Chipmunk Cheeks

Timothy inherited my absolute love of tomatoes...the most perfect food ever! And one of the best variety are the little cherry tomatoes, which are almost as much fun to eat as they are yummy...making chipmunk cheeks! It's times like these when I wish I had all my high school pictures on the computer...I have this exact picture of me and my best friend making chipmunk cheeks with cherry tomatoes. Nice to know this kind of fun is timeless!

Hey Diddle Diddle....

Wow! Has it really been over a week since I last post?? I guess things have been busy around here but I can't really put my finger on why or what we've been doing. I think the no nap thing has really changed our schedules. I notice we get a later start in the mornings and stay out later in the afternoons. It's kinda nice not having to watch the time to get back for naps. And all the parks/museums empty out around noon so we practically have the places to ourselves! I must say though, I miss my "me time" I used to have. But I'm trying to look at the glass half full...the kids will be starting preschool in the fall, so I have just a few more months of being home with them. I'm trying to soak up as much Timo and Cameron time as I can!

Here is a little song to maybe brighten your day. We've started reading/singing nursery rhymes as bedtime stores the past week or so and here they are singing one of Timo's favs.

Hey Diddle Diddle from Sara ko on Vimeo.

Operation Turtle Rescue!

The Sunday after Easter was a beautiful day...sunny and hot, perfect backyard weather. We were all relaxing, playing and just enjoying the ourselves when I heard this scratching noise next to our fence. I walked over, looked down and saw a turtle! Now I know this might not shock any of you country folks, or even folks that live in the burbs, but for us city folk...you don't see turtles in your completely fenced in backyard. The children were completely amazed. We have no idea where it came from or how it got in our backyard, all we knew is we need to get is someplace safe.

I'm not ready for a pet yet, so keeping it wasn't an option. Young best synopsis was it somehow crawled over from the park across the street and somehow worked it's way through cracks and holes to make it into our yard. Nonetheless, we thought taking it to the park and letting it loose next to the turtle pond was the best option. So Young took charge and thus commenced Operation Turtle Rescue! We got Timo's big bucket to carry it in and all jumped in the car to head to the park.

Because it was Sunday and a beautiful day, the park was super packed and parking was hard. We didn't make it all the way to the turtle pond but thought the little duck pond, a little closer, would work just was well. The turtle could migrate himself back over to his friends from there. We set him free and watched him crawl away at lightning speed. We all waved bye-bye and headed back home, feeling good about our little turtle rescue adventure!

Belated Easter

Since we weren't able to get all dressed up on Easter, we dolled the kids up in their Easter clothes the following Sunday. They drive me crazy sometimes, but I love them to pieces!

Mother's Day Weekend

I think I'm finally getting use to this whole Mother's Day thing. It was my fourth, and by far, best Mother's Day yet. The first few, for many uncontrollable reasons, weren't the best...but this year more than made up for them. I'm so blessed to have an amazing husband and two equally amazing children.
My Mother's Day weekend started Saturday morning with a gift...a new Kindle! Young wanted me to have a chance to play with my new toy and knew our Sunday was gonna be super busy. I love it! I'm not much of a reader because I never have time but wanted it to load a few books on, so that when I did get a few minutes to myself, I would have several books waiting. Yay!

Then I headed off for a wonderful manicure pedicure...to get ready for a gala dinner we had that evening. I had 90mins of total quiet pampering and relaxation. And I guess the kids haven't ever seen me with painted nails or toes because they went crazy! "mommy, what's on your nails? What's wrong with your toes? Did you paint them?"...on and on all afternoon! And it didn't stop there... apparently they haven't seen me in a dress either (I'm not the dress wearing type). They had a field day! "mommy, is that princess dress? What are you wearing? Is that a twirling dancing dress?" And then came putting on makeup...completely memorized. I think it might have been the second time in the past three years I put on makeup. Cameron couldn't get over it..."Mommy, why do you have pink on your lips?" All this hoopla over the fundraising gala dinner we were invited to for a school that uses on of the buildings that our church owns. The school board invited the leadership team from church and we were lucky enough to be able to attend. It was an really fun evening of being with friends, dinner and dancing!

