Happy Easter 2008

We hope you had a wonderful Easter with family or friends. We started off our day with Easter Sand Buckets for the boys after breakfast. We then headed off to church for service followed by an Easter Egg Hunt that included cousin Grace and our friends Brandon and Julia. We soon headed home to make the final preparations for our family Easter celebration and Egg Hunt. We basically had the same people over from last year which comprised of 24 adults and 12 kids. It's definitely a full house and backyard, but nothing beats having so much family around you especially on special occasions.

This time of the year, our backyard's natural landscaping is at its best, just perfect for an Easter celebration and egg hunt. The nasturtiums take a beating with 11 kids rummaging through seeking plastic eggs (1 month old cousin Isaiah was too young to join in). Fortunately they are hardy plants and will spring back from the stomping, which is inevitable when you have close to 200 eggs to be found. It was a beautiful day and most enjoyable with the ringing of children's laughter around us.

Prior to Easter Sunday, the boys had a couple of other Easter events which included making Easter cupcakes and coloring Easter Eggs. The previous blog included events from their egg hunt at Santee lakes. There are two photo albums since we had so many events that revolved around Easter. Easter 2008 includes events that prepared us for Easter as well as our church egg hunt. The 2nd album includes pictures from our Easter party at our house. Click on the photos to see more... enjoy!

Easter 2008

Happy Easter Sunday Egg Hunt Party

Early Easter Egg Hunt at Santee Lakes

For the 2nd year in a row, we went to the Santee Lakes Egg-stravaganza. Cousin Isabel joined us this year, since she was still sleeping over for Spring Break. There are a lot of things to do at this big family event, some of which includes amusement rides, bounceys, petting zoos and craft projects, aside from an egg hunt. It's not cheap (except for the egg hunt which only cost $.50) but it's plenty of entertainment for the kiddies.

This year, they had two areas for egg hunts, one for the 3 years old and under and the other for the 4-8 years old. Since Isabel is 5, Leyton joined her in the 4-8 years old group to keep her company (since he can pass for a 4 year old easily). Leyton also joined Lincoln in the 3 and under group, so he got double the fun. Instead of filling each plastic egg like last year, this year the eggs were empty but when returning the eggs, each child received a treat bag full of goodies. The best part of the egg hunt that we appreciate the most is that instead of just giving out candy, they include coupons for stores and restaurants for things like a free kids yogurt or kids meal. Now that is definitely worth the $.50 and time waiting for their egg-hunt to start (coded wrist bands are assigned for each time slot so that there's a limit to how many kids per egg hunt).

After participating in the egg hunts and creating fun crafts like marshmallow bunnies, pine cone bird feeders and frosting cookies, the kids each cooled down with snow cones. It's a good thing they had those snow cones because it was a record breaking hot March day (temp in the low 80's). We recommend this event to any family as long as you come early and leave by 1 PM before it gets too crowded. We also recommend that you park outside of the lakes and walk in since there is only 1 lane around the entire Santee Lakes. As you can imagine, traffic doesn't move to fast when you are getting in or out, so parking outside can save you some money and time.

Click on the photo below to see more photos of our day at the Santee Lakes Egg-stravaganza!

Santee Lakes Egg Hunt

It feels like Summer... break out the swimsuits!

We are currently going through a little heat wave, so much that it feels like it's summer already. Leyton's preschools are on Spring Break for 2 weeks, so we are enjoying as much outdoor fun as we can squeeze in. Since it was also Spring Break for cousins Isabel and Joe, we planned to have them stay over. Isabel stayed with us for 2 nights, starting last night (Thursday). We picked her up in time to join us for Leyton's soccer class in the late afternoon. Today, we decided to head to the water to cool off from all the heat around our area. After Leon got home from work (only a half day for him), we headed to Coronado Ferry Landing so that the kids could play in the sand and water.

Even though there was a slight breeze at Coronado, it was still beautiful and sunny and at times pretty hot when the breeze stopped. The kids were decked out in their swim clothes, but only Isabel really tampered in the water. The boys just got their feet wet a little, but they all dove right into the sand and were building and digging anything and everything. It was definitely a refreshing break from the heat in our neck of the woods and a great idea to head coastal for some cooler but sunny conditions.

Click on the photo to see more pictures from their day at the Coronado Ferry Landing.

Cousin Isabel Sleepover

Hanging out at Solano Beach with a dear friend!

