Day 190: Blast Off

Sometimes, all you need is a new pair of hooded space man pajamas (thanks Target), and a fabric laundry basket to launch yourself into space. 

Target's new Cat & Jack line is going to single handedly empty my bank account. Just shut up and take my money. 

Blast off! (note he isn't touching the ground)

Holding his breath in his rocket ship, because there's no air in space you know. 

On a scary alien planet (known as "Calen's Room")

Day 189: It's About To Go Down.

I walked into my upstairs bathroom just now to find this on the sink:

I don't know what's about to go down, but that Imperial Red Guard from Star Wars is armed with a toothbrush and ready to fight. Maybe the sink is the new inverted Death Star. Maybe I should use the downstairs bathroom until tomorrow....

Just another moment of living with boys. 

(We really were completely boring today and have nothing else to post). 

Day 188: Picasso

Cam hates drawing. 

Hates it, hates it, hates it. He'd rather walk over hot coals barefoot than draw something. 

But his Kindergarten teacher must really be on his good side, because he came home today with a piece of paper and a tiny little drawing on the bottom. 

What. 

He's no Picasso for sure, but this is major progress that he even agreed to draw something other than his name on a sheet of paper. 

Day 187: We Are Giant

Once upon a time in March, Calen got money from his grandparents to buy tickets for a San Francisco Giants baseball game. We figured, it being March, we had quite literally all season to figure out when we were going to go. 

The problem is, it was going to cost a trillion dollars for our family of four to go to a weekend game (when we're usually available to attend games), regardless of the help we received from family. Soo, we finally found a random Sunday game in August that had lower ticket prices than normal, and even so, decided that Brad and Cam (who aren't near as big baseball people as Calen and I) would stay home while Calen and I went off and had a date. 

Fast forward to August, and here we are. 

This was a lot more than just "going to the ballpark". The entire process of attending a Giants game is an adventure, which makes it all the more fun. 

First, we drove 40 miles south to the Larkspur Ferry Terminal, and took an hour or so ferry ride in the San Francisco Bay, sailing past such places as San Quentin Penitentiary, Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge, under the Bay Bridge, etc, while spotting "3 sea lions, 2 dolphins, and a thousand seagulls" according to Calen, though he was accurate. Then, the ferry drops you off 20 feet from the Entrance in right-center field.

Riding the ferry with San Fran in the background

The game itself was about as good as you can get. We got Mike Krukow bobbleheads and Giants baseball cards. Calen didn't believe me when I told him that sometimes they hit home runs over the right field fence into the San Francisco Bay. Sure enough, Joe Panik hit not one but two home runs into the bay, and some other guy I can't remember hit a third. There were double plays and web gems and the Giants won 14-4, and Calen suddenly became a big Buster Posey fan and picked a jersey t-shirt of his.

Love that kid. He just likes baseball and it doesn't matter what team. 

Go Giants!

Mike Krukow enjoying our awesome front row (upper deck) seats

Towards the 7th inning we ditched our seats and walked around for a bit. AT&T Park has a cool kids area including a GIGANIC Coca Cola bottle that takes up the entire upper deck sections of center field. Inside said giant Coke bottle is a slide, of all things. So Calen got to slide the Coca Cola bottle (twice), and at the bottom of the slide we happened to find a life sized Lego Buster Posey. Of all damn things. 

A pic (I didn't take) of the Coca Cola bottle in center field. It's a slide. 

Calen, Lego Buster and some creepy umpire

We finished off the last inning towards right field where we found an old classic San Francisco trolley (again, of all damn things), and sat inside it while watching the last 3 outs of the game. Then another ferry ride home and the long day was over. 

In a cable car in right field watching a baseball game. Yep.

Really, you can't get a more unique baseball experience than here. Awesome mom-Calen date. 

Day 186: Bad Moms

Tonight was girls night out which means all of us neighborhood moms tucked our sweet little ones into bed and went out to have a beer and watch this:

So naughty but SO funny. Basically what every not-quite-middle-age mom wants to do but can't because we aren't starring in an R rated movie. 

Too bad. 

Good night with good friends. I love the neighborhood I live in. 

Day 185: National Dog Day

It's National Dog Day! (because that's a thing.)

Here's to the two turdfaces in my life, Juno-girl and Sonic the HedgeDog. They're obnoxious assholes but we love them. 

Old lady Juno girl (posing as Yoda)

Sonic the HedgeDog

Day 184: You Know You're A Mom When...

You know you're a mom on the go when you had to run to Costco last minute because you realize you're out of everything, but didn't have time to go through the ridiculously long food line because Kindergarten release is looming in 20 minutes, so you rush out the door starving and end up tearing open a box of Lucky Charms you just bought and shovel handfuls of it in your mouth in the front seat of your family SUV while sitting in the elementary school pick up line. 

