March Ramblings

Another Month has come to an end.  During this month, Tim turned 33!  & to think he was just 25 when I met him!  At least he gets better looking as he gets older.

Spring Break was probably my favorite memory this month.  Back in my college days "Spring Break" definitely meant something different than it does now.   I was going through my phone looking at all of the things that happened during March.

The kids started their Spring gym class.  Their class is for ages 2-3, so for the first time, Jake can do gym with Ryan.  I've been looking forward to that.  It's impossible for me get a picture of the both of them when they are busy running around on the obstacle course.  & trust me, I tried many times to get a decent picture of them, but it never worked.

Check that out!  I did get a picture of them both, haha.  The backs of their heads!  Jake was pretty shy during his first week and wouldn't leave my leg.  He has since warmed up and enjoys going.  This is Ryan's third year doing the class- and he's loved it since the beginning.

We went to the Children's Museum.  Ryan and Jake's favorite there is the train table!  We have a train table at home and they each have a train table in their rooms at Church.  & trains at Grandma's.. they can not get enough trains!

They also had fun in the grocery shopping room.  They love real grocery shopping with mommy, too.

Ryan and I did a lot of crafts this month.  I got a Kiwi Crate box this month.  Jake takes long naps so that when I get my one on one time with Ryan.  

The box came with a few different crafts.  He  made a few spinners, some sun catchers for the kitchen window, and a bag.  He loved it all and kept asking for his "green box" after we completed the projects.

We spent a lot of time working on preschool skills.. cutting...glueing.. sorting.

Jake has been sleeping more heavily so I can finally go into his room and take pictures of him sleeping!  For the longest time, I only had picture of Ryan sleeping because Jake would wake up as soon as he heard me opening his door.

He sleeps with a ton of blankets and stuffed animals.  He takes them and puts them all on his bed when its nap time and bed time.  He is definitely a blanket baby and I don't mind.  His big sister loved her blanket for a long time too.

My good friend from high school/college came to visit us!  She had met Ryan at Jake's baby shower but had never met Jake before.  She moved to California and is in grad school there.  It is so good to see old friends and catch up!  Her and her boyfriend drove through town on their way home from Texas and came to visit.  Of course, Jakey was sleeping so Ashley didn't really "meet" him but she did peek in on him.  Ryan loved her boyfriend and was playing trains with him.

The kids are almost always awake when I leave for work at 8.  Ryan always asks for yogurt--- I was about to leave this day when...

Jakey woke up!  So I got I'm some picture of him too.  They are the best.  I love when they wake up before I leave and I get to spend  few minutes with them before I have to leave for the day.

& lastly, my big baby.  I put Jakey in onesies for pajamas when it's hot out and I always think he looks so cute and funny.

Citrus Lane Review- March 2014

We received our Citrus Lane boxes last week!  Ryan got his the day before Jake got his, which I thought was odd.  We get these boxes every month, thanks to Grandma R.  She loves her grandsons.

Citrus Lane is a subscription box service that is curated for children aged 0-5 years.  Each box has 4-5 items that are designed for your child based on age and gender.. or you can select neutral when signing up.  If your little one isn't born yet, you can put your due date in when signing up.  The boxes ship from California on the 15th of each month and arrive between the 17th-22nd.


Our first box is for my 3.5 year old boy, Ryan.

1. Beginner Puzzle Set from Petit Collage ($14)

These puzzles pieces have safari babies and their mommies.  They are made from 80% recycled content.  One puzzle has 3 pieces, and then 4, 5, and 6 pieces.  These puzzles are a little easy for Ryan, who will be 4 in a few months.  However, he still loved them anyways.

2. Eco-dough fromEco-kidz ($20 for a pack of 5, so $8 total for 2)

I'm going to be honest, I didn't let the kids play with these because I wanted to save them for their Easter basket.  These are made from all natural ingredients including plant, fruit, and vegetable extracts.  These don't dry out, and if they did, you add a few drops of vegetable oil or olive oil!  Pretty cool.

           

3. Medi Buddy from Me4Kidz ($5.25)

This is a little box with first aid stuff.  It comes with 15 bandaids, 1 knee and elbow bandaid, 2 antibiotic ointments, 5 sting free antiseptic wipes,  4 gauze pads, 12 stickers, and a carry case.  I'll have to keep this in my purse, especially with a 2 year old and a 3 year old, someone  is always wanting a bandaid!

4. Monkey Hello Book from Hello Hanna ($9.95)

This a cute a little book with stickers that preschoolers can make all by theirselves, with help from mommy.  We haven't had a chance to make this book yet either, Ryan has so many crafts to do lately! He is at the perfect age for crafts!  They are right up his alley.

