Pumpkin Patch 2018 - Irvine Regional Park
October 10, 2018
We've been trying to check out a different pumpkin patch each year. I love going to them because I think pumpkins are so pretty (even the pimply ones!). Wish I could take them all home. This year we went over to the pumpkin patch at the Irvine Regional Park. Lots to do there, but pretty darn expensive. Everything costs at least 1 ticket (1 ticket = $5), so be prepared to spend some money! Girls especially enjoyed the pony ride. But do get there as early as possible. It gets more and more crowded throughout the day so you may end up having to park far.
September 28, 2018
It has been busy over here at the Kim residence with lots of changes/transitions. Here's a little of what we've been up to:
- Erin started kindergarten! And Ava started pre-school in the 2/3's class!
- Erin had her very first play date (with a school friend) a few months ago. She went over to her friend's place and her friend came over as well. Don't know why this was such a big deal to me, but I felt just as nervous when her friend came over...making sure her friend was happy and having a good time. Hah.
- Ava is still peeing/pooping in her panty! Well technically her pull-up. After about the 10th poopoo panty, we decided to put her in pull-ups to make our lives easier. She has regressed terribly. Every day is different. Sometimes she'll never tell us she needs to use the potty and some days she'll tell us. We're going to have to re-train her again..fun times!
- No more weekday naps for Erin. She was doing real well with going the whole day without a nap the first few weeks, but some days now she'll come home and pass out on the couch right after dinner. Poor thing.
- We got a new dining table and dining chairs! Ken and I hated our previous ones. We got them our first year of marriage, but I'm happy to say they have finally been replaced.
- Went fishing for the first time and caught my very first fish. Erin did not enjoy the experience, but Ava seemed to enjoy it.
- Signed Erin up for tennis lessons. She starts next month so I'll have to keep you posted on how that goes. Ava started gymnastics and seems to be enjoying it so far.
- I'm a room mom for Erin's kindergarten class.
Super excited that October is almost here. Halloween costumes are a go and I can't wait till the girls get to wear them. Also everything pumpkin flavor is out and the weather is cooling down a bit and.. there's rain in the forecast (gasp!). Happy almost October!
August 10, 2018
We have ourselves a 5 year old (gasp). An almost kindergartner (gasp). Don't know why this particular birthday has a bit more of a punch, but 5 just sounds old. Haha. We threw Erin a bakery themed party this year. Wanted to throw her a party in a more controlled, less chaotic environment (last year's build-a-bear party was a bit hectic). There's a yummy cookie store near our home that let me throw the party there. I had the kids color paper hats and then they got to decorate cookies. We ended with some pizza and cake. Got all the kids sugar loaded..sorry parents! But everyone seemed to enjoy the party, especially Erin..success! Happy birthday Erin!
Erin at age 5:
Food: Anything dad makes (psh). She later looked at me and said.."oh and anything mom makes".
Movie: Sleeping Beauty and Dumbo.
Restaurant: Souplantation.
Color: Pink and Purple.
Store: Hobby Lobby.
Dessert: Ice cream.
Erin at age 5:
- She is shy, but loud.
- She loves anything pink, purple, princessy and girly.
- She's very moody.
- Loves to write, color, draw, paint.
- Rule follower.
- Very fearful.
Food: Anything dad makes (psh). She later looked at me and said.."oh and anything mom makes".
Movie: Sleeping Beauty and Dumbo.
Restaurant: Souplantation.
Color: Pink and Purple.
Store: Hobby Lobby.
Dessert: Ice cream.
July 20, 2018
Preschool
We have two preschoolers now! Erin only has a few months left of preschool, but for those few months, we have one drop-off/pickup! And its amazing! Ava is currently 2.5 years old. I would have preferred sending her a bit later, but we wanted to give her a little overlap with Erin so it would be an easier transition. Ava did great her first day. Apparently she just walked off and yelled "Bye Daddy!". I'm sure having her older sister there with her made it all the easier. Oh and Erin loves that her little sister is there with her too. I like to call her a helicopter sister (which is a positive thing in my opinion). She tells me she often checks in on Ava to see how she's doing. So cute right? I love it. It's been about a full month now and teachers say Ava is doing great. I can already tell she's learning tons and she loves that she has a lunch pail of her own to carry.
