MANIC MONDAY

Wow, I was just visiting a couple blogs, and apparently monday's are manic monday full of questions and silly things to do. So, here is the task for today. Find pics on the internet to best describe the following questions. HERE IT GOES...

1. Age on your next birthday.


2. A place you'd like to travel.


3. Favorite place to be.


4. Favorite thing to do.


5. Favorite food/candy.


6. Favorite animal.


7. Favorite color.


8. Town which you were born.


9. Town where you live. (NICE TRY PEOPLE. HERE IS A PLACE I HAVE LIVED! No wonder there were so many ghost stories!)


10. Name of past pet.


11. Name of current relationship.


12. Nickname.


13. Middle name.


14. Bad habit.


15. First job.


16. Grandmothers name.
see number 13. Can't find it anywhere.

17. Favorite song.

A Loooooong Day in the City

If you guessed (or even cared for more than a second or more) that we went to see Dan Zanes, YOU ARE RIGHT! You win absolutely nothing except knowing you are a smart cookie. Ahhhhh haaaaaa! And If you look at Dan the Duck in the photo in the last entry, you'll notice his crazzzzy hair like Dan Zanes. The concert was a lot of fun from what I hear. Kevin and I were sitting outside of the doors listening to the entire concert because he was terrified entering the theater. I am not sure what is making him so nervous and scared lately. Juliana and Daddy had a great time! Juliana danced in the front next to the stage. When I peeked in, the kids (and some adults) were dancing like a mini mosh pit. It was hilarious! At the end of the concert, Dan Zanes and his band came out to greet EVERY child and take pictures, sign autographs, and put a smile on their faces. Such a gracious and wonderful band! The first picture is Dan Zanes signing Kevin's "Nueva York" shirt, and the second is just Dan Zanes and Juliana posing together after a big hug from Juliana.

I headed back into the city for a girls night out. We began at a cute posh place where we had our first drinks, and dinner. Headed out the door and walked to another place for a snack and more drinks. Then headed on the train to another restaurant for more drinks and dessert. Who can top that?! As always, I am paying the price for a fun night this morning, but it is worth every second of it. Thanks girls for a great night out! Just wait until April 12!!!!

Can You Guess?

Here is a hint to our family activity this morning. This is our friend "Dan the Duck". If you know the story behind Dan the Duck, you'll know right away where we are going. If not, I'll fill you in later.

Spring Break-Day 5

A quiet day today. We met our favorite family at the park this morning for a couple hours. Always a great time! We are home now, the kids are resting for the first time this week, and I am finally cleaning up the house. I've done quite a few pointless things around the house too. For some reason I have changed pictures around, and changed pictures in frames. Juliana and I have been organizing toys too. Pointless things that need to get done.

Tomorrow will be a BUSY and FUUUUUUNNNNN day! We have a family event in the morning, and I have a girls night out in the evening. Can't wait!

I can not sign off without acknowledging what would have been my cousin Danny's 45th birthday. He earned his angel wings on his mother's (my aunt) birthday, April 28, 1982 in a motorcycle accident at 19 years old. He was what every person would want for their "big and cool cousin". He took me and my brother to Disneyland, we rode bikes together, and he had the most beautiful blue Camero ever! I am taking Juliana and Kevin to have dinner with Nana Marie (Aunt Marie) tonight. She was ecstatic that we remembered Danny's birthday and wanted to be with her. I am so happy that SHE will be happy tonight. Hopefully the kids will take her mind off of the sadness and force her to laugh tonight. That's what family is for!!!

Spring Break- Day 4

This morning I loaded up the dogs medications, vitamins, syringes, ear drops, fridge meds, and bottled meds, leash, leftover food, diaper bag, sippy cup, camera....THEN both kids, and finally Shadow. We headed to Mom's house for the day. She is feeling wonderful, well, as wonderful as possible. We had a quick lunch at Panera, then headed to the mall for the kids to ride on the carousel. Kevin freaked out, so I took Juliana. Next to the carousel is the local NBC station that was doing their noon broadcast. Yes, we made it on TV today. We had about 25 seconds of fame this afternoon. After walking around the mall for a bit, we shared Coldstone ice cream, headed out to Petsmart for dog food, then we headed home.


