Sigh

This weekend I had a little girls day out at the Livermore Wine and Art Festival with my friend Jen and my friend Angel.  Our kids all go to school together and this was Jen's first outting since having little Max.  It was a ton of fun and a lot more wine than art, which was probably good because we probably would have woken up the next day and said "what was I thinking!?!"  It was a ton of fun, these ladies are awesome, so down to earth, supportive and a ton of fun.  We're so lucky to have landed at Kindercare and met an awesome group of friends for both Riley and us!  It was super hot on Saturday in Livermore, we're talking 90s (on a side note I am so not ready for the heat yet, I need me some more 70 degree days!) so we did a bit of tasting and then snuck into a swanky restaurant for some AC and tapas for lunch before hitting the streets for more tastings.  It was good times all around.

After, we all went back to Jen and Pat's house for a BBQ.  And here is where my big sigh comes in, my baby boy was more interested in what the big kids were doing for the first time than he was with me.  We've hung out a lot with the Puccinelli's and Johnson's at the Puccinelli's house and always the big kids (Riley, Bella, and James) play at the front of the house and Jacob sticks close to me.  But not Saturday night, Saturday night he followed his sister and her friends around and did a pretty good job keeping up with them despite the 3 year age difference.  And Riley had no issues with her baby brother following her around and getting involved with her friends.  It hit me that my little man is becoming more and more interested in socializing and growing up so fast!  He even sat at the little picnic table and ate with them, he looked so grown up, especially when he was stealing food off of everyone's plate.

Le sigh, my little man is growing so fast!

Girls Day Out!

Sunday I took Riley to Disney on Ice "Dare to Dream" with Jen and Bella, it was so much fun and such an awesome girl's day with Riley.  We drove down to San Jose, grabbed some souvenirs, lunch and headed down to our seats which were front and center.  Probably the best seats in the house, thanks to Jen who was able to get advance purchase with her credit card.  I didn't take into count how chilly it would be on the ice, it didn't even dawn on me that it could be cold.  Duh, ice, of course it would be cold, but it was an awesome time none-the-less.  Now I just have to get it out there that Disney is a total racket, everything is so overpriced and really how can you say no to cute little, excite 4 year olds in princess dresses that tell you over and over how much they love you!?!  Within 15 minutes of being at the HP Pavilion, I had dropped at least $80.  Now that I got the financial elephant in the room out there, I will say that it was worth every penny to see Riley so happy and have the quality time with her.  Riley was so well behaved and spent the entire time pressed up against me just savoring the time with me.  I forgot how awesome she could be since I'm constantly correcting her bad behavior but today was a glimpse of my sweet girl and I loved the one on one time with her!  Riley sat in her seat the whole time and was totally into it, except for the time she turned to me and told me there was too much ice skating.  Um, yeah Ri, that's why it's called Disney on Ice.  It was pretty cute, but I did catch her dancing in her seat to the princess songs!  Love that girl!

Who's ready for a girl's day out!?!

Sassy McSassy!

My girl!

Riley just about on the ice

Two princesses

Princess Tiana!

Riley picked Flounder as a souvenir of course!  Anything to do with The Little Mermaid!

Hooky

Riley and I played hooky on Friday and we had a girl's day with Bella and her mom!  Riley was so excited she could hardly contain it and I was pretty excited as well, we definitely needed some quality time together as it's been a long time since we had some good girl time.  We took our time in the morning, got Jacob dressed and gave him his bottle and then took him to school and dropped him off.  She wanted to stay and watch Jacob eat with the older babies so we hung out for a bit and Riley scored a waffle for breakfast (which meant I didn't have to make her breakfast, which would have consisted of toasting my own waffle but hey that was one less thing that I had to do).  Then we came home and watched some Olympics that I had on DVR, which she loved.  She tried to copy Gabby Douglas and Aly Raisman's balance beam moves while we watched.  At 9:30 we headed down to San Jose with Jen and Bella, we put Riley's car seat in Jen's car so we could drive together.  The girls had so much fun riding in the car together and talked and sang the whole way down.  We got to the San Jose Children's Museum around 10:15 and the girls had a blast.  I had a hard time getting good shots of them!

Ready to get our girl's day started

Quick shot with her brother

First "experiment" at the museum, concentrating so hard

Already having fun!

Exploring bubbles

Making music

Giving Clifford a bone

Best shot I got of the 2 girls

I used to love these things when I was little

Digging for dinosaur bones!

Future waitress?

My lovey!

Water play, she waited all day for this!

Last stop, face/hand painting!

After the museum we got some lunch and then headed home.  We got home around 3:00 and watched some more Olympics while I folded laundry, then we went and got Jacob and picked up some yummy CPK for dinner.  Riley even talked me into getting us a strawberry shortcake for dessert.  Riley fell asleep on the way home so she didn't see Marc when he stopped home before heading to the Giants game.  Saturday morning she woke up and ran to him and told him "Girls day was so much fun daddy!"  It totally melted my heart, and yes it was so much fun, Riley was fantastic.  She listened well, played nicely and overall behaved despite being exhausted.  It was just what the RiRi and I needed!

Park Day

Yeah, so I am way behind on my blogging, it's been a super crazy week at work and all I can say is TGIF!  Since I was off last Friday, Riley and I walked down to Peet's for some breakfast and some quality time since I had been gone most of the week.  After I had my coffee and she had her croissant (her favorite) I decided to take her to the park since it was a beautiful day.  It's been several months since we last went to the park and seeing the developmental difference in Riley on the equipment was amazing!  The baby swings were taken so she tried the big girl swings and held on pretty well!  I didn't get a picture because I was too afraid to venture too far and have her fall off, I mean we only need one black eye at a time! (Which by the way she got another one on the other eye last night playing after school!  Oy!)  Riley also was not afraid to run across the bridge and even jump on it and she took on the big, twisty slide all by herself.  She even made a little friend there and showed him how to do it.