Day One of Daddy/Daughter Spring Break!

Taylor has spring break this week, and in celebration, I decided to take Tu-Thu off so we could celebrate spring break together.  We kicked it off with a full lunar eclipse last night.

I tried to wake Taylor up to see the eclipse last night, but she was out like a rock.  AJ woke up and came down to look at it with me though.  He thought it was very neat, but the whole time we were looking at it, he was telling me a story about his dream with a headless horseman.  All-in-all, a good way to start Spring Break.

Today, we started painting Taylor's new dollhouse.  Turqoise and Purple are the colors she chose.

We painted the first coat over the majority of surfaces of the dollhouse.  Tomorrow is the second coat.  After that, we went out to pizza for lunch, where Taylor and I tested the limits of Round Table's 'All you can eat' lunch special.

Next, Taylor and Nicky went to JoAnns and bought sidewalk chalk and window markers and drew in the back yard.

Followed by a trip to Taekwondo with AJ.  Taylor got recognized today for having a great attitude in class and even got invited to the Black Belt class!  Congrats Taylor!

Now for Taylor's contribution -
Hello everyone, see that picture with me holding the balloons?  I really think it is a crack up because I hate ants and they were everywhere.  I managed to stay still for only 1 baby second after I saw 4 ants in my skirt, then I screamed very loud and ran into the pool and brushed the ants off.  Today at pizza I ate 10 slices of pizza and 5 cinnamon buns.  I did not barf them up even after we got home!   Now Andrew stole my crystalize markers and is wasting them.  Pesky brothers!  Well I better go get them back... done.  He is only drawing bobble heads. It is annoying 'cause Mom is on a 5 month diet and she ate almost all of my candies.  Lol!  Well bye!

See you all tomorrow for day 2.

Disa has been badly injured!

Hello internet! Taylor here.
I am 7 years old and my 33 year old fish, Disa, had a VERY bad accident.  She fell into a porcupine, got cut with 1,000 swords, a bear chased her and she fell into a fire.  We are here in the emergency room, the computers are for x-rays and the sound control is for listening to Disa's heart.  We hired 6 doctors to help and it is mine and AJ's turn to help.  We are looking for what is wrong.  It has been reported all 4 of her kids have been hurt when we had the fun dance.  Disa was not injured at the fun dance because she was not at the dance.  She went to market and crossed the forest and went through the army and the porcupine village.

Now we are looking on the computer to see her brain... uh oh!  Each doctor said she will be blind and deaf but what is this?!  She knows what we said so she is not blind or deaf.  Hurray she is a-ok!

 Back to Daddy!

Swim season is starting again soon, and I'm not really looking forward to it.  Nicky and I made a deal that on swim meet mornings, I would stay home with AJ and she will take Taylor to the meets.  Let's see how well that works out.  I have a feeling I'll be taking her before too long.  I told Taylor that I wouldn't mind taking her if she has a passion for it.  I want to see her really caring about swimming, and I'll be 100% supportive.  But last year we often had to force Taylor to go to practices, and there was even a meet where she refused to swim.  Hopefully this year, she really keeps a great attitude about swimming, I know she can be an amazing swimmer if she really wants to be.

Speaking of swimming, AJ has been very timid about swimming, and he hasn't learned to be water safe yet.  Now that we have a pool, it's very important that he learn to swim, otherwise summer is going to be a nightmare for me and Nicky.  I told him that if he is able to swim by the end of May, we will take him and Taylor to Disneyland in June.  He's very motivated by this, and has even asked to go swimming.  When we get in the water, he does "sticky pillow" and "push offs".  I think he'll be swimming like a fish before we know it.

Also, from now on, the style of these blog posts is going to be different.  Taylor is going to write the blog with me, so hopefully, you'll have get some Taylor news, as well as some Daddy news.  Hope you enjoyed the Disa story, and pray for a speedy recovery for our favorite clown fish.

Taylor's First Taekwondo Tournament

Quick update, just wanted to post it so I don't forget.  Taylor had her first Taekwondo tournament this past weekend, and she was the only white belt to earn a medal (3rd).  She was super excited and did a great job.

They had me hold one of the boards for her, and I was surprised at just how hard she hits a board!

