FAMILY TIME

now that i live two hours away from my sisters i tend to have moments of separation anxiety. i mope around and complain to the mister how i miss my close family and friends and make him feel guilty for moving us up here. the usual day to day with the kids keeps my mind busy for the most part but i still feel the same once i really start to think about how nice it would be for the kids to grow up playing with their cousins. here we have raoul's family which is pretty small and their two cousins who live near us are teenagers. they are really sweet big cousins despite the age difference.
so when my cousin who lives about thirty miles away offered to pick us up to spend the day at her house i was stoked. our car was in the mechanic for over a week so being out of the house and with family was the best and we enjoyed it thoroughly.

01/52

guess where we went last weekend? it was the most random thing too because niko is always saying how he hates chuck e cheese and im like "oh i know, me too!"
but sunday afternoon he requested to go and i thought, well why not. we got there and it was super packed, per usual. but we only played a couple games and left. niko got over his fear of the chuck e cheese mechanical band. i have a special place in my heart for those robots. and on the way home we spotted a rainbow. there hasn't been a rainbow that hasn't made me smile.

since i am so bad at keeping up with posts, i will try to do this. weekly photos of my kiddos. i post daily on instagram but its not always my kiddos and they change so much so quickly. i think this is going to be extremely rewarding. got this series idea from bleubird.  

A DAY IN BERKLEY

papa had a gig in oakland this weekend so we drove up with him just for fun. we spent saturday strolling around the streets of berkley. such a charming little city it is. i honestly thought the drive was going to be dreadful but surprisingly the kids did very well. the plan originally was go to to san francisco but last minute berkley was easier. one day in sf isn't enough for me anyways, i am already looking forward to our next road trip up there...

 

driving up the 5 freeway, papa digging for records, "look Luna, this is a vhs", "awesome, how does it work?", vinyl on the walls of amoeba, 50¢ 45inch records at amoeba, cream- a little shop in berkley,  holding tight to papa's hand, a little flower from my sweet boy, riding a bike at the park, sliding down with joy, experimenting with face paint crayons, painting at the kids museum, fireman niko to the rescue, a happy little fireman, driving down the 5 freeway, zoned in the new dvd (Panda! Go, Panda!) we bought at amoeba because we love hayao miyazaki movies. 

ART PARTY

we went to our friends birthday party this weekend and it was the perfect day for a girl like luna. she loved painting and going wild with the glitter. our friends son turned two and it was art themed. she set up canvases, markers, paint, glitter, crayons, paper, and a ton of other supplies for kids to use. i think my favorite part was the food, she had a fruit stand inside but man the catering nailed it. i really love southern food and im glad she found some good stuff in l.a. since she's from atlanta. there were naked kids in the swimming pool and luna almost when in, so glad she didn't, we weren't prepared at all! one thing i didn't know was that home depot has chalk board panels for 9.99, super cool for art parties! her backyard is different because she lives on a hill so its three stories down, and every level had a couple panels.
their roommates pup was walking around like a little host and made friends with niko. his name is "sir peanut" i think he was just waiting around for chicken though. before we left we got a doll with our goody bag and its now one of luna's favorites. just like that, she named him "bubble boy".

LAS VEGAS BABIES

i have been to vegas only a handful of times and last weekend was the first time i ever took my kiddos. i had seen parents take babies before i was a mom, newborn babies. and it just seemed so wrong. there's always that musty cigarette smell lingering around vegas that i can't stand and tons of people from all over the world who i wouldn't want around my kiddos. i think there's also the weather situation in vegas, its either too hot or too cold! but before having babies i went with three of my bestest friends and had thee time of my life. and i was drinking during the day so much that i could care less about the weather or anything for that matter. we ended up going to intervention and that was the funnest pool party i have ever been to. this time we went for a very short amount of time, and that's quite alright with me. we arrived to vegas after going to the sesame street art show in l.a. and didn't do much the night we arrived. the next day we hung out at the pool for a few hours, had food, got kicked out of the casino we were staying at and headed home. niko is a huge video game fan and thought the slots were arcade games, we let him play a couple and then a worker told us we could get 10,000 fined for that! ha! now niko has been singing "viva las vegas" all week long, its pretty cute because he changes it up to be like "bunny las vegas" when he's talking to our rabbit Diva. i will be sure to keep niko away from the slot machines next time we visit vegas! happy weekend! xo