The total value of Ryan's box is about $37.  The value is much higher than the amazing deal we scored from Plum District.  Ryan has been getting these boxes a little over a year now, and he absolutely LOVES them.  The smile on his face is totally worth the money spent.  Plus, there's always things for us to do together, crafts, puzzles, toys, whatever it may be!

Now on to the second box, which is for a 2 year old boy

I mentioned that Ryan got his box the day before Jake did.  When Jake got his box, Ryan pulled out his box again and reopened it.  :)

Jake also received the 

1. Beginner Puzzle Set ($14)

His had farm babies instead of farm babies.  I'm glad they were different.  Jake doesn't really care for these kinds of puzzles yet,  but Ryan was pretty excited to get even more puzzles.

2. Eco-dough... Just different colors.  ($8)

3. Medi Buddy ($5.25)

& instead of the Sticker book he received sanitizing wipes from Cleanwell. Which I didn't take a picture of.  We got some in our box last summer and I wasn't too impressed with them then, so I was a little disappointed to get them again.  I think they smelly funny.  oops.

 Do you get Citrus Lane for your little one?  Share the link with me so I can read your review.. I love reading subscription box reviews.

Want to give Citrus Lane a try for your little one.. use my link to sign up and get $10 off your box.  When you sign up through my link it also gives me a $10 credit so I can keep getting these boxes for my little ones as well!

Mission Beach

I almost named this blog post "First Family Trip to the Beach," but then I remembered we went with Elyse in 2009!  But this is Ryan and Jake's first trip to the beach.


After a good night's sleep we woke up, ate breakfast, and got ready for the beach!

I was super excited to take the kids to the beach and see how they would like it for their first time.  When we got there, the water was a little cold!  Okay- a lot cold for someone like me and especially for Ryan and Jake.  I at least made them put their feet in the water.  They both weren't too impressed with the water.  They did like the sand.

They liked the sand  until Ryan had an itch on his eye... and rubbed it with his hand.  The hand that has sand all over it.  Then he got more sand in his eye and just kept rubbing it, yeah it soon became an awful mess.  He was getting pretty whiney about the sand in his eye and whatever I was doing didn't seem to be helping him.  I took him to the restroom to flush out his eyes... and when I walked out of the restroom everyone else was back off of the beach too.  So I guess that was the end of our beach trip.    Oh well.  I guess we can always try again next time.  & Next time I'll be sure to be more prepared with wipes and towels and sand toys!

But Hey- I did get a lot of cute picture of Ryan and Jake that I'll be able to share with them one day.

The boardwalk with all the carnival rides is right down the street so we decided to do that instead.  I got a bunch of tickets and Tim and I went on the roller coaster.  The same roller coaster that Elyse wanted to ride in June 2009 but was too short to ride!   We sat in the second seat and the guys in front of us were trying to take a selfie- so I gave them some bunny ears and smiled behind them.  My first photobomb.  I was pretty excited about that one! Haha.

They had this boat ride that I put the kids on.  For whatever reason, Ryan wasn't really feeling carnival rides.. so after one ride- he didn't want to go on it again.  But Jakey did!  He kept pulling the rope to the little bell on the boat and just keep ringing the bell.  He was so happy and completely in the zone.

Jakey & his papa!

Before we left, Tim & I went on the bumper cars where I kicked his butt!  Okay, probably not.  My mom took Ryan over to watch us in the bumper cars and Ryan had belly giggles the whole time.  

The whole gang!

We drove back to Yuma that night and got home in time for dinner and a little tv before bed.  Our trip was so much fun and exceeded my expectations for family fun.  Jake and all of his expressions were the best part.  I thought Ryan would love it the most, but this trip was all Jake!

The next afternoon after lunch at Chile Pepper with my momma, we drove home.  It was also St. Patrick's Day and I was bummed I didn't get a picture of the kids in their green shirts-- so I had to get them dressed just to take one picture.  

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Sea World San Diego!!

Spring Break was the 3rd week of March.  The first thing on my list (okay, the only thing) was to take the kids to Sea World!  I absolutely love Sea World.  I've been there about 7 times.  Tim & I went together the first summer we were together.  I've been debating between taking the kids to Disneyland or Sea World.  Sea World won because it's a lot cheaper :)  We'll take the kids to Disney when they are older and can ride most of the rides.

