Our February started out on the not-so-lovely side with a domino effect of sickness which spread like the plague through preschool and then our house. Fortunately, I remained unscathed, but from the tail end of January until the middle of February, at least one person was sick at our house!

The girls missed a week of school, with Amelia and Samantha coming down with a fever, congestion and lingering cough within a few days of each other and Meredith getting the worst of it. I was at the pediatrician’s office four times within six days and basically lived at the pharmacy. I was sure it was the dreaded flu, but it turned out to be just a really nasty cold with accompanying coughing that lasted forever.

I probably need to work on my nursing/compassion skills because I was so sick of taking care of sick people by the end of the ordeal and could not keep my crankiness under wraps! We are so lucky to have such mild weather all year long that I forget what it’s like to be stuck inside the house since we are usually outside for a good portion of each day, and the quarantining due to sickness really took a toll on my sanity. We went on short walks every day and played in our backyard a little bit, but I didn’t want to venture to the park either with friends or by ourselves so as not to infect anyone. That, combined with being out of preschool, was basically torture!

Amelia was well enough to go to school after a week, but Samantha was a few days behind her and needed a little bit of extra time to recover. This was the first time Amelia was at preschool without her sister and was understandably distraught, so Jake took her out to a special Daddy Daughter breakfast before school to help lift her spirits. Fruity Pebbles French Toast = Happiness. I don’t even want to know how much sugar was in this and had to make a conscious decision not to freak out when I saw this picture!

A few weeks later, Jake took a jealous Samantha out to breakfast all by herself.

Finally feeling back to normal!

No one at San Clemente beach on Super Bowl Sunday– the perfect time to go for a beach walk after church!

I’m sure people thought it was super cute that someone named Amelia loved her boyfriend, Sam!

Impromptu rock art in honor of mom.

The youth at church had a fundraiser one weekend where they came by anyone’s house who signed up and did all the yucky jobs no one wants to do. Free labor? Yes, please! They sprayed out/cleaned our outdoor trash cans for us, weeded, and hauled a bunch of stuff to the dump. That afternoon, they held a carnival fundraiser and the girls had a blast getting their faces painted, playing with bubbles and taking turns rolling each other around in a giant blow up ball.

Samantha and Amelia decided to join me during my pregnancy pilates workout.

We finally made time to make it down to the HOA office and got the girls IDs for our neighborhood skate park. It’s normally full of boys on scooters, skateboards and bikes doing backflips, but this afternoon was calm and the perfect time for the girls to try it out. The boys who were there were very encouraging to the twins!

Meredith on her Strider– she rotates between her bike, her plasma car, her scooter, and being pushed in her stroller. I’ve learned the hard way that she will usually give up riding whatever her vehicle of choice is halfway to the park and my huge, lumbering pregnant self will end up carrying it to the park and back. I’ve learned to ALWAYS bring the stroller so I can at least prop her abandoned vehicle on top and push it.

Amelia swings like Tarzan at our neighbor, Naomi’s, gymnastics birthday party.

One of the girls’ favorite activities at the park is collecting flowers and building nests! Parker and Samantha work on a detailed bird habitat.

Picking beautiful flowers at the park.

Since we moved last summer, I’ve gone through three different gardeners. Labor is cheap and everyone on the block has a gardener, but I just can’t understand paying for them to mow our tiny patch of lawn and blow leaves around, especially when they would do a decent job the first month or so and then completely slack off after that! I had finally had it with the noise of the leaf blower during nap time and the fact that they were blowing leaves into our pool constantly, so we’ve been doing our own work ever since. Maybe one day I will find the dream gardener I’m looking for– someone who actually knows something about plants, loves plants and takes care of them! In the mean time, Meredith and the twins have been our free gardeners!

We need to hire Maliyah’s dad, Jared, for our next birthday party. He kept all the kids entertained with a superhero obstacle course and games during Maliyah’s birthday party. The kids all made superhero capes that were super cute– what a fun theme!

Practicing third position at ballet class.

Meredith takes some time to chill out and eat her favorite foods– fruit and cake– at Kennedy’s beach birthday party.

This is what happened while the twins were supposedly “napping.” While they usually take a short nap at preschool, they only nap about 25% of the time on the days they are home.  To retain my sanity, I am very strict about a mandatory daily quiet time, and when they don’t fall asleep, they are usually pretty good at coloring, reading books, listening to books on CD or quietly playing with toys in their room. I am usually resting/napping and Meredith naps for 2 to 2.5 hours, so the hour and a half of twins’ quiet time is non-negotiable! This particular afternoon, they were a little too quiet!

A morning at the park and a chance to get some energy out at the expense of local wildlife. Poor duck!

Lots of love,