weekend update

Mo modeling my weekend find

Last weekend =

birthday party with cousins and a fun caricature artist

garage sale shopping with Jeni

pick up soccer

singing White Lines with Laura

Hairspray with Katie

good times.

angry bird

angry Mo

conversations with a 6-yr old

Katie with her flea market find: a dolphin for her charm bracelet

Katie was sick this weekend, so instead of attending a birthday party, I made her go to the flea market with me.

I was shopping when I look up and next to me is a girl who is impossibly skinny and way too pretty and flawless for a flea market. I look back and there is a large man with sunglasses following 4 feet behind her. Turns out it was Taylor Swift.

Me: Katie, see that girl with the cream colored dress on?

KT: Yes.

Me: That's the girl who wrote and sings the song that mommy is learning how to play on the piano right now.

KT: Back to December?

Me: Yes.

KT: Why are you whispering?

Me: Well, she's famous and I want to give her some privacy.

KT: How famous is she?

This is where our conversation faltered. I mean, how do you rank famous-ness in the world of a 6-year old? Less famous than Elmo, more famous than Cailou?

Our conversation descended into what other songs she sang (I only knew one other); how many people in the world know who she is; in what countries people knew her in; etc., etc.

a few of my favorite things

It's easy to amass kitchen utensils in your drawer(s), some which never see the light of your actual kitchen.

What I love is when you find a kitchen utensil -- something not of the basic wooden spoon variety -- you start using it and think, how did I ever live without this?

My top 3 kitchen utensils from top to bottom: 1) Pastry scraper: except I don't use it for pastry, I use it to assist in picking up things I've chopped off my cutting board; 2) Garlic peeler: I have owned every type of garlic peeler and this is only one that really works; 3) Scooper: We do a lot of muffins and cookies in this house and this thing gets regular use.

My runner up for this list is my Silpat which I use at least once a week.

What are your top kitchen utensils? Always looking for something new to fall in love with.

tired

This pretty much sums up how me and the hubs have been feeling lately.

It's like jet lag but worse it's holiday-lag. It's all the activities -- swim, ballet, choir, scouts, etc. -- starting up again. That combined with my work more than doubling in the last couple of months (don't get me wrong I want work) and the hubs putting in fairly regular overtime, it's been exhausting.

Oh, and we just got the second car back along with a HUGE bill.

The light at the end of the tunnel: we have a vacation planned for Spring -- just around the corner and already all saved up for...

in sew much need of help

This was George, he is still a good little blanket. However, now he looks like this.

And, he is in dire need of some help.

He's developing tiny rips and holes so fast, I don't think he'll make it through another wash at this point.

What should I do?

One friend has recommended running a sewing machine back and forth over the parts that have opened up (we just opened Katie's Hello Kitty sewing machine this weekend, we'll have to get to that in another post).

Another friend recommended possibly patching the areas with material.

Seriously though, my dear friends who sew -- input PLEASE!

hot streak

We've successfully logged two beach days in 2012, so it's looking like a good year so far.

We had a little hot spell (didn't have as many as we usually do the last couple of months) and took advantage of it.

Last weekend we took our leftover Chinese food to the beach for lunch. Then today, we headed over after school let out.

The water is COLD right now. But that didn't stop the girls.

Note: no one else in the water

Katie would do this every time the water hit her.

One of my favorite things about the beach is that it always has new things to explore.

First thought we were stepping on stones till we took a closer look.

And, found they were tiny little shells with little living things (technical term) in them. You could actually see some poking out of the shells when the tide pulled back a bit.

Today we met up with some friends for lunch who didn't bring their bathing suits for fear of it being too cold.

You can see how that ended up.

top 10 of 2011

That's right 2011 is over already. Which left me to the task of trying to narrow down my top 10 pics of the year...

#1: Still BFF's -- The girls are closer than ever. I get teary-eyed every time I think of them being best friends throughout their life.

#2: "I can read the words on T.V. mom": If a single statement can make a mom feel awful and guilty, that's definitely one of them. Katie's world opened up this year with the addition of her glasses.

#3: Mo becomes a Papa's girl -- While Katie's been a staunch Team Papa member from the beginning, Mo turned the corner this year and discovered just how fun he is. Nothing like everyone squished on one side of the booth with dad while mom sits with plenty of elbow room on the other side...

