The Daveye

Park Reviews - Lynndale, Northacres, and Blue Ridge Circle Parks

2015-09-08T14:08:00.001-07:00

We wrapped up our summer adventures with a few more visits to new (to us) parks.

The first up was Lynndale Park located at 18927 72nd Avenue West in Lynnwood.

This was a great find for us because we had the entire playground to ourselves which has NEVER happened. We went early on a Friday morning and usually when we show up to a park we have it to ourselves for ten minutes until a daycare shuttle van shows up and takes over the joint. It just seemed to be our luck this summer.

But not this time. Lynndale Park was wonderful. There's an older playground on the lower level of the park but since I had looked at the photos online ahead of time I knew we weren't quite in the right spot. I kept driving around until I found another entrance on the East side of the park and we reach playground mecca. It's fitting since Lynndale Park is the largest park in Lynnwood. I'm not quite sure why we've never visited it before.

There's a full baseball field, tennis courts, open grassy areas, TONS of picnic tables, shelter for rental, restrooms, forest hiking trails and playgrounds with swings and slides.

The area is a bit spread out and might be overwhelming if you have a lot of kids with you or if yours are runners - especially if the park is crowded. But for us, for the first time all summer, I got to pretty much relax and watch the kids play.

The step up to the climbers are too tall for toddlers to get up by themselves which is great because you have to put them on the area for climbing (they won't accidentally get in a spot that's not for them) but if you have multiple kids needing attention you'll be spending your whole time lifting the kids onto the climber.

There's a great twisty slide which is Alice's favorite.

And lots of other spots for climbing and being a monkey. There's even a clear tunnel that was new and different for The Daveye kids to explore.

Here's a look back at the playground while walking over to the swings with TONS of tables.

The swings are spread out and away from the area where the playground is. Great so you don't have kids toddling into a swinging kid but can be stressful on more crowded days if you have a kid on the swings and a kid on the playground.

For us though, we were in heaven.

Three bucket swings side by side separate from a regular swing area. Miles went over and did the regular swings by himself for a while but in the end we all ended up in the bucket swing area all singing, snacking and enjoying the sunny day.

Another park outing we enjoyed was a trip down South to Northacres Park. This is a wonderful city park with a splash pad and two separate playground areas - all within reasonable sight from each other when you stand in the middle paved path area. There are full restrooms and although parking can be limited we were able to snag a close spot and didn't have to park on the street.

There are swings, slides, climbers and twirly seats.

One of the slides is metal and Graham had a great time sitting at the top and banging his heals on the slide - making it sound like a thunder storm coming through.

The little kid area had plenty of spots for Alice to enjoy including a counter to play cafe and teeter totters.

It was the perfect way to burn up energy before we headed to Target at Northgate for back to school shopping.

When we attended a friend's birthday party at Blue Ridge Circle Park we were in for a surprise. The park had a wonderful playground right next to the shelter for the birthday party.

Perfect for the younger than five set there's a double slide, tunnel, climbing and a few swings.

It's also a wonderful setting with plenty of grass to run on, ocean views and the occasional train going by.

Be sure to check the traffic before you go - they're working on all the entrance streets in the area so all the construction can get in your way of getting to the park easily. Once it's done it will be beautiful!

Graham and Miles go to the movies

2015-09-02T08:00:00.000-07:00

This summer break has brought many first for our family but one of the most fun was taking Graham and Miles to their first trip to a movie theater. Regal Cinemas has a summer movie express every year where select movies are shown on Tuesdays and Wednesday mornings and only cost $1.00 per person to attend. It's an easy way to see a movie on the big screen and not have to worry about bailing early if needed and you can bring along younger siblings and now worry about them making too much noise.

The first movie we saw was The Penguins of Madagascar. We bought popcorn and picked our seats and the boys got to take it all in. They asked a bunch of questions and laughed about how the seats would fold up if they stood up. Joel even took a vacation day so he could come along and not miss a special first for the boys.

I tried to snap pictures fast and didn't make the kids pose so that I wouldn't embarrass them (Geeesh Mom!).

The second time I took the boys solo to go see The Lego Movie and again we had a good time. More popcorn and snacks and bouncing around in the fun movie theater seats. Some day these boys will be teenagers and going to movies with their buddies instead of Mommy. I did my best to really take in the experience and enjoy seeing them at a movie theater for the first time.

Wedding Extravaganza - Our Vacation to Suncadia

2015-08-28T08:00:00.000-07:00

It's a good thing Joel and I are celebrating our 12th anniversary this summer (and that I unfortunately missed Ben's wedding in June) because then without a conflict of interest I can say Tim and Mark's wedding was the celebration of the decade!

We packed up our crew and spent four days in Suncadia for wedding events. We brought along my parents to help with the kiddo wrangling and we had a GREAT time! The only blip on the screen was Graham coming down with a nasty stomach bug in the middle of the weekend (THANK YOU Campa for being there for him first thing in the morning) but he rallied and was able to participate in the wedding ceremony.

We headed over on a HOT Thursday morning and made a pit stop in North Bend for some play time, shave ice hunting and grabbing lunch on the road.

We arrived at our rental house and set up camp while I got myself ready to head over to the Holud early for sari wrapping help.

First up was the Holud for an official Bengali kick off to the wedding festivities. Tim's family generously provided many guests with outfits and we all gathered to meet other wedding guests, provide blessings and well wishes to Tim and Mark, dine on delicious Indian food and many of us got hennaed.

Graham and Miles were pretty comical. They were so bored with standing around waiting for Mark and Tim to arrive. We heard a chorus of "I'm bored." "Now what" "What are we doing" and then....

The car with Mark and Tim pulled up and the boys went running and screaming over to them for hugs (instead of standing back and observing like good guests would have done).

The grooms enter the house and take their places.

Alice had fun walking around and taking in all the sights of the colorful outfits and happy people.

Eventually it was our turn to offer our blessings (Thanks for holding us a spot and letting us cut in line Kerry!).

Well wishes, hugs, bites of cheese cake and some paste on the forehead for blessings.

Time to party!

We went back to the house to let Mom and the kids get going on bedtime and then Joel and I went back to the party for a couple more hours of hanging out and celebrating.

Henna and Dr. Pepper the perfect combination!

The next day was rehearsal day or in our house it was known as "Graham is really sick" day. Joel and I met with friends for lunch and wine tasting while Grandma and Campa took care of the kids. I even got to snag some newborn baby holding time at lunch!

By mid-morning it was clear that Graham was out for the count so later in the day I took just Miles to ring bearer rehearsals and Graham stayed home with Campa while the rest of us went to the BBQ rehearsal dinner.

Miles and Alice were a little more familiar with people by dinner so we had a great time talking with people and enjoying more delicious food. Again we took the kids back for bedtime with the grandparents and Joel and I headed out for the evening smores party and got to meet up with friends who were just arriving for the wedding the next day.

We had personalized shirts made for the kids and surprised Mark and Tim with "#sungaydia15" tshirts which many of the wedding friends bought too.

I went to bed that night worried that Graham was going to be too sick to be in the wedding and that he'd miss the whole thing. I didn't sleep very well that night. When Graham woke up a little earlier than normal and came into our room I held my breath waiting for him to say he felt horrible. Instead he climbed up onto our bed and said "Mommy I feel great!" WHEW! Whoever was looking down on us that day helped Graham be well enough to participate in the full events for the day and have a great time at the wedding and the reception.

It was such a beautiful ceremony. The boys got to be ring bearers and each carried a sign that announced "Here Comes the Groom".

I was honored to be asked to do a reading at the ceremony and barely made it through my tears of joy. If only I hadn't looked back at Mark and Tim so many times during my piece. I think many people shared in my tears that day. It was just such a wonderful celebration of the love two people share.

Alice was really into the ceremony, while everyone was getting seated (and while I was in the back with the boys waiting for their entrance) she looked up at Joel and said "It's time for getting married." We kept talking about how we were going on vacation to attend Mark and Tim's wedding and how they were getting married. And talking about how it was the day that Mark and Tim were getting married. I guess it stuck with her.

She was really in to watching everyone walking up front and watching the speaking. But by the time we were ten minutes into the ceremony she was getting wiggly and kept repeating "All done getting married" and she spent the second half of the ceremony in the back with Joel.

Alice danced to the music of the string quartette during the after party and once the ceremony was finished we let the kids FINALLY run around and be wild in their party outfits. Grandma made Alice a beautiful dress that pulled in the wedding colors perfectly.

Cheers!

The reception was at the amphitheater and the beautiful evening was perfect for a night of dining, drinking, dancing and meeting so many new friends. It seemed everyone in attendance had someone new to meet with a story about how Tim or Mark had told them of the other person. It was the most mingling and meeting new friends I had ever done at any wedding before. Their decorations were national park chic and cupcakes, M&Ms and a showering of sprinkles on the grooms when they exited made for a very amped up night.

Upon arrival at the reception spot I just stood back and took it all in, it was perfect!

And at some point standing on rocks became a thing with the kids.

The three Davis kids frolicking and singing.

Half way into the reception we sent Grandma and the kids off for bedtime at the house for the final time and just happened to time our send off with another pair of parents who were also their with their kids and Grandma (the wedding officiant). We were coincidentally parked next to each other and chatted while we helped load our kids into the cars. The Grandmas laughed along with the four of us who were giddy over having babysitters so we could continue on partying. We tried to hold back our smiles until they drove away and then the four of us walked back to the reception with a strut - we were just missing a slow motion soundtrack straight out of Entourage or The Hangover. We danced and drank until the resort curfew shut us down.

Not wanting to stop the party but ready to get out of our formal attire we headed back to our house and did a bit of hot tubbing with Zandra and enjoyed sharing stories of all the things we had done that day, hearing a different perspective on each event.

It was such a perfect night. I can't wait to see the professional photos. Even the phone camera pictures were beautiful.

The next day was pack up time - we had until 11:00 to gather up our explosion of gear, toys and supplies all over the house - while trying to entertain three cranky kids. Graham had another episode of throwing up in the early morning so we had a sick kid on our hands too. I felt bad that he was so sick and there wasn't much we could do until we were home. It was a bit stressful but we made it.

The next few days we chipped away at unpacking everything at home while riding the high of the wedding weekend of the decade.

Ready for School

2015-08-27T08:00:00.000-07:00

We had a teacher meet and greet day for the boys' kindergarten year and I'm confident they're ready for school to start. They showed me "I got this Mom" with their actions when we arrived to the school. Immediately they were talking to other students, excited to see a few familiar faces and chatting with new kids sitting next to them.

It's the first year the boys will be in different rooms and I think they'll be just fine - the classes are on the same schedule and they'll be just across the hall from each other. Now the test is whether I can keep two sets of names and details straight. Time to dust off my brain!

We arrived and I set up each kid in their room and then just stood back and let them do their thing. I went back and forth between each class and neither seemed to notice nor care when I wasn't in their room.

It should be a smooth transition.

Graham gets to be in the "Pink" room.

And Miles gets to be in the "Green" room.

Alice even got in on a bit of the fun, sitting in her familiar waiting chair looking at books and we walked down the hall to say hello to the teacher the boys had for the previous two years. We had a few moments together to talk about how much everyone has grown.

Here's Miles in front of his cubby - a new home for his stuff for the next year - the kindergarteners get to have their cubbies on the top row!

