Noah, model extrodinaire!

Dinner out with Grandpa Toby & Grandma Daune

We don't get to see Jason's grandparents that often so when we do, we have so much fun! We met for dinner and the kids were hilarious. When we sat down, I was a little nervous, it was an upscale Italian restaurant and there were no color crayons or pictures to keep them occupied. I was really impressed when our waitress came and brought a plate of fresh pizza dough for each of them. How fun is that! Of course, Emma set to sculpting animals, her pick of the night was a snail. Noah on the other hand had just gotten a new haircut and I spiked the front with gel. He was so proud of his new hairdo that he became a model. About every 5 seconds he would say, "Mommy, mommy... CHEEEESE!" Expecting me to take a picture. The poor people in the restaurant must have hated us because my flash was going off about every 30 seconds for awhile! He even modeled with his pizza. He also kept touching his spiky hair to make sure that it was still stiff. When we went outside and the breeze was blowing, he said to Jason, "Oh no daddy, my spiky hair! It will go flat!" I've never seen him like that before, so, vain! It was hilarious!

Easter!

Emma and Noah were so excited for Easter! They love egg hunting and of course, chocolate! Emma loves her Easter dress, which is a surprise. It is the only one she would try on at the store because it was pink and green her 2 very favorite colors. When we were shopping for dresses at the store I would hold up each dress that I saw and the conversation pretty much went like this, "Nope, nope, nope, those are not pretty at all, I kind of like polka dots, but no, yuck, that looks itchy, do I have to get a dress! No, no, well that one looks okay it has pink and green, fine! I'll try it on, but I might not like it!" Well obviously she did like it, yay! One point for mommy!

I love the boyness of Noah, he doesn't care what he's wearing, never complains, well except if it's a halloween costume, no silly costumes for him, but other than that he's pretty easy. He loved egg hunting! What an adventure! He would constantly say, "Where is it, momma, where is the next egg!" I would say, "I don't know where the bunny hid them, Noah." Then he'd say, "Oh, okay, I go find them!" then he usually gives a little yelp of joy and runs.

We went to church in the morning, then hunted for our eggs, then went to Grandma and Grandpa Murphy's for dinner. It was really fun! My brother and his family came and the kids had a really fun egg hunt with over 100 eggs to find! It was also my birthday so my mom bought me a Marie Calendars strawberry pie. Yum!

Gina's pre-Birthday dinner!

Okay, so I love my kids and think that they are the cutest things in the whole world. I'm just excited because when Emma heard that we were going out to dinner for mommy's birthday, she wanted her hair fancy. If you know anything about my darling daughter, she is more of a ...Tom Boy. She doesn't play with dollies, she doesn't prefer to wear dresses, and doing hair is something mommy does so that it doesn't fly into her face when she's wrestling with Noah. I was shocked when she asked me if I could curl her hair! Well here she is in her in all her curly glory!

We went out to dinner with my sweet mom and 2 of our very best friends, Amanda & Jeremy and their very cute new baby Tyler! Emma and Noah's favorite restaurant is the Elephant Bar, so it didn't take much prompting to get me to choose that as my birthday destination. Personally I just go for the huge cookie sundae! After dinner my mom watched the kids and we went to see the new movie 10,000 B.C. It was pretty good, a lot like a mix of a whole bunch of other movies we've seen recently. I can't believe that movie tickets are now $10 a piece. This cemented Jason's reason for our purchase of a movie theater screen for our house with 7 speaker surround sound. Yah, we're movie renters now for sure! Mom and Dad Zwinggi bought us a mini vintage movie theater popcorn maker for our theater room and we have couches in rows to watch our movies. No more $10 movie tickets for me! We did have a really good time though.

