Mommy Brain

This morning, daddy went to the donut shop before the girls woke up. He thought it would be kinda fun to get donuts for breakfast today. The girls were a little surprised when they saw it. They somehow knew exactly what they were, even though they had never had them before… It was so funny.

Daddy got them chocolate donuts, and glazed donute, and they absolutely loved them both. The chocolate seemed to be their favorite though… I’m not sure if it was them yelling “Choc-o-laaaaate” or them licking their fingers saying “Chocolate monster” that gave it away… LOL…

I’m glad they got to try it out, but it definitely won’t be something we do all the time…

Halloween started early for us… We took the girls to Fairy Tale Town on Sunday to trick or treat there. They had a blast. It was their first real experience with Trick or Treating. They were a little scared at first, seeing all of the different costumes, and kids all over the place. Once we got them inside and explained how it all worked… The first time they got their candy in their pumpkin, they knew they loved it. It was so funny!

We walked them through about 16 candy stations watching them giggle, say “trick or treat”, “thank you, and then look at their loot before walking off to the next stop. It was too cute. They did take one break to sit down and color the “tin man’s heart” from the Wizard of Oz. They wore that for a little bit and then decided it would be better in their pumpkin. They weren’t interested in any of the other activities that they had going on… just getting the candy.. oh and chasing “Humpty Dumpty” around the park too. They just loved running up to him and giving him hugs. Alexandra actually would just yell “HI!” from wherever she was when she saw him… it was so funny.

Fast Forward to Halloween night. Daddy was able to get off of work early that day. He came home, and we rushed off to the Sacramento zoo for their “Boo at the Zoo” event. We got there a little early, and waited in the loooong line. Once they opened, it went quickly. We got inside, and they handed out little trick or treat bags in case you forgot yours. The girls, of course, had their little pumpkins. We walked all around the zoo collecting candy. They got a pretty good collection too… more for mommy and daddy later!

After the zoo, we went to Meemaw & Peepaw’s house to say hi, and visit with them for a little bit.. We also walked down the street a little bit to visit a family friend, who actually saw me and my little sister grow up. Every year for Halloween, they’d give us special candy! They’d have the usual candy to give out to all the neighborhood kids, but my sister and I would always get the KING SIZE Hershey bars. Sure enough… they had them ready for me…errr… ummm.. the girls too! *teehee*. From there, we came back up to our neighborhood and visited my sister’s Godparents. We hadn’t seen them in a little while, so it was very nice to see them. They really enjoyed seeing the girls too.

By the time we left their house, it was nearly 9pm, and we realized, we still hadn’t had dinner. We did the easy thing, and  went through the Wendy’s drive thru. Now before anyone gets all crazy about fast food… we rarely do this.. in fact, I do believe this was only the 6th time we’ve really done that in the 2.5 years they’ve been alive.. LOL..

Anyway… we grabbed our food, and ran home for the girls to eat their chicken tenders. We got them in a quick bath and put them to bed. I think they finally fell asleep around 10pm. *phew*  Off to check out their loot LOL…

What an odd combination…. or not so much…

Yesterday, I was perusing through the “free” ads on Craigslist and came across some free garage cabinets… and you know, everyone can always use more garage cabinets, right?!?! Anyway, daddy and peepaw went on a nice drive to pick up said garage cabinets, and brought them back to the house. They’re in decent condition. They need some paint, and a little TLC before they’ll be ready for the garage, but.. awesome for free!

So today, the girls wanted to help daddy get these cabinets garage ready. They needed to be sanded, and sanded well… Who better to do this? The girls… four hands, lots of energy should be better than an electric sander right? Not so much.. short attention span ends that dream pretty quickly. Oh well.. They had fun sanding while they were interested in it.
It wasn’t long before the thought that daddy’s cabinet needed some art work done to it before he does any painting. Maybe it’d save him the work? They took to the cabinet doors with their sidewalk chalk. I think the HUGE back yard patio wasn’t a large enough canvas.

Not too long after, daddy broke out the power sander, and Alexandra wanted to help again. It was great.. Daddy said she went back to help him 4 times! Yeah.. she likes power tools! WOO HOO! I think the next project might be to build a nice desk or drawing easel for her and sister… maybe…

Later on in the afternoon… after nap… It was finally time to make their jack o’ lanterns. They were so proud of their pumpkins which they chose yesterday at the pumpkin patch. They were so ready to carve them, and pick out all of the pumpkin seeds for mommy to roast! Last year was cute. They got to stick their hands inside the pumpkin and didn’t really make a big deal out of it. This year was too funny. They did stick their hands in there, and almost immediately wanted to wash their hands. They apparently didn’t like the slimy pumpkin guts. I had to get some pics of this, so I ran inside and grabbed the camera. Only thing was we wanted to keep the camera pumpkin gut free. I found the waterproof case for it, and figured.. why not? It should work. Sure enough it did the job. I was able to get a couple of pictures of daddy and Victoria, and Alexandra. I was holding the pumpkin for her while she scooped out the seeds.. They got to decide what shapes we used for the various parts of the face. Once we drew it on, they were all ready to cut it out. We had a carving kit from last year that was just perfect for them to use. We guided their hands as they “sawed” the little pieces of pumpkin away to make the faces… It was fun.. They had a blast.. and they are oh so proud of their first jack o’ lanterns.

