Visiting With Family

While we were down in Southern California for our Disney trip we wanted to make sure to visit with our family that lives down there so we headed down several days early and my aunt was kind enough to let us stay at her house for a few days. It was so much fun catching up, watching the cousins play, and having a little breather between our long road trip and our Disney days. 

We went to a petting zoo where Ez was most excited to see a rooster. Untillll....he actually saw the rooster. Between the peacocks, the turkey, and the roosters it sounded like an angry bird riot and he pretty much melted to the floor in a terrified puddle for a few moments until we quickly moved on to the goats and the cows. Right before he left he bravely asked to see the rooster again, and after a quick glance to redeem his brave big boy status he was ready to go. Afterward he kept bringing it up: "I was scared of those loud roosters" with a little laugh, like it was an inside joke between us. I love that brave little boy so much. 

We had a pizza party, went to dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant, complete with a margarita the size of my head, were fortunate enough to be around for garbage day, and capped it all off with a cousins' trip to a local indoor playground that was so much fun we had to drag the boys away kicking and screaming. 

Our vacation was off to the best possible start and the boys were so sad when it came time to leave. Little did they know all the fun we had in store for them ;)

Ez's 4th Birthday

Ez's birthday fell on a Saturday this year, so after a full week of celebrations and excitement we capped off our Disney trip with a birthday brunch alongside a few of our favorite characters: Mickey, Minnie, Daisy, and Stitch. I'll give more details on our Disney trip a little later, but I will say that this was by far Ez and Declan's favorite Disney trip yet. Their excitement each and every day is what we live for as parents and I'm so happy Ez's birthday was extra special and memorable for him.

As soon as the birthday boy woke up we gave him a giant box full of presents right there in the hotel bed. Then it was off to brunch with two sets of grandparents and the uncles. Ez was so, so excited to meet all the characters this year. Last year was the first year he went from terrified to happy to see his favorite Disney characters, but this year his excitement skyrocketed to a whole new level. He was jumping up and down with pure glee on his face, then he would run up for a quick hug before sprinting away, jumping and pointing excitedly, "There's Stitch! It's Stitch!" Joe would ask, "Where?? I don't see Stitch." "THERE!! Right THERE!!" I thought he was going to explode from the excitement of it all.

Since this is the year of the Garbage Truck for Ez, he got a few new ones from the grandparents and the day was pretty much cemented as the BEST DAY WEEK EVER. He was in such a generous mood he even gave Daisy a cupcake, which she graciously accepted even though she was trying her best not to get chocolate all over her white gloves. However, when Stitch tried to make off with one of Ez's garbage trucks the smile fell right off his face and he refused to take his eyes off his truck until it was safely back in his hands. That boy loves his garbage trucks.

Declan went from being scared of the characters last year, to ready to rip their faces off this year. He was especially fascinated with their noses/beaks and would latch onto them with his tight little death grip every chance he got. Poor Minnie was sitting there with that smile plastered to her face while trying to gracefully get away with her nose intact. Stitch was a little less polite and just poked Declan in the nose right back. That's probably why Stitch was Declan's favorite, they're two mischievous peas in a pod, those two.

After all that fun and excitement came the considerably less fun portion of Ez's birthday: 8 hours on the road to get back home. The actual drive is about six hours but we like to stop and let the boys run around a bit. They were troopers and made it through the majority of the trip without any meltdowns but Mickey Mouse on YouTube definitely saved our asses for the last ninety minutes or so. Then came the birthday withdrawals, which we're still not quite over. If it wasn't for that drive (and those crazy Disney prices) we'd go right back and do it all over again.

Happy 4 Ez!!

And just like that the sweet little serious-faced baby who made me a mama is now FOUR. 

