Saturday, October 31, 2009

Halloween Fun!


Dear Kate and Riley,
It really did sort of feel like Halloween lasted a month this year. We had some friends over Friday night to carve pumpkins and make cookies. The problem with pumpkins is that it seems that mom does it all and Zach wouldn't even TOUCH the pumpkin. But he was very proud of it afterward.

Then on Halloween we went to a party with people from Zach's play group and other ward friends and then met up with some of the neighbors for trick-or-treating. It was fun that Zach really understood it this year, could go up to the houses himself and say "trick-treat!" but it was NOT fun that he wanted to eat the candy as SOON as he got it and screamed for treats for like an hour after we got home! Its a good thing he's cute! I'll be hiding all the candy in the house tonight and hoping he forgets about it by morning.

His new thing is to say "cheese!" and tilt his head to the side. Pretty cheesy! Here he is getting ready to cut out cookies
Zach and Addie, I love these faces like, "who us, eat the dough? no way!"

Nate was the only dad brave enough to carve a real pumpkin. Dad and Zach stuck in the potato head pumpkin pieces.

Now MOM carved a pumpkin!

I love this. We really needed a video of it. He was SO good at saying "Arrrg" like a pirate

Zach and Addie. We lost Will to bed time.

Zach and a bunch of the kids at the Halloween party. So cute.

Zach and Isabelle getting ready to trick-or-treat!

First house, too cute. They had the biggest entourage of adults, it was so funny!

Lexi, Isabelle and Zach

Zach and his pumpkins. The potato head one was the best. I really think we'll do only these from now on, no carving involved!

He loved his Pirate pumpkin


... and now, I'm ready for Christmas. Is that sad?

Love,
Mom

Irvine Regional and Disneyland

Dear Kate and Riley,

To continue the Halloween fun we headed out last Saturday to Irvine Regional park with Dad. There was a pumpkin patch there but, more importantly, there was a CHOO-CHOO there as well as other fun carnival type stuff. The moon bounce turned out to be Zach's favorite thing and one of mom's most embarrassing parenting moments when Zach refused to come out of the moon bounce and there was a whole line of kids waiting to go in but he had to come out first. The attendant wouldn't let us go in to get him so we were left to yell and plead, all to no avail. Eventually the girl had to go in and get him herself.

Then on Monday we headed out to Disneyland to see the Halloween decorations and ride the "ho wide" (aka Pirates of the Caribbean). Zach got to wear his pirate hat on Pirates and all was right with the world.

A little shy with the train engineer

moon bounce


there was a not too scary haunted house. Zach was a little nervous

All he wanted to do with the pumpkins was pick them up and carry them to new spots and then throw them down. It was pretty hilarious to watch.


Disneyland
For some strange reason, after 100s of times going on Pirates, he got nervous at first this time. He was screaming "NO HO WIDE!" and everyone was looking at us like we were bad parents. But two seconds into it he was singing "YA-HO!" and loving it.


Proof, this was him at the end saying "ARRRG!" in his best pirate voice

Stay tuned for MORE halloween fun!
love,
mom

Friday, October 23, 2009

Tanaka Farms

Dear Kate and Riley,
To get in the Halloween mood we headed out to Tanaka farms with a few friends to check out the pumpkin patch. Nothing says fall like 85 degree weather, right!? Zach was really excited for PUNKINS! But really he would have been happy to run through the hay maze the entire time and drive his cars on the pumpkins with Will.

They had a corn maze but for the little kids they just had this hay set up which was more like a corral than a maze. He LOVED it. I mean seriously it was like running through this path was the most exciting thing he'd ever done, he cried when I made him leave!

We went on a "tracor" ride which he's still talking about today (but seriously, $5 to ride through the parking lot!?)

Ok mom, enough of the pictures please!

Will and Zach were seriously bugged when we made them stop driving their cars and trains on the pumpkins and tried to take their picture.


Well despite the fact that I'm holding his hands down like he's in a straight jacket, at least he's looking!


We had a good start to Halloween fun and can't wait for more fun next week!

Love,
Mom

Monday, October 19, 2009

Mom's turn! More B-day Fun in Palm Springs

Dear Kate and Riley,
We had to let the birthday fun continue all week long since it was my turn on Friday! So Thurs. afternoon we headed out to Palm Springs with part of the Bowen family (Clarke met us later in the weekend). Dad was so sweet and sat all the way in the back of the van so Megan and I could talk the whole drive out. I don't know what was worse for him, listening to us talk non-stop or having to deal with me driving!

Zach had SO much fun with Addie, he was so excited that he couldn't even sleep or calm down. They just ran in circles all through the condo, chasing each other. It was so cute. We spent three days doing not much but playing at the pool. Zach and Addie both loved the water slide and I loved sitting by the pool and eating WAY too much. I got all my birthday wishes, a card from dad, a slice of Godiva Chocolate cheesecake and a renewed Disneyland pass! What more could a girl want?

I actually didn't take many pictures this time. I'm photoed out...

birthday dinner at Red Robin, it was seriously the only place we dared go with two two year olds!


Embarrassed while the Red Robin people sang to me. I grabbed Zach so people wouldn't focus on me. Then after they sang some lady in the restaurant yelled out "How many years!?" (I'm sure thinking it was for Zach) Dad so wonderfully yelled back (so the whole restaurant could hear) "31!" awesome, huh?

