Celebrate the Little Things

Bruce and I have our 10 year anniversary coming up next month. He was already a Marine when I met him, so I have effectively been married to the Marine Corps for 10 years.  We have said goodbye more times than I can count, and I know what to expect from myself.  I get emotional. I cry when he leaves. I give myself the departure day to be sad and mopey. But, the next day...game on. Let's do this.  He's gone, and I have to make the best of it.

So far I'm proud of how we're handling things. We've been going about our lives. We haven't stopped. In fact, we're even busier than normal. We can now accept invitations that we would normally turn down to have more Daddy time. We make dinner plans with our squadron friends because they don't have husbands at home to cook for either.  I am more free to help other people. Have a doctor's appointment? Bring your baby. They can cuddle with me. We're okay.

But, I want to do more than just survive this deployment. Even though I know there will be bad days when I just want to cry, we're going to thrive in this deployment. As crazy at it sounds, I want to celebrate. Not celebrate that my husband is gone, but celebrate all the little things.  Even though it sometimes feels like it, the world doesn't stop spinning. My kids don't stop growing while their Daddy is gone, and I don't want to wish away months of their childhood because he's not here.  I want to enjoy it more because he's not here to experience it. I want us to live big so we have lots of fun things to tell him. He doesn't want to hear that we're sitting around being sad. Bruce wants us to enjoy the freedom that he's working to protect.

Here's to making the most out of this chapter of our lives. Working towards personal goals and finding joy in the little things. Dancing Girl just mentioned she wants to have a Halloween party.  I say, let's do it! Let's celebrate! Bring out the pumpkins!

Deployment Sucks

Deployment sucks. There are a million other ways to describe it, but I think saying :it sucks" sums it up pretty well.  And, the departure day and the days leading up to it...the WORST.

I try so hard to live in the moment and enjoy having my Bruce still around, but during those last few days, each moment is bittersweet.  I wake up to see Messy Boy all cuddled up to him, and it's so sweet, it melts my heart. But, at the same time, I immediately start tearing up because then all I can think about is how that won't happen again for a long, long time. I soak up watching Dancing Girl laughing and playing in the ocean with Bruce at the beach, and the next moment I'm thinking about what a giant sized hole he's leaving behind.

Then, there's departure day. We had to get up super early to drop him off. I had already  been crying on and off for days, and on the ride, the tears were still flowing. I kept giving him just one more hug and one more kiss and wondering how to make that embrace last for 6 months. It never seems like there enough words to say. One last wave, and then he was gone. Off into the sea of green and piles of sea bags.

I cried on the way home. Dancing Girl told me she wished she could stop my tears. Since the sun had already come up, and we didn't have a chance of going to sleep, we went straight to the grocery store and then picked up coffee and smoothies on the way home. I tried to keep it together, but the smallest things brought me to tears. His toothbrush in the bathroom...immediately had to put it away under the sink along with his soaps.  His shirt that he left on the bed...straight to the hamper to be laundered and put away.  I felt like I needed to put away anything of his that would make it look like he was just gone to work for the day and would be back in a few hours. Not erase his presence from our home, but erase the daily reminders of his absence.

I was exhausted. Bruce and I only got 2 hours of sleep that night. But, I knew there was no way we would get any sleep, so instead we went out and had fun with friends. We laughed and joked. Then, we came back home, and I sobbed. I really wanted to pitch a fit like Messy Boy does. I wanted to jump up and down and cry and scream until someone listened and did what I wanted. Cry until someone decided this wasn't happening, and Bruce could home.

But, that's not how deployment works. Right now, America needs protecting, and it's Bruce's turn to stand watch. So we will keep on going. I went to bed with the kids. I pushed down the constant lump in my throat and refused to think about how long my husband will be gone.  Right now, it's just one day at a time.  We will all be okay. Just keep swimming , just keep swimming.

"Lots of Dots" Preschool Book Extension

Messy Boy recently found his new favorite book. We checked out Lots of Dots by Craig Frazier during our regular library visit.  It became an instant favorite. He asked to read it every day. We read it so much that by the time we returned it he had memorized the whole book and could "read" it himself.

Lots of Dots has colorful illustrations and shows where dots (circles) are found in every day objects. It has an easy to read, rhyming text. Dancing Girl was able to read it by herself the first time through.

Making dot pictures

Since we were having so much fun with this book, I thought it would be fun to make our own dot pictures. I had a one inch circle punch that I used to cut out circles. We used those and some leftover pricing dot stickers to create our own pictures.

