During the heat wave, Jillian and I decided to make caramel apples for the first time. Haha needless to say it was quite hot in the kitchen. Our caramel apples did not turn out the greatest, haha I kinda made everything up as I went and the caramel was just too hard. Oh well, haha, it was an experience!
Working full time doesn’t always give me time to get out with the girls. Luckily the weather has been very nice on the weekends 🙂
The family and I (minus the girls) took a trip to New York for the week of Fourth of July! It was fantastic! We definitely classified this as a trip, not a vacation! We were non stop moving from morning to night. Our hotel was located in the heart of Times Square which was so much fun! We saw everything on the “tourest to do list” haha. It was a jammed packed week!
My good friend Lacey was also inNew York, studying at the Teacher’s College of Columbia, (She’s getting her second Master’s!!!) She was the reason this trip was put into motion. Adrian and I met up with Lacey for the fireworks show. Unfortunately, we were directed in the wrong direction and we ended up smooshed between two large buildings with a very limited view of the fireworks. It was so ridiculously hot due to it being summer and the fact that we were packed like sardines! It’s still fun to say that we were in New York on the Fourth of July!
Off we go!
View from our hotel
Exploring the city: Central Park 
Museum Day
Subway Adventures
Little Italy
China Town
911 Memorial
Fourth of July Fireworks
More Subway Adventures
Statue of Liberty/Elis Island
Empire State Building
Best Korean Lunch!
Heading back home
Jillian had a fantastic year in preschool. She absolutely loved her teacher and loved learning new things… and playing with friends!! She has grown so much in a school year!
First Day of Preschool (September 2011)
Last Day of Preschool (June 2012)
Jillian made Adrian a card and filled in a survey at school. It was very cute! For Father’s day Adrian wanted to take a nap 🙂 so we let him haha.
Jillian’s much anticipated 4th birthday party was great! Being inspired by Pinterest, I created a rainbow themed party for Jillian. At the last minute Jillian also asked for a Hello Kitty cake, so to compromise I made the cake rainbow in colors 🙂
Her party was an all day event! Her preschool friends arrived around 1pm and left around 4. Then the family/friends of family started arriving around 5pm. We had the Taco guy come (actually is was a Taco Gal). The food was delicious and the party was fun. It was great having so many friends and family around to celebrate Jillian’s 4th!
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Today we were looking for an outing to keep us out of the house. Our Disneyland passes were blocked today, I was also sad to find that every Saturday until September is blocked!
I located The Monarch Program http://www.monarchprogram.org/ It is a fabulous place!! When we arrived we were greeted by the butterfly lady who walked us through the education behind butterflies. She showed the girls the different types of butterflies they will be seeing. She explained the migration patterns of the Monarchs as well as showed them live caterpillars. She then showed a video walking us through the life cycle of a butterfly. After the video she took us out to the butterfly house. It was amazing to see all the butterflies flying around. We were able to hold butterflies (sitting on watermelons). We arrived about 30 minutes prior to their closing time and the lady said that the butterflies tend to settle down when it is cloudy, so there weren’t as many fluttering around as usual. Still there were plenty for us to see. Olivia kept saying, “I’m so happy.” We will definitely be making more trips down to the butterfly house!
After our butterfly adventure we were looking for something else. I remembered that Carlsbad had a great flower garden I’ve always wanted to see. So we stopped at The Flower Fields. http://www.theflowerfields.com
I was a beautiful sight! (A bit over priced in my opinion) This is a great place for photos, unfortunately the girls were not very cooperative. Their favorite activity was the Sweet Pea maze. They had so much fun running around in the maze. Adrian and I were done, so we gently showed them the way out. It was a nice place to visit but I don’t think it will be on my “return with the kids” list. Maybe when they are old enough to sit still for a photo.
haha I love the cheesy smile… You would think that the school photographers, after taking millions of photos. would learn how to get a natural smile from children.
After two unsuccessful trips to the snow, we thought this winter would have been a “dry” one. Then finally, during my spring break, the snow arrived. We knew of the incoming storm so my mom and I packed the girls into the truck and headed up early on a Friday. We arrived in town as the snow storm began! It was perfect because the girls were able to see the snow falling from the sky, this would be a first for Olivia. The girls had so much fun playing in the snow, it was well worth the amount of packing that accompanied this trip. Adrian, my dad, Sam and his friend drove up the next morning. The initial plan was for them to drive up on Friday night, but with the storm everyone agreed that it would be best to wait. Adrian was very excited to drive his car in the snow 🙂
The sun was bright and shinny on Saturday. The girls played outside most of the time, we even built a snow man. Our little snow family ended up melting by the end of the day on Saturday. On Sunday as we were driving home it was amazing to see how much of the mass amounts of snow had melted away. I’m glad we made it up in time!
I wonder if I was ever as excited about Easter as Jillian was this year? We had many “Easter Bunny” sightings in the week leading up to Easter. (A wild bunny has decided to make our backyard his home. ) She had also received many baskets, eggs, and candy from Auntie Angie 🙂 which got her a little more excited each day. We decorated our eggs on Monday and continued to eat them on a daily basis. Although in the beginning, Jillian assumed they were only for Easter and refused to let my mom feed them to her. haha. On Saturday we visited Adrian’s Grandmother and the girls had a lot of fun.
On Easter Sunday we woke up to find the Easter Bunny had filled their baskets. Olivia was super excited about the sun glasses and Jillian loved the little kitten dolls. The Easter Bunny brought a lot of bath toys so the girls were excited to take a bath immediately. While they were bathing the Easter Bunny worked on hiding the eggs 🙂 haha. They had a blast searching for eggs, although Adrian had to carry Olivia’s basket the whole time haha. Jillian was really nice about making sure that Olivia was able to find some eggs as well. I regretted filling some eggs with Jellybeans since Olivia would shove them in her mouth the instant she found them.
After our egg hunt we traveled to Fullerton to visit Adrian’s cousins and spend some time at the park. Adrian’s parents made it as well and the girls were thrilled! The girls had fun, but I could tell Olivia needed a nap so we decided to travel home…. unfortunately she did not fall asleep in the car… haha I think it was all the sugar ; )
At home that night we ate dinner, played with the plastic eggs, and ate dessert. The girls then played on the trampoline, which I’m glad about, getting their energy (sugar) out. haha. Even with the running around and jumping, the girls still had a hard time falling asleep, too much excitement all weekend long.
Today (the day after) Jillian continuously asks when the next Easter will be 🙂 haha I keep telling her how great the next holiday is… Mother’s Day 😉
(I could only find one set of bunny ears in the morning, therefore Olivia is the Easter Moose.)
