After our camping excursion, we spent the rest of the girls’ Spring Break hanging out and enjoying a leisurely and mostly unplanned week together. Instead of rushing off to preschool three days a week, we ate breakfast for as long as we wanted and the twins did puzzles and crafts during Meredith’s morning nap. After Meredith woke up, we went to the park, the pool or a class and napped/played the rest of the afternoon. I thought the week would drag by having the twins home in the morning an extra three days a week, but it was nice not rushing anywhere and not feeling like a chauffeur for a change. I don’t know if it’s their age or skills learned at preschool, but the twins are mostly cooperative playing together and occupying themselves without much intervention from me. Meredith absolutely adored having them around as her constant entertainment, too!

An outing to the playground and sensory garden in San Clemente:

The girls requested to do soccer again (I’m thinking the fact that Daddy takes them and gets them a gatorade afterward may have something to do with it, since it didn’t seem like they were way into soccer last go around!) One of our friends is from the UK and is a director for Playtime Adventure, which brings UK soccer coaches out here to lead a cute intro program for preschoolers. It’s a lot of games, running, hula hoops and a little bit of kicking soccer balls thrown into the mix. The timing is tough since I have to wake the girls up from their naps to make it on time. so they were groggy and cranky at their first practice, but claimed they liked it.

According to Jake, this is how most of the practice went down:

Pool time with the Wrights. Meredith was totally not interested, and I chased her around the perimeter of the pool the entire time.

At Pretend City, Meredith was finally old enough to really interact with the exhibits and her sisters were proud to show her around.

Meredith’s favorite place as of late has been the car… unless I try and buckle her in. The minute I open the garage, she starts hitting the car and squawking, toddler speak for open up! She likes to crawl all around the car and get in the driver’s seat. I’ve learned to let her play for at least ten minutes before we have to go anywhere or else have to summon up superhuman strength manhandling a screaming, strong toddler into her seat. Her favorite word recently is, “NO, NO, NO!”

A happy morning at the park. I must have had at least 450 birthday celebrations so far this year as the girls like to bake me birthday cakes and cupcakes three to four times a day in the sand. I’m always obligated to stick around for the birthday song and blowing out of candles to make it complete.

The girls’ Grace and Zen class is our all time favorite! It’s all very low-key and fun, with the kids learning cool animal yoga poses, a few simple ballet moves, and then they get to read a book, color an inspirational coloring page (last week’s was a mandala with the words “Peace begins with me”), and relax at the end with soothing music and an eye pillow scented with lavender. I really wish they had this exact same class for adults, coloring page included, because I would definitely be there.

Gymnastics with Meredith is wild and crazy. She will sit in her stroller with snacks for about fifteen minutes, before shrieking to get out and from then on, it’s just me chasing her everywhere. Unless I can find a class for them on the weekend or get a sitter for Meredith, the girls’ gymnastics days may be ending soon!

Due to Samantha’s eye appointments, Meredith and Amelia have been going on some Daddy-daughter lunch dates at the Spectrum by his work and have enjoyed having some special time together.

For my birthday, the girls each wrote and chose the illustrations for books they created at Storymakery. Sammy made me into a mommy fairy, while Amelia chose to make me into a mermaid. They loved authoring their first books and have made more at home with construction paper, marker and staples (which have turned out just as cute and creative, if not more so).

Meredith found no need to write a story when the keyboard was so entertaining.

Sammy shows off her favorite hair accessory and road rash from a biking accident.

The girls were looking at old pictures and came across the ones Aunt Sarah took of them in their dressers. They decided to recreate the look!

Somehow, the girls woke up and snuggled in my bed while I was showering, and pretended to be fast asleep when I found them.

During the frantic rush of routines that is bedtime, Meredith was reading by herself at the bottom of the stairs! While the twins love storytime now, they could never sit still long enough to so much as look at a picture book at that age. Meredith is so methodical with her page-turning, it really looks as if she’s reading! She will pull books off the shelf and bring them to me every nap and bedtime, flip through most of the pages with me, and then jump off my lap to select a new book. When things get chaotic, she just reads by herself!

Another Daddy Daughter date to cap off Spring Break!

Lots of love,