Crazy Hair Day

Monday was Crazy Hair Day at Ev's preschool.  He needed a haircut anyway, so Sunday afternoon I got the clippers out and gave him a mohawk. 

He usually doesn't like anything different done with his hair, so I told him I was going to give him a haircut like a dragon.  He thought that was the coolest thing.  Whatever works, right? 

My plan was to have him wear his crazy hair to school, and I would shave the mohawk off as soon as we got home.  I'm not a big fan of little kids with mohawks.  To me, it looks low class and dirty.  I mean really, what kind of adults have mohawks?

A) Punk band member

B) Tattoo artist

C) Hot Topic employee. 

None of these professions are ones I would hope for my child to have therefore, a mohawk was not a haircut option.  Aaron on the other hand, thought it looked cool and wanted him to keep it for the entire summer.  He said Ev looked like Chuck Liddell. 

Awesome.  I was hoping my kid would look like a guy that beats up other guys for a living. 

We settled on a compromise (well, more like I told Aaron he could take my offer or leave it).  I agreed to let him have the mohawk for the rest of the school week.  Come Friday afternoon, I'll be waiting with the clippers in hand.

Donut

Our neighbors have a tree swing in their front yard that they let us use anytime we want.  Last Friday, I was pushing Natalie on the swing (one of her favorite things to do) and our neighbor came home and offered her a mini powdered donut.  In true "Natalie style", she shoved the whole thing in her mouth and kept swinging. 

After a moment, she realized that she had WAY too much in her mouth.  She kind of just sat there no knowing what to do.  Being the awesome mom that I am, I grabbed my camera first, took a few photos and only then stuck my hand out for her to spit the chewed up, slobber soaked donut in my hand. 

She look relieved and flashed me a smile, complete with a white powdered ring around her mouth.  I love that kid :)

Santa Ana - Who Knew?

Mention the city Santa Ana and my first thoughts go to illegal aliens and COPS filming on location. From what I had seen driving through it, it was dirty and not somewhere worth stopping at, unless of course I felt like getting robbed that day, perhaps by this lovely Santa Ana resident: So when my sister suggested we take the kids to the Santa Ana Zoo, I thought she was joking. Given the cheap admission and good weather, I was willing to give it a shot - as in a "try", not an actual "shooting". I am so glad we went! I was pleasently surprised and how clean and well-kept the grounds were. There are tons of tall trees and plants making it nice and shady, and unlike the LA or San Diego Zoos, the grouod is level so you don't feel like you're hauling a stroller and all your gear up Mt. Everest. You almost forget that the zoo is backed up to the I-5. Almost. If you're looking for exotic animals like lions or giraffes, this is not the zoo for you. They had Macaws, a bald eagle, ant eater, porcupine, a camel, llamas, TONS of monkeys and some farm animals. For my kids, the animals were kind of secondary to running around touching and climbing on everything, so having the big "cool" animals was not that important. Given the age of my kids, they have the attention span of a gnat and are more interested in the animal poop anyway, so for us it was perfect. There was a shack set up with all kinds of repleca fossils, animal skulls and displays to touch and look at. Natalie was engrossed with the animal sounds table. Each animal pictured had a button that made appropriate sounds for that animal. Kelle thought she looked like a DJ spinning on the turn table keeping the "zoo ambiance" pumping through the shack. In the back there was an explorer room set up with safari gear to try on. The kids loved it!



There were random animal statues for the kids to climb on and even a stranded jeep. They had a train that goes around the zoo which Ev was DYING to go on even before we got to the zoo.

It was a great little ride and Ev was smart enough to pick the box car with a roof on it = shade = happy mommy :)

Near the enterance/exit there was a park set up for the kids to play on and lots of park benches under a large awning perfect for eating lunch while watching your kiddos play on the jungle gym. We visited the gift shop. Natalie helped herself to one of everything.

Ev picked out a very cool train. The kids were pooped after 3 hours of non-stop action.

What a great day. We will definately go again next year!

Pastey-White, Out Of Shape Parents Go For A Hike

Decided to dust off the ol' blog. I need a way to keep my Mom, brother in Korea and siblings not on Facebook updated. Here goes! My husband is an "all or nothing" kind of guy. Anything he does is to the extreme. This weekends' adventure was no different.

One of our favorite activities is hiking. Due to Aaron's insane work schedule, we rarely get to go. We decided to get out the kid packs and head on out for an early Saturday hike. I gave Aaron full control of planning the actual hike. (I should know better by now...).

We headed to Carbon Canyon to do some hiking in local Chino Hills. Aaron had planned us a hike that was all uphill one way and all downhill coming back. A great idea for two pastey-white, out of shape parents to take on...right? Well yes, if the hike hadn't been a 1000 ft. ascent, 9 mile round trip with 2 kids in packs that weigh about 50 lbs each.

We started at 8:30 am and had a great time pointing out stink bugs, ants, rabits and lots and lots of coyote and horse poop.

We stopped along the way for a snack. Ev was quite obsessed with the map and letting us know which direction to go. He insisted on holding the map and charting our next leg of the journey. Natalie was quite happy to chase lizards and freak her mom out by getting dangerously close to any pile of coyote poop she could find. For at least half of the trip she passed out asleep in the pack (notice her arm and head flopped over to the side). Ev was a trooper. He had fun throwing rocks, and we had fun showing him snake trails, listening for woodpeckers, seeing rabbits and a coyote. We stopped for a Gatorade break at the peak. We finished our hike at about 3pm. The kids passed out in the truck on the way home, and Aaron and I were so tired and sore we just parked in the driveway and idled with the air on for about an hour. The neighbors must have thought we were nuts. Although my feet felt like they were on fire, and Aaron and I both ended up with multiple blisters on the bottoms of our feet, we loved the adventure. Aaron is all excited to go again this weekend. I'll give him an answer after my blisters heal and I can walk normally again.