Oh Ryan

This is my Ryan- always up for a good challenge. A couple pushups with about 100 pounds of six-year-old on top.

Disneyland

Then we were off to Disneyland. This started out rough. Kate is not the adventurous soul that Ella is. Ella went on every fast roller coaster that she could. Poor Kate- we started with the Peter Pan ride and the whole 30 minutes in line she cried saying she did not want to go and all she wanted was a lollipop- yes, it was 10 am. Well, I conceded with the lollipop- yes, it was 10 am, but what the heck it's Disneyland. However, I made that kid cry her way through the Peter Pan ride. As we got off, she was still in tears, and she was a little difficult to understand, but through the gasping tears was a "I want ....to ....do that....again." See, a little torture teaches kids that the Peter Pan ride is indeed fun. She is definitely an It's a Small World kind of kid, but that's OK. Ryan and Ella hit the super fast rides as many times as they could. I even rode SpaceMountain which was always my favorite roller coaster. Luckily, I had the row to myself so that I could brace myself, hold on widely and tightly, engage my core, and ensure no back injury. It's still as fun as I remember.

Catching Up

I have been a very negligent blogger, but we have had a hectic last month. Brad warned me that this was the hardest part-keeping up. So I am going to try to fill in on some of the fun stuff over the last month. The rest of our California trip was full of adventure. We had great fun at Legoland with Gramps. Kate drove a car all by herself- which is how she likes doing pretty much everything these days.

More Cali Fun

Here are a few more pictures and a cute video of Kate getting to know the water. Within 20 minutes, she was thigh-deep and jumping over waves, just like her big sister.

California Vacation

Yeah. Finally, a week off and a week of sun (mostly). We have enjoyed fun at Nana's house this week. Our first day here was just perfect weather and we had a great day at the beach at Little Corona. Neither girl complained about itchy sand, sand in the butt, or really anything- plain old incredible. We are off to a good trip.

More B-Day Pics

Happy Birthday Kate

Saturday was Kate's birthday and man was she ready. We have been on a countdown for sometime now. Finally, the day came. I looked at Kate when she woke up and said "Kate, it's your birthday!" "Now, it's here? Where is it?" She went to look for her bouncy house. So I think birthday just means bouncy house to Kate. That's fine because in our family it is true. We proceeded to have a great day. Lots of bouncing with friends and family. We had lots of smiles, very few tears, and lots of cake. Kate had way too much sugar but oh well. You only turn 3 once. She definitely did reach a few more things that day- those arms grew.

The best story so far about her being 3 follows: Every morning I drop Kate off at Martha's house. Our routine is that I sit on the couch with her for a few minutes. We tell Martha a couple of stories about things that happened in the last day or so, we watch Diego, and then we give hugs and kisses and I go. Well, Martha informed us a few weeks ago that when Kate turned 3, I could not linger around anymore. She told Kate that Mommy will just have to drop her off like the other kids, so we have been working towards this.

With daylight savings, Monday morning was a little rough getting the kids up to get ready. We were really running behind schedule, so I dropped Ella off at school, rather than walking her in. Then, we were off to Martha's. Kate said "Mommy, I'm fwee (3), so you need to drop me off at Martha's." I replied, "OK Kate. I will walk you in and give a hug and kiss." She answers, "You don't need to walk me in. I can do it by myself." "But I need to give Martha her check," I said. "No, Mama, I can do it myself." So we pulled up to Martha's. I put Martha's check in Kate's pocket, handed her her baby and her blanket. I gave her a high and kiss and told her to have a nice day and she said the same. "Bye, Mama." "Do you need me to open the door, Kate?" I asked. "No, Mama. I can do it," she answered. Off she went, and she did it, though the blanket was stuck in the door for a few seconds. I called Martha to make sure she made it in OK. She was just laughing, telling me she just stomped in, took off her jacket, hung it up, gave Martha her check, and got to business playing. Yikes kid.