Homebound weekend

This was the first weekend in a while I didn't take any pictures. Sarah has a stomach bug, so we stayed close to home. Eric took the boys to Taekwondo on Saturday and Andrew had baseball tryouts on Sunday. Other than that, we hung out, cleaned up the backyard and let the kids play way too much Lego Star Wars. Hopefully, we'll be back to our routine and my picture taking this week!

Ice Cream Social

Every year the Vista Verde PTA hosts a fun Ice Cream Social to welcome back all the families and celebrate the new school year. Being new to the school community, last year I didn't realize what a fun night it would be and we skipped it. I'm glad we went this year.


Nothing builds community like waiting in a long line together for ice cream! Can you find Eric and Owen? Yes, that's Sarah running in the foreground.




This year's theme was the "Blue Brothers". Hats, glasses and a cool band made it a really fun night.





The kids liked the ice the best of course!



After the ice cream, the kids ran around the playground and went a little wild.



Everyone was sad to go, but we'll be back next year!

P.S. You noticed Andrew's shirt, right? : )

Thursday walk with Sarah

Sarah went down for her nap at her usual time this morning, but she really didn't sleep. Lately she's been going down around 10:00 and sleeping until 1:00pm. Which is awesome, I can crank out a lot chores and web surfing in three hours! Today she rolled around and made noise for an hour and a half, until I finally got her up. We decided to go on a neighborhood walk to get out. We really don't do that as often as you'd think.

I thought she'd like to ride on her tricycle, but she preferred to push it instead. We walked around the block, found lots of snails (she loves to find snails), ran up to front doors and started knocking (yikes!), and waved to lots of neighbors.







Good. Times.

Jedi Training

There's a Star Wars epidemic here at the Caprons. It's affecting everyone, including Sarah. That's Sarah trying to play the Lego Star Wars video game. (And no judgement on the almost two and half year old still using a bottle please; she's my baaabbyyyy!!!)



Andrew and Owen can play that game for hours. And Owen is FINALLY able to play it by himself too. He went through some awful weeks of wanting to play, but not really knowing how to, and was too frustrated to accept any help. That lead to some g*d-awful tantrums. I'm glad that's over.

The current favorite show right now is a month-old Tivo-ed Cartoon Network Lego Star Wars episode. They watch it at least once a day. And Sarah is the most insistent on watching. (I'm still waiting for those pink genes to kick in. She does not display one iota of interest in anything girlie yet.)


Andrew asked me to mend a two year old Star Wars shirt that barely fits because he couldn't bare to part with it. He was not amused at my suggestion of just cutting the sleeves off.






His most favorite clothes are all Star Wars themed.



And I'm counting my blessings that its Star Wars and not SpongeBob on all his clothes. That I could not handle.

Belt Testing

Friday was yellow belt testing! The boys tested by themselves for their Orange belt, but yesterday their belt testing was with their larger class group. Testing happens in belt order: white, orange, yellow, low green, high green. This is an awesome test of patience for the little kids who are expected to stay seated, still and respectful until it is their turn. I got a little nervous for Owen, but he held it together and maintained composure, phew. Once their group was called, Master Daniel lead them through their forms and evaluated them. I have to say this is a very supportive Taekwondo dojo, and kids are given a few tries and sideline coaching until they get their moves right. It's intense for them (and parents!), but because kids aren't invited to test until their teachers think they are ready everyone is going to get their belt and have a really positive experience. The boys did great and we are so very proud of them!























*side note: at bed time last night, Andrew said he was done with the sport. I think seeing what the green belts had to do during their test scared him a little bit!

Boost

Because she didn't think she was fast enough already...

Wednesday Miscellany

1) I'm a week into a lovely Summer cold. This probably didn't help my mood trying to get the kids out the door this morning. I'm also four days into Eric being gone, and that rarely helps either.

2) Yesterday Owen told me that he needed a card in his lunch box. "A card?" I asked. "Yes, it needs to say 'I Love You' on it". Ok. "Do your other friends have cards in their lunch box?", "Yes, everyone!". Really?! So this morning I found a cute card in my card stash, (I almost grabbed a mother's day card since he can't read yet, he wouldn't know the difference!), and wrote "I love you Owen, and I hope you have a wonderful day!!, Love Mommy". And I put it in his lunch box. It felt really nice to put a card in his lunch. As we were getting into the van and about to leave, he said he wanted to see the card and know what it said. I pulled it out and read it to him. He immediately freaked out and started crying/raging. !?? Apparently he didn't like what I wrote and wanted a new card that said: "I love you Owen, and day and day and day." (I don't even know what means.) But, because I am a loving and giving mother (and I was freaking desperate to get Andrew to school on time, and a little fuzzy from the cold) I wrote him a new card and stuck it in his lunch box. And this, my friends, is the crap that you will do for your kids that they do not tell you about in parenting books.

