Author Archive
Seashell Collecting
December 22nd, 2009 Posted by momitomi in Kids | CommentsThis morning my mom and I took the kids down to the ocean to look for seashells. I made sure the kids were bundled up warm, but it actually ended up being really beautiful down there. It was cool but nice and sunny and we all really enjoyed ourselves. I haven’t had a chance to go through the bags yet to see what all was collected but I am sure there will be a few interesting things in there. Dylan said he put half a crab in one of the bags to give to Grandma so she could “play with it and stuff”. Please click here to see more photos.
Dylan’s fun at school
November 20th, 2009 Posted by momitomi in Kids | Comments
The other day while Dylan was at school, he got to play in Mr. Rob’s (he is the teachers husband) van while it was being washed. Dylan came home so excited to tell us about how they were inside the van and the water was shooting at them. I am so glad that they had the camera out so that they were able to capture some of the fun. Then, when the newsletter for his school came out this month, there were the pictures of the kids in the bus having a great time. I though I would just put up the because I thought they were great and you can totally see the joy in all of the kids faces.
We absolutely love Dylan’s preschool and we don’t feel like we could have found a better place for him to be at. He gets to do such amazing things there and he always comes home with a smile on his face and he can’t wait to jump out of the car in the morning to get there. Aubri can not wait until she is allowed to stay at school also. Every morning when we drop Dylan off she gets to go and play with the kids for a while and I feel horrible for having to drag her away from playing in the dirt and chasing the chickens. I know it won’t be too long before it is her turn to stay and that makes me happy but also a little sad at the same time.
Feeding the ducks….or geese.
November 18th, 2009 Posted by momitomi in Kids | Comments
Yesterday Mike got the afternoon off of work so we came up with the idea to go and feed the ducks at Laguna Lake in San Luis Obispo. I have taken the kids out to feed the ducks a few times there and we have always had a good time. This time there were a lot of really big geese that seemed really hungry. When we first got there Aubri had no fear and wanted down to feed the birds herself. She didn’t seemed bothered by the fact that the geese were towering over her. Mike went to the car to get something and while he was gone I guess the geese got a little aggressive and one bit Dylan while he was getting out a handful of food. While I was trying to get him calmed down another goose bit Aubri. At that point I think feeding the ducks turned out to be not very fun. The kids were ready to pour out the food and run. By the end I was even feeling a bit intimidated by the geese and I am really surprised that none of my toes got bit because Aubri was throwing food straight down at my feet.
Dylan singing his songs.
November 6th, 2009 Posted by momitomi in Kids | CommentsToday while I was doing dishes, Dylan and Aubri were plaing together with the magnets on the fridge and Dylan was singing while Aubri was kind of humming along. He was making up such cute songs that I wanted to catch a few on video. He agreed to sing a few so I could videotape them. So, here is a short video of a few of Dylan’s songs.
Pumpkin Carving
November 1st, 2009 Posted by momitomi in Kids | Comments
On Halloween morning we decided to carve our pumpkins so they would be ready to be put out for decoration on Halloween night. It took a little while before Dylan warmed up to the idea of sticking his hands inside the pumpkin to pull out the guts, but after he realized it wasn’t going to hurt him he seemed to have fun cleaning out his pumpkin. Aubri on the other hand never seemed to get the hang of cleaning her pumpkin out and she preferred for someone else to do it for her.
Dylan really wanted to carve a “face” on his so that it would look like a Jack-o-Lantern. He gave it his best shot of trying to carve it on his own, but really the knife just ended up going up and down in one spot. He didn’t seem to realize that he wasn’t doing any carving though and really had a good time. Mike ended up finishing carving his face for him and he just pulled out the pieces as Mike cut them free. Aubri chose the cat for her pumpkin to be carved into, and I think they both ended up turning out great. Dylan couldn’t wait to get to put the candle in his so that it would light up. He was quite proud of his pumpkin and pointed out all of the pumpkins that had a face like his while we were out trick-or-treating. The next day Grams roasted up all of the pumpkin seeds with a little bit of garlic and everyone thinks they are delicious. Click here to see more pick of the kids carving pumpkins.
Disneyland, October 2009
November 1st, 2009 Posted by momitomi in Kids | Comments
My mom had a couple of days vacation that she needed to take, so we figured we would take the kids and head to Disneyland. Mike luckily was able to get the time off also, so he came along. We went up on Thursday morning and stopped by to have lunch with Grandma McDonald on our way through and ended up hitting Disneyland around 3 o’clock.
The first ride Dylan wanted to go to was Buzz Lightyear so we headed there first. When we got in to get on the ride Dylan got a little scared, I don’t think he really remembered everything from last time. It took him most of that first ride to really get the idea of the whole thing again, but as soon as it was over, he was ready to go on it again. Aubri wasn’t sure about the ride, and she really didn’t seem like she liked any of the rides the whole time we were there. The only ride she seemed like she really wanted to go on was Dumbo and that was only after Dylan and Grams got on the ride and she was left standing on the sidelines because we figured she wouldn’t go on it. We had a lot of fun, but it is amazing how few rides you actually get to do when you are there with young kids and you have to go on their time and deal with multiple potty and snack breaks. Dylan did go on the roller coaster in Toon Town again and he really enjoyed that. I tried to get him to go on Thunder Mountain Railroad with me, but he didn’t seem so sure about that. Maybe next time I can convince him to go on it with me. One of the highlights we found by accident was getting to ride in the very front car of the monorail in with the driver. You get a great view of the whole park looking out of the front window, and it was really neat at night to be able to get to see all the lights from the park as well as all the lights from the hotels. Both the kids really enjoyed this part of day.
