Six Flags Discovery Kingdom

[Guest Blogger: Mitch (aka Daddy)]

Today was the first trip to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo for all of us. All of us boys that is. Momma, a.k.a. Heidi, had a bunch of work to do today for her comp audit next week so she had to stay home. We met Jolie and Jonathan there around 10:30 am, and we didn't leave the park until almost 8:00 pm. The boys definitely had their fill of rollercoasters, rides, games, sugar and wildlife. Sawyer was bummed that he wasn't tall enough to ride some of the rides that he really wanted to ride. We had a long fantastic day, and the boys should be sleeping well tonight!



We met Jolie and Jonathan in the front of the tram line in the parking lot. It took a minute for Sawyer to warm up. He wasn't sure what was going on.


On the tram. Sutton eventually switched seats and sat next to me because it took a minute for him to warm up too.


Once we were inside it was all wide eyes and big smiles. Everyone is watching the people get on a water ride.


They both liked all the cartoon characters walking around even though they weren't sure who they were. I can't find old school Looney Tunes on DirecTV.



Finally, the rides! Sawyer and Jonathan are having a blast on the airplane ride.





I had to accompany Sutton on some rides because of the height issue. Here we are on our Jeep safari.

This is the first ride the boys went on together. They had a blast!

The penguins were going crazy over the stuffed whales that the boys had. They kept swimming right up to the glass and poking it. Sutton was squeeling with joy.

Inside the butterfly exibit. They had many large (and I do mean large) butterflies flying around.


Their wings are pretty, but this bug is nearly 4 inches long. The insect part is a little creepy. The boys thought so too.

More LARGE butterflies.

Sutton was showing us how they "match"

The shark exibit was amazing. There are some tanks outside that had these little sharks.

Sawyer liked this rollercoast so much that we rode it twice in a row.

A cute lion.


It's Thomas town! Yes, we did ride the train. And yes, the boys loved it.

They also loved the Harrold the helicopter ride.

Sawyer is big enough for his own helicopter. You can control them up or down.

Jonathan has his own helicopter too.

After Shouka the Whale drenched us at the whale show, we went to look at her in her tank.

Both Shouka and a dolphin would swim right by the glass for some amazing views.

Jonathan and I are in the front seat of the Boomerang.

Half amusement park, half zoo. Fun for everybody.

Jonathan, Sutton, and myself were the only ones brave enough to touch the fish and feed them to the seals.

Jolie and Sutton hung out together and had a great time.

Jonathan is feeding the dolphin.

After an hour of waiting, we are finally next in line for Sawyer's first big rollercoaster - Tony Hawk's Big Spin. He loved it!

Separation Anxiety

It's only 9:30 in the morning, and today has already been a really rough day. The boys are having an incredibly tough time with the fact that they are no longer going to the same preschool/daycare, and it has been resulting in floods of tears from both of them every school day this week. Leaving Sutton has been a nightmare, and I feel horrible for leaving Traci with a hysterically crying child while I try to run out the gate without having him chase me down. He just keeps saying over and over again, "Go to Sawyer's new school too" and "Sawyer stay Traci's too." He has never been one to cry when I leave him, and seeing him so upset is breaking my heart.

Sawyer has been having a hard time this week at school too. He's been having mid-day breakdowns resulting in lots of tears and some assisted letter writing home, most of which read something like "I miss Mommy. I miss Sutton. I miss Daddy. I want Mommy come back. I love Sutton." Thankfully I've been absent for most of the crying, but today the tears started before he even got dressed. He kept crying and saying that he didn't want to go to school today. He either wanted to stay home with me or go to Traci's with Sutton. I reminded him that his new school is lots of fun, and that Jaden and Josh (the twins who live on our street) might be sad if he didn't go today since they've been having lots of fun playing with him. In the end I finally got him settled down with the idea that once he got to school he could paint me "the best picture ever." Naturally, once we arrived, we noticed immediately that there were no painting materials set out today. Miss Gail informed Sawyer that painting wasn't available today, and he just about lost it right then and there. I managed to grab a quick hug and kiss and scurry out the gate before my lingering presence made it even worse, but as I looked back I could see him standing with his face pressed against a large knothole in the fence watching me drive away. He wasn't crying yet, but he looked horribly sad.

I feel terrible. I know that it is going to take some time to adjust, but honestly, at this very moment I can't say that I think sending them to two different places is the right thing to do. Mentally I know that they are both where they should be right now, and I know that the new school environment is already having a huge positive impact on Sawyer, but emotionally it's exhausting and painful to watch them get so upset over being separated. I just wish that Sutton was already 2 1/2 and potty trained so that he could have been going to the preschool with Sawyer right now. Since the preschool only accepts new students at the start of the school year (summer session included), it's going to be an entire year before Sutton can start going there too. I have a feeling that it's going to be a long while before they get adjusted to their new situations.

The positive spin on the situation is that the boys have been nicer to each other, and we've had less bickering when they're at home. Their new found clinginess with one another contributed a huge part to the fact that they are now sharing a bedroom. It's nice to see their relationship grow even closer, and I have caught Sawyer making some little comments lately that let me know that he's aware that he's very lucky to have a brother to play with all the time.

