Valentine’s 2019

February 14, 2019 by

Herding sheep for a group Valentine’s Day photo…

     

Eleanor kept trying to eat the sign.

Eleanor was just not feeling the dressing up for pictures today!

The school’s annual Valentine’s potluck is always so cute. We had a lot of parent volunteers this time, so I was able to alternate between Samantha, Amelia and Meredith’s rooms. Everyone was chowing down and didn’t really want to be interrupted for pictures!

Samantha’s class digs in.

Meredith’s first school potluck! She basically ignored me whenever I came in to say hi. She is so funny to observe at school because she’s so obedient and independent there! After eating and cleaning up, she brought her nap basket into Amelia’s room to get ready for nap, helped an older kid put the sheets on her mat, listened intently to the story and then curled up and fell fast asleep while I was cleaning up the potluck!

At home, we had our annual Valentine’s Day Party with Valentine’s Bingo, our family “heart attack,” and fondue, which had been a very effective bribe all week long.

Everyone had to spin the spinner and say something they loved about the person it landed on. Only then could they dip their fruit in the fondue! They were definitely more motivated to say nice things about each other when chocolate was involved.

Last year’s fondue was so messy that I almost thought about not doing it this year, but the girls were too quick to ask when we would be eating melted chocolate again for Valentine’s. They did much better with the mess this year!

Lots of love,

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Softball Season: Team Pink Penguins

February 13, 2019 by

Starting in February, the twins joined their very first softball team. While they generally enjoy tennis, gymnastics, and other individual sports more than being team sports girls, we wanted them to at least have the experience of playing on a team and learning the game. Capo Girls is a really fun girls league that starts at the 6U level, which was perfect for beginners Samantha and Amelia. They’ve unfortunately inherited my lack of coordination when it comes to throwing and hitting balls, so we practiced in the weeks before the start of the league and the girls actually enjoyed playing catch and learning to hit the ball. Tennis definitely seemed to have helped their hand-eye-coordination! Amelia, especially was doing awesome hitting the ball without a tee, until she broke her arm. Bad timing!

Their coach, Coach Valerie, coaches high school softball and has a niece on their team. She makes the game fun and is so positive and encouraging. For their very first practice, she had the team playing tag to teach them running to the bases, and she always makes a game out of practicing catching, throwing and hitting. At the first practice, she announced their team color would be pink and asked the girls if they had any suggestions for their team name. Amelia came up with “Pink Penguins” and Samantha immediately seconded her sister. There were several other suggested names, but it came down to Pink Penguins or Pink Cocoa Bears from another girl (which I personally thought was adorable). The team voted and chose Amelia’s name– I guess it’s very useful to have a twin sister and always vote in a block!

Aunt Sarah had been in town for a few days visiting before going to Palm Springs for a conference. She had to leave before the twins’ first game, but as a former softball player, she was proud they were trying it out.

Their first game the week prior was postponed because of rain, and it was pouring on the morning of the rescheduled Opening Day and game too! Everyone huddled under tents and drank hot chocolate/ate breakfast burritos for an hour waiting for the rain to stop. Eventually, it did, and it was finally time for a little team parade and then their first game.

Go Pink Penguins!

I have to admit that half the appeal of softball is the adorable uniforms.

 

All the older girls made a big deal out of the younger players to get them excited.

Batter up.

The actual softball field was too muddy to play on from the rain, so they improvised and played on a field nearby. It was quite entertaining to watch the girls at bat!

Learning the rules…

Go Samantha!

They remind me of old-school Nintendo Mario Brothers running around. Those little legs!

 

It was hilarious watching the twins in the outfield. Amelia sat down half the time and chewed her mitt. When we asked her why she wasn’t running after the ball, she said that the other girls were, so why bother? Can’t beat that logic. We started bribing them with gum and tic tacs to at least TRY to run after/catch the ball and Samantha, in particular, started getting more into it. Amelia could have cared less and stared into space most of the game!

Games are very low key at the 6U level. They don’t keep score, everyone gets as many tries as they need at bat (toward the end of the game, they do coach pitch), the outfielders’ only job is to throw it to first base every time, and the last batter up in the line gets to do a home run! As far as team sports go, it’s the perfect low key environment for non-competitive Samantha and Amelia.

Meredith is the team’s mascot and cheerleader. She’s already made friends with everyone on the team and everyone requested to play with her on the playground afterwards. She DESPERATELY wants to be on the team. Maybe she’ll be more in to team sports than the twins?

We make it fun by hitting up the snack bar after the games– food always seems to leave a good impression on the twins so that they are more motivated to play!

Lots of love,

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Samantha & Amelia’s First Piano Recital

February 12, 2019 by

In preparation for their first piano recital, Miss Jenny started Samantha and Amelia practicing their two songs in December for their February recital. We were getting pretty sick of hearing Indian Song, Skip to My Lou, Alouette, and When the Saints by the time their recital rolled around!

The recital at the recital hall was planned for a Sunday, but since that interfered with our church start time, I told her we’d be happy to host a recital at our house on a Saturday. There were several families who couldn’t do the Sunday recital either, so we planned the recital with Miss Jenny and the families, with about fifteen people planning on attending to perform and watch. I had planned to borrow chairs from my friend, Phi, whose son, Parker also took lessons from Miss Jenny and was doing the recital hall recital, and Miss Jenny asked everyone to bring some food to our house for after the recital. Things were all set, until two days before the recital, Miss Jenny told me two of the families were sick and didn’t think they would make it, and she was sick as well! The other families didn’t mind postponing, but after hearing the girls practice the same songs for two months, I didn’t think I could listen for another week!

