Fall has arrived! How do I know, you ask. Well, September 21st has come and gone, ads for Thanksgiving are on TV, the weather is starting to cool down a little (finally), orange decorations are popping up on all the local businesses, school sickness has attacked our children, and the Mosmans went to Bates Nut Farm again to get some pumpkins and enjoy some Fall festivities.
After Amy got home last Sunday, it was all sunshine and roses until Monday evening when RJ got sick (nothing would stay down). A few hours later, Ryleigh also got sick. Lucky for us, we got to spend most of the night each with a child in his/her room alternating between sleeping lightly and holding a trash can in front of him/her. Fun! The next day, they both got some much needed rest and slowly recovered. This is what Amy saw of them most of the day.
Last year, shortly after we arrived back in the United States, we heard of this place called Bates Nut Farm which is located about an hour north of our house. It's a working farm where they to harvest nuts and other various crops, but this time of year, it's all about PUMPKINS and Halloween. We went last year and enjoyed it enough that we vowed to return this year.
Today's visit was even more special because they had an antique tractor and engine display complete with an antique tractor parade. We all had a very good time! Here are a few pictures from our day.
We picked out four small pumpkins to carve later this month, but that will be a topic of a future blog. We're looking forward to more Fall events in the next few months. It's a great time of year.
I'm a lucky girl. I was able to escape for a few days to attend the National Carousel Association's annual conference in New York. We traveled from one end of Long Island to the other. We saw carousels in three boroughs. We traveled through another borough to get to a carousel on Long Island Sound. Each day was long, but fun. Plus I got to spend some nice time with my Mom and catch up with people I haven't seen in 7 years.
Here are a few pics from my trip.
I had a great time, but it was terrific to be back home with everyone this week!
Amy had a trip to New York State this week for a carousel convention. She deserved the break from potty training, school, playing, and trying to stay cool during our heat wave to go enjoy some time doing something she and her Mom have enjoyed since Amy was little. That meant that the kids had to survive five days of Dad. Amy left Tuesday night, and we'll pick her up tonight from the airport.
I gladly took a few days of leave to hang with the kiddos and we had a great time! Some of our adventures are chronicled below in (bad) iPhone photos:
1. Ant attack!! The ants in this area are bad regardless, but the recent heat wave drove them inside...again. We've been fighting them for the last year, as do all the residents in the area. I'm sure the interior walls of all the homes here are just crawling with the little black ants. They don't seem to bite, but they are SOOOOO annoying. On Wednesday morning, we discovered that RJ's room had been the latest target. He and I noticed a the ants before he went to school. They were coming out from under the baseboard in his closet and then had spread around his room. I put out some ant traps which work pretty well if you give them time (a couple days), but I wanted them gone so in the end I sprayed them all with ant killer and then had to clean up the carnage. I'm guessing that I cleaned up 4-5 thousand ants in the end. Here are a couple grainy photos of them.
2. Potty training. Ryleigh is doing very well with potty training, except for going #2. She has some serious stage fright and tends to still want to go off by herself to take care of business. For that reason, we've been keeping her in a pull-up for extended periods vice just underwear. She tends to want to go "pee" about a dozen times in a couple hour time period which is the indicator that she needs to do more than just #1. We've mistakenly left her in underwear a few times despite these warning signs in hopes that she'll make progress...and we've paid for our mistakes more than once. She's getting there though and it won't be long before we are completely free from pull-ups. She does tend to like to go pantless (only underwear or pull-up), though, as you can see in this photo of us playing out in the backyard.
3. Birthday party. We (RJ and Ryleigh with me as their designated driver) were invited to a birthday party for a couple of the children we know from the neighborhood pool. Two of their children have birthdays very near to each other, so we joined them at John's Incredible Pizza (Chuck-e-Cheese-like place, but better) for a combined birthday bash. It was fun but a little hectic. And RJ needs to work on his limbo skills (see below).
4. On Saturday, we went to the Living Coast Discover Center which is best described as a local, lower-budget, passionately-operated conservation center. Located on the water here in Chula Vista, it has birds, reptiles, fish, turtles, sharks, and rays on display. There are some other things there, too, but that list pretty well sums it up. It's the type of place that can be fully explored in about an hour. Regardless, we had a good time. We got to see them feed the rays and sharks and could have petted the rays if we'd been a little more brave. Maybe next time. RJ asked questions of the presenter/speaker during the presentation and made up stuff about sharks and fish which he shared non-stop with a little boy that he hijacked from another family (hidden from view in the fourth photo below). Here are a few photos and a quick video.
5. Time around the house. I did some experimenting with getting kids to bed without a parent in the same room. Typically, when I'm gone for a night or on travel, Amy has to resort to the kids sleeping in our bed with her. It's too hot to do that so I tried to get them each down in their own beds. I was semi-successful with RJ and had a couple successes with Ryleigh. I found that I could sit on a chair looking into each of their rooms and that was enough assurance to let sleep overcome them. Hopefully, this trend continues.
All-in-all, we had a great time together and am happy that Mom got to spend some time with Grandma doing something fun in New York. I'm looking forward to another opportunity to hang with them munchkins...not sure if they share the same sentiment, though!
We found our groove this week. It was a full week of school for RJ, a school meeting for me, a parent-teacher conference to set our goals for learning, many errands, two play dates, and more. It was brutally hot, and this week will be more of the same. Hopefully Jip and the kids will find fun ways to beat the heat while I'm out of town for a conference.
I was negligent when it came to taking pictures this week. But, here are two pics from this weekend.
Yes, RJ is really wearing a blanket. Our house is far from cold, but he has a bit of his mother in him and likes to be covered when sitting on the couch.
Next week, assuming JCPenney cooperates and gets the pretty stuff (bedding) here, we'll have pictures of Ry's big girl bed and new room arrangement. It was time to say good-bye to the toddler bed and changing table. And, we're hoping now that she has room to spread out while she sleeps, she'll stay in her own bed. I'm sure it's a pipe dream. But, still--we can hope.
Ryleigh got in on the action. You can't tell they are related at all.
Ry is going to miss having her RJ around.
I think RJ is going to miss Ryleigh, too.
We showed up at school, and it was just like his last day was last Friday. He went into the classroom, dropped his backpack into his cubby, and picked up a book to read.
He was so excited to see his old buddies.
After a great week at school, we ended it with a fun "giant playdate" with the Military Moms meetup group I started. It was so, so hot, but it was still great. The kids were completely exhausted by the time we got home.
Saturday, the kids wanted to go for a bike ride. We were going to go to our favorite park that has a nice 1/4-mile loop around it. But, there was a soccer game going on and we weren't sure whether we'd be in the way. But, the solution presented itself as soon as we parked Barry. The elementary school next to the park has a lovely, flat bus loop. So, off the kids went to do laps, laps, and more laps.
On your mark, get set...
Taking it easy on the first loop.
RJ is doing so great without "stabilizers"!
Racing!
Every time Ry passed by me, she yelled, "Winner!"
The kids rode again in the neighborhood on Sunday. Ryleigh is seriously in love with riding a bike.
We're looking forward to a very routine week. We're hoping the predictions of a little moisture will hold true while we work on finding our groove.
We hope your week was great and that the next one is even better!
