Mommy Brain

Things have been so hectic with the launch of my new blogs, Mommy Brain Life & Mommy Brain Reports… I haven’t had much time to be on here! I feel bad!  But know that good things are coming! I’m going to be on TV in the next week.. two TV morning shows actually… I’m so excited! 

This week is super crazy… Actually this month is.. The girls turned 3 today, and they’ve had a long and fun birthday… First we took them to Toys R Us for their little celebration. They got a card in the mail since they’re part of Geoffrey’s Birthday Club.. and they got balloons and a crown at TRU.. Then we took them shopping for a special toy. After that we went to Costco and got some thing to eat, and then went shopping for groceries, and some birthday party goodies… Next we went to Bel Air, and they got a free cookie at the bakery. 

Once we finally got home, they took a nap, and when they woke up, we put together their Easy Bake Oven and let them each bake a cake… They loved it!

Overall it was a super fun day… and now we can’t wait till their party this weekend!!! 

Thanks for stopping by! 

This Christmas morning will be forever ingrained into my memory as one of the best Christmases ever! We woke up around 720am, and came downstairs to Auntie C, Uncle B, Aunt B, Uncle K, Meemaw & Peepaw all waiting for the girls.. Gma T came just a short bit later. The girls were still sawing logs. It was so funny. We finally woke them up around 8am, once everyone was here and ready… We got Victoria up first, and then she wanted to wake her sister up, so we put her in sister’s crib. She started rubbing her sister’s hair and cheek, I was just so in awe of how gentle she was when she woke her up. It was so sweet.

Once Alexandra was up, we changed them, and brought them down the stairs. Everyone was waiting for them. We had covered their Kitchen with a blanket so they could “unwrap it” easily. It was funny when they saw this huge thing in their playroom and everyone standing around it. They walked down the stairs, and walked up to it slowly and just kinda stared for a moment. Then Alexandra thought she’d peek around the back side of it to see what it was. we stopped her and told her and Victoria to come around the front and pull the blanket off. They did, and boy did their eyes light up when they saw what it was. They immediately started playing with everything in there. They inspected all of the cubbys and cabinets. They didn’t seem to want to leave their kitchen! Little did they know what was still in store for them!

We finally talked them into going into the Christmas Tree/Present room. We told them that they had a huge pile of presents to open up, and they ran. They opened up box after box. There was wrapping paper everywhere when we were all done, despite attempts to keep all the gift wrap in garbage bags as the gifts were opened…

After all was said and done, they got their kitchen, a Hoover Vacuum Cleaner, a Mr. Clean Play Cleaning set, and a shopping cart. They each got a Kid Tough Digital Camera, UCSB hoodie sweatshirts, and a princess doll from Disney, one Ariel and one Cinderella. They also got the Disney Princess Tea Cart Set, a couple of outfits, and some bath towel sets. Another popular toy they got a couple each of is the Mushabelly Mushkins.. They seriously made out like bandits. Spoiled little girls… and they are sooooo worth it!

All they did the rest of the day was run around and play with absolutely everything for a few minutes at a time. I think they each took close to 100 photos with their cameras, and spread out play food everywhere in the house. They served “coffee and tea” to everyone at least 3 times with their cart, and finally just wanted to crash among their toys. They were so darn cute!

This year was the first year they really “got” Christmas as far as Santa and presents go. I can’t wait to teach them a little more about the religious background to Christmas next year.

Today we decided to take our annual visit to the Bastiao Farms Goblin Gardens Pumpkin Patch in Natomas. Daddy was off of work since yesterday was his Birthday…. Meemaw & Peepaw were available to go with us and take the girls’ Halloween portraits, the sun was shining, the weather was perfect. Everyone was so excited! Last year we went there and had a blast! We took pictures, ran around and ended up buying 4 pumpkins. We got there today, and were very disappointed. We walked in, just like last year, and started to look around. One of the ladies that worked there (she wasn’t the owner, or anyone else we recognized from past visits) stopped us just a few feet from the entrance, and told us that there was an entrance fee of $4 per person, and there were 6 of us… We were surprised. Last year, there was no entrance fee, only a fee if you wanted to go on the hay ride, or run the corn maze, or whatever other fun things to do there… There was no entrance fee. We had only brought $10 with us to purchase pumpkins. When I explained to her that we were surprised since last year there was no entrance fee, she turned and looked at me and just said, very curtly, “Well, that was last year.” That about did it for me. We turned and walked out. There was another pumpkin patch just down the same road about 4 blocks up. When we got closer, they had a sign that said “Free Admission”.. It was a go!

We pulled up to Garden Highway Gardens’ Pumpkin Acres on 3101 El Centro Rd in South Natomas.

It was a blast. They had a fairly small, but very organized set up. They had a cute little Hay Bale maze for the girls to run around in… They loved it. They wandered through it a few times. We actually wondered how long it would take them to find their way out… Yeah.. about 3 minutes… LOL..