What can I say, I was hungry and I didn't want to be last in the pick up line.

My current situation. 

Day 183: Conversations With Calen

So we're at dinner and Calen is playing with a "computer" he drew on a sheet of paper. I told him to leave his computer alone and eat his spaghetti. 

So he hit the X button on it ("because it turns the screen off, he says") and flips the paper over to the blank side. "See? The screen is off."

This sparked me trying to explain to the kids that when I was a kid, there weren't any cell phones (that weren't gigantic bricks). This was hard for them to understand, so here's how the conversation went. 

Me: "When I was a kid, there weren't any cell phones at all."

Calen: "Because you didn't have a job and couldn't buy one?.....Well, I guess you still don't have a job. You're just a...normal person that's just here." 

*Thanks? I guess? Be sure to tell your wife that in 20 years at the end of the day after taking care of kids all day and see what happens. I'm not responsible for injury or death.*

Me: "No the reason I didn't have one is not because I didn't have a job, it's because they didn't exist."

Confused looks from both boys as spaghetti noodles hang out of their mouths. So I tried to explain it further.

Me: "Like, someone hadn't invented them yet."

Suddenly, Calen's eyeballs get humongous and he sits up straight.

"Wait, where you a kid with the cowboys?!"

And there you have it. Today's second graders think that cell phones were invented in the Wild West, and I'm old enough to have lived to see it. 

Calen's computer. Complete with Lego ninja game. That he's winning, of course.

Day 182: You're Out Of Your League Kid (But You'll Do Fine)

It's my favorite time of year!

It's Fall Ball season!

Fall baseball is my favorite baseball season (and thus, my favorite sports season). The season is shorter, so there's less time to prove more to yourself and to your teammates that you're ready to move to the next division up come spring. The days are shorter too, so most of the games are played under the lights on the nicer fields. The games are intense, the playoffs are even more intense, it's just pure excitement for both kids and parents alike. And this year, both kids are playing (in different divisions). 

Calen's first practice was tonight. He's been assigned to the River Cats (all Cal Ripken teams are based off major league teams in the spring, and minor league teams in the fall), and though we're a little disappointed that it wasn't our beloved Bulls team that we played for last fall, it still seems to have a good coaching staff and group of boys. 

What shocked me today though, was that Calen wasn't put in the same division (Rookies - lowest other than Tball) as last year. He was drafted up two divisions to Double A, in which the vast majority of players are older 8's, 9, and even a couple just-turned 10 year olds. 

Calen won't even be 7 1/2 until the end of next month. 

So at first I'm super stoked that my kid worked hard enough to be drafted up, that hot damn, all that work in the back yard has paid off! And maybe he's paying attention more than I thought he was! But then the adrenaline dried out and I'm left thinking "Oh my gosh, my kid is going to be eaten alive by these older kids." How in the hell is a 7 year old going to keep up with kids that have two or three years extra experience than him?!

So we rolled into practice today with our heads held high, but inside I was nervous. Sure enough, he's the only 2nd grader, playing with 3rd and 4th graders. One kid is a good 8 inches taller than him. 

But, he kept up with the kids. The majority of them are definitely more skilled than him, but not so much that he will get squashed out there like a bug. He has a lot of room to grow in this division and really, Calen is the type of kid that cannot be the oldest or most skilled kid on the team, as he requires the peer pressure of older kids around him to perform at his best. Otherwise, he flounders and screws around. 

So despite the odds, had a decent first practice, got along with the kids (and knows one from last fall) and I really think he's going to not only keep up with these older boys, but learn a LOT from them. 

Go River Cats. 

Practicing pitching (in his old Bulls uniform)

Day 181: If You Give A Dog Peanut Butter...

If you give a puppy some peanut butter...

Particularly a puppy that's never had peanut butter....

...and smear it on her nose...

She's going to lick. For 15 minutes straight. She's going to do backwards somersaults trying to get to that peanut butter. She's going to go cross eyed and tongue tied and then she'll give up. And then she'll notice it's still there and lick again. 

Our dinnertime entertainment tonight. We couldn't stop laughing. 

Poor Sonic. 

Poor Sonic nothing. She got peanut butter and then peanut butter dog gas later. 

Day 180: The Closing Ceremony

Unfortunately for everyone in this house, the closing ceremonies were today, and the 2016 summer Olympics have come to an end. 

The last two weeks have really been fun for our family. The kids are old enough to learn about the different countries, and even Brad and I were introduced to sports we had never actually watched before (handball is stupid, rugby is amazing, fencing is absurdly confusing and badmitton shouldn't be an Olympic sport). We especially loved eating Brazillian food basically the entire two weeks (because we couldn't get enough of that pork and rice!). 

