarten in the Fall. They were so cute together! Whew. Makes me think I need to make Katelyn a new friend at her new school to get her a little prepped.
After picking up Katelyn, we headed over to Kaya (Korean BBQ restaurant) near my house for my friend Judy's birthday. The whole Kumon mom gang made it, all 8 of us moms, plus assorted children (most of the kids are in school). Katelyn was super well behaved and she played with another friend Xavi.
Back to swimming on Tuesday. I'm always amazed when I see Tyler swimming. When will I stop being in awe? I guess I just assume he will sink whenever the instructor lets go of him. He's starting to work on his side breaths, so we'll see how that goes. And he can do backstroke too!
Tuesday afternoon playdate. Promised the boys last time I'd fix the Wii (ok, I was too lazy to change the batteries last time!) and they played a Batman game. Hmm... Tyler definitely is lacking in the hand/eye coordination department, may need to let him play some more (more than how much he plays now, which is never!).
After a crazy last weekend of backyard yardwork, our wall is finally clear of all the debris causing vines. Problem now is that it's quite run down underneath. Got a referral from a friend for a painter to come out and repaint. This is the before!
Wednesday morning, with just a few weeks before Katelyn starts going to school Tue-Wed-Thur, I made a last minute decision to take Katelyn to Disneyland. Seriously last minute. It worked out since my friend Bonnie was going to be picking up Tyler from school that day (early dismissal for the whole school) so I didn't have to rush back and brave the overwhelming pickup situation. Then the morning of I couldn't find my Disney passes. AHHHHHH! Was about to lose it, but thank goodness I found it. I dropped off Tyler real quick and off we went! I almost always get to Disneyland about 30 minutes before opening, and this time I got there right at opening and it was CROWDED. Almost turned around. Blech. But we only had a couple hours anyway. Look how excited Katelyn is on the tram!
We talked about our game plan and I let Katelyn make all the decisions. Two rides and we were out of there! I wish we could have stayed longer or gotten there earlier though. Katelyn insisted that she wanted to watch the Tangled vaudeville show (again!). The line for meeting the princesses was quite long and there was only one princess (Ariel) there. So we watched the show, and it was getting quite hot too. She's quite mesmerized.
After the show, which was a good 30-40 minutes it seems, we jumped into the stroller and headed over to CA Adventure to go on Katelyn's favorite ride - Ariel's Undersea Adventures.
And then bumped into Goofy on the way out of CA Adventure! I was worried that Katelyn was going to put up a fight when it was time to leave, but she was very agreeable. I didn't want to be late getting home since Bonnie was going to drop off Tyler after pickup. We left the park by 1230pm, which meant we were only there about 2 hours. I hate rushing though, so we were home with lots of time to spare, and Katelyn went right down for a nap.
Wednesday afternoon are our free days, and after quite a bit of insisting from Tyler, we headed out to get him a haircut. He likes his haircut quite short, and just a little bit spiked.
Thursday morning Bonnie dropped Jordan off in the morning since she had a Mother's Day event at her daughter's school (hence the switch off in drop off/pick ups - we totally help each other out when things come up). The boys happily played Jedi together.
After dropping Tyler off at school and making a quick South Coast Plaza trip, I met up with some girlfriends for lunch at the Daily Grill, right around the corner from our old condo at The Watermarke! Fun lunch. :)
I picked up Tyler from Bonnie's and then we headed over to ICDC for Katelyn's Mother's Day Tea at 3:30pm. Tyler was super well behaved and sat in the classroom finishing his Kumon so that he could watch the iPad later. I changed Katelyn first into her ballet dress so that we could rush off right afterward. We had to cut the tea short, unfortunately. It was a little sad since I knew this would be Katelyn's last ICDC event. Waaaaaah!
The pot she painted for me! I think we may have one from Tyler hidden around the house somewhere.
RUSHED to ballet class. Not a fan of rushing. Got there in the nick of time.
Dinner that night was turkey chili, home made. Delicious! The kids are big fans, except I might have put in a little bit too much chili peppers this time. Will need to cut back on it next time.
Also put together a quick gift for Will's mom for Mother's Day. (Yes, isn't that a bit ironic? It's not like it's grandparents' day. Harhar.). Had the kids hold little signs for pictures I-Heart-Chinese word for Grandma. Then we put it in a frame.
Friday morning was a rush rush rush morning again. I dropped Katelyn off in the morning at her Chinese School, and then Tyler off at Kindergarten. Then made a mad dash to Costco to get in and out. Put everything away at home and then ran to pick up Tyler from school early at 11:30am and then Katelyn before noon. Of course I was out of gas too. Finally hit the road and headed out to Knott's Berry Farm for our friend Shirley's son Justin's 1st Birthday Party. Boy, did it get hot! The kids did not like sitting around and insisted on riding the Camp Snoopy rides. I was bummed that Will had a meeting that he couldn't get out of, which I was on kid duty in the heat!
But then we met Snoopy and it was all worth it I guess.
With the birthday boy!