Today we spent the afternoon at Solano Beach with Linda's old high school friend Jason. He was visiting from Chicago (IL), where he just recently moved to in October. It's always nice to visit with friends, but it's especially nice to see Jason since he's one of Linda's closest friends since 1986 (freshmen in high school). Can't believe it's been almost 22 years of friendship... invaluable! Jason is one of the most intelligent people I (Linda) know and I completely respect his outlook and opinions and value our conversations. It's not often that we get to spend time with the people that have made such a difference in our lives. There are those few people out there that build a friendship with you that no matter how much time or distance has come between you, the moment you see each other again, it's as if time had never passed.

Thanks for a great day at the beach, Jason! The boys loved it too!

Legoland

On St. Patrick's Day, Linda and the boys went to Legoland for the first time. Leyton's been before, but he was barely 1 years old and couldn't do much, so we don't really count that time. We got discount tickets through Leyton's preschool, only $9 each instead of $49+. It was a beautiful day and we had a good time. I (Linda) only wish that I had one other adult with me, so that one of us could go on some of the rides Leyton, since most of them did not allow Lincoln because of his size.

Leyton's really into Legos lately, even the Bionicles. Leyton would've spent all day at the centers where you can use all the available Legos to build what ever you wanted, if I let him. Lincoln likes to build things too, but some of the pieces are still a bit small for him to manipulate well.

We are going back again on Monday, this time with Leon, so hopefully Leyton will be able to enjoy more rides this time.

Here are a couple of pictures from our day at Legoland, click on the photo to go our web album:

Legoland

Date Night/Babysitting Exchange

On Saturday, March 15th, we officially started our Date Night/Babysitting exchange with our friends Gretchen & Larry (and their kids, Brandon & Julia). In order to keep a healthy relationship with your spouse, it's highly recommended that you make the time to have alone time (Date Nights). I once heard that although our kids are the biggest priority in our lives, especially as a stay at home Mom, it is essential to still always make your spouse your 1st priority. If you don't nurture the relationship with your spouse, you hinder your family relationship as a whole. So with that in mind, we set out to make a change. As a family, we spend a lot of time together, doing a lot of activities that we all enjoy together. The kids go everywhere with us, because fortunately they have the temperament to be able to go everywhere with us and enjoy the things we do as well. Unfortunately, that doesn't leave for much one on one time, which is to our own fault. We have our occasionally monthly Poker Nights with a handful of parents like us, which allows us about 4 hours of adult companionship. But that is not a real date night. Date night is one on one time, and is not supposed to include going to the movies. It's not easy to get a babysitter, in our case family (since we have yet to pay for a babysitter) to watch the kids on a regular routine basis. Date nights are recommended once a week, but that's not possible with our schedule and situation. Fortunately our friends Gretchen and Larry are in similar predicaments and after discussing our options, we agreed that we could try out alternating Date Nights and Babysitting. It works out even better because their kids our close in age to our kids and therefore play well together.

We started the rotation Babysitting (we were supposed to do a Date Night the week before but the kids were sick, so we cancelled, it happens). In about a week, we will be going on our first Date Night Exchange, let you know how that goes. Our babysitting night went well without any problems. We only pray that our kids will be as good when they are at their house.

We are pretty excited to at least have this opportunity to increase the amount of Date Nights in our schedule. Although it may be once every other week, it's still much better than what we had before (none at all). If you are a parent out there with a similar situation and don't go out on much date nights, try finding another family and see if you can work out the exchange. Family is very important, but don't forget to keep the strength in the foundation of your family, you and your spouse!

Click below to see photos!

Date Nights with Friends

Leyton's playing Soccer again...

Leyton started a new session of Little Rascalz Soccer today. This time, the class is not far from our house and he's got some friends in the class with him (Brandon and Drake). At first he was reluctant about playing in the class again, he wanted to play on a soccer team just like last fall. We wanted him to play a sport again, but didn't want to play in the soccer league he played in previously (Daddy and Mommy needed a break after coaching and being team Mom). It just so happened that Brandon was planning on playing with Little Rascalz this season, and since Leyton had a great time last Spring, we thought this would be a fun for them to play together.

The time to leave for class cuts close to when Leyton wakes up from his nap, so today was a bit challenging getting him to class. He was a bit slow at first, but once he "woke up" he started to really run around and have fun with the games in the class. Maybe we'll opt to skip the nap on class days and see how that goes.

