More Discoveries

Wesley's friend Brayden was recovering from a fall and a near trip to the emergency room when he asked his mom if he could take Wes to the Discovery Science Center.  What a sweet friend!  We were so glad we were free and that Brayden didn't need stitches!  Here's just a few pictures:

They had a new NASA exhibit outside, so while we waited for our friends (Wes was way to excited to wait to meet them in the parking lot) we got to check out this cool space suit.  Inside it was pretty crowded with  field trips, but we ate an early lunch and by the time we were done, the place had cleared out.  So nice to pretty much have free reign!

 Inside, the boys checked out the earthquake room:

 Waiting so patiently...what's about to happen????

Shake, shake, shake...and they all fall down! (I don't think the earthquake was that strong, I think their imaginations were though!)

 Wes loves this smoke ring maker thing (???) He says it's volcano smoke because he's really into volcanoes right now.  I think it's partly because he really wants us to take him to Hawaii, where we've told him there are lots of volcanoes. 

 This giant pin wall kept us all entertained for quite a while!

 And a little science lesson before we headed out.  Thanks again friends, we had a great time!

More pics on Carrie's blog here.

Eclipse!

We usually have Sunday dinner at Grammy's house and on Sunday May 20th, we just happened to be able to catch the annual solar eclipse after dinner.  Grandpa got out his welding goggles so we could blind ourselves look directly at the sun.  Even though sunglasses and welding goggles, I still had those funny sun spots on my eyeballs. 

 I love these pics of Wes and Uncle Chris :)

Roller Skating Lessons!

You know that feeling when you step into a room, or smell a smell or hear a song and you're immediately transported to another time and place from long, long ago??  That happened to me a couple of weeks ago when I took Wesley to the Fountain Valley Roller Rink for skating lessons.  As soon as I walked in the door it was 1989, I was in junior high and at some kid's birthday party wondering who was going to try to hold my hand during the couple's skate.  It was eerie, it smelled the same, looked the same and I'm pretty sure the music was the same.  But then I was immediately snapped back to reality by my almost three year old jumping up and down with excitement and my six month old fussing to see what all the excitement was about :)

Wes' cousin Gia has been taking lessons for several weeks and when Auntie Jessica told me about it, I thought it sounded like fun!  For $6 you get rental skates, a lesson, and free time to skate.  Can't beat that!

Cash decided to put on skates for the first time too.  Love that we get to hang out with our cousins!

Wes was a little unsure on his skates, even though the wheels were so tight, they barely rolled.  But I haven't been on roller skates in years, so I probably shouldn't talk.

They teach you to put your arms out like an airplane and take little marches.

During the lesson the instructor taught them how to stand up once they've fallen down, and since Wes  had the falling down part covered, that was an important lesson.  As a parent it's been really interesting to watch my child learn skills that I already have.  In my mind, rollerskating is easy, but watching Wes makes me realize what a struggle it is to learn something new.  He definitely needs a few many more lessons, but I'm hoping that I'm teaching him how fun it is to try something new and that he can succeed if he just keeps trying.  Plus we finished up the lesson with the Hokey Pokey, and nothing is more fun than a dark roller rink, a disco ball, and shaking it all about!

Dates with Mom

The weather has been really gorgeous recently (middle of May) so Wes and Cora and I have been doing a lot of walking.  Here's a couple of our outings:

We walked to the back bay for a picnic lunch and to check out their nature center.  Can't believe I've lived here all these years and have never been there.  Having children really helps you discover fun places right in your own backyard!

And our Starbucks down the street had "happy hour" (half priced  frappuccinos)  for a week, so after nap we walked down for a treat.  Wes chose milk and a rice crispy treat, I had a decaf mocha frappuccino light (Which Wes of course had to try, just hope he doesn't get hooked!). Love happy hour at Starbucks!

