We're Chugging Along

It has been almost three weeks since we pulled into our driveway. A lot has happened in just a few weeks! I did take a few shots of our house for those that are interested. :)

It's a cul-de-sac!

The first five days of moving boxes, our energy was up and we were cranking out the unpacking. We've slowed down a bit. :) The only room that has boxes is the office/guest room and most of those are filled with my teaching stuff.

The plan is to go through it and reorganize so it makes sense and can easily be stored. I've gone through one rolling cart only because I wanted to use it in the playroom. LOL! As I'm writing this I'm thinking this should be a weekend project, but it didn't happen this weekend. :) This is what happens when I'm trying to leave a classroom as fast as possible because the baby girl came early. ;)

For those that are familiar with the moving process, especially with kids, there are a few things that are important once you get to the new home.
* How will I keep the kids occupied?
* Where will the kid(s) be going to school?
* Where are the nearest Target, Costco, grocery store and other necessary shopping places. :)

Occupying the kids is very important otherwise everyone feels the pain! Here are some pics of what we've been doing.

Homemade popsicles!

Tutu Time! She is such a girl!!

We have a safe place to ride bikes or cars. :)

We tried out the local ice rink! This is wear the Washington Capitals practice!

We had to watch from the second floor because Ava loves the ice! She gets upset when she can't join the boys.

We did go down to say hi during a break. Ava threw a fit and we decided we needed to look for double blade skates for her. She is a joiner!

Dylan did such a great job!! He is barely holding Randy's hand while skating now. The boys have decided that they will be going on their own most Saturdays.

Back at the house, Randy put together the swing set this weekend! Yay! Thank you Billie and family! We love it!

Can you tell it's a bit humid? LOL!

 

The kids "helped" Randy put it together. We even formed a search party for the last tool that he needed because Ava stored it in the sandbox. They have so much fun helping, but it doesn't necessarily make the project easier. I thought the whole thing was amusing, but I was the management side of the project not the execution side.

I really like our outdoor space. We can trap the kiddos on the deck and there is a nice shady space.

The grass area is not fenced, but there is enough space that Ava isn't dashing for the street...right now anyway. :) Between tee ball, golf, horseshoes, soccer and the play set, I think I can keep them busy on the grass.

Ava even falls asleep in the swing. Love it!

I have looked into Little Gym, Gymboree and My Gym. We're lucky because we live near many locations. We are doing our free introductory classes this week at Little Gym in Falls Church. I was going to see if I could work out intro classes at My Gym in Alexandria too, but Dylan wants a sports class and My Gym doesn't off that. That means LG it is; as long as we all love it, which I'm sure we will. This way I'll have activities three days a week; one class for each kid and open gym. Maybe I'll even meet some nice mommies.:) Little Gym is where I met my AZ crew!

A huge check mark off the to-do list was finding Dylan a preschool. He will be attending the 3yr old program at Annadale Methodist Chuch preschool.

We were really impressed with their program and Dylan loved the place! He even invited the Asst. Director over to our house to play. LOL! School doesn't start here until after Labor Day so we have a month to keep them occupied.

As for the last important item on the list, we're lucky because I can say that Target, Costco, Joanne's and all other important shopping are less than 10 min. away! We have three Targets within a six mile radius, which is the most important. ;) Even though they all look close on the map, between traffic and all of the crazy roads, not everything is as convenient as it looks.

Look at this crazy thing!

We went to our third Target this evening though and I think we found our home Target. ;)  In AZ in literally took me 5 minutes to get to my home Target; one light where I made a right turn. It was awesome and dangerous at the same time. ;)

The hubs goes back to work tomorrow so I think our "regular" schedule will start to materialize over the next couple of weeks. This is why I was so focused on kiddo activities; I'm on my own during the day. We'll make it...we always do! :)

Two days of fun and still going...

We've been having such a great time in Anaheim! If the first two days are an indication of how Disneyland will go tomorrow, then we are going to have a fantastic day!

Sleeping:
Now you may be thinking, "Why start here?" Well, as many of you know that have/had young kiddos, sleep runs our lives at this point. Whether it is sleeping at night or managing naps, it must be considered at all times. So, the first step was to figure out where Ava's playard would be going. The choices were either with Randy and I or with Dylan. We tried putting her in Dylan's room the first night and he was so excited about it! The plan...put her down first then have him sneak in about 30 minutes later. Well, she didn't go down so easy the first night because bedtime was later than usual and she was just feeling out of sorts.