Dancing Girl looked through the book for inspiration and decided she wanted to make a flower. Messy Boy and I worked on a caterpillar. Dancing Girl liked it so much she went back and added a caterpillar to her picture too.

Our final creations

This was a fun and easy activity. The possibilities for dot pictures are limitless. Do you have any fun dot picture ideas? Share them with us!

Dancing Girl's 5th Birthday

Dancing Girl just turned five! Why is that five seems so much older than four? I feel like she's gone from being a preschooler to a big kid already. Now I seriously need to figure out if we're homeschooling or sending her to public school next year. That decision always felt so far away, and now it's here!

Since five is such a big birthday, we made a big deal out of it. She pretty much had a birthday week.  We had one day left on our Disney Military Park Hopper, so we drove up to Anaheim the day prior so we could spend her birthday at Disneyland. On the way, we stopped at CoCo Ichibanya in Irvine for our favorite Japanese curry (We became addicted during our time in Okinawa. Even our kids love it now.).

Yummy curry!!

We stayed the night at the Howard Johnson in Anaheim. If you want the convenience of being near the park without the price of a Disney hotel, you should definitely check it out.  It had a small waterpark for the kids. Despite the chilly weather, my kids had a blast. And, seriously...do kids ever say it's too cold to play in the water?

After we got them warmed back up from the brink of frost bite (not really), we went to Downtown Disney for a special dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. The food is a bit overpriced, but really you're paying for the experience of the animatronic animals. It made for a festive birthday eve dinner...complete with a complimentary birthday cupcake.

I almost got a picture with no people in it! A Disney miracle!

We got up early the next morning so we could get to the park when it opened. We went straight for California Adventures so we could get our fast passes to finally meet the Frozen Princesses. Thankfully that worked out and the rest of the day went smoothly (at least until Messy Boy landed in someone else's vomit, but that's another story). The highlight of the day for Dancing Girl was dinner with the princesses at Ariel's Grotto. That was even pricier than the Rainforest Cafe, but it was so nice to be able to get a photo with Ariel and the other princesses without waiting in lines all day.

Dancing Girl's Little Mermaid Party

To cap off birthday week, we had a Little Mermaid (her new favorite) themed party at our house with some of Dancing Girl's friends. I'm normally not the Pinterest  type (I don't even have an account...GASP!), but a quick Google search produced so many fun mermaid ideas that I couldn't help myself. We had veggie dip with a pepper crab in the middle, oyster cookies, cupcakes with seashells on them, and mermaid punch.  For entertainment, the girls decorated door hangers, made kissing fish pictures, and played with a sensory bin with water beads.

We had such a fun week celebrating our Dancing Girl. She has brought so much fun, laughter, and dancing into our lives! We love you, Dancing Girl!

Aubrey Rose Tea Room with Kiddos

Dancing Girl celebrated her fifth birthday last week. I KNOW! When did my baby pants get so big? She used to promise me that she would grow to five and then stop, but she has since taken back that promise. Now she says she has to grow up so she can take care of her kids one day.

Anyway, she was gifted with a tea party at the Aubrey Rose Tea Room by some of her favorite people. This was our first official tea party, so we were very excited. We dressed in our Sunday best and made our way to La Mesa. The tea room is downtown La Mesa, so be on the lookout for street parking(free for the first 2 hours).

Dancing Girl kept taking off her hats before I could get a picture.

My first thought as we walked into the Aubrey Rose was, "I am so glad Messy Boy isn't with us." He would have been like a bull in a china shop. Everything was so pretty and dainty (and breakable).  We had a reservation and were immediately taken back to our table.On the way to the table, our waitress showed us an area in the back where the hats and boas are stored. You heard me correctly, they have hats and boas that you can wear while you have tea. How fun is that?!? Dancing Girl and her friends happily picked out accessories for all of us to wear (and frequently changed them during our two hours at the tea room).

Yummy treats during tea

Our friend booked us for the Princess Sophia tea from the menu, which includes tea, sandwiches (PB&J for the kids), fruit, and pastries. And, they even treated Dancing Girl to some freshly baked blueberry scones for a birthday treat.  Everything was delicious. Dancing Girl was especially a fan of the raspberry cheesecake squares (so was I).

