Farewell My Friends

Our time here in San Diego is drawing to a close.  Throughout this past weekend and next week there are several going away celebrations. I have made some AMAZING friends here and am so sad to leave them. It has been nice to have a few parties to celebrate our friendships and say our goodbyes.

This weekend we had a going away party (which also doubled as Cale's 4th birthday party). We had about 50+ people here to bbq, a jump house, a keg, and lots of tasty food.  It was loud, chaotic and tons of fun.  Our house was pretty trashed by the end of the day - around 15 toddlers can cause some serious toy explosions.  Here are a few pictures from the party:

My girls, whom I will miss terribly...

Enjoying ourselves at the party...

Cale's personal cake (Cincinnati Reds) made by Amy and a million cupcakes made by myself:

Everyone enjoying the little cake :)

Today we had a going away party with my moms group.  I will still be able to attend a few more meetups but this was a chance for us all to get together and have my favorite - a potluck.  Amy made an adorable cake and the girls all pitched in and made Cale a hardback photo book with all sorts of photos of him and his friends over the last 3 years. I teared up with I saw the book - it is such a great memory for him and for us.



This weekend we are going to Shout House, a dueling piano bar.  It is a couples night out so a bunch of us will be heading over there for a fun night on the town.  Cale's preschool teacher will be babysitting for us so I know both boys will be in good hands!

One our own and surviving

It has been a busy couple of days for us around here.  Andy has been out of town on various trips. Over the weekend it was his last convention while working for IDW and then this week he is off to Cincinnati to see the Reds play a few last games before his parents leave to live in Alabama.  This means that the boys and I have been on our own.  I am surviving - sometimes just barely - but overall we are doing well.

Last night Cale had Family night for his preschool to celebrate the end of the preschool year. It was a fun night and they had a bubble show after we had all eaten dinner.  Below is a (blurry) picture of Cale surrounded by a huge bubble. It took some convincing to get him to do it, but he was veryhappy afterwards.  It is sad knowing we will leave this preschool after next week. It has been an amazing place and I feel lucky it was where Cale first got to go to school.  I can't imagine having a better teacher than the one he has now but hopefully the new place we have found in Rhode Island will prove to be just as special.

 

And here is Oliver enjoying his new highchair (a Svan we got at a local resale shop). I never had a high chair for Cale (we just used the clip on booster seats) but I really wanted to have something that Oliver could sit up high in to watch me in the kitchen or join us at the dinner table.  So far he really likes it!  It will be several months until he actually eats in it, but for now it is good to hold toys for him to look at :) 

Tomorrow Andy gets home finally and then he can help us get ready for the huge backyard bbq we are having on Saturday to celebrate our departure and Cale's birthday. We are having 50+ people (that includes the kids) so it is going to be a crazy day.  We have a keg and a bounce house booked - no one can be unhappy with those two items present :)

We're on a roll!

We had a really fun day yesterday!  In the morning we headed to Oma's Dairy Farm, a favorite spot of ours. They were having a special family day which was great since I was sad that we were potentially not going to be able to go before we left, but luckily they had a special day in June for us to come!!  Andy is out of town for his last convention with IDW so I went with several friends from my moms group.  They have amazing activities for kids - a cotton seed hill to sled town, a mound of dirt with more tonka trucks that you can count, multiple playgrounds, sports games, and so much more.  We also got to go on a special hay ride around the farm (a working Dairy farm) and they showed us a cow getting milked - very cool!

At one of the playgrounds, they had baby swings and Oliver took his frist swing ride - he enjoyed it thoroughly!



And then here is Cale, way too big for the baby swings but insisting to ride one none the less...


Later in the afternoon I had friends over for a Mom's Craft night.  I had Oliver doing some tummy time (which he finally will tolerate) and he rolled over for the first time!  Didn't take him long to roll over once he finally allowed me to put him on his belly :)

Here is a picture of him enjoying tummy time for a few moments before he tipped himself over:


And here is a cute shot of Oliver and Daniel, a little friend from our mom's group who is about 1.5 months younger than Oliver.

Ah, to be 3

So Cale has decided that rather than saying "excuse me" or "pardon me" when he burps that he will say "I love you".  So now all I hear all day long is "I love you mom, I burped" or "I love you mom, I farted"  At least he is polite right?  Gotta love  year olds....

Activities this week

It has been another busy week for us!  No pictures to add to the post (got to get used to bringing a camera with me more often)

Monday was memorial day so we were all home.  We didn't do much but got a ton of organizing and cleaning done around the house that was much needed. In the evening Andy's cousin Betsy and her two little ones came to spend the night. The kids had a great time playing together and we enjoyed Mexican from JVs, our favorite local spot. We have to make sure to eat JVs as much as possible over the next three weeks since we will definitely miss it on the East Coast!

Tuesday was preschool day.  Cale attends preschool from 9-1 on Tuesdays.  After preschool we came home for Oliver to take a nap and for Cale and I to have a bit of down time. Around 3 we met up with a bunch of friends from my moms group for an afternoon at the playground. The kids had a blast - this was an experiment to see how the kids did with playing in the afternoon and it was definitely a success!  Have to schedule more of these in the next few weeks while I am still here.  So nice to come home and it is already time for dinner and then bedtime :)

Wednesday we headed to the San Diego Zoo for a special moms group morning.  We get to go to these programs once a month and they cover a specific animal or category of animals each month.  At the end they read stories and get stickers. This month it was gorillas and monkeys - lots of fun!  We spent the whole morning at the zoo. Of course with all the amazing things we saw, the part the kids liked the most was when we left the zoo and they played in a small wooded area for at least an hour more playing hide and seek. Go figure!

Thursday was a busy morning! Cale headed off to preschool while I brought Oliver to the doctor for his 4 month checkup. He is 14.8 pounds (50th percentile) and 26.5in tall (90th percentile!)  I knew he was quite tall since he is quickly growing out of his 6 month clothes due to height.  He was declared a happy and healthy little boy.  He is finally liking tummy time so I am sure he will be rolling and moving around in no time now that he will actually tolerate being on his tummy.  We then headed back to preschool to see Cale's tumbling class show.  It is a pretty adorable show full of 3 and 4 year olds doing "gymnastic" moves - I say that in quotes since 3 year olds can't really do that much other than front rolls but it is quite amusing to watch them try to do cartwheels!

Tomorrow we are headed to a friend's house to play - yay!!