This meant she was with us. I didn't think it would be a problem, but she is the noisiest sleeper!! She kept waking me up! Of course Randy slept right through everything and felt great. Even Dylan slept later than usual. So, the next night I decided we were going to attempt the kids' room once again. This time it worked and we're trying again tonight. Cross your fingers. :)

In regards to naps...Ava got a morning nap the first two days, but the afternoon ones have been challenging because we have been on the go! Thankfully she is such a happy girl! We haven't had an issue with her missing the 2nd nap. Yay!!! Dylan hasn't napped since we've been here, but with all of the excitement, he's been good. This has been huge!

Day One: Hockey Giant and Downtown Disney:
Because we were visiting Randy's family, we are very much surrounded by hockey. Playoff hockey has been on ALL THE TIME! Great for everyone, but me. :) We did go to Hockey Giant which is a big store to buy hockey gear. Dylan and Randy were in heaven! Since Oma and Opa were there, it was like an extended birthday for both Randy and Dylan. ;) Dylan got his first pair of hockey skates and he was SO excited! I don't have a picture because I ran around chasing Ava through the racks, making sure she didn't trip other customers and/or run out the door. Ava was little miss friendly and made friends with 3 grown women buying skates. :) I guess we weren't there for that long, but it felt like forever to me!

Next up...Downtown Disney! I was looking forward to this, but had no idea how big it was!
The last time I went there, it was brand new and there were some stores, but not like it is now! WOW! Oma has talked about how much she enjoys DD and how excited she has been to take us. After going, now I know why. :) After scouring the menus to find a place for lunch that Dylan would eat at, we went to Ride Makerz.

Ride Makerz is such a great place for anyone that loves cars! Dylan got to build his own remote control car! He chose Lightning McQueen,

but there were SO many bodies to choose from and not all were from the movie Cars. After choosing the body you then go to the tire area and choose the tires,

then the accessories like a spoiler, motor on the hood, decals, voicebox in the car, etc. Then...you get to help put it together!

Dylan was in awe. It was so cute. Randy even wants one now. :)

Next up...Build-a-Bear. Originally, we thought this would be Ava's thing, but we couldn't leave Dylan out! Once he saw he could dress his bear like Darth Vader including the lightsaber, he was sold. This was our first time at Build-a-Bear so I just loved everything about it. :) Dylan got the Downtown Disney bear with Mickey Mouse on the foot and Mickey ears on the inside part of the bear ears.

Ava got a purple Hello Kitty that she snuggled even before it was stuffed. :)

Ava got the giggle sound in her kitty and Dylan got the song, "I Want Candy" from the movie Hop in his bear. I tried to get more pictures, but all of these were taken with my phone and Ava wanted the phone. :) Here they are!

We weren't done yet! The Quicksilver/Roxy store was next. Guess who that was for...me and Randy. :) As I was casually looking around, Oma told me to choose some items since I hadn't gotten anything yet. So fun! I got the most wonderful long teal Hawaiian flower dress,

a new swimsuit,

cover-up shorts and a tee. I said thank you over and over. After over 3 hours of fun, we headed home. Despite the tiredness of the kiddos, everyone was in great spirits. I did see a Minnie Mouse red and white polka-dotted skirt/tutu that I want to get for Ava tomorrow when we actually go to Disneyland.

Day Two: Ice Skating!
Today we went to an ice rink to try out the new skates. Dylan insisted on wearing all of his gear and boy was he cute!

The hockey skates are different from the rentals (figure skates) so he had to get used to them. He was slipping all over the place, which kind of surprised him at first. Eventhough Randy warned him that it was going to be different, I don't think Dylan really believed him. :) He did a good job and even stayed positive. He kept reassuring himself by asking Randy, "Hockey players wear these skates?"

I thought it was so cute when he fell because being so padded up, he couldn't get up on his own. Kinda like one of those sumo suits! :)

I even got to skate this time! I had Randy's dad take a picture. :) I haven't ice skated since Randy and I were dating and it was at the same rink. :) I didn't do too bad! I figure if the fam is going to spend a lot of time at ice rink, I need to take my opportunities to practice. Oma chased Ava around while the rest of strutted our stuff.

