Duffy Boat Cruise

For Christmas, we bought a gift of a Duffy boat cruise for the whole family.  We had gone once before right before I found out I was pregnant with Wesley...I remember coming home and needing a nap because I was so exhausted.  I just figured the salty sea air had worn me out :)  But we had such a fun time that when I saw a Groupon for another one, I knew we'd all enjoy it again.  Like most of the Groupons I buy, we used it right before it expired and unfortunately the weather was a little gloomy and cold, and the parking was a nightmare since it was the boat show weekend, but we still had fun cruising the harbor and enjoying lunch together.  I forgot to take a picture of our boat, so here's a pic I borrowed from the website:

 Cora's first boat ride!

Wes piloting our vessel...

...and navigating for Daddy.

 

 We saw lots of amazing houses, the Virgin Oceanic Catamaran, and this crazy sea lion making several attempts and finally succeeding in jumping aboard a boat anchored in the harbor.  

We had sandwiches, pasta salad, fruit, and chips and this super yummy bundt cake from Nothing Bundt Cakes, another Groupon I bought and used at the last minute :)

Five Months Old!

I think I say this every month, but where is the time going??  Cora was five months old on April 24th and she is growing and changing so fast!  

As you can see from these pictures, she is sitting up on her own now!  She definitely prefers to be sitting as she is always watching and laughing at everything her brother does.  This is such a nice stage, since I can sit her up in one spot and she stays there contently for quite a while. (that is as long as she's watching Wes, has a toy, is not hungry or tired and can see me. She's a little bit of a Mama's girl :)  When she's laying down, she's rolling all over the place and she is grabbing at everything within reach, especially anything we are eating.  Real food is coming up for her, so pictures soon! 

 She's wearing some 3-6 and some 6-9 month clothes, wearing a size 3 diaper, and nurses about 6 times a day.  She's sleeping through the night, but often wakes up once in the night crying and needs her paci to fall back asleep.  She loves to be in her bed for naps and has a hard time falling asleep anywhere else, which makes being out of the house at nap times difficult, but being the second child, she has to roll with it.  She sleeps well, but not long in the Ergo carrier, so it goes with us everywhere!  She's still taking three naps a day, but they are short,  and most days I can get them both down in the afternoon at the same time, which helps me keep my sanity get a few things accomplished. 

Wes loves being a big brother and is kind and gentle with Cora.  He gives her hugs and kisses and asks where she is when she's napping.  He's not always so patient when I need to nurse her and he has to wait for whatever he wants, but he's also almost three, so patience is lacking in most things he does.  He calls  her "Sissy" most of the time and has been saying recently "sissy, you're so cute, I could just eat you up."  Cracks us up!  These beautiful blankets they are sitting on were handmade by the mom of a firefighter friend of Michael's.  Wes loves his so much and it is his new go-to blanket at bed times.  He loves that it has holes in it! 

Happy five month birthday my sweet girl, we love you so much!

Happy Birthday Tyler!

A couple of weekends ago we helped our little friend Tyler celebrate his first birthday!  The party was at a park in Aliso and it was a gorgeous day to be outside!

The theme of the party was airplanes and if you want to see all the amazing details Tyler's mom Carrie did for the party you can check them out here.

This was a fun craft making airplanes out of sticks of gum, smarties, two lifesavers and a rubber band.  So cute, and Wes loved them so much we made two.  And the only part he really wanted to eat was the lifesavers :)

Here's Tyler with his turn at the pinata.

Wes wanted me to go with him when it was his turn so I didn't get a picture of him swinging the bat, but he did his best to break into that candy!

Sister was there too in a cute sun dress :)

After the pinata spilled forth it's treasure, Wes just had to try these sour fruit candies.  He's definitely my kid.

Wes played so hard that he decided to lay down on the concrete and he told me he was going to take his snoozer.  Definitely the sign of a good party.

And unfortunately right when we started singing Happy Birthday to Tyler, Wes needed to make a trip to the bathroom so we missed him really going for the cake.  But it looks like he had fun!  Happy Birthday Tyler!

Misc

A few miscellaneous pictures:

Cora's first trip to Mi Casa

Wearing mama's flower from Auntie Madison's wedding

Playing with a new Lightning McQueen Lego's set Daddy couldn't resist buying

Cora still trying to watch TV any way she can

Golf Glory

It's a moment all golfers dream of yet few ever achieve.  A hole in one.  A real hole in one, not a mini-golf hole in one.  And it happened to Michael on April 5th at the El Dorado golf course in Long Beach.  It's a moment he'll always remember and forever try to replicate.  

17th hole, par 3, 154 yards into the wind, 8 iron

So as not to anger the golf gods, Michael kept with tradition and bought his foursome drinks and his good friends Thomas and Sadri lunch for his achievement.  Some say once a golfer makes a hole in one, he loses his desire to play because he's attained golf's loftiest goal.  Others say, once you make a hole in one, your desire to play golf can't be satiated as you seek that next hole in one.  Michael definitely falls into the second category.  Congratulations Michael, golf glory is yours! 

Happy Birthday to Me

April 12th was my thirty something'th birthday.  Ok 34, but I'm not really counting anymore.  My guys made me a delicious breakfast...bacon and cheese omelets, mine and Wes' with avocado, english muffins and fruit salad.  I even got the "you are special today" plate!  

After breakfast and a little nap for Cora, we headed to the beach to walk in the sand and enjoy being together.

It was such a beautiful day!

When Wes and Cora went down for afternoon naps, I headed out for a pedicure and did a little shopping at TJMaxx (you can't shop for bargains with kids in tow :)

Michael made me corn chowder and restaurant salad (we call it that because it has a ton of stuff in it-just like you would get in a restaurant...only way better!) for dinner.  And he also made me this cake...and I have to say that it looks a little sad, but it tasted amazing -chocolate cake with chocolate orange ganache filling plus orange buttercream frosting! Unfortunately I have to take responsibility for it's droopiness, I got out the wrong cake pans so it stuck and then I thought I was helping by frosting the cake when the frosting needed to set up in the fridge first.  Oh well, Wes still enjoyed decorating it for me!

As a gift Michael got me tickets to see Million Dollar Quartet at the Performing Arts Center!  It's a musical based on the famous recording session that Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Cark Perkins did together.  Can't wait!  Thanks to everyone for the birthday love!

Discovery Science Center!

My friend Carrie has season passes to the Discovery Science Center and on April 11th, she and Brayden and Tyler invited us to join them!  It was spring break and pretty crowded, but the boys still got to see and touch and do pretty much everything they wanted.  This was Wes' first time here and he definitely enjoyed himself.  I think it would probably take about a dozen trips to really check out all the fun things they have for the kids!

Here's Wes playing with light-up stars and learning about constellations...

...Brayden planting flower shapes... 

 ...the boys scanning things in the "garage"...

 ...there was a special hockey exhibit, so here's Wes driving a Zamboni...

 ...the boys playing Race to Recycle...

 (this was such a cute game...a conveyor belt brings around different types of recyclables so the kids can sort out the different types waste: household, green, hazardous, cans and bottles, etc.  I don't think the boys quite got the point, but they had fun picking up all the trash and throwing it in the recycling bin.

 ...checking out the planetarium...

 ...and here we all are having a lunch break...

...an attempt at getting a nice pic of the boys together. Impossible...

...and I borrowed this picture from Carrie's blog, but here's Wes, Brayden and I taking a turn on the giant slide.  Carrie has some great pictures here too.  Thanks again for inviting us, we had a blast!