The girls posed for the camera, walked around one side of the patch, posed some more, and finally told us they wanted to get pumpkins… There’s no holding us off on that one. They were at a Pumpkin Patch, and they wanted Pumpkins now!

We walked around to the front, and the girls picked out a little red wagon to wheel around. We walked through the other side of the patch and they found their own pumpkins. They helped daddy pick out one large pumpkin for him to do his creation on, and the girls each picked their own smaller pumpkins to work with. We looked around at all of the decorations they had, saw a few other things for sale also.. They had pumpkin carving kits, gourds, and all kinds of decorations to purchase.

We were met with a smile by Ilda Cuevas, who helped us out. We checked out and spent $10 for everything. The girls pulled that wagon back to the van and went back to put it away once the pumpkins were loaded up in the car.

They had such a great time. Their smiles and laughs said it all. We’ll definitely go back next year!

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for the Pumpkin Carving!!!! That should be loads of fun!

Photos taken by Ana Maria Photo

This was such a fun fun event! My meetup group set up a get together in Old Sacramento for us to all ride the Spookomotive Train! It was the girls’ first time on a train, and they loved it. My Meetup group set up the get together… and it was a great idea! We all met at the train station at 10am, in hopes to get a good seat, and a discounted ticket at a group rate. Sure enough, there were enough people to get a group rate! Once we got our tickets, we went and got in line. They were still checking the train for safety issues. Once we were ready to board, we had the choice of going left to an open air car, or going right to a closed car. We went right.

The car was so cool! It was decorated up for Halloween with skeletons, bats, crows and spiders all over the place!

We got to choose our seating, and wouldn’t you know it, the girls wanted to sit with meemaw & peepaw more than they wanted to sit with mommy and daddy… Go figure! LOL. They had fun hamming it up for peepaw and his camera though.. it was so cute. On the way out, we got to visit with Alice in Wonderland and the White Rabbit. The girls were just loving it. They were given a cute little ring, they had to wear the rest of the trip. The train went about 15 mins down the track, and stopped at a transfer, where they detached the engine, and brought it to the rear of the train, which would now become the front… Oh! That was our car! They allowed people to come to the “front” of the car and watch as they brought in and attached the engine. It was pretty cool….

Once the engine was hooked up, we began on our way back to the station. On the way back, we had Dorothy and the Witch in our car. We didn’t get to visit with them much. They seemed to have something else going on. It’s ok though.. I think the girls were just in awe of what they saw outside the window. They were on the side that faced the river, so they saw boats, and bridges, and just loved telling everyone who would listen what they were seeing. It was so cute.

We arrived back at the train station, and they really didn’t want to get off of the train. As we were getting off of the train, one of the conductors told us about the Polar Express that’s coming to Sacramento in time for Christmas. We got so excited about that one, that I went back to the ticket counter to find out more information. We were offered a chance to buy the annual membership and once we found out the benefits, we couldn’t say no! Now we can ride the Santa Train for free!!! WOO HOO!!! The girls will just love that one! Now that we’re members, we can visit the museum for free as well! We plan on taking advantage of that feature often!

I highly recommend the Spookomotive for anyone who loves trains and wants to have a fun little ride for the kids! Once you’ve ridden that train, I’ll bet you’ll be as hooked as we were. Just seeing the smiles on the girls’ faces was all it took for us! Get a membership! Help keep the Rail Road Museum alive!

Oh .. and just because I think this picture is just absolutely gorgeous…. Here are my girlies…

photo taken by Ana Maria Photo.com

We found the coolest spot to hang out here! It’s called The Bounce Spot! It’s located in West Sacramento at 2939 Promenade St and it’s in a spot you wouldn’t even think of looking! We were invited to go here for the October Birthday celebrations of my meetup group, the Sacramento Strollerfriends, and I figured it had to be a fun place for the girls. They love to jump and run around.

I was a little scared to take them by myself.. but then I realized, I won’t exactly be alone. There will be a bunch of mom’s there watching all of the kids. The other cool thing was that they allow the parents to jump around with the kids. I noticed when we got in there that it was a completely closed in place, so the girls couldn’t just wander off. It helped me out with letting them run around a little more. I did like how I could stand in between the two rooms and still see the girls pretty much anywhere in the rooms.

We were not allowed to have shoes, food or drink in the bounce rooms. They did have party rooms to sit down and snack in, and something I just learned is that they have free Wi-Fi in their lobby! That is just too cool! Ok, so you have to know me and daddy to know why that is so cool… We love free Wi-Fi! The entire place is super clean and kept very nice for the kids. I didn’t have to worry about them getting hurt there. They also had someone walking around all the time making sure the kids weren’t shoving other kids around. I really felt comfortable taking the girls there.

The girls had so much fun, and I had fun watching them run around just laughing! I told daddy about it, and now he wants to take the girls back for HIS birthday on the 25th. We can’t wait!