3) We've being doing regular loose tooth checks because there's first grade epidemic of teeth falling out and Andrew has yet to lose a tooth. So at bedtime on Monday we did our check and hurray! Andrew has a loose tooth. Then Andrew proceeded to loose his sh*t. I mean really started to freak out and cry. Like he was going to lose-a-limb cry. Then Owen started to cry. Then Owen started to say he was going to be sick. Let me just state for the record that this was not the reaction I was expecting. All h*ll was breaking loose because Andrew has a loose tooth!! OMG. I quickly figured out that Andrew 1) was afraid of the pain when the tooth fell out, and 2) was really sad that his tooth was not going to be in his mouth any more. Because he was going to miss his tooth! (I foresee some attachment issues in his future). I was able to convince Andrew that if we left the tooth alone and let nature do its thing, that tooth was not going to hurt when it fell out. I also told him that we could write a special note to the toothfairy and he would be able to keep his tooth. Phew. That calmed Andrew down, and Owen. Thankfully Owen did not puke.

4) Andrew and Owen are both in school now. Andrew is in first grade and Owen has started preschool again at the J. Both boys go everyday. You know what the worst part of dropping off the kids in the morning is? Sarah. It just wrecks Sarah that she isn't staying at school too. If I had my way, she's happily stay in the stroller while the four of us walk Andrew do his classroom. But, she's figured out how to drag her feet in the stroller so I can't push her safely if she doesn't want to be in the stroller. So she's walking. But not really, she's running when we drop off Andrew. Running into a sea of 1,000 kids. So I'm running after her. All the while trying to make sure I know where Owen and Andrew are. Once we finally get to Andrew's line, drop him off and start to walk back to the car, she stalls. Runs away. Wants to play tether-ball, runs to the play ground. Dropping off Andrew is a 30 minute affair. Then guess what. We get to do it all over again when we drop off Owen. It. Is. Not. Fun. It is not fun to pull a kicking and screaming two year old off the playground and carry her to the car (this is after I've tried the warnings, the counting to three, the promise of donuts...) It's one of those times I'm making other parents feel really good about themselves. Sarah starts preschool on September 6th, I'm not sure who is more excited ; ).


5) Here are a few snapshots from yesterday. Another beautiful day at the pool! (I wanted to end this post on a high note :)

Would you expect anything else?

Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? Fishy!

Fishy's home:



Of course it's a SpongeBob house!

Saturday Morning

The boys had TaeKwonDo this morning at University Center. We're making sure they don't miss a lesson because belt testing is on Friday. Andrew will be going for his yellow belt! Owen still needs a little more practice before he tests. If Owen makes it through the class without being told to sit down and listen we consider that a complete success. The fun part about going on Saturday is that we can swing by the farmer's market after. We have a fun just looking around. Now that we get our big box of veggies from Tanaka, I don't buy produce anywhere else (mostly because we couldn't get through anymore!).

Well, this is new...


Sarah needs be held or we'd lose her for sure. She has two speeds: running and asleep.




We can't get kettle corn at Tanaka : )



Andrew picked Cinnamon twists for his treat.




Eric is off this afternoon for another week in India. Boo Hoo. The plan is for him to be back in time to see Andrew get that yellow belt.

More Pool Time

Along with our time at the JCC pool we are spending lots of time at our neighborhood pool. I am so happy the kids are little fishes and love pool time. I have finally reached that nirvana of parenthood - not having to get into the pool with the kids! (but I will get in to take some pics!) Even Sarah is pool safe in the kiddie pool now. Whoo hoo!

Here are some snapshots of fun at the pool:

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Long overdue

Since reading Animal Vegetable Miracle a few years ago I've really wanted to start feeding the family local organic food. But with me, my good eating intentions are usually swamped by my need for quick, easy and convenient purchases. I'm not always making the best food choices, but the fastest choice. But I'm making progress! We stick to organic dairy products now (thanks Rachel!) and we finally joined a local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program. It's really easy and a no-brainer. Literally, I don't pick the veggies, they do! I just have to pick up a box filled with local seasonal produce.