Here is a funny story... While at a red light, Juliana notices a 7-Up truck. The 7-Up slogan is "It's An Up Thing". Well, she was reading the slogan, but unfortunately someone decided to write the word "fuc*ed" in spray paint in the slogan. Juliana starts reading, "It's An Fuc*ed Up Thing". Then proceeded to want to know what the word that began with "F" meant. I told her it was a French word hoping she would just say, "oh ok" and forget about it. Nope, she said, "OHHHH, so Alissa knows it! I'll ask her about it on monday." I just stayed quiet and hoping that she will forget about it by monday, since she seemed very confused anyway. Martine, I will apologize now! SORRY!

Spring Break-Day 3

Today was a day at the zoo. I know, I know, our house resembles a zoo, but this time, we were visiting lions, tigers, and bears, OH MY! We were there with Alissa and Victor, and their mommy too, of course. The kids were angels the entire time. All of you mommies and daddies can appreciate that when the kids are angels, the day is perfect. It did not matter that we missed the elephant feedings, or that the warthog was missing, it only mattered that the kids were so sweet all day. We ended the day with kiddie rides. Juliana went on her first roller coaster, Kevin went on a moving motorcycle, and there were a few others too. Such a fun day being monkeys....

Spring Break- Day 2

By popular demand, which I am not sure I understand, I am posting each day happenings for spring break. I'll post as much as I can I suppose. Here are the kids at the park taken early this morning. We were going to stay long enough for lunch, but Kevin has had yucky diapers for a few days, so keeping him close to home is a much better idea. Monterey was a mess, LITERALLY, yesterday. It is a good thing the aquarium had plenty of clean changing areas for him. He's been acting fine, and no other symptoms of Celiac, so I am just hoping it is just a fluke. Right now, I am blaming it on being a 2 year old, and nothing else.


We are going to the zoo tomorrow with our favorite family tomorrow. I just told Juliana on the way home from the park, and she nearly jumped out of her car seat. Whoooo hooooo, can't wait!!!!

FYI- Mom is doing fine. As a matter of fact, she wants to take the kids to Fairy Tale Town on thursday when we visit. I told her that we were not going to visit if she was going to do that. She has to take it easy. We all know she can't sit still, so who knows.

Monterey Madness

Before I begin about today, I'll begin this post with Easter dinner. Last night Jason had the idea to go into San Francisco to The Rainforest Cafe. I thought that would be a wonderful idea, so we went into the city, found the restaurant, waited about 30 minutes, and walked into HELL! Well, not really, but Kevin thought so. He screamed like he was being tortured as soon as we got to the hostess stand. If you've ever been to the Rainforest Cafe, you'll also remember that they not only have the lifelike animals and trees, but they also simulate a big thunderstorm with lightening and the works. Kevin was absolutely terrified, so we asked to move tables near a fish tank. They were nice and let us move. Did it help???? Noooooo. Wishful thinking. He continued to scream, so Jason took him out, I paid for our drinks, and we headed to Pier 39 for dinner. That was a success, as always!

Today is the first day of spring break from school. I woke up this morning wondering what I could do with the kids to keep them busy and to have a memorable spring break. I contemplated Disneyland for two days (yes, I know I am crazy), Tahoe, or just going to the park everyday. Then the thought of going to Monterey came into my mind. So, we headed off to Monterey and to the famous Monterey Bay Aquarium. Our first stop was Bubba Gump Shrimp Co since that is Juliana's favorite place to eat. YUMMM! We had a great table and had the opportunity to eat lunch while watching sea otters down below. Quite a wonderful Monterey experience.

Then we got to the aquarium. Thank God I brought the stroller. The place was mobbed with tourists and the media too. Apparently a tour bus slammed into the front of the aquarium recently, so NBC was interviewing people about their reactions. I could only laugh and think "what if that was Dad driving the bus". Yikes, scary!

Once again, Kevin was terrified through most of the aquarium. Luckily there are a few areas that are only for little tykes, and Kevin loved to play in the water, and jump around. They even had an area with a slide, costumes, and much more. The kids also watched the Bat Rays, played with sea weed, starfish, and all of the interesting things that you'd find in the ocean water. I probably didn't get $50 worth of learning about marine life, but we got about $500 worth of laughs and memories.





