US trip arrival and week 1

Our trip to the US was the normal long trip but it ended a little crappy with Kherington puking on our luggage as we waited to be picked up.  Not so much fun.  It took a couple days to adjust then the kids were off having fun, enjoying huge popsicles, bubble baths and best of all grandma's sand pit.  That was definitely the highlight for them. They spent hours out there.

On top of the fun, we also had some good old American food.  One night I made pizza with the kiddos letting them each decorate their own. I love how easy it is and that everyone gets to make their own masterpiece.  Kherington was pretty funny to watch.

Saturday morning we went with grandpa to hike Poo Poo Point.  Kherington really wanted me to carry her so she ended up in Lani's Ergo carrier (I really liked it) on my back.  We made decent time and had some awesome view at the top, but about halfway up the kids started complaining that they didn't want to go...a little late for that.  At the top there were quite a few huge dogs out hiking that scared the kids a little.  I was glad we got such clear views.  I haven't hiked this is the summer time in years.  We were even able to see Mt. Rainier in the background.  It was definitely a great workout hauling extra weight up the mountain and my hips were quite sore at the end.

End of the School Year

Kherington had her last day of school two weeks early this year because we were heading to the US. She came out with all her artwork for the year and had fruit snacks on the walk home.  She says her favorite part of school is playing outside. She came home each day with shoes full of sand.  School must have tired her out because she was out cold that afternoon.

Squeezing in some fun

Ryan has been busy at work so we decided the weekend before heading to the states we'd take the kids to Disneyland again. We went the night before, did a couple rides then enjoyed the evening fireworks show. Then in the morning we went back. We were the first ones in the park which was pretty cool BUT we headed straight to Dumbo which ended up being under construction. The kids had a blast and slept nearly the entire way home. I guess that's what happens when they only sleep 6 hours at night and are running around in the sun.

Mulberry Bush

We've all heard the song "Round and round the mulberry bush, The monkey chased the weasel, The monkey thought 'twas all in fun, Pop! goes the weasel."  But do you actually know what a mulberry is?  I didn't until yesterday when one of my sweet friends brought me a bag (someone else had given her some they brought back from a recent trip).  Here they are:

When she pulled them out, my first thought was the last time I tried something from a song it ruined the song because they were nasty.  That would be "Chestnut roasting on an open fire..." Hot roasted chestnuts are nasty.  Anyways, I gave the mulberries a try and they are sweet like a raisin and are pretty addicting.  If you have a chance, give them a try.

FHE

Our little munchkins LOVE Family Home Evening (FHE).  Every night Kherington gets started talking about who is in charge of lesson, song, activity and treat and I have to explain to her that we only do it on Monday nights.  We do try to read the scripture each night though so she thinks that's an okay replacement :).  She is most excited that when we get to the end we get to go to the pizza place that Dana and Guillaume took her to when they came to visit.

We've now tried to go downtown to get these delicious looking chocolate filled waffles three times.  The first time I couldn't find the place.  The second time we took the bus as a family and found it...but they had closed 20 minutes earlier.  Then we tried again for FHE the other night, but two buses were not running so we wouldn't have got downtown before it closed.  Some day we will get to try them, but for now, Kherington has a list of places we can go get treats (frites, ice cream, kebaps) if we go and the waffle place is closed again.  They went for frites the first time :).

Current Workout Routine

My mornings have been a little unbalanced since getting back from the cruise.  Ryan has been going into work extra early (5am) so I've been taking Kherington to school.  That combined with me not waking up at 6 or 6:30 to workout means that I don't start the workout until 8:45 or 9 when I get back from taking Kherington (stopping and dropping her off mid-workout is not cool when you are drenched in sweat).

Anyways, so after I drop her off, I get changed and put on the workout DVD.  Since I can't go running unless I want to push Kevin (I now just try to get a 5 mile run in on Saturdays), I've gone back to doing the Insanity DVD's because they give you a good cardio workout.   For the first couple days Kevin was content with just watching the Wee Sing Train moving...then he decided he didn't like that so I started breaking out the train tracks.  Some days the train tracks takes up the bulk of my workout space so I end up stuck in a corner with Kevin saying, "watch out mommy" or "move" while I'm exhausted and dripping in sweat just trying to get through the DVD.  After Insanity, every other day I do a weights workout which Kevin joins in using the purple half kilo weights.  Kevin also takes breaks from playing and will come jump around (Insanity has a LOT of jumping) with me.

After the workout is done, I have my granola/yogurt/whey powder bowl and he has granola and milk.  Most days he likes to eat his while standing on the step stool at the table.  He's such a cute kid.  After breakfast, I take a speed shower and then run grab Kherington. That's pretty much my morning. Sometimes I feel like I've wasted it all and I need to start getting myself out of bed earlier so I can be more productive while Kherington is at school, but my body always feels good after a workout so that makes up for it :). We'll see if I get back on a normal schedule when Ryan starts taking Kherington to school again.

Kids Update

 We've been working with Kherington to write her name and not only does she enjoy it, but she's getting pretty good at it.  She is also big into role playing with her favorite being 'playing teacher' or 'playing mom'. She is a great big sister and seems to love going to school (so long as her friend Daniella is there).

Kevin either drives me crazy or makes me laugh depending on how the day is going.  His newest thing is opening the front door whenever I'm not looking and have forgot to lock it.  Like this morning when I was in the shower.  Not cool.  He like to empty the laundry basket and use it as a step stool when I put the real step stools away.  He helps himself to a midnight snack.  After everyone is in bed we've found that he sneaks out and gets some waffles out of the snack drawer.  That's our little Belgian boy for you.

They love playing together...or fighting with each other...they do both.  They watch Mickey Mouse on the iTouch while dressed up in pretty skirts, scrounge through the sticker box to fill pages of paper, fighting over the purple workout weights, run around outside, play make believe and more.  We had one of Kherington's friends over and I think they equally enjoyed it (Kevin was napping while the girls painted).