Grown-Up Tea Party

Sorry I haven't blogged in so long... I've had company (Brian's family last weekend) and my mom and sister came up on Wednesday. Plus, we have all been sick.

Last weekend I went to San Francisco with Carol (Brian's mom), Sharon, (his sister), and Aunt Sharon to celebrate Carol's 60th Birthday. We had tea and stayed at The Palace Hotel which was built in 1875. Wow, was it gorgeous and oh so fancy. Not the kind of place Brian and I would usually stay ... it was a treat. The grown-up tea party was fun. I loved the Oriental Spice Tea and homemade scones with lemon curd. Yumm-o.

We had beautiful weather on Saturday so after tea we went shopping in Union Square. I love it there.

Tea at The Palace Hotel.

That evening we had dinner in North Beach (one of my favorite placed in SF) and saw Beach Blanket Babylon. If you're ever in San Francisco, be sure to check it out. We had a great time.

Carol with her birthday cake. Happy Birthday.

Hangin' out at home. M passed out his silly masks for everyone to wear. Click on the picture to enlarge.

Ears...

Well, guess who else has an ear infection.... ME!! I've been sick for about 1 1/2 weeks and I finally went to the doctor yesterday. Brian gave me a choice... go to work or go to the doctors and I knew I couldn't make it through a shift so I made myself an appointment. The MD looked in my ears and said my right one was very infected. So M, K and myself are all on Amoxicillin. I've been on it for 1 day and I ALREADY feel better. Maybe I should have gone a week ago.

I have to get ready for K's dance class and work. I'll try to find time to blog about my weekend in San Francisco later.

Melissa

Scroll down

Scroll down for pictures from K's first dance class. I started this post a few days ago so it posted it under the day I started it.

: ) Mel

I hate cold season

Poor K... she's been sick off and on for probably about a week and a half. She coughs and feels puny in the evenings and during the day if the Motrin's worn off. Each night I've been saying I need to take her to the doctor but we wake up in the morning...I give her a dose of Motrin and she's better. Now she has a horrible cough and almost vomits because of it and fever off and on. I've been saying, "it's just viral, it's just viral" but Brian convinced me this morning that it was time for a trip to the doctor. It's the nurse in me to try to fight this out without going in and I'm not big on antibiotics if they don't need it but I think it's finally time. When we told her she was going to the doctors, she said "yeah!" My kids are weird... they love going to the doctor and taking medicine. They're on their way.

"I feel sad, Mommy."

More later... if I have time.
Melissa


***UPDATE*** Brian just got home and K has an ear infection. She hasn't been complaining of any ear pain though. She'll start some Amoxicillin and hopefully get better soon.

***UPDATE 3:00 pm *** Brian picked M up from school and he's sobbing that his right ear hurts!! When it rains, it pours. I'm on the phone with Kaiser now. Thank goodness they're just going to call in a prescription.

Dancing Queen

K had her first dance class last Tuesday. Thankfully it was the one day she was feeling well. She's taking Ballet and Tap at the Community Center in Natomas. Surprisingly she loved her frilly outfit and shoes. (She's not really a girly girl). She had been talking about "dance crass" all morning and ran in as soon as we got there and began playing with another little girl. K's never met a stranger. The class was 1 hour long and kept her interest for almost all of it. She listened and watched the teacher. I was very proud of her. Of course... here are a few pictures.

The teacher puts a small piece of blue painters tape on the floor for each girl so they know where to stand. She kept checking to make sure she was there. She loved the tap part of the class... especially the shoes.

She's trying to get the hang of it.

At the end of the class the teacher has all of the little ones sit in a circle, she picks a princess for the day and each of the other little girls get to decide what kind of animal they want to be in the forest. K chose a "Baby Pony". All of the "animals" have to go to sleep, the princess walks around and wakes them up and then they get to dance around (freely). It was apparent that all the girlies like this part. What a fun ending.

Baby Pony dancing around.

Brian and I didn't do much for Valentine's Day. We're going to celebrate it in Washington DC in a few weeks but Tuesday night I found this after coming home from work. We exchanged cards and talked. I love all the little things he does.

Goodnight.

