Tanaka Farms & The Great Park: School Field Trip

Savannahs Preschool went on a field trip to Tanaka Farms. Its kind of a tradition to go every season as they have several different tours: Watermelon Tour, Strawberry tour, Pumpkin Patch Tour and Christmas Tree tour, each of which include picking a recently grown item. This Pumpkin tour included a cart ride out to the fields. A petting zoo. The picking of vegtables: radishes, carrots, green beans and onions. There was a corn maze, a hay maze and a pumpkin patch. Pumpkin rule: you gotta be able to carry out the one you pick- kids included. This wasn't a problem for Savannah as she was set on getting a "Savannah-sized" pumpkin to go with the "mommy" pumpkin that was at home. Here on some pics from the day.

When we first got there Savannah couldn't friend her friend Kira... so she forced a smile for the Camera.

Aw and Kira was found.  They held hands for a long time.

Here are some of the kids from the school.  The preschool she is in has a 2 day class a 3 day class and a 4 day class.  Savannah is in 2 day.  This was an all school field trip so some of the kids aren't in her actual class.

Savannah and Kira chatting it up as up parents try to snap a couple good ones of most of the kids looking our way!

Aww- she has grown almost an inch since last month.  We started charting at home so she would have more of a visual motivator to eat her veggies- its been working- and shes been growing!

Sweet little Charlotte just hanging out in the stroller.  She wasn't too happy about missing a nap and made sure everybody knew it- but you could never tell from this pic of a "happy" moment.  Just love this pic!

Savannah in the hay maze.

The Pumpkin Savannah picked. 

This is the "Great Park" in Irvine.  Why have I never heard of this place?  The Carousel was/is FREE and so was a ride int hat giant Orange balloon- which they dressed up like a pumpkin for the month of October.  So cool!!

This little boys name is Griffin.  He was, coincidentally, in the same swim class as Savannah not long ago, and now he is in her class and seems to like her!

The view from the top- check out our balloon shadow!!  This park is built upon an old military airfield base that has been closed for years... its still growing and its pretty enormous!

Savannah rode the kitty twice along with the zebra and the tiger.  Poor Savannah she was so sad to get off it.  She was allowed to ride as many times as she wanted but was too short to ride without me, which meant I had to drag Charlotte along too.  The first few times I just held Charlotte in my arms, then I actually strapped her onto a horse and held her that way.  She seemed to love it.  But 4 times was just too much for her and I.  After that I was just done, and SICK.  Someone tell me a good brand of those balance bracelets because I need one!  I get so easily motion sick these days, yuck.  Charlotte got sick after too and actually threw up a bit, poor thing.  Savannnahs love and concern for Charlotte trumped her desire to get back on the carousel so we were able to go home!  Phew. Here she is riding the zebra!

Both girls feel asleep in the car on the way home- aw the peace of a quiet drive!

Get 'er Done, Cheer me on!

So we all have them; things we see everyday that we "plan to" change. I could make a list of a hundred things. I was sitting on the toilet thinking about this during my kids nap- not actually using the toilet, just sitting there. It seems as a perfectionist mom that the bathroom is the easiest room to have "perfect" as it is the smallest. So I'm sitting there and lo and behold- the nasty old overpainted dingy toilet paper holder is staring me down. I knew what I had to do- what I had many times told myself I would since the day we moved into this apartment 7 years ago... I was going to scrap and shiny that puppy up. With the use of a 99 cent store pair of tweezers for scraping and some goo gone and windex I went from this:

BEFORE

to this: AFTER

Thank you thank you.  Well it still wasn't perfect but it was much better.  Despite my perfectionism I have come to realize that the end result just has to be better than it was before... and this is... MUCH.  But why stop there.  While in the bathroom I recalled the nasty doornob.  Don't get me wrong I clean doorknobs often- sanitize that is, but scrub?  That was just one more thing on my list of  "I will get there".  Well today was the day.  

BEFORE

AFTER

Thank you thank you again!!!  Yes you can cheer for me all you want but nothing will compare to this little cheerleader I got to sit and play with when I was done.  Her cheers for my accomplishments (though unknown) were much appreciated!! 

Pumpkin Carving + Fun

Well I've been hyping it up to Savannah for a few days and Savannah just couldn't take it anymore- she was ready to carve a pumpkin.  Last year her and I did it together so I figured daddy should have a turn, and I could practice taking some pictures.  I have been so frustrated with my camera lately- not the camera fault but mine.  It seems to take forever to focus and I "miss" the moment I was hoping to capture.  I also don't like any pictures with the build it flash- I just dont like how they look.  Eventually getting a flasher that does indirect light would be best but I dont know much about it yet and dont want to spend any more $ until I know how to use the darn thing I have.  

Camera note: I set the camera to M (manual) and set the white balance to "shade".  I am not sure what exactly i set the shutter speed and aperature to but I think it was 1/80 and 5.0- the first pic I took shows that this setting made for too bright of a background so I adjusted the aperature I think to 8.0 (not allowing as much light in).  All the pics turned out a bit orange but I kind of like the sun-set-ty feel of them. 

The Pumpkin carving kit we got had a few template shapes for eyes and noses, Savannah was trying one on for size!

Belly Girl!!

How pokey are they? Not too bad!

Trying to learn depth of field- still haven't really figured it out yet.  Specifically want to learn how to take outside pictures with the background light looking like little circles- anyone?

I Love how this pic turned out.  I am much more of a "face" picture person and don't think to do other types but this is stretching me and I like the "story" in this picture.

Charlotte woke up and joined in the carving party

At this age everything goes straight to the mouth!

Again with my attempt to have JUST the bottom pumpkin in focus and everything else NOT... it didn't turn out how I had envisioned but I still liked it.

