Mommy's Birthday

Mommy turned 31 today!  Oliver and Mommy slept over at Grammie’s last night, so Mommy could celebrate her birthday by taking an early, early morning long run along the 101.  Perfect start to her day! Oliver and Grammie sang Happy Birthday to Mommy when she walked in the door.  Cute!

We came home to rest and work in the backyard for a little bit.  We collected tons of lemons from our lemon tree.  We also worked on one garden bed, pulling weeds and some wildflowers.   We are going to try planting one garden bed at a time—we have a lot to learn about gardening! 

In the afternoon we went to Grammie’s house to celebrate Mommy’s birthday and the Super Bowl.  Grammie loves football!  She was excited that two teams from the Midwest were playing!  Mommy had a really nice birthday with her family and her little man!

Oliver wanted some Girl Scout cookies.  Look at the little

smirk on his face.  He opened a box on his own and

 brought that to Mommy.  Naughty.

Our beautiful little lemons.

 Our tree has so many lemons!

 Yellow and Purple wildflowers Mommy picked from

the garden bed.  (Perfect combination.)

 Rachel was fascinated with Uncle Chad's hairy toes.

She doesn't crawl yet, but she was working on it here!

Aunt Jess loves playing with her little Owl!

 We ate yummy food from Pat and Oscars.  

Mommy's Birthday choice!

Oliver helping Mommy open birthday gifts.

Grammie got this card for Mommy.

It kind of reminds Mommy of--Aunt Jess, Aunt Ali, and then Mommy...

 Aunt Jess took this picture.  She also let Mommy know

that she was "weird" and "peculiar."(hmmm...)  Thanks Aunt Jess!

 Beautiful Girls

 Grammie made brownies for Mommy's birthday!

 Oliver gave Mommy purple flowers.  Sweet.

 Action picture of Aunt Jess and Uncle Chad making

 Oliver giggle, giggle, giggle.  

 Cuteness.

 Oliver working on Grammie and Mommy's cars.

Mommy likes this artist, a lot...Masha D'Yans.
Perfect picture for a birthday!  (Someday Mommy
will show you her favorite Masha painting.)

Exploring Escondido

We had a busy, busy day!  The highlight of our day was going to the Escondido library in downtown and then over to Grape Day Park.  Oliver loved playing on the playground and then we explored all the historical buildings and learned a bit about Escondido.  We will definitely be going back!!!  We only explored a small section of the park, so excited that there is tons more for us to see!

Exploring Escondido.

 Walking up the steps to the children's library

 He loved the "Reading Jeep."

 Cool tiles on the walls.

Our new library card.

We pass the park on the way to preschool, we are so excited that

there is so much to discover there!

 Love this tree.

 Some of the old buildings at the park.

Love this tree too.

 Oliver climbing up the grape slide.

 Grape stems. 

 Grape leaves.  Mommy sat on them and watched Oliver.

They were warm from the sun and felt good!

 Climbing on the stems.

 Other side of the grape slide.  Fun!

 Escondido's 1st Library.

 The door  and doorknob were beautiful.  (Mommy loves doors and 

doorknobs, especially when they lead to special places.)

 An old typewriter in the library.

 "Oliver Typewriter" 

 Old Barn

 Oliver and the tractor

 Train

 Going in the train

 Looking at the model train tracks...it went from

Oceanside to Escondido.  Cool!

 Escondido Train Station

 Train Schedule

 In the station trying out the telegraph.

 Old Luggage (Mommy likes old luggage, she guesses

she just likes old everything!) We will be back!

Wacky Friday

We had kind of a wacky Friday.  We had lots of daycare kiddos and Oliver was in a wacky, funky mood.  We had fun most of the day playing but Mommy had to do a bit of disciplining—just with Oliver though.  Not fun. 

Grammie came over for a bit and Oliver got to go on a field trip with her and sweet Rachel.  They went grocery shopping, Oliver loves to help!  Oliver came back in a better mood and we had fun the rest of the day!  He did some kind of strange things though.  In the evening we went to Grammie’s so Mommy could take a little break.   Oliver slept nicely on her couch wrapped in her snuggie!

One wacky thing he did- pulled our laundry basket over to 

Mommy's counter.  He wanted to work on the sink.

 He was working on the sink, his frog, and the drawers.

