SFG Update and fun Mom time

Check out the progress on the veggie patch. I've been munching on the fresh peas, lettuce, and Swiss chard. The lettuce has bolted so I am a bit sad. I am thinking of putting in some salad mix seeds in its place so we can continue our fresh lettuce use. Now we have tiny tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers coming in. I even saw a tiny pumpkin! I am getting very excited to eat locally soon!

We had a rainy weekend in sunny San Diego which disappointed the boys because we couldn't got to Elephant park and have a picnic as planned. I swear I never even heard from the news that we were expecting rain. I think the San Diego meteorologists must have graduated last in their class. They are so used to saying sunny and 70 that they miss the few times it does rain. I do love the rain (especially for my garden) but I wish it would just rain during the week!

Their daddy had a special treat and got to get away to go up to LA with the guys to watch the Wizards v. Galaxy match from the owners box. I was jealous at first and then he reminded me that Becks was in Italy. Meanwhile, the boys had fun with mom shopping and they were so well mannered that we finished our evening with a hot bowl of noodles at a restaurant on a rainy day. Mmmm. I was so proud that they were the best behaved children in the whole place. (Maybe it was due to the big bottle of hot sauce on the table.)

Father's Day Gifts

Driving home from school yesterday I asked the boys what they thought their daddy would like Father's Day.

PJ: Daddy would like a tuba or a piano.
AJ: Or he might like a trumpet or cymbals.
PJ: Or a conductor's stick. He would really like that.

Gun Play

So it was AJ's turn to go shopping with me and we dropped off PJ's script at the Rite Aid together. Needless to say, he convinced me to buy him and his brother water squirt guns. It didn't take much since I used to love them as a child. They found the best use for them- to clean! They have washed the windows, their trikes, their toys, and even the floor. They spent almost 45 uninterrupted (except to have a parent refill the gun) minutes on their cleaning activity. I wonder how I can get some fun vacuuming time out of them.
Oh and yes- they pick out all their fantastic pajama combinations. They even refuse to have me pick out clothes for them to wear during the day. There have been a few big winners in the mix. I think their teachers think we are color blind.

Gender Fender Bender

AJ finally went into the pool. It must be the start of summer fun. Mr. P still would rather relax in the "bubbles". Everyday after I pick them up from school, they ask (beg) me to go in the bubbles. My line I use is that I don't know how to turn them on and they will have to wait until their daddy gets home. I know it is a pathetic excuse and I am embarrassed to use it after all my feminist training. Finally, when their daddy gets home they beg to turn on the bubbles and scold him because he keeps forgetting to teach mommy how to turn on the bubbles. UGH- I know, what underlining messages am I teaching these boys.

I got a nice surprise from my boys. When I opened their lunch boxes, I found a "princess" bracelet in Patrick's box. He said he got it from the treasure box because he was a good listener. Because I was curious, I asked him to tell me about why he picked this treasure. I tried very hard to not appear as if I am judging him, as I didn't want him to think there was anything wrong with liking a little bit of baby bling. If P wants to rock a princess bracelet he should be able to. But it was so out of character, that I had to ask. He said he picked it out for me and I can wear it "a lot of times". I was touched, this was the first unexpected gift I had been given from my boys that was not part of some project at school. He picked a gift for me over a toy for himself. Then he told me next week he will get me another one. AJ didn't want to be left out so gave me his eraser he picked out. Sweeties.

Great ideas!

So the boys have a great idea. So that they can get ready faster in the morning, they decided they will sleep in their clothes. After much heated negotiating, I was able to just have them wear their pajama bottoms with their shirt they wanted to wear for the next day. Adam is wearing his new Turkish soccer jersey from his Grammy and Grandpa Wonderful. He loves it so much that he wore Patrick's shirt the next day. They boys were also given cute pea coats that Adam just loves. He asks me in the morning if it is going to be a coldy day because he wants to wear his coat out. Too bad it is Spring in San Diego.