The mama waterworks started about a week before his actual birthday as we were packing for our Disney trip and I got to thinking about why we were going on this trip (because he's turning FOUR <sob>), and how little he was last year as a tiny three year old who couldn't even ride big boy rides, and that Disney doesn't even consider him a kid anymore (at least not a free one). So many Ez's have passed before my eyes these last four years, and I've loved each one with my whole heart only to wake up one day and realize he's a little bit bigger and more mature and that smaller, babyish Ez doesn't exist anymore. 

Bittersweet. That sums up motherhood.

I wish I could bottle up each phase and keep them all on a shelf for when I need some newborn snuggles or a good old-fashioned toddler dance party, but since I can't I try my best to record it all here because I don't want to forget any of those little things that I love so much.

Each new, slightly older Ez brings so many sweet new things to love. A few things have remained the same over the years. His love of all things cars. The snuggles that he gives with his whole body and heart. His keen empathy and instinct to cheer us all up. His love of learning. But this year Ez's imagination and communication have really soared to new heights. He's at that stage where he says the funniest things and cracks us up daily. In many ways it's the most fun age yet. 

Currently Ez's favorite things include hours spent digging in dirt, counting down the days until the garbage truck arrives, tackling his brother for no good reason, watching youtube videos of garbage trucks, roughhousing with his daddy, running circles through the house, and snuggling with his momma. 

He can count to about 40, loves telling us what color everything is, will spot any and every garbage can within a two mile radius, prefers the swings to anything else at the playground, and does his best to gather the whole family altogether in one room as often as he can. He'll repeat anything he hears, and so far (knock on wood) he hasn't repeated anything terrible yet. He did shout across a crowded restaurant, "Nina! Over here!" and it was so disorienting to hear him call me by my real name. 

Ez hates goodbyes and whenever anyone leaves he immediately starts asking when they'll be back and often gets a little teary-eyed. He will ask the same question over and over and over again if he doesn't get the answer he wants. Sharing toys is not one of his strengths. Hungry Ez is a completely different beast and whenever he has a meltdown of epic proportions that usually means he needs a snack, STAT. 

To my dear, sweet 4 year old Ez,

Each year I'm prouder and prouder of the boy you're becoming. Kind, inquisitive, smart, caring, playful, intelligent, and the all around best snuggler in the world. I hope you know that you can do anything you set your mind to, you can be exactly who you want to be, and the world will be a better place for it. I can't wait to see what this next year brings my not so baby boy. We love you to the moon and back!

Our Weekend: River, Roses, and Bubbles

This weekend was somewhere between spring and early summer. Everything is blooming and lovely but the sun is also making his presence known. It makes me want to do all the outdoor things before it gets HOT. 

We kicked off the weekend with donuts from our new favorite donut bakery (gimme all the fruity pebbles donuts) followed by a trip to the Sacramento Historic Cemetery which happens to have a lovely rose garden this time of year. For some reason Ez knelt down like he was paying his respects at a tombstone so I went to look at the name. It had one word: Mother. So sad/creepy. Then Declan took a liking to a pair of tombstones, which just so happened to say....you guessed it - Mother and Father. Of all the ones they could have taken a liking to, they chose those three. Creepy. 

After enjoying all the gorgeous, fragrant flowers we headed to a nearby Food Truck Festival but we were too stuffed after the donuts to actually eat anything. We just wandered around taking it all in and Ez had a grand time pointing out every trash can we passed by. Not joking. That is seriously one of his favorite pastimes. Every day is basically a garbage can scavenger hunt. Then he got it in his head that the garbage truck would be coming, perhaps because of the quantity of trash cans out, and explaining that wasn't the case burst his little bubble pretty badly. That was our cue to head home for naps before our next outing. 

There's a river walkway near our house and we finally got around to checking it out for some boat watching and rock throwing on Saturday afternoon. Declan nearly yanked my arm out of its socket trying to leap into the river each time he threw a rock, and about 33,549 rocks later we dragged them away for some playground fun before heading home muddy, sweaty, and exhausted. 