She had Ava peeking through the glass waving at us.

Once open skate was over, Dylan looked like a hockey player...SWEATY!

We sat for a little while watching the zamboni then hockey practice. He wouldn't take his eyes off the ice for anything.

Opa was making faces at Ava. LOL!

For an after-skate treat, we went to Yogurtland. Yummy!

You'd think we'd be tired right? Well yes, but you know we don't get to rest. Here we are hanging around the house. :)

This was Randy's bike when he was 3!

She crawled up to sunbathe. LOL!

We even got the kids in the jacuz today. Ava is fearless! Yay and oh no at the same time. :)

Tomorrow we head to Disneyland and everyone is more than excited! Disney, here we come!

Two Days of Firsts

It has been a long busy week! Our week has been filled with errands, friends and the unfun task of managing repairs on our VA home.

You may remember from an earlier post, that we had a dishwasher leak in our kitchen in our VA house. Now a leak is really the WRONG word because the result of this "leak" is new kitchen flooring, new carpet in the great room and hallway as well as a new cabinet and dishwasher. So as you can see, "leak" does not really begin to explain the damage.

On a positive note, we have a great contractor assigned by USAA that is getting everything back up to par. The contractor has been great with communication which is what led to some surprises as to how the house was being managed. After chatting with him and chatting with the tenant, I became aware of many issues that  our property manager hadn't dealt with or the work was not finished. Now, Randy and I have not been very confident in her job for a little while now and these conversations just confirmed everything. It was time for her to go. Sooo....I got the fun job of firing her!

I was so nervous! I had to fire a teacher once when I worked at Sylvan, but I got to share that job with my co-worker and she actually said the words. Remember RP? :) What made it worse was that I called her at 9:30am her time and she didn't get back to me until 5:30pm, which meant I spent all day practicing what I was going to say. It went well...no drama. Whew! We already have a new guy lined up so hopefully this home will no longer be an issue.

Enough about the stressful stuff, let me share with you the fun stuff from the last two days! I went to the best party on Friday! Have you ever heard of thirty-one bags? I hadn't until I was invited to this party, but now I'm in LOVE!

There were so many bags I wanted to buy, but this is what I decided on.

I got this tote in the Black Parisian Pop with hot pink "Kreks" on the front. This is my kid bag! It is cute and so functional. I have my eye on a more purse looking bag for next time. :)

These are for the kids!

I got the Textured Twill for Dylan with his name in red and the Pink Circle Spirals for Ava with her name in aqua. These are the perfect size. For Dylan it will be a to-go pouch that carries crayons, cars, etc. For Ava, it will carry diapers, wipes, etc., but will turn into a to-go pouch for her when she gets older. I just LOVE it!

I really want to do a party at my house, but most everyone I know here was at this one. :) However, I know that I have friends that live from MD to HI that would probably love these so I decided to throw a catalog party. I'm still learning the details of how this works, but basically it will all be online. This means no presentations, just shopping online. If this is intriguing to any of you, please let me know because I will be inviting once I get it organized. :) Take a look at the catalog! http://catalog.thirtyonegifts.com/page1.html

After shopping for bags and firing my PM. the topper of the last two days was taking Dylan for his First Skate!!  This was so much fun! Randy has been waiting for this day since he found out we were having a boy. :) Dylan can be a bit cautious so we weren't sure how this was going to go. He LOVES hockey and really wanted to learn to skate, but you never know. 

It was so successful!

 Can you see the excitement as he is getting his skates on?

 His friend Camden met us there! They look so cute in their team jerseys!

They took their breaks together then went back on the ice to skate with the dads together. I think that having Camden their helped Dylan to keep going. :)

 While the boys were skating, Ava (who was in the bjorn) and I took the pics. She was having a great time too. :) By the end, Dylan was able to walk on the ice holding only one of Randy's hands. Awesome! He was so excited that he is ready to go back next Saturday. :)

After 15 minutes in the car and a sandwich, he was DONE. If this picture had sound effects, you would hear some deep snoring. LOL!

It has been a crazy fun two days and I've loved almost every minute of it. ;) I'm excited to see where Dylan takes this skating thing. Tomorrow...the gym is calling my name!

Have a great night!