The Barnes Family Blog

Jillian is definitely a lover of holidays. She was very excited about Easter… and a little upset that it only lasts one day.

The girls woke up nice and early , very excited about Easter. They loved their baskets from the Easter Bunny. For breakfast I made bunny pancakes for the girls using sprinkles for the eyes, nose, and whiskers.

After breakfast the girls put on their Easter dresses and were anxious for the egg hunt. The Easter Bunny brought WAY too many eggs this year! He’ll have to remember to minimize things for next year. It’s just too easy to go overboard at holidays. It was funny to watch how selective they were when hunting for eggs. They would often pass over eggs that were right there in front of them.

After our Egg hunt, we got ready to travel to the park where Adrian’s family was celebrating Easter. I was so happy it didn’t rain this year! The girls recieved Easter Baskets from Adrian’s parents. Jillian’s favorite item was the kite! She was a natural at kite flying! She had so much fun, you could just see the joy on her face as she ran past.

Olivia slept for the first couple hours that we were at the park. As soon as she woke up she also enjoyed in the kite flying. The bubbles were also a hit with the girls 🙂

We returned home completely exhausted! Overall it was a very nice Easter! It’s crazy to think that next year we’ll have three little girls in cute Easter dresses!

The girls were so excited about St. Patrick’s Day! We made green pancakes for breakfast. I attempted to make clover shaped ones… didn’t turn out exactly how I anticipated, but the girls didn’t mind.

After breakfast we went for a bike ride at the park. Jillian is working on riding a bike with training wheels. She’s terrified of falling so she doesn’t move very fast, which hinders her ability to really move on the bike. Olivia threw a huge fit when we said she was going to ride her tricycle. She didn’t want to wear a helmet. Once she saw how much fun Adrian and Jillian were having she was ready to wear her helmet.

I think Jillian will be on training wheels for a while until she builds up more confidence.

We finally made it up to Big Bear for this winter season! We were so happy that the snow actually stuck to the ground for a weekend. We drove up Saturday night and played all morning on Sunday. The girls had so much fun! Adrian had fun too 🙂 Our snowman didn’t work out this year but we still had fun trying.

With our third bundle of joy due in just a few months, Adrian and I have been looking at larger vehicles. The search started when we first found out I was pregnant. I had high expectations for our search and we narrowed our top three picks to the Volvo XC90, Honda Odyssey, and Volkswagon Routan. After the test drive we completely ruled out the Volvo. I would hate to drive that thing on a regular basis. So we then focused our conversations on the mini-vans. It’s so funny that younger us said that we would never in a million years drive a mini-van. They are just too perfect for a growing family, so I told my younger self to suck it up and deal with it. hahaha.

Ultimately we decided to go with quality and a more probable longer lasting car. We chose the Honda Odyssey. I absolutely LOVE it! The automatic doors and trunk are amazing! Adrian has some gripes about it but no car is perfect 😉 We traded in the Lexus and are going to privately sell the Subrau, so if you know anyone who is interested E-mail Adrian!

After having the car for one day we were appalled by Jillian kicking the seat haha, so I spent my entire Saturday evening while Adrian was away and made back of the seat organizers.  I made a purple one for Olivia and a pink one for Jillian. Adrian and I opted out of the mini-van entertainment system since we have an iPad. So I made an iPad insert into their organizers for long drives to watch movies on. I then made learning cards that would go into the pocket when the iPad is not there. I made an ABC chart, a hundred’s chart, and a car I Spy game. The girls love the I Spy game, they call it their “discovery card”.

My crazy chicken scratch of measurements 🙂

Today both Jillian and Olivia began ice skating lessons! Jillian was super excited about going! I had to keep talking to her all day about falling down 🙂 I knew it was inevitable and I wanted her to be okay with it. The girls did really well.

Jillian had an issue before she touched the ice, while practicing on the floor she hurt her finger, and since we didn’t explore other injuries occurring  she was quite upset. Once the class started towards the ice, she was over the hurting finger.  She fell a lot but overall it was a great first day.

Olivia has fantastic balance! She only fell a few times, unfortunatly towards the end of the class she was over it! On her last fall, I could tell that she was fighting back the tears. When her instructor tried to get her to stand back up, the waterworks began. She was so upset that the instructor had to pick her up and skate around with her. Luckily she is not discouraged, they are already talking about next week. I think it really helped that Adrian was able to be there too! He was able to help in all the positive self esteem building 🙂

Ice Skating Lessons from Sarah Barnes on Vimeo.

 

I haven’t made any New Year’s Resolutions but I am anticipating an exciting 2013! Our Baby Girl is due in May and I’m excited to meet her. I hope we can pick a name!! Jillian will be entering Kindergarten in September, WOW, where did the time go??? Olivia is potty training and will be attending preschool in September, which is just as crazy as Jillian entering Kindergarten! I’m also turning 30 this year and I feel very accomplished with my 30 before thirty list 🙂

 

 

This year we decided to take it easy on New Year’s Eve. My uncle Paul and my cousin Gianna have been taking Aerial lessons for the past year. They were preforming on New Year’s Eve at the Great Park. This was a perfect event for our low key New Year’s because the event was over by 9pm.  Olivia has had a cold for the past few weeks, and this evening was very cold, so we left her at home with my parents. It was kind of fun just going out with Jillian, we don’t do it very often.

The show was amazing! It made me consider taking lessons after the baby is born. Their upper body strength was incredible.

After the event we headed home and had a really low key night at home 🙂

My mom and I took the girls shopping at South Coast Plaza. My mom bought the girls these balloon animals. Jillian picked a penguin and Olivia picked a dog. I would have never thought that they would have played with these things as much as they do! The penguin’s name is Gork and the dog’s name is Spotty. 🙂