We have a few weeks to go until the first day of school which is a GOOD thing because they start twenty minutes earlier than last year so we'll need to start practicing our get up routine before the week of school.

Alice at Two

2015-08-26T13:57:00.002-07:00

Two years have whizzed by in The Daveye household. It doesn't seem that long ago that Alice was starting solid foods and learning to walk. Now she is running everywhere and sometimes is the best eater at the dinner table!

I usually put Alice in her highchair as I'm putting dinner on the table which means she's done eating by the time the rest of the family is seated at the table. Then we begin the bargaining to see what else we can get her to eat so she'll stay in her chair to "have conversations" with the family.

At two years old Alice has more vocabulary words than we can count and will have complete conversations with you talking in choppy but very long sentences. Alice has a budding sense of humor whether intentional or not. There was the time she was wiping her tray clean after dinner and when I asked her if she wanted strawberries she scowled at me and exclaimed "I'm cleaned my tray!" and when Auntie Jeanie asked Alice if she knew what the big bag of pirate booty (for her her birthday party) was for Alice responded "It's for my mouth!" There's something new she says every week that makes me laugh but they come and go so quickly that I can't capture them all.

She loves to sing and has a large library of songs she'll start singing while she plays or swings in her bucket swing at Grandma and Campa's house.

She's always the first to wake up in the house although that will change when the boys go back to school in September. Soon we'll have three days a week when brothers are in school until 3pm and we'll be off on our own adventures for some great one on one time. Perhaps I'll get Alice registered for a toddler dance class or some other regular outing to do something different.

There isn't one specific activity Alice enjoys more than the rest - she likes to do most anything. Painting, playdoh, coloring (with markers like her brothers of course), stickers, playing kitchen, building with duplo, playing with dollies or pretending to go to Costco. She loves running outside, climbing on the climbers at the park that are meant for five year olds, swinging in bucket swings, sliding down tall slides and digging in the sandbox (I'll be glad when she finally learns to not throw sand). She'll get into the toys meant for her brothers and has a hay day dumping all the board games out on the playroom floor. The only thing that really stands out that Alice doesn't care much about that Graham and Miles did at this age is playing with puzzles. She'll do puzzles here and there when I encourage her to play with them but she doesn't gravitate to them like the boys did. She looks forward to visits from her four grandparents and has little games and inside jokes she plays with each.

Alice is an overall happy girl but is beginning to throw full tantrums when she doesn't want to stop an activity for nap time or when she's really stuck on wanting something she can't have. Hopefully we'll navigate the terrible twos easier the second time around - one girl has to be easier than two boys right?

Her hair is finally growing enough for piggy tails and a very short pony tail and although she sometimes puts up a fuss eventually she lets you put in a piggy and then she'll run around the house stopping to look in the mirror at her bouncing tails. She LOVES her bedtime routine and can't wait to get her hands on a flosser after her nightly milk, pjs and brushing teeth. She'll read stories with Daddy and brothers in the reading nook but always ends her day in the quiet darkness of her room rocking in the rocking chair and singing songs and telling stores before getting tucked into her crib with her variety of stuffed animals.

Alice is the joy in our days and the quiet in our nights. She completes our family and time seems to be going by faster now than when Graham and Miles were this age.

Happy Birthday Alice Ann!

We love you so much and we've been happy to celebrate you this week.

We Celebrate Alice Turning Two

2015-08-25T08:00:00.000-07:00

Alice celebrated turning two years old with a day of parties. First we met with friends at Buffalo Park for a playdate and cupcakes in the morning. We had a bumpy start to the party when nearly everyone coming got dumped into the wrong location by Google maps. A few phone calls, texts and worried comments from me and then we were set. Friends started arriving and we were off and playing.

The kids enjoyed the playground, the parents had a chance to talk a little bit and then we met up for singing to Alice and getting goodie bags.

Thank you to all our friends who braved the bad directions and made it out to celebrate with us!

After the park playdate we went over to Grandma and Campa's for lunch, playing in the back yard and hot tub and time to party with Zandra, Tim and Mark. We ate a lot of food, had more cake and watched Alice open presents. Her reactions were priceless. She loved every single gift and spent time with each one before moving on to the next. She received her first back pack, more playdoh toys and a new Duplo set (among other things). The next day she was loading everything into her backpack and pretending to "got to school" with a big grin on her face.

Earlier in the week we gathered up 13 of our closest family members and had a dinner party at Nana and Papa's house. We celebrated the three August birthdays and two August wedding anniversaries and Alice got to open presents from Aunt Suzanne and Uncle Matt as well as get the first use of this kid sized picnic table Papa made for Alice. The kids were pretty cute eating their cake under the picnic umbrella.

Wednesday is her official birthday and we'll have a few family presents after Daddy gets home from work.... and probably more cake. There can never be too much cake!

Books Everywhere

2015-08-07T08:00:00.000-07:00

We have thirty - forty children's books checked out from our local library at any given time. The kids love going to the library and picking out books and they're even getting better at our three rules of visiting the library.

Use walking feet
Talk with a whisper
Stay together

The same as with approaching forest animals, so too, are the Davis children at the library. That is until one of them gets excited, runs and yells. We still haven't been kicked out in any of our visits with Alice along. I'm still traumatized from when the boys were Alice's age and they were crawling around under the checkout kiosk while I frantically checked out our stack of books. One of them discovered the master power switch on the floor and pushed the button to turn off power to the entire row of computers. Ummmmmmmm. Switching the button back did no good and a librarian was quickly by my side "Here let me help you" she said as she took my books, walked to the desk, scanned them all and put them back into my bag with a look on her face that said now it's time for you to leave.

I didn't go back to that branch for a month. And it took even longer for me to attempt another trip to the library without a stroller.

Alice is loving all the books and is currently wanting to re-read any of the books in the Mouse series.

She's also obsessed with any books that deal with emotions, in particular anger or grouchy feelings.

It's a bit comical how many times she wants to read I'm So Grumpy.

And while I love all the Llama Llama books in the series, Llama Llama Red Pajama gets a lot of play because the little llama looses his patience and YELLS for his mama's attention.

And this book has been particularly therapeutic for Alice and I. I had an awful Mommy Tantrum almost three months ago. Poor Alice was sitting in her high chair for lunch and witnessed my huge volcanic blow up in the kitchen. Harriet, You'll Drive Me Wild! has a page where the Mommy "yells and yells and yells" and for the first dozen readings Alice would always talk about "jelly all over the ceiling" when we were reading the book (which is what happened when I slammed a jar of jelly on the kitchen counter and the jam exploded out of the jar and hit the kitchen ceiling.

I felt so horrible that day. That I lost my patience, that I yelled, that Alice had to witness it, that I screwed up. But we've spent a lot of time talking about the episode. What everyone did to contribute to the situation and what Mommy should have done. Perhaps I'll do a decent post about that episode some day. We're finally getting enough distance from that day to see the good in it and a bit of the humor too.

Alice still asks me "did you calmed down?" whenever I come out of the den, no matter the reason I went in there to begin with. I'll go get a roll of tape, turn around and see sweet Alice standing there with a question on her lips "Did you calmed down?"

"Yes Alice. Mommy is much much calmer these days."

Legoland with Preschoolers

2015-08-05T13:33:00.000-07:00

We took our family of five to Legoland California for the boys' fifth birthday in April, 2015. We had my folks and sister with her family along for the fun so we ended up with a group of TEN for our vacation. It was A BLAST! I am so glad we invested the time and expense for the vacation, it was so wonderful and turned out better than I anticipated. People kept asking us why we didn't do Disneyland but I knew this park would be perfect for our group including four kids ages five and younger. Disney has so much to offer for big kids and adults but Legoland is perfect for the eight and younger set. And perhaps, just the right speed for adults who aren't crazy about roller coasters. You don't have to be a Lego fanatic to enjoy the park but it certainly amped up the experience. There were so many Lego details all over the park, the boys had fun shouting out all the stuff they could see built with Lego.

Since we were flying from Washington I figured it would be the only time we'd do Legoland (when the kids are older we'll be ready for Disneyland) so I wanted to go all out. We spent the extra money and stayed at the Legoland Resort hotel. The hotel rooms are easily twice the cost of other hotels in the area but boy did the extra perks and amenities make up for the cost difference. After staying there I can easily say it was worth every penny and I highly recommend it to anyone traveling with children.

We booked our trip through a friend who just happens to be a travel agent and she snagged us a deal for two day resort hopper tickets included in the price of the room. It worked out great because although we're a family of five, Alice was in the free admission age group for getting into the park, so we only needed four tickets included in the hotel booking.

Upon walking into the hotel I was blown away at how much the entire place is catered to kids. There were Lego displays at knee level at the checkin desk so the kids had something fun to look at while grown ups check in. There's a hug Lego pit just steps from the checkin desk and lobby entrance which was a great spot for kids to play while groups were gathering for checkin, meals or leaving the hotel for the day. Miles had so many questions about the gal that was sitting there playing with the kids (she was an employee) he thought it was pretty cool to have a job where you get to sit and play with Lego all day.

Up a ramp and around a wall from the lobby there is an awesome play castle which made for a great run around spot. I think Alice used this spot more than any of our kids.

(photo provided by Legoland California Hotel website)

She would run, run, run in circles and go in and out of the castle.

There are duplo blocks to build with, a pull "rope" to make the castle ogre roar, a wheel to spin, little door ways to walk through and chalk boards to write on. It was the perfect spot to run off energy when the kids needed to get rowdy. There's a walk up counter cafe next to the castle and the side wall had a display of all the Lego scenes from the ending credits in The Lego Movie. I had fun looking at those up close.

There was nightly entertainment including a movie by the pool, pajama party in the lobby and staff putting on comical performances. I missed all of that because I stayed with Alice to get her to bed but Joel took the boys to the pj party the first night and said they had a great time.

The hotel also has three restaurant options for catching a meal or snack. Their wonderful staff didn't even bat an eye when I asked for FIVE extra bath towels and they always talked directly to the kids when they were in tow. It was fun to be at a hotel where the kids were treated like people instead of a nuisance or hassle. But, be forewarned. Kids definitely outnumber grownups at the hotel. There were kids EVERYWHERE and the noise to go with it. I didn't mind because with three of our own we just blended in to the commotion but if you're looking for a quiet retreat - this is not the place to get it.

Our group ended up with my crew in one room, my sister's family of three in a room next door and my folks at a separate hotel off site. My parents had some extra running around to do each day for meeting up with us but at least they had a spot to get away from KIDS.

Breakfast was included in the price of our room and the buffet restaurant had a phenomenal selection of foods. I didn't get any pictures because we were always busy getting three kids fed but there's a kid height section of their buffet line which was a fun experience for the boys. This was also a great chance for us to fill up our water bottles for the day and fill sippy cups of milk for Alice.

The other major perk of staying at the hotel was getting into the Legoland theme park an hour ahead of the general public. This is a feature not to be ignored!

We took the advice of other bloggers and booked a hotel room on the third floor which is the top floor. It gave us a room without kids running over head and a longer ride on the super fun disco elevators. There is a whoopy cushion feature in the floor next to the elevators and although some were annoyed by it, I thought it was genius. We could say "Meet at the whoopy cushion!" and it gave the kids motivation to get out of the hotel room and gather as a group.

The hotel room itself was basic but TOTALLY Lego themed out. Every inch of the room had lego details and it was pretty neat seeing the kids marvel at all the lego sculptures.

