I Heart Mondays

I love Mondays. I look forward to them each week. Every Monday morning Athen and I wake up and head to Livermore for swim class. This is his second session in swim class and he is doing so well. We have the best time together. After swim class we head over to my mom's house to spend the day.

My mom and I have the best time together. We sit around the warm fire place talking and drinking our Henry Weinharts soda, we go for lunch or try out a new recipe at home, we work on crafts and go shopping, we run arands together and enjoy hanging out. Athen loves being at grandma's house. He has much more room to run around and play. He loves all of grandma's toys and likes playing in the backyard and with the dog. He loves being spoiled by his grams.

Yesterday was another good day at grandma's. After swim class we headed to the Ale house for lunch with my mom, and great grandma Amiee. I had a delicious chicken sandwich with avocado, swiss and bacon. Athen had some chicken, fish and fries. As we pulled up to the house we saw the wild turkey's, 11 of them.




We then headed to Cool Tops in San Ramon for Athen's first haircut. I figured he would probablly do good because he LOVES having his hair brushed, and of course I was right. He got to sit in the porsche which he loved just as much as I did (porsches are my car). The eight year old boy next to us did not enjoy the experience as much. He was screaming and kicking the hairstylist while his mother was holding him down in the chair. Luckily, it didn't faze Athen at all. In fact when it was all over Athen didn't want to get out of the porsche.
Before:




After:





After Athen's very quick nap we decided to let Athen play outside with his new trike. It was such a beautiful day out. My mom and I sat in the swinging chair and watched Athen play on his trike and run around the yard. He loved every second of being out side. In fact, once we headed in he kept on banging on the glass doors, looking out at his trike and whinning.





After playing in the yard for some time we headed over to my brother Josh and Sara's house. They just had their second little bun last week. We got to see cute little Blake and hold him. He was so precious and looked so small (even though he was a nine pounder). Soon that will be me with another little guy - hard to believe.



We got home and made some rice and tangerine beef for dinner. Athen played with grandpa for a bit. He was full of high fives and kisses for grandpa, it was so cute. After finishing five loads of laundry, Athen and I headed home to meet up with papa and show off Athen's new haircut before bed.

I love Mondays, my mom is one of my best friends.

Over the weekend, we headed to San Jose to visit with my dad and to work on cleaning up Athen's new trike and desk. We used some rubbing compound, polishing compound and some wax to get that trike looking shinny. I ordered a new bell and streamers for it but they haven't arrived yet. Athen loves that thing and does not want to get off it.



We worked on the desk as well but didn't have time to finish it. We sanded it and primered it but didn't have time to finish with the paint job.

Here is a cute picture from play group last week. Towards the end of play group all the kids start getting a little fussy and ready for nap time. I decided to put Barney on for a few minutes and this is what we got - 10 minutes of this:


It didn't last long, but is still a cute picture.

Bean Bag Tutorial:

http://lilblueboo.blogspot.com/2009/07/beanbag-tutorial-learning-to-spell.html


Crayon Roll Bag
http://www.madeonmaple.blogspot.com/
I don't have the direct link to the page for this one, but this is the blog and then tutorial is from March 7, 2011.

Crafty

Rick has been working late hours lately so I have decided to get crafty on my nights alone and during nap time. I made Athen some bean bags with the ABC's on them. He loved them. He played with them for two hours straight, putting them in the bucket, dumping them out and putting them back in the bucket. After dinner he played with them again for another hour. When he woke up the next morning he went straight for his bean bags.


I also made Athen some ABC cards for church and to learn his ABC's. He loves those too. Although he isn't really learning the ABC's yet he likes to look at the pictures and carry the cards around with him. We bring them to church with us.

I then made Athen and my niece crayon bags for church. Inside the bag we keep paper to color on and Athen's ABC cards and a book. He can carry it around church with him. He loved his crayon bag and wanted to carry it around the house with him. I'm glad he likes my little projects, at least for a little while anyway.

White Elephant Sale

When we first moved to Oakland three years ago we discovered the White Elephant Warehouse Rumage Sale. It was just down the street from where we lived and it was awesome. My first year I found my orange magazine rack which is one of my favorite pieces in my apartment. I LOVE it! It was only $4.

The second year we went again and I bought some vintage ice cream dishes which I also love. They were $1 a piece, I bought 6 of them. I also bought a bag of board books for Athen. Each book was 25 or 50 cents. You can't beat that.

This year I was excited to go back just so I could buy more children's books for dirt cheap. However, this years sale proved to be the best yet. I was pretty happy ALL day long with my purchases. First we bought an old school red and white trike for Athen. It's all rusty and the paint job is pretty bad, it has super fat tires. I LOVE it. It was only $8. Can you believe that??? I was getting so many compliments on the trike as we were taking it out. Some lady even offered me $40. I turned her down.



The next great purchase was some white leather roller skates with purple wheels and laces. Rick and I have been looking to purchase some old roller skates for the last few years or so. New skates or derby skates are hundreds of dollars which we don't want to spend. We have been looking for some old ones so we could skate around Santa Cruz or elsewhere. They had one pair and sure enough they fit me perfectly. I was pretty excited about this purchase, obviously. Plus they were only $4.




Our next purchase was an old school desk for the boys. I have been wanting to find an old school desk to fix up for the boys to do arts and crafts and homework (someday) with. Sure enough we found one for $20. We are going to fix it up and paint it the same color.


I also found some old German navy blue leather hard soled shoes for Athen. I have been wanting some old shoes like these for him. They just don't make them like they use to.They are a little big but that is ok, he will grow into them. They were $3


Of course we also bought another bag full of children's books for very cheap. Athen loves to read stories with me. You can never have too many books.

