Sunny California

We stayed nine days in Yorba Linda, CA with the girls' Leila and Pho-pho. The weather was absolutely wonderful. After the heat and humidity in Little Rock, it was so nice to spend time outside with the girls.

 

The girls went swimming in their first real pool.  These car floats are so great!  They get to kick their little legs around in the water and the canopies keep them mostly out of the sun.  The pool has a shelf area that is only around a foot deep so we were able to walk with them there.  They got to sit there and splash and touch the tile sea turtle embedded in the floor of the pool's shelf.  The girls love water!

Another fun thing to do outside at Leila and Pho-pho's was swinging.  They set these swings up in a covered gazebo area behind the pool and the girl had so much fun in them. We took them out there at least twice a day.  And they always had a big smile on their face.

 

One of the days Leila, aunt Lani, the girls and I went to the zoo.  I had never been to Santa Ana Zoo.  It is a small, inexpensive zoo with limited animals and is designed more for children.  It was perfect for the girls.  The zoo is not too large so we were able to see everything before the girls got too cranky.  Most of paths had lots of trees that provided shade so it was nice and cool.  The girls had a good time watching all the different animals but got scared by a sheep in the farmyard area.  We were up close to a sheep in the barn and it suddenly started bleating, very loudly.  Both girls were screaming and we had to take them out of the stroller and hold them to calm them down.  We felt badly of course but we were also cracking up.  Poor girls, afraid of a sheep.

We spent the following weekend at my sisters in Temecula.  Oma, aunt Emily, cousin Holden, the girls and I headed down to San Diego one of the days to go to the beach and meet up with friends of mine.  My friends brought their kids too and it would have been nice if they were all at a more social age so they could play together, but maybe next year. 

 

I was afraid the girls would be afraid of the water rushing at them but they loved it.  They wanted to go deeper and deeper in the surf and didn't mind the kelp strands getting caught on their legs.  They had so much fun.  I wish we lived closer to a beach.

 

They played in the sand a little.  Both girls sampled it, which I wasn't thrilled about, but that's what babies do. 

This was the scene at breakfast in the mornings. So glad I only had twins and not triplets.

Oma and her babies

For the last week of the trip we drove out to Morongo Valley, to the house I grew up in.  The girls had the run of the main rooms.  We borrowed cousin Holden's walkers and they were racing around the tile floors.  Unfortunatly by that point, the weather had gotten hot and little humid and being in the desert made it worse.  So we mostly stayed inside.

 

In the evening if it was cool enough we took the girls outside on the patio.  We mainly relaxed at home the whole week, playing in the kiddie pool once a day when it was hot and the girls need a distraction.  We had planned to go to the Children's Discovery Museum of the Desert in Rancho Mirage one day when my sister and Holden were out visiting but they don't allow strollers.  And when I explained that I have twins that don't really walk yet and can't do it without a stroller, the women basically said sorry, you're out of luck.  I'm still a bit miffed about that.  There are already a number of activities I can't do with the girls when I'm alone anyway, so it pisses me off that more activities are restricted because of stupid rules.

 

Anyway, at home a couple of friends were able to stop by who I hadn't seen in years.  It was nice to catch up.  The weekend before we returned to Arkansas, Leila and Pho-pho came out to the desert to spend one more day with the girls.  It was wonderful because by that point after spending a week in the house with the girls, Oma and I needed a break.

We had a great trip.  I wish my husband had been able to come with us.  At least, in January we will return to California for a week but with the whole family this time.

Birthday Party

First things first, before I get to the trip, I need to share some photos of the birthday party.  We had it a month after their birthday because that was when family from California came.  My husband's family, my mother, my sister and her son, who is only 8 months older than the girls, all flew in a week before we left for California. 

I learned never to invite house guests right before big trip.  I was exhausted from trying to get the house ready anytime the girls were busy playing or sleeping.  But it turned out well.  I was so busy during the party that I did not take a single picture.  So I am relying on pictures my father-in-law took.

"Under the Sea" was the theme using white, coral and turquoise for theme colors.  The girls wore onesies that I had added a ruffled bum and ruffled sleeves to.  D's had coral ruffles and a turquoise felt applique of a sea horse.  T's had turquoise ruffles and a coral starfish that you can see most of below.  Their Leila brought coordinating bows with seahorses and starfish.

I found great paper decorations of sea life at the dollar store.  I put them on the walls of the play room with green streamers that I taped up to look like kelp.  I did that little by little over the months leading up to the party while they girls played.  The morning of the party I threaded dark blue, light blue and  white balloons on fishing line and hung them across the playroom like ocean waves so we were really under the sea. 

I knitted five really cool looking jellyfish in the themes colors.  Beside being different color combinations, they were also very different because I wasn't always paying attention to what I was doing while knitting them.  One turned out really small because I didn't want to go back and correct a mistake I had made early on in the pattern.  My mistakes turned out well though; I like that they are so different and individual.
  

In the dining room I hung coral and white tissue poofs of different sizes from the light and in the corners.  I made a couple stuffed tropical fish and a star fish out of scrap material to hang around the coral "reef" of the poofs.

My sister-in-law cut great looking sea animals out of card stock to decorate the walls and even hang from some of the poofs.  Some of them were so detailed and looked great!

On the wall I hung two coral ribbons with picture from every month of the girls' lives from birth until their actual birthday.  Each photo was labeled with a starfish or seahorse that had how many months old they were.  I also printed out a sign with their name, birth date and time, how much the weigh and their length.  It is neat to see how they grew and changed during the course of their first year.

 I kept the decorations minimal in the hallway and living room because most of the action was happening in the other rooms.  Blue poofs with hanging sea life (don't you just love the octopus) and few bunches of balloons kept it festive but easy. 

 I made a great cake in the shape of a fish with a store bought mix for the head and tail and home-made low sugar sweet potato and banana muffins for the body.  Unfortunately, I don't think anyone got a picture of it.  The girls enjoyed it though.

 Here is T getting messy.  Their aunt brought them the matching birthday girl bibs that are now stained with icing.

D ate her whole muffin!  Then H came over to hang out with his little cousins.

The birthday party was a success and I couldn't have done it without my family helping get the house clean and decorated.  Thank you!

Back from California

The girls and I, with my mother's help, arrived safely home two days ago.  We flew out early from Palm Springs airport and had a very short layover in Denver.  The flight went reasonably well.  The people around us were understanding, friendly and helpful which really makes travelling with the girls much easier.  T napped for a bit on both flights giving Mom some time to read.  Except for the 15 minutes before landing in Denver when she screamed and writhed in pain from the change in pressure, D stayed entertained and happy. 

They have changed so much in the three weeks since we left Arkansas that the flight was a different experience this time.  Instead of grabbing, shaking and hitting the tray table and  irritating the man seated in front of us like she did before, D was more interested in how it worked.  She carefully pulled it down and lifted it back up, over and over and over again.   She also spent a long time playing with the cups I had gotten water in on the flight, stacking them together and pulling them apart again. 

We brought snacks for them, including the squeezable fruit purees, yogurt and applesauce.  Although exempt from the no liquids 3 oz and larger carry on flight rule, they still needed to be checked.  We had to open each of them a tiny bit so the TSA official could test them.  It was very annoying and took awhile to get through security.  Now I know to pack something else or at least fewer of anything over 3 oz. 

I will put up more posts about our trip over the next few days with pictures.