Finished Product- Great Job Dad!!

Signing Friends

So Savannah loves sign language and knows a lot of it.  I even plan to bring her to one of my classes to teach my students something that she is interested in, like animals.  She mostly uses sign with me at home during "signing time" aka "Charlottes nap time".  She uses it to supplement her speech when talking with others as well and is continually confused when people can't understand signs.  Ha.  Last week she had a long overdue playdate with her friend Carl who is Hard of Hearing. They had a blast!  Here are some pics of them having fun playing with Carls firetruck, Savannahs swim noodle and then finishing off a hot afternoon in the wading pools on the porch with Charlotte.

Carl waving to Savannah from across the porch

Notice that Savannah is watching his hands, waiting for him to say something. 

Carls toy firetruck that had many time outs because it kept getting thrown and not shared.

And the whacking game begins.

And continues

Love this pic...

This is called "parellel" play.  Two kids playing independently together.  So funny how, at this age, they just switch back and forth so often.  Savannah is just 4 months older than Carl.

And Charlottes is awake, it was hot so we busted out the pools. 

Peek a boo

Notice that Charlotte is peeking out from behind Carl.  Carl has a feeding tube attached to his stomach that you can see here.  Next week he is going to be admitted to CHOC in Orange for an entire month as part of an eating program/training that he got into.  Itll be intense for the whole family so we were glad we got to spend some "fun" time with him before he is in "lockdown" for a whole month.

Charlotte... arg

Carl and his dedicated momma Catherine Nylander.  Thanks Catherine for a fun day!

Raising Best Friends

So we are entering a new phase of child rearing in the Schuyler family. Charlotte is finally on the move and so her care is mostly survival: protect, feed, change, love. Savannah on the other hand needs more character building care, plus she is just a kid who loves to learn. I had her on the waiting list for a parent participation preschool where she would attend twice a week and two days a month I would be the instructor (teaching what I know- Sign Language). There was a slim chance of getting her in for this school year as she was #11 on the list. I, however, just got informed that there is space for her. So my "mundane days" of motherhood are over. 

Mondays we will have a Learning Links class. 

Tuesdays currently the girls are in swim class but that will soon end and will be replaced with one of two days of Savannahs new preschool class. 

Wednesday day is free but we have bible study Wednesday evenings. 

Thursday is preschool again.  

Friday I am attending a moms group at a local church. 

Don't Forget I teach every morning 7am-8am

Tutor generally on Sunday or Monday evenings

Have several bookkeeping clients whom I do monthly data entry, reports and reconciliations for.

AND I will have to teach one of Savannahs preschool classes every other week.

When I look at it like that and add the normal mothering (breakfast, lunch,dinner, laundry, dishes, nurse-duty, sanitizing, bathing, dressing etc etc etc) it does seem like a lot but I love having something to do everyday and having a schedule.  It does remind me of about 3 1/2 years ago when i just kept taking on more part time jobs.. I had 5 when I found out I was pregnant.  I tapered that down to just "stay at home mom" but after she was born but I found myself again seeking out stuff to do and ended up landing a teaching job and some bookkeeping work right before finding out I was pregnant again. Am I saying I'm pregnant again? No, but I am saying that I notice a pattern with myself... I get a little too ambitious and God slows me down and brings me back to whats really important: Family. So I got these two girls and despite how crazy my schedule may seem to become in the next few months I am determined to make it fun, carefree and encourage my girls to truely be best of friends.

My New Camera

So its here, the "nice" camera that Josh bought for me for my 29th birthday. I don't have a lot of time to learn how to use it but I have learned that I am going to probably want an external flash as my next gift! I am watching tutorials online to learn about the basics of photography. Come to find out that light is that biggest part of it all. I have learned that aperture controls the amount of light that goes into the lens and the depth of field (something I still cant really figure out). Shutter speed also controls how much light goes in along with the amount of blur made by moving things in the photo. I am trying to do everything OFF auto so as to learn how the camera actually works. I am hoping that this will be a fun adventure with some cute people as my main subjects: my kids! Here are some that I took of the girls!

Savannah  was laying on my lap here.

Thought this pic of Charlotte looked kind of old so tried to enhance that idea a bit

Learning about continuous shots I caught these on their way to a wail

Muffin Tin and Ice Cube Tray Meals: Making Eating Fun

So Savannah hasn't always been a good eater but lately she has been doing great. She is totally into RAW GREEN veggies... every mothers dream right? Well I saw this idea in some magazine awhile ago and have been using it randomly for the past few months. It was an ice cube tray filled with goodies.  I make her meals like this when I have a little of everything. 

I later learned of using muffin tins for the same purpose. Cool idea huh? Well from it I got my inspiration for the girls birthday theme this year. See Savannahs birthday is right around Thanksgiving and Charlottes is right around Christmas so this year I have decided to have a joint birthday party (Savannah will be 3 and Charlotte will be 1). I could have done a theme based on something one of the girls liked (Savannah: Little Einsteins, Signing Time, Super Why or anything Purple... Charlotte: Anything Sparkly or Red haha) But instead I decided I would do a more broad theme. I was thinking Butterflies and Flowers or Ladybugs and having two separate cakes but after this muffin tin lunch idea Im going to have a cupcake themed birthday for them.

My ideas so far: Cupcake invitations and e-vites. Cupcake shirts for the girls. Decorating cupcake shaped cookies. A cupcake mix with a whisk for party favors. One large cupcake shaped cake plus individual cupcakes of course. And lunches served in plastic to-go muffin containers with lids pre-filled with goodies. Still have more planning to do as the party wont be till mid December so if you have any other super cute cupcake themed ideas send them over!