 You can pick as many teas to try as you would like, and they were amazing. That's high praise coming from a southern girl who used to only drink sweetened ice tea and has only recently become tolerant of hot teas.  Ironically, the only tea out of the TEN (They all sounded so yummy we couldn't make up our minds) that I wasn't a fan of, was the peaches and cream.  I normally love anything peach, but that tea missed the mark for me. My favorite was the Aubrey Rose House Tea blend, and I enjoyed it so much that I purchased some to have at home.

A very happy birthday girl

Dancing Girl had a great time celebrating her birthday. She loved having the freedom to mix her tea with sugar, milk, and ice. She was able to stir to her heart's content.  And, she spent the afternoon with her favorite people.  This was a much better gift than another princess doll that gets tossed aside and stepped on after a couple of days.

What about you? Ever been to a real tea room?  Do you have any unique gift experiences that you have given to the kids in your life?

"Circle, Square, Moose" Preschool Book Extension

Circle, Square, Moose

This week we read Circle, Square, Moose by Paul O. Zelinsky and Kelly Bingham. This book teaching children shapes keeps getting interrupted by a silly moose and then the zebra jumps in to try to chase down the moose.  The results is a book that your kids will love. 

This book inspired me to focus more on shapes this week with the Dancing Girl and Messy Boy.  Dancing Girl has known her shapes for what seems like forever, and Messy Boy has just recently started identifying shapes so the activities can be modified for different ages.

Here are some fun ideas for exploring shapes:

-Cut out shapes from foam sheets and let your kids build pictures with them (We play with ours in the bath tub and they love them!)

-Build with blocks together and name the shapes while you build (One of Messy Boy's favorite activities)

-Cut out pictures of squares, circles, rectangles, and triangles from magazines

-Do some pattern building with my Shape Pattenrs.

-Make shapes from Play-Doh 

-Shape Doodles for a little artistic fun (This was a big hit with Dancing Girl!)

-Color, Cut, Trace

-Let your kids draw shapes in the sand, shaving cream, pudding, etc.

What kind of activities do you do with your kids to help them learn about shapes? Did  you try any of the activities I listed? How did it go?

Tide Pools at Cabrillo National Monument

We had our first visit to Cabrillo National Monument back in 2012 when I was VERY pregnant with Messy Boy.  We checked out the Visitor's Center, saw the amazing views of San Diego Harbor, and Bruce and Dancing Girl checked out the lighthouse (I wasn't about to squeeze my very large baby belly through a little spiral staircase).  We had since heard great things about the tide pools there, and had been wanting to go check it out.

A very pregnant me and Dancing Girl back in 2012

So, while the eastern part of the U.S. was battling freezing temperatures this weekend, we headed to the tide pools in our shorts and t-shirts (I know...Carolinians, be jealous). We looked up the tide charts (it's best to get there an hour before the peak low tide), and headed out for the day.  Cabrillo is a National Park area, so there's usually $5 fee per car (or you can use your National Park Pass...free for military), but because it was President's Day weekend, it was free.

Cliffs at the Tide Pools

Unfortunately, a free park day also means a very crowded park day. We headed straight for the tide pool area only to find a sign that said parking was full.  But, there's no other way to get down to the tide pools(you're not allowed to park in the main parking lot and walk down the street because there's no sidewalk or shoulder to the road) so we had to go drive circles around the parking lot until we found a space. Even then, the actual tide pool parking lot was full and had other cars waiting, so we  chose the ocean view parking lot and just walked from there.  

Once you get to the path, there are stairs that take you down to some cliffs. I'm going to be honest, there were a few spots that made me kind of nervous with the kids because we were closer to the edge than I would have preferred. I would prefer them to stay a football field away from the edge, but that's not possible. So, we did our best to hug the cliffs and kept a tight grip on the kids, and everyone was fine.  In fact, I was the only who slipped, but that's usually how it goes. It was a good thing that we wore our Keens because the tide starting coming back in and there was no way to avoid stepping in water. 

Stairs leading down to the tide pools

We were hoping to see some octopuses (I say octopuses, you say octopi. Tomato, tomahto.), but we we were either there at the wrong time or in the wrong spot for those guys. We saw a ton of crabs and sea anemone though. The anemone were so pretty, and since they weren't poisonous, you could touch them and watch them close around your finger. Dancing Girl and Messy Boy refused to touch it, but Bruce and I thought it was pretty cool.

