Go-getters

We've been going, going, going over here lately. I can't really pinpoint what it is that we've been doing, exactly, but we definitely FEELl busy around here.

I haven't had time to sit around and doze on the couch in the afternoons.

I haven't had time to idly threaten to ground my kids if they don't clean their rooms.

I haven't had time to cook tasty food for me and mi familia every night for dinner (i'm not even being sarcastic about that one, i really actually do like to cook).

I haven't had time to fold the 13-and counting loads of clean laundry that continue to pile up in the laundry room.

I haven't even had time to watch the 4 episodes of Poirot that are waiting for me on my DVR.

Whatever it is that I actually HAVE been doing, my poor children have been dragged along with me (is it 'dragged' or 'drug'? i'm going with dragged because drug sounds like drugged, which sounds bad, which isn't good for my reputation as a mother), and it's beginning to take it's toll on poor Chas.

He's so sleep deprived, he's getting pretty desperate over here.

July 25th is a good day to turn 6

Ok, this whole "children growing up" thing is starting to get a little weird. My first born is officially a full fledged not so little girl and it really doesn't seem like she's been around long enough to be riding scooters around the neighborhood and listening to Taylor Swift. Of course, that didn't stop me from buying her a new scooter and Taylor Swift CD for her birthday.

Happy sixth birthday, Baby Jane! Six is a great age to be and I'm fairly certain that the year will be full of experiences that I had when I was about 12.

Is it just me or do these girls seem to age exponentially?

It's about time I push through this Subtitled: I really shouldn't watch TV while I'm trying to write.

Is it possible to have Blogger's Block?

Is that a "thing?"

Can I MAKE it a "thing?"

Do I have that kind of power?

For the sake of argument, let's just say that I do.

Moving on, I feel like I've had Blogger's Block lately.

It's a tad bit frustrating. As I'm writing this, instead of concentrating on writing, I'm watching America's Got Talent and lamenting the fact that as much as I'd like to be able to hate Howie Mandel, I just can't bring myself to do it. Maybe it's because I still hold him dear to me for all the hours of Bobby's World he provided me with in the 80's, or maybe it's because he's got OCD and I love me a freak that's ok with talking about their freakishness, or maybe it's because he seems like the kind of guy that can insulted in every possible way and still like you when it's over.

How did I just find that many reasons to NOT hate Howie Mandel?

I'm so confused right now. What's happened to me? Who am I?

See? Blogger's Block. I'm totally distracted, but as with most things in life, we must persevere.

Tonight, I've just got some more photos from our San Diego trip to post. Lame. Sorry. Let's just take a deep breath and get through these posts together so we can move on with our lives, ok?

While in San Diego, we went to the Pier. (Which is kinda like Piers from America's Got Talent, who just told the "Strong Man" that he's boring... and he was.) My kids liked the pier. They really wanted to go on the boats, and so did I.

Charlie waves at just about everyone. It's adorable. He'll go out of his way to stop what he's doing and wave at anyone who drives by and I'll go out of my way to stop everyone to watch him wave. He also really likes his hat, as well as most accessories. He must have gotten the tendency from his idol, Ben.

Ben really likes to be fancy.

Daddy's girls. Sigh.

Remind me that I need to go on that air craft carrier next time I'm in the area.

(Ok, now I'm watching this guy, Hannibal, on America's Got Talent who is truly terrifying.

He crocheted animal hats for all the dancers to wear during his performance and they ARE wearing them. Yup. He's singing the 'Circle of Life' on a pedestal with several dancers in full body leotards and animal hats. If you didn't catch it tonight, do yourselves a favor and check that out on YouTube tomorrow.)

We all went on a nice long walk that evening and I tried out my new jogging stroller, which worked out very well for me, but the highlight of the evening was a man that approached me and started harassing me and my husband about having too many kids.

I'll agree that it FEELS like a lot of kids, but in a photo or walking down a street, we don't really LOOK like a lot. At least I didn't think so until this guy started asking me what religious group I was with. I almost told him I was Mormon just to bug him. I'm not sure what all he said because I was trying to ignore him, but I'm fairly certain sure that he accused me of genocide and then took photos of my children. Please let me know if you see them somewhere. I'm a little uncomfortable that some psychopath has photographs of my kids.

Ok, peeps, that was a painful post. And instead of dragging it out even further, I'm going to go now so that I can give the "fire illusionist" that's on after this commercial break my full and undivided attention. Have I mentioned that I really like America's Got Talent?

Taking Care of Business

This post is inform each and every one of you that I will hauling a plethora of felt hair clips up to So. Weber on Thursday for a boutique. Yes, it's true. For those that live in that general direction and have complained that I don't sell up there, your day has come.

