Recycle Bin Diving

Tuesday night I got sick in the middle of the night and felt horrible Wednesday. I mustered up enough energy to take out our recycle bins which I then scavenged back through to save a Jack in the Box coupon (buy one get one free Breakfast Pita Pocket- you should try it, it is really good!)
Will was with me and jumped to the idea. So he walked down the block and started scavenging through the neighbor's recycle bins.
Out of a lack of energy to not embarrass myself and because Will was really enjoying doing so, we sat in front of a neighbors house, on her brick steps, me in my pajamas, and read through a women's bathing suit/sportswear catalog. He picked out all the pictures that had water in them and I talked to him about surfboards and wind sailing.


No picture of this ;)

Ducks at Lake Murray

Today we went down to La Mesa to visit with my friend Jessica and her son Luke. Luke is a few months younger than Will but they are about the same size. It was fun to watch them together.

Feeding the ducks was an experience - as Will desperately wanted to get into the water and Luke ate most of his pieces of the stale bread :)

Our Guest: Guinea Pig

Westley's preschool class has a pet guinea pig named Cupid.

Cupid got to spend a few days with us since it is Spring Break.

I was surprised how into Cupid Westley (and Will) was.

All afternoon all he wanted to do was watch, feed, and hold Cupid.

He was so cute explaining to Will all the rules about Cupid - like you can't stick your fingers in her cage because she might think they are carrots and bit them.

Shoe Store

This morning Kevin and I dragged the boys to the shoe store for us as we really needed new shoes. That trip was not fun at all for either of them, but I thought they might have more fun creating their own shoe store.
Using the shoe boxes we got today plus some others I saved up I set them up on their toy bin rack. Then we filled them with different pairs of everyones shoes.

Will was not too end to it (he is a little young, and he isn't feeling well)
However Westley enjoyed measuring our feet, picking out a pair of shoes that would fit each person and then ringing them up on his cash register, swiping the credit cards, and putting the shoes and receipt in the bag and saying "have a nice day!"

Walk to the Library

Saturday morning we parked near the beach and walked to the downtown Oceanside Library. Westley picked out about 5 books. One was one he has directly associated with the library - as simple board book story he checked out when Will was a newborn called "What Shall We Do With The Boo-Hoo Baby"
Cute story for young children who are getting a new baby.




Westley had a bit of a fever when we did this long walk. By the time we got home he was truly sick and exhausted (we felt pretty bad- didn't know he was that sick). The rest of the day was pretty much spent laying around. But at least we had some new books to rest with.

Will helping Juice Lemons

Westley has juiced lemons before, but the was Will's first time getting to participate.
I just wanted to post this to share how cute it was. Will's job was to hand Westley one lemon half at a time. He took his job very seriously and Westley was very patient with him.
I love seeing my boys work together!

Writing Checks

I gave Westley some old checks from a bank account we no longer have open.
He was eager to write checks.
I showed him where he put the name of the person who you want to give your money to, where you put the amount of money, and where he had to sign his name.
Grandma Kathy, Grandma Martha, and Aunt Lisa- Westley wrote you each $40 checks! :)

I showed him how there is the carbon copy. I used to love paper like that when I was a kid, he didn't seem to interested... maybe still a bit too young.

After Dinner Walk

Tonight we had a little time after dinner, and the boys still had some energy. I thought maybe it would help them go to sleep faster if we took a little walk before bath time. Plus it was a nice evening and we could all use some peaceful family time.
So the four of us set out on foot around the block.
This was Will's first time walking on a walk - he did a good job keeping up and seemed to enjoy it. He used lots of language pointing out all the things we were seeing.

Riding Birds of Paradise

We were outside examining some flowers Aunt Cheryl had left for us. In the bucket were a few Bird of Paradise Flowers with really long stems. I had never realized what strong thick stems they had.
It reminded me of a stick horse.
I took one and rode it like a stick horse while galloping around the backyard. I immediately had two followers. We tweeted and chased each other around, taking periodic rests in our "nests". It was fun and super cute.

Will fell with his Bird of Paradise and it tore off its top "feathers." He took it to Grandma Kathy to fix it. She quietly stated they needed a doctor to fix it. Will immediately disappeared to inside the house, returning a second later with his doctor's kit in hand!

Thanks Aunt Cheryl for the flowers!!