Sea anemones

We were having so much fun that we didn't notice that we walked all the way to the tide pool parking lot.  And, by then the tide had come in so much that we didn't want to risk going back the same way. Thankfully, Bruce volunteered to run back to get the car to come pick us up.

By the time we were all loaded back in the car, the kids were starving and exhausted so we headed straight to The Corvette Diner for some burgers and balloon art.

Have you visited Cabrillo? What's your favorite part to see? Have you done anything else with your kids that made you a little nervous but in reality was safe and totally worthwhile? 

"Peanut Butter and Jellyfishes" Preschool Book Extension

Peanut Butter and Jelly Fishes: Noodle Necklaces 

We checked out a really fun ABC book at the library last week, Peanut Butter and Jellyfishes: A Very Silly Alphabet Book by Brian P. Cleary. My kids absolutely loved it. Each page has fun illustrations with a hidden letter. Dancing Girl had a blast looking for the hidden letters on each page.  You can also take it a step further and have your kids identify all the things on the page that start with each letter.

When I started thinking about an activity to do with this book, there were so many different possibilities. I thought about making a spotted D-dalmation or a paper plate jellyfish, but in the end we decided on doing a noodle necklace like the newt wears in the book.

I looked up how to dye noodles. The instructions I found used white vinegar and food coloring, but comments said that it would still stain your hands.  But, I added one extra step, and our hands are still clean (aside from the food dye that Messy Boy poured directly onto his hands).

Of course Messy Boy wanted to assist with the messy part.

So, to make your colored noodles, put one to two teaspoons of vinegar (the link specified white but I used apple cider vinegar), 4 or 5 drops of food coloring, and noodles into a plastic baggie.  Have your kids shake away to distribute the color evenly, then you're supposed to put them on a tray to dry.  This is where I went a step further. I popped my pasta into the oven on a low 200 degrees for about 10 minutes.  It was perfect! When I pulled it out, the pasta was dry and didn't rub off at all while Dancing Girl and Messy Boy made their necklaces.

Baking the noodles worked liked magic!

Once the noodles were done, I prepped the strings for them by tying a bead (Thanks to Messy Boy I have a jar full of beads from broken necklaces and bracelets.) to one end to keep the noodles from sliding off and wrapped tape around the other end to make it easier for the kids to manipulate.

I mixed some of the noodles together and had the kids do a little color sorting, and then they started stringing.  Messy Boy made one necklace and was done. Dancing Girl kept working until we ran out of noodles. I tried to talk her into making some patterns with the noodles, but she was insistent on keeping her necklaces all one color. In the end, this was an easy and fun activity to do together!

Now to figure out what to do with these necklaces...

Have you ever done noodle projects with your kids? Or made any yourself back in the day? Macaroni picture frames, anyone?

"1-2-3 Peas" Book Craft

I was a teacher back in the day. You know, before my little people came along.  Now that Dancing Girl is getting closer to kindergarten (and I'm thinking about homeschool vs.public hopefully magnet school), the teacher that's been buried down for the past 5 years is starting to pop up more and more.

I've been trying to be more consistent about doing a "homework" time each day.  Dancing Girl is already reading on her own so we've been making making weekly trips to the library to keep her a nice supply of reading material.  My goal for now is to try to do at least one book extension craft or activity each week.  For this week, we did an activity based on 1-2-3 Peas by Keith Baker.

1-2-3 Peas by Keith Baker

We had already read this book several times.  Dancing Girl and Messy Boy were both familiar with the book so when I asked them if they wanted to finger-paint some peas, they were excited.

I printed off large numbers 0-9 for them.  Dancing Girl cut her numbers out herself for more cutting practice, and I did Messy Boy's cutting for him because I don't trust him with scissors yet.  I can't imagine how many things in my house would have holes in them if he got a hold of scissors right now. 

Cutting practice

After all the numbers were cut out, they went right to work finger-painting.  Each fingerprint represented a pea, and they were supposed to put the correct amount of peas to correspond each number. This was a piece of cake for Dancing Girl.  We used this for number recognition practice for Messy Boy, and I helped him to put the right number of peas on each number.

Practicing the numbers

When we were all done, we let the numbers dry over night.  The next day, we broke out the markers to decorate the peas, just for fun. We had such a great time putting silly faces on the peas.  Here are our finished results.

They smiled the whole time they made faces on the peas.

Have you read 1-2-3 Peas?  What did you think of it? Let me know how it goes if you try this activity with your kiddos. I hope they enjoy it as much as mine did!