Tomorrow evening we’re going to go to Fairy Tale Town for their Trick or Treating party! The girls are very excited, and so are we. Stay Tuned… I’m sure I will have more photos to share!

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!

So the other night we were getting the girls ready for bath. We’ve started the habit of sitting the girls on the potty before getting in the bath. Sometimes they go, and sometimes they don’t.

Anyway, Victoria was sitting on the “big potty” an Alexandra was sitting on the “girls’ potty”. The “big potty” has a shelf above it where we keep magazines, etc. Yes, they ask for a book or magazine every time they are on the potty… go figure… Victoria happened to get one of Daddy’s MSDN magazines.. She says the usual “computer magazine”, and “I love computer”. Out of nowhere comes “Daddy! They’re programming!” Our jaws dropped. We were both laughing. We weren’t sure what she said, so Daddy asked her to repeat what she said, and sure enough.. she said it again.

We have no idea where this came from. Neither of us can remember if we’ve ever said that with the magazines, or not. The fact that she can even remember that regardless, just is amazing…

Ok… So we’ve had our iPhones since the first week of July. It’s awesome. I love it. I wouldn’t give it up for anything. There’s one thing I have to say that I’m not sure is a tribute to the programmers, as far as ease of use, or if I just have genius children.

The other day, Alexandra was playing with my phone. I didn’t think anything of it since it was locked. The rule is, stay on the carpet! That way if they drop it, it won’t break… i hope… Anyway.. one minute she’s just walking around with the phone, the next I’m hearing “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” coming out of it. She runs up to me “Mommy! AWEEEM O WAY!!!!” She was so proud of herself. I couldn’t help but laugh. I honestly couldn’t believe that she figured out how to get to that video.. I mean, I had it bookmarked since it’s the one they ask for all the time, but I don’t think I left it on that screen the last time I was on YouTube. Every time it ended, she played it over again. How she figured this out is just crazy. I guess watching us do it just a few times stuck in her mind. I’m amazed..

Then Victoria took the phone from her sister and found her video called “Kitty Said What?” and brings it to me and starts singing it… Yeah.. she’s seen it a couple of times… It just cracks me up!

So Apple… Be proud… My 2 year old daughters can figure out how to unlock my phone, get to YouTube, and find their favorite video… and play it over and over and over and over.

So what do you think? Easy to use? or do I have child geniuses? I’d like to think they’re geniuses, but what mommy wouldn’t?!?!?!

I didn’t post about this earlier… things have been so hectic… but.. Daddy is at Microsoft! He was invited to go and train under the developers of the latest and greatest software tools… He’s having a good time, and learning so much. He was worried about how the girls would take it, but they’re doing surprisingly well. Don’t get me wrong. They miss him terribly. They ask for him every day… multiple times a day. Today, as we left the gym, they told me they wanted Daddy Kisses. It was so cute!

We’ve done several things this week to help pass the time. I took them to a fire station on Tuesday for a tour… I’ll post separately about that one. They had such a good time! They even got to shoot the fire hose a couple of times! They loved it!

We’ve gone to the gym in the mornings, and went out to dinner, and Super Wal Mart. We’ve gone to the grocery store, and to the chiropractor… Their days have been filled with fun things to do.

Memaw & Peepaw have spent the entire week with us. They’ve had fun with the girls, playing with them, and taking them out. It’s been a really great time.

The week is almost over, and Daddy will be home Friday, while they sleep… They’re very excited that he’s coming home…. So am I!

So my auction ended with all of $26 for the ice cream scarf. Oh well… It was a wild idea anyway. I did it for fun, and I thought it was cute… and that’s all that matters. I wish it would’ve done better, but that’s ok. Maybe the next idea that comes to mind will be a little more popular. I’m debating whether or not I’m going to do another scarf, or something else I found in a magazine the other day… Either way.. .it’s going to be nice to get crocheting again.

Daddy bought me a book the last time we were in Barnes & Noble. It’s called The Cool Girl’s Guide to Crochet, by Nicki Trench. It has so many cute ideas in it! I’m making one of the bags right now! I can’t wait till it’s all done! I will definitely share pictures!