Megan and I sipping our virgin mojitos by the pool. Heaven I tell you!

Love,
Mom

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Birthday Part 2

Dear Kate and Riley,

For Zach's actual b-day we kept it pretty low key. We went to the park with some friends and fulfilled Zach's only birthday request-- CHOO CHOO CAKE! He was so excited about the cake, he had a hard time waiting until the afternoon at the park. It was a rough birthday morning.

It was a chilly day at the park but the kids had fun and Zach got to blow out his candles-- actually he blew them out like five times, I kept lighting them and he kept blowing them out before we could finish singing! He even asked to light the candles again that night when dad got home. The funny thing was that he didn't care much about the actual cake, I don't even know if he ate more than a bite!

So I think that birthday #2 was a success, choo choo set, choo choo cake, it was a good one.

The "choo-choo" cake


blowing out the candles (probably for the 3rd or 4th time)


I thought this was a little miraculous-- 4 two year olds all looking in my general direction. And Nicole, the good mom who was helping all of them!

Thanking Addie for Mr. Potato Head with loves. They were hugging for so long we actually had to tell them to let go! Maybe we're in trouble with these two!

Love,
mom


Saturday, October 10, 2009

Zach's 2nd B-day Part 1

He hated the birthday hat, he kept saying "hurt me, hurt me!"


Dear Kate and Riley,

So, this year Zach's birthday is going to have to take up a few posts. This spoiled boy is getting another birthday week, well more like TWO weeks!

The day before the visiting Hansens left we celebrated Zach's birthday a week early. We had one of his favorite meals (Japanese curry over rice) and had a cake and opened some presents. Dad and I were excited to have an excuse to give him his presents early since we had been SO anxious to give them to him ever since we got them the week before.

With Zach being old enough to understand the concept of gifts and to get really excited about getting them, it made this birthday about 1,000 times more fun than last year (when he couldn't have cared less!). Seeing him get so excited about trains and cars is just about the best feeling in the world. I can't wait for Christmas this year!

Summer was ready to party!
So much progress in a year, he blew out his candles (it did take him two tries)

and no frosting mess this year, he ate with a fork! What happened to my baby!?

Megan made me realize I really didn't take many pictures of the adults. Here's one with Grandma Janice (who was flattered at the beach when someone called Grandpa Ross her dad!--not sure how Grandpa Ross felt about that)

Zach's new train set (I scored it on craigslist). He hasn't stopped playing with it since and insists on sleeping with some of the trains every night.


Since we won't be together for Christmas this year, the kids got Halloween pj's instead. Even though they're older, I still can't get them to all look at me!

And sadly, the only one of Grandpa Ross and you can't even see his face. Listening to him read Dr. Seuss sure brought back memories for me!


Here's a video of Zach blowing out his candles, I tried to cut out my horrid singing as much as possible but you might want to turn the volume down...


Here he is opening his trains. I wish the video was better so you could actually see how excited he was, he was shaking when he opened them! So fun!


Thanks Hansen family for really giving the birthday week a jump start!

Love,
Mom

Thursday, October 08, 2009

Hansen Family Visit-- Newport Beach

Dear Kate and Riley,

Last week we got such a fun treat and had some of the Hansen family out to visit. Grandpa Ross and Grandma Janice along with Uncle Clint, Aunt Kelli and Summer and Ali all came out for the week. We all stayed up in Newport Coast together which was really fun.

We lucked out and got a few really nice warm days and got to hit up the beach and the pool a few times. Then it cooled down and we had a fun park day and museum day. We even got a chance to celebrate Zach's birthday a week early while everyone was here, it was so much fun! I took well over a hundred pictures and there were so many cute ones with three cute kiddos that this is going to be long!

Beach Day 2-- Salt Creek
Zach loved Summer and Ali's wagon

Grandpa Ross dug a big hole for the kids

Clint got injured!

The tide had been really high that day and left this big "puddle" type thing. It was kind of gross but the kids LOVED it and played in it all day. The dads took the kids for rides on the boogie board. So fun!




Kissin' Cousins
Possibly inappropriate, Zach loved kissing summer and Ali through the glass table, it was really cute

Park Day

On Sunday between trying to watch conference on the computer and over the chaos of three 2 year olds, we went to the park. It was nice and cool, a perfect park day

Even Dad got in on the fun

Zach and Summer on the swings

I love this picture of cute Ali


The kids were lucky to have so many adults to play with them! Clint, Grandma Janice and Grandpa Ross all pushed them on this probably until they were ready to barf

Children's Museum (Pretend City) and Irvine Spectrum

on Monday we checked out the new children's museum called Pretend City. It was a lot of fun! Then we had lunch at the Spectrum and introduced the cousins to our favorite activity-- playing on the splash pad. The Utah cousins were not scared that it was a little chilly!

At pretend city the kids got to--- pump gas

garden

perform on stage

dance their hearts out

and even pick fruit!

Summer and Ali were a little nervous at first but it didn't take them long to realize that the splash pad was a LOT of fun (even if it was a little chilly). It was nice to be the only ones there!

We'll save Zach's b-day celebration for another post.

Love,
Mom