Twin Lakes Beach with the Sarasohn's

I love going to the beach. Last year we didn't go too often because it was too hard with Maddie having to be in the Ergo and I had to make sure Sabrina didn't just go off into the ocean by herself. But so far this year it's been great. Both girls stay in the general vicinity and Sabrina can go a little bit into the ocean by herself but seems to have a healthy fear of the power of the ocean. Also according to her there are sharks to watch out for so you don't want to go too far :)

So when my good friend Shay invited us to hang with her and her family at the beach house that they are renting in Santa Cruz I said "heck yeah!" We had a super busy day right from the start. In the morning the girls had swim class, and then we hopped on over to Pump It Up in Morgan Hill. Our South Valley 2008 group was sponsoring a trip and so we couldn't say no! The girls had a great time, although I think Maddie's favorite part was drinking from the water fountain. From there it was straight to Santa Cruz. My "plan" was to feed the girls lunch, then put Maddie down for a nap, get Sabrina some quiet time and then hit the beach after we've rested.

Well you know what they say about planning... ...I forgot Maddie's paci!! If you think she will sleep without it, guess again. She screamed and cried for well over an hour in that pack n play. I was so so bitter and couldn't be mad at anyone other than myself. So after over an hour of this I gave up, took her out and took the girls down to the beach. At first I was really sure this was going to be a disaster, Maddie hadn't slept, the weather wasn't too warm, but it ended up being fabulous. Just as we got to the beach the sun started shining, we found Jake (Shay's husband) and his friends and family hanging out at the beach and we got right into having a fun time. The girls made sand castles, ran around and had fun fun fun. When Mal and the twins woke up the girls had even more fun. It was really cute to watch Sabrina and Mal make "sand castles" (really mounds of sand) that would get swept over by the water and the kids would go "ahhh, no!!! Make another one!!!" They did this forever. We were at the beach for close to 3 hours! Dinner was coming up so we headed back to the house, hosed the kids down, got them in the bath, in jammies and to the table for dinner. It was delicious, Jake's sister made a lentil stew with rice and salad. It was so good I had to go for seconds. Finally we had to make our way home and the girls fell asleep after about 5 minutes in the car. A great day all around!

A romantic date on the beach?

Eventually I got around to putting on Maddie's swimsuit

All worn out!

Stuff Maddie Says

Future student of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry

Maddie has gotten so big, where has all the time gone?  She really thinks she's as old as her sister.  I thought now that she is 19 months this would be a good time to write down all the words she can say right now (in no particular order):

1.  Mommy

2.  Daddy

3.  Sabrina (pronounced "Mina"

4.  Sister

5.  Cookie

6.  Cracker

7.  Hot Dogs

8.  Cereal (Jerry and I are the only ones who understand that one)

9.  Shoes

10.  Hat

11.  Doggie

12.  Quack (for duck)

13.  Fluffy (her lovey)

14.  Paci

15.  Banana (pronounced "nana")

16.  Milk

17.  Bottle

18.  Baby

19.  Diaper

20.  NO (her favorite word)

21.  Ball

22.  Me

23.  Water
24 .  Bubbles
25.  CJ (Sabrina's friend)
26.  Safta

Camping at big basin

Our girls hanging out at the campsite

Getting ready to start our hike to the waterfall

We had a great time camping are we are tired!!

Last weekend we went to Big Basin with 10 other families and their kids to go camping.  17 kids in all!!  It was a super fun experience but exhausting.  Going with a 19 month old is hard work!  We packed my car to the gills and headed out Friday afternoon.  Once we got there, we started to pitch our tent and let the kids play.  The campsite was great.  It was one big open space, so the older kids had good boundaries and could run around in wild (but dirty) abandon.  Maddie however hasn't figured out boundaries yet so we had to keep a pretty close eye on her.  Dinner the first night was tri tip, corn on the cob and garlic bread.  Delicious!!  I love camping out food.  Dessert was roasted marshmallows and we made smores.  Sabrina's favorite thing to do was "roast" marshmallows.  I say "roast" because she would hold her stick by the fire for approx 1/10th of a second, declare all done and eat her marshmallow.  :)  The kids went to sleep super late Friday night, I don't think Sabrina was asleep until almost 11pm!  Which led us to...

...Saturday.  Our full day at camp.  Sabrina woke up at 5:30am to go to the bathroom and was up, so Maddie was up, so we were up.  Sabrina's friend Mal was up with his daddy Jake so they played together while we waited for other families to wake up so we could get breakfast started.  Breakfast Sat morning was breakfast burritos.  Tortillas, eggs, salsa, cheese, bacon (for those that ate it) plus OJ, coffee, hot cocoa, and fruit.  The kids loved playing at our campsite area.  I really enjoyed having that many kids there because there was always someone for some kid to play with.  Jodi made up these "nature journals" that the kids got to decorate and once everyone was ready we took the kids on a nature hike up to a waterfall.  The hike was 1/2 mile in and back so it was perfect for the kids.  Sabrina walked the whole way and I strapped Maddie in the Ergo.  After we got back from the hike it was time for lunch.  I made the kids and myself PB&J sandwiches with watermelon and carrots on the side.  After lunch was Maddie's naptime.  Naptime was hard for her, it wasn't dark (obviously) like it usually is and it was pretty warm inside the tent.  Anyways we tried but I think she got about 45 minutes total.  After Maddie's nap Michelle Pirooz made up these cool buckets and wrote the kids name on each one.  The kids got to go search for their bucket and it had fake tattoos a necklace and cheezits.  We still had time to kill so the kids got to go on a scavenger hunt.  Remember, Sabrina has had no quiet time and I am pretty sure this and very little sleep contributed to...