Happy Valentine's Day

XOXO

M had a party at school on Friday. A musician came to the school and played the guitar,trumpet and sang with the kids. He was also very funny... the kids loved it. Then they dined on pizza, strawberries, salad (that nobody ate), and tons and tons of sugar. It's so cute to see him interact with the other kids. After I helped serve, I sat down at M's table and was bombarded by the other kids... "M's mom, did you know my dad's name is Joe?" and M's mom, I just had a baby brother" and on and on. It was a lot of fun. M loved having me there and when I arrived he ran over to me and said, "I love you so much, mama." He calls me mama often. They exchanged Valentine's and then headed outside to run and burn off some of that sugar. The teachers said the kids were completely crazy and rambunctious after all that sugar.

I didn't include very many pictures of K because she WILL NOT look at the camera and not only won't smile but she makes the most awful (miserable) face. She had a party at Willy's on Thursday but I don't have any pictures yet.

M funny. I asked him today who the President is now. He said, "Rocco Babama." I repeated it and we both cracked up. It's a tough name.

M and his best buddy, Jack. (Jack is too sweet)

He's in the Red Room now. We love his teachers and his classroom is so charming.

My Valentine. Sorry Brian.

How cute are they?

Going through their Valentine's loot today. She gave him a kiss (and he let her).

He is such a good boy. Last picture - M is telling K, "come on K, please smile for Mama."

I let the kids (and their mom) get a chocolate doughnut from Safeway this morning as a treat for Valentine's Day. They ate it in the car on the way home because of course, they just couldn't wait. While I was at a light, I turned around and saw that K was eating all of the chocolate off of the top of the doughnut... licking it really and her face was covered with chocolate!

Have to go. I have lots to do for my Photography Class.
Mel

Scandia and The Jelly Belly Factory

On Monday, Dyan and I took all four kids to Scandia (a place with tunnels and slides) and to The Jelly Belly Factory for a tour. Dylan (her son) was out of school so it was the perfect day. All the kids had a great time climbing, running and jumping at Scandia and Dyan and I were able to sit and talk. We enjoyed a picnic lunch and then headed over the The Jelly Belly Factory. They take you on a 40 minute walking tour and when you're done, you get a free bag of Jelly Belly's. The kids love that for sure. The boys loved watching all the equipment. The bummer is that they don't allow any pictures during the tour and I was planning to take pictures for my photography assignment. Check it out if you're ever in Fairfield, CA. The tour is free.

Kyla will actually look at Dyan's camera so she snapped this one.

Mean girl! Trying to hit me with a ball.

I couldn't decide which picture of all four kids I liked better so I've attached both.

Walking into the factory.

Waiting patiently, goofy hats and all.

After our tour.

Talk to ya later.
Melissa

Valentine's Day Preparations

We sat down together the other day and worked on the goodie bags for M and K's Valentine's Day Party's at school. The kids had fun but kept bugging me to eat more candy!! M is passing out Transformers Valentine's and K is passing out Thomas the Train. M was very serious about deciding who to give each of the cards to. He was thinking long and hard about which one to give Dax (a boy at school) when he finally said, "Dax should get a Decepticon because he is a bad boy and doesn't listen to the teachers!" For those of you that don't have boys, Decepticon are the bad guys and Autobots are the good guys.

Sorry the picture is so dark.

I can't get this girl to look at the camera, let alone smile. She's been a little sick lately with cough and cold stuff.

We tried making these to give out to their friends at school but the wheels kept falling off!!

To keep my high energy kids busy while it was raining outside, I rolled out some Christmas wrapping paper for the kids to dance, run and color on. Here's my silly boy dancing.

I've got lots to blog about but no time.
Will post more as soon as I can.
Melissa

MOMS Club Valentine's Day Party

We attended the MOMS Club Valentine's Day Party on Thursday. They have snacks, crafts and someone came in to read books and sing songs to the kids. I'm not writing much because I've caught K's cold and will soon be in a a Nyquil stupor! What a whiner I am lately, huh? First my back and now this. I looked at my blogs from last year (working on my album) and I was sick the exact same time last year with the same symptoms. I hope to have more energy to write tomorrow. Here are a few pictures.

Excuse the chocolate on his face.

K and D. She wouldn't stop hanging on him.

MOMS Club kids at story time.

Off to la, la, land.