Any case, it was great to see him having so much fun running around and kicking the ball, just like he has in the past. Lincoln is such a soccer fanatic, it was challenging to keep him off the playing field. He's quite driven to want to play, if only he was old enough. He's only 20 months and the class is for 3-5 years old. Leyton actually played last Spring before he turned 3 and adapted very well. If they had a league for little toddlers like Lincoln, we'd sign him up. You can give him the ball and point him in the right direction and he would dribble and dribble and dribble until you told him to stop. It will be interesting to see which of the 2 boys will be more into soccer, right now Lincoln is leading in that category. Not to say that Leyton doesn't like soccer, they both actually like playing a wide rage of sports (soccer, baseball, golf, basketball and tennis) most of which can be played in our back yard, except for tennis (for now). After soccer class today, the boys (Leon included) came to Linda's tennis match and gave cheers and support. They both also got to play around on the tennis court (yes, they both have their own racquets), but Leyton's much more into playing then Lincoln (for now, of course Lincoln's still a bit small to hold the racquet well). Maybe tennis will be one of Leyton's favorites, only time will tell.

Here are some pictures from soccer class today. Click on the photo to enjoy!

Leyton's Little Rascalz Soccer

A fun afternoon with cousin Cristina

Leon's cousin Cristina was visiting from New York during her winter break from teaching. We were fortunate to have caught up with her on a rainy afternoon (2/22/08) at Dave & Busters (restaurant and indoor gaming facility for both kids and adults, in case you haven't heard of them). She was in town traveling with 2 of her friends, heading back to NY the next day. Since we couldn't do our favorite outdoor San Diego attractions due to the rain, we decided to meet up at a place that we knew for sure that we (especially the kids) would all have fun... and we were right! Although it was a short visit, it is always great to see family, especially those who live far away. Maybe next time, she'll consider staying at our place.

Weekend Sleepover with Cousin Isabel

It doesn't happen often enough with our schedule, but we do our best to find some time to have one of the Wirschem cousins sleepover at our house. We know it's tough on Leon's dad (Lee) to raise 4 kids (with Barbara's help), so to give them a break every once in a while is hopefully some kind of relief for them.

During President's Day weekend, we had Isabel (5 years old) stay over with us for 3 nights. Both Leyton and Lincoln love to play with Isabel. In fact, Isabel was one of the first names that Lincoln could say easily (he'd say it every time he saw her picture on our frig). The kids played in our yard most of the time, but we were able to get in an afternoon at the tide pools in La Jolla (just south of the Wedding Bowl where we got married). It was great for Isabel, since it was her first time ever to a tide pool. And Lincoln enjoyed it more this time since he is a very confident walker (and even runner at times). As for Leyton, he loves the tide pools and always wants to go back. Nothing too exciting discovered other than spotting a Garibaldi in some seaweed, but the kids still had fun.

We had dinner over at Linda's parent's house one evening and played around in their backyard. On President's Day, Leon, Leyton and some of Leon's co-worker friends met up at Lake Jennings (Lakeside, CA) for some early morning fishing. The rest of us met up with them for lunch by the lake. You can see some pictures of Leyton's big catch in the slide show on the right column of the blog.

Spring Break is coming up and maybe we'll be able to have some of the kids over for a short stay. Here are some pictures from Isabel's weekend with us, click on the link to enjoy!

Weekend with Cuz Isabel

A day in the snow in San Diego

Back on February 15th, we decided to finally head up to Mt. Laguna to try to play in whatever snow we could find. We had a handful of rain storms come through San Diego in the past week and we could still see a couple of white cap mountains from our deck facing east. So we headed east on I-8 and found about 6 inches of snow still on the ground in the Mt. Laguna area, which is about 45 minutes from our house.

So we bundled up the kids and hit an open area of snow unoccupied by the handful of other snow patrons that were also out on a Friday afternoon. We brought our red sled/toboggan and a Spider-Man snow tube, with a rope tote attached to help make it easier to pull up the hill.

Leyton had a great time tubing down the hill all by himself. He would've gone all day without stopping if we didn't force him. He's definitely at the point of a "no fear" mentality these days, practically going kamikaze down the hills with no worries of trees or crashing. And of course playing in the snow always includes snow ball fights and building a snowman, which he is also crazy about too.

Lincoln is not as confident in the snow play but definitely has an interest in the tubing and snow ball fights already. He also found the taste of snow to be attractive, as his big brother showed him the way.

It was wonderful to be out in the snow, semi-bundled up and then be able to be home to 70 degree weather in 45 minutes... the life of a San Diegan. This was great warm-up for the boys as we prepare for a short weekend trip to Big Bear Mtn. (Los Angeles crest) at the end of March. They had snow for a while, but the weather's been warming up, so we figure the ground snow will probably be gone by the time we get there. But we heard that they'll keep the man-made snow going until April, which is good enough for snow tubing. The last 2 years, the weather was similar when we took our annual snow trip, but both times we were lucky to have a snow storm hit during the time that we were up in the mountains. So we'll keep our fingers crossed for this time.