The room had a bunk bed with a trundle bed below and the boys loved it. There's a tv in the kid area which was nice when we wanted to let the boys zone out while we got Alice to bed in the pack n play in our area. We requested a pack and play ahead of time for Alice and it was waiting in our room when we arrived. Bring your own sheet for the pack and play, there isn't one included.

A little hallway connects the kid area to the bed room for adults; there's a bathroom off to the side with a sliding door. We were pretty cramped in the room with our group of five. I was so thankful to have packed the kids clothes well as there was definitely not enough storage space in the room. I was grateful to have a mini fridge in the room, a definite must when traveling with little kids and there were bottles of water and juice that were replenished each day and included in the room amenities.

I laid out all the kids' clothes before we left and packed the boys' outfits one per ziploc bag (shirt, shorts and underwear) and labeled it with their name. Then in the morning we could say "Grab one of your clothes bags and get dressed." It definitely cut down on how many clothes were thrown all over the hotel room, kept our clean clothes separated from the dirty ones and helped keep our suitcases contained.

Each room comes with a treasure hunt lock box and you can complete a scavenger hunt to find out the code to open the box. Every day we had three new prizes in our box, that alone was worth a bit of money! We had three packs of Mixels in our room each day the room was cleaned and those things are easily $5.00 each back home. That was a nice touch. I had read about the treasure hunt but didn't know we'd get new prizes each day.

Miles ended up using the box for storing all his Lego creations (to keep them away from Alice's hands) and he had quite the little diorama scene by the end of our trip.

The Legoland California Resort has a wonderful pool with a zero depth entry. This was our first time to a pool where we didn't have to hold the boys the entire time and it turned our usually stressful pool trips into a relaxing hang out spot.

Alice could have fun walking and splashing in the water with Daddy near by and the boys could go a little deeper and have fun playing. The pool also has a deep end which we never bothered with because our kids are younger. It was nice for the bigger kids at the pool to have their own area to swim, cannon ball and make noise while our tots were on the smaller side. Separate pool towels are available at the pool to use but there were a few times they were all out and I had to run back up to our room to bring down hotel bathroom towels. There were cabanas for rental but we never needed them because there were plenty of lounge chairs available.

The Legoland website talked about their floating water Lego which had Miles really excited to build Lego in the water. There was definitely not as many Lego as the website made it seem. There were a few bricks here or there and Miles spent a lot of his time trying to gather them up. If was kind of funny. It was a fun feature but definitely not enough to actually build with.

We checked in to our hotel on a Wednesday afternoon and spent the day enjoying the hotel and getting settled in. We had dinner at the Skyline Cafe on site which was decent. Our bill was HIGH but I think that was mostly due to the $10 beers us grown ups splurged on as a treat for surviving our first vacation day. Meals could easily be split between people - even the kids meals were huge. Then our plan was Thursday in the park, Friday split between the water park and regular park and checkout was Saturday afternoon. It was the perfect schedule for our group. There was PLENTY to enjoy at the hotel that the kids were never bored and the grown ups had a chance to unpack and regroup without feeling like we had to rush off to the park and not miss out on anything.

My mom bought the boys' some lego shirts and pjs before our trip and I saved them as a surprise for when they were getting dressed in the morning. It was a fun surprise and they LOVED having Lego gear to wear while we were there. The same as Disneyland, buying your Lego gear ahead of time can save you big bucks over the prices of things inside the park.

NOW I'll dig into the park. Download the park map if you want to track our adventures. I'll be noting the color and number identifications of the rides we visited during our trip. http://california.legoland.com/Documents/pdf/LLCR_ParkMap2014.jpg

A highlight of my tips:

Plan your path before you're at the park. With strollers and little kids everywhere it's hard to get through the park very quickly. And if you're one of the groups with strollers and little kids you won't be moving very fast either. It was nice to stroll along and take time to look at everything but you'll need that walking time planned in to your day. If you look at the map ahead of time and note which rides you want to prioritize you can plan the best route for getting around.

Unless you REALLY love your stroller, just rent one at the park. We were traveling with three car seats so I didn't want to also lug our stroller along. I babywore Alice at the airport and the boys walked. We budgeted to pay for stroller rentals at the park and BOY was I happy with them. Even better for what we needed than our own stroller would have been. The kids could easily hop in and out, there was a sun shade, places for water bottles and a little bit of storage we could use for gear or laying out our map. They were surprisingly easy to steer and had a smooth ride. Even our five year olds enjoyed hopping on and having a ride when we wanted to move a long distance.

Plan in bathroom breaks, water breaks and breaks in general. If you're there when it's HOT you don't want your kids getting dehydrated. Don't forget to feed them either. A tired, hungry, thirsty kid makes for a cranky kid and no one wants a cranky kid on their hands. Also be sure you look at the map and spot the bathroom locations so you can plan for pit stops.

Pack in your own snacks and water. We brought a backpack and brought in our own water and snacks which helped for refueling on the go. It also avoided a few meltdowns when we could tell our kids were getting hungry.

Pack layers and bring travel sunblock. I had read to bring along a change of clothes into the park so that when your kids get wet you can change them. We never needed this tip, but maybe if your kids want to do more of the thrill splash rides it would be necessary. What I didn't anticipate was that my kids would whine about being chilly. The first morning they were both in t-shirts and shorts and wanted their hoodies (which were back in the hotel room). It was kind of annoying and I was sure to bring them along the second day. We sunblocked our kids in the morning at the hotel room and brought along one bottle to re-apply throughout the day when we were in direct sun. We also had a hat for each kid which they didn't always want on so having the backpack to store them was helpful.

Don't rush your kids along. There is plenty to see and do and I don't know how anyone can do the whole park in one day. We easily missed out on a good forth of the park (we didn't even get into any of the Star Wars exhibits) and had two full days for our vacation. If you have several young kids in your group I recommend taking it slow, go at their pace and let them enjoy their vacation. A month later some of the stuff the boys talk about when we recount our vacation isn't even on my list of the top five fun things we did - the factory tour, shopping in the gift shops, splashing in the water park - those are all things we could have easily skipped or rushed them through to move on to the next thing.

If you're in a group plan out meet up spots so you don't have to worry about getting separated. Even with cell phones you don't want to spend your entire time trying to track each other down. Have one or two checkin points for the day and make a plan so you don't have to worry if your group gets separated. On the first day I called dibs on our lunch spot and later on we'd have a plan to send a text at a certain time to say where we were - then we could check in on how everyone was feeling and what they wanted to do next. It wasn't realistic for our group of ten to stay together the whole time so this worked well for letting each family relax and enjoy the things they were interested in.

Use the early entry time if you have it. This is not Disneyland. Ride lines aren't run as efficiently as they could and the park can be hard to maneuver. Getting in to the park ahead of the general public can be a HUGE time saver to knock out a bunch of rides. But ask for details ahead of time. On the day we got in at 9am the Fun Zone (where we headed first) didn't open until 10am so we had to back track and find rides we could do to use up our time. If I had known this ahead of time I would have taken us a different route through the park. I'm not sure if different areas open at different times depending on the time of year so research it before your trip to make the most of your early time.

Our first day in the park didn't start how I anticipated. With all the build up over our vacation (we had been counting down for months) I thought we'd be up and at 'em and first in line at the park. Well, we had let the boys stay up LATE building Lego the night before and they ended up sleeping in much later than I thought they would. I wanted them to be rested so I didn't wake them early but finally got out of bed and started banging around at 8am so they would wake up. I was excited to get our vacation going! By the time we got our family of five sunblocked, dressed, fed and off to the park for the day we were not at the gate first thing. We didn't make that mistake the second morning. You can definitely do way more rides in one hour of early entry than you can once it's open to general admission and the crowds fill the park.

Since we missed the opportunity to be first in line on any of the rides we picked up our stroller rental, checked out the maps and made a plan for which direction we were headed. Then Miles spotted the HUGE gift shop and immediately wanted to go check it out. Our group split up a bit and I stuck with Miles so he could browse and check out ALL THE LEGO there are to buy. In general the kits were comparable to what you could spend at home. Some things were more expensive some things were less. I didn't see any kits in the stores that I couldn't find online or back home but being in a shop that huge was a real treat for my preschooler. We had a deal with the kids that since it was their birthday we would match the money in their piggy banks and they could have a budget to spend how ever they wanted to. Graham kind of didn't care. He wanted to buy stuff but once he had a few things picked out he was good. Miles was determined to spend every last dollar of his budget and wanted to make sure he got the most for his money. I did my best to not hurry him along and let him really take it all in. I kept repeating to myself "This is something he never gets to do back home." and just kept walking with him through all the aisles of the store. I'm not sure what the rest of the group did with the time but Miles was in his own little world of Lego bliss.

After Miles had his fill of the gift shops we met up with the group and jumped in line for our first official ride of our vacation - Aquazone Wave Racers (Green 79). It was FUN! But we didn't pay attention to the length of the line when we headed over, we just followed the group and got in line. I don't know the exact time but we waited at least half an hour. We used the time to chat and have a granola bar and raisins snack but it was kind of a waste standing in line. If I had known ahead of time we would have skipped it and looked for a ride with little or no wait.

But since we were committed we made the best of it. Joel went with Graham and I went with Miles and I screamed and whoooped up the fun behind Miles while he laughed and turned the wheel as much as he could to move our racer in and out from the center while the whole thing spun in a circle. We got a little wet and it was fun!

Alice was too little for the ride so she stayed behind with the grandparents and Auntie, looking at the miniland displays and waving to us from the waiting area.

It was definitely sun hat weather!

Once off the ride and back down with the group we walked the path over to the Build and Test and Duplo Play zones (Green 85, 86). I read about this attraction ahead of time and knew it would be a big stop for the boys. You get to build your own race cars and then run them on the ramp to test their speed.

There were plenty of Lego to go around and the staffers gave out ribbons to the participants and winners of each official race. It was pretty cool.

While the boys and Daddy were building and testing, Alice had a snack outside with Grandpa on a bench. We also worked in bathroom breaks and diaper changes. It was a good spot to catch our breath and take in the awesomeness of Legoland.

Alice was beginning to get antsy right as we realized the Duplo area next door was open. The double doors were closed and no one was inside so I just assumed it was closed but when I pulled on the door - whala - we had the whole area to ourselves.

There was Duplo to build with and areas you could push buttons to make different things move or activate different sounds.

Although I wanted to let the kids enjoy themselves and not feel rushed we finally started pushing them towards the door around the forty five minute mark. We were an hour away from lunch and we had barely made it into the park!

We continued on the way around the right of the park and jumped in a short line for Cargo Ace airplanes (Yellow 75). Another fun stop that I actually enjoyed myself. I'm NOT a roller coaster person so all the kiddie rides at the park were actually perfect for me too.

I had planned on us having lunch at the Garden Restaurant (Red 49) which came recommended by several people. With quiet outdoor seating looking at the Miniland display and fresh healthy food choices, including wraps and salads, I knew it would be a good fit for our group. We had a bit of a trek to make it there from where we were and I didn't want to take a chance of getting into whiny town so we loaded the kids up in the strollers and booked it over to the restaurant. My crew probably thought I was crazy about insisting we head for lunch at 11am but by the time we wove our way through the strollers and crowds, got our food and sat at tables, it was timed just right.

