Party plans

This year we are having a joint party for both kids in a few weeks. I doubt I'll be able to get away with just doing one party in future years, so I have to take the opportunity when I can. The focus is on fun and trying to keep it easy on myself and Tom, so we're having it at a local park with a bounce house and store-bought food. I'll still have a few personal, handmade touches, but I won't be crocheting everyone their own party hat. I just sent out the evite tonight with this picture of the kids.

Pretty cute, huh?
Here are some of the outtakes.

Well...at least it's free.

I don't go to our local library enough. It's perfectly nice with plenty of parking, clean bathrooms and lots of books. I use to go there when I was pregnant with Leo and wanted a place to write. I'd also go there to grade papers after he was born and he was home with the sitter. One problem is when I go with the kids, we pick books with interesting, colorful covers and they turn out the be crap. Seriously bad so that no adult in their lives is willing to read them. Today actually had better luck because we went in with a mission (and call numbers written down from their online catalog). I picked up some crochet books for myself and monster truck books for Leo. We even found a History Channel DVD all about Monster Trucks. Jackpot! Once we were ready to go, I had to put Serafina in the carrier so I could deal with the self-checkout system. She pitched a royal fit and was screaming "down" over and over. Leo was assisting me with the checkout while we ignored Serafina's wails (we do that a lot just to get through the day). The librarian came up to us and said "are you almost done here?" Really? Am I the first person to have a screaming kid in a "quiet" place? Does it look like I'm browsing the shelves for the newest Danielle Steel novel and not trying my best to get the hell out of there? Then she pointed out that I could put three books at a time on the scanner, which I had been doing. I said nothing to this woman, finished up our check-out, shoved the books in the bag and left.

Newborn Hat

This is for a friend's baby. I'm happy with how it turned out. I think it looks like Neapolitan ice cream.

San Diego Vacation

We got back yesterday after a fun, but tiring, vacation in beautiful San Diego, California. We had a pretty uneventful flight down. We aren't much for big road trips in this family. Despite missing their naps, the kids did well during a dinner out with my dad and his wife, Sharon. The service was terrible, the food was uneven, but the company was wonderful. I don't get to see my dad nearly enough and three years have past since we last saw my stepmom! She hadn't even met Serafina before.

Sunday morning we had some breakfast and were about to hit the hotel pool when I realized I didn't pack a single piece of Leo's extensive swimwear wardrobe. The kid has a lot of trunks and swim shirts, but some how I managed to completely forget to put them in the suitcase. Grrr. Thankful, there is always a Target store near-by and we were able to fix the situation and head to the pool anyway.

Here is Leo hanging by the pool in a new pair of swim trunks.
Serafina chows a banana post-swim.

The hotel was nice and right on the Marina, a stone's throw from Sea World. We got to watch their fireworks on Sunday night. Here the kids are playing at the sculpture outside the front desk.
As you scroll down the blog posts, they should appear in order - starting with Sunday night. It was a great trip, but not without it's hiccups. The kids didn't sleep as much as they are use to since they skipped naps (or just caught a few zzz in the car/stroller/carrier) and went to bed late. But there was so much to see and do!

The Sosas in Coronado

Sunday afternoon we headed to the beautiful island of Coronado for a concert in the park. My tia Josefina and her husband Glen attend every week and had quite the set-up. A tent, table, chairs, tons of food - kinda like a living room outside. The best part was I got to see my cousins and their kids. I haven't seen them in many years and it was nice to spend an evening together.

The ladies. Front row (left to right): Andrea, Isabel (about to have a baby girl), tia Josefina. Back row: Sharon, Monica and me.
Same crew but with the men-folk: Tom, my dad and Glen.
Glen and Josefina always give my kids the best toys, and they had a ball both that night and throughout the trip playing with their gifts. Leo got a monster truck (which couldn't have pleased him more) and they gave Serafina this toy.

They took a break from playing once the music started to take in the band (a Navel orchestra) and did a lot of dancing and running around.
Leo loved playing with his older second cousins, Ximena and Yaya (Claudia)

Then he got tired from all the running around.

Camp Fox reunion

On Monday we drove up north a little to meet some old friends of mine from Camp Fox. We first gathered on the beach in Carlsbad. Leo was having a blast at the beach until he face-planted into the water.

So bummed out, but it didn't last.

He cheered up and waited for some waves with Annabelle, my old friend Matt's daughter. She has spinal bifida and Matt does a wonderful job of chronicalling their lives on his blog. Needless to say, I feel a special bond with this little girl because of Mikey.

Serafina watched it all go down from the safety of the sand.

Leo didn't let his earlier splash down scare him away from getting into the water with is dad.

Deep into the water.

We headed back to my friend Marci's house for more catching up while the kids played. Leo had another chance to spend time with a slightly older girl and get bossed around, which he loves.