The kids watched the Olympics every morning when they'd wake up, and basically all day before school started last week. We'd pick an event and talk about the featured athlete's country, where it is on the map, what the geography is and what the people dress like. Then we'd print their flag and color it, and hang it in our dining room which was the new Olympic Village. We made it through 26 flags/countries before today (13 per kid). I'd say we did pretty good. 

Definitely my favorite Olympics I've watched thus far. Super excited for the winter Olympics in 2018. 

Our Olympic Village

Day 179: Party Hardy

Twice a year, our little section of the base housing (3 buildings, 8 families per building) have a big block party in our parking lot. It's basically all day and involves a ton of food, a bounce house, cotton candy, cornhole and hours and hours of adults hanging out while the kids run rampant (and barefoot) through the neighborhood. It's a fun way to really get to know everyone that's just moved into the block. 

As per usual with our block parties, something mildly catastrophic happened to Camden; this time he smashed heads with someone in the bounce house and split his lip and knocked a tooth loose. 

Party hardy. 

Calen was allowed a very RARE can of pop, which he chased down with cotton candy and a cookie. He asked for more and told him he'd get sick, so he ran off to bounce in the bounce house (imagine, bouncing around with all that in your stomach). He came back at one point and said "I don't seem to be getting a stomach ache. Can I have another cookie?" Of which I said "You don't seem to be understanding that you WILL get sick. No." And sure enough, ten minutes he comes over saying his stomach really hurts. So he went home and laid in his room for a while and came out later after he felt better (no more sugar for him!). 

Stomach aches and split lips aside, it was a successful block party. And you know it's a good night when your kid's feet are BLACK by the end of it. 

What happens when you run around for 8 hours barefoot. GROSS. 

Day 178: In MY Day...

We really get to give our kids a unique childhood here. 

Because we live on post, our house/neighborhood/base is completely surrounded by a big ass fence. And security. And cameras. Which means no creepers coming from the outside, and no chance of escape from mischievous little miscreants, also known as children. 

And because Two Rock Union Elementary school sits nestled up against the base fence (but outside it, it's a public school), the police department on base opens a back gate directly into school grounds each morning and afternoon, allowing all the base kids to ride their bikes over a mile (on base property) to school. Safely. Without worry of kids being snatched or hit by traffic (they are on literal bike trails the whole way). 

In MY day, you couldn't ride your bike to school, because a) it was WAY too far away from my house, b) there were no sidewalks on the roads, and c) you'd get SNATCHED. 

Calen road his bike to and from school alone last year as a first grader, so I wasn't worried about him this year. But Camden unsupervised? HA. He wouldn't go to school. He'd end up at the playground at the lake half a mile from our house. Sooo I hopped on my bike and road with them this morning. 

Talk about a unique experience that hardly any kids left in America get to do. 

Entering school property (their school is the yellow building). School rules state to walk your bikes. 

Day 177: Don't Let The Power Get To Your Head

After a lackluster experience with the coaching staff in spring ball, I wanted to complain. But you can't really complain, if you aren't volunteering, are you? 

So guess who was elected to become a Board Member for the Cal Ripken of Rohnert Park baseball league?

This girl. 

Now I not only feel like I have a place to bitch, but also the power to vote over things I appreciate (or don't) in the league. 

Look out world. Here I come. 

Just kidding. 

Day 176: The First Day Of The Rest Of Your Life

It's with great shock and disbelief that I announce that it's the first day of 2nd Grade for Calen and KINDERGARTEN for Camden. 

What?! Am I in the Twilight Zone? Weren't they born like, last week?

Actually, Calen going into 2nd grade is shocking, but not like whoa I need to see a psychiatrist shocking. But there's something about Camden going into Kindergarten: REAL elementary school, that I'm like "No, that's incorrect. Someone messed up his birthdate. He's still a 4 year old itty bitty preschooler. He can't say "L's" or "R's" when he talks and he still seems so little. Absolutely completely IMPOSSIBLE that he's old enough, big enough, mature enough for kindergarten (the latter is still up for debate). 

Yet here we are.

Everything went off without a hitch. Much to the kids disgust, I drove them to school this morning instead of letting them both ride bikes to school. Because you know, helmets will mess up their hair and I wanted to embarrass them with pictures inside their classroom (along with every other mom at Two Rock Elementary). From the parking lot, Calen took Cam's hand and I heard him say "come on Cam, I'll take you to your classroom and Mrs Jones! And if you need anything I'll be in the 2nd grade room!" And escorted him all the way inside his classroom before letting go and yelling a resounding "Bye Cam!" as he marched away to his own room. 

Cue the first tears I have ever shed when dropping any kid off at school ever. 

Cam even came out of his classroom (not upset) to give me a big hug and say "bye mom!" while I was in the hallway talking to another mom. 

Cue the second tears I've ever shed when dropping any kid off at school ever. 