The plan after lunch was for the grandparents to take Alice back to our hotel room for her nap but we had a bit of back and forth about who was going to go where. Some of our tots were acting tired and out of sorts so we thought maybe a bigger group should go back to rest. One of our boys was refusing to eat lunch and so we told him if he didn't eat he'd go back to the hotel. We started to pack up and thought maybe three fourths of our group was heading back and then ... then the kids perked up and ate, the parents chilled out and we ended up with the original plan. Grandparents took Alice, Sister's family headed their own way and Joel and I took the boys in search of more rides.

By this time I was starting to stress because it was nearly 1:00 and we'd only done two rides. I had to remind myself how big of a deal visiting the gift shops were for Miles and how much the boys loved the test track. But it was definitely time to re-evaluate what we were going to get done on the trip.

We started looking at the map and thought we'd head over to some of the bigger rides to get those knocked off our list. Well, everything had a forty or more minute wait (the boat ride was an hour plus!) so we didn't want to waste our time doing that. A pirate ship ride caught Graham's eye and Joel and he ran to go get in line while Miles and I chilled out in a waiting area and he built with the water Lego for a bit.

Miles with Lego dude, pirate ride in the back.

I was surprised Graham wanted to do the pirate ride and thought he might chicken out when they got closer but Joel said he loved it! Captain Cranky's Challenge (Red 43).

Legoland has kept kids in mind and has several spots that kids can play while parents wait in line. Miles thought this Lego shark was pretty awesome and loved examining it up close.

After the ride we were getting pretty hot so we did more bathroom breaks and chugged some water. We walked through the fun town area and made note of the rides we wanted to come back to. Then we discovered the walk through factory tour which had some fun displays of how Lego are made. There was no wait and it was indoors with air conditioning, a perfect break from the sun. Lego Factory Tour (Blue 36).

The boys got to use their camera to take pictures and the tour dumped you into a gift shop where the boys got to pick out minifigures and spend some more of their birthday money. Miles had a good time putting together minifigures to buy and there were fun minifigure accessories I hadn't seen at our local Lego store.

We were close by the Fun Town Stage (Blue 30) and there was a show coming up so we walked around the area a bit to check out other rides in action. Then we headed in to the amphitheater seating and enjoyed a slapstick show about trainees becoming fire fighters. There were catchy songs and plenty of stunts to keep the kids entertained. A definite must see for the 3-5 year set.

The Lego Movie had a special attraction during the time we visited Legoland, complete with meet and greets at specific times for Emmet and Wyldstyle. I knew that would be a big stop for us, and maybe not one the rest of the group would care about, so we headed that way next.

Transported and reconstructed at Legoland, you could examine the basement set from The Lego Movie live action scenes and the detail was amazing.

The boys slowly walked through the exhibit pointing out all their favorite details. There were employees on hand to answer questions and provide scavenger hunt questions - like count all the Unikitties you can find.

I didn't really know what to expect but I was giddy about seeing the boys meet the life sized Lego dudes. The meet and great area was right next to a gift shop and Miles kept wanting to get out of line to go shopping. I was like "DUDE! Wyldstyle is RIGHT THERE!" There was a short wait, maybe five minutes to get to the front of the line for photos and the characters were really generous about their time with the kids. They'd give high fives and hugs and nod while the kids were talking (though I doubt they could really hear much of what the boys were saying).

Graham was very adamant about not wanting his picture taken with the characters. I wasn't sure what was going on, it was almost as if he didn't want to turn his back to them. We waited in line for photos and when it came our turn with Wyldstyle, Graham waited on a bench while Miles had his picture.

After the boys met Wyldstyle they went back into the exhibit with Daddy while I kept going in and out of the building to touch base with the rest of our group, buy some cold bottles of water and scout out when Emmet was going to appear.

We didn't prep the boys for meeting the characters other than talking about how it was a real person wearing a costume. They were definitely old enough to have that figured out on their own. But they still talked to the characters like they were real. It was pretty cute.

Miles had his photo with Emmet and was itching to go shopping so he and I headed into the gift shop while Joel took Graham over to talk to Emmet. He was really stern with Joel about how he didn't want a hug, he didn't want a picture, he just wanted to talk to him. Joel helped interpret to Emmet since Graham was talking quietly.

"Hi Emmet!"

character waves

"I wanted you to know that my favorite song is 'Everything is Awesome'"

character claps hands together

"Was it hard to defeat Lord Business?"

character nods

There was a little exchange between them for about two minutes.

It was as if Graham had it all planned out in his head. He really just wanted a moment to have a talk with Emmet. Joel snapped a quick picture for documentation since Graham repeated for the fourth time that he did NOT want to pose for a picture.

By this point we received word from the rest of the group that Alice was up from her nap and they were over at the Duplo Playtown. It wasn't too far away so we wove our way through the attractions to meet up.

The hardest part of the trip for me was wanting to do everything with all three of my kids. I was SO GRATEFUL to have my sister and parents along, not only to spend time with them but for all the help they gave us with taking care of Alice. She had her own mini-vacation and I was kind of sad to miss it. BUT I'm glad she got to have so much fun. She LOVED Duplo Playtown (Blue 22) and I was impressed how much there was to do at Legoland for the smallest of tots.

Big kids can go in the space too but it's built with the littles in mind. There's a tiny train ride that goes around a track. I don't even know how many times Alice rode it. The area is themed out to look like it was built with Duplo blocks with several slides and climbers all at the perfect hight for littles. The whole area is enclosed with only one way in and out so there's no fear of any kids running away and getting lost. There were benches for grown ups to take a load off and lots of little details to enjoy. I was really impressed with the space they set up.

Once we were all back together we kicked around ideas for what to do next. Do we keep on, have dinner in the park and close the place down? We looked at the kids and looked at ourselves and decided not to push it. We gathered up our crew, made plans to have take out pizza at the hotel pool and made our way towards the exit of the park. It's funny writing it out now, it doesn't seem like we really did much that first day but with six hours on our feet in the park we were happy and we had our fill.

I had read about the Dino Dig (Orange 8) attraction and how that was a fun stop for any kids that like digging in the sand so I suggested we swing by and see if that would be a nice final thing to do.

It was perfect.

Partial shade so we could be out of the sun and just let the kids dig and wander around while us parents chatted about the adventures we had while we were apart. Either shovels and buckets were now free or plenty of folks before us had left their purchase behind. I had read it was worth the extra money to buy a shovel and bucket but we didn't need to! We were almost the only kids in the space and there were enough shovels and buckets for sharing and enjoying the dig. It also made for a good final stop because the kids were covered in sand by the time we pulled them out.

We left the park around 4pm and headed back to our rooms, geared up into swim suits and made our way down to the pool. We found lounge chairs together and I walked over to the cafe counter and ordered pizzas for pick up.

There were waiters walking around taking food and drink orders by the pool but they weren't convenient enough when we were ready to order so I just walked over myself. The food was great, the price was right and it was the perfect wrap up to our night.

Once back in the room we gave a few kids warm baths to get the chill out of their bones, jammied up and let them zone out to tv for a bit while we re-grouped. We ended up leaving the grandparents with the four kids while us middle parents dashed off to find a grocery store for beer and birthday cupcakes for the next day.

The second morning of our trip I made sure we were up in time to get ready and off to breakfast with enough time to be at the park gates at 9am. My sister snagged the only picture we got the whole trip of all five of us in the same photo. Having breakfast at the buffet restaurant.

The plan was Joel and I would take the boys on our morning dash through the park to catch at many rides as we could during that first hour before the park was opened to the public. Alice would stay behind with the grandparents and Auntie, Uncle and her cousin.

It was a great plan and we did four or so rides in the time it had taken us to do one ride the day before - definitely worth the extra effort and coordination.

We were at the front gates and able to see Emmet make the official park opening for the day and then we were OFF! We sprinted towards Fun Town to get in line for the driving school ride.... only to be stopped by a chain and employee blocking off the entrance into Fun Town. Turned out that only certain parts of the park was open at 9am and the rest opened at 10am when the whole park opened to the public. If I had planned better we would have figured that out ahead of time.

I didn't want to waste time trekking over to the other side of the park so we stuck close to Fun Town and hit up the rides that were open at 9am.

We did the Sky Cruisers (Blue 23) pedal ride which was a fun way to see a lot of the park up high.

And Uncle Curtis joined us for the Kid Power Towers (Blue 24) ride. A kid powered pulley that rotated and went up pretty high.

It didn't look like Fun Town was going to open early so we headed back to some of the rides we passed on the way in. We stood in line for five minutes for the Safari Trek ride (Orange 9) and snapped a couple pictures of us with the kids.

Happy Birthday Miles and Graham!

Then it was getting closer to 10:00 so I went over to Fun Town to scope out the situation and Joel stayed behind with the boys to climb all over Duplotown and had the place to themselves.

There was a crowd gathering at 9:50 so I texted Joel to bring the boys over and after a few more minutes wait the chain was dropped and everyone was off and running. We were among the first in line at the Junior Driving School (Blue 28) and pep talked the boys on strategy while we watched the first group of kids do the ride.

Then after some back and forth over wether they wanted to do the driving school ride again we skipped over to the Sky Patrol (Blue 25) ride and took a trip into the sky.

While we were off running from ride to ride the girls stayed behind and did the boat ride Coast Cruise (Gray 87).

They said it was a great way to see lego sculptures up close and the girls had fun taking a boat ride.

After the Sky Patrol ride I left Joel with the boys to explore more of the fun town rides while the lines were short and I skipped over to the water park cabana stand to pick up our wrist bands and get the details on our cabana rental. It was good I didn't have kids with me in the line. For some reason with only two people in front of me, it took a good fifteen minutes to get to the counter to be helped. Without consulting our group I decided to reserve a cabana for our day at the water park. I called the day before and booked it over the phone, and it's good I didn't wait until the day of - I snagged the last cabana in the tot area. I didn't want anyone in our group talking me out of the splurge but I chalked it up to "It's the boys' 5th birthday, we'll only be doing this once and it'll be HOT in the sun with three generations in our group" excuse. For $140 we had a standard cabana for the day with in and out privileges. The cabana came with two lounge chairs, two regular chairs, a small table and best of all a mini fridge stocked with beverages (you could designate what you wanted among water and soda pops). The cabana came with access to waiter service and the food prices were the same as the walk up counters. Best of all we had a shady spot to hang out and store all our gear without having to spend time trying to save seats or corral loungers. Turned out no one in our group complained one bit about having a cabana and I highly recommend it to anyone on the fence about whether it's worth the price!

After getting our wrist bands I swung back to Joel and delivered his band and dashed back down to Duplo playtown to give the rest of our group their wrist bands. Then we planned for me to get back to our hotel room to pick up our bags we packed for the water park and meet the group back up to the park.

I snagged a quick train ride with Alice and enjoyed a few moments of one on one time with her.

It was a lot of walking but there's no way we could have taken our whole group back to the hotel and then back up to the water park without wasting a ton of time. We planned to have lunch at the water park and since you have to bring your own towels that would have been too much gear to lug around during the first part of the morning.

I dashed through the park with Dad and then we were back up to the water park with the rest of the group at the cabana getting ready to go get wet.

We ordered some food and unwound while Mom took off to what we thought was a bathroom trip, and she came back a while later with her arms full of food she stood in line to get for us (she didn't know about the waiter service at the cabana!). I felt bad that she had spent the time getting us food but we were VERY appreciative to have it and ate nearly everything she bought and we had ordered from the waiter.