Life Before Kids: The Longest Night

I was 23, and I had been just moved to Okinawa, Japan to be with my husband.  We had celebrated our 1st anniversary apart (as seems to be common among military families) with me finding out the news that his squadron would deploy to Iraq only two months later.  We were able to spend Christmas and New Years together, and then he packed up and headed off to war.

All the emotions come rushing back to me when I remember dropping him off that morning.  Tears are welling up in my eyes just thinking about it. I can't recall how many tearful hugs and kisses we exchanged before he finally told me that I should go because he needed to be able to put on his Marine face and do his job. That's not the way he said it, but I knew what he meant. It was breaking his heart to have me standing there crying, and it wasn't going to change the fact that he had to leave. So, I got in his car, and I drove myself home. It's probably a miracle that I made it home because I know that I sobbed the whole way back to our tower.

The emptiness of our apartment hit me like a ton of bricks as soon as I walked through the door.  I doubled over on the couch and just cried. Not the pretty eyes misting kind of crying. I ugly cried. I feel like I cried that whole day.  If you've ever sent your husband off to war, you know what I mean. If you haven't, it's just as bad as you imagine.

I had my day to cry, then pulled myself together, and got on with life.  I flew to mainland Japan with a friend. We had planned the trip in conjunction with our husbands leaving so we had a distraction to get through the first few days alone. I got a few calls and emails from Bruce that he had arrived and was getting settled. I got back to work as a substitute teacher and tried to keep myself busy with my friends who were also newlyweds now finding themselves alone on an island in the Pacific.

The squadron had only been gone about 2 weeks.  I was getting ready for bed one night, doing one last check of my email.  When your husband is deployed, you check your email a few hundred times a day, waiting for any word from him. I pulled up Yahoo (because I'm old school like that), and before I could click on my inbox, I saw the headline that all air wing spouses dread. "Helicopter Crash in Iraq." I immediately clicked the link, thinking to myself that it wouldn't be his aircraft. I scanned the article to see that I was wrong. It was a CH-46 that had crashed.

My heart sunk, and I immediately got that pit in the bottom of stomach. I cried. I called a friend who offered to come over, but her husband was getting ready to deploy as well, and I didn't want take take her away from him. I called our FRO (Family Readiness Officer) who of course couldn't tell me anything yet. I called my Daddy, who I'm sure felt helpless half a world away. And, I just cried. I prayed, and I cried. I literally cried myself to sleep that night.

I woke after a few hours of restless sleep, and I realized that I was supposed to work that day. I knew that if I stayed home, I would just sit and worry so I went to school. I talked to the secretary and other teachers and let them know what had happened. They knew that I would be checking email and keeping my phone on me at all times waiting to hear word.

I went through the motions with my students. I just drifted through the morning. During a library visit, I snuck over to a computer to check my email. I had an email from a reliable source. All it said was, "I can't say anything else, but Bruce is okay."  That's all I needed to hear. I felt like an enormous weight had been lifted off my chest. I could finally breathe again.

It was another couple of days before I heard from Bruce and before we got official word on what had happened. What I remember the most though, is that any relief I felt that Bruce was safe, was immediately replaced with guilt. I was guilty to be relieved because my relief meant that other families were realizing their worst nightmares. My Marine was okay, but theirs wasn't.

Today is the eight year anniversary of that crash. Each year I relive the pain that I felt and still feel the guilt of having my Marine with me while others are missing theirs.  Tonight I will hold my Marine a little tighter and hold those families up in my prayers. And, I will choose to remember the crew of Morphine 1-2 so that their sacrifices will not be forgotten.

This was a CNN Special, Chopper Down, about the crew of Morphine 1-2.

Making Valentines with Dancing Girl

Wow! It's February already? In my house, that means Valentine's Day is sneaking up on me.  Because we are a military family, we have so many friends scattered around the country that Dancing Girl wants to send cards to.  Unfortunately for me, that means we can't wait until the day before Valentine's Day to throw something together.  So, I did some internet perusing last night and found these adorable kitty Valentines at Blissfully Domestic.  We had all the necessary supplies (I mean, who doesn't have googly eyes just lying around the house?), so Dancing Girl got to work today.

I think ours actually turned out more like mice. What do you think? 

We pretty much followed Blissfully Domestic's instructions except that we made out card a bi-fold (is that really how you explain it?) and glued our "You are a purr-fect friend" inside the card.  Tomorrow, I will let Dancing Girl and Messy Boy go to town and add stickers and draw pictures if they like. Then, we can hopefully get them addressed and in the mail before next Valentine's Day.