Cutting Coupons

I've been a coupon cutter since my sophomore year of college. I'm happy to see that I am passing on the lifestyle :)
Tonight Westley helped me cut coupons from last Sunday's papers. He helped me a few months ago, but by helping that just meant cutting up all the paper I wasn't using into random shreds.
Today he truly helped, cutting on the lines, cutting out each coupon in one useable piece.

I was surprised - I didn't know he could now cut that well!
And I am excited that now I have a little helper :)

Tree Maze

Today we went to the big Evergreen Nursery.
I'm not sure if you are really supposed to "play" there, but we did :)
They have a bunch of potted trees in multiple rows. There were just tall enough to be like a corn maze for the boys.
They had a great time weaving through the maze of trees. I was a little nervous about losing Will, but we all made it out in the end!

Planting Tomatoes

Today Westley went with Dad to buy tomato plants. Then they came back and both boys had the greatest time filling the pot with soil. Adding it in one small scoop at a time kept the boys busy for a long time!

Both seem to love being out in the yard gardening!

Shower Park

We took Westley and Will to the playground on the sand of the Oceanside Harbor.
I kind of purposefully kept them away from the actual ocean water since it wasn't that warm, Dad and I weren't in our bathing suits, and because we will be spending a lot of time on the beach camping in the upcoming weeks/months.
Westley really wanted wet sand and was filling up his bucket in the drinking fountain. Then Dad helped both boys discover the outside shower - which became the obsession of the trip. They spent an hour and would have spent more filling up buckets of water and carrying it back to their play area in the sand.

So Westley named it "Shower Park," asking the next day if we could go back.

Looking back, they didn't go on the actual play structure at all - not even down the slide once!

Wild Animal Park

This morning we went to the Wild Animal Park. I have now confirmed that neither of my boys are that interested in or excited by the animals (at least not yet) but we had a good time anyway. We rode the new(er) tram ride to see the acreage of animals, played in the kids' play area, and went in the petting zoo.
It was a beautiful day there.

On the way home Westley said, "I'm going to take a little rest" and then fell asleep :)

Ah, Ah, Achoo! Game

Westley spent the night at Grandma Kathy's house so it was just Will and I at home. I was amazed my how much he talked! He was repeating all kinds of words back to me and learned 3 new signs!
We enjoyed singing, dancing and reading together, and playing this little game Westley used to do back in WeeStart days.

Will or I would take a toy and place it on our head, then pretend to sneeze, ah... ah.. ahh... choo! and the item falls off our head.
He finds this hilarious.
Sometimes, its the simple silly things that they like the best :)

Visit from a Leprechaun!

This morning the boys woke up to discover a Leprechaun had been in our house!
The leprechaun left little footprints, coming in the doggy door, leading to the table where we left the rainbow house for him.

He ate the cookie we left for him. Westley finished off the crumbs he left behind.

When Westley went  to use the potty this morning, he saw the Leprechaun had gone potty too! There were little green marshmallow-like poops in his potty, and green pee in the big potty.

We had a very friendly, Leprechaun visit our house- he left behind St. Patrick's Day green shirts for Westley and Will AND some green coins!

Shamrock Cookies & Leprechaun House

Today we prepared ourselves for a possible visit from a Leprechaun. We baked him some shamrock cookies and built a little rainbow house for him.

Hullabaloo Concert

Today we went to a local children's singer, Hullabaloo's little concert at the Encinitas community center. Will loves music, and Westley enjoys it too so I thought they might like this. We have one of the CD's in our car. The event was full of children under 5 which was great, but I was one of the few parents who truly was bringing my children to enjoy time with them and enjoy the concert itself. Most of the moms were more interested in talking to each other and paying as little attention to their children as possible which was annoyingly distracting.
The singer did a good job though. Maybe we will try to see him again at a different location.

Green Hemet

Sunday we went up to spend the afternoon in Hemet. This is a beautiful time of year there to be outside - nice temperature, no bugs, and everything is so green!

Westley was excited to mow the lawn with Grandpa with the ride on lawn mower.

Kevin and I took Will exploring out towards the back of the 5 acres.

Here's Dad teaching Will about this giant ant hill! I too was surprised that the ants have kept all those tall weeds from growing in this huge circle

Price Tagging

Today we had a garage sale at our house. That is an adventure in itself - for everyone, but one the little guys enjoy. So many interesting things and people to see!

I sat with both boys and a package of price stickers. Westley truly was helping me put them on items.
Will was just engrossed by the process of putting on stickers.
I think he put about ten different price stickers on one item.