scooting through march

We said good-bye to the cousins Friday. And despite the fact that Addie and Angus messed with their stuff and tormented them every chance they got, they really loved staying with us. There were tears and big hugs as they departed but we will see them again soon. Cannot wait to meet their new little brother, my new nephew who was born March 7th at 8 pounds, 6 ounces. Johanes Louis Maximus Wagenbrenner. Never have I heard a stronger name. =) 

It was also my birthday Friday! This is my birthday present. (Winter took the pic)

It's so shiny and smooth. I'm pretty excited about it. Now I can run over little rocks and sticks like they're nothing. I can't wait to take it to the beach to ride on the bike path. So basically I'm just a 7 year old girl in a 37 year old body.  

Addie wanted to take a picture of me on my scooter too...

Friday night, Dan and I ate dinner at a quiet little restaurant, Tap and Kitchen, in Pasadena. It was lovely. These days we just crave a little quiet. 

Winter continues to be a 2nd mommy to Angus and Addie. I'm so glad one of us is maternal =) 

Angus is pretty smart. He may not sound like it when he talks, but he's actually very clever. This is the basket I use on the stairs to bring things up and down. I actually never use it. It just sits, wanting to be used. We usually just throw stuff up on the stairs as far as we can and hope someone will bring them up with them on the way to their bedroom... Or we throw things down from the 2nd floor. If they are breakable, we aim for the couch. Anyway, Angus has trouble getting up on my bed. I don't help him because I don't really want him up there "helping" me with laundry. So the other day, he went and got this from the top of the stairs, flipped it over, and turned it into stairs. I had to applaud his resourcefulness. Now he'll never have trouble getting up on my bed unfortunately.

It rained one day last week so Angus wore his rain boots all day. And nothing else.

Winter always tries to bring insects and creatures into the car from church. I have a strict no little creatures in the car rule. But Winter has never been much of a rule follower. We have a huge church campus against the foothills of Glendora so there are TONS of creepy crawlies for Winter to capture. Sunday she caught about 20 snails brought out by the rain. I repeatedly told her to put them back so they could live happy little snail lives. And she did several times. She managed to sneak this guy home. She said she let tons of them go so it was only fair that she take one for a pet. Addie said it looked like a beautiful mama snail. She had to show her BFF Grace of course. One of them named the snail "Tinkles." 

The kids celebrated daylight savings by making a dinner fort on the front patio.

Winter got an award at school for "outstanding character." She was beyond happy and proud.

Speaking of character, Winter wanted to go swimming the other day when it was like 60 degrees. I rolled my eyes and told her for the millionth time since October that the pool is freezing and I'm not taking her until they heat it in May. She told me I was the worst mom ever for the millionth time since October, then found a way to go swimming in the garage. In a cooler. With her barbies. In a sparkly skirt. 

She inspired Addie to put her bathing suit on as well. She dresses herself now mostly. Sometimes she puts stuff on backward =) But she's still pretty cute.

We acquired two free Disneyland park hopper tickets so Dan and I decided to go, sans kids. Neither of us would ever pay the ticket price to go to Disneyland so we knew we had to go. We couldn't take the kids because we only had two tickets and taking kids to Disneyland just doesn't sound fun at all. 

So, Tuesday we broke the news to the girls that Mommy and Daddy were going to Disneyland without them, hugged our frowning children good-bye and left, happily. My super amazing mom watched the kids from 8AM to 8PM so that Dan and I could experience a whole day at the happiest place on earth for the first time together. It was pretty funny because there sure were an awful lot of crying children at the happiest place on earth. Every time we'd walk by one, Dan would say, "Happiest Place On Earth." 

With help from the Disneyland people we were able to use the fastpass app and never waited more than 20 minutes in line for a ride. It was as good as it gets really. We spent most of the day at Disneyland then headed over to California Adventure. There, we ate and drank and sat and rested our tired bones. Then it started raining. Disneyland must make a killing selling ponchos when it rains. Everyone had one. We weren't too upset with the rain though. We just headed to a restaurant for dinner to wait out the traffic and headed home around 7:00. It was a pretty perfect day. We took lots of pics because we probably won't be back anytime in the next decade.

I think because Dan has to be such a good driver at work because he drives a giant emergency vehicle, he has a lot of built up bad driver rebellion in him. He was a horrible example for the children practicing their driving skills.

Good thing Dan wore his homeless Vans and not his new ones.