After telling Phi what happened, she generously offered to have a little mini recital at her house the next day since her in-laws were not able to make Parker’s recital a few weeks prior. She put it together totally on the fly and we were so grateful! She had originally planned on hosting us for dinner as well, but Meredith and Eleanor both had colds, so we decided to just come over for the recital while Jake watched the two sick girls at home, and came over at the very end so he could switch me places. It was so nice of Phi and family to host a little recital so the twins could at least play for someone! After all their hard work and talk of the recital, I really wanted them to have a chance to play for an audience other than our family. They were so excited to go to Parker’s house and it was a treat to hear Parker too, who is so talented!

I put together a little “program” and Parker was the MC for the night– such a natural!

It was fun for the girls to see how good they could be if they keep practicing– Parker is amazing!

We had practiced going up to the piano, sitting down correctly and getting hands in position for literally MONTHS, but both girls were on a silly streak and did not do anything we had practiced! Maybe they felt too comfortable being at Parker’s house! I had to bite my tongue at their posture!

The girls had been playing their songs perfectly by memory for weeks at this point, but I think having an audience threw them off just enough to forget what they were doing! It required a lot of me silently repeating to myself, “They are five. They are five. They are five”! They still tried their best and it was the perfect first introduction to performing for an audience for these shy and silly girls!

 

Amelia was very brave with her poor casted arm.

We had practiced SO many times what to do if she got stuck or couldn’t remember (go back to the beginning of the measure), but I think the pressure got to Amelia and she needed a little help!

I went up to help her a little bit at the end of When the Saints too.
After everyone performed, Maple and Parker gave a special performance of their dragon dance for us, complete with an authentic Vietnamese/Lunar New Year dragon! We clapped along and thought they did AMAZING, especially cute Maple!

Jake arrived at the end to come in and say hi, leaving poor sickling Meredith and Eleanor in the car. Meredith was SO upset to not be able to come in and play with Maple, but Phi had a little “treasure box” that she let everyone pick something out of and Maple sweetly picked out a toy for her. We were so grateful to the Nguyen family for hosting the twins’ first recital! It turned out to be so much more fun with friends.

Lots of love,

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Meredith’s 3rd Birthday at Disneyland

February 10, 2019 by

A few weeks after Meredith turned three, we celebrated her birthday at Disneyland, after three of the girls got over their colds they kept passing back and forth. Instead of a big party this year, Meredith chose to go to a theme park, and since she was a baby the last time we went to Disneyland, and they had a deal going for Socal Resident 3-day passes,  I kind of chose that for her, even though she kept saying she was excited to go to “Legoland.”

Last time for the twins’ birthday, we spent three consecutive days park-hopping and stayed at the Disneyland hotel, but this time with the pass, we broke it up over a few months, waking up early to drive there instead.

Once Meredith saw Mickey and Minnie, she didn’t seem to mind we weren’t at Legoland!

Last time we were at Disneyland, we were celebrating the twins’ 4th birthday!

 

 

 

First stop, Fantasyland for Dumbo and all our favorites.

We went on President’s Day and arrived before the park opened, so we were able to ride most of the rides in Fantasyland, and some of Adventureland and Frontierland before it got too crazy. By 11 a.m., it was so packed, I could barely navigate the stroller through the crowds! All the rides, even the little kid ones in Fantasyland were 30 minutes plus the rest of the afternoon (we sadly did not make it to It’s A Small World early enough and the line was over an hour, so we skipped that one), so we took it slow and only did those the girls most wanted to do, while breaking it up with some of the non-ride attractions, lunch and snacks, getting a Dole Whip at the Tiki Room (only Meredith wanted to go with me and LOVED the songs!), and watching a parade. We only did Star Tours in Tomorrowland, so when we go back for Day 2 of our pass, we will have to explore there.

Jake and I are totally not theme park people and were so sick of lines and crowds by the end of the day, but it’s hard not to smile and have a magical time when you see the kids’ eyes light up. The girls all had their moments of feel grumpy and tired, but overall had an awesome time. Meredith, especially, was mesmerized by all the rides, characters, music and snacks!

The girls are thrill junkies and all said their favorite ride was Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

Eleanor enjoyed a little snack while waiting.

Meredith was too little to go on this the last time we were here– she was obsessed.

 

 

Possibly the slowest, most boring “ride” at Disneyland.

 

Tarzan’s treehouse was a nice break from all the lines.

The corny jokes on the Jungle Cruise kind of went over the girls’ heads.

Eleanor on Main Street after a parade.

The girls waited thirty minutes in line for Storybook Boats and said it was worth it, even though I can’t imagine why!

     

Everyone begged to go on Star Tours and reported back that it was “a little scary” but that they wanted to do it again.

Carousel time.

Getting dizzy on the teacups.

 

 

Eleanor didn’t nap for as long as usual during the day, but was pretty good about eventually conking out at her regular nap times in the stroller, after putting up quite a fight to stay awake and see all the action.

Jake and the girls waited in line for Splash Mountain, only to be turned away because even though they were tall enough, they couldn’t seat Jake and all the girls together without another adult between them. Jake brought Meredith back to me and the twins and Jake were allowed to jump to the front of the line to ride. Meredith was upset about not riding at first, until she watched it go down a few times and saw people get soaking wet! She didn’t seem to care about not riding after that.

A little scared!

We hung out for dinner at Carnation Cafe/Little Red Wagon (corn dogs for the girls) and drove home, with time to spare for baths. Four very tired and overstimulated girls slept well that night after their exhausting day with Mickey and friends. I thought Disneyland was a good choice for Meredith until on the way back she said her favorite part was riding the huge escalator up to the parking garage and she asked when we were going to Legoland! FAIL.

Regardless, we will be back to California Adventure soon for Day 2.

Lots of love,

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