We have realized that Dylan is much more of a daredevil than we used to think. He doesn’t really seem to let heights or speed bother him. When Mike took Dylan on the Jellyfish ride, he was much more nervous to go up high then Dylan was on the ride. Mike kept a tight grip on Dylan even though was hooked in, and he checked his seat belt several times before the ride started. Probably everyone’s favorite ride was Toy Story. It is a great ride and it is really interactive. We just had a hard time getting either of the kids to keep on their 3D glasses so they could get the full effect of the ride. They also had both of the parks all decorated for Halloween and it was really neat to see all of the pumpkins and Halloween related decorations all over. Since we all have season passes now, we are already planning a trip to head back around Christmas time so we can see the park all decorated for Christmas. Click here for more Disneyland Pics.
Trick-or-Treating 2009
November 1st, 2009 Posted by momitomi in Kids | Comments
Halloween came very quickly for the McDonald household this year. It seems like we were just enjoying summertime and then all of the sudden it was fall and Halloween was upon us. We were very excited about Halloween this year. This was Aubri’s first real year of Trick-or-Treating since she wasn’t walking last year. Uncle Jack was kind enough to get a hold of a discontinued Octopus suit for Aubri to wear and Dylan was more than excited to be a peacock again this year. We thought the kids were going to be so excited to go out Trick-or-Treating and then Aubri fell asleep not too long before we were planning on going out, and since she got woken up from her nap long before I think she wanted to, she wasn’t in a great mood when we began. Dylan seemed excited to put his costume on but when it came to actually going out he wasn’t really that excited. Once we got the kids dressed and outside we snapped a couple of pictures and then we were off to our first house.
Aubri wasn’t sure what was going on, so she just kind of stood back and watched her big brother. After she realized that people were handing stuff out, she at least wanted to go up and get some for herself. After the first or second house, Dylan got some M&M’s and he decided at that point he was done and he just wanted to go home and eat his M&M’s. We kept telling him he might get more candy if we went to more houses, but he said he had enough and was ready to go home. We convinced him to stay out a little longer because we wanted to go by one of the houses that was really decorated for Halloween.
Then we told him we would just head back to the house but we could hit houses along the way while we walked back. Aubri didn’t seem all that impressed with Trick-or-Treating either. The second house we hit gave her a sucker and that was all that she wanted. Once she had her sucker open she was happily sucking on that and didn’t really want to be bothered to go up to anymore houses. The houses that we did get her to go up to the door on always wanted to put her candy in her bag, but she didn’t want anything to do with her bag, she wanted to hold her candy and she didn’t want it in the bag. She usually had at least two or three pieces in her hands at a time and would only give those up when she got another one. We made it home after a half an hour or so of Trick-or-Treating and the kids were both content to eat one piece of candy before bed. I think they had a lot more fun passing out candy to the rest of the kids that came to our door that night than they did actually getting the candy themselves. Soon, it was off to bed for the two little ones and it was time to leave their candy loot out for the Candy Fairy to come take and leave them a small surprise in return.
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Pretzel making fun
October 27th, 2009 Posted by momitomi in Kids | Comments
When Dylan started preschool this past summer, one of his first days of class they made pretzels. Recently he asked if we could make pretzels at home, and today seemed like a great day to make them. Both kids were acting a bit under the weather so I decided it would be a good idea to hang out at home and lay low for the day. I looked up a recipe online and we went at it. Dylan helped me make the dough while Aubri took a nap. He is really into helping me cook right now so he helped me measure all of the ingredients and pour them into the mixer. Aubri ended up waking up just in time to help us shape and form the dough. They both had fun making their own pretzels and Dylan tried to get as creative as he could. With one of his pretzels he wanted to make a condor so we worked together to shape something until he was happy with its condor shape. The pretzels turned out great and we ended up eating almost the whole batch before the end of the night. Click here to see more pics.
Flower Child
October 25th, 2009 Posted by momitomi in Kids | CommentsI love plumeria flowers. Ever since we have started going to Hawaii I have always wanted to have a blooming plant. I have tried many times before and they have never survived or produced any flowers. About a year ago we came across a nursery that sells plumerias and they had a decent size plant with flowers. I have been waiting almost a year for it to produce more blooms and a couple of the flowers have finally opened. It was worth the wait. They are beautiful and they smell wonderful! One blew off in the winds were having today so Aubri decided she wanted to play with it. I had it behind my ear for a while and she finally wanted it put behind hers. Then she decided that instead of putting it behind her ear, she wanted it in her ear. She has so much personality now and she has become so funny.
Aubri’s Bad Day
October 12th, 2009 Posted by momitomi in Kids | Comments
Aubri had a really tough day today. Mike was off of work so he was able to go to music class with us. While there, Aubri tripped over his leg trying to step over him and landed hard on the floor and got a big bump over her eye.
Then we went out shopping to get Dylan some rain boots. While at the shoe store Aubri tried to climb up on the bench, just when she was about up her hand slipped off and she fell off of the bench and must have bit her lip. She ended up with blood gushing out of a cut on her bottom lip and she had scraped her face on the way down. She had on a really cute sweatshirt and unfortunately it was covered with blood. Luckily we stopped in a place next door and the gave us a bag of ice and although she wouldn’t let us put it on her for long, hopefully it helped some.
She was looking in pretty bad shape and her lip was pretty swollen by the time we got back to the car. She ended up falling asleep on the way home and she seems to be feeling much better after her nap.