Here are some photos from our day in Mt. Laguna... enjoy!

Snow Day at Mt. Laguna

Leyton's 1st Valentine's

Leyton celebrated his first true Valentine's this year, which included giving and receiving valentine's from his classmates at both his preschools. At this age, the whole giving of valentine's is so innocent, at least for most. Leyton doesn't quite know what a girlfriend is, he just knows that he has friends who are girls. Of course you give a valentine to both the girls and boys in the class. Girls got the Disney version and the boys got the Transformers. Leyton doesn't know the true meaning behind Valentine's yet, but he sure did love getting all the cards and treats that came along with them!

Hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day!

Disneyland with cousins on 2/10/08

Since we were already in Orange County for the New Year celebration, we decided to use the 3rd day of our 3-day Park Hopper at Disneyland. After a long day partying with family, we caught up with Linda's college buddy (Grace) and crashed at her place. Sunday morning, we headed to Disneyland where we met up with Linda's cousins Hong and Michael (and his family). This was the first time together at Disneyland for the San Diego littlest cousins Maddy, Leyton, Abby and Lincoln (in chronological order from age 4-1).

It was precious to see the kids enjoying the happiest place on earth together for the first time. Reminds Linda of the many family trips with Hong/Michael's family throughout her youth! This trip to Disneyland is one of the many family trips to come for both our kids.

One a side note to our trip, Disneyland proved to really be the "Happiest Place on Earth" for us! We had lost our new camcorder (bought in Oct) at the end of our last visit to Disneyland in January. The camcorder was inside our Baby bag/backpack, which we think we might have left on the tram ride to the car while leaving or in the parking lot. We had filed a report but never received the call that it was found. We took a chance and checked with Lost & Found, and low and behold after a long period of waiting, the lady came out with our camcorder in hand, all in tact with video from our 1st trip to Disneyland in January. The bag was lost, but we recovered the most valuable piece from the bag, not just for the camcorder itself, but the memories from the video of the kids enjoying Disneyland for the 1st time in their life - PRICELESS!

Click on photo below to go to photo album.

Disneyland #2

Celebrating - Year of the Rat

Starting Feb. 7th, we started the celebration of the Chinese/Vietnamese Lunar New Year, a celebration that goes on for 4 days. We went to a special family reunion with Linda's side of the family on Saturday, Feb. 9th in Orange County. The reunion has become especially enjoyable as there are 13+ littlest cousins all under the age of 5. It's even more special when you catch them all dressed up in a traditional Vietnamese outfit in celebration of the New Year.

This year, we brought our Safari bouncer (we've gotten our money's worth from that thing) to the party and of course it was quite a hit with the kids. Most of the cousins are in the southern California area, but some traveled from as far as Wisconsin. It was a great time visiting with family (close to 50 total counting the kids) and we were especially proud of Leyton as he was able to correctly and clearly speak in Vietnamese when saying "Happy New Year" (Chuc Mung Nam Moi) and "Thank You" (Cam On???).

Enjoy the photos! Chuc Mung Nam Moi!

Super Star Leyton

On Wednesday (2-6-08), Leyton was chosen to be the class Super Star. He is the Super Star all day in class and gets special priviledges, and the best part for him is that he gets to take home Biscuit (the stuffed dog) for a couple of days.

As part of his priviledge of taking home Biscuit, he gets to share with the class what he did with Biscuit while he was with him, by writing his story in a journal (Mommy helps). As you will see in the photos, Biscuit naps with Leyton, plays with him, goes to the store, helps cook, watched Leyton get his haircut and he got to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year (Year of the Rat) with our family. Leyton gave Biscuit a red envelope that contained lucky money inside for the New Year. Biscuit goes back to school Friday morning.

What a great idea/program for the kids in class. They each randomly are drawn from a basket and get a turn to be the Super Star for a day in class. It's so beautiful to see how happy and proud Leyton felt when his name was called. Just a reminder that we should always try to make every kid feel special, what ever the occassion may be. It brings out such true joy from their heart!

Super Bowl XLII

Well the Chargers didn't make the Super Bowl, but we still decided to have a Super Bowl party. We were joined by our family and friends, totalling approximately 35 people (includes 16 kids, adults barely out numbered them). The game was most exciting in the 4th quarter and amazingly the Giants pulled out a win.

Unfortunately it was raining most of the day, so the kids couldn't play outside. But no worries, there was plenty to play with in the house!