I didn't bother with trying to get photos while we were in the water park - we splashed and explored the park. It was a bit crowded for my taste with three small kids in tow. But our cabana was right outside the Splash Zoo (Blue 9) area and we had a great time with the zoo, creek and safari areas. I ended up putting legging pants on Alice because she kept falling and scraping her knees on the rough cement. The cement was rough to provide traction and to keep people from slipping but if you have a new walker or a kid who falls easily they'll find the ground rough on their knees and hands. Once she had the leggings on we were good to go.

After sending my parents back to the hotel with Alice for her nap we took the boys over to the Chima section of the water park. It was pretty crowded and I don't think we had much more fun over there. The boys splashed in the water and had fun doing the water guns but the slides were too big for their interest and the two family rides I had hoped we could go on had hour plus wait times so we didn't bother. If you have kids under five and are going when the park is crowded I'd skip the Chima section and not waste your time with the crowds. We went back to the tot island area and finished up our time there.

Then we had a decision to make - do we go do the regular Legoland park and plan to come back to the water park for more swimming or just pack up our stuff and call it good? We decided to not try to split our time up so much and changed out of our swim suits in the cabana. BUT the benefit of the cabana was we left all our gear (wet towels, suits and rented stroller) in the cabana and went to enjoy the park. We sent one of our group members back to the water park later to pick up all our gear and then they schlepped it all back to the hotel when we were done with our day.

The last few hours of our time at Legoland was a bit of a marathon. I still had so much left on my list that I wanted to do. The kids were content but there were a few key things I wanted to try to hit up since we probably wouldn't be back.

There were a few showings of a 3D movie through the day and if we booked it we could take the boys to an unforgettable experience. We made it and they had a great time! Lego Showplace (Green 80) it was their first time seeing such a large screen and they had never experienced a 3D movie before. They were amazed!

Once out of the short movie we waited in line for ice cream treats that were way too big for before dinner and spent some time walking through Miniland. The boys marveled at the details on all the models and devoured their ice cream.

We had a bit of back and forth with our crew who were back at the hotel on what we wanted to do for dinner. We could do a restaurant in the park or we could do the buffet back at the hotel. Since our group was split between both locations we didn't know what was the best decision. We decided to do a bit more of checking out Miniland and soaking in Legoland and then we'd meet back at the hotel. But wait there was ONE more thing I was bummed out that we hadn't done yet. APPLE FRIES! We never spent much time in the Castle Hill area and were never next to the spot to buy apple fries. I knew it was silly but I really wanted to try them. The boys had their fill of Miniland and we popped them in the stroller and OFF WE WENT marathoning up to Castle Hill. We snagged two servings of apple fires and then booked it back to the hotel to meet up with the rest of our group and laugh at all we packed in to the afternoon.

The apple fries were worth it by the way.

We had the boys' birthday dinner at the buffet restaurant. Mom picked up birthday hats and buttons from the front desk and the kids had fun being rambunctious with each other.

We were welcome to bring our cupcakes into the restaurant but I didn't want to bother bringing everything down from our rooms when the kids were being so crazy so we moved our party back to the hotel so the kids could run around and we could set things up for cake and presents.

Mom snagged some paper table clothes from the restaurant and we laid everything out and gathered around.

My awesome sister had purchased candy molds, made and transported these Lego pieces just for her nephew's birthday. I saw the molds online but knew I wouldn't have time to even consider making them so I didn't bother. Luckily she did because they turned out super cute!

We put one homemade candy on top of each cupcake and whala! we had a Lego party fit for a couple of five year olds.

Miles very diligently laid out plates and napkins he had picked out at the store. I didn't plan to buy a bunch of party supplies, just cupcakes in our hotel room to sing Happy Birthday. But when I was out shopping with Miles he spotted the Spiderman plates "Can we get those for my birthday party?!" To which I replied "Sure thing bud." That was nearly three weeks before our trip, but I packed them along anyway, it's a good thing I had because Miles definitely wanted those plates to be used for his party. Even while we were singing to him and bringing over his candle to blow out, he was tidying the place settings and making sure each plate had a napkin.

Our babies were now five years old!

Happy Birthday Graham and Miles!

Our vacation was coming to an end. Two full days in the park, it was the right amount of time, although we didn't get to do everything on my list. The kids were pretty tired and ready to be back in their own beds. After cake and presents we played with Lego and said our good nights and then in the morning we had a final breakfast downstairs and let a couple adults take the kids to the pool while I stayed behind to pack our room explosion into our suitcases. Joel came back with the kids to finish up our packing and I helped change our wet tots into kids ready to fly on an airplane.

And just as quickly as our vacation started, it was over. We had a nice uneventful flight home and although Alice was a bit more wiggly on the way back, she still did great and gave each adult equal attention on the flight.

Stickers with Campa were a huge hit.

Snacks and books were the other items which killed the most time. I brought our aquadoodle pen and and pad and water wow books but they didn't take up as much of her attention as I imagined. Luckily there were inflight magazines to examine and windows on both sides of the plan to look out.

The boys were kept busy with their leap reader pens, one kindle passed between them and snacks galore.

Grandma brought along sticker activity pages and other little treats to keep things fun.

We were a busy bunch on the airplane and we lucked out to have zero delays in our travel. The vacation Gods were smiling down on our crew that week!

A couple quick tips for traveling with kids.

Snacks, snacks, snacks. Packing extra food was great when we needed a diversion or when we were traveling during meal time.
I had a straw bottle of water for each kid and had surprises packed in their backpacks they got to discover when we were on the plane (new leap reader books and a couple mini Lego kits).
Pack a change of clothes along with a diaper and wipes inside a ziploc bag. Then when you get up during the flight to change a diaper, you have everything you need ready to grab and go and you're not digging through a diaper bag.
Give yourself plenty of time during travel so you're not rushed. Be sure to use the bathroom before boarding your flight and get one more diaper change in before you go.

WHEW! Once back home Joel asked what we were going to do for Alice's fifth birthday since we did a trip for the boys turing five.

"I don't know"

I replied.

"Disneyland?"

Park Review - Cedar Grove Park in Bothell, Washington

2015-08-03T11:24:00.000-07:00

It's hard to keep on a blogging schedule when the kids are out of school. I'm enjoying having the freedom in our schedule and extra time with the kids but it will be nice to be back on a regular schedule of time to take care of other things.

Another month has blown by and we're beating the record breaking heat by visiting parks early right after breakfast. Then we're home at the heat of the day and can either stay inside or play in the sprinklers in the backyard.

We revisited Cedar Grove Park this last week and although it's a little bit of a drive from where we live now - it's worth the trip - there's a wonderful spot for tots as well as big kid climbing equipment. It's perfect for groups with mixed ages of kids.

The park has a few of my must haves to make it a great location. There's a decent parking lot and working restrooms.

There's plenty of tree coverage and picnic tables for having a spot to snack on a hot day. There's also a shelter available for rental if you're having a gathering.

After coming out of the parking lot and passing the restrooms you'll see a huge baseball field great for running and it's fully fenced to keep the littles in.

There's a large section with big climbing equipment for the older kids.

A basketball court with a paved walking path that goes around the whole park.

Another picture of the big kid area - slides, rock wall, climbers galore.

Graham had fun playing with a feather and it made a big impression on Alice that day - she still talks about that feather three weeks later!

There are two bucket swings and two regular swings just past the little tot island.

Alice loves to slide and this climber is perfect for letting your smallest climbers play without much guidance from grownups. Another plus for me is there aren't any spots for her to fall off so I can just stand back and watch her go down the slide, run around, go up the stairs and back down the slide. Over and over!

We hadn't visited this park for a good year so it was fun to be reminded of how much the kids have grown by watching them running and playing on all this park has to offer.

Summer is Underway

2015-07-09T14:30:00.004-07:00

We're three weeks into our summer break and we're off to a great start. In typical fashion I panic the weeks before school being out and think I need to have a plan ... "I need to come up with a plan to survive summer" I'll say while pinning a bunch of stuff at night while Joel and I work on our laptops and watch tv. "Sounds good" He'll say and then the weeks melt away and I'm staring at summer in the face with no solid plan in place.

I decided at the very least, for my own sanity and theirs, that I wanted to get my crew out of the house for physical play at least once a day. To make things more interesting we've been trying to get more playdates with our twin buddies set up and we've been checking out new parks around town that we haven't visited before.

We also knocked a big item off our house bucket list and built a decent sandbox for the kids. Joel did all the work, I did all the ~~nagging~~ reminding and wrangling of children to try to stay out of the way.

Using the plans from This Old House building a sandbox, (skip to the 3:30 mark to get past the fossil instructions) Joel took off and made it happen. We ordered builders sand from a local landscaping company and now have a beach quality pit. We can get it wet for building decent sand castles and there's plenty of space for all three kids to dig at the same time. That is, when we can keep Alice in her own area and not throwing sand on her brothers' heads.

We've had two successful park visits this month. The first was to Picnic Point Park in Edmonds. It's more of a beach access point but it was a great outing.

There's a decent sized parking lot and after making the trek up and over the train tracks using the pedestrian sky walk we made it to the rocky beach.

There's a bit of a grassy spot with picnic tables and just beyond that beach...

The kids were stoked that there was an up close encounter of the ocean. Although Alice kept asking where the swings were. We got to see two trains go by while we were there for forty minutes.

But the highlight of our outing was THROWING ROCKS AT THE WATER!!!

I have never seen Alice (or the boys) spend so much time throwing. Their arms must have hurt that night.

Alice threw and threw and threw rocks until she was just tuckered out. We watched the waves crashing on the beach, the seagulls flying overhead and talked about all the neat rocks we found before the kids chucked them into the water. We had the entire place to ourselves. Although as we were loading into the car to go home for lunch there were three mini vans of kiddos piling out to begin their day.

Our other really fun outing was up to Marysville to meet with friends at Jennings Memorial Park. It has a huge parking lot and is an easy walk from the car to the play area. There are restrooms and picnic tables as well as benches and plenty of grassy area for running or throwing down a blanket.

When we first arrived I was super stoked because there wasn't a sole in site - the boys ran like the wind to the playground while Alice and I walked along with our picnic lunch.

The excitement was short lived because right around the time our friends showed up so did 20 daycare kids. That was the third time that week where we just happened to pick a park at the exact time that a group of kids came from a daycare to take over the place. I get it. I do. All kids are deserving of an outing to the park. But do they really need to be there at the same time as I'm there with my three kids by myself?

We had a great time and got to catch up with friends but it was definitely more stressful for me to keep an eye on Alice (and to be sure the boys stayed out of trouble) with twenty other kids running all over the place. There were a few close calls where Alice would get pushed over (by accident) by bigger kids running past her on the bridge or push past her at the top of a slide, but we made it out alive and it was a fun new park to check out.

Now Alice has all kinds of new stories to share at the dinner table - there's twisty slides, "too hot" swings, big big towers and lots a grass to tell Daddy all about.

It's been great to let the boys really play hard too - they can be loud and use their bodies to jump, climb and run.

Cheers to summer!

Road Trip with Toddlers

2015-06-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

It's road trip season and last weekend we sent Graham and Miles on a weekend RV camping trip with Nana and Papa. I packed up some of our favorite car activities to make their three hour drive go easier.

Here's what we sent.

I picked a canvas bag that was easy to store everything and for quick rummaging while in the car. In the past I've made the boys their own backpacks or kits but this time they were going in a car instead of the van so I wanted to cut down on the luggage.

