Take me down to the Paradise City...............

Andy was born and raised in Paradise. Literally and figuratively.  Paradise, Ca is a real place.  It is above Chico in the hills. There are pine and ponderosa trees all over.  As you enter the town, there is a sign like most small town America.  It has the wood badges for Elks, Lions, Masons, etc and there is a saying on the sign "May you find Paradise to be all its name implies" and there is a halo above the sign made from a saw blade turned into a circle.

Every time the Guns N Roses song comes on Andy has to remind me that when he was in high school, his basketball team warmed up to this song.  Obviously because they were from Paradise and 1993/1994 was the prime time for having a rock song for basketball warm ups.

We decided to venture up to P-Town to see Andy's dad, Grandpa (Papa) and feed the ducks.The park is very nice. It's part of the Aquatic Center and right next to the junior high. 

What tends to happen when we venture out is we each "get" a kid. So that kid ends up with pictures mainly being taken by the parent they were assigned.  I had Verona and she was so chill.  Growing up, we  would keep the heels from the loaves of bread and put in a bag and keep them in the freezer and then we would either make french toast with the heels or go feed the ducks. I have been saving quite a few heels. We fed ducks and geese and there was  this one duck that had what looked like a red mask. I had to look it up, it is called a Black Muscovy. 

There was a fun play area and the day was nice. As in 87 degrees nice.  The sun was on the slides, and when V went down she kept saying "hot hot!" Lucky she didn't grow up in the 80's when all slides were metal and burned you on the way down!

We headed over to Papa's house and get him to come to the park with us. He has a remote control boat so he wanted to try it out in the pond.  But first, we explored his backyard.

After the park we had dinner at Foster's Freeze. And of course we had to have chocolate dipped ice cream cones. Messy of course, but the kids loved it!

Here is a video of them. Gosh they are funny!

Best.Week.Ever.

I know it's only Tuesday, Thursday, but I may be having the best week ever.  On Sunday I got a call from a dear friend telling me they are expecting twins!  I screamed, cried, and danced all over my kitchen. All the kids could do was clap and ask "what you doing mom?"

I put a TON of the kids' summer clothes from last year up on Craigslist to sell.  Craigslist people are strange. You put a price up and they immediately try and talk you down. This was a text message conversation I got from one person:

"I can only offer $30 for both bags, you agree?"-Crazy CL person
"I do not agree. Sorry"- Me

But I did negotiate a bit more, and sold to the CL person!

Then today I got a call saying I won a raffle prize from the Children's Faire we went to on Saturday. I had my choice between a Banana costume or a pink dolly stroller.  It was tough. I chose the stroller. The kids got one for Christmas but broke it after sitting in it. I figured this was their replacement.

And I started a new workout at the gym this week along with a new move. Sumo Squats. I look like an idiot, but love the burn! Plus, my yoga class I started up is amazing. I can definitely tell between my yoga and my Pilates classes I am waaay more flexible. 

And then we are having a date night with Rick and Steph this weekend! I can't wait to spend time with other adults our age, SANS kids!

And today I felt like such a community person.  We have a park in our neighborhood. I saw a flyer that someone from the park division was going to have a meeting to ask all neighbors how the park was working, etc. Since I received my degree in Recreation Management I couldn't wait!  I was of course 15 minutes early, with the kids, and was so excited to talk to the guy about "our" park. 2 more people showed up. We all agreed that the shade situation (there is no shade) needs improvement. When it is 105 outside, every single day, there needs to be shade. I brought up picnic tables, we talked about spraying for weeds, bathrooms, mosquitoes, play equipment, and graffiti (we have none). Overall, I thought it went well and the kids were very good. 

Overall, April is treating me and my family just right.

I couldn't resist. The picture on top is Trenton at 7 months. This was him at 2 years 1 month.  He has really filled out in the face and all over.

Easter

Easter is something I love each year. I see it as a Willkommen im Spring.  Yeh, I just threw some high school German at you! Boom!!  Easter in my family, as  a kid, was always dressing up, going to church, Egg hunts, big dinner with ham with the family. But as I got older, it became cooler, more fun, more...........adult.  We started heading over to my Aunt Judi's house in Kirkland. By now, my brother was the youngest at 13/14.  We still did egg hunts, but the eggs became filled with money! Dollar bills, even a $5 in a few eggs, And for my 21+ aged cousins, they had a beer hunt! PBR for everyone(over the age of 21).  

But we always, always, always dyed eggs.  The house smelling like vinegar (Love that smell), newspaper to cover the table, being yelled at to BE CAREFUL so as not to drop dye on the floor.  The usual.  But as we got older we started to have egg contests. Who had the most beautiful, original and ugly egg.  It was wild.  Each year, people became more and more competitive.  Prizes were won!

And last but not least, as we all got older, my couins' grandma started making jello shots to consume after we all got home from church. Yeh. That's how this large, loud Catholic Family does Easter.  Suffice to say, Easter Sunday was the first time I had ever had a jello shot.  What the what???

The past 2 years we have spent Easter up in Washington, but with my brother getting married in June, it just didn't make sense to drive up there for Easter when we would be driving up there in June. So we hosted Easter at our house this year.  Andy's Dad, his mom, her sister, his brother Matt and his GF Heather,our BFF's Rick and Steph and their son Joesph, plus the 4 of us.  We had so much fun.  The rain kind of ruined some of our fun; we couldn't' do an egg hunt in our yard. But we got lucky, the day before Easter, we took the kids to an egg hunt in Durham and it was small, beautiful weather, and we knew other families (twin mommy families) there.

