Our Day @ The Long Beach Aquarium

One of the many wonderful things about Steven and I being teachers in the amount of time we get to spend at home with our kids.  Today marked the start of Steven's Spring Break (bummer, we always have different Spring Breaks) but we decided to head to the L.B. Aquarium since teachers get in free during the month of March.
I am SO SO glad we went!  We spent the entire morning and afternoon there. Madison absolutely LOVED it! She looked in EVERY tank and had no fear at touching ANYTHING....sting rays, jelly fish, baby sharks, star fish, annenomes.  She didn't even want to leave! Brooklyn loved it too; she crawled around, stared at the tanks, and even pet a sting ray herself!
Note:  One of my main reasons for blogging is to create a book at the end of the year so prepare for picture overload......

 Stop #1..Jellyfish 

Brave Lil Girl!

"They're slimy, mommy!"

Starfish and annenomes!

Fish Galore!

Brooklyn was amazed @ this tank

Sisters!

Looking up the fish names w/ daddy

Family Shot!

Checking out more fish

Brooklyn Jane

The ugliest fish I have even seen...camouflaged right into the rocks

Maddie & Daddy in the shark mouth

Staring @ the HUGE bass!

Daddy & Brooklyn

Touching the sting ray & jelly fish...again NO FEAR!

The huge sting ray

B playing in the kiddy zone

Love this pic...she was mesmerized!

Love her lil pose...checkin out the sting rays!

 Hanging w/ daddy!

Halibut fish..learned lots of new things about these guys today!

Playing w/ the sting ray

(They were SO friendly, she could have stayed there ALL day if we let her)

Busy watching

Snack time for B!

Jelly Fish

Maddie & mommy

Posing by the jelly fish

Busy Brooklyn

"What mom, I'm busy!"

Investigating w/ daddy

Touching the annenomes

Our friend, Scuba Steve!

Some more crazy fish!

 Mini Sea Horse

Do you think the aquarium wiped them out??? Hahaha!

Girls Night In!

So this past weekend Steven planned a trip to Laughlin for some boy bonding with his brother Kevin and good friend Bryan.  While I was trying to figure out what to do for my weekend alone with the girls, I decided to plan a girls night with some of my closest family and friends.  Since many of us have kids and I know finding sitters is not always easy, I decided to make it a "Girls Night In" instead and everyone brought their kids.
We had a blast! The kids stayed up way too late and we all got to snack on yummy appetizers, drink wine, and chat! I snagged a few cute pictures of the kids too; although I'm super bummed I didn't remember to get any of us ladies!

Maddie & Riley Playing w/ Play-Doh

The Kids!

 Baby Gavin....could he seriously be any cuter??

Baseball Time!

Cousins...gotta love Maddie's face!

St. Patrick's Day

We had a busy, fun filled St. Patrick's Day this year. I had been talking to Madison for a week or so beforehand about St. Patrick's Day and letting her in on all the little traditions...everyone wears green, a little tricky leprechaun comes to your house and plays little tricks on you, etc. Honestly, I think I kinda freaked her out so I decided to go low key and forego some of my original plans. Lol! The leprechaun did visit and leave a green tinkle and footprints in our bathroom, and some Lucky Charms and green milk for breakfast.
We started off the day with cheerleading (which Madison still loves) and then made some short appearances at family parties before finishing the night curled up on the couch with green beers.

Discovering The Leprechaun's First Surprise!

Hehe!

Next surprise, green milk!

Cheer Time!

Showing off her moves!

Brooklyn's First St. Patty's Day!

W/ The Cozzi Cousins

<3 Our Family <3

Eating Irish Cake @ Aunt Laurie & Uncle Gary's 

Cousins....All Grown Up!

The Way Mommy & Daddy Ended Our Night!

Another Day at "The Duck Park"

I don't know what's going with the weather this year, but we have had many days the past few weeks where the temperature has been in the 80's....making it feel like it is already summer! This past Sunday was too gorgeous to sit inside!  Steven and I decided to head out to English Springs Park in Chino Hills, also known in our house as "The Duck Park."
Madison made sand castles in the sand and we all fed the ducks and enjoyed ice cream treats...sure felt like summer to me! Even Nana Falls joined in on the fun!

Our precious little baby!

Happy Baby B!

Our favorite duck w/ the fancy hair...he ALWAYS gets extra bread!

Pause button please...no walking yet!

Walking w/ Nana....B LOVES the ducks!

Happy Girl!

Feeding the ducks!

Could she seriously be ANY cuter?? #bragging mommy

<3 Our Family <3

"This is just way too yummy mommy!"

Chowing down on an ice cream sandwich

Happy as can be!

C'mon summer, hurry up and get here!

Maddie Starts Cheer!

I'm not going to lie, I was a little extremely skeptical of starting her in cheer.  No offense to anyone, but I came from a family of sisters who all played sports and were pretty good!  My cousin Jennifer is to blame. Haha! She has a little girl, Rianne, who is just a little younger than Madison and she thought it would be so cute if we could get Madison, Rianne, our other cousin Mandy's daughter Riley, and a good friend of ours little girl Karli to all do it together.  I couldn't resist....I gave in!
The are in a class every Saturday for the next 8 weeks.  Madison really liked it (although honestly, I thought the teachers were clueless).  Anyhow, if anything it will make for some super cute pictures and give us girls a reason to get together and chat every Saturday.
So far Madison REALLY liked shaking the pom poms, jumping on the trampoline, and dancing with her cousins and friend.  Here are some pictures from her first day...

So excited!

                                        

                                               

All the girls!

 Little cousins...fiesty just like their mommies!

 Dance time w/ Karli

 Practicing thier cheer!

We'll see how the next 7 weeks go...