Spring weekend fun

We had a great weekend. It was nice to have a weekend with my boys! We started off the weekend with all 3 boys getting haircuts. This time we requested short and spikey for the boys. The woman who worked on PJ got creative and put blue and red color in his hair. He was very good through the whole procedure, but later confessed that he didn't really like it. His mommy sure did. Next to P they were giving a little boy a Mohawk with red color. Gotta love the PQ barber. Of course they celebrated their good behavior with ice cream. (Which I was told was a good "growing food" according to their Grandpa Carl. Hmmm. )

On Sunday they picked out their outfits and we walked to the PQ Festival. We had a great time and even got to sit in the back of a police car. Their mommy hopes it will be the last time. We walked all around and then the boys found something they loved. They were mesmerized by the little girls gymnastics performance. After staring for awhile, I convinced them to sit down and have their lunch. So they ate and watched the girls tumble. They were so well behaved, no sass at all! After they were done we went to get caramel corn and cotton candy (they weren't a fan) and luckily the tap/hip hop / and ballet dance recital was up next. They patiently waited for it to start, while of course checking out all the girls outfits. Then once it did start, they sat and ate their popcorn so sweetly. They clapped after each performance. The only time that I heard a peep out my normally very vocal boys was when they noticed little boys in a few of the performances. They told me that they didn't like watching the boys.

We have ART!

Finally! I have been waiting for years. PJ drew something creative, on his own, and enjoyed doing it. He drew a happy sun. He asked me if I was "impressed" (his words). I told him how much I loved it. Meanwhile, AJ is still perfecting his writing: "ADAM", "DADDY", "MOMMY", "PATRICK". I told him that practicing writing words is important and he is getting very good at it.

More rocking out

Can you see their emerging personalities?

Fun Daddy Time

As luck would have it, the first weekend since the grandparents left, I found myself in Bethesda to having a working weekend to prep and then meet with the FDA. And to add insult to injury, it is over Tim's birthday weekend. However, the boys have been having a great time with their daddy. After learning they had a good week at school, he took them to McDonald's yesterday for chicken McNuggets and milk shakes. Today they went to Costco and had some frozen yogurt and finished building their bunk beds (and Tim sent me a picture of the finished job). When I called home to chat with them today they were trying to eat their leftover shakes, but they had been kept in the freezer overnight. I could barely talk to Tim because both boys were ordering their daddy to put the frozen milkshakes in the microwave. How did these 4 year olds know to think of that!

When I did get to talk to them they said they are going to have a party for their daddy and have a cake. They told me they wanted a golf ball shaped cake with a Tiger on it (they know who their daddy's favorite golfer is). Patrick asked me if I was coming over for the party. I told him that I was too far away and it would take too long even on an airplane. He did let me know he would cut a special piece of cake just for me and put it in a bag so I could have it when I get home. He said he wouldn't let any one eat it. What a sweetie. I miss all my boys.

Spring Time

Magic Glasses?

Adam found his grandpa's glasses and put them on. He though he was pretty silly and showed off to his grandma, me and Mr. P. PJ got really excited and shouted, "Maybe you can read!" Then he ran over and grabbed the NY Times and thrusted the newspaper section at Adam. "Try this, Adam!" Unfortunately, AJ told P that he still couldn't read. PJ made him take off the glasses and tried them on himself, because he had to check to see if he could read. He was a bit disappointed that the glasses didn't work. Guess the prescription wasn't right for their eyes.

Brotherly Love

I'll get the shovel for you!

Here you go!

I'm sorry, "Nano".
(Or maybe it is "Chaco" or "Bubpee". I forget the pet names they call each other since they are always evolving.)

SFG update!

We had to harvest some broccoli last night because it was hot this week and I am afraid it is starting to bolt. It was delicious! I think Tim needs to build the new square foot garden ASAP and we better get our vertical support up too.

