You won't catch me wearing one of these again!

Today, we had a Halloween Parade at school.  The Math Department and I went as the Von Trapp Family from the Sound of Music. 

See the nun?  That's me! 

 

We rented the costumes, so we aren't too cool, but we were cute and Von Trappy.  

Check back tomorrow to see if Gracie and Luke actually let me put them in their pirate costumes!

Even Lukie Knows What He Likes

On Sunday, Daddy looked like this:


Yesterday, he was holding Lukie and they were talking.  Suddenly, Lukie put his hand on Daddy's face and rubbed it on his cheek.

"Uckies, Papa!  Uckies!" he said.

Daddy realized that I wasn't exaggerating when I said he really needed to shave.  If your son thinks you have "uckies" on your face, it is definitely time to shave!

So Daddy went right home and is now nicely clean shaven. 

Except for a goatee.

Which he thinks he needs for his Halloween costume.

I can't wait to see what Lukie thinks of that one!

Of Ponies and Ponytails

Today, Gracie, Lukie, Daddy and I traveled to the Hansen Dam Equestrian Center to watch girls from my school ride in the an equestrian show. We've been talking about going for quite some time, but this is the first time Daddy has been available to go with me. Gracie and Lukie are totally enamored of horsies right now, so we knew the time was right!

When we arrived, we had a talk with Gracie and Lukie about staying with Mommy and not trying to touch the horsies. We shouldn't have worried! They were scared to death of them!

We found our school's tent right away and our friend, Alison, gave Gracie and Lukie some chips and took us over to find Elizabeth, our other friend from school. I saw two students I know and we got to watch Nicole ride in dressage.

There were horsies everywhere! Gracie and Lukie did not know where to look first. There were horses in the rings practicing, horses in the paddocks, horses in stalls! It was Horsie Heaven!

Gracie spent most of her time in my arms. She did want to walk around, but I wasn't sure how good she would be about staying out from under the horses' feet. She wanted to see everything and kept pointing and saying, "horsie!" to me.

You may notice that Gracie is wearing ponytails in her hair! Her hair is finally long enough for me to put it up and she's been sporting this new look for the last two days.

Our friend, Elizabeth pointed out the different students to us, riding their horses in paddocks near us. Her daughter was also going to ride today, so she was keeping an eye out for her on her horse.

Lukie stayed with Daddy most of the time. The two of them were dressed in their Chicago Bears jersies. (We won't talk about what happened with the game today. I don't think Tio Joey will be recovering anytime soon.) He was also saying, "Horsie! Horsie!" over and over again. The sad part was that whenever Gracie or got close to the horses, they would get scared and want us to take them away from the horses.

Eventually, Lukie let Alison take him to visit a horse. He wouldn't touch Dakota, but he had fun watching Dakota try to eat Alison's ponytail and her hat!

We did not last much longer. Gracie and Lukie were just too overwhelmed by all of the horsies. We promised Elizabeth and Alison that we will come back the next time there is a show. Maybe then, Gracie and Luke will be more comfortable with the horses.

I Cook It!

"I cook it!" have become the words most used in our home. Little hands grab bowls, spoons, shovels, cups, anything that looks like they could cook with it and they pretend to make food. Their current favorite is to make "birday cake."

Just a hint: If Gracie or Luke ever offer you "birthday cake," never pretend to eat it unless you are prepared to have sand, dirt, or rocks shoved in your face so that you can have another taste.

The other day, a friend of mine, let her daughters make pizza! It got me thinking. Could Gracie and Luke make their own dinner? Can they "cook it"?

So, we decided to try it. Tuesday night, Gracie and Luke made dinner. First, we decided to try and see how well they could follow directions. I pulled out some Pillsbury sugar cookies and we practiced following Papa's instructions about how to put the cookie dough on the cookie sheet. Some of the cookie dough ended up under the couch, but what's cookie making without a little dirt thrown in?

After we stuck our first batch of cookies in the oven, we got started on making pizza. I used some foccacia dough we bought at Fresh N Easy and attempted to spread it as thinly as possible. I put two round pieces on a cookie sheet and delivered it to the Twinsies. One at a time, I brought out the ingredients. I've learned from other projects not to put too many things in front of Gracie and Luke at once. Papa taught them how to spread the sauce with their spoons. Lukie loved the sauce. I think he ate more than he spread on his pizza!

Luckily, I made sure we stripped them of their clothes before I gave them the sauce. About a minute after they finished spreading the sauce on their pizza, Lukie grabbed the bowl and dumped the rest of the sauce on top of both pizzas!

