A different world

This is how I found Asia, when I walked into the living room yesterday, whilst making lunch. She had pulled my laptop onto her lap, AND was on my cell phone...she's not even two years old yet! My children live in a world completely removed from the one I grew up in, in terms of culture and technology. It was too cute to not take a photograph, my little munchkin.

Pumkin Patch

This past weekend we headed on out to one of our local pumpkin patches. I could not believe how hot it ended up being, somehow with it being Fall and time for pumpkins, I suppose I just expected it to be cooler. Our poor kids were certainly a little overdressed.

It amazes me to think of what a money maker these patches have become. What with the bounce houses and hay rides and train rides and corn mazes and food, not to mention buying pumpkins, a family can spend a small fortune there. The kids were so good though, they had fun and did not spend the whole time begging for the 'next' thing. We bought a bunch of tickets and when we were done, we were done. I expected some complaining, but they really made me proud.

I love my precious little family and every minute I get to spend with them. What a blessing!

Planning ahead!

As we were driving to school to pick up Arran today, Bryttain summoned my attention from her back seat....

"Mommy, when I grow up I'm going to live in Chico!"

"Mommy, I'm going to get married at Open Door Church, just like Arran and Moriah! They can watch me first and then I will watch them!"

Chico

For the last weekend of Arran's school break, we headed up to Chico in the hopes of relaxing and catching up with friends. We packed up the van and picked up the kids from AWANAs on Thursday evening, to maximize our time there and make the drive as harmless as possible.

It is hard to believe that around this time, three years ago we had just moved there and were adjusting to a new way of life and making new friends. I was feeling overwhelmed with a baby and a two year old and isolated, as our house was so far from most of the others and juggling the two nap schedules made it almost impossible to get out. Now it seems strange to think that we have been back here for two and a half years already.

Arran especially has such fond memories of there and Bryttain loves to visit. One of Arran's favorite people in the whole world is Eli. When we arrived there, Eli was four and Arran was two and he immediately became Arran's hero. I was telling someone over lunch on our first day there that Eli has rock star status with our kids. We have only to catch a glimpse of him and shouts of

"Eli!"

"Eli!"

"Eli"

erupt for all around to hear. He is the cool bigger boy, who actually makes time for them and has fun toys and ideas for games.

Playing with Eli - good times!

Eli's older sister Hannah, loves babies and is such a good little helper. She seems to have grown up so much over the last couple of years.

The weather was perfect and the kids had so much fun, running around with friends. There are time I do miss the feeling of safety and the freedom the kids were able to experience there, it is so far removed from the world we live in. Sometimes I wonder if we will ever end up back there, but I guess that there are positives and negatives everywhere we go.

A couple of highlights

Arran has been on a three weeks school break and the time has flown by. It has certainly been nice to not have mornings so rushed, or our day so broken up and lovely to have him around all the time again. He is such a sweet appreciative little boy. I feel like there have been days where we have crammed a lot it, and days where we have hidden out at home. His mind and body are both so active these days and as much as I miss him when he is gone, I am glad that he is in school now, where he can get all the extra stimulation he needs.

We have had playdates and outings and generally hung out together. Last Wednesday we traveled down to the Bay Area Discovery Museum and met up with a friend. One of the first stops we made was to the art rooms where the kids got to paint and squeegee and spray on windows. They loved it. Of course, they had all of three aprons, so Bryttain wore one and they all proceeded to get covered in paint anyway.

Very serious business, Bryttain set straight to work.

Arran, double-fisted action; squeegee in one hand, paint brush in other.


Asia getting into it.

At the weekend we went into the city to check out an astronaut display, which was part of the Fleet Week celebrations. Arran's fascination with all things space-related continues, so it seemed like a good choice.

My girls! For some reason Arran completely refused to pose with the astronaut dummy.

The best laid plans...

Sometimes things just do not work out as we had intended. We drove into the city on Saturday afternoon to see the 29th Annual Sandcastle Building Competition. Teams of architects and engineers work with school children to build amazing sand castles or sculptures and it sounded so fun. When we arrived though, we immediately realized that the competition had probably not been too successful. The wind was unbelievable, the beach was almost deserted and the few brave souls attempting to be out there were wearing hoods and had scarves covering their faces and eyes. We made a vain attempt to get down to the beach, to at least take a look at the remains, but the kids could barely stand up and were clinging to us for dear life. Bryttain informed us that she could not breathe and although I chuckled, I felt the same; the wind was just so strong that it was almost impossible to even catch a breath. After maybe two minutes at the beach, we packed up and decided to work out a plan b.

We knew there was a big bluegrass music festival going on in Golden Gate Park and at least one of our friends was there with her children, so we started driving in that direction. Unfortunately we would have had to leave the city to find parking and then made our way back in, or at least that is how it seemed after we drove around for far too long trying to find anywhere to park. Needless to say, we were unsuccessful.

Move on to plan c. Our friend told us about a park we could take the kids to and it turned out to be pretty cool. The structures were all different to the typical parks in our area so it was a real change. Far from our original plan, fortunately our kids were happy to do pretty much anything and just get to play for a while. They really are such great children and make a mommy proud.