Don't Worry About a Thing

Jette Rock Band

Fun at Belmont Park

Now that the boys are bigger we took them to Belmont Park (http://www.belmontpark.com/). We played mini golf and had a great time getting tickets in the arcade. Adam wanted to go on rides and went with his mommy on the yellow submarine. P was happy to get an ice-cream cone with his dad at the giant ice-cream cone stand instead. A fun Sunday!

What not to wear

Trying to get the boys ready in the morning is not always a smooth sailing process. They just love their jammies. I even set out clothes for them to wear and their daddy has a race with them to see who can get dressed first. That has been working for a little while, but lately we have hit a little snag. Now they insist they pick out their own clothes. One problem is that AJ will only wear long-sleeves shirts, even if it is 75 degrees out. He says that he just will push his "arm sleeves" up if it gets hot out. He also prefers pants and says he will push the "leg sleeves" up if his legs get hot.

Another problem is that they are the slowest to get ready and usually have a fight over certain articles of clothing. It take them awhile to negotiate- it goes something like this:

A: (Crying) I want to wear the orange shorts. I found them first. (I told AJ he had to wear shorts today, so he was already upset).
P: You need to ask me if you can wear them. It is good manners.
A: Patwick, can I please wear the orange shorts?
P: Let me think...(pause with his finger on his chin)...sure.
A: Yea! (grabbing for the shorts)
P: You need to tell me "thank you, Patwick".
A: Thank you, Patwick.
P: You're welcome.

The sad thing is that P didn't even want to wear the shorts until his brother told him he wanted them P likes to wear "comfy shorts" with no zippers. AJ also complained all morning that his legs were "coldy" and he wanted to wear pants. Gotta love 4 year old quirks.

Tomatomania

The boys and I went to the Quail Gardens for Tomatomania over the weekend (Daddy was golfing with grandpa and Joe). We had a great time and met up with our friends Beck and Max! Beck and Max brought their Mom, Sarah, their grandma, Diane, and their cousins. Fun! We had a great time playing in the water, digging for dinosaurs, and watching the train (the bumble bee and red one) in the Children's garden. Adam even got to feed the compost worms his orange peel. Again, the boys refused to paint a butterfly with their friends, color pictures, or do anything artsy. They would rather watch the train go round and round. Their Mommy was had fun with her friends and even got to see her coworker Vann (a docent there) and purchase 3 unusual tomato plant, a white one, a orange-strawberry one, and one named Jett-setter (of course I bought it based on the name).

Favorite roles

When we were leaving school today, P and A showed me their work and what they like to play with in their classroom. Then they showed me the wall where it tells them their roles for the week. I think P was the clean up helper and A was the calendar helper this week. Well, they got away from me and re-arranged the roles on the wall. Shh. Ms. Castle had already left for the day.

P put Adam as the snack holder, after asking if A agreed first, of course. Then he put himself as the line leader. I asked him why and he said he likes to be first. I thought that it fit their personalities quite nicely.

I wonder if their teacher will notice on Monday.

Big Bear Fun

We were able to get away with our friends Brian and Dina for a weekend in the mountains at Big Bear. After braving Friday night traffic we made it up and were rewarded with brews from Big Bear Mountain Brewery. We were even treated to a local band, the Holcomb Valley Boys. The name was a little misleading as they had a lady singer and no one could have been younger than 65. The next morning we headed out to Snow Summit for snowboarding. Although I have tried snowboarding many years ago and was horrible at it, I wanted to try it again because we were all beginners. What a disaster we were. I hurt myself (swollen, bruised knees and tailbone), Tim quit after three runs, Dina traded her snowboard in for skis, and Brian wiped out so hard he hit his head and also lost his cell phone. I did like snow boarding when I finally got up (I had to turn around and face the mountain to get up). It just hurt too much when I fell on the icy mountain. I think I am going to go back to skis. Maybe, it would be better if it was more powdery so I won't get so beat up.