One of Graham's favorite activities for long trips is the most simple - take a paper plate and write the alphabet around the rim. Snip in between all the letters so each letter can be folded down like a tab. Then you're ready to go for "Road Trip Alphabet I Spy". As you drive along have your kids spot the different things on the plate and they fold the tabs down as they find them. For older kids make it a challenge and have them go in order around the plate.

Each kid had their own go box of art supplies - crayons, scissors, tape, stickers. Anything your kids like to create with would be a great car distraction. I bought these boxes at IKEA a while back and have reused them for many things. The dollar store would also be a great place for boxes or just grab a large tupperware container from your kitchen.

To go with the art box I packed blank paper as well as some activity books. Coloring books would be great as well. Right now Graham and Miles enjoy coloring on blank paper better than in coloring books so we left those at home.

I also included two clipboards (Target dollar bins) and two magnetic cookie sheets (Dollar Tree) to help with holding paper and crayons. Walmart had some great cheap magnets I picked up a while back which make great tic tac toe markers or the boys even had fun coloring their own pictures and using the magnets as part of their picture. The arrow magnets were from Target about a year ago and you can get them in different colors.

Lately the boys have enjoyed stringing necklaces so I tossed in a baggie of pony beads for each boy and a roll of dental floss which makes a great way to cut different lengths of "string" for doing the beading.

I also included a bag of pipe cleaners which have a lot of creative uses - you can string beads on them, make pipe cleaner sculptures or do any kind of color sorting or counting you want. Making silly glasses and wrapping them around your fingers provided so much fun on our last road trip and it made a lot of fun memories as well.

Finally I rounded out the collection with an assortment of easy reader books, find it picture books and a couple of joke books (thanks Auntie Kerry!) So if all else failed they could spend some time laughing and learning new jokes with Nana and Papa.

Father's Day 2015

2015-06-26T15:25:00.000-07:00

Father's Day 2015 was absolutely lovely. Well, for me as a mom it was lovely. No major plans other than hanging out with family and only one minor kid anger fit that was manageable. There were the typical squabbles among the kids but nothing that had me pulling my hair out.

I let Joel stay in bed while I got up with the kids and had breakfast and played in the living room. Around 10:00 I brought Joel breakfast in bed and we started the process of getting dressed and ready to go over to Grandma and Campa's house for the afternoon and evening.

I tried to take care of little things that Joel usually does when we have a family day - like getting the kids dressed and putting on their sunblock. Typically on the weekends I push a lot of the general kid care to his plate to give myself a break. He gets the kids ready to get out the door while I have a chance to get myself ready (actually brushing my hair and putting on some makeup). On Father's Day I just took care of things and didn't make a big deal out of it. The best part was when Joel picked up the sunscreen bottle to start the process and I said with a smile "The kids already have sunblock on". Joel looked pleased and put the supplies away. It's really the little things that made the day.

My parents hosted family for Father's Day dinner and general hang out time. We headed over at noon and helped set some things up and played games while Daddy got to relax a little bit. Don't get me wrong, we have three kids so he had plenty to do, but I at least took care of all the diapers.

Alice gave Daddy the new book by Jimmy Fallon "Dada" which was cute watching them read together.

And the boys and I painted art work for Joel. We'll have to find a spot to hang it, maybe the playroom.

The rest of the day was swinging, playing in the sandbox and back yard, hot tubbing....

Eating TONS of delicious food and chatting with family and friends.

And some of the adults even got to catch some of the US Open.

Alice had herself a little tea party....

And towards the end of the night I was even surprised to find the boys happily coloring and chatting with each other at a small table outside. I was so shocked I took a picture to document the calm moment.

It was a wonderful day, the kind that every father should get to enjoy.

Quick Summer Fun

2015-06-10T14:37:00.002-07:00

It's time to hit up your dollar store for shaving cream! I picked up five cans the last time I was there and we're already putting it to great use.

We pulled out all our summer furniture and put the boys to work "painting" and cleaning the dirt off the furniture. I gave each boy a bucket with shaving cream mixed with a couple drips of food coloring and a large paint brush - away they went, painting all the furniture with shaving cream.

It was great fun and a good start on getting everything scrubbed up and ready to use for summer. I was amazed at how long they kept at it, I thought they'd lose interested but they kept asking for refills on their "paint".

Yesterday I pulled out our dollar store water bottles and shaving cream again and made spray targets for the boys. The LOVED it. It was a cheap way to get some fun outside and a bonus of working on strengthening their hand muscles for writing and working on hand / eye coordination.

I love squirt bottles so much better than traditional water guns. First of all, it's not a gun, so I feel better watching them squirting everything. Plus they were only a buck at our Dollar Tree. Plus you can adjust the spray to have either squirt or mist - which makes for a fun way to mix things up when you get into a water fight.

Time to stock up on your own back yard fun!

Some more ideas: You can draw targets on paper and hang them with painters tape for spraying. Or put colors in the water and spray art. Or do what we did and mix color into the shave cream for easy, messy fun outside.

A spray with the hose will clean everything up.

You can also bring the shaving cream inside and mix a bit with tempra paint for indoor painting on paper. It makes the paint go a bit farther and for Alice it makes a nice foamy paint to work with that doesn't drip everywhere and make as much of a mess as straight tempra paint does.

Enjoy!

Park Review - Phyllis A Needy Park in Kirkland

2015-06-03T10:10:00.002-07:00

We had a wonderful park outing to our first visit at Phyllis A Needy Park in Kirkland aka Houghton’s Tot Lot. Since it's located in Kirkland it was a bit of a trek for us but I packed lunches and supplies in anticipation of the multi-hour outing.

The park did not disappoint.

The entire area is fully fenced which let's you allow your kids to roam and you don't have to worry about turning your back and finding they've run towards the street.

The first thing I noticed was each section of the playground has raised areas which helps corral little kids. Alice couldn't wander into the swing area without being lifted up, which was a nice change of pace, no kids accidentally getting kicked from swinging kids. Miles swung for nearly 45 minutes solid. It was awesome. There's two bucket swings and two regular swings.

A sandpit area with diggers and other toys folks have left behind.

As well as a large play area with tot sized climbers and toys.

There's two slides with climber sides to the tower, a four person teeter totter, three ride on rocky toys, a balance beam and a separate gazebo with animal spinners and counters for playing cafe. I didn't get as many photos as I would have liked, I was trying to respect the other mom's with tots there and not take pictures of their kids. We arrived around 10am on a Friday and there was perhaps a dozen tots plus parents. My boys at five years old were easily the oldest kids there but since it was our first visit they were kept entertained for nearly two hours.

The smallest tots wouldn't be able to get out of the play area unassisted due to the raised walls all around. There's a path for ride on scooters and practicing your bike skills.

There's also a running water restroom, water fountain and a couple picnic tables. The entire park is surrounded by large trees which make for nice patches of shade but the tables are in direct sun so bring your sunblock and hats.

There's even checker boards built into two of the tables so bring along your checkers! Graham wasn't going to wait until next time, he used part of his snack for the markers.

The park has a latched gate that is meant to keep the kids in but I think Graham and Miles could have easily done the latch themselves so if you have older runners you will have to watch out for that. There isn't a dedicated parking lot, it's street parking only, but the day we arrived we were able to pull right up to the gate and have quick entry into the park.

We'll definitely be back to the park, although the distance from our house will prevent us from going very often.

Lego Storage with Preschoolers

2015-05-27T14:01:00.002-07:00

A month ago we went to Legoland California and coming home from the trip threw our Lego area into a whirlwind of activity.... which meant after a week of playing our dining room / Lego area looked like this.

And so one weekend when we could ship Alice off to Grandma and Campa's house we told the boys it was time for a makeover. We laid down an old bed sheet and dumped all the Lego in the middle and they sorted

and sorted

until our dining room was spotless.

Since it's behind a gate and it keeps sister's little hands out of reach; we still use our dining room for Lego play. But now we have a system that's working for quicker clean up.

By the recommendation of a friend we laid down a bed sheet for the work surface and then moved their Lego back into the area. Open trays hold their bricks sorted by color groups as well as a tray for minifigures, one for specialty pieces and an empty tub for dumping Lego that need to be sorted.

All the tubs can easily be put away in our IKEA storage unit and then the corners of the sheet are gathered up and loose Lego are dumped into an empty tub for sorting.

Now the boys can have their dedicated Lego work area but we have a solution for quick clean up for weekly maintenance or when we want to have a dinner party.

Instruction booklets are saved and stored in a tub, we haven't needed a better storage solution for those ... yet.

Our next project is to make our IKEA Lack side tables into Lego baseplate tables. Previously the boys have just built kits by the instructions or done build and break but lately they've been wanting to keep things built for days on end. Keeping everything intact makes for tricky clean up sweeps so I think giving each boy their own table to build how they want will solve the next phase in their Lego lives.

We also have wooden trays for corralling pieces while building kits, carrying pieces around the house or taking things to the grandparents' houses. We bought extra base plates and glued plates into one of the trays (I keep meaning to do another). I also found that Sterillite boxes work well for storage since they have lids and can be stacked. But mostly our Lego area stays out in the open until it's time for clean up.

I previously purchased a pack of the boxes on Amazon when I needed something for daily quiet boxes for the boys. It's nice to find a new life for them.

I've found over the last year and a half that our Lego play has changed and our storage needs have evolved right along with it.

Coming Soon - Our Trip to Legoland

2015-05-15T08:00:00.000-07:00

We went to Legoland California for the boys' fifth birthday in April and it was AWESOME!

Stay tuned for our review of the park and tips for having a good visit with your preschoolers.

Mother's Day 2015

2015-05-13T10:42:00.003-07:00

I never posted a picture of my family on Mother's Day. But here it is. Our family of five is growing up right before our eyes. Thank goodness my mom thought to group us together and snap a shot because this was the only picture of us together for the whole day.

I'm still on the fence about the whole idea of Mother's and Father's days. While the kids are young it's just so much work for the spouse (and a lot of families don't even have a spouse to help out!). It's great to have a day where you feel special, get a thank you for all the work that you do and get to have some pampering. But in reality it's just a lot of pressure and expectation for things to go smoothly. And it puts so much more work on the spouse than a regular weekend.

Joel made sure all the boxes were checked off this year:

He got up with the kids while I stayed in bed an extra half hour (we had breakfast reservations with family and I wanted to actually put on makeup so I didn't lounge around in bed).
He made sure the kids each drew a picture to give to me and bought them a card to sign and give to me.
He bought me flowers and gave me a card to say thank you for being an awesome mom - or at least a thank you for not ditching our family and leaving him to raise the kids.
He got the kids ready for the day so I had time to myself to get dressed, brush my hair and apply makeup.
We went out for a nice breakfast with all four grandparents as well as Joel's brother and his wife and he took care of Alice's diapers while we were out (including a poopy diaper change in the van).
I got a nap later in the afternoon, no questions asked, while all the other adults entertained the kids.
I didn't have to do any cooking or dishes all day.

The other things Joel took care of for the day:

Breaking up fights over who got to be first.
Changing all the diapers for the day.
Repeatedly saying to the kids "Remember who we're honoring today. Remember to say thank you. Who's special day is today?" while they continued doing whatever annoying things they were doing.
Walking "Mr. Tantrum" around when we were sitting down for breakfast and the seating arrangements weren't ideal in the toddler's world.
Spending 80% of the time we were at breakfast with "Mr. Tantrum" in the car, trying to get him to calm down before being relieved by Papa so he could come join us at the table to eat his own breakfast.

