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??

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!

Through Erin's Eyes

A little video of our road trip through Erin's eyes!

Grand Canyon and etc.

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.

Mother's Day 2018 (Mommy and Me Tea Time)

Had Mommy and Me tea time at the cutest little cafe in Orange County. Got the girls dressed up and dragged Ken along for the ride. Their pre-fixe menu was quite tasty.  They have a handful of juice alternatives for kids which Erin loved and Ava enjoyed all the petite desserts. Oh and tons of spots to take very instagrammable pictures (Too bad the girls were so not cooperative when it came to taking a picture with me).

Location: Morning Lavender Cafe: https://www.morninglavendercafe.com/

One year anniversary (Sweet +Modest Events)

Some of you may know, but I started a little event planning/styling business last year. Sweet + Modest Events to be exact. I marked April 2, 2017 as my launch date, so I have officially made it through a year. Hooray! I honestly feel like it's a miracle that people have actually reached out to me because there are SO many talented people in this industry. Definitely had some low points..but quite a few high points too. Here's a little glimpse of what the year looked like for S+M:

Some things I've learned:

1. Stay true to yourself. Like I mentioned before, there are tons of talented people in this industry. So of course with that comes a lot of comparing. I started S+M with the intention of doing things a specific way, which was, like the name of my business, in a very modest way. My motto in life has always been that simple and sweet can go a long way. I definitely want to challenge myself, but I also want to stay true to my motto. There will always be cooler things and more beautiful set-ups, but I don't want that to be my motivation.
2. Plan ahead/prioritize. With two little ones, there had to be a lot of planning ahead. You never know what surprises will come up (i.e, sickness) which might suddenly monopolize all your time.
3. It's ok to say no. I think with the pressure of starting a new business, you want everything and anything. But it's definitely ok to say no. The added pressure and stress isn't worth it.
4. Document everything. Take pictures of everything you work on. It's amazing how much change/progress you can see as the months go by. I mainly documented all the flower arrangements I made. See photo below (top was from September last year and bottom was from March this year). There is such a difference in depths/shape and usage of greenery. Still got tons to improve/learn and grow!

As for the future, I haven't actually thought that far. I don't think I really thought about anything except the now when I first started this. So maybe I should sit down and really think about where I see myself in a few years. The year was definitely enjoyable but it was also very challenging. I still have two young kids and a full-time job, so it did often cause extra stress and this stuff can seriously take up a lot of your time. Maybe it'll get easier as the kids get older or maybe it'll get easier with time and I'll have mastered the art of juggling things. We'll just have to see. But a big shout out to those who have hired me, encouraged me, helped me set-up, watched my kids...You all rock, thank you!