1st assignment for Photography Class

Today while the kids were at school, I worked on my first assignment for my Photography Class. So far I'm enjoying it and learning a lot. This teacher is all business and wants things a particular way, I'll say that for sure. This week we learned about Aperture and next week we'll start on Shutter Speeds and how they work together. She said, "if you think all we're doing in this class is photographing sunsets and babies, you've got another thing coming." Basically telling everyone to take this class seriously and that it isn't just an easy "A". I could care less about the grade, I just want to learn. Later in the semester, after we've gotten the technical aspects down she'll focus on creativity and taking artistic photos. What if I really do want to photograph babies? If I could become a photographer I'd want to shoot families, kids and seniors. My absolute favorite children's photographers are Kelly Ryden and Audrey Woulard. I've linked their blogs so if you have any free time, be sure to check them out. I don't understand how Kelly gets newborns to smile. A few months ago, she posted a photograph of twins intertwined with each other and both of them are smiling... they were only a few weeks old if that.

I must have looked like a complete lunatic out in my front yard doing this. I first tried to line up chairs but those didn't turn out as well. At an Aperture of F4.0 there is a shallow depth of field so most of the background is blurry but in the last one with an Aperture of F22, you have alarge depth of field and you can see all the detail in the back... even the house.
Click to enlarge if interested.

Poor Brian, I talked to him earlier and he is absolutely exhausted. They had a working structure fire last night (The Black Bear Cafe) and he was up all night. They had to get up on the roof and vent it and everything. Of course today, he wasn't able to sleep because they still had all of their daily work. I hope he goes to bed early.

I hurt my back this afternoon. All I did was reach into the dryer to pull some clothes out and I felt it pull and it was hard to straighten up. Am I getting old or what? I'm fine as long as I'm not bending over... gee that should be easy. Everything I do is bending over... picking up children, clothes, toys, bathing them, dressing them. I hope I'm better tomorrow because I work the evening shift. I'm taking a Motrin and heading out to the hot tub pronto!

Our Reno trip.

My niece, sister, mom and myself went to Reno for 2 nights to celebrate Lacie turning 21. I still can't believe she's 21 years old. Even though none of us did well in the casino's, we still had a ball. I think Lacie caught the gambling bug that we all have. She caught on to Blackjack very quickly. We stayed in the Tuscany Suite in the Peppermill which was just amazing. Jetted tub with flatscreen TV, luxurious linens, awesome view... the works. The first night we went out for a delicious prime rib dinner, found a blackjack table and drank (not my mom) and partied like rock-stars. Not really but we definitely had fun and drank our fair share. We took a cab back to our rooms and fell into our beds at about 2 am.

Saturday night we went to dinner at Ichiban, a teppanyaki restaurant in Harrahs. Brian and I had been before and loved it. After dinner, my mom gambled while my sister, Lacie and I went to a comedy show. The opener was hilarious... we weren't real impressed with the headliner which is so unusual. It was still fun though... Lacie enjoyed just being able to go. We gambled and hung out at the casino's and a few bars with live music until about 2:30 am.

I think I need a vacation to recover from my vacation but I'm so glad we did it. I felt like I got a little closer to Lacie and I can't remember the last time we've all been together... just the girls. I'm wondering if Brian will let me do this annually (I know he will, he's supportive and would never say no). I'm so lucky. The kids were tough for him on Saturday morning (he said the hardest morning he's ever had!) but I guess they behaved much better later in the day and Sunday they went to a Superbowl Party at Dyan and Monte's so it gave them all something to do.

The streets were closed for a Superbowl Tailgate Party so we couldn't resist standing in the street for this shot.

Lacie and I in the hotel.

I gave her these chips for her birthday.

The Pit Boss reluctantly took this picture of us. You're not supposed to take any pictures in a casino but we'd been playing there for hours.

A self-portrait of Mom and I.

2 funny stories. I guess M was wanting to do something while I was gone and Brian told him no so then he told Brian, "Mommy lets me do it and she's in charge of you!"

K wanted me to buy her a cow figurine from Target and I wouldn't so she had a fit and cried, "I want to be in charge" over and over again in the car (sobbing). I guess she's heard me tell M that he isn't in charge one too many times.

Goodnight all.