I realize that it's just going to take some time for everyone to adjust to their new situations - heck, I'm still adjusting to having to drive both kids in opposite directions in the morning! - but in the end I hope that we've made the right decisions. Sawyer has been terribly missing his friends at Traci's house (who can blame him? He's been spending 2 or 3 days a week with them since he was 15 months old!), but fortunately he got invited to Emma's birthday party on the 18th, so he will get a chance to run around Wacky Tacky and play with all his friends again soon. I just hope that it doesn't make him miss them even more. Time, I'm sure, will make everything run smoothly again...I just hope it doesn't take too long, because right now my heart aches for them.

Not-A-Box

We borrowed a great book from the library last week called "Not a Box" by Antoinette Portis. It's filled with simple but engaging drawings of a cute little bunny and all of the adventures he creates in his not-a-box. I love that the book iteself has a cardboard box colored cover. They boys (and Mommy!) are quite taken with bunny and all of his creative uses of his cardboard box. My personal favorite is when his box becomes the basket of a hot air balloon - I never would have thought of that one on my own! Naturally, the boys wanted their own not-a-box...

"I'm driving race car"

"I'm taking a ride in a spaceship!"

"Mom, I just checked. There are NO bunnies in this cave today!"

...and sometimes a box is just a great place for a good old-fashioned game of peek-a-boo!

4th of July, Part 3: Jim's Pool & Fireworks

After naptime we headed down to Jim's house for a bbq pool party and fireworks with my family. This was our first time being in Jim's big pool this year, and last year the boys were too insecure in the water to do anything other than cling to us and have us hold them the whole time. A couple of weeks ago when Sawyer was staying with my mom for the day, she tried to take him into the pool, and he wanted nothing to do with the idea of trying to float on his own. Needless to say, I was imagining that I was going to spend most of the afternoon with at least one child permanently attached to my hip.

Fortunately there were other relatives there to help me out in the cling-on department (thanks Jess!).

After a little while the boys were comfortable enough with the water to take a ride on Gigi's new pool float.

Quickly their new found confidence grew into this...

Floating on his own and testing out some new goggles. He even tried to put his face into the water a couple of times to see what was below - yay!

Sutton thought that jumping into the pool was the best, so jumping off of the diving board was THE coolest thing. Ever. This is the worst picture, but the only one I got of him actually jumping in.


Stella loves the water too!

We had some delicious barbecue dinner and then it was time to get ready for Mitch's pyrotechnics show...

After the boys watched aerial fireworks last weekend with their fingers jammed in their ears, Mitch went out and got them each a set of nice earplugs to wear during the fireworks show. Everyone had made sure not to get any screaming/screeching/whistling fireworks, but the pops and bangs were still really loud.

This one was called "Flying Stars," and I have never seen anything like it! It has a bunch of different colored sparks that literally fly around and change direction. It was wild!

Sutton loved the fireworks, and seemed to think nothing of all the noise. His earplug fell out once or twice, and he didn't even seem to notice. Sawyer was really unnerved by all the noise, and he kept saying "It's scary," over and over again, despite the fact that he also kept assuring me that he wanted to keep on watching them. Sutton looked over at him and said "Here Sawyer, holda hand," and he held his hand to make him feel better. Cutest thing ever.

Sutton was mesmerized. We caught the end of an aerial fireworks show from my parents' driveway after we set off our own fireworks. Sutton kept ooohing and ahing and saying "another one firework, over there" over and over and over again. He kept asking us if we could "Go over there too, please. See more fireworks." My whole family was laughing because he was so excited and chattering non-stop in a way that some of them have never heard before. I'm pretty sure he wishes we could have fireworks every day now!

4th of July, Part 2: McBean Park

Our 4th of July morning was spent enjoying the "Kids Zone" at McBean Park. I know I'm cheesy, but there's just something about free community fun that always makes me happy. Well, technically it wasn't all free this year since they started charging an admission fee into all the bounce attractions, but I can't blame them since last year there were only 2 or 3 birthday party sized inflatable houses, and look at all the cool stuff they had there this year:


The sinking pirate ship slide that slides you down right towards a gigantic attacking octopus. This one was Sawyer's favorite!


The Dragon's Castle bounce had an attached maze that you had to navigate to find your way to the slide staircase.


They had an inflatable rock climbing wall, and another huge slide - this one was King Kong and a T-Rex.


If you squint really hard you can see Sawyer going up the stairs here


The UFO Lazer Encounter was some sort of inflatable lazer tag game, but we didn't actually try this one out.


The lines weren't very long, especially for the slides since they move so quickly, so Sawyer was able to get in a TON of bouncing and sliding.


Sutton is not a fan of bounce houses, so he spent all his time hanging out in the shade and in the park with Mommy & Daddy.


If there's a driving wheel to be found, you'll also find Sutton attached to it.


Sawyer though that the rock climbing wall was pretty cool too.


Even Sutton was finally having fun playing around on the back side of this bouncer! I think we may have had an inflatables-are-fun breakthrough!