Feeding My Sissy

Since the day Cora started eating food, Wes has been asking to feed her.  But I told him he would need to wait until she was opening her mouth and had the hang of swallowing solid food.  I didn't really think that would take approximately three days!  Cora loves eating and since I had bought peas for her to try for the first time, Wes insisted he be the one to feed her them.  

Love her faces in this video, you can see she's not quite sure what to make of peas!

From here on out I'll be making Cora's food just like I did for Wes.  He started out on the jarred stuff then I switched after a couple of weeks.  I truly think it helped him to be the amazing eater he is today, but we'll see if my hypothesis proves correct after I make Cora's food.  I remember it was quite time consuming, but pretty fun coming up with different combinations and flavors.  We just made a trips to Mother's and Wes wanted to put just about every fruit and vegetable in our cart so I don't think she'll get bored!  Happy eating!

Happy Mother's Day!

On Mother's Day we went to church in the morning and then headed to Mike's mom's house for a BBQ.  We spent Saturday evening celebrating at Grammy's house with my Uncle Dan, Aunt Marilyn and Grandma but unfortunately didn't take any pictures.  But we are so thankful for all the mom's in our lives! 

I love being these two kids' mom!  What a blessing...a ton of work...but the best blessing ever!

Grandma Susie had the bounce house out, so the kids loved that!

I think Cora wanted in too, but she needs a couple more months :)

Auntie Jessica with Cousins Amy and Nathan

Thanks to Auntie Jessica for swimming with Wes and the rest of the kids! 

 Happy Mother's Day to all you wonderful moms!

Last Day of CBS

It's been a while since I've updated my blog, and that is partly due to the fact that I'm always behind, but also because we just got home from a week's vacation in Omaha!  Hi to all the family we got to see in Nebraska and Iowa!  Pictures from that trip in the (hopefully) near future :)  But for now, I must get caught up.  So May 10th was the last day of CBS for the summer and Wes' last day for the next year :(  He is off to preschool next year which is on Tuesday and Thursday's, so he will miss CBS which is on Thursdays.  On the final day they have the kid's Spring Sing where all the kiddo's come into the sanctuary and perform the songs they've been learning all year long.  This one was really important to me since it was Wes' first performance and his last for a while.  Plus I'd been hearing him sing the songs he'd been learning so I was ready to hear them all together!  Daddy and Grammy even got to come and watch, so it was a special morning.

This is Miss Carolyn, the children's music director.  She drives all the way from Fallbrook every Thursday to teach our kids about Jesus through music!

Here's Wes' White Lambs class coming into the sanctuary.  Notice he's holding his teacher, Miss Robyn's, hand...I'm sure that was out of necessity since Wes usually has his own agenda.  His other teacher Miss Shirley and I talked several times throughout the year about his following directions (or lack of).  But she assured me that they loved having him in class and that God has big plans for his strong personality :)

Here's the kids getting all lined up.  We were sitting in the front row so it was really cute when Wes noticed us, and waved and said "hi Mom, hi Dad, hi Grammy!"

I think he's doing some of the hand motions here...

...but I know he is here.  Notice the teacher pointing to her toes in the bottom right.  Here are a couple of video's of the kids singing.  They all did so well, no major issues or melt-downs, which is pretty impressive for that many kids all on one stage!

This is my "new moms" group.  We all had little babies at some point during the year.  The girls in the back row (Tiffany, Carrie, Ariel, and Kristin) had little babies in the beginning of the year but were now in the nursery since they are walking around.  Those of us in the front (Me, Laura, Kelly and Celea) still had our little ones with us since they were younger.  Next year all of our kids will be in the nursery together and we'll be in regular classes (no babies).  But it was so great to have a year with our leader Susan (in blue) who is truly an amazing woman of God, with so much wisdom and insight.  I was so glad to be a part of this group of ladies!

And these are the little thank you's I gave to Wes' teachers and my leader.  I know they are kind of old school, but since I love making cookies, I figured these would be fun to give since half the work was already done :) Here's the tutorial with the templates.

It was a wonderful year in CBS and I'll be looking forward to starting up again in September!