Adding the whiskers... 

Messy Boy didn't care too much for making the cards. He mostly wanted to put stickers everywhere (Anyone want to come clean stickers off of my furniture?).  Dancing Girl had a lot of fun though and made  a dozen cards in an hour's time.  And, best of all, I don't have to spend extra money buying Valentines.  Just don't tell Dancing Girl they look like mice. Then, we would have to start all over.

Do you have any fun Valentine's Day crafts you enjoy doing with your kids? Send me a link so we can try it.  We still have a week to cram in cute Valentine's projects.

Done!

Train Ride in Campo, California

In our house, Messy Boy's fascination with trains was as natural as Dancing Girl's obsession with everything pink, purple, and princess. So, when we read about the opportunity to do a real live train ride, we loaded up the kids and headed to Campo, CA.

The Pacific Southwest Railway Museum is about an hour southeast of San Diego, practically in Mexico.  In fact, the train ride takes you from the station six miles into a tunnel to the border and then turns around. Train rides are available on Saturdays and Sundays at 11 a.m. and 2:30 pm. Tickets can be purchased online or at the station, and children under the age of 6 ride free.  Woohoo!  It's so nice when the little people are free.

We arrived at the museum about 30 minutes prior to the 2:30 departure. There's a sandbox and swing set outside the depot so the kids and I waited there while Bruce went to get our tickets (Side note for our military buddies...they do have a military discount so be sure to ask!). Messy Boy is always thrilled to play in the dirt and had fun digging in the sand box while we waited on the train.

The conductor was a sweet older gentleman who volunteers with the railroad.  He gave some background information before boarding, which to be honest, I didn't hear much of because I was busy keeping up with my two crazies.  The boarding starts about 5-10 minutes prior to the ride. Be sure to make a potty stop before you get on the train because there are no bathrooms on board.

The kids were so excited to take their seat on the train. They enjoyed looking out the windows and eating fishy crackers for about the first 15 minutes. It was nice and peaceful. Bruce and I were able to sit beside each other and hold hands while our adorable off spring sat across from us smiling. But, when the snacks ran out, Messy Boy was done sitting. We spent the last 45 minutes of the ride taking turns walking around the open air cargo car with the aforementioned adorable offspring or having Messy Boy wiggle all over us in the seat.

This was during the calm and peaceful part of the ride.

After the ride, the train lets you out just a few hundred yards away from the depot at the museum with the static display trains.  I think this was Messy Boy's favorite part.  There were trains everywhere outside to look at and a few cars inside the museum to explore.  Dancing Girl thought it was absolutely hilarious that there was a toilet in the passenger car.

Down by the station...

There was a sign on the desk inside the museum that said there was a teddy bear hidden somewhere in the museum, and if you could spot him, the clerk at the gift shop would give you a prize. We looked all over the museum twice, but we couldn't find him.  I even tried to ask a few of the volunteers about it, but no one seemed to know what I was talking about. I don't know if it was something new that they didn't know about yet, but if you go and find that sneaky bear, please let me know. It drove me crazy for hours after we left.

Checking out the mail car for the bear.

There was also a model train set up in the middle of the museum. Messy Boy found the magic button that made the train go around the track. I think he could have stood there all day pressing the button and then chasing the train around the table.

He found the button!

We had so much fun. I think we were the last people to leave the museum heading back to the parking lot.  We grabbed an old fashioned cream soda from the gift shop and headed back home.  We won't talk about the car ride home. Bruce took the scenic route and almost made me carsick from the curvy roads. Next time, we'll stick with the interstate.

Have you ever been on a train ride with your kids? How did it go? Where did it take you?

Things Messy Boy Broke, Volume 1

As Messy Boy's superhero name would suggest, he is messy.  Messes follow him wherever he goes.  He is also quite destructive.  The boy breaks everything.  The words, "If you keep breaking things, we will never be able to have anything nice" have actually slipped out of my mouth on more than one occasion, making me feel very old.

Someone please tell me, is this a boy thing or just a Messy Boy thing?  There are some things I just expect to get broken like all the cheap, plastic toys that somehow creep into my house. I expect those to be broken.  It's the supposedly good quality wooden toys that he's broken that just completely baffles me.  

