Another Samism!

One more funny thing that Sammy said last week following our demolition in the backyard with the excavator (getting ready for new grass and sprinklers instead of dirt, dirt, and more dirt)...

Grandpa: Sammy, did your daddy let you drive the excavator?

Sammy: Oh no, if I drive the excavator I would crash into the house and break it and then I would have to live with you.

Grandma and Grandpa really got a kick out of that! More pictures of the boys, backyard, and dirt can be found on Smugmug. More of the backyard story to come...

From the mouth of babes...

One of the things that had me giggling this week was this conversation with Sammy.

The boys were fighting over some used trains that I bought off of eBay but especially over Spencer, a silver steam engine and coal tender. I was so frustrated that I said, "do I need to buy another Spencer so that you guys will stop fighting over him?"

Sammy replied with a big sigh, "Mom, you can only buy trains on clearance!"

The Kids' first "real" 4th of July

Happy Birthday America!

:) We had a pretty calm day and tried to put the kids down for naps a little later than normal so that they would survive the festivities this year. Last year Sammy was so tired he was crying by the time it was dark and Nathan was so little he just screamed because he was scared and confused by all of the noise so we didn't even really do fireworks!

This year we picked up a few ($30 doesn't go too far at a fireworks stand here!) since we hadn't been invited anywhere and called up Great grandma to see if we could do them at her house! She was ecstatic and we packed up the boys, called Thad's siblings and headed to Great Grandma Marcroft's house. Luckily for us his cousin Laura lives on the street and she brought over her fireworks too (which were way cooler than ours!) and Aunt Becky and Laura's son Mitchell took turns lighting them. The boys loved all of them (especially the sparklers since we wouldn't let them touch anything but those and the snapper things that you throw at the ground--and Nate wasn't didn't have much luck with those!)
When it got late we headed home but then Thad's sister Adrian, and boyfriend Eric, called and wanted to stop by since they still had fireworks. So we said, c'mon down! The boys were excited to see Aunt Addie and Eric had gotten some cool fireworks so the pryos Thad and Eric had some fun lighting as many as they could at one time with Thad's mapp gas torch. (We had tried matches earlier but after 6 matches on one lonely sparkler we decided that a torch would be safer!) It was waaaaaaay too late when we got the boys down but they had a blast and it was our best 4th of July yet! :)

A Little Jaunt Down to Oceanside!

With Thad's crazy work hours and my parents vacationing in Oceanside with two extra bedrooms I decided to take the boys and head South! We could have driven but for $12 we can ride the Metrolink train from Norwalk all the way to Oceanside and it drops us off at the corner from the condo. I love it because I don't have to deal with traffic or driving (or trying to get snacks or dropped toys etc while driving) and the boys love everything about the train! We left Monday after naps and it took us about 90 minutes. We got on and it was really crowded but even as I stood there trying to figure out where to sit with my two boys people saw me and shuffled around and said, here, take these three seats together! :) Phew! Thank goodness for nice people! We sat by a nice UCLA student who played with the boys until she got off in Tustin! The boys were really good on the train (well for the most part--Nate struggled at the end but we survived) We got there just in time for dinner with Grandma, Grandpa, the Fongs and the Repettis and then the Fongs and the Repettis had to get back on the road for home.

We woke up in the morning and packed lunches (or maybe a brunch?) and went to try to see the train pass by but didn't have any luck so we went to the playground at the beach. I hadn't packed swim clothing so we didn't go in the water but they had a blast on the slides and swings!

Later on in the day after naps we headed back out with the Repettis (they live in Vista and are pretty close to Oceanside) to the San Diego County Fair (at Del Mar) and had some fun there! We saw racing pigs (they raced for Oreo cookies), monster truck racing, the petting zoo, tons of pigs, cattle, goats, and sheep, and even walked around the booths a bit. It was a fun night.

On Wednesday when I put Nate down for his nap Grandma stayed home with him and then Sammy, Grandpa and I headed to the outlet mall for a Thomas Playday thing and then stopped by Costco for groceries and to look at the laptops for Grandpa (his is dying!) Sammy had fun playing with all of the neat play sets that they had and loved all of the samples at Costco (who doesn't?!) He chomped down a trout (?) or seafood burger that I refused to sample...maybe I should buy some of those--fish is supposed to be really good for you, I just can't stand it!

Later on (after naps...don't we just live our lives around nap schedules!?) we asked the boys if they wanted to walk down to the beach or just swim in the pool and Sammy said, "I want to swim in the 'big boy' pool". I didn't fight that--much easier on me--I didn't have to worry about waves stealing him or looking like a beached whale in front of as many people ;). We swam and even had root beer floats! It was fun! We the kids cleaned up by sticking them in the giant jacuzzi tub and then rested a bit, fixed dinner and then back to bed again!