...meltdown city!!  Sabrina was losing it and obviously needed to rest.  I made her stay in her tent (the shade was over our tents by now so it was nice and cool again) and told her she couldn't come out until she was calm.  She passed out within 5 minutes.  Right when she fell asleep there was a cool circle time at the ranger station but since Sabrina was asleep and Maddie could care less, we stayed back and helped to clean up the site and prepare dinner.  Apparently half the kids missed the circle time from sheer exhaustion.  We had to drive to the ranger station and a bunch of kids fell asleep on the five minute ride there.  

Dinner Sat night was chili I had made beforehand.  We also chopped up the leftover tri tip and put it in the chili.  Waste not want not!  We also steamed broccoli and cut up watermelon.  For the kids we brought a ton of hotdogs.  We had the brilliant idea of taking the roasting sticks we used for the marshmallows and roasted the hot dogs on the fire!  We woke up Sabrina and she proceeded to cry and tell me she wanted to go back to bed.  I made her eat dinner and then put on her jammies and put her back to bed.  By now Sabrina had decided she didn't want to go back to bed.  Well too bad so sad.  She made a decision and I made her keep to it.  For that she cried "I don't want to go to bed!" for about an hour.  Well finally she was asleep, Maddie was asleep and Jerry and I had some free time, yea!!  The adults hung around the campfire, ate cookies and roasted marshmallows and played a fun game.  We were all pretty exhausted so Jerry and I went back to the tent and passed out.  

The next morning we packed up, had breakfast (bagels and cream cheese, for those that are wondering) and went home. Exhausting but fun!  Can't wait to do it again next year :)

Sea Otter Classic Bike Festival 2012

 

Sabrina rocking on her balance bike

Dillon & Sabrina ready to ride the hilly obstacle course

 Yesterday Sabrina and I had a fabulous Mommy n me day.  we met up with our friends the Halls to enjoy a day at the Sea Otter Bike Classic, a HUGE weekend of nothing but cycling!  Road cycling, mountain biking, tricks, flips, obstacle courses, and everything in between.  The weather was super hot so we thought it best to keep Maddie at home with Daddy.  (report from Jerry:  We went to the San Jose Children's Discovery Museum and had a fun time.  There was also a children's faire outside the CDM and Maddie really enjoyed looking at real silkworms)  Jodi was super nice and got me a parking pass for her campground area, that saved us a lot of time getting to the actual festival!  As it was the kids area was on the other side of the grounds so it took a while to get there.  But Sabrina was a trooper.  She was so excited to be around everyone else with their bikes.  When we got to the kids area there was a kid's obstacle course, with a teeter-totter and a narrow bridge.  She must have done that course at least 15 times.  then we went over to the big obstacle course and Sabrina did that one too!  Once we met up with Dillon and his sister Lucie, there was also a "race" for the kids and Sabrina (and everyone else) got a cool shiny medal.  We got to see the whole mountain bike trick champion jump around and do crazy stuff on his bike.

By this time Sabrina was done so we went off for some well deserved lunch.  After lunch for a special treat Sabrina and Dillon got to do this cool bungee cord trampoline thing, where they are strapped in and can jump really high, without worrying about getting hurt.  By now it was pretty late and we needed to get back home.  Sabrina was wiped and fell asleep in the car as soon as we started driving.  After we got home Sabrina got right in the bath and I took a shower because that place is pretty dusty to begin with, plus all the riding and running around we were doing.  For dinner we all went to In n Out for dinner where we happened to run into the Lim's.  After dinner all the kids got to run around in the grass.  What a great day!

Music & Movement at the Edenvale Library

Sabrina loves music and singing.  I cannot get through a car ride without Sabrina asking to sing songs.  I am her human MP3 player.  Whenever we can, I take her to a Music & Movement class.  Music & Movement classes are held at various public libraries; they sing songs, bring out musical instruments, scarves, wooden sticks, sometimes even a parachute!  I love her enthusiasm.  Maddie enjoyed the music and eating her lunch while the class was going on. :)

Making Music

My big girl

What happened to my baby?  Where did this little girl come from?  I swear a second ago she was just figuring out how to sit up and now she is just all over the place, wanting to do everything the big kids do.  I have really been enjoying the San Jose Children's Museum with the girls and they as well.  Both of them love to explore and have fun with all the exhibits. 

Digging at the sand table

Maddie's favorite part - the water area!

Painting a masterpiece

Sabrina's first homework assignment

Sabrina's class has a book bag that each child has to take home and do what's inside.  There was a book to read called "Chika Chika Boom Boom" about a tree who has a whole bunch of letters climb it.  After we read the book together there was a felt tree and letters and Sabrina decorated the tree with all the felt letters.  The last part of the assignment was to for Sabrina to draw a picture and for me to transcribe what she wrote about it.  I'm not a big fan of homework for kids (study after study shows that kids need PLAYTIME, not sitting down and doing worksheets, but I digress), but this was pretty fun.

Sabrina and her Chika Chika Boom tree