Flyer...

Thoughts...

This looks like a fun show, which is why I'm trucking it up there sell stuff. I like that it's not an all day/all weekend kinda show (it's not even open on Saturday) because I've found that you can do as much business in a few good hours at a good show as you can in a whole weekend. What this means to me is that these girls are smart. And I like them already. And I like their show.

Link...

http://www.thesassycupcake.blogspot.com/

Tell one! Tell all! Shout it from the tops of the mountains!

That is all.

Nothin' wrong with a trip to a zoo.

At long last, the highly anticipated "trip to the zoo" post has arrived.

Seriously, I love me a zoo, and the San Diego Zoo really is the mother of all zoos. We weren't going to go because the last time any of us kids had been there, we had a bad experience, but as it turns out, there's a reason I love me a zoo. That reason is my dad. My dad LOVES him a zoo and so it was under his advice that we changed our plans last minute and decided to go.

It was a good move.

It was a good day.

What's not to love about one of these little "stick your head in there and let me take your picture!" things?

Nothing. Nothing's not to love.

Are you aware of the fact that there are polar bears at the San Diego Zoo?

Polar Bears, people!

This is not a polar bear.

I kinda wish it was. They're cute when they're small. Or at least this replica of a polar bear is really cute.

Fact: When I was growing up, I loved polar bears.

I'm not sure why I loved them so much, but I thought they were the coolest animals around. I believe I may have even had one of those Zoo Books posters of a polar bear on my wall in my room.

I was really disappointed when it came to my attention that polar bears grow to be gi-freaking-normous and would consume me on the spot if given half a chance.

I also liked seals.

When I was in first grade, we had a special 'money day' when we got to earn fake money and then buy real things with fake money. I lost most of my money somehow and my teacher was really unsympathetic about it. Her name was Mrs. Norris and she was kinda mean to me. She would get mad at me when I needed to go to the bathroom so I would try to hold it and then she'd get mad at me for not going to the bathroom. She would dump my desk out on the floor in front of the whole class when it got messy. In retrospect, she may not have liked me very much.

Anyway, I lost most of my money and so I ended up having to wait until last to be able to pick out what I wanted to buy. Mrs. Norris told me that there wouldn't be anything left when I finally got my turn.

I wanted to buy a stuffed seal.

It was still there.

Mrs. Norris told me that I was "lucky" in a very curt manner.

I bought the stuffed seal with my fake money and then I took it home.

Then I named him Sealy.

That said, look at this picture.

After we took this picture, we went to see the elephants and somewhere along the way, Davie peed through his diaper, so he was mostly naked from the waste down. Then Lizzy peed through her diaper and refused to put on her shoes or wet pants, so she was mostly naked from the waste down. We hopped on the skytram and all clung onto the bar in the middle as though that bar would save us from certain death if our tram suddenly broke free and plummeted hundreds of feet to the ground.

Then we went home.

Then we napped.

Then we went back to the zoo.

The zoo at night is HIGHLY recommended. It was nice out, parking was easy, crowds were way down, it was just good.

Hello koala bear. It's super cool that you can get up close and personal with the koalas, which are NOT bears. Are they? They're marsupials, right? Hello koala marsupial!

We hung out there for a while. Charlie liked them and didn't want to leave. He usually gets what he wants.

We walked right in to see the pandas. The kids LOVED them and took about 17 pictures of them. Can you see it in there? Look closely...

Cool.

After that, we made our way to the reptile house to try to find the komodo dragon for Jane. She was desperate to see it. I don't think we ever found it, but we did find a big huge lizard that in many ways resembled a komodo dragon. We told Jane that it was one. We lied to our child. It isn't the first time and it won't be the last.

And with that weighing heavily on our conscience-s, we went home again.

The zoo = a good time.

The Bride

I WAS going to post about the zoo tonight and since I'm fairly certain that none of you has ever been to a zoo, let alone the San Diego Zoo, you were looking forward to it with uncontrollable anticipation, but as it turns out, I'm really tired.

Deal with it.

I've spent all evening partying like it's 1999 and trying to convince my girls to go to bed. They are currently both squeezed into Jane's twin. I'm guessing I've got until about 12:37 before one of them falls out and we start the whole process over again.

I remember being a little girl and we would wait until my mom tucked us in, then my brother would sneak into my room and sleep in there with me under my Cabbage Patch Kids canopy. I remember hiding him under my dirty clothes so that Mom wouldn't find him if she came to check on us. She didn't approve of our sharing a bed. I didn't understand why.

It makes a little more sense now.