Next came the shredded cheese. I was out of mozzarella, so I improvised with a Colby Jack shredded mix. Gracie and Luke loved grabbing bits of cheese and making a mess with it. Finally, I gave them chunks of chicken and let them spread the pieces all over their pizza. Lukie kept sneaking pieces of chicken. It was kind of a "one for you, two for me" kind of relationship between the pizza and Lukie's mouth!

When they were done making their individual pizzas, I gave them the rest of the dough to make a pizza for Mommy and Daddy.

Pretty soon, Gracie and Luke's pizzas were ready. They did not look very appetizing coming out of the oven.

Papa had to blow them off a bit before handing them over to Gracie and Luke.

But, once I handed them over, they did not last very long!

Picking the chicken and cheese off of the pizza.

Using his tummy as a napkin.

Pizza makes me happy!

They loved their pizza. We are definitely going to have to experiment again!

Oak Glen - The New Pumpkin Patch

Usually, we go to Cal Poly Pomona for our pumpkins. We've done it for years...all the way back to when cousin Hailey was a baby. Each year, their event has gotten bigger and bigger and the people have become more and more obnoxious.

This year, we decided to try something new. Oak Glen is a little area in the mountains just north of the city of Yucaipa. For a reality check, this is over 100 miles from our house. We knew that it would be quite a drive for Gracie and Luke, but we figured the prospect of getting to be with Bianca, Brandon, Nathan, Aunt Bec, and Auntie Ten Ten would be enough incentive to not fall completely apart. Of course, we packed the DVD player just in case!

There are several small apple ranches in Oak Glen. There is a restaurant we used to go to when I was little called Apple Annie's. I did some research on the internet and found a ranch called Los Rios Rancho. They purported to have a U-Pick your own pumpkin patch, hayrides, petting zoo, and the best apple pie ever. It looked like it would be fun, so I directed everyone to it. It turns out that Los Rios Rancho is the last ranch a the top of Oak Glen. We passed ranch after ranch. Waved buh-bye to restaurant after restaurant and finally, after 8 miles of curvy road, we made it!

We pulled into the parking lot of the pumpkin patch and paused for a brief moment to take a picture. Bianca was sporting an amazing pink and orange Hello Kitty skirt and top, by far the best outfit of the day. Gracie wore a headband that sadly only lasted for 30 minutes before being ripped from her head and tossed in the stroller. See, Lukie? Get a good look at him, because this is the cleanest he was all day. It is also the only picture I have of his hair slicked over to the side. That did not last long either. Brandon is hanging out in the back. He and Lukie jumped off of the rock they are standing on about 5 seconds after this picture was taken.

We trudged through dry uneven dirt to get to the U-Pick pumpkin patch. We discovered that 2 weeks into October is apparently too late to really come pumpkin picking. There were very few pumpkins left. The good news was that most had already been removed from the vines so all we had to do was pick the ones we wanted. Aunt Becca directed the clan from pumpkin to pumpkin, carefully avoiding the diseased ones. Cries of "Punkin! Punkin!" were heard every few seconds or so.

Gracie found her pumpkin right away. She made me carry it around after her, chattering away about her "Punkin."

Lukie was happy to walk up and down rows, throwing rocks, picking up and dropping pumpkins.

When he found his pumpkin, I did not know at first what he was pointing at. Upon closer inspection. It was indeed a pumpkin.

Wait. Can you even see that?

We ended up with a different pumpkin entirely and we made Daddy push the pumpkins in a stroller because they were too heavy for us. I would like to note here that our Oak Glen pumpkins were considerably more expensive than the ones we saw at Fresh N Easy the day before. Fresh N Easy had pumpkins for $2.50 each. We paid $7.50 for our Medium-Small pumpkin and $4.50 for our small pumpkin. Apparently, they charge by diameter of your pumpkin (25 cents per 1/4 inch).

After we had spent some time getting horrifically dirty, we headed across the highway to the Los Rio Rancho Petting Farm and Store. There, we paid a small fee and ran around terrorizing goats and chickens. The big goats scared the heck out of Gracie and Luke, but when we discovered a baby goat, Bianca showed them how to pet the baby gently.

After we were finished torturing the baby goat, we moved on to the chicken. Well, Gracie did. Lukie was too scared. He just kept pointing and saying "chicken."



We eventually escaped the pen and made our way to the haystack. All of the cousins had a great time climbing on the hay. We were lucky that Luke did not think about jumping off!

Attempts at a group picture did not go well.

At this point, I gave up. Mostly because the children escaped.