The True Meaning of Easter

We love holidays in our home! Easter is no exeption. Painting eggs is always lots of fun, especially when mom puts on Bob Marley music in the background, how can you not groove! The kids love mixing colors and exploring new mediums, Jason and I are happy to ablige. The best part about this particular egg dying kit was that it came with a packet of glitter, our eggs were spectacular! The best part of our evening though, was asking the kids why we celebrate Easter. Emma promptly responded, "Oh mom, you know, it's because Jesus died for us and then came back to life 3 days later and he's still living today! He died so that we can come back to live in heaven with Him. He loves us so much mom! I thought you knew that!" Well apparently I was told!

Noah isn't as articulate as Emma, yet, but I got a "Jesus Christ" out of him. I'm just so proud that even with all of the commercialism of popular holidays, my children are learning what is really important!

I love this picture because it shows Noah's enthusiasm for...well... EVERYTHING! He is so excited to experience new things and this was new for him because he was too young to remember doing it last year. And Emma... well, Emma just loves to be a goofball!

Disneyland was a Blast!

March 7th:

We left for Disneyland early in the morning on the 7th of March and got there by noon. We went on some of our favorites, it was a little busy. Pirates of the Carribbean was definitely one of the kids favorites this year, Buzz Lightyear Astroblasters, Emma loves the Haunted Mansion, Winnie the Pooh, the Jungle Cruise, and of course The Enchanted Tiki Room. Yes, I know that we've gone here every year for the past 3 years, but it's exciting every year because the kids can go on more rides and discover things they never knew before. This year was especially fun because Noah can recognize some of the characters and was really excited about the rides. Both of the kids loved the castle! We left a little early so that we could go to dinner at Marri's. It is a little hole in the wall authentic Italian restaurant that Jason and I found a couple of years back. It is on the corner of Katella and Walnut? I think. We just go there for their Bruschetta which is $8 for a small plate, but well worth it. We ended our day driving to Whittier to visit Jason's Grandma Cindy. The kids had fun getting to know her again and playing with her dog Charro.

March 8th and 9th:
When can our family go on vacation and not have to go to the Emergency Room?!? When I find out I'll let you know! On Saturday morning Noah started looking a little lethargic and was running a fever. He was definitely not Noah! So, we found a random E.R. and yes, mommy knows best, he had a really bad ear infection and awful hacking cough. So we started antibiotics. On Saturday night he started perking up a bit so we went to dinner with some of Cindy's friends, sister, and mother. Oh my, Emma was so excited to meet a Great Great Grandma. She was practically glued GGGrandma Marie all evening! I think one of the favorite things that the kids did was to pick avocados from Grandma's tree. They picked about 60 or so and we took 36 of them home with us! They can't wait to see Great Grandma Cindy again!

March 10th:

On Monday morning we headed back to Disneyland with Gusto! Every year we make reservations through Disney Dining at the Minnie and Friends breakfast. The all you can eat breakfast buffet is so yummy and the best part is that the characters come to your table to get pictures while you eat! The Belgian waffles are shaped like Mickey mouse heads and there is a bar to put strawberries, whipped cream, and chocolate on it, I think that is our favorite part. The yummiest thing I tasted was home made whipped cream with bananas blended in and toasted pralines. The breakfast is a bonus for all of us!

March 11th:

We had such a fun time as a family on this vacation. I think it was because both the kids are all potty trained and can carry on a conversation. It made standing in lines a little easier for us all when we could joke around. We had fun visiting Disney's California Adventure. We found Noah's very favorite ride... Monsters Inc. He absolutely loves the movie and now the ride is the epitomy of that. There were no lines so we rode is about 6 times in a row. His favorite character is Mike Wyzowskie, the little one eyed green monster. Every time Noah sees him, he busts up laughing. They have an animation room in DCA that you can sit in front of a magic mirror and answer a few questions about yourself, then it will tell you which Disney character you are most like. It was hilarious...Jason is "Cogsworth" the clock on Beauty and the Beast, Gina is "Lady" from Lady and the Tramp, Emma is "Ariel" from the Little Mermaid (smart, headstrong, independent, adventurous), and Noah is "Mu Shu", from Mulan (totally silly and goofy all the time, the little guy trying to make it big!)