White belts!

So, it's tomorrow (plus a few days) and the promised photo update is ready and attached below.  The big news lately is the kids and I have started doing Taekwondo.  In the past I've disparaged TKD as not a "true" art, but at this point, anything that gets me exercise and a shared experience with the kids is a great thing, so I'm in!

4 months?

I can't believe it's been 4 months since my last update. Tomorrow I will add pictures and do a full update. Today, I want to summarize some highlights.

In October Taylor switched to her new school and new class.  At first she really liked it, but lately she hasn't been fond of her new class. She says she doesn't have friends in her new class and I wonder if we did the right thing by switching her mid year. Today was her half birthday and she brought rainbow cupcakes to class. She came home excited and said everyone loved her for it, so maybe this is the beginning of a turn around.

For Christmas AJ got a new riding car and he drives it as much as he can. To the park, Taylor's school, everywhere he can. He's still going to Claire's but I don't think he likes it much. He gets in trouble sometimes.

The kids two favorite movies are frozen and the Lego movie. It's very fun to take them to a movie, they absolutely love seeing movies and it's a whole adventure for them.

More tomorrow, it's late now.

Moving Schools and Touching Snails!

First off - Nicky is supposed to figure out the camera situation, and hopefully I can add some pictures to this blog soon, or at least to the next post.  Now on to the news!

Taylor is excited to switch schools.  We were on a waitlist for her to go to our local school, so for the past 2 months we've been driving her across Folsom to attend Folsom Hills.  Great school, but we're excited for her to go locally again.  Also, this school is close enough that she can ride her bike there, which she is very excited for.  She met her teacher, and her principal, and they both seem very nice.  I'm personally excited because this school is not Spanish magnet.  Not that I don't appreciate learning the second language, but I'm concerned that it takes away time from classes like Science and Math.

As for Andrew, he has been riding his bicycle everywhere.  Once he became comfortable riding his bike, he is always willing to take a ride.  We often go to Winco in the morning for donuts.  He's getting good at looking both ways and even likes to do little tricks like no-hand riding.

He's got such a great temperament, always willing to help out, wanting to learn about the pool pump and helping clean the filters.  Both he and Taylor have been playing lots of Agricola Big and Small, as well as Carcassonne.  They also ask for "Big Agricola" and we occasionally play that too.

Nicky and I have started running again, 2x per week.  It's been too long, so almost like starting over.  I need to get back into the water and on the bike, for more than just my ride to work.  Hopefully by the next update I'll have more fitness updates to share.

About a month ago, I was referred to a Financial Blog Mr Money Mustache.  I was doing some of this stuff before, but the guy is a genius.  Retired at 30 by making lots of little decisions every day that add up to big money. Nicky has been really on-board for this, and we've made lots of changes as a group:

Turned Thermostat up to 82 (From 78) (Saved $110 over past 2 Julys)
Riding Bike to work (Reduced daily mileage from 14 miles to 0) (Saved $150 @ $.50/ Mile)
Free Gym Membership (In addition to Nicky's extra income) (Saved $160)
Bringing Lunches from home (Target $1.50 per meal) (Saved $130)
Got rid of pest Co, DIY (Saved $30)

I'm sure there are more, but these are the big ones that come to mind.  That's almost $600 in savings PER MONTH!  On top of this, I found a good reasonably safe investment to put the money into.  We've set a goal that we want to be PMI Free by Sep 2015.  Thanks Mr Money Mustache!

We're getting ready to move to our new house, after some trials and tribulations, it looks like we're going to move in a couple weeks.  Exciting times, the new house has everything we could want and will last us a long time as long as we take good care of it.  Pool, Jacuzzi, outdoor fireplace, all great stuff!

Taylor got a brand new bike for her birthday, and she loves it.  We got it on Sunday and she's ridden her bike to school twice this week already.  We explained to the kids that driving your car hurts the earth a little bit each time, and they both are even more interested in riding than before.  Little environmentalists!

Last new update - Soccer Season has just started, and both AJ and Taylor are on teams this year.  We'll have to see how they do, but it's going to be long Tues/Thurs for a few months.  AJ is super excited.