The kiddos headed over with us to the store and food area. They were fascinated by a Blue Grass band made up of brothers and sisters aged 11 - 17.

They stayed there, dancing occasionally, and having a great time. However, that only lasted until the hot dogs, lemonade, and chips made their way to the table. After lunch, the cousins ran happily around the grass while Aunt Bec and Auntie Ten Ten made sure there were no injuries.

Bianca got tired early. I thought she had more stamina than that!

At this point, we were all tired, full, and had collection of pumpkins. We headed to the cars. Within a mile, I looked behind me and saw this:

He slept from Oak Glen all the way to La Crescenta! Gracie did too. We had a great day with all of the cousins, Auntie Ten Ten, Uncle Jerry, Aunt Becca, and Nana!

A Conversation with Gracie

I got a lot of good video the other day, thus, the multiple posts with video. Gracie was in quite the talking mood that day. Here's a taste of it.

Our Favorite Songs

Gracie and Luke's favorite songs are as follows:

1) Old MacDonald had a Farm (you must include the cow)
2) If you are happy and you know it
3) La la la la, Elmo's World
4) Taking Home My Baby Bumble Bee
5) The Wheels on the Bus

and #6 (Completely and totally politically incorrect):

Little Bunny Fufu

I'm waiting for the phone call from their school telling me that they are "bopping" other kids on the head.

In Which My Children Climb a Hill

Good gravy!

Way Back When-esday

Last Halloween, I bought Gracie and Luke costumes from Old Navy. I was very excited about them and bought them in a size 18-24 months thinking they'd get to wear them for another Halloween. When we went for our 1 year photos, we also took pictures in their costumes. At this point in the photo session, though, they were DONE. They kept running away from the center of the room and tried to grab the camera or me or a balloon or run out into the lobby.

Sigh.

It took 5 takes to get this picture:


By take 6, there was mutiny afoot!


Don't even get me started on trying to get pictures of them individually.


Although, Gracie did give me this picture.


Alas, these costumes seem to have "disappeared" in the packing of our house after the fire. We have new matching pirate costumes for this year. Wait until you see them!

We did it!

Thanks to everyone who came together in an amazing show of support, Daddy not only reached his goal of $2000, he surpassed it. As of the time of this post, he has $2201 and there is more money coming in today. We are very excited about going over our goal and thank everyone for playing a part in making it possible.

Gracie and Luke had a lot of fun the morning of the Walk, but it went downhill pretty fast from there. We started by playing with Bianca and Brandon. Gracie and Luke ran all over the grass and spent some time throwing wood chips and going down the slides. Gracie and Luke were beside themselves that Bianca and Brandon were there. All I kept hearing was "Byanca" and "Branyon!" The day could have ended there. They loved playing hard with their cousins.

Too soon, it was time to get things started. I snagged Gracie and Luke and made sure that everyone knew who they were walking for. We listened to people talk about how diabetes has effected their lives and Rick Chambers from Channel 4 News reminded us how important our walking was to everyone.

Gracie and Luke were not excited to be hanging out with me and Aunt Bec instead of playing with Bianca and Brandon, however, I quickly busted out the Goldfish crackers and all was well.

By the way, see that bow in Gracie's hair? It's the same bow she wore for her 1st birthday party. It's the what all the cool Bear's fans are wearing this year!

A few minutes later, we were off! Somehow we got separated from the rest of Team Uribe, but Aunt Bec stuck with Gracie, Lukie and me even though she was super sick and probably should have stayed at home. It is a sign of her love for Daddy that she came even though she wanted to die because she felt so awful. Aunt Bec, you rock. Next year, it's okay to stay home if you are sickie-poo. We don't want you to get a super-bug because of us!

Aunt Bec pulling Gracie and Luke in the wagon. Other than the people cleaning up the balloons, etc, we were THE end of the Walk.

Lukie and Gracie decided fairly early on that they did not want to stay in the wagon. About 1.3 miles into the Walk, Lukie took a header into the cement.

See the bump on his forehead? And the boogies running down his face?

The boogies remained for the rest of the day.

As did the crying.

As did Mommy and Aunt Bec carrying Twinsies.

See? This was before he fell!

After Gracie, Lukie and I were the LAST people across the finish line, I let them loose. They ate the one hot dog and hamburger left by the time we got to the end and then they played!

Someone thought it was smart to pour ice all over the ground.

Clearly, they did not think that toddlers might think it was okay to eat the ice on the ground.

Friends played for 45 minutes walking on the ice and chasing each other across it!

Finally, some happy smiles.

But no naps.

Not like I might want to take one.

No, why would I want that?!