Anyway, I'm somewhat sympathetic so I'm giving this sleeping arrangement a shot, against my better judgement. I do a lot of things that are against my better judgement. It keeps life interesting.

What I'm getting to is that instead of pictures of Koalas, I'm going to post the single photo that I took of the bride. I can't believe that I didn't manage to get a better one, but I didn't and since my mom pointed out my oversight, I will try to make amends.

Stacey was a beautiful bride and was also very thoughtful and kind to our family of disruptive children. I've only met her the once, but I'm inclined to like anyone who orders a special meal of chicken fingers for my kids, provides crayons and coloring books for them to play with and glow bracelets, for when it got dark.

Until next time...

The Wedding

My cousin got married. He's kinda the reason that we went to California on vacation in the first place. I have thanked him for planning his wedding on a beach in Southern California because it gave me and my entire family a really good reason to get out of town and loosen up a little bit. It also gave me a reason to get the whole family dressed up and try to pose for "chic mom on the beach" photos.

"Try" is the operative word. "Try" spends most of it's time being the operative word in my life.

Come on kids! You can do it, just point your faces towards the camera for one second!

Oh nevermind. Go play in the ocean.

Or at least stand there and act like you like each other.

Don't my mom and dad look dashing? I love this photo of them.

"Jane and Mommy" - taken by Lizzy

"Lizzy and Mommy" - taken by Jane.

At the after-party, there were kiddy cocktails,

and smiles,

and girl cousins, (doesn't Leslie look particularly cute? I was a wee but envious of her cuteness)

and dancing,

and..... well.... other forms of dancing,

and a random seagull in a fountain,

and lame-os,

but my favorite part (aside from seeing my family that I never see and going to my cousin's wedding, of course) was the twinners...

Davie matched too. Wait, let me find a photo of him.

hold on...

hold on...

almost got it...

There!

Triplet-ers?

I have to tell this story because I love it so. We were packing the kids in the car to go home for the night, and we had Ben riding with us, so he was getting loaded in too. There was a nice family walking down the street at the same time and one of them shouted to me,

"We love your twins!"

and I smiled back and yelled,

"Thanks!"

My dad and his mom and sister and brother and a couple of stow-aways that no one was mean enough to shoo out of the photo.

Look at my grandma. Isn't she adorable? You love her already, don't you?

The kids do too.

And the whole Sills/Barron side of the family - minus Johnny B, Danielle and my cousin, Kyle's new wife. It really was a lovely wedding and a lovely evening and I enjoyed the whole thing tremendously.

It was totally worth all the sand in the diapers.

And mouths.

And shorts.

And eyes.

And ears.

And noses.

And bellybuttons.

And hair.

Tomorrow, if you're really super lucky, I might tell you about the San Diego Zoo. I know, I know, you can hardly contain yourselves. Try.

btw - I should own up that a bunch of those photos were taken by my favorite brother in law, Cameroon. He's good at sharing.

Look familiar?

Well hellllll-ooooo! It's been so long since we've talked.

How ARE you?

Good?

Good.

I'm glad that we've taken this time to catch up.

So I just got home from a nice, long, lovely vacation in California. Feel free to be envious. I would be. And I took lots and lots and lots and lots of photos and I intend to post most of them. But I'll do it in small increments so that you don't just give up and stop caring half way through. I would.

Although our vacation ultimately stretched over a larger portion of southern California, we were stationed in San Diego and the first day we were there, we took the kids to the uber playground at Balboa Park. Last time Brent and I were in San Diego, we had but one child, and we took her to the uber playground at Balboa Park. It looked a little something like this...

Hello tiny little Jane. It seems as though you are rather enjoying yourself on that there twisty slide.

Yes, I'd say that she definitely had a nice time.

This time, our visit to the uber playground at Balboa Park looked similar. So similar that it's a little creepy...

Hello Miss Lizzy. It seems as though you also enjoy yourself a good twisty slide.

Go, Lizzy, go!

Ok, this is probably one of my favorite pictures of this little munchkin in the whole world.

And Jane, not to be outdone by her younger sister, insisted the she also be photographed on the same slide that she visited 4 years ago. It's still just as fun.

Ben was there too.

Fact: Ben is cute.

Davie was also in attendance.

Fact: the only thing cuter than Ben is Ben WITH Davie. On a purple dinosaur.

Charlie was also there, but he must have been either

A) of ill favor - or

B) not being cute

because I don't have any photos of him.

So ya, if ever find yourself in San Diego and in the company of small children that need to be entertained until they exhaust themselves to the point that the only thing they are physically capable of is collapsing their beds, take them to the uber playground at Balboa Park.