Summer Road Trip 2014- Starts Tomorrow!

Getting ready to embark on an 8 hour car-trip with Myke and the 4 kiddos.  We leave tomorrow in the A.M.  I think Myke and I are both a little anxious on how this will go...the furthest we've ever driven with all 4 kids was just over an hour when we went to Disneyland in February!

This time we are headed up to Vacaville (or is it Fairfield), CA.  Myke's sister and her family moved there from northern VA just last week.  We'll be going up to visit them and to attend her husband's promotion ceremony (he's in the Air Force- they are stationed up by Travis AFB for the next year or more).  Looking forward to my kids getting to spend some time with their (only) first cousins.  Also, looking forward to having all 7 of the Hines grandkids being together at one time.  That will be a first!  Myke's parents will be there, too, so that will be fun :)

So there will be seven kids age seven and below.  All in one house.  One house that just got moved into last Thursday!!  This will be an adventure, to say the least!

Less Than One Month...

Until Chloë starts kindergarten.  August 18th is the first day.  That seems so early!  I'm ready and not ready.  I'm enjoying having her around now that she is not in preschool.  I'm trying to do fun outings with her and just spend as much time with her as I can.  Myke and I are so used to being in charge of our own schedules (for the most part) and all of that will change when elementary school starts.  We've had the kids in preschool...but for preschool it doesn't matter if you show up 5-10 minutes after the start time.  With "real"school WE could get in TROUBLE for being late one too many times.  "WE" being Myke and myself.  AND, on top of that, we have to be on routine five days a week!  Sounds exhausting!  Chloë was in preschool only MWF and only 8-noon.  So this will be a change for us.  Not to mention the preschool we go to is literally around the corner (5 minute walk) and the elementary school is a 10 minute drive.  So, we're excited, but just knowing it will take some time to get used to this new routine in the week.  This is the first time we'll have one of the six of us have to leave the house for a set amount of time every single day Monday through Friday (Myke works from home).  So, it probably sounds like I'm making a big deal about nothing, but my point is, this is just going to be new for us.

4th of July-Neighbhorhood block party

Ella eating a 4th of July treat

Myke's Aunt & Cousin (and her new hubby) from the east coast came to visit

for the afternoon last weekend.

Aunt Patti & Chloë

Newlyweds with Owen & Eli

Watching a World Cup game with my girls

(catching a few minutes of it, anyways!)

Swings! 

Took the kids for a breakfast picnic (Jack N The Box) at the park

on my "final day" with just me and them last Tuesday.

We have family in town for the rest of the Summer.

More hands on deck!  

Check out these cheeky monkeys!

Chloë and her skate instructor, Ian

This month will be her final month of lessons as we're backing off all extra-curricular

activities when school starts (at least at first).  

Picnic with a preschool friend, Grayson

Legoland!

Our annual passes expired early July so we had to get in a few more 

visits before that happened.  We'll miss you Legoland!

5 Days Later

I know people must be chomping at the bit for a potty-training update, right?  :)

Well, we finished the three days of the 3-day plan.  Myke ended up having to take off work a big chunk of Monday so we could stick to the plan.  Shadowing two boys every second they are awake is exhausting...especially when you have a 16 month old and 5 year old as well.  The girls have basically been ignored for the past 5 days.  I kid.  Kind of.  Luckily, we have two great friends, coincidently both named Stephanie, who took Chloë on two separate days to play with their kids at their house.  That definitely helped us to focus on the boys more.

So, where are we at the end of day 5, you ask?  Well, Owen and Eli have NOT worn diapers during the day since they woke up Saturday morning.  We HAVE decided to do "nighttime underwear" (as it's labeled...aka a pull-up) for night time until they have the day time 100% down.  Neither boy has had a pee accident since day 2.  Eli actually only had one pee accident at all, and that was on day 1.  Owen had a little accident on day 2 and not again since.  So that is definite success.  The have got peeing in the potty DOWN.  At least when we are here at home.  Going out is still a work in progress.  Yesterday, I had to take them to their 3 year old well-check-up.  So we went.  In underwear.  They did fine.  No accidents.  While at the doctor's office I attempted to have them use the restroom so we would have a greater chance of making it home dry.  They WOULD NOT sit on the toilet.  There was no stool so they were way too short to reach it from a standing position...and when I tried to hold Owen up to the potty he kicked and screamed like I was attempting to throw him IN the potty.  I had a little portable potty (that we've had in the car since Chloê was in her potty-training days).  They each sat on that...but no one went.  Okay, I'm realizing that I'm giving you WAY more info than you want to hear.  Sorry..I tend to ramble and, as you know, my life is consumed with potty-training right now.  Consumed.

Finally today things are getting a little more back to normal.  We actually let the boys sit on our couch and weren't in fear of it being soaked in urine.  We let them run off to play upstairs.  No problem.

Overall, this has definitely been a success.  We aren't QUITE there with "numero dos" but we are definitely doing great with "numero uno", if you catch my drift.

I really hope this is my final potty-training post.  I really do.