4/29/2013 - Closeup

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Sometimes he hates to be my subject, but then sometimes he begs to be my muse. Not sure why I love this photo so much, but I just do. He is so cute and such a beautiful beautiful subject.

4/28/2013 - Defeat to Redemption

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I am the worst mother in the world because I took this picture. Little Li was devastated that his brother went on a playdate without him. Finn headed over to the neighbor's house to have a playdate with his buddy Tucker. It seemed like a big boy playdate, so we chose to leave Liam behind. He was beyond upset and stood at the doorway clutching the door handle bawling his eyes out. When he finally calmed down, Jesse offered to take him down to the park, but he insisted on Mama. So I took him down to Dimond Park, where another meltdown ensued. And then ...

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The ice cream cart arrived and all was well with the world again. Oh the gamut of emotions we experience.

4/27/2013 - Yo Gabba Gabba

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Another sunny day over here. We had another fire pit night and got some chalk art done on the ground in back. Our interpretation of three of the 5 Yo Gabba Gabba characters. See my yellow Muno, Green Brobee and Finn and Dyl's Plex interpretations. Pretty good, huh? Regular little art collective over here!

4/26/2013 - Friday Fire Pit Night

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Today was the first fire pit night of the season. We got a new fire pit from our old neighbors as a goodbye present. So the kids got some outdoor evening playtime, while the parents got some good beverages and firepit time. I managed to capture a gorgeous pic of the three boys. They are all such good friends. So thankful that we have such great neighbors.

4/25/2013 - Grand Opening

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Tonight we attended the grand opening of our friends' Chiropractic office. It is amazing to see a friend's dreams come true. He is a business owner of a beautiful office in a lovely part of Oakland. Everything that he has worked for has come to fruition. Hard work and effort pay off. Here are the kids trying to squish onto the cute little kid sized Ikea chair in the front lobby. Not super relevant to this post, but very cute, nonetheless.

4/24/2013 - Much appreciated

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It is admin appreciation day. I got spoiled. I was showered with gift cards, e-cards, emails, hugs and sweet treats. Ahhh! I have been doing so well with limiting the sweets and then came this dreaded day. But, the good news is, that I limited myself and shared the rests of the goodies. In fact there are 2 lovely yellow cake, chocolate frosting cupcakes sitting in our fridge right now with two little lucky boys names on it. I think it really has my name, but I am choosing to share them with my boys. I did eat this delicious chocolate covered strawberry. Oh man, it was worth it. Lovely, yummy, dark chocolate filled with anti-oxidants. Just lovely to feel appreciated!

4/23/2013 - Wanna drive mama?

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Li likes to drive the "car" while sitting on the couch. He has such a great imagination and such a sweet face. I have a feeling that he is going to be a kid with a lot of speeding tickets, but just might be able to talk his way out of a few with his charm.

4/22/2013 - Portraits

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Another sunny evening playdate. Finn and Dylan drew pictures of each other on the cement after a fun water balloon fight. Can't wait to this weather to be around every evening during the summertime. The three boys really like to unwind with each other after a long day of play at school.

4/21/2013 - Sunny Sunday Nap

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This weather has been unbelievably beautiful. We are getting 80 degree beautiful weather right now and I never want it to go away. We spent most of the day outdoors today. We had a lovely morning walk around Lake Merritt. Then we can home, had lunch and took a walk about our neighborhood to get Liam to nap, which as you can see by the picture, was successful. We gave Finny some playtime at the park and in the carport. Then we ended our evening with a delicious dinner at Tio and Stacy's place. Love end to a beautiful weekend.

4/20/2013 - PreK Playdate

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We had our first PreK playdate at Finn's new elementary. It was awesome to see some kids from his preschool. Looks like it will be 4 of them, all boys, going to her new elementary with him. I like that he will have some more familiar faces when we send him off to the big school next year. He had a lot of fun at this playdate and I feel more and more excited to be sending him here next school year.