#4: My babygirl goes to real school -- (cue violin) they grow so fast, what happened to my baby? Katie started Kindergarten this year, lost her first tooth and is doing so many big girl things it make me a little sad, but a lot proud.

#5: Nightly rituals -- Nearly every night we sneak in and peek on the girls before we go to bed. Sleeping kids are cute, but better than that are the wild and crazy positions they are always in. It's like sleeping Twister. What I love most is that they are always on their pillows, right side up and under the covers in morning when we go in.

#6: "I'm riding my own new big bike" -- Speaking of big girls. This girl can write her name (granted she writes "Mo"), rides a "big girl" bike and possibly best of all potty trained in record time... yes, she was almost 3-1/2 but it was a painful couple of days and that was about it.

#7: We heart music -- And, now in addition to singing in the choir and the at-home karaoke machine, we've added a piano into the mix. Perhaps lessons will be in store for 2012.

#8: Why did the chicken cross the road? -- Between the knock-knock jokes that make no sense to playing April Fool's Day jokes on them, they are as ridiculous as they are fun to watch as their sense of humor develops.

#9: My partner in crime -- Since Mo wasn't potty trained she didn't start preschool last fall which was honestly, fine with me. I love my Mo time. She can be so pleasant. She's my sidekick for everything from running errands to when we want boba drinks...

#10: Girl time -- I always thought I wanted a boy and a girl when I was, well, a young girl. But, I have to say even thought I'm not much of a girly-girl I love having two girls and have enjoyed immensely living in our predominantly girl world.

I hope everyone had a great holiday season!

Wishing you and yours a fantastic 2012!

snippets of xmas

Lots going on in the land of the Little Wickies.

Katie taught Mo about her mantra "more is better" when decorating our gingerbread house.

Because even in Candyland, there are hoarders...

Katie sang at the Christmas Eve service.

Mo slept through the Christmas Eve service.

We visited huge Christmas light displays.

In the midst of the melee of the weekend, Katie lost her second tooth.

And, then there was Christmas day itself.

There was the inevitable chaos of kids ripping into presents

And, smiling faces.

And of course, there were the surprise "big hit" gifts like the voice enhancers that no one seemed to be able to put down.

Hope you and your family had a Merry one!

a christmas greeting from california

It's been almost two years since our friends Ellie, Lara and Luca left for Italy.

Hopefully we can do a third one of these someday in the future...

ignore the man behind the curtain

My friend Jayne told me this morning she sometimes get mad when she comes over to my house because it seems "perfect and clean" (her words).

For those of you who might be disillusioned into thinking I am a neat or organized person -- above is the state of my dining room right now.

Other rooms in my house unfortunately follow suit.

I could make up excuses about work deadlines, holiday parties, etc. but the bottom line is I'm kind of a slob. I've always been one, and I'll probably always be one.

Thank you Song, for bearing with me.

mo and george

Mo this morning telling me about George...

"I love my Georgie the best. I want him to stay forever and ever and ever."

a charlie brown christmas

Mo was lobbying hard for a baby tree at the tree farm this year. We didn't get one, but she seems happy with the one we chose.

snow

...well not really.

We do live by the beach in Southern California after all.

The other night we dressed our kids up as if taking them to North Pole (realistically it was probably in the 50s).

And, waited for snow.

Which ended up being wettish foam.

But the kids didn't care. They thought it was pretty neat.

katie's wish list

Love that "chocolate" is on the list.

Apple didn't fall far from the tree.

What are you getting your little ones this year?

boys 2 men 2 dads

circa 1996

September 2002

November 2011

While they still act like teenage boys together at times, these boys have truly grown up and are dads to a pretty cute bunch of kids (yes, I'm obviously biased here).

We finally met the new addition Justin this month. Boy, I forgot how much they sleep at this age!

I took pictures of his sleeping feet, hands, etc. while I waited to shoot him.

I always love the tennis ball head baby fuzz...

Finally he woke up. What a cute boy.

Maybe someday we'll get all the 2036 crew and kids together, or at least a couple more of them.

Note to self: work on indoor night time photography...