On Sunday morning, Mother's Day, Timo woke up crying hysterically from a bad dream. It took a while of snuggling to calm him down...a perfect way to start my day...I love the snuggles!
Young made yummy french toast for breakfast and then off to church for flowers and baby dedication. I always get teary eyed on baby dedication, thinking of my two when they were that tiny. The kids also made up Mother's Day bookmarks in Sunday School and I'm guessing were well scripted for how to give it to their Mommy...Cameron ran up to me with her bookmark and shouted "Happy Mudder's Day Mommy!"
After lunch we headed out for lunch at Luna Park and walking the streets in the Mission district. This particular Sunday they had closed several streets in that neighborhood so people could ride bikes, tricycles, walk, roller blade...whatever they wanted. Timo and Cameron are fascinated by bikes right now and there were plenty for them to "oh" and "ah" over. Timo kept saying "when I'm a big boy I can ride a bike too!"

I finished the afternoon with a wonderful 2 hour nap...the kids too! And since Young was in charge of cooking dinner...we head out for dinner...Korean. The perfect ending to a perfect weekend! I have to say, the best and most special part of my day was hearing Young explain the importance of Mother's Day to Timothy and Cameron. I so wish I had gotten it on video, but it's one of those moments I will cherish in my heart forever...Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there. I hope your day was full of smiles, kisses and much thankfulness!

Sick

I must say we are very fortunate to escape the past year without any sickness. But it all caught up with us the week after Easter. The twins both had runny noses, cough, slight fevers off and on, Timo's asthma returned and I had the brunt of it, full blown throat, aches, sinus, fever and coughing. Needless to say, we stayed in the whole week, nursing ourselves back to health. I can't remember the last time we stay in for 5 days in a row...except going out one day to make a milk/bread run. We passed the time reading, watching TV/movies (Bambi at least 100x), play dough, lounging and napping...yes, the kids napped almost everyday!! That hasn't happened in months, so I knew they weren't feeling themselves. And to top it all off, Young was out of town all week. In a way it was good so that he didn't catch what we had. He was just getting over a wisdom tooth removal/infection...he didn't need a cold too.


The one good thing to come out of the whole week..Timo mastered his potty training!!! I think just staying home, being consistant about sitting on the potty for 5 days really helped him get over that diaper hurdle. Such a big boy!
I'm happy to report we are all back to good health, praise the Lord!

Easter Day Pt. 2

I feel somewhat like a impostor making this post because it's all about the fun Young and the twins had on Easter day...while I was laid up sick at home. But because of his busy schedule, I know he doesn't have time to post it...so I do it for him.

Young came home from church on Easter and said he would take the kids out to lunch to give me a little quiet time to rest/sleep. And maybe, if they were doing well, take them to a park or neighborhood to walk around, trying to give me as much time to rest as possible. The week earlier I had read about an Easter parade going on on Union St and told him to maybe go check it out. Well, it was a lot more than just a parade...it was a whole Easter Festival, complete with rides, games, parade, Easter Bunny and so much more. They left at 12:30 and didn't come home until 5pm!!! Timo and Cameron came home shouting about all they had done and seen with Daddy!!

They started out at Pasta Pomodoro, the kids favorite restaurant, and enjoy some pasta and ice cream. I think this was Young's first time taking them to a restaurant by himself...very impressive!

Then off to the Festival. I don't have a lot of commentary to say about all the picture, I wasn't there to really know what was going on, but I do know it all looked like so much fun!! Here are a sampling of the 100+ pictures/video he took (a man after my own heart).

Easter Fair 2011 from Sara ko on Vimeo.

Untitled from Sara ko on Vimeo.

Apparently the rocking boat was a little too scary for Timo. It was the first thing he told me when he came home..."Mommy, the rocky boat was too scary...I was scared. But Cameron wasn't!" Cameron chimed in, "Mommy, I not scared of the rocky boat, it was fun!" I think this picture best describes their ride...Cameron smiling and Timo with a horrified look on his face, holding on for dear life.
Games and balloon swords and hats! Young said he had to tear Timo away from this water shooting game...after letting him play it four times.
And after all the excitement of the day, Daddy treated them to a cupcake snack! What an awesome daddy Timo and Cameron have...what an amazing husband I have!