4/19/2013 - Healthy Happy Friday

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Everybody is recovered from the stomach flu. My boys are happy, energetic and eating again. Mother Nature was celebrating and gave us BEAUTIFUL 80 degree sunny weather. My boss let us out early today and I picked up the kids a half hour early. We had time to lounge the sunny carport and run around. So happy to see them both well again!

4/18/2013 - Almost there

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Things are on the upswing. Liam seems fully recovered. Finny is pretty much there. They spent their day wearing out their Baachan and Jiichan. Hope that everyone stays healthy. Li has his appetite back and ate 2 servings of rice. Need to make it through tomorrow and I will definitely appreciate the weekend.

4/17/2013 - Winding Down

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It's been a doozy of a week for us. Liam was sick on Monday. Finn was sick on Tuesday and Wednesday. After being puked on and cleaning up pee and poo too many times, we are exhausted. You can see if on all of our faces. Health is around the corner.

4/16/2013 - Share and share alike

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We have always wanted to teach the kids to share, but not to share their viruses. Finny seems to have contracted the yucky virus that his brother had all weekend. Our Finn has no appetite and a minor fever. I am hoping he feels better ASAP. Poor kiddo. All he wants to do is drink gatorade. No food seems appetizing to him.

4/15/2013 - Sneaky little virus

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As soon as you think the kid is getting better, he is still sick. Li stayed home with Papa on today. He was energetic and a great eater at breakfast. They were on their way to come visit me at the office, when Liam woke up from his car nap and puked and pooped all over himself. Poor kid. Poor papa! Papa navigated the viral trenches with our sad sick little boy.

4/14/2013 - On the mend

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We stayed close to home again today. Li seems to be on the mend, some minor yucky virus stuff doing on, but he hasn't barfed since this morning. He was a hungry boy in the afternoon, so we celebrated his non barfiness with otter pops on the driveway. Got a little midday sunshine and a sweet treat. He was a happy boy. Finny was too!

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Finn was a dream child these past couple days. He has been cooped up in our sickhouse since Friday night. I am surprised there has not been a mutiny. We spent the afternoon cutting up magazines. He is so careful with the scissors that I let him do whatever he wants with them. Plus his busy curious brother was sleeping away!

4/13/2013 - Stomach Flu

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My poor little Li seems to have developed a stomach bug. He woke up crying at midnight last night covered in vomit. Poor kid. We went downstairs and he sipped water and watched a movie. Finny woke up and wanted to join us downstairs as well. After watching most of The Tigger MOvie, both boys passed out by 2 am on the couch. Poor Liam upchucked some more today and has basically been sleeping most of the day away. Our non-napping kiddo is taking the 2nd nap of the day as we speak. The first nap was about 2 hours long. Poor kid. I feel so bad. He keeps saying "No want puke mama". Poor baby. Only water and a little bit of cereal to eat today. Hopefully we will have an appetite for dinner tonight.

4/12/2013 - Lego Time

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We had a Friday night in, with early dinner and lot of Lego Building Time tonight. Finn likes to create cool inventions with the Lego and Duplo pieces. It's fun to build stuff with the kids and see what cool creations they make.

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4/11/2013 - Sweet Tomatoes

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A Kono fave restaurant happens to be in the shopping center right next door to my office. So Baachan and Jiichan brought the kids to me after work tonight. We were treated to our fave salad bar dinner. Both boys ate so well that I indulged both of them with soft serve ice cream.

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Both kids and mama indulged with ice cream. Two nights in a row. So spoiled.

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Having a lot of fun with my two boys. They are both being so sweet and easy on me. Loving my special time with my little loves.