We bought a few other things like a cool hat for me and some skinny ties for Rick. I also bought some silk ties for coloring Easter eggs with.

On Sunday after church we headed to San Jose to visit my dad for the afternoon. We brought the trike and desk with us to store at my dad's house. We haven't decided if we want to repaint and redo the trike or just polish it up and keep it looking a little old. I think we are leaning towards polishing it up and keeping the look a little old. The trike is still way too big for Athen but he still LOVED it. Rick rode him back and forth on the side walk and he did not want to get off. It was pretty cute. I think one day Athen is going to have the coolest trike on the block and all the other kids are going to be jeleous.





Here are a few more pictures from our day in San Jose:
Athen on one of my dad's Harley's

My dad turned it on for him and he loved the vibration and the loud rumble.

My 1967 912 Porsche


She is a beauty.

Our last day in St. Lucia

Our last day in St. Lucia was nice. We woke up and had to head back to the southern part of the island to the airport. We decided to cut through the middle of the island and then travel on the east coast so we could see the other half of the island. It was green, lush and beautiful. We got back to Vieux Fort several hours before our flight so we headed to Reefs the kiteboarding beach to eat some lunch and enjoy the beach one last time. Ricky had salted fish with a bunch of other stuff and Athen and I had pineapple pizza.





We then headed to the airport hours early, by mistake. The flight home wasn't too bad. Athen got his own seat for one leg of the flight. He did pretty good, and it was a much shorter flight. I think it was only 12 hours instead of 20. We got in to SFO at midnight, definately not ideal but it worked out fine. We parked our car at the airport so it wasn't too bad.

We packed pretty light for our trip. We had one suitcase which carried all 3 of our clothes, diapers, and our dinghy, a pro golf bag which carried a few golf clubs, 2 large kites, a kiteboard, snorkeling gear, a helmet, and a harness. We then had a small roller bag which had our carry on stuff. We had a few toys for Athen for the plane, blanket, food, magazines and dvd player. This is all we brought with us. I still can't believe we fit all our clothes into one suitcase plus our boat. Rick says you don't need many clothes when you are going to a tropical island. We actually packed more toys than we did clothes.

Notice the way we are carrying Athen's travel car seat. We looked into all the ways to carry the car seat and decided this was the best way. Is is a simple strap that straps onto your roller bag. You can carry the kid in the seat or not. Once you are done you tuck the little strap into your suitcase pocket and don't have to carry around a big holder with wheels. We LOVED it and highly recommend it to anyone traveling with a car seat. We bought it on amazon and the best thing was it was only $13.

St. Lucia Day 7-8

Day 7
We woke up ate and decided to do a little exploring of the northern part of the island. We like to drive around and find deserted beaches, this also allowed Athen to get a little nap in the car. We found some beaches and let Athen run around a bit. He loved the water, sand, shells, rocks and anything else on he could find on the beach.







In the afternoon we headed over to Pigeon Island and Fort Rodney. We walked around and checked out the forts and the beautiful view. It was gorgeous. We ordered some lunch to go from a little beach side restaurant and then headed over to the grass area for a picnic. Rick had fried flying fish, rice, and veggies and Athen and I had some fried mozzarella. We enjoyed our family picnic on the grass surrounded by the beautiful scenery. Athen and Rick played around and climbed some trees.

















That afternoon we headed to the Redonuit Beach and pumped up the dinghy. This time Athen did a little better. We were able to paddle around for a bit. He finally found his spot - hanging over the edge of the dinghy with his feet in the water. He loved it. We tried to get a man to take a picture of us all in the dinghy but he wasn't so good at swimming and taking pictures at the same time (as you can see). He said we almost drown him.









We then headed back to shore and Athen and Rick played on the beach for what seemed like hours as the sun starting going down. That kid was having the time of his life. He did not want to leave. Look at this kid walking around the beach naked as can be and looking comfortable with it - I wonder where he gets that from?

That night we head to Gros Islet, the next town over for the "Jump Up". Gros Islet is famous for there Friday night street parties. Every Friday night the locals put on a street party with street food, loud music and dancing. It starts around 6:00pm and goes until about midnight. Of course we couldn't miss out on this. Athen loved the music and watching all the people and the action. Rick got some pork skuers, baked local bread, fried fish, beans, salad and some rice. He thought it was delicious. Athen and i decided to eat before we got there. We were both trying to play it safe with local food, me being pregnant and him being a little guy. We didn't want any sickness or stomach problems to ruin our trip.







Day 8
We woke up and headed out again to find a new beach. Athen got in his nap and we enjoyed the off roading and the deserted beaches. We actually got our little 4 wheel drive stuck in the sand and tried digging ourselves out. When that didn't work so well we knew exactly what to do next - air down. This is what we do at Pismo beach every year and we haven't been stuck yet.


We headed back to the resort and picked up some fried chicken on the way back. We had a little picnic by the beach at the resort. We then decided to do some swimming in the pool. Athen and I showed Rick some of our new swim school moves. Athen is pretty good at going under the water. In fact he loves it. When he comes up he claps for himself. It's pretty cute. He can now go under for 7 seconds.






That evening we headed back to the beach that Athen loved so much to let him run and play around. Going to the beach in the evening was perfect - not too sunny, no sun burns and you get to enjoy the sun setting on the water.







We then enjoyed some Jamaican food off the food truck in town. We had some festival, jerk chicken and chips (french fries). Athen loved the jerk chicken. He loves spicy food. We enjoyed our evening in the room with some games, of course.