Actually, that's not true. I didn't ACTUALLY cry. But I did tear up. 

The kids had a great first day and like their teachers and their classmates. Here's to a great year. 

Good luck Mrs. Jones!!!

"So that they'll know my name!"

In his big boy classroom!

Cam in his kinder room!

Day 175: The Last Day of Summer

Today is sadly the last day of summer vacation, and the boys start their journey into 2nd Grade and Kindergarten tomorrow. 

It boggles my mind that these two little rolly polly babies toddling around my house are now little tiny man boys going to school and being almost independent and stuff. 

We spent the last day of summer exactly how it should be spent. At the pool of course. for hours and hours. 

We came home and did all the back to school prep. Backpacks are filled with supplies, new outfits are laid out, I even made no less than 400 pounds of breakfast burritos so the kids have a hearty breakfast and I can remain my lazy morning ass that I am. 

Actually, I intend on actually getting dressed and riding bikes with the kids to school each morning with Sonic in tow. But who the hell has time to make eggs and sausage ever single school morning? Not me. 

I'm a little sad that our carefree days are over but excited for the school routine to start again. And school means fall is on the way and I'm completely and totally all about fall. 

Happy back to school boys!

Muscles from all that summer swimming!

Back to reality tomorrow!

Day 174: Ice Cream Day

We started a tradition last summer, where the weekend before school starts, we pick a day and have ice cream for dinner. But not just ice cream, ice cream with ridiculous toppings, on the living room floor with a family movie on. 

I've thought about going full out and doing a little topping bar for the kids to come and add to their ice cream as their own, but 1) they're small still and overestimate their limits, and 2) school is in two days and I don't want them oversugared and puking. 

So instead we went to the local candy shop (Powell's) and let the kids pick out a small bag of gummies and chocolate for their toppings. Going to Powell's is a fun experience on it's own, a modern style Wonka type shop with every treat available. Calen picked sour gummy worms, chocolate sea shells, green sixlets and a gummy cheeseburger. Cam chose gummy sharks, Swedish fish, red sixlets and a gummy pizza for his ice cream. 

Then we sat outside in the nice patio area and I got the kids GIANT gummy snake for the boys to share, and I introduced them to Pop Rocks (it freaked them out). 

Once they were sugared up, we went to our favorite local bookstore and the kids read a picture book and then each picked out a chapter book (okay, Cams was more like a comic chapter book), then came home and went right to the pool until dinner time. And it's not hard to drag kids out of the pool when you say ICE CREAM for dinner. 

Our family movie of choice was Harry and the Hendersons. This was my favorite movie as a kid and the kids loved it, especially when Harry destroys the house. They ate their ice cream on the floor (with some pizza bites...a lesson learned form last year, they need salt to go with all that sugar) and had an all around great evening. 

It's one of my new favorite traditions we have for back to school. You have to go out with a bang after all. 

Day 173: Seize The Day

Sometimes, your kids have been sick all weekend, you've had a migraine for two days, but you put on a bra, drive an hour to Ikea and race the carts down the aisles like an 8 year old anyways. 

Seize the day, people. You only live once. 

Day 172: Lunch Dates

Cam was still a little iffy today so after Calen's baseball tryouts this morning, he and I drove solo up to Travis Air Force Base to buy our Disney World passes (only 3 months away!!!) and have lunch together. 

Sometimes you forget what it's like to interact with only one kid, not having to worry about them taking turns talking and not interrupting each other or pissing each other off or sword fighting with french fries. 

I must say it was nice to only have one child today. 

My handsome date!

Day 171: Matching Barf Buckets

This is a short post today. Cam woke up with the barfs, and basically we spent the day with him laying in Calen's bed with a barf bucket watching Star Wars (Force Awakens, Empire Strikes Back, Phantom Menace, per his request). Then just as Cam is perking up, Calen came downstairs saying he didn't feel well and needed a barf bucket "just in case".

Neat. 

No pictures today. Unless you want pictures of barf buckets. Which you don't. 

Day 170: As Close To The Olympics As They'll Ever Get

The kids have REALLY been into these Olympics. And really, so have I. Every day we've been coloring new flags and talking about new sports. I recorded the women's US gymnastics and men's swimming the other night (since their idea of "prime time" is actually "late time") and we watched it this morning. The boys are suddenly doing backflips off the sofa and Calen keeps talking about his muscles and how he "needs to work out more". 

And he is, I keep catching him doing 15 reps at a time with the 6lb hand weight that hangs out in our hallway, then squeezing his biceps afterwards to see if his muscles have grown. 

measuring

Anyways, I completely and totally stole this from Pinterest. I took some leftover sidewalk chalk from this summer and had some Olympic style fun with it. The kids thought it was hilarious and let's face it, it's as close to competing in the Olympics as they'll (probably) ever get.