Rub-A-Dub-Dub!

I can't resist sharing this picture of my little happy rolly-polly baby girl.

She just loves her bath time! 

3 1/2 months old

(click on image for a larger view)

My First Experience...

....in the overwhelmingly pink and frilly "GIRL" aisles at Toys R Us....happened today!!

It really felt so bizarre and so "not right", if that makes any sense.  Probably doesn't.  Or maybe it does?  If you know Chloë well then it makes sense.

Chloë got a gift card to Toys R Us last Christmas from my brother (thanks, Uncle Hale!) and, because I'm so lazy/busy (you decide, but I prefer to think the latter) we just now got around to printing it out and using it.  I even had to do a pretty extensive search in my email to even find the gift card it has been so long since he sent it...obviously, last December.  (On a side note, my brother lives in Chile, so sending gift cards via email is the only way to go.  Actually, email in general is the only way to go.  I'm still waiting for him to receive our Christmas card that I mailed to him.  I guess it's lost in the great unknown at this point!).

Anyways, back to my point.  My mom and I decided to have a "girls day out" today with Chloë and Ella today while the sitter watched the boys.  Chloë needed some special time that was just for her (as Ella just goes along for the rides at this point).  We started with breakfast at a beach cafe, then walked around the Self-Realization Center gardens in Encinitas (beautiful!), and finally headed to Toys R Us for Chloë to pick out her belated Christmas present.  I allowed her to pick any toy she wanted (obviously within the limits of the gift card) and she picked MY LITTLE PONIES!!

 For those who know my 4-year-old daughter...this is a bit of a shock!  Did I mention that we just had a Batman birthday party for her a few months back?  Did I mention that this girl refuses to wear skirts, hair clips, ponytails, or anything remotely cute?  We have 4 kids but if you look through their tubs of toys or in their rooms, you won't find many things that are considered "girly" toys.  If we are at toy stores I'm used to being in the aisles with superhero figurines, pirates, or Matchbox cars.  It just felt so ODD to be in the pink aisles.  Don't get me wrong, I like that Chloë isn't all girly-girl & princess-y to some extent...a pretty great extent...BUT there are some times when I'd love to dress her up or play with her hair...but that doesn't/won't happen without a fight and probably tears if I tried to force her.  So I don't.  She is who she is and she likes what she likes (and she KNOWS what she likes and doesn't like and she lets you KNOW what she likes and doesn't like).  She's a very strong-willed little girl.

Anyways, back to my story (again).  Today we were in the pink aisles.  Today we went home with a My Little Pony set.  And not just any My Little Pony set.  A My Little Pony Wedding set.  It came with a castle and a bride and groom pony.  Then when we got home we had to watch the My Little Pony wedding episode (again) that featured the pony figurines that came with the set.  She's been playing with the set all afternoon and into the evening.  Who is this child??

What she picked

Other Pics from Today:

Swami's Beach Cafe on Highway 101

breakfast

Pancake Yummyness

Beautiful ocean views

Gramma and Ella

Surf-crossing

More ocean views from way up above

Ella 

Hotel Hines

The Summer tourist/visitor season is in full-effect here at Hotel Hines!  We are currently booked solid through mid-August 2013 so are no longer accepting reservations for the Summer months!  If you'd like to come in the Autumn months please inquire within!

Seriously though, we are set to have a very busy and full summer...so much is going on...not that it ever gets dull with four kids in the first place, but our calendar just seems to be overflowing now.  We may have to take a sabbatical in the Fall just to un-wind from the summer.  Should be a fun time though..and, as always, nice to have the extra hands!  Overall, we are having 13 visitors over the next couple months.

Some pics:

Big Bro Eli with Lil' Sis Ella 

Our first summer visitors with Ella (my parents)

Memorial Day Weekend

Lounging on the couch with the kids

It's so nice to have help here again. My parents are here now and having the extra sets of hands really gives us a chance to do some things we don't often get to do...like the photo above of us all lounging on the couch after breakfast one morning.  Usually, there is just too much do to to ever get to all sit down at the same time.  The mornings are always a whirlwind of making breakfast, feeding Ella, unloading and re-loading the dishwasher, making coffee & iced tea, getting the kids dressed and Chloë off to school (3 days a week), cleaning up after breakfast, vacuuming, etc.   I know I need to try to "let things go" more often so we can all sit and relax together.  There is just ALWAYS something that needs to be done.  

