We made it!!

We arrived back to California on Saturday. We are happy to spend the holidays close to our friends and family. The boys were great on the long trip. We found a hotel with an indoor heated pool almost every night and they loved it. They are becoming quite the little tadpoles. I will have some new pictures next post but to tired to post them tonight. Happy Holiday to everyone!!

Moving

Packing, cleaning, raw fingers, sleep deprivation, lifting, 56 dumpster runs, driving to Target everyday for more bubble wrap, no food in the house, no toys, bored kids......I think I officially hate moving!! We are mostly packed and hope to head off tomorrow. Hoping for good weather and happy boys! Should take us about 7 days so I won't be blogging for a while. Wish us luck!!!

The above picture is from Thanksgiving. Food was amazing and time with my husband and the boys even better! Josh was kind enough to point out the gigantic plate of food I had made myself when he saw this photo. Seriously, what was I thinking?For some reason I think turkey is only available once a year and feel the need to eat a triple portion!!

"Have you seen my kid"? and other random thoughts

I still chuckle when I hear the following:

"Mom, I can't find my kid"!

"Where's my kid"?

close up of the kid

"Kid" refers to an Astro Boy McDonald's happy meal toy. Seriously, that happy meal toy entertained my two boys for an entire afternoon and then some. Unfortunately, the "kid" gets misplaced from time to time. That is when I hear Ralph or Blake say "Have you seen my kid"?

The boys with their kids

Well our house was in a chaotic state for a while. First Josh had the flu. That horrible fever, cough and body ache flu. He had a day to stay home and then was forced to work out of town with it for the rest of the week. He was home for a day and then I came down with it. He had to go to work so I curled up on the couch and let my boys watch a ridiculous amount of TV until I could function later in the day. The boys seem to be OK. They both had the two flu (reg & swine) mists so I'm hoping they never get it.

I'm so excited for Thanksgiving!!! This is the first year I'm going to cook. I made Easter once (5+ years ago) and my rolls turned out like hockey pucks. I never used to really cook until the boys started eating solids. Now I'm really into it! I make dinner every night. I have a couple of standard recipes and then I always try to find some new ones too (Food Network rocks!). I'm not a gourmet cook by any means but I can follow a recipe pretty well. So... I have printed my recipes, bought the food and now I just need to cook it all. We will still be in NY so it will just be Josh, the boys and I. Can't wait!!!!

Trick or Treat

Too bad Halloween only comes once a year! I always ask the boys want they want to do for the day in the morning as I'm getting them dressed. The answers are usually park, bounce house, zoo......But not anymore. The new answer is "Trick or Treating"!! I then have to explain it only comes once a year and we won't be able to go for a really long time. This is followed by sad looks, "Oh No", and the occasional "I am so sad". Hope we can last the 300+ days until next Halloween!

Josh and I took them to a little housing development not far from our house. We only walked to around 6 houses but that was plenty of candy and cold for us. Blake decided one house was "too spooky" but eventually rang the door bell with Josh's reassurance. They loved looking at all the decorations and carved pumpkins. They mastered saying "Trick or Treat" at the end but Ralph was asking "Can I have some stuff" at the beginning. They were both dragons in case your wondering. I had a limited choice of warm costumes.

This years pumpkins. Mine is the haunted house, Blake's is the frown, Ralph's has the giant teeth, and Josh's is in the back. He tried to use these light up pegs you poke into the pumpkin. Didn't really work so well.

Time to bundle up, fall is here!!

It's fall!!! We are spending our afternoons running through huge piles of leaves at the park. The fall season out here is simply gorgeous! Orange, Crimson, Yellow, Green, it's like waking up to a postcard every morning. I took the boys to Letchworth State Park to check out the waterfalls and trees. They were mildly interested until they spotted.......

A Water Fountain!!

I think every mom on the planet hates water fountains. Why has no one invented a plastic flip top cover for them yet? My boys instantly run over and try to put their little hands in the fountain basin to splash in the water that has been SPIT out of someones mouth!! Disgusting!! I try to them them it's not working but they are too smart for that now. I could have a nice cold bottled water for them but the water fountain always wins. I'm hoping it will become less interesting as they near 3. Ha ha, I know I'm dreaming!! Oh well, they are only little once.

Punkin Patch

Two weekends ago we ventured out in the cold to hand pick our pumpkins for Halloween. The little boys had been sooo excited and asking us for days if we could go to the "punkin patch". It was a nice 45 degree day but that didn't stop us. We went to a farm complete with pumpkins, chickens, apple picking, hay ride, mini train, and bounce pillow. The boys had a blast. After chasing chickens for a while we took a hay ride. I think they are slightly over rated (mud, endless rows of dead corn) but the boys had to ride on the trailer. Ralph was bossing around the other passengers telling them to sit down. After the hay ride it was off to jump on the giant bounce pillow. They love to jump on the inflatable bounce houses so this was right up their ally. Next they rode a mini train. They are finally getting old enough to go by themselves. Good thing because Josh and I get motion sick whipping around a little track 10 times! After that it was off to pick out our pumpkins. Josh and I scoured the rows picking out our perfectly round pumpkins. The boys could care a less about the pumpkins and instead fought over who's turn it was to pull the wagon.

We finally took control of the wagon and forced them to pick out a pumpkin. And yep, they grabbed the first lopsided, ugly, deformed pumpkin in front of them just to satisfy our request. Then back to yelling "my turn" with the wagon. Overall we had a blast! I will show you how the carving turned out soon.

Tapa, Big Water, and Canada

Tapa and Grandma with the boys

Well the boys dream came true in the beginning of September.....Tapa came back to visit!! He brought Gawma (Josh's mom Cathy) and Aunt Waragh (Aunt Laura). The arrived on Friday and stayed until Tuesday. They came bearing lots of gifts the little boys loved!! It's sort of like a vacation (for Josh and I) when Tapa comes to visit. He immediately becomes the "go to person" and Josh and I get a break. Of course grandma is right up there too. She always sends little care packages full of treasures for the boys. They love opening their "own" mail. Plus, she seems to have an endless supply of breath mint which are equivalent to candy in our house. This was Aunt Laura's first trip to visit us in on the east coast. She is a delight to have and we wish she lived closer. She took over our living room and got woken up every morning by two boys jumping on her bed. So thanks Laura for being a trooper!!

Aunt Laura and us



Saturday we just hung out at home. We left early Sunday for Niagara falls. It was truly magnificent. We drove over to the Canadian side and were not disappointed. The amount of water going over the falls per second is mind boggling. They have the whole perimeter fenced and I was still nervous standing near the top of the falls. The boys kept saying "WOW, look at that big water".


The falls with a "Maid of the Mist" boat



After Niagara is was off to Toronto. Art had lived there for awhile so we had our own tour guide. We stayed downtown for the night and then headed to the CNE (Canadian National Exhibition) the next day. We walked the grounds and checked out all the amazing exhibits and animals. By mid afternoon we were getting pretty tired and decided to head home. They had blocked off some on ramps to control traffic so getting on the freeway was a bit of a challenge. The Toronto traffic was the only downside of our weekend adventure. The city it self was really hip and vibrant. Looks like a really cool place to live. Monday we just recovered from our busy weekend and then it was goodbyes on Tuesday. Long weekend but we had sooooo much fun. Hopefully we didn't exhaust our guests on their vacation :)