Here is Emma & her favorite princess Ariel. She's not a huge fan of the princesses, she likes Ariel because she is part fish and Emma really likes animals, go figure! This was a really funny moment for Emma. Emma turned 5 on march 2nd and so someone gave her a birthday button to wear at Disneyland. Ariel asked her how old she was so Emma said, "I'm 5!" "Oh," Ariel said, "that means you're not a guppy anymore!" I thought Emma was going to fall down, she was laughing so hard, she thought it was the funniest thing anyone had ever said to her! She liked it better than when the Mad Hatter told her that he was very sad that it was her birthday because unbirthday's were so much better. She was pretty upset about that one until we explained it to her.

Toon Town was exciting for the kids because they got to meet Mickey Mouse! Toon town was fun until we took Emma on Gadget's Go Coaster, the mini roller coaster. Noah loved it! Emma cried the whole time. She also didn't like Splash Mountain. The drop was too much for her. Oh, well at least she tried. I wish Noah was a few inches taller, he wanted to go on everything, he is without fear at the moment!

Okay, so we couldn't help ourselves. We tried on a whole bunch of silly hats throughout the day, but this won hands down. The kids love Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Carribbean! They saw these hats with dreads and had to try them on. Of course, the hats got them excited about being pirates again and when they thought of the ride, we had to go on it again. I think we must have gone on the Pirate ride about 20 times over our vacation time. Oh well, Jason and I love it too!

March 12th:

So we decided to take a Disney break and went to Hunington Beach for the day. Cold and windy! So we took the kids to the Aquarium of the Pacific and had a pretty good time. The kids favorite sea creature of the day were the jelly fish with the bat rays a close 2nd. We got back to Anaheim for dinner at the Rainforest Cafe and then had dessert at Tiffy's diner (the homemade carmel ice cream with pralines is so good!)

March 13th:

Today we went to LegoLand for all of our 1st time. There were no lines, so we got on all of the rides immediately. The park is geared toward kids from 3-7 I would say. Emma and Noah rode on a couple of little roller coasters and Emma decided that she loved them! Everything was made out of Legos! I liked miniland the best. I thought it was so cool how they recreated parts of the United States Cities with Legos. I loved mini San Francisco. It was fantastic. I later found out that they used over 20 million Legos to create miniland. The best part about the whole day though, was when we sat down to eat lunch in a quiet spot in the park my phone rang. Jason grabbed it and looked at the number. I didn't recognize it offhand so he didn't answer it. All of a sudden I realized that it was a new phone and I didn't know how to check my phone messages yet so he needed to answer it. He handed the phone to me and I got the best call I could have gotten. It was the Montessori school that we were trying to get Emma into, telling me that Emma was accepted into their school. It is a Kindergarten through 8th grade school. I was so excited and relieved. To get in was a lottery system and there were probably about 80 applications for 20 spots. We are so blessed. So I told the lady that I definitely wanted one of the spaces for Emma. The funny thing is that not even 5 seconds after I ended the call my phone went completely dead! I was so lucky to have gotten that call. It lifted up Jason and my whole week. We do not like the school district that we live in and we were denied an inter-district transfer the day before we left for vacation. You do not need a transfer to get into a Montessori program. Anyway, we had a great rest of the day and celebrated by going to Claim Jumper for dinner and ordering our favorite dessert there, the chocolate chip calzone!

March 14th:

This was our last day at Disneyland and it was packed. It was Disneyland's 1st day of Spring Break and we noticed. The only reason that we braved the crowds again was because Emma had discovered roller coaster and was itching to ride some more. We took her on Thunder Mountain Railroad and Noah even made the height requirement for the Matterhorn. Our kids are roller coaster addicts now! I'm excited that we have season passes for 6 Flags Discovery Kingdom, I think we'll get a lot of use out of them.

Well, here is the official Zwinggi Blog... I'll try to update often. It might go slow at first, I'm still getting my blogging feet wet!