It was not the best meal out we've had as a family but it probably won't be the worst by the time our kids are grown. I tried to enjoy my meal and be thankful we had so many adults with us to help but it's hard to relax when you know what your husband is dealing with.

AND during all of that Joel and I never really got to have a conversation with our own mothers about how grateful we are for all the sh*t they dealt with while raising us!

Joel did everything he could to give me a good mother's day but in reality the whole thing was just exhausting and it was hard to stay positive about it. I'm grateful we are all in good health and I am so so blessed to have so many family near us who can help with our kids and are fun to be around but GEESH is it too much to ask to have a day with no fighting?

I got on the chat boards that night with our twin club and many moms had similar experiences (or worse including bloody head wounds!) and we all just had to raise a virtual wine glass and give a toast to ourselves for making it through another day that was all about us.

Luckily for Joel his turn comes next month when Father's Day arrives. I'll keep you posted on how that goes.

A Few Products that Make Mommy's Life Easier

2015-05-08T08:00:00.000-07:00

You can read lists and lists of products you "need" when you're pregnant and putting together a nursery and getting ready for baby. But then what?

Here's a few products that have made our days easier now that we're out of the baby stage and into toddlerhood and the preschool years.

Muddy Buddy
I laughed when my mom bought these for the grandkids. The kids looked like they were running around in hazmat suits and I thought they were ridiculous. But BOY was I wrong! Especially living in the Pacific Northwest, these coveralls have saved me from countless hours of laundry woes.

You put this on over your kid's regular clothes and send them on their way outside. They can run, dig, play, crawl in the mud, slide down a wet slide and they'll stay dry. Then you bring them inside, peel off the muddy buddy and their clothes underneath are clean and dry.

It's been wonderful letting the kids go play and not worry about their clothes getting muddy or keeping them inside because it's raining. They come in all sizes and several color choices.

Alice is a big fan!

Nylon Knives for Kids
Graham and Miles are becoming capable in the kitchen and I often have to remind myself to involve them in food prep. Especially Miles. It's always when I'm in a rush to get dinner on the table. He's there standing at my side, looking up at me and asking what he can do to help. I usually tell him I don't need his help because what I'm doing involves heat or sharp objects.

I'd been looking at buying lettuce knives for a while and finally came across these nylon knives by Curious Chef. They're great knives that cut food well but save fingers from being cut.

Here's Miles chopping up raw asparagus for a stir fry side dish one night. He did great, I could relax and let him work and I had help cooking dinner!

Water Pen Products
We first came across Water Wow books when the boys were having quiet time in their cribs and I wanted to let them color without having to stress about them coloring on the walls or their beds. Water wow books are heavy cardboard with pictures printed on them. As you get the white picture wet the colors show up. Then the pictures can dry and the color will disappear and be ready to use again.

AquaDoodle showed up when I wanted something for Alice to "draw" with that she could use without me sitting by her side. She always wants to color with markers like her brothers but she isn't old enough to use crayons, pencils or markers without an adult sitting with her. The AquaDoodle pad is great because she can use it anywhere and I don't have to watch over her.

Both products have come in handy when we travel or when I want to let the kids color or practice writing away from a table setting.

What are your go-to favorite products for toddlers?

Playdough 2.0

2015-05-06T09:58:00.000-07:00

Alice and I have enrolled in the parent/toddler class at the Edmonds Community College Center for Families and it is just as fun as when I took the boys as toddlers. If you're in the area and have children in the age range they cater to, I highly recommend the program. The staff is wonderful and the resources are phenomenal.

Anywhoo, the child educator who led the class when the boys were tots is still there and Alice is already growing a fondness for her. We were sitting together at the playdough station and I was talking with her about how I had the recipe they use for making dough but it never turns out as great as theirs. She said they switched to a kool-aid recipe since it uses less cream of tartar (making it less expensive) and is a smoother consistency.

And heeeere it is!

Kool-Aid Playdough

Ingredients:
2.5 cups flour*
1/2 cup salt
2 packages kool-aid
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
2 cups boiling water
3 tablespoons oil

Directions:
Mix dry ingredients and then add the wet.

Knead until smooth (be careful it will be HOT) and let it cool for a minute or two, kneading until well mixed. Add additional flour or oil until desired consistency is reached.

*They add an extra half cup flour on average per batch.

Store in an air tight container and enjoy!

I love home made playdough, it's inexpensive and you can easily whip up a big batch which is great when you have three kids playing playdough at the same time.

Alice at 20 Months

2015-04-27T08:00:00.000-07:00

I've started thinking about plans for Alice's second birthday... let me rephrase that.... ALICE IS ALMOST TWO YEARS OLD!

My how time flies.

I had written out all the words Alice was saying a few months back and when I started the list of her latest words I realized there was no way to capture everything she's saying. She just gets it. She knows what you're saying and has a response to any question you could ask her. She's saying four syllable words (like talking about taking the "elevatoooor" after dropping off brothers at school) and three word phrases (like the latest "shake you boootyeeee"). Her long pointy tongue has her already saying "L" sounds and she has countless hours of interaction between her two big brothers and four grandparents to sponge up new words and phrases daily.

Although the flip side is trying to understand what she's saying because she's adding new words to her vocabulary so quickly. I was taking her up for bed a few nights back and she was repeating "poo-pate. poo-pate." over and over again. I thought she was saying "poopy" like she was going to poop but when I asked her if she needed to poop she said "Nope. poo-pate. poo-pate. flahsawh."

OOOOOOH!

She was telling me it was time for TOOTHPASTE and then she'd get to use a FLOSER.

Silly Mommy!

Once I heard the word in context I totally knew what she meant. I asked her if she was talking about it being time for TOOTHPASTE and she threw her head back, laughed and said "yeah!".

She's the sunny light in my day and is up for any adventure you can take her on.

Visiting her grandparents are the highlight of her days and checking the mail daily is a must. She lives for sightings of the next door neighbor doggie "Minnie" and we just started a weekly toddler and parent class that she will talk about over and over for a full day afterwards.

She's developing a longer attention span which is most noticeable with sitting and looking at books and listening to stories. Our bookcases are bulging with children's books but we never seem to have enough stories to read.

She loves to get messy, play playdoh, color, grab at brother's legos and knock over any tower you care to build (she's even stacking blocks pretty high on her own too). She's turning into a good little helper - she knows how to throw things in the trash can, dirty laundry hamper, where her jacket and shoes go and likes to take a washcloth and wipe the floors, table, walls, brothers' faces, anything she can reach to help clean up.

Last weekend we had some time without Alice and while she brings so much joy to our family it was nice to hang out with only the boys. Just as we're reminded how easy just one kid is when we're out solo with Alice, we realized how easy life is with just two preschoolers along. We went to a swim party with our twin club and then planned to go out to dinner afterwards.

Our original venture didn't work out so we detoured to a sit down restaurant and enjoyed a meal that we could not have done with Alice along. The boys chatted with the waitress, picked their own meal and actually ate everything on their plates. Joel and I even got to enjoy our own meals. It was a glimpse at what life will be like once our kids are all older. It was such a special outing.

We also accomplished a huge clean up project of the boys' Lego gear. With the main part of the house gated off for Alice we've given up the dining room to the boys' Lego building. It's messy and not the most ideal set up but at least the boys have a dedicated space to play without Alice grabbing at their stuff all the time.

We had our Legoland trip and the enthusiasm for building quickly turned our dining room into a disaster area.

So we made an all hands on deck clean up afternoon while Alice was at Grandma and Campa's house. We pulled all the Lego from the dining room, dumped them on a blanket in the living room and then sorted, sorted, sorted all the Lego into color grouped tubs and got every last brick cleaned up. It was glorious!

I've been working on some spring cleaning here and there. Bought a new air cleaner to help cut down on the dust and diaper pail smells. And have some big plans for the rest of spring going into summer. Hopefully the next month will bring a cleaned out garage, new sand box/digging area in the back yard and cleaned out linen closets. Then we'll be ready to celebrate Alice turning two!

Graham at Five

2015-04-22T10:14:00.000-07:00

Graham is growing into himself - finally at five he's mellowing out and really shining. Sure there's still daily power struggles but gone are the days where I loose my temper several times a day or call Joel at work completely upset and not sure how I'm going to make it to dinner time.

It's been a growing time for both of us.

Graham has a pretty tight personal bubble, loves to talk to everyone and "help" out any toddlers he sees at the park or playgrounds. I like to think he's a people person who is working on his people skills. For as frustrating as it can be, it's pretty endearing too.

He's the one we can count on to sleep in and let Mommy and Daddy have a quiet wake up time. And he's pretty relaxed about just getting into bed at night without a long list of things that need to be done or stuffed animals that need to be tracked down.

Graham likes dry cereal, sausage, french toast and pancakes as breakfast choices. Lunches are composed of the dedicated favorites; cream cheese and jelly sandwiches (no peanut butter for this guy!), a fruit of any kind, celery sticks (if he has to eat a veggie), hummus with crackers or cheese with a side of milk. Frozen yogurts are a daily treat and with summer around the corner we've been freezing applesauce pops again. Dinner favorites are meatloaf, spaghetti and meatballs (sometimes with sauce, sometimes no sauce) all the bread we'll let him get, more fruit and if all else fails he fills up on yogurt or applesauce. His meat palate is rounding out with enjoying steak and pork chops at some of our dinners lately and most chicken meals are a go as long as they aren't messy casseroles. If we're at a restaurant I can count on him to eat a hamburger to fill up. He has a special place in his heart for pickles and will grab the last piece of bacon before you know it's gone.

Graham continues to be interested in the solar system, anything math, numbers and letters and is already reading. I wish I could spend more individual time with him on these things but fortunately we have wonderfully involved grandparents who help give more personalized attention to activities.

He lives for screen time but is doing okay with the latest cut backs now that Alice is down to one nap a day and is more active. He likes minions, Team Umizoomi, Paw Patrol, Creative Galaxy and the Lego movie characters are a staple in our house. He gravitates towards Unikitty and Lord Business if he's not playing with Wild Style or Emmett. When it comes to Kindle time he loves playing with his Singing Monster characters or working away in Minecraft. If those get boring he'll do Tetris, reading apps or anything with math (Moose Math is a great one).

Graham can hold his own at any game you teach him. Just this week he played cribbage with Nana and Uncle Matt, with help of course, but there he was counting up the cards, moving the pegs and waiting his turn. Kerry gave us a Mancala set and he quickly mastered it, asking again and again to play "just one more game?".

Family game nights are becoming more common in our house and Kerry's latest gift of My First Carcassonne Game is a big hit. I even want to stay up late to play "one more game" with the kids.

He's a go-getter in the house works department, especially when Kindle time is up for grabs, and refilling our coffee pods continues to be a favorite chore. I think he likes the sorting, counting, arranging and sense of accomplishment at seeing a full, neatly organized tray. He's a "yellow" in the making for sure.

He loves Alice fiercely. There was no warm up time needed for him to take on the roll of big brother. He treats Alice as an equal and is often reminded that she's not yet big enough for all the things he wants to do.

Graham is boisterous, independent and funny. He's becoming physically adept and loves to run, swing and climb on the playground. He astonishes me weekly with what new things he's learning and loves his family to the end.