That night we went out to dinner to Sierra Nevada for dinner with all the family. Uncle Matt and Heather were kind enough to give the kids over 150 crayons. Bonus, they played with EVERY.SINGLE.COLOR that night.  They also got a meercat and a unicorn beanie baby and snuggled with those during dinner. Andy ordered a "Deconstructed banana split" The bananas were covered in chocolate and frozen on sticks. He gave the kids one each. They were in heaven!

After dinner, we put the kids to bed and got started on the egg decorating. We may have had some libations flowing during decorating. For some reason I must have forgot to take pictures, or they are on my other camera and I am too lazy to go see. Let's go with the first reason.

We got up and headed to St. John's the Baptist Catholic Church.  We got there early enough that we got a spot in the coveted parking lot (only has 30 spots) so we didn't have to search for on street parking.  The kids were pretty good (we might have used the iphones on silent to distract them).  We came home from church and the Easter Bunny came!

Verona went straight for the eggs. She knew from the Easter Egg hunt that candy is in the eggs. She is a fiend for sweets. Example, we keep (correction kept, we have no thrown it all away), chocolate or other baking candy in a red bag on the highest shelf in the baking cupboard. She would point to the cupboard and say "choco pease" They each got bubbles, play dough, shovels, rakes, play egg glasses, a DVD of Tangled, and more bubbles.  Like I said, it was raining, so no bubbles that day.

Aunt Terri did get them a Little Tikes Turtle Sand box. It stopped raining in the afternoon and they played with that. We now have sand everywhere in the back patio.  I am hoping the neighborhood cats stay away.

Brunch was wonderful! I made 2 Quiche Lorraines, Andy made monkey bread and a strawberry pretzel dessert, Steph made a delicious fruit salad, Diana made our favorite pasta salad,  Terri made her famous cocnut cake, and we had cookies as well. I made Bloody Mary's (I like Bloody Maria's better, thanks to my great friend Shannon). We had a great day. And we capped it off with our Egg contests. The first contest was for the most Beautiful, Original, and Ugly.

 Pretty inventive right? Andy's mom and dad and Steph all had the idea of blowing out the insides of their eggs to make hollow and then decorate! So amazing! 

The last contest was the Strongest Egg contest. All you do is take your blunt end of the egg and tap someone else's blunt end of their egg, and do the same with the pointy end.  It's fun to walk around and try and find someone who still has a matching end.  There are many techniques that people employ hoping it will keep their end from cracking/denting. The egg just needs to be hard boiled, and obviously dyed make it more fun. I collected all the eggs from that competition and made egg salad the next day. It's funny, when the eggs are all blue, green, red, orange and yellow. Makes for an interesting salad.  Overall we had a great Easter and can't wait until next year. Hopefully everyone starts planning now. 

Video Dump

Something weird is going on with my Windows 8 (I think that is what the operating system is now, I don't know) All of  my pics are turned the wrong way. And video's hate me.

I FIGURED IT OUT!!!!!!!!!!! I am smart!!!!!!!

Well sorta. Works better 

Eek, February and March

I have some catching up to do! So the end of February was my birthday. I used to be WAAAY into my birthday: parties, lots of friends, etc.  As I have gotten older, I am enjoying being old(er). Getting gray hair, going to bed at 10 every.single.night, eating dinner no later then 6:15, scolding drivers while I drive, turning down the stereo.  Signs that I am definitely not 23, but 33.

 I love my age and every quirk it brings with it.  I have heard the saying, "Enjoy getting older, it is a right denied to many".  And that's how I see it.  Wrinkles, sags, bad eyesight, I want to enjoy and see all of it.

Ok. So for my birthday, slept in(7:30am), Andy made me the best breakfast. Frosted Flakes French Toast.  Delish! My request for the day was to not change a diaper. Ha!  We went to my favorite lunch place, Broadway Heights, I went shopping for 2 hours by myself, and just enjoyed the day.  Andy's brother Matt came up for the weekend so he was great fun to entertain the kids.

Ever since I was a child, you always got to choose your birthday dinner.  My choice has always been grilled cheese.  It would alternate with a side dish or either tomato soup or Caesar salad. This year I searched for a new recipe for Grilled Cheese. And I found it. Combining my loves of onions and stinky cheese! We had French Onion soup Grilled Cheese! The kids had regular.  It was amazing!! 
This pic from my birthday  pretty much sums up most days for Verona and I.

March was another busy month of us. Our friends, Rick and Steph, who also happen to be our neighbors, invited us over for a little bbq.  When we bring the kids over there, we have to bring all sorts of books, toys, etc.  Steph has a little wooden kitchen and she brought out the crayons, paper, hats, purses, and of course their little dog, Kingston. The kids LOVE small dogs.  But small dogs, aren't always big on the LOVE that V and T like to dish out.

Andy also had his 36th Birthday on March 17th!  It was a fun day.  We went to Table Top mountain and flew kites, although there wasn't much wind. His birthday dinner was home made hamburgers and potato salad.  But his breakfast request/Dessert was Krispy Kreme donuts. So I got up at 5:30 in the morning to get the freshest donuts.  And put a candle in one for him to blow out.  haha!

I have some hilarious video's of the kids. For some reason, Windows Media Player will only play the video's side ways, unless I choose iTunes to play the video, then the video plays right side up. I don't pretend to understand why backwards ways of Microsoft. And now it won't let me upload video's! BLERGH!!!!!!!!!!!