Katelyn is tall enough to go on all the Camp Snoopy rides. Why was I even surprised?
Video of the bounce ride:
She was also all over the cake.
Meanwhile Tyler made a new friend, Dylan (the kid of one of the friends there). That's him sitting in the front row.
Shirley is pregnant again!
Katelyn was off having a blast too. That's her in the last row with Uncle Nan. Having so much fun!
While the kids were off with the other kids and a very responsible professional nanny (Linda!), I snuck off with a couple of the girls and got to ride one roller coaster. Just one, that's all I ask!
Back in Camp Snoopy, the kids rode a Scrambler-like ride. Something was up though, since it was SO slow. I could see Katelyn totally not into and Tyler was totally bored.
Then the last ride was the man-powered trains. I was amazed to watch Katelyn full speed plow through the whole course, huffing and puffing the whole way!
Video of KK powering through:
Time to say goodbye! I couldn't even get Katelyn out of the stroller by this time, she was SO exhausted. It was 4pm and I had been trying to get us to leave for almost an hour! She hadn't napped yet and was completely zoned out. Pushing the stroller back to the car was hard work - especially since there's a tunnel that goes underground with quite a steep slope. I was EXHAUSTED by the time I got us back to the car. And getting Katelyn from the stroller into the car was a DISASTER. She screamed and fought, it was horrendous and more energy-draining for me. I finally forcefully got her buckled and let her scream and cry in anger. Tyler was out before we got to the freeway and Katelyn fell asleep pretty soon after that (she totally wore herself out).
Good to be home. I wasn't sure what to do though. Didn't want to move the kids to their rooms because 1) they were really sweaty and dirty and 2) I was worried they'd sleep a long time in their completely dark rooms. So I brought them into the living room and they just kept on sleeping (Tyler let out a quick whine but then snuggled back onto cushion on the floor and KK on a couch). Peace at last! I got onto another couch and tried to take a power nap too.
Slightly invigorated, I got up when Will got home. He took the kids to pick up the photos at Target we had sent to get developed and also some In'N'Out while I quickly got showered and changed. Tonight was a mom's night out with a group of the Kindergarten moms, meeting at my friend's place at 730pm to carpool down to the Spectrum. Lots of fun that night, good drinks and good food. Unfortunately no decent picture. Especially not this one of my friend Susy with two giant meatballs. But it was the only picture I had that night! Didn't get home until late that night, but worth the fun!
Saturday morning we forced ourselves out of bed and headed to Plum's Cafe into Costa Mesa to meet Will's parents for brunch. Of course they were not impressed with the place since they had been there before and didn't mind telling us. Ugh. I had a delicious crab omelet though!
The kids kept themselves occupied with some activities. It was so cute watching Katelyn do the maze so carefully!
Happy (grand-)Mother's Day!
We went our separate ways after that and made a quick detour at a hardcore gaming store to pick up some board games for that night. Went home and we ALL NAPPED. Every single one of us. Woke up around 3pm and got dressed and headed over to our friend Chi's place in (a nice part of) Santa Ana for her daughter Chloe's 6th birthday. The kids loved the bounce house (as always).
And also the kite decorating. Even though there was no room to fly the kites.
Pinata time!
Meanwhile I was hanging out with Chi and her friends. They're a crazy group! Super friendly and free flowing with the drinks. Had a really fun time!
Dang, Katelyn really got her playing on.
Birthday cupcakes.
Then we had to go by 8pm since we had friends coming over by 830pm. Good timing too, since the drinking was getting a little out of hand and I didn't know how much more I could handle! Love this picture of Katelyn and Tyler - she looks like she really partied hard.
Got back just in time to get the kids ready for bed. They were worn out! Tyler's pajama shirt that night was a shirt he got back when he was 2 when we attended a charity event. I have a picture of him wearing this exact shirt and it went down all the way to the ground on him. WAAAHH!
Game night! I was already quite toasted by the time our friends came over at 830pm. Didn't keep me from enjoying jello shots that Mariam brought over though, haha! We played a game of Settlers (which I totally lost) and then tried a new game we had gotten that day. A drinking game where all the drinking involved is IN the game, not actually happening to the players. We'll have to change up the rules the next time we play so that the drinking is actually happening, haha!
Sunday morning - Mother's Day! Nice to have a day to remember the mommies out there, and how much we do! Tyler had a cute little gift from school they had made, along with a book. He had filled in the blank for the pages. My mommy likes to: "look at her phone". My mommy's favorite food is: "salad and fish". My mommy helps me: "do my homework'. Hmmm.
Then we headed over to Will's parents' place for lunch after Tyler's Chinese school. The kids LOVE helping with making the dumplings. They love their grandparents' dumplings!
After naps, we headed to Cerritos for dinner with my parents, brother (just back from Taiwan!), grandmother, and a couple aunts and an uncle. The kids were really well behaved, thank goodness!
Whew, that was a busy week! Onward!
1 comment:
your weeks and posts are always so jam packed!! i'm really amazed you can still post on time!! camp snoopy looked so fun!
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