Almost all bounced out.

Just time for one quick joust before we headed home for naptime! The match lasted about 7 seconds until Sawyer declared that the stick was just way too heavy. Maybe next year!

4th of July, Part 1: Crafts and Cake Pops

As you probably know, we love making holiday arts and craft projects, and 4th of July provided some fun opportunities for sparkly red, white and blue decorations and favors.



This is the pipecleaner firework project that I posted about the other day. I got the idea from Funny Days with Mommy & Maddie, and it was super easy to do. I'd definitely recommend making these outside though since the glitter is inevitably going to go everywhere! The boys dipped the pipecleaner ends in glue and then dipped them into bowls of glitter. We twisted them into firework shapes and strung them up into a mobile.



We made patriotic windsocks with star cutouts, lots more glitter and crepe paper.


Sutton's is on the left, and Sawyer's is on the right


My attempt at making cake pops was a mid-range success, I suppose. They looked impressive, which is really the most important part, right?



I guess that maybe my family just isn't all that fond of red velvet cake (I know I'm not!), or maybe that in combination with the fact that the flavor of the Wilton's candy melts is unappealing, but these definitely were more of a visual winner than a tasty treat. A few people said they were good, but most people just kept asking me what they were filled with (smashed red velvet cake mixed with frosting). Sawyer loved them though, and I think he's eaten about five of them in the past 24 hours.

Busy Week!

Yesterday was our 8 year wedding anniversary (and our 11th year anniversary of dating), and Mitch came home from work with not one, but two gorgeous bouquets of flowers for me, including these amazing fuschia dyed sunflowers. LOVE them (and love him too, of course!)! We stayed home, played with the kids and had some bbq'd bacon wrapped filet mignon to celebrate. My parents will be watching the boys overnight on my b-day in a couple of weeks, so we'll go out and do a double celebration dinner that night. Thanks to everyone who called and emailed us congratulations yesterday - we really appreciate all the loving thoughts! It's hard to believe that it's been that long already!

We've been busy, busy, busy around here, as usual! The boys are officially sharing a room now after many nights of pleading to "have a sleep over" in each other's rooms. We spent a big chunk of time last night taking down Sawyer's bulldozer bed so that both boys are now sleeping with their mattresses side-by-side on the floor. We decided to have them both sleep on bare mattresses, because all week long we've been having trouble with Sutton wanting to sleep wherever Sawyer was sleeping (and trust me, we switched beds back and forth a gazillion times so the issue wasn't that Sutton wanted one bed over the other, he just wanted to be with his brother), so in the end we decided that identical sleeping arrangements was the best idea. I suppose that at some point we will look into buying them twin beds or maybe bunk beds when they're older, but for now the mattresses on the floor are perfect, especially for Sutton who tends to roll out of bed rather often. For now, the empty bulldozer bed shell has been moved into Sutton's old room and will be reassembled into something that the boys can play in and make forts in. After we finally got everything rearranged, bedtime last night was much easier than it had been the few nights before, and I actually had to go in at 7:40 this morning to wake both of my snoring boys up so they wouldn't be late for school!

Speaking of school...this (above) is how Sawyer can most often be found after a long day at preschool. He really loves his new school, but it certainly does wear him out! In the past couple of weeks he has played with Moon Sand and artists clay, planted flowers and watered the garden, stacked blocks (aka The Pink Tower for those familiar with Montessori work), and "did lots of school stuff." Today I went with his class on a field trip to the old library where they attended a "Books in the Courtyard" event. The children got to walk around the courtyard and browse picnic tables piled high with new Scholastic brand books. In the end, each child got to choose one book to bring home and keep. Sawyer chose a farm animal true-or-false fun fact book, and I was really surprised that he didn't pick any of the I Spy or bulldozer/truck/crane books they had there. He did almost swap his farm book for one called "Aliens Love Underpants," but in the end the cute little piglet on the cover of the farm book managed to keep his attention.

I think that my most favorite change that I can see taking place in Sawyer is that he is keeping things MUCH cleaner and neater, and he even has been asking if he can help clean up around the house! Yesterday the boys both wanted to help clean the house before Hattie came over, and they did a great job! Sutton vaccumed the hallway, Sawyer dusted the stairs, and they both took turns dusting the tables and washing the windows. Yippee!

(Saw is whistling while he works here, that's why he is making a silly face)

We had a little musical jam session before we started our 4th of July arts and craft projects.

Hat and Saw making pipe cleaner and glitter fireworks. I'll post pics of their 4th of July crafts tomorrow once they're done with them all :)

Here's a sneak preview of what we're working on for our Super Summer Swap pals - finger puppets! Right now Sawyer has claimed the pink monster, and Sutton is holding on tightly to the panda, so it looks like one of our pals may be able to claim the farm animal set. Hopefully!

We're looking forward to a fun 4th of July this weekend! We'll be heading to McBean park in the morning for some fun in the Kids Zone, and then going to Jim's house for our usual 4th of July swim session and fireworks. This year I am attempting to make Bakerella's cake pops, only mine will be simply covered in white candy with red and blue sprinkles - wish me luck!