We’ve been finding all sorts of creatures on our patio as of late and S and A are becoming quite the reptile connoisseurs. Squeamish these girls are not.

Side note: Bandit caught and killed his first bunny the other day. It was incredibly traumatizing and totally my fault because I was throwing a ball for him at the park and had him off the leash. A bunny darted out from a bush, and as per usual, he went after it, except this time he actually caught it.

By the time I realized what had happened, Bandit was sniffing the dead bunny, tail wagging and looking up at me like, “What happened? It doesn’t want to play anymore?” There was no blood or anything (it looked like Bandit’s first instinct was to grab it by the neck and fling it, which probably broke the poor creature’s neck) but I still had to stop myself from getting too upset since the girls were right there playing in the sand, completely oblivious. I’m sorry, bunny!

 It feels like summer already with the days getting longer– bring it on! We usually eat dinner around 5 or 5:30 and then head out for a walk around the neighborhood, a trip with Bandit to the dog park or a short romp at the playground. S and A have been awesome about going to sleep in their toddler beds after our evenings out (knock on wood). Jake does most of the bedtime routine while I pop in to read a book or two and then kiss them goodnight.

Down in the canyon in the back, someone put in a tire swing on one of the oak trees. Samantha is pretty indifferent to it, but Amelia can swing all day on that thing.

S and A are still arabesque-ing up a storm at dance class and still have their weekly MyGym class as well. Our music class ended, but having three classes over the winter was a bit too much, so we didn’t renew, (I’ll revisit the idea for the summer session). I am looking forward to having Tuesday mornings free to do whatever and not have to feel stressed getting the girls on the potty and out the door at an exact time.

The girls have been in to “reading” books independently lately. Their favorites are every single one of their animal books, Pinkalicious, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, Polar Bear, Polar Bear, Little Bunny Foo Foo, Hands Can and Don’t Push the Button. If I walk in on them reading in their room, they look at me like I’ve intruded on their privacy and shoo me away.

Lots of love,

No need to ever buy new toys. We’ll just visit Noah when he comes to town or play at his house. S and A were totally occupied with all of his baby toys and books.

 

All morning, I had been telling the girls that we would be going to visit Baby Noah later and they wouldn’t stop chanting, “Baby! Baby!” the entire day. Once we arrived at the door, they sang, “Babbbbbyyyyyyy!” again. I think they are finally recognizing their cousin.

We all had a nice storytime with Great Auntie Lynn and the girls’ selection out of Noah’s books: Elmo.

We can’t wait until Noah is walking and these three are chasing each other around. Talk about entertainment!

Lots of love,

After a full day at the Wild Animal Park and a good night’s rest sans hotel room parties (finally), we relaxed around Oceanside and played at the beach before heading home.

Lots of love,

When I’ve been here by myself with the girls, we usually tend to see the monkeys and elephants first. By the time we get to the tigers, they are usually asleep, so we reversed course today.

The girls went bonkers for these birds, who were obviously way overfed. It took a while to attract some over and land on our arms, at which point they refused to let the girls hold them (can’t say I blame them).

It blew my mind that there was an HOUR AND A HALF wait to feed butterflies. I mean, seriously? We bought a Disneyland-Fast-Pass inspired ticket that let us bypass the line, but not before waiting in it for twenty minutes before realizing this was ridiculous. The fact that I didn’t have to spend another minute trying to keep S and A from eating the “butterfly food” (cups with watermelon inside) made it worth the money.

Before letting our group enter the the butterfly enclosure, the guide told us that the previous night, some of their exotic birds had accidentally entered the butterfly garden, and thus there were only about half as many butterflies today as there normally were. Cue awkward silence as we all stared at him, jaws dropped in horror, imagining greedy birds gobbling up beautiful butterflies. Good thing it was April Fool’s Day! That was a good one, my friend.

Exiting the butterfly exhibit was a maximum security event. We were all checked at three different doors and asked to spin around each time/bags checked to make sure no butterflies had hitched a ride with us. The girls just thought it was an extension of dance class.

Feeling dangerously optimistic, we decided to hang around the park until it closed instead of going back to the hotel. We seem to always make the mistake of pushing ourselves to the limit, instead of just quitting while we’re ahead and everyone’s happy. Things started deteriorating FAST about an hour after nap time was over. Lesson learned.