Potty Training
With Ava starting preschool, I wanted to get her potty trained as well. Everyone says the 3 day method works like a charm, and to some extent it does. It gets the bulk of the training done. But honestly, potty training takes a good 2 weeks. The first 3 days is where you lay the groundwork/foundation. I'm all about keeping them pants-less during these days. It does get quite messy and nerve wreaking, but totally manageable. I just kept her isolated to certain areas of the house (anyplace with no carpet) and I put plastic sheets for her to sit on when she wanted to sit on the couch. Day 1 had a lot of accidents, which was expected. Day 2 had less than a handful of accidents and by Day 3 she was down to 1-2 accidents. Oh and most of these accidents were poopoo accidents (not kool). After the 3 days, she was still learning about timing and when to tell us she had to go. This is the part that takes more than 3 days to train. The first week we'd have to have the potty right next to her when she had to go because she wasn't giving herself/us enough notice and often she had already peed by the time we reached the potty. By week 2 she was able to notify us with enough time to get to the potty. Then there's the whole being in another environment issue. They may have been going to the potty accident free at home, but there's only so much you can train in a controlled environment. Once you put them in a different setting, i.e. school, restaurant, etc., it will cause a bit confusion for them so you should definitely expect regression. Oh and not peeing during napping will take longer to train and same goes with poopoo. Fun stuff right??
-Be ridiculously overjoyed and affirming.
-Buy lots of cheap panties. You will go through a lot.
-Try to skip the toddler sized potty chair. Sometimes kids get so used to using the little potty chair that they get nervous/scared and aren't able to use the regular sized ones. It makes the transition a bit harder for when you're not at home and you don't have the toddler sized potty on hand. I recommend training with the toddler seat that goes on the adult potty.
t's been about 2 full weeks now. She has an accident here and there and her poopoos are still a work in process, but she's doing great. So many changes/transitions for little Ava. A big year for her! Also, random update, but Ava is finally eating meat! Hooray! I was worried about having to pack two different lunches (one with meat and one without) but now we can pack the girls
the same thing. She eats meat!
We have two preschoolers now! Erin only has a few months left of preschool, but for those few months, we have one drop-off/pickup! And its amazing! Ava is currently 2.5 years old. I would have preferred sending her a bit later, but we wanted to give her a little overlap with Erin so it would be an easier transition. Ava did great her first day. Apparently she just walked off and yelled "Bye Daddy!". I'm sure having her older sister there with her made it all the easier. Oh and Erin loves that her little sister is there with her too. I like to call her a helicopter sister (which is a positive thing in my opinion). She tells me she often checks in on Ava to see how she's doing. So cute right? I love it. It's been about a full month now and teachers say Ava is doing great. I can already tell she's learning tons and she loves that she has a lunch pail of her own to carry.
Potty Training
With Ava starting preschool, I wanted to get her potty trained as well. Everyone says the 3 day method works like a charm, and to some extent it does. It gets the bulk of the training done. But honestly, potty training takes a good 2 weeks. The first 3 days is where you lay the groundwork/foundation. I'm all about keeping them pants-less during these days. It does get quite messy and nerve wreaking, but totally manageable. I just kept her isolated to certain areas of the house (anyplace with no carpet) and I put plastic sheets for her to sit on when she wanted to sit on the couch. Day 1 had a lot of accidents, which was expected. Day 2 had less than a handful of accidents and by Day 3 she was down to 1-2 accidents. Oh and most of these accidents were poopoo accidents (not kool). After the 3 days, she was still learning about timing and when to tell us she had to go. This is the part that takes more than 3 days to train. The first week we'd have to have the potty right next to her when she had to go because she wasn't giving herself/us enough notice and often she had already peed by the time we reached the potty. By week 2 she was able to notify us with enough time to get to the potty. Then there's the whole being in another environment issue. They may have been going to the potty accident free at home, but there's only so much you can train in a controlled environment. Once you put them in a different setting, i.e. school, restaurant, etc., it will cause a bit confusion for them so you should definitely expect regression. Oh and not peeing during napping will take longer to train and same goes with poopoo. Fun stuff right??
A few tips:
-Treats can make a difference. Ava can be easily bribed (not sure if that's a good thing), but it worked in our favor during potty training. Jelly beans and pez did it for us.-Be ridiculously overjoyed and affirming.
-Buy lots of cheap panties. You will go through a lot.
-Try to skip the toddler sized potty chair. Sometimes kids get so used to using the little potty chair that they get nervous/scared and aren't able to use the regular sized ones. It makes the transition a bit harder for when you're not at home and you don't have the toddler sized potty on hand. I recommend training with the toddler seat that goes on the adult potty.
t's been about 2 full weeks now. She has an accident here and there and her poopoos are still a work in process, but she's doing great. So many changes/transitions for little Ava. A big year for her! Also, random update, but Ava is finally eating meat! Hooray! I was worried about having to pack two different lunches (one with meat and one without) but now we can pack the girls
the same thing. She eats meat!
June 21, 2018
We took a little road trip over to Arizona a few weeks ago. Drove to Grand Canyon and camped a few nights. Stopped by Antelope Canyon and then finished in Vegas for a couple of nights.