Annabelle has a little wheelchair and Leo and I had discussed it before our visit so he was familiar with how it worked and why she uses it.

Keaton, Serena and Leo played school.

Here's some old friends from way back. Right to left: Matt, me, Sean, Marci and Heather. Sean and Marci are married (met at camp) but it was Heather who had a crush on him when we were pre-teens. Go figure.

Three amigos.

Like old times.

The Zoo

Did you know that the San Diego zoo is 100 acres big? Well, we do because we walked almost the entire thing. No seriously, we did. We doubled back a number of times. Not necessarily on purpose. We spent seven hours there. Yes, seven. And still didn't manage to see everything. In fact, there were some major exhibits we missed but after seven hours, you have to say "enough is enough" and call it a day. Especially when you have two small children and a septuagenarian in your party.

We made a big mistake that day. Leo wanted to take the tour bus right away, but we thought it would be better to walk around a bit and see some animals. We were sure he'd get distracted and be satisfied riding the bus when we got around to it. Boy oh boy was that a bad call. Sure we saw some amazing stuff, like tiger feeding time where the keeper threw large chunks of raw meat into their habitat and the mama and cubs leaped into the air to catch them. Also, an extended underwater polar bear play time. And this cool creature.

But it didn't matter. Leo kept whining about taking that damn bus. To make matters worse, we would see it go by on a regular basis. We finally got to the point where our only mission was to get that kid on the bus and that required going from the northern most point in the park to the southern to get to the loading area.

You got to admit. He looks pretty happy to be there. Tom and my dad are just happy to not be walking anymore and to finally have an end to the whining.

The bus was great, but Leo was tired and spend a portion of the ride with his head in my lap. He did catch a glimpse of these giraffes though.

My big mission that day was to see the great apes, my favorite. Everyone was tired and had sweat buckets but were willing to humor me and walked even more to get to the exhibits. Here's Serafina bonding with an orangutan.

We thought were weren't going to get a good view of the gorillas, but then they sauntered (yes, sauntered) on up and gave us a very up-close encounter.

Tom was pretty fascinated.

I think he was looking for a resemblance.

Gotta have one of these picture.

Overall it was a very good, but exhausting day.

La Jolla

After that big zoo day, we needed to relax a bit, so we headed to La Jolla on Wednesday, which was my dad and Sharon's last day in San Diego.

We went down to a little beach in a cove so there were very little waves. Leo was having a blast.

Serafina didn't want to touch the water. Though the waves were small, one got far enough on shore to wash our shoes away. Leo went running into the ocean after his Croc like a mad man. It was hilarious, but obviously not the safest choice. Maybe he thought we'd never buy him another pair of shoes.

Sea World

We saved Sea World for the last day. It was just the four of us and we had a pretty great time. Here I tried to get the kids to pose for a picture.

There was something far more interesting behind them though.

Leo wanted to go to the gift shop and buy a souvenir (his Nana told him to pick out something from her) as soon as we got there. After learning our lesson at the zoo about delayed gratification and whining, we headed to the gift shop for some purchases. Leo picked out a truck (big surprise) and Serafina got a Shamu that she is very fond of.

Here are the kids waiting for the Shamu show to start. I'm not sure why they had their mouths open. Maybe they were hoping to get a delicious serving of whale water when the stars of the show splashed the audience.

Shamu on full display. The current show doesn't have any trainers in the water with the whales, which comes as no surprise since it's been a deadly mix in the not-so-distant past.

Leo was pretty entertained.

Checking out an exhibit.

They have a very cool shark exhibit where you ride a moving walkway underneath the tank while sharks swim above you. Serafina wasn't too sure she like it.

They also have a kids' area with rides like this Elmo flying fish ride. Tom was a good sport about it.

Serafina was happy to get on but was a little nervous once we got going and had to cling to me a bit.

Look at these guys; so excited to spin on the starfish ride. But once we got going, both kids just put their heads down and waited for it to end. Tom and I laughed uncontrollably and acknowledged we are very cruel parents.

I changed the kids into their swim clothes for some water play; though Serafina didn't let a drop get on her.

Leo had fun.

I promised the kid a Shamu popsicle and I delivered.

We were suppose to share this cone, but she took over. How could you say no to that face?

Serafina's favorite was definitely the turtles.

They were way cool to watch.

"Stand here and pose for a picture, kids"

We wore them out.

She actually slept right through the dolphin show.She woke up in time to take the shuttle back to the hotel still clinging to Shamu.

I have to admit, I had a heaving feeling in my chest the whole day. I'm not a fan of animals in small enclosures or performing tricks, but I knew my kids would like it. Sea World is certainly trying to spread a message of conservation. The Shamu show was all about caring for the earth and even the napkins were printed with an eco message. But still...