So, with all the stuff being broken in my house, I have decided to document it. I hope that it makes you feel better about all the things in your house that are NOT broken and that I can one day use this as evidence against Messy Boy when he's a teenager.

Here are a list of things that Messy Boy has broken over the past few days weeks:

•  Arrows from Dancing Girl's Merida bow and arrow set (followed quickly by the replacement arrows for the aforementioned Medida arrows)

This is actually the fifth arrow he broke.

• Starfish bracelet

All that remains of Dancing Girl's starfish bracelet.

• Wooden snowman that he painted himself

I had intended to save this with the box of handmade Christmas decorations.

• Wooden butcher knife from a Melissa & Doug sushi set
• Wooden pot from Dancing Girl's play kitchen

Do you have a destructive little toddler demolishing your house?  What got broken in your house this week?

Out to Eat with Dancing Girl and Messy Boy: The Corvette Diner

We always get stuck in a rut when we decide to go to a restaurant because we're choosing at the last minute and end up going to the same places again and again.  But, we live in San Diego. There are so many delicious restaurants to explore.  Tonight we went to one that we had heard had awesome burgers and that the kids would enjoy.

The Corvette Diner is located in the NTC (the old Naval Training Center) area of San Diego.  It's modeled after a 50's diner, complete with fun music, girls in poodle skirts and beehive hair, and of course an old corvette!  There was a DJ playing oldies music, and the servers would sporadically  break into song and dance.  The kids were both perplexed and amazed by the balloon artist who quickly sculpted a sword for Messy Boy and an adorable pink and purple (her favorites!) butterfly for Dancing Girl. The restaurant also has an arcade that older kids I'm sure would enjoy, but we didn't check that out tonight.

Aren't the eyes on the butterfly adorable? 

Dancing Girl and Messy Boy loved all the entertainment of the diner, and the food didn't disappoint either.  I had the Brenda Burger (pretty much a bacon cheeseburger...how can you go wrong with that?), Bruce had some sort of spicy burger (which he claimed wasn't spicy enough), and the kids shared a hot dog plate.  My burger was awesome, and the bun for it was ahhhh-mazing.  It was soft and fluffy and tasted so fresh.  Oh...and the upgrade to waffles fries is totally worth it. Dancing Girl even gave them a thumbs up.

I didn't taste the hot dog, but between the two munchkins, it all got eaten.  I wish I had a picture of HOW they eat their hot dogs though. Instead of eating it from the side like every other person you've ever seen eat a hot dog, they both eat theirs from the top.  So strange.  Anyway, the hot dog was consumed, and they were even serenaded with a hot dog song and dance from some waitresses.  Bruce and I laughed while they just tried to hide during the song, and Messy Boy even looked quite angry. To be fair though, he had just woken up from a car nap (don't you hate those?) when we got to the restaurant.

We finished off our evening with a peanut butter and chocolate malt shake.  Anything with peanut butter and chocolate is a favorite of our household so those were polished off pretty quickly.  

Messy Boy drank practically the whole thing. Help! Someone come get him to sleep for me?

At the end of the night, Dancing Girl proclaimed The Corvette Diner her new favorite and begged to go back every single day.  And, while we won't be going that often (I don't think I could ever run enough to support those kind of calories), I'm sure we will return.

Joshua Tree National Park (with Kids)

My kids love to jump and climb. On everything. That means I spend a large portion of my days telling them to stop climbing up my walls.  It was so nice to take a weekend trip to a place where they were free to climb to their hearts content.

This is a Joshua Tree. I think it looks like it's straight out of Dr. Seuss.

Last week we took a little family getaway to Joshua Tree National Park. It's only 2 1/2 hours away from our home in SoCal.  We drove down on Friday, and settled into our hotel. If you happen to be military, definitely check out the Sleepy Tortoise Lodge on base in Twentynine Palms. It looked to have been recently renovated and had big rooms with a kitchen.  As an added bonus for the kids, the front desk had kids' movies to borrow, and there was a playground right outside our room!

We woke Saturday morning, had breakfast (courtesy of the Sleepy Tortoise) and then headed into the park via the North entrance gate (FYI...If you're military, you can get in for free via the Military Annual Pass available at the gate.). Our first stop was Skull Rock.  We climbed out of the car, and the kids immediately started scrambling (Bruce says that's the official term) over the rocks.  Mind you, they're 2 and 4, and we were still able to make it over some decent sized boulders without getting ourselves in any precarious situations.