I woke the kids up early to take the 6:41 train from Oceanside (okay, I woke Sammy up--Nate's been on this 5:50 - 6 am waking up time lately with it being so light out! :( ) and arrived back to good ol' Norwalk a little after 8! Daddy, I mean Thad, was happy to see us and hear about our adventures! It was a good little trip!

If you're crazy enough and want to see more pictures, head on over to Smugmug!

First Week of Vacation!

I've officially been on summer vacation for a week and it's been, fun? hard work? different? My first big job (besides becoming the primary caregiver again) has been to locate my home under the clutter, papers, dirty clothes, toys, etc that have been accumulating over the last nine months of my life (aka the school year). I think that I worked everyday during Nate's nap time and most of the afternoon and then after the kids went to bed until 11 or so!) I've had some help from some good friends (and my mom and mother-in-law) who've come over to help sort/clean (thank goodness) and we've found a good portion of it but man I am pooped!

My new job is taking care of Nate and Sam full time (which sometimes can be more challenging than 35 high school kids--I still don't understand that but really it is sometimes harder!) Thaddeus is out and about doing thousands of things and has a few constructions jobs lined up with his partner in crime, Frank, and plans to be gone and working on redoing 3-4 bathrooms and a kitchen Monday-Thursday, and then Friday is the day to work on MY house and Saturday is supposed to be my day too (and I get to decide what we do). This week they worked from 8 am (or earlier) every day until about 10 pm (or later) and that is going to take some getting used to! I'm trying to figure out some good things for the boys and I (being 7 months pregnant) can do after Nate's morning nap (and as long as Sammy doesn't need/take one) that are fun, free, and that I can do without Thad. I really am not looking forward to being alone all the time. I think it's hard for me to think about being alone all summer (even though it's for the good of my pocketbook and will help us eliminate some of our house debt) because I grew up with two teachers as parents and the summers they were both home and it was family time! Oh well. I know that he's happy working and helping the family! And, he and Frank have done some nice bathrooms (I'll have to post pics later)!

One big job he'll be working on at our house is the backyard! I am so excited because I have always wanted a safe place for the boys to play that wasn't the front yard! And if that goes well hopefully we'll finish the back room after that (and before the baby comes!) That might be wishful thinking!

Oh yeah, back to the mom thing, the pictures are of the boys painting - one of our summer fun things - but we haven't done anything else "out of the ordinary" but they have enjoyed finding missing trains and toys as we've cleaned under beds and things. I hope that I can find a few more things to do around the boys funky nap schedule that are fun! Happy Summer!

"Gum" by Sammy

Sammy is quite infatuated with gum now and has gotten his hands on some at Grandma's house before and quickly chewed and then swallowed it. He knows that he's "too little" for it now but that when he's bigger (like 8 or 10 he'd say) then he'll get to chew it. It sparks lots of discussion though about others chewing gum (like the mission-nawries or teenagers who he thinks, funny enough, are still "little" kids) but he often brings it up with me.

The other day we were chatting and he asked me if I liked gum. I responded, "no, it's gross!" Too many years of teaching high school and watching kids, and adults, chomp like cows has made it more than something that I dislike--it's now something that is close to abhorrence. Sammy thought for a second and then said, "well, Heavenly Father likes gum, and He thinks that it's delicious!"

Boy do I love that kid!

Weekend Fun with the Fongs!

Cathy and Danny just purchased their own home--woo hoo--but now they're dealing with getting one house ready, and packing up all of their stuff from their old house and getting that all done before the end of the month! They had family come in to help but I figured that I was pretty useless being that my two kids would just make it more hectic if I were to go over there and I really can't do anything since I'm 6 months pregnant.

So I decided to offer my services as Auntie babysitter extraordinaire! I figured that I could handle Liz (4) and Jared (almost 6) since they play really well with Sam and Nate and that hopefully they could get more done without having to deal with keeping them happy and from helping too much.

We headed to Grandma's house, since it's bigger than mine and has enough rooms for all of them to sleep at nap time, and we played, and played, and played and...It was a lot of fun. Saturday we just played with the hose but today we pulled out our super fancy pool and filled it up and splashed around. Jared and Sammy loved to splash. Nate loved going in and out of the pool and splashing a bit too--he spent most of the time giggling hysterically. Liz mostly just danced around and would get in when the boys were out of the pool.

We had a lot of fun playing and they all listened well (well, all but Sammy, but that is my own problem!) That said I think that Sammy (and all of the kids) enjoyed it immensely. We were about 100 yards from their house when Sammy started crying and he told me, "I miss them already," luckily they're close by!! :)The boys worked till almost midnight on Saturday and they're not home yet tonight (and it's almost 10) so I think that I got the better deal! (You can find a few more pictures here)