 Holding sweet Rachel's hand.  Oliver is very gentle with

babies.  It is sweet to watch him.

 Beautiful smile.  She is looking more and more like Aunt Ali.

She definitely has Aunt Ali's lips.  Cutie.

Another wacky thing Oliver did.  Mommy came into her 

room and found a potato on her bed.  Weird.

 Listening to Distant Spirits in the late afternoon.  We liked the

sound of the thunder.  Oliver ran when he heard it. 

 (Mommy likes when it feels near...)

Angie and Korey being kind of funky and cute.  Angie loves

yoga, and Korey loves to climb on her when she holds positions.

He likes to do that with Mommy too when Mommy exercises.  Fun!

Max and Ruby

 Oliver had a great day at school!  We came home and ate dinner, took a bath, and worked on a couple pages in his new Max and Ruby Valentine workbook.  Oliver loves to watch Max and Ruby on Nick Jr.  They are two cute little bunnies; we actually won a stuffed Ruby in a claw machine at Albertsons a while back!  (Max and Ruby are brother and sister; they care about each other, solve problems together, and learn a lot from one another…nice.)  We had fun talking about shapes and colors as we were looking through the book.

Oliver took an okay bath and afterwards he climbed nicely into bed.  Mommy read a chapter from our Little House book. Oliver fell asleep really fast—that usually happens on school nights.  (Sweet dreams.)

Oliver's New Workbook

 Pretty crayons, pretty colors.

 Excited to choose a color--it's almost like choosing candy!

He wanted Mommy to color and he pointed out the shapes.

Donut and Groundhog Wednesday

 We are trying to get back into our routine, being sick can really throw things off!  Oliver went to school and had a great day!  He came home, rested, ate a little dinner, took a bath, and then wanted to go to sleep!  For our nightly read aloud Mommy read the Groundhog book, pictures below.  Then Mommy read a chapter from Little House.  He fell asleep pretty fast tonight.  Sweet dreams little man.

 Choosing his donut- Chocolate with colored sprinkles

 Standing in line- he is learning how to be patient and wait his turn.

 Yum.  Wheatgrass Wednesday.  So pretty.

 Happy Groundhog Day!

The History of Groundhog Day (Interesting...) 

 Explanation of what happens when the Groundhog comes out...

Today the Groundhog didn't see his shadow!  Spring is near!

 Gretchen the Groundhog was nervous about "Go Out" time 

on the morning of February 2nd. She learned from the town 

historian that many groundhogs before her were also nervous.  

 Mommy liked this page, she is facing her fear!  Just like

many of the groundhogs before her!  (Mommy likes how

the groundhog whispers, "You can do it."  You 

can do anything if you just try! )

The last page of the wonderful Groundhog book.  Lots of excitement

for all the people, the groundhog, the weather...(so much hype for sure.)  

Happy Groundhog Day!  February is Mommy's favorite month!

Dental Health Month

Mommy can’t believe it is already February (time flies when you are having fun…)!  Oliver is still on the mend, so instead of writing about his sick silliness she decided to write about how February is Dental Health Month. 

Mommy was helping Oliver take care of his teeth the other night, and she told him about her job at T.O.O.T.H.—Teaching Oral Optimism Throughout Humboldt.  He liked hearing about how she taught about taking good care of your teeth to most of the elementary students in the county, she met tons of wonderful people, and was known as “the tooth girl!”  (It was fun exploring all the small towns and backroads too!)  Oliver likes when Mommy “sweeps” the back of his teeth to get them clean.  We also talk a lot about plaque attacks—that usually motivates him to brush his teeth! 

Here is a link to some cool activities that you can do with children to teach them more about oral health!

Brushing his teeth, he always brushes his tongue too!  

We are still working on flossing...Amy and Sienna have

a cute bedtime routine, Sienna likes to floss!

Oliver sometimes brushes Mommy's teeth too...this was fun,

but hard to take a picture of, it made us laugh!

This was in the Times-Standard when Mommy

worked for T.O.O.T.H in 2004.  Mommy loved

those big chompers, the students always gasped when

she brought them out!  Mommy also had a puppet 

named Max. (Mommy's puppet had a really nice smile!)

Happy February and Happy Dental Health Month!!

Remember:

Brush for at least 2 minutes using circles.

Floss every day.

Eat healthy foods and limit sugar to keep 

your teeth healthy and strong!!!