The biggest challenge is cooking with ingredients I usually don't buy. Like eggplant. Grilled is ok. And now we are getting into the zucchini zone. Yesterday our box had green AND yellow zucchini. But its fun to try new things. And now that two kiddos are in school/preschool, I have little more time to futz around in the kitchen. Biggest winner so far: homemade tomato sauce, biggest loser: a marinated eggplant recipe I found on epicurious.com. Yuck.

The Fair!

We set a record this year with 4 trips to the OC Fair; three trips with the whole family, plus the concert for the boys. We finally bought a red wagon and it made the fair so much more doable with three little kids. If anyone got tired, into the wagon they went and no complaining. (Why did it take us 6 years to get a wagon??) Sarah even napped while the boys went round and round on their favorite rides: Monster Trucks and Bumper Cars. Each visit we hit those two rides and the pony rides. With that the kids were happy and satisfied when Eric and I dragged them (literally!) through the art, crafts and photography exhibits. Maybe I'll enter a photo next year. The food favorite continues to be the Tastey Chips potato chips with Bacon and Cheddar cheese dip - yum!

By far the best thing about the fair this year was Owen winning Fishy the fish! Yes, Owen named his fish Fishy. He is so proud of himself. He doesn't need to know that I bought enough tries at the ping-pong ball toss games that we were guaranteed a fish.

There's another week before the fair goes, maybe we'll hit it one more time. Those chips are darn good.

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Scariest hour of my life

Saturday afternoon, we decided to make our 4th and last trip to the Orange County Fair. Boy, I love the fair. Tons of greasy food and so much to see and do! On the way, right as we were merging onto the freeway, we blew a tire. Luckily, Eric was driving and didn't panic, and swerve into traffic, but it was clear that we needed to pull over, immediately. Right onto the side of the freeway. So here we were sitting in my worst nightmare: on the shoulder of the freeway, with ALL the kids in the back as traffic is screaming by at 70 miles an hour. Of course I left my cell phone at home - why would I need it? And Eric's phone battery was on red. Thankfully, he had enough juice to call roadside assistance and ask for some help. (No way was Eric going to try to change a tire on the freeway!!) The estimated arrival time for help was one hour. Yikes. So we waited in the car for an hour, as I prayed that no texting, calling, distracted driver plowed into us. Thankfully, that didn't happen and we got help getting the spare on the car (while I kept three kids out of traffic on the shoulder!). That whole experience makes me feel like flying is the only way to travel.

Here's our view. It was much less scary looking out the front than looking at the back and seeing all the traffic flying by. I couldn't even bring myself to take a picture!



Here's Andrew and Owen perusing magazine at All American Tire. I totally recommend them by the way. Super helpful and our service guy even tried to see if he could patch the tire, but the hole went straight through the tread. We ended up getting four new tires, plus warranty and a free tire rotatation every three months. Someone was NOT going to get caught on the side of the road again!



The kids were troopers. We walked over to Wahoo's Fish Taco's for lunch and by the time we got back the car was done and ready to go. We decided that we'd had enough excitement for one day and headed home. We got to the fair on Sunday.

First Day of 1st Grade

First Day of 1st Grade, originally uploaded by leslie_capron.

Andrew started first grade on July 28th. He's adjusting to the longer day and more intense workload. We had a few bumps this first week. I didn't know the first day was early release. Oops! So I was 30 minutes late to get him. I felt like the worst mother on the planet that day. Hopefully I haven't scarred him for life. Another day he said he was sick and couldn't go to school (he was fine). New situations are a bit stressful for him (and most people!). He has friends in his class although he misses his besties who went to other classes. But he now has two recesses and a long lunch break to see them. I think in another week, he'll be right back into the swing of things.

Andrew at Big Time Rush

Andrew at Big Time Rush, originally uploaded by leslie_capron.

Andrew and Owen went to their first concert a couple of weeks ago. They saw Big Time Rush at the OC Fair. Andrew had a blast! Owen might have had more fun with me and Sarah at home, but he was not going to miss out on anything big brother was doing!

Summer Time

We spend a lot of time at the JCC pool these days. Andrew and Owen just finished up swim lessons and Andrew is now on their swim team. Can't wait for Sarah to join the boys in the big pool!

This is why I haven't blogged!

computer time, originally uploaded by leslie_capron.

Seriously! They are on the computer a lot these days. These boys love their Lego Star Wars. At least it keeps them busy.

Owen starts up preschool again on Monday and Andrew is now in First Grade! I'm looking forward to more posting time now that summer break is over.