Moms Blog At Mommy Enterprises : California Mommy Blogger
Thoughts, opinions and more from a work at home mom
On New Years Eve, we just had our two youngest children at home. I actually didn’t think that they both would make it until midnight, but they did. I think telling them all day that they were going to be able to bang mom’s pots and pans was something they were really looking forward to.
Each month at my daughter Hannah’s school, they give out 2 student of the month awards for each class. Last week Hannah was awarded with “Student Of The Month” for caring. Each month the student of the award month has a different characteristic behind it. It just happens that Hannah got the same award last year in December for caring too!
It makes me feel good that I have a child that obviously has the caring touch to her when it comes to the teachers and students at her school. That’s my girl!
Congrats Miss Hannah!
Growing up, I thought that I was going to be a mom that only had one child. Since I was an only child and my mom did her best to spoil me, I thought it only made sense to have only child child when I was older that I could spoil too! A little has changed since the days that I thought my first child was going to be my only child.
I had my first daughter in 1997 and after a few years, I knew that I wanted another child. Raising a little girl was definitely fun, so I wanted to also raise a little boy so she would have a brother. After I had my second daughter in 2004 I thought my baby making days were over. I enjoyed my first pregnancy, but being pregnant to me wasn’t as fun the second time around as the first time. I actually had considered tubal ligation after my second pregnancy when I was pregnant, even though I yearned for a little boy as part of my family.
So after my second daughter was born, our family consisted of a mom, a dad and three sisters. My husband wanted a boy, so we had talked of adopting a son in the future. While I would love a boy of my own, the odds of having another girl was pretty good considering we already had three daughters. A few years went by and then I became pregnant. This pregnancy was not planned at all and know that I so hoped that the ultrasound was going to show that I was carrying .
For the first four months of my pregnancy I wondered every day if I was carrying a boy or a girl. While I would be happy with either, I did have my hopes that my bun in the oven was a little boy. On the day of my ultrasound, when my doctor read that I was having a boy, I was in SHOCK. I thought I was dreaming and had to pinch myself. My husband couldn’t believe it and requested another ultrasound just to ease his mind. I was so excited when my second ultrasound with a different doctor resulted in the same answer.
Once my son was born, I knew my family was finally complete! While things didn’t work out as planned, everything has worked out for the best. We are now a family of six that can be a lot of chaos, but the family I look forward to spending the rest of my years with!
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Last week I ventured with the kids to Southern California to the beautiful city of San Diego. I was on a journey to the BlogHer ’11 Convention, but I was also on a journey to see the cool animals at the San Diego Zoo. I have lived in California my entire life, but had never seen the San Diego Zoo.
Last year when I was looking for things to do in Southern California, my friend Rhea recommended the San Diego Zoo. I didn’t end up going last year, but the idea definitely stuck in my mind. See we have a couple zoos here that are local to me, but they get boring after you have seen the same animals multiple times over the years. I will also say that the zoos that are local to me (in the Sacramento area) are SMALL and nothing really to brag about.
So we arrived late Thursday and woke up early on Friday to get to the zoo before the crowds. As we pulled in, I noticed that there were not too many cars and there was no charge to park. I thought to myself, this must be a small zoo. Was I WRONG…. Not only is this zoo big, I think it might take a couple days to see everything there. Check out the map of the San Diego Zoo below:
This map does not really explain how big the zoo is, you will just have to take my word for it. When we first started walking around the zoo, I was a little overwhelmed. This place is huge with different levels and it was taking quite a bit of time to cover each of the exhibits we seen when we first arrived. Since I had plans later that afternoon, I was thinking about what route to take to see the most we could see in the time were were there. I came to the conclusion that taking their guided bus tour was going to be the best option. With their cool double decker bus tour, you get to see 70% of the animals at the zoo and it beats walking around trying to find them.
The bus tour was awesome and we sat on the top. As we were walking to get in line, a guy mentioned that sitting on the right side of the bus was the best view. I am so glad we listened, because most of the things we were looking at happened to be on the right side of the bus. So if you are going to the zoo and are going to take this tour, be sure to sit on the RIGHT. The tour lasted about 40 minutes and we got to see elephants, hippos, monkeys, warthogs and so much more.
Check out a slideshow of some of the photos I snapped at the zoo…
The San Diego Zoo is amazing. If you love animals like we do, you need to take a trip there. They have the most incredible bird aviary I have ever seen. My children and I felt as though were were in the wild with the beautiful birds flying around above us. What I also like about this place is that it is a non-profit organization. All the proceeds that the zoo receives are put back into the zoo to make the zoo a great place to visit and learn.
Like I mentioned before, this place is huge and you might want to take 2 days to cover the entire zoo!
You can find out more about the San Diego Zoo by visiting: http://www.sandiegozoo.org
Disclosure – I received complimentary tickets to the zoo in exchange for this review. These opinions expressed are my own opinions and are NOT influenced by monetary compensation.
Last year my daughters and I received an invitation to New York City from Crayola to be part of the Pop Art Pixies VIP Party. I posted earlier this year videos from my trip with Ariyona and Hailey and the Crayola Pop Art Pixie crew, click here to view the videos on Youtube.
I just looked the other day and seen they published a video for our last stop of our trip, video #5. Take a peek at my trip by watching the video above. This was the most exciting trip I have ever been on. I have lived in California my whole life and have not traveled farther east past Nevada. These Cali girls flew all away across the United States and had a BLAST!
Thank you Crayola for providing my daughters and I with some fabulous memories!
Disclosure – Crayola provided my daughters and I with an all expenses paid trip to New York City. Crayola covered our travel expenses as well as our accommodations. A This post is not a paid post and the opinions stated herein are 100% my own.
It is officially summer and my kids are bugging mom to get out of the house to have a little fun. So a couple days ago I thought that I would take them to a park they had never been to. Parks are fun and it is also something that you can do for free that the kids enjoy.
So we hopped in the car and I took the kids to Royer Park in Roseville. This was one of my FAVORITE parks growing up. I was upset that the little zoo they had years ago was gone, but my kids totally had a blast at this park and they didn’t want to leave. So the next time we are looking for inexpensive fun, I am going to take them back.
Another bonus for the day! They have a ton of ducks and my son totally ADORES ducks. We just better come prepared with some bread to feed them!
We just might be going back this weekend!
This past weekend my family piled into a limo and we cruised to the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield, California. I am only 45 minutes away, so it was not too long of a drive. We have been to the Jelly Belly Factory a couple times in the past, but the last time we did the actual Jelly Belly Factory tour was about 10 years ago. We got our picture done with the Easter Bunny there a couple years ago, but the line was too long for the tour. Since Hannah and Christopher are now old enough to enjoy the place, we thought it would be fun to take the family there.
When you first start the tour, you receive cool Jelly Belly Factory hats. It is a MUST that you wear them throughout the tour too! We all put or hats on and we enjoyed the tour. I won’t spoil and tell you what you see and there is no video or filming allowed (sorry). I can say that we did get to sample some of the Jelly Belly flavors and we got to leave with a FREE bag for visiting.
Before you leave, you can’t forget to take a picture with the Jelly Belly vehicles. If only all my children could stay together for a photo!
The tour at the Jelly Belly Factory was FREE, but you will spend some $$ in the gift shop. This gift shop has so many tempting goodies that you will want to to buy. They even have a little place to eat, if you want to eat lunch while you are there.
To find out more about these tours, please visit: http://www.jellybelly.com
What is your FAVORITE Jelly Belly Flavor?
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