happy earth day!

malia and i celebrated earth day by bringing recyclable plastic bottles to the disney store. in return, they gave us some free reusable plastic bottles that had a picture of mickey hugging the earth. really cute and great way to go green!

malia the artist

to anyone else, it's just another cute piece of art done by a little kid. to me, it's a masterpiece. i see love, peace, vibrance, and so much potential. i don't think i did this well in art when i was 5. 

daddy in the paper

roel found out that the teacher band, "think positive", he's in at school was featured in the union tribune and star news over the weekend. we didn't get our hands on a copy of the union tribune, but the school librarian had some extra copies of star news. there's also an online article. we're proud that daddy inspires so many kids through music.

the easter bunny, taxes, and 2 kids

even though i had every intention of getting ready for easter early, it didn't happen. i felt like easter snuck up on me. but we had a beautiful holy week. it was cute on palm sunday when malia asked me why we were holding grass in church. i guess we got the skinny palm leaves. then up until friday i was explaining to her why we celebrate easter. last year, she knew only the basics, this year was full of questions, mostly "why?". so i had to go into detail. i even surprised myself with some of my answers! on good friday, we went to st rose. it's always unpredictable going to church with the kids because we never know how they will act, but i'm glad they behaved for the passion. OVC sang the passion this year. it was so touching, i got chills. i almost cried but then micah started picking his nose. after that it was downhill. micah wanted to get up and walk around, wash his hands in the holy water, and then he was crying for daddy. at least malia did well and sat with the choir the entire time. micah and i ended up leaving early because his diaper leaked onto my shirt. and i even changed him right before we left! must have given him too much milk to try to keep him quiet =). on easter sunday, the kids enjoyed their baskets from the easter bunny. micah was thrilled to get some pringles and could care less about his new shirt. pringles are okay with me, no artificial ingredients & no preservatives. malia was excited about her peep bubbles because it matched her peep basket. wow, the easter bunny should always be on a budget! after that we went to mass at st jeromes and saw some old friends. of course, micah and i were outside half of the mass. it was just like old times with lia. lunch was spent at the grandpa & grandma's. micah hit his head on the concrete outside, i nearly lost my mind. but he was okay. the kids did an egg hunt there and lia came home with a ladybug. picked up dinner at goldilocks and jos & family came over. jonah ran into the table and hit his mouth. must have been injury day for the boys. and of course joelle was all smiles for her 1st easter.

the easter bunny gave me turbotax in my basket. so then i was stressed because of course it was last minute and we owed the state. you would think because we have 2 kids we would get some kind of break. darn it arnold! our taxes were mailed this afternoon. what a relief! and thank goodness for webpay so that we're able to schedule for a future payment!

this year is already flying by, and my 2 kids are growing up. rewind to monday when i got home, malia had brought home her school picture proofs. and i didn't realize they took her picture with the cap and gown since she'll be graduating from kinder. i cried. she looked so beautiful, so grown up in the picture! and then there's my micah who amazes me with his talking skills. he is getting better with his sentences and knows a lot more words now. this afternoon he looked up in the sky and said "couds" (clouds), didn't even know he knew that. then he practices words in the car. on the way home he said,"papa, da-day, mama, ate." my favorite one so far is "hapface" for happy face.

egg hunt

together with our group of friends, we started our 1st annual easter picnic and egg hunt. for the past couple of years we've been going to the eastlake egg hunt with crowds of people. even though it was fun, it meant getting up early on a cold saturday morning, dressing the kids, and getting to the designated park early enough to get good parking. so we figured we'd do our own this year, and so glad we did. it was at harvest park. good food, good company, and everyone had a good time.

my favorite pic of the day:

i know

you belong in the zoo

happy half birthday micah! he turned 18 months old today. our day started off with getting malia ready for picture day at school. she's always excited to wear a dress to school. and on top of that we curled her hair. she felt like a princess. after school and day care, i took the kids to the zoo. we had some passes we got for free last year. i meant to sell them on craigslist, but of course at the last minute before they were going to expire, decided to use them. we were only there for a couple of hours, which was more than enough time since it was just me and the 2 kids. jos and jonah met us there. all malia cared about was seeing the snakes, i don't know why. micah was interested in some of the animals, including the giraffe and elephant, but if there was ever a duck nearby the duck got all his attention. malia even begged me to buy her a toy snake in the store, but i managed to convince her we could find it elsewhere for less. besides, the ones they sold didn't even say the zoo on it. then they each took a turn having a fit in the store. my little monkeys!

thin mint monster

i have a terrible weakness for girl scout thin mints. i'm ashamed to admit that i can finish a whole box in one day. but now someone shares my weakness, it's micah. of course it's not the skinny girl, she spit it out. so at least now it won't be just me eating the whole box. he gets so messy eating them. it's funny, until he wipes his hands on my shirt. good thing the boxes are smaller this year, but our last box is almost finished.

$2 tooth fairy

malia lost her 1st tooth yesterday, one of the bottom ones. she woke up and told daddy her tooth felt loose. and out it came at school during snack time. we were a little concerned that it was early for her tooth to come out, but we were assured by dr garcia that it was normal. she was so excited to show me her tiny tooth in a baggie when i picked her up. she's the only one in her class with a missing tooth. her teachers told her that the tooth fairy would come and give her money for her tooth. so i asked malia how much the tooth fairy gives. she said the tooth fairy gives $2. too funny! then she told daddy she would buy him some coke with the money she would be getting. the tooth fairy ended up giving her $5 and she was extremely happy to tell me all about it when i picked her up today. and with the help of grandma, she decided on saving her money.

winter be gone

whenever the kids get sick i can't help but feel like i've failed as a mother, even though i can't change the weather or prevent germs from entering their bodies. m&m don't just get the usual common cold since they have RAD, they usually require multiple nebulizer treatments and antibiotics. 

malia has been pretty sick this past week, she's had a fever of 102 on and off for the past 4 days. it's not as bad as when she had pneumonia, but it's pretty close. and it's such a struggle to get her to take her meds. she cries, hides, and can even make herself throw it up if i don't give her a lecture first. so far, no fever. such a relief because i was thinking of taking her to the ER if she wasn't better by this afternoon. she's still coughing like crazy, but at least she got up to dance for a little bit. always a good sign. BUT, now daddy and micah have joined the coughing club. micah even placed himself onto malia's designated sick couch. oh, when will spring be here?