Apparently this is what is known as "scrambling" in the rock climbing world.

From Skull Rock, we went to Keys View to check out (obviously) the view.  That was just a short walk around a paved sidewalk to see the sights.  Supposedly on a clear day, you can see San Andreas fault in the valley.

Keys View

The next stop was Hidden Valley to do a 1 mile nature trail around, as the name suggests, a Hidden Valley.  Dancing Girl hiked it on her own, and (much to his dismay) Messy Boy got to ride on Daddy's back in the baby backpack.  It was an easy little hike, but that didn't stop Dancing Girl from stopping to whine every few minutes. Luckily, there were more rocks to climb around every corner so that would get her going again.  There were also rock climbers dangling from rocks and crazy people doing insane yoga poses on big boulders, so obviously there was plenty to see.  

The Hidden Valley

 The Cholla Cactus Garden was about a 1/4 mile walk through the cacti.  It was very neat to see and easy enough for the kids to walk through themselves. We just had to make sure that Messy Boy didn't trip and fall into a cactus.  There were signs cautioning you of how painful the needles of the cactus are to remove. Thankfully, we all made it through unscathed.

Cholla Cactus Garden

We had also heard good things about the 1.1 mile Barker Dam hike, so we talked Dancing Girl into one more hike and strapped Messy Boy into the backpack again.  There were some more rocks to climb along the way, but Dancing Girl was very disappointed that the dam was dried up.  We gave her a Larabar, and she let that slide.

This is how we do it in our family. 

We spotted some hieroglyphics near the end of the trail .  That started a lively discussion between Bruce and I about how hieroglyphics are really just ancient graffiti. Seriously, how do we know the ancients were trying to record their history and not just doodling to pass the time? In a few hundred years, people will probably will be marveling at the huge rock we signed our senior year of high school.  

Really old graffiti

We headed back on Park Boulevard towards the West entrance of the park.  Our last stop was for a picnic lunch before driving home. That was an awesome spot that would be great if you have an avid climber like Bruce who's itching to do some sport climbing but need a place for littles to hang out while they wait on Daddy.  There were picnic tables right there by the rock, and the really smart people set up canopies for shade.  Just take some snacks and a shovel, and your little ones could be entertained for hours while the grown-ups do some climbing.

We would definitely recommend Joshua Tree for a nice family weekend!  We came away with a few scrapes, but a lot of fun family memories!

Have you been to Joshua Tree? What were your favorite spots? Planning a trip? Let me know how it goes!

Meet The Family

Dancing Girl thinks I should refer to myself as Crazy Little Mommy, but I'll stick with my real name, Alicia.  I'm mommy to two crazy wonderful little kids (you'll learn more about them in a minute) and wife to my handsome Marine (We'll call him Bruce).  I was born and raised in a small town in the South Carolina foothills, but we are now living in Southern California, thanks to the Marine Corps.  I love Jesus, baking, attempting to sew, and hate running. Anyway, you don't want to know about me. More about the interesting people in our family.

Ignore that Messy Boy isn't smiling. He really does like us.

Life is a musical with  Dancing Girl in our lives. She is learning to roller skate and breaks into a motivational little ditty about how she can do it if she only believes in herself. Then, all the stuffed animals pull on their skates and start doing triple jumps while a disco ball drops down from the kitchen ceiling.  Okay, so the stuffed animals don't skate, but Dancing Girl really does make up a song and dance about everything she does.

Dancing Girl will be five soon, and is our sweet but shy, intelligent, witty, and loving little perfectionist.  She's the one that makes us look like we're good parents who have it all figured out.

Dancing Girl with her best friend, Hyena.

Then, there's Messy Boy. He made us realize we don't have a clue what we're doing.  We decided a few months ago Messy Boy would be his superhero persona. Villains would be so busy cleaning up his messes that they wouldn't have time to commit any crimes. It's a standing joke in our family that we have to run behind him catching toys, books, and china plates as he throws them backwards.  Except that it's not a funny joke because it's the truth.  Seriously, this kid may only be two, but he can tear up the house like a group of frat boys.

Although there are times (a lot of times) when it seems he walks around just looking to get into trouble, Messy Boy is also the most loving little guy around. He's adventurous (Stop climbing the bookshelf!), funny,  smart, and he gives the best hugs.

Don't let this cute face fool you...he's trouble.

So, there you go.  That's our crazy family.  I can't wait to start sharing more of our crazy adventures with you.