Sunday was farmer's market day where Joe beelines to the asian pears stand and breathes a sigh of relief every time he sees they're still in season. Ten pounds of pears and a couple bouquets of flowers later we headed across the street to a craft fair where I got a few cute cards and knick knacks and we played corn hole. Then it was on to the playground to run off some energy before lunch time. 

We had a fun little treat that afternoon when Gangy and Grampa stopped by for some bubbles and garbage truck fun. After lots of running and giggling the boys fell asleep and we ended the weekend on a quiet, peaceful note, which is pretty much the best way to end any weekend. Until that evening anyway, when both boys were wide awake wayyyyy past bedtime. Every nap time has a price ;)

Hope you all had a lovely sun-filled weekend as well!!

Tourists in Our Town

Lovely Spring weather after lots and lots of rainy days can only mean one thing: time to get out and explore this city we live in. This is already my third TIOT post (read 1 & 2 here) since we've moved to Sacramento and we've barely scratched the surface of doing all there is to do and seeing all there is to see. I love that there are so many hidden gems, great little shops and small businesses, festivals, delicious restaurants, tons of parks to keep the kids happy, and lots of reasons to get outside and walk around. Here are just a few of the things we've been up to lately:

1) We were walking around downtown one weekend morning and came across this amazing bookstore. I can never resist wandering through a bookstore and this one was just floor to ceiling books with an adorable little kid's area that Ez and Declan immediately fell in love with. A stack of books and one meltdown later (over a vintage toy car that wasn't leaving the store) we left in search of lunch.

2) Originally we had planned on going to a restaurant we'd already tried before and knew we loved but as we were walking there we passed Jack's Urban Eats and the food looked and smelled so good that we stopped in our tracks. Now we have a new favorite restaurant to add to our list, although at the rate we're racking up favorites I doubt we'll be able to visit any of them twice. Too much yummy food and too little time/stomach space. If you ever go there Ez highly recommends the mac & cheese, as well as the grilled cheese, and fries, and apple slices...he seriously ate all his food and Declan's. Bonus points that we were near enough the train tracks to see a pretty long freight train go by. It really doesn't get much better than that.

3) Sacramento does a great job of promoting small businesses and artists. We happened to come across a local arts and crafts fair and decided to stop by for a bit. There were tons of cute handmaid items and I had a hard time not buying something from each stall we stopped at. Afterward we went to the playground where Ez made a new friend who apparently likes playing with wood chips as much as he does. Fun for everyone.

4) Sacramento actually just changed its city motto from: "City of Trees" to "Farm to Fork Capital" - apparently this is pretty controversial if you're a local because many people were attached to the City of Trees, but Sacramento definitely does embody both of those things. There are a few really great farmers markets in the area, and tons of unique little restaurants with seasonal and local menus. Joe's Sunday tradition is to pick up about ten lbs of asian pears from the farmer's market (not exaggerating), which he usually does before the rest of us even wake up. But every now and then we go with him and we finally got around to taking Ez and Declan to the park right across the street.

5) The park has a huge lake, a space-themed playground, a community pool, and a huge open space on the other side of the lake which just happened to be the starting point for the March for Science that Declan and I went to over the weekend. I'm not sure why it took us so long to finally explore this park, but Ez and Declan loved it. Plenty of sand for Ez to dig around in, and lots of dangerous climbing things to suit Declan's interests. 

6) Last week our friends invited us to a food truck festival right down the street from our house. None of us actually ate any food, but it was a great community event with music, karaoke, and fun stuff for the kiddos, including inflatable bounce houses and slides that Ez couldn't get enough of and Declan couldn't get out of fast enough. Joe and I were surprised because Declan is usually our fearless little daredevil and Ez is more reserved but Ez took over the bounce house like he owned the place. And even though he had to maneuver and push his way to the front of the line for the slide, then scale a ladder that was pretty tall, he did the slide over and over and over again. I think we all slept well that night. 

I've said it before, and hopefully I'll say it again, but we're really loving this town. It's the perfect blend of city + nature + small town feel. Definitely a good fit for our family.