A couple pics of Grandpa and his girls:  

Chloë showing Grandpa some artwork she made at preschool

Grandpa & Ella (who is attempting to eat her fists)

We gave Owen & Eli a huge GeoTrax train set for their birthday.  BEST birthday bargain ever!  Craigslist!!   Well, they already had a GeoTrax set with a train but we bought a HUGE box of additional tracks, trains, remotes, bridges, a clock tower, etc for $30 on Craigslist.  Such an amazing deal--and I know I can re-sell the entire thing on Craigslist for at least $100 down the road if I want to.  Gotta love Craigslist...especially for kids' toys... it's almost silly to buy new for a lot of the things they play with.  

Luckily, Myke has the mind of an engineer (choo-choo!) and put all the tracks together in one big set-up (no directions).  It's a HUGE layout and takes up the entire play room floor.  The kids all just LOVE it, especially the boys are are really into "Choo-choo's" right now.  

The Past Two Years: A (Brief) Photo Reflection

In honor of my two baby boys turning two, I wanted to share some photos from when the boys were first born, from their 1st birthday, and from last week as they approached their 2nd birthday.  They have been a joy in our lives and although I can't believe they are really TWO and transitioning from babies to toddlers, I can barely remember life before them.  We love you Owen & Elijah!

May 2011- getting ready to leave the hospital!

First day home- relaxing with big sister

Little Buddies

Scrawny little guys!

Eli turns 1!

Owen

Eli (a few days before they turned 2)

Owen

My big boys coloring together

Race Car Birthday Party

Happy birthday to my baby boys!  No longer "babies" now, I guess.  They are 2!  I now have two two-year-olds!  Time to take a deep breathe and proceed with caution...aaaaaaahhhh!!   After going back and forth between having a big housewarming party and birthday party combination on the weekend we decided to go the easier route and just have a little play-date party on their actual birthday.  We "went all out" last year for their 1st birthday so this year I decided to relax and keep it a little more low-key.  So yesterday (Thursday) morning we celebrated with a bunch of their little friends, mainly moms that I have known and kept in regular touch with since Chloë was a baby and their kids.  Most of them are now onto their 2nd (and some 3rd) kids so it's really the second generation of kids that are the boys' age.  Of course their older siblings were invited so Chloë had friends to play with as well.  It was a fun time.  There were about 20 guests.   We all munched on brunch foods and drank coffees and mimosas while the kids played.  It started at 10:30am and the last of the guests left around 3pm!  Around 1:30pm I put the boys down for their naps but the party continued.   A bunch of people got in the pool, which was still reading a temperature of about 90 degrees...so very comfortable and relaxing.  The kids had a blast!  

Race Car cake

Owen digging in

Eli ate 2 pieces of cake!  

Surprising because he usually doesn't care much for sweets.

Me with Owen & Ella

Myke & Ella

4-year-old monkeys climbing our fig tree in the backyard

The crew in their Sunday best

Not too much to post from the Hines abode.  It's Sunday evening and we're wrapping up our weekend, getting ready for the busy week ahead.  Nothing is in particular more busy about this upcoming week...all of our weeks feel busy.  Just like everyone else's I'm sure!  We've got doctor's appointments, kiddie classes, playdates, errands, etc.  

We had some beautiful weather this past week- got to get in the pool quite a few times.  Even Ella debuted her Summer 2013 swimsuit!  My little baby has grown like a week over the past 2 1/2 months. Where did my teeny little sweat pea go?!   She had her 2 month well-baby appointment last week and is 13.5lbs.  She was 6lb140z at birth.  She was also OFF THE CHARTS on her length.  They put 99th percentile in her medical records but said she was really over that.  She's a tall cup of water!

Ella-Bella

Dipping in the baby pool

Showin' off the chunky legs!

Here is Chloë in the same suit back in June 2009!