He has sure grown from the wobbly one year old he used to be.

Miles at Five

2015-03-25T11:17:00.001-07:00

The boys turn five in just a handful of days. FIVE! How do we have preschoolers who are basically kindergardeners??? It just doesn't seem possible. It feels like they'll be off to college tomorrow.

Miles continues to be the first one up most mornings and will often pick out a clip on tie to go with his ensemble for the day.

He has a favorite pair of jeans we call his "cake pants" because one of the patches has "cake" written on it. Someday he'll out grow them and we'll have to find a new favorite pair of pants but for now he wears them three or four times a week.

Miles is becoming an adventurous eater. We still have a way to go to branch out from the peanut butter and jelly lunches and raw carrots as the favorite veggie BUT Miles will often try new foods with a bit of encouragement or to see what Daddy is eating. It seems a funny thing to be happy about but Miles is finally into pizza. He'll ask when our next pizza night is and when I bring up pizza spur of the moment he is excited (that only took four years). And in true takes-after-Mommy fashion, he's a pepperoni guy.

Miles likes dry cereal (especially granola), oatmeal, pancakes and french toast as breakfast choices. I try to make a hot breakfast on school days but the boys usually snack on cereal while I get everything on the table. Lunch is more predictable with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, a fruit of most any kid, raw carrot sticks, milk and any carbs I'll let him have (crackers or chips), craisins are a fun treat (no raisins for this guy please). Frozen yogurt tubes are a staple in our house as are the Tillamook greek yogurts, vanilla flavor please. Dinner is all over the board. He'll eat pulled pork bbq sandwiches one night and not want to touch it with a ten foot pole the next. It makes dinner a gamble every night. Tacos, chicken cooked various ways, different steak meals. I can almost depend on them to devour a meatloaf dinner and I can guess they won't want to eat fish unless it's the breaded frozen tilapia from Costco. Right now the boys both prefer their spaghetti and meatballs with ZERO sauce but I'm sure that will go right back to smothering the noodles with red sauce in no time. He doesn't care for pickles and prefers cake to pie but he'll devour any cookie or ice cream you put in front of him.

Miles's interests are evolving. He used to want to play imagination games all the time. Making his trucks talk or having adventures with little people. Now he's getting more into art. He wants to color specific coloring pages and we'll spend a lot of time together printing out lego, minion, peppa pig or paw patrol coloring pages from the internet.

His imagination has gone from playing to trucks and has landed right on his paper. Here's his picture of dog astronauts skate boarding to their rocket filled with puppies to blast off to the moon.

Lately he's also into projects. Building things, making his own board games, cutting, pasting. If it is something he can create with paper, he wants to do it.

We've finally surfaced out of the three month stretch of wanting to build paper monsters every day from the book Auntie Suzanne and Uncle Matt gave him for Christmas.

Did I mention he likes LEGO?

Miles is REALLY into LEGO which is introducing him to the world of super heros. He can sit and build lego next to any seven year old and has the attention, dexterity and interest to follow the instructions and build the most elaborate sets.

Our aunties and uncles got him a HUGE castle set at Christmas and it was an all day project for him. I thought he'd want a break but he sat and sat and sat, building, building, building. We had to force him to take a dinner break and promised him he could go right back to building after dinner. It was amazing.

With our upcoming trip to LegoLand he also wants to spend a lot of time looking at lego videos on my laptop. He likes to watch the youtube videos people have posted about the park and he likes looking at the lego website to see all the sets he doesn't yet have in his collections.

Miles loves a good laugh and loves his sister. He'll create little peek-a-boo games with her and chase her down the hallway getting her to laugh and come find him hiding in the bottom of the clothes closet.

The most common questions we hear from Miles on the average day:

"Mommy, is it a school day?"

"Can I have a frozen yogurt?"

"Will you build with me?"

"NOW what?" "What should I color?" "What should I build?"

He also always wants to know if I'm going to sit next to him at dinner (which is almost always a yes) and he likes being the first kid to brush teeth, get into the car, get out of the car, pretty much anything where all three kids are going to do it, he wants to be first in line.

Miles is joyful, happy, curious, funny, rambunctious, sweet and silly. He wears his heart on his sleeve and loves his family fearlessly.

He has sure grown from the serious one year old he used to be.

Alice at 16 Months

2015-01-22T08:00:00.000-08:00

Alice is in my favorite age window of anything I've experienced in 5 years of mothering. I find that 12 - 18 months is the sweet spot where the newborn exhaustion has worn off, mobility and verbalization is flourishing but tantrums haven't started yet.

She makes me laugh daily. And when I started writing down all the words she can say now, I realized she's saying one or two new words every day. We've all known for a while that she understands more than she says but it's wild to hear her saying so many words now.

It's hard to get pictures of Little Miss. Mostly because I take pictures with my phone instead of a real camera but also because she's always on the move. She doesn't like posing for photos (yet).

She either has to be strapped into her high chair.

Or caught in action from across the room.

She loves books. She doesn't really want to sit still for hearing an entire story but she loves looking at the pictures, pointing at things and naming them, turing the pages and bringing books to anyone sitting nearby.

She is learning the rules of the house and knows what things are "Not for Alice". She'll grab the tv remote and say her version of "here you go" as she hands it to you. Or, she'll point it at the tv and start pushing all the buttons. She definitely knows what it's for!

She'll point at outlets and say "no, no" or grab at the oven and say "hot, hot" while she shakes her head. She loves to put on socks and shoes and looks for any excuse to leave the house (or anyone to talk her for a walk to 'go go go'). If she finds any carpet treasures or any of the boys' small toys she'll either bring it to you and say "here you go" or she'll say "uh oh" and hold it out to you to take. Then you have a 3 second window to take it from her before she puts it into her mouth.

She's already turned into my shopping buddy, I'll drop the boys off at school and off we go running errands. She loves waving at people and saying "byeeeee" or "hi!".

Last weekend I caught her on the couch examining the zipper of a little puma suit we squeezed her into for one wearing. She just sat there so interested in pulling the zipper up and down. She seemed so much older than 16 months to me!

She's gaining quite the animal noise gallery, her first animal sound was her "quack" for a duck and it would quack me up every time she did it. But now she can moo, quack, meow and woof woof.

She continues to love any "doggie" toy but is also growing on kitties and cows.

Her current lists of words:

Mommy

Daddy

Nana

Papa

(she doesn't have a clear word for her brothers yet but will say Gaba for Graham or Bab for brother)

Nona (for her cousin Nora)

I'll have to do a better job of paying attention to how she says her various uncle and aunt names. She has some clear sounds for each of them.

Doggie

Kitty

Duck

Hippo

Apple

Cheese

Ham

Turkey

Baba for milk

Wa for water

Cookie/Cracker

Toes - which she says for toes but also says while making the food sign when she's talking about toast.

Shoooos (shoes)

Go, Go

No, no, no

Open

Booo (book)

Eye

Ear

Nose

Mouw (mouth)

Poopy (which she'll say any time she pees, passes gas or poops)

Car

Ball and Big Ball

Byeeeee

Coooowa (Cold)

Howha (Hot)

Peee Pol (People)

She's starting with phrases and has her own versions of:

Help me

Here you go

Thank you

Tickle me

Peek boo

We've had a lot of success with baby sign language with her and she continues to use these signs:

Milk

All Done

Water

Bath

Eat/Food

Bird

Also peek-a-boo when she wants to play. She'll open and close her little fists when she wants to hear us sing "Open, Shut Them" or clap her hands and say "Pee Cake" when she wants to hear the song "Pat-A-Cake".

She LOVES taking a bath, all the men in her life and any chance to go for a walk or leave the house.

House Works

2015-01-21T10:48:00.000-08:00

As the kids get older we've been incorporating more of their ~~free labor~~ help in the running of our household. We call them house works so that it feels more inviting and open to cooperation. I don't know if calling it house works instead of chores really makes a difference but it works so I'm not going to test the theory.

At almost 5 here's the list of things we can ask Graham and Miles do around the house.

Both boys can pick out their own clothes and pajamas and get themselves dressed and undressed as well as know where the dirty laundry goes. They also clear their own dishes after every meal. We don't consider those house works but it certainly is a big help to have them be independent in those areas.

One of the hot items that the boys climb over each other to do is refilling the coffee pods in our K-Cup holder.

At first I would set them up with the kitchen helper stool and bring the box to them. Now they can get the box, open the tray, fill it up, close the tray and return the box to the correct place. Sweet!

Clearing the stairs is another big one. We have a playroom upstairs where we keep 90% of their toys but things will migrate all over the house depending on where we're spending most of our time through the week. I'll pile things at the bottom of the stairs that needs to go up and they'll be the pack mules that return everything to the upstairs.

This also works for when we do a Costco run. I keep all our back stock of toilet paper, paper towels, diapers, baby wipes and other odds and ends in the upstairs linen closet. I'll unpack everything from the big boxes and pile it on the stairs and the boys have fun getting all the "bails" upstairs. Graham has recently had fun being the one organizing all the supplies in the closet which is a nice next add on.

They can set the table with dishes, napkins and silverware. Some items I have to get out of cupboard for them but they know the proper placement of everything on the table.

The can help with some loading and unloading of the dishwasher.

Spray and wipe the kitchen table clean.

Spray and wipe windows and mirrors clean.

Refill the toilet paper baskets in our three bathrooms.

Fold our wash clothes and stack them neatly in the basket (we use wash cloths instead of paper towels for the majority of our kitchen clean up work).

Sort socks for folding.

Stack bibs and put them away in the basket.

Sweep up the kitchen floor.

Mop the kitchen floor with water (a grown up helps them to get the mop head wet and set on the handle correctly).

They help with trash gathering on our trash days.

Bringing in some groceries from the car (I don't do this one as much as they probably could).

General clean up of all the "stuff" that fills our house. They'll be in charge of clearing the living room floor, putting books on the bookcase, putting "Alice toys" into their baskets, pulling sheets off beds on linen days, etc.

We don't do house works every day but we try to keep them involved in the process. It keeps them busy, helps them feel like they're contributing and have value to the operation of the daily family life and helps me out with all the tasks that need to happen in a day.

And Alice at 16 months is really good at keeping us busy with clean up.

She can turn light switches on and off.

Get books out of their neat places on the shelves.

She likes to drag socks around the house, take things out of the trash cans and out of the dirty laundry hampers, and in general keeps us all smiling.

2015 Goals

2015-01-13T10:31:00.002-08:00

I've completed my longest break in blogging history with three months off from writing anything. It wasn't intentional; but once I passed the one month mark I decided to focus on other things and embrace the break.

I'm not quite happy with my blog layout, there's some major updates I want to do but I haven't had the time to spend (or desire really) on researching coding or layouts or learning a new skill. I just want it to look different without doing the work.

But I have decided that my major goal in 2015 will be memory-documentation. When you look around our house there isn't much evidence of Alice in our lives (other than all the toys and the entrance of pink). I think the last photos I've framed and hung up were from when the boys were two years old. So, after one and a half years of our family being complete it's time to get some decorating done.

I started by spending the last two weeks going through two years of videos and have added Alice to our YouTube playlist. For those die-hard Daveye fans out there you can look back at when Alice was just a baby and I've also added a few gems from Graham and Miles's toddler years.

Next up will be catching up on blogging back log, picking up photos from Costco and actually getting some galleries hung up.

I hope your new year is off to a great start!