It's about a 7-8 hour drive to Grand Canyon. We took one stop, driving about 3-4 hours each time. There were no issues with the girls during the car ride (hooray!). I think the TV really helps. Dumbo was on repeat with a little Frozen and Moana here and there. Oh and the weather in Grand Canyon turned out great. I was concerned it would be too hot, but it was mid to high 80's during the day and it dropped down to 40's at night. We stayed at the Mather's Campground. Lots of elk walking around and tons of birds trying to steal your food. The girls had a blast playing with dirt and watching the elks. We did a couple of hikes and Erin was a rock star and finished an almost 2 mile hike on her own! Grand canyon is quite the sight. It's amazing how vast it is...pretty dang breathtaking. The girls were pretty easy during the camping portion. We had one rough night (Ava wanting to share a cot with me (tiny cot), it being cold at night, and Erin complaining about her knee), but in general the girls did well and it wasn't all too challenging. It's definitely getting easier traveling with them.
Before getting to Vegas, we stopped by Antelope Canyon to take the canyon tour. We took the lower Antelope Canyon tour. Girls were more interested in the sand than the actual canyon itself. The tour took a total of about an hour. You don't walk too much. A lot of the time was spent waiting for people to take pictures and move ahead. Antelope Canyon is significantly hotter than Grand Canyon, but since we were inside the canyon where it was nice and shaded, it wasn't too hot. The girls walked the entire time. They had fun climbing the ladders themselves. One last stop we took was at Horseshoe Bend. It's only a 3/4 mile hike to the view point, but it was the hike of death. It was over 100 degrees and no shade in sight. Hard to enjoy the view when there was no escape from the heat. We probably looked a little strange dragging the girls with us. Ken ended up carrying both of them to and from.
Vegas was the nice ending to our little road trip (no pictures, whoops). It was nice to take a proper shower/bath and just relax. We didn't have much planned so we just took it easy. We ate a lot of food and spent some time at the pool. A few highlights from Vegas:
The Oyster Bar - Palace Station Hotel: Ken went out to pick it up around 10:00 pm. Took him about 1.5 hours to get. He brought it back to the hotel for us to eat together. He got the combo pan roast and the clam chowder. So good!
Momofuku - Cosmopolitan Hotel- We just ordered a couple of the pork belly buns to go. Pork was nice and thick and I very much enjoyed.
It's about a 7-8 hour drive to Grand Canyon. We took one stop, driving about 3-4 hours each time. There were no issues with the girls during the car ride (hooray!). I think the TV really helps. Dumbo was on repeat with a little Frozen and Moana here and there. Oh and the weather in Grand Canyon turned out great. I was concerned it would be too hot, but it was mid to high 80's during the day and it dropped down to 40's at night. We stayed at the Mather's Campground. Lots of elk walking around and tons of birds trying to steal your food. The girls had a blast playing with dirt and watching the elks. We did a couple of hikes and Erin was a rock star and finished an almost 2 mile hike on her own! Grand canyon is quite the sight. It's amazing how vast it is...pretty dang breathtaking. The girls were pretty easy during the camping portion. We had one rough night (Ava wanting to share a cot with me (tiny cot), it being cold at night, and Erin complaining about her knee), but in general the girls did well and it wasn't all too challenging. It's definitely getting easier traveling with them.
Before getting to Vegas, we stopped by Antelope Canyon to take the canyon tour. We took the lower Antelope Canyon tour. Girls were more interested in the sand than the actual canyon itself. The tour took a total of about an hour. You don't walk too much. A lot of the time was spent waiting for people to take pictures and move ahead. Antelope Canyon is significantly hotter than Grand Canyon, but since we were inside the canyon where it was nice and shaded, it wasn't too hot. The girls walked the entire time. They had fun climbing the ladders themselves. One last stop we took was at Horseshoe Bend. It's only a 3/4 mile hike to the view point, but it was the hike of death. It was over 100 degrees and no shade in sight. Hard to enjoy the view when there was no escape from the heat. We probably looked a little strange dragging the girls with us. Ken ended up carrying both of them to and from.
Vegas was the nice ending to our little road trip (no pictures, whoops). It was nice to take a proper shower/bath and just relax. We didn't have much planned so we just took it easy. We ate a lot of food and spent some time at the pool. A few highlights from Vegas:
The Oyster Bar - Palace Station Hotel: Ken went out to pick it up around 10:00 pm. Took him about 1.5 hours to get. He brought it back to the hotel for us to eat together. He got the combo pan roast and the clam chowder. So good!
Momofuku - Cosmopolitan Hotel- We just ordered a couple of the pork belly buns to go. Pork was nice and thick and I very much enjoyed.
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