When the twins were babies and I was feeling completely overwhelmed, I remember someone telling me "Daddies aren't so good at the newborn thing, but they are really great at the kid thing." It's so true! I think Timo and Cameron would agree, Daddy is pretty terrific at the kid thing...

Easter Day Pt. 1

Our Easter morning was not ideal, to say the least...I was running a 100+ fever and Timo and Cameron were just starting the beginning stages of their colds. But thanks to Young, I have a special memory forever ingrained in my heart of him reading the Easter Story to the twins, while I was feeling miserable laying in bed, and hearing them all shout "Hallelujah! He is Risen!" Indeed, Our Lord conquered death and rose again to give us life! Praise God!!

Since I went to bed at 6:30 the night before (my amazing husband fed, bath and put the kids to bed all by himself), I didn't get a chance to put Easter baskets together. I woke up a little early that morning and got to work, though not feeling very well at all. Luckily the twins are 3 and thought everything was amazing!

The big item for Cameron was her Bambi...she adores the movie and just loves her Bambi stuffed animal. She also really liked her bunny slippers until she slipped on the kitchen floor with them on and banged her head pretty bad...she hasn't worn them since....bummer

The big item for Timo wasn't his Thumper, like I thought...it was the $1 watch I got for him. He is always putting on Cameron's bracelets and calling them his watch. So I saw this Pooh watch at the Dollar Store and thought he would like it...he LOVED it!

Easter Morning '11 from Sara ko on Vimeo.

Needless to say, the kids and I didn't make it to church. Although they had no outward signs of being sick, Timo had just had a fever the afternoon before and Cameron was starting to get a pretty snotty nose. It's amazing how when little kids are sick they can still have high energy levels! The cold was hitting me the hardest and the kids weren't sure how to act having Mommy laying down so much! I don't think I've been sick, really sick, since before I had the twins, so they haven't really seen Mommy down and out before. I was sad that we didn't all get to dress up in our Easter finest and have our grand Easter lunch. Young represented our family at church this Easter and we were all there in spirit...

The Egg Hunt

We were able to do lots of Easter activities with our church friends this year, but shortly before the holiday I realized we hadn't really had the opportunity to spend time with friends that don't go to our church...or as I like to call them, our preschool friends. These are friends that started preschool last year so we don't get to see them during the week anymore for play dates. Young and I decided to have a little egg hunt the day before Easter and have our preschool friends over.

We were hoping for a warm sunny day, like the previous few days had been, but alas...we live in San Francisco...we got a somewhat sunny day but quite chilly. We still managed to have a blast with our friends and the kids thoroughly enjoyed the main activity of the day...the Egg Hunt!
Each family brought a dozen eggs filled with surprises, we collected them all together and had the dads hide them. The moms took the kids to the front of the house with sidewalk chalk...while the dad hid the eggs.

Then we let the kids loose! Some of the children has just had egg hunts the day before at their preschool, so they knew exactly what to do. Others, Timo, got a little confused about the process. He thought you found one egg, opened it, played with the toy surprise and then moved on to the next...poor fella. All the other kids ran circle around him and he only ended up with 4 eggs! He had just as much fun anyway..just not as many goodies.



Only Dads would hid eggs in a tree!!

Great Egg Hunt '11 from Sara ko on Vimeo.

Once the hunt was over, it was time to sample the goodies...some treats and some sweets!

In hopes of sunny weather, we planned a little cook-out afterwards...oh well, the food was tasty even if the weather wasn't sunny.

This is the end of my pictures even though the kids all ran around playing longer...I was starting to get really sick. I started having chills and aches, I just wanted to put my head down and sleep. After everyone left, I slept as did Timo and Cameron..so I knew something wasn't right. Timo and I both woke up with fevers and our Easter started going downhill from there...thank goodness we had the egg hunt before we all go sick!