4/10/2013 - Warm Evening Treats

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83 degrees this evening. Absolutely a beautiful night. I picked the kids up earlier than normal, as I was working from home for the afternoon. I registered Finn for Kindergarten today. That is absolutely blowing my mind. I got a copy of the school year calendar, filled out his eAmergency contact card and will start looking for after school options starting today. Eeek! It makes me want to cry to think how both of the kids are growing up so fast. Anyways, back to less sad thoughts. Nice evening, early dinner and then we walked down to the local ice cream spot for early evening ice cream scoops. First evening without Jesse, as he headed out to chilly Minnesota for a conference. Really enjoying my time with my two wild boys!

4/9/2013 - Such a face

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I asked Finny to give me a Super Hero Face and this fantastic expression is what I got. I am already seeing his teenage years with this "Seriously, you are so confused, mom" face. I love that it is captured perfectly on his beautiful little face.

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I tried to capture our busy Liam. This is what I managed to get. At first, I was disappointed that it ended up so off-center, but I am coming to love that he is the sole thing in this picture. His beautiful smile is perfectly captured. I can hear his maniacal laughter echoing right now. Another great WARM CA evening. 81 degrees on April 9th ain't so shabby!

4/8/2013 - No pic today

We had such a lovely busy evening that I didn't even manage to take a pic today. The kids both had a great day at school. Both boys ate heartily cleaning off their dinner plates. Dylan is finally feeling better, so the kids got some great playtime outdoors in the windy by light evening. I can feel summer right around the corner and am looking forward to more outdoor time with the kids in the evening.

4/7/2013 - Sunday Funday

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Today was a car free Sunday. We hung close to home and then took a nice walk over to the Glenview neighborhood for playground time and early dinner at a new burger joint called Park Burger. We threw the kids in the stroller and brought them over to Glenview Elementary for a little run around their playground. We actually ran into some friends while we were there. Finn played with little L while Jesse and I chatted with Leigh and admired baby M.

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Park Burger has this beautiful old school map of Oakland covering one entire wall of the restaurant. I had to take a pic of our neighborhood. It was rad. I love it! Yummy burgers, cool atmosphere and a 15 min walk from our house with playgrounds along the way! I think we may have found another gem of a restaurant.

4/6/2013 - Lwin Time

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Rhea's back in town with the kids. So i trekked the kids out to Brentwood. It was so cool to see Carissa and Finny connect so quickly. Little Trevor was following the older two kids around tormenting them, while Liam just hoarded as many toys as possible and stuck by momma's side. This one is of the kids as they enjoyed their seaweed and made funny faces at us. Already planning our dual familiy vaca! Summer 2014 here we come!

4/5/2013 - Friday night Fun

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Friday night family dinner is my favorite part of the week. Back to Barney's as it was Finn's choice again. Perfect evening, even when Liam started throwing utensils and napkins all around the table. This is Jesse trying to keep the utensil container away from Liam. See that beautiful mischevious grin.

4/4/2013 - Color Relaxation

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Lately, we have been doing a lot of coloring. I didn't realize how therapeutic it was. My goodness, it is fun to color pictures. There is something about the singular focus of staying within the lines that just relaxes me. Tonight the family colored some really creative and imagintative pictures. It was total art therapy for me, while getting some QT with the fam.

4/3/2013 - Matching Smiles

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Though he has the imagination and creativity of a Kelsey. This kid has my eyes and smile. I take credit for his beautiful grin.

4/2/2013 - Naturally beautiful

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When I picked up the kids from Baachan & Jiichan's house today, they scurried out the door, shoeless and happy. They ran into the front yard, trucks and tractors in hand and sat in the little rock garden in B & J's front yard. The day was so sunny and beautiful, so I was so happy to capture this cute one of my beautiful boys. They are such happy little creatures and have so much love for their Baachan & Jiichan's playground of a house.

4/1/2013 - Laid Back

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Liam and Finn were amazing eaters tonight. My sole complaint is that Liam doesn't like to eat dinner at the table. Here he is laid back on his couch cushion eating his dinner out of his fave M & M bowl. He looked some comfy that I had to capture him.