The "I hate you Mom" Blog Post

I am sure when Nick is older and I show him this blog, he will forever hate me for this post. As will Emma. But the pictures are just too cute.

It was pretty hot down at our friend's house where the egg hunt took place. So after the hunt & lunch was finished, we headed over to Manhattan Beach and went out to the pier. Soooo much cooler and the kids had a great time running up and down the pier. Seriously. I think Nick ran a half-marathon he ran back & forth so much.

Obviously all that hunting and running makes for very sweaty, dirty munchkins. Bath time!!


I LOVE this picture. He looks like he's ready for a magazine shoot...


"What, you mean there is FILM in that camera???"


They had a great time squirting each other with the bath toys...


The contrast between their hair & skin color cracks me up - you couldn't get any more different!


Sorry Nick. Sorry Emma. At least there wasn't any full-frontal...

It's the HUNT!!! And a birthday too :)

Saturday, April 18th was Nick's 2nd birthday! We had a very busy weekend planned with birthday and non-birthday oriented events. Grandma Mary & Grandpa Dean sent a very Nick-appropriate present of, you guessed it, balls!! Here he is digging them out of the box.


Our friends Hope & Joel and their daughter Emma (who is also Kevin's god-daughter) came down from SF for the weekend. They bought Nick a great gift - a Thomas & Friends Duplo train track! It's great as it goes with the other gazillion Duplo blocks that we already have, so Nick will be able to build ginormous creations with his blocks!


Our friends Hillary & Laurent have an annual Easter Egg Hunt in their HUGE backyard each year. Due to scheduling, they had the Hunt on the Saturday after Easter rather than before. So that's where we headed on Saturday. Both Nick and Emma had a great time searching for eggs.

Here is the kid crew just before the hunt with their 'hand-made' egg baskets.


Here is Nick picking up his finds. We were actually pretty surprised how fast he caught on to the whole process. And the older kids were great too. A few of them walked in front of Nick or Emma and "dropped" some eggs for the two of them to find. So nice!!


Nick was dedicated to getting all the ones he could find, under slides, branches...


Here he is checking out his find...


Emma was adorable in her little Easter dress. She's three & a half and had a lot fun tracking down eggs too...


Her reaction when she saw how many eggs she had...


She had quite a haul!!!


All the kids with their loot and some 'bunny ears' too.


It was great - we all had a wonderful time. The only bad thing (and not really bad, just bad for our waistlines) - Nick doesn't really eat candy. He's tried it once or twice, but just doesn't like it yet (I'm sure this won't last...) So this means that all the candy in the eggs got eaten by Mommy & Daddy. The sacrifices we have to make...

It was a Shark-y, Giant-y weekend!

One would think that once we moved to So Cal, our sporting event attendance would drop off a bit. I mean, who wants to go to Dodger Stadium? Or to see the Angels of Anheim of California of Orange County - or whatever they're called now?? But, you'd be wrong, my friend! This past weekend was chock full o' Bay Area sporting events!

Saturday the D-Clan headed over to Staples Center with our friends Hillary & Laurent to see the Sharks take on the LA Kings. It was the last game of the season before the Sharks head into the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Nick was a trooper and stayed awake through the first period. But, as the game started AFTER his nap time, he quickly crashed during a ride in the stroller at the first intermission.


He woke up about half-way through the third period and was able to catch the end of the game. Sadly, the Sharks didn't win, but it was fun nonetheless.


On Sunday, which also happened to be Easter (that will be another post), we headed all the way down to San Diego with our friends, The Prendergasts, to see the Giants take on the SD Padres. Here are Riley, Nick and Rowan chillin' at our tail-gate party. Note that Nick is representin' the SF Giants...


We sat in the bleachers, which, I must say, were great. They have wide aisles with lots of room and grass between each row. So kids & adults alike can spread out and not worry about climbing over people to get in & out. And, since it's Petco Park, you can also bring your dog into the "park" area. The park area is up behind the bleachers and they have a playground, a big grassy area (I was calling it the grassy knoll...) and video screens to watch the game. Only $5 for that section!! Here are the kids munching on some strawberries that we brought in.


Another great part about the seats is that in front of the bleachers at field level, they have a big sand pit where the kids can play. Petco Park staff throw out a bunch of shovels, buckets, etc. for the kids to play with. Nick & the girls spent a lot of time down there playing in the sand.


Rowan giving some advice to Nick on his sand castle construction...


Here is the view from the sand pit of the field.


More digging...


The "Moms" - Jocelyn & Christy


Here you can see the big scoreboard behind us as we're watching over the kids, unfortunately you can't see it from the bleachers (but what do you expect for $9 per ticket?)


So, on our way home, I had to get a picture of the nuclear power plant at San Onofre. Who in the world OK'd the design to make these towers look like giant boobs? Even better - at night, they each have bright red beacons that flash on and off. Nice.


I had slathered Nick up pretty well with sunblock, so that made for some fun hairstyling possibilities.


We put Rowan & Riley in the middle seat with Nick, so Christy & I sat in the back. From this picture, one might wonder who the kids really are...


Overall a very good, 'sporty' weekend. Even though both the Bay Area teams lost. Sigh.