I had invited my parents and Tim's mom to come along with us so we could all enjoy the kids at Sea World for the first time.  We headed from Tucson pretty late on Friday night, I had a party that night so we didn't get to leave until about 9:30.  It was late.  I slept most of the way... I think Tim must be used to it by now!  We drove to my parents' house to sleep some and then headed to Sea World early on Saturday morning.

I was so excited to see that Sea World sign!  I had been looking forward to our trip for months!  Our first stop was to pick up a stroller for the babies.  It was pretty difficult to push around, but my dad pushed it most of the way.

After that, we went to see the beluga whales.  The polar bears are in the same exhibit but they were in Pittsburg.  The polar bears in San Diego are female and the ones in Pittsburg are male so they are there for mating season.  Jake was hanging with his papa and he was just mesmerized by the whales swimming around.  Ryan liked them for a few minutes, but became more concerned about eating goldfish crackers- so that's what he spent his time doing.

Our next stop was the "Pets Rule!" show- I thought it was going to be lame because it featured cats and dogs- but wow.  It was pretty awesome with all the tricks they could do!  Plus they had pigs, ducks, and other animals too.  I think it might have been my favorite show at Sea World- plus, I had never seen it before.

Next stop was finding some place to eat lunch.  With 7 people, it took a while.  I guess I'm the only picky one so 99% of it was my fault.  The lines were also super long for every place to eat.  We settled for a place that had chicken strips, fish, and french fries.  It was probably also the least expensive place there.

We were planning on seeing the Shamu show- but the line was so long that I didn't feel like waiting.  Instead we went underground to watch the whales swim around.  This was Jake's favorite part of Sea World.  He stood at the glass and just watched and pointed to all the whales swimming by.  One whale even stopped right in front of him and swam.  He was so happy.  That was probably my favorite moment of the day.

We went over to where the dolphins were swimming.  Last time Tim and I went there- we fed them, and since we had food they would hang out by us and we were able to pet them.  This time, a lot of them were babies so we weren't able to feed them.  I guess you have to wait until they are older so that they could learn their manners.

After that we went to the Rays.. I can't even remember what type of Rays they were- We were able to feed these guys.  My dad went to get some fish (eyeballs and all!) to feed them.  It was pretty cool.  You hold the fish in between two of your fingers and just hold it down under the water and the ray will come over to you and eat it from your hand.  Eeek.  Dad, me, and Tim all fed them.

Jakey and Ryan even touched one!  After Jake touched one.. he wouldn't reach out to touch it again so I put him back in the stroller....

...where he whined and pointed to the rays so he could touch them again.  Of course.  Typical little Jakey.

They had a bunch of flamingos there too.  Their food only cost 50 cents and was in some of those candy dispenser things where you insert your coins and the little food pellets come out.  We loved feeding them.

We stopped by the dolphin show.  It definitely was not like I remember it.  Last few times I went- it was mostly about the dolphins, they jumped out of the water.  The trainers would put high bars up and we could watch how high the dolphins jumped out of the water.  This time- there was a little bit of dolphins swimming a lot of acrobats swinging and jumping into the water.  I do like the old show better. 

The last show we watched was Seymore & Clyde- the Sea Lion and Otter.  It's so amazing to me how they can train these animals and they can memorize their routines.  This show was different from last time I saw it, but still so so cute!  The animals put on a good show and it was pretty funny.

They also have rides at Sea World- We didn't go on any of the adult rides, but we did go on two of the kiddy rides.  The first one was the tea cups.

Check out Ryan's face!  I told him to smile.  He was trying to but he was nervous for the ride.  I love his face.

I like this picture- I asked my mom to take a picture of Tim and I.  Tim was putting on his sunglasses so he didn't have to squint because of the sun.  I handed my mom my phone and she must have held down the button for like 30 second because I had over 30 pictures!  Ha.

The second ride we road was called Elmo's Flying Fish.  The kids were excited and kept looking at the ride through the little bars.

We walked around a little more. We stopped by the penguins to watch them swim around.

Our last stop of the night was the gift shop!  Ryan picked out a truck with a boat and Jake picked out a dolphin.

Actually, after that we went on the Sky Tower to look at the whole park.  Ryan loved it!  After that- the park was closing and it was time to head to our hotel.  Both kids were completely asleep before we even got out of the parking lot.  After we got to the hotel we ordered in pizza, lasagna, and spaghetti.

Daddy was pretty sleepy too.. He was watching tv while I was taking a shower.  When I got out, we were having a conversation and a few seconds later he was completely asleep.

Had a great first time at Sea World and we are so glad we got to share it with Grandparents.  We got the season passes so we can't wait to go back again :)  The next day we went to the beach which I will blog about next time!