This is just the first day of spring break, who knows what is next.
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AND A MESSAGE TO MRS. BRAUN... just in case you take time out of your fabulous Hawaiian vacation to read this. Juliana is missing you, and wanted you to see a message from her. HERE IT IS...

HOPPING BY

It's still early Easter morning, here are our Easter wishes from our house to yours. HAPPY HOPPY EASTER!


And as I speak of Easter and the joys we are having this morning, I just caught up on a blog that i have been following for about a month now. Little Eva Janette earned her angel wings this morning at only 5 days old. Keep her Mommy, Daddy, big brother Dominic, and big sister Mya in your thoughts today and everyday. Squeeze those you love every moment you can.

Easter Bunnies

Yeahhhh, I just wanna show off our two Easter bunnies! Soooo, here they are, cute, cuddly, and giggly!



I will be away all weekend, so the Easter Bunny will hopefully go to everybody else's home before coming to ours. Hopefully Daddy can keep him away until the mid-afternoon. We'll see. Mom needs me, so the Easter Bunny can wait. Just in case you are wondering, Mom is doing fine considering what she has been through. That is what I hear via the phone, so I suppose I will see firsthand when I actually see her. She sounds good, which is what I am counting on. Thanks for all of the help with mom, and the phone calls too. Especially those who do not know mom, and are just calling or asking out of pure concern. It means a lot.

I am going to school tomorrow to snap lots of pictures of the kids dying "spring eggs" and decorating "grass baskets". Gotta love it, huh?!?! If I get some cute shots, I may post them, but I'll probably be done on the blog until at least sunday, probably monday. Who knows!

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!

Thoughts

I want to start this entry with a HUGE disclaimer (ha ha). The disclaimer is "If reading this entry you feel the need to call Mom, tell her you did not read or hear about anything on the sunshine page."

I'll keep this short and sweet. For 9 days now, I have not said anything about Mom. I know she would not want anything written in the blog about her surgery, simply because she does not want anyone feeling sorry for her or worrying unnecessarily. Mom never said for me to stay quiet, but I think I know her well enough to know she would have if she thought of it. Although, later this morning she is going in for surgery again due to complications from the original surgery on March 10. All I am asking is to keep her in your thoughts today and for the next few weeks. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, do not worry, or go into a panic. Luckily she has countless friends around to help, myself, Pat/Laura too.

It is a helpless feeling to be a 2 hour drive from her. I took the kids (and Shadow) yesterday to see her, to go grocery shopping, pick up meds, and let the kids loose to give her many many kisses. She was very happy, although I wish I could do more for her. Unfortunately a curious 6 year old, and an active 2 year old are not the best combination for their healing Grand. I will be heading up there again for the weekend, and possibly before then too.

Thanks. I had to get this off of my shoulders. It is amazing how these silly blogs can turn into somewhat of a personal journal after a while.

iphoto Fun!

I am having waaaayyyy to much fun with our new computer. Today while on iphoto, I decided to take some of the pictures that are not so good and turn them into sepia tones, black and white, and do other fun things to them. Most of them turned out pretty well actually. Here are some examples. As you can see, most are of Juliana and Kevin, although one picture is of my sister Steph and her husband Kyle in San Diego almost 2 years ago. The pictures of Juliana as a toddler make me really miss those days. Growing up fast....

Irish??? Not so much.

CELEBRATING ST. PATRICK'S DAY! Just because my son is named Kevin Patrick, does not mean we have a speck of Irish blood in us. Well, maybe a drop or two.

We have had fun with St. Patrick's Day so far. Daddy and Juliana made a leprechaun trap for homework last night. A lot of advance notice and preparation apparently does not mean that Daddy was ready to get it done until the night before. Grrrrr! The trap was a success, until of course we headed to school this morning and dozens of six year old hands got a hold of it. In the end, it was not the most child friendly trap, but it was made with love and a lot of fun. The other kids in the class had really creative traps and could tell they had fun at their homes making them too.

The silly leprechaun had a lot of surprises in the classroom this morning. He left burgers (nilla wafers, green coconut, and York wafers), fries (potato sticks), and a shamrock cookie. He also left sparkling glitter on the tables and chairs, and teeny tiny green footprints on the floor and on some of the desks. SILLY LEPRECHAUN!



HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!