Open House

Monday evening was Open House night at Emma's preschool. She was very excited to walk me around and show me all her favorite things (even though she shows me these things on a daily basis when I pick her up too!). Lol. It was cute though. Her teacher gave me a packet of work that she had completed already. Some of the pages were blank though... turns out that Emma is somewhat stubborn at times (surprise, surprise) and has refused to draw what they want when they ask sometimes. Instead she keeps drawing scribbles and telling people that they are pictures of roller coasters. He he he. I can't figure out if she is lazy or just super smart. I used to wonder why she wasn't drawing stick figures like the other kids but then one day she drew me a damn good picture of Jack Skellington, complete with creepy teeth. Yeah, she is fine developmentally. Just too smart for her own good at times! Wonder where she gets it... :)

Skinny Cow!

Nothing better than a free event and this one was for the mamas instead of the kiddies for once! On Sunday we got Katie & Lucy to watch the midgets while Mom, Karen, Jen, & I headed out to L.A. to meet Erin, Jen, and Charlene for the "Skinny Cow Perfect Cup" event! This was a fun deal! Everyone got fitted for a new, correctly sized, bra and we got to try samples of the new skinny cow ice cream in addition to having snacks and drinks. Then we got our "swag bags" full of coupons, lip gloss, candy, tee shirts, and dvouchers for free bras at Macy's. How cool was that! So then we all headed over to the local mall to pick up our freebees and we did a little shopping. We took mom into H&M and did a sort of divide and conquer where we all found things for her to try on and she was able to get 3 dresses for her Bahamas cruise! Then it was off to dinner with the girls. What a fun Sunday. I think this may turn out to be an annual event!

Chili Roast 2011!

Saturday was the annual chili roasting event at Uncle Kino & Aunt Pauline's house. Truth be told, I never really made it around to take many pictures of everyone hard at work peeling and bagging. I spent most of my day in more of a supervisory role, near the pool, in the shade. :):). These kids, my little fishies, had a great day in the water!

Aloha!

Friday was "Hawaiian Day" at Emma's preschool! She dressed up in a cute little flowered dress and I did her hair with flower too. She looked very island-y! They played hula games, and sang songs, and had ice cream sundaes too! What a fun day.

Then, when I picked her up, I told her we were going out for a "Mommy-daughter" afternoon and she was so excited. To make it even better, it was a FREE mommy-daughter day. It was "free banana milkshake day" at Bakers so that was our first stop. Then it was off to the movies where Emma chose to see the new Smurfs movie. Talk about a mind trip - I loved Smurfs when I was little. :). Well, we had 2 passes for the local theater that Emma had won at the library, so that made our show free. I also had enough points on their frequent visitor card to get either a free popcorn or soda from the concession stand. Since we already had our milkshakes with us, we opted for the popcorn. Popcorn, milkshakes, and a movie in the A/C... can't think of a better way to spend a super hot afternoon with my girl. We ended the evening with a trip to the local party supply store to get ideas for Emma's birthday and then dinner at the sushi joint. Sushi was NOT free, but I figured we saved enough on the rest of the day so we could splurge on dinner. Plus the waitress told me that, if I had the all-you-can eat, then Emma could eat free off mine "since she was so little!" Silly, silly waitress! That little grubsnatcher is where I make my money back! Lol. Emma also tried more of the "real" sushi today in addition to her normal cali roll & edamame. Turns out she is her mama's daughter and LOVED the red snapper. Yum yum! I looked over at one point and she had snagged all the slices of fish and left me with just the rice! Lil stinker!

Magic Time!

Emma's preschool was giving out free passes to a local magic show this past Wednesday and I was able to score a bunch of extras so we made it a group event! Emma, TJ, Mikayla, Grandma & I went out to dinner with Al and then he headed home while we went to meet up with Karen after she got off work. Erin, Chris, & Sophia and Jen, Charlene, & Hayden came out to see the show with us too! The kids love playing together and Hayden is a little sweet on TJ so it was really cute to see her maneuver her way into the seat next to him. It was a pretty long show... started at 7 and we didn't get out till after 9:30 so my little one was quite tired after this AND a full day of preschool, but she said she still enjoyed the show. One of her friends from the old school, Trista, was there too and she and Emma were so excited to see each other. In fact, Trista asked Emma to come sit with her family for the second half of the show so off my little girl went... all of a sudden more excited to be with her school friends than her mommy... She is growing up too fast.

Tanaka Farms!

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Karen & I woke up early Saturday morning, loaded the kiddies in the car, and headed out to meet our friends in Irvine at a little place called Tanaka Farms. Actually, it's not that little. I forget exactly how many acres it spans, but they grow quite the variety of foods. We got to take a wagon ride and tour the farm with multiple stops to sample all the organic produce. Then we took a walk through the watermelon fields. The bees were especially attracted to the rotting yellow melons which Emma found simultaneously disgusting and fascinating... my little scientist! At the end we all got our own watermelons to take home with us! All the samples were so tasty and the kids did wonderfully trying out all the fruits and veggies. We got carrots, cherry tomatoes, corn on the cob, yellow beans, cucumbers, zucchini, yellow squash, cantaloupe, watermelon, and even yellow watermelon. Yum yum! To make it even better, I found the farm tours on a groupon type site, so we got to go for half price! Yay! It was a great day!

Friday Night Lights!

Spent Friday evening at the church again for the free family movie. This week was Toy Story 3. The Ames kids, Jen, Charlene, and Hayden joined us this week as well. The movie was cute, the bbq was tasty, the weather was comfortable, and the goodies were free. Can't ask for a much better summer evening than that!

Happy 4th Birthday Sophia Lily!

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Sophia turned 4 years old on Saturday and we celebrated with her at Redlands Gymnastics Club. This is the same gym where Emma takes her weekly gymnastics lessons (and where she had her own 2nd birthday) so she was very comfortable here. She was zipping along, tumbling all over the place. TJ was great on the balance beam and with the hula hoop too. The kids had a great time and we loved partying with one of our favorite little girls! Happy birthday Sophia!

Wonderful Weekend!

We had a wonderful weekend! Outdoor movie on Friday evening. Building picture frames at Lowes, a sneak peek of the new Veggie Tales princess movie, lunch at Denny's, a birthday party, and visiting with friends Saturday. And Sunday was church, slurpees, and swimming with the Ames kids. Can't ask for a busier, better, weekend than that! I got some great pictures of the kids at Sophia's gymnastics party, but I'll post those on another entry. These are some shots of the other parts of Saturday though. We picked up Sophia so her parents could get ready for the party and she spent the morning with us. The schoolhouse photo holders turned out very cute and all 3 kids were excited about the new VT movie and their free balloons. Later that evening, after the party ended, we went back over to hang out at Erin & Chris' house and watch Sophia open her gifts. Of course the kids started playing dress up right away. The bottom shot is Emma as, and I quote, "a pirate princess, of course!" She is too cute!