Santa's Village!

When I was a kid my parents would take us to Santa's Village, an amusement park made just for kids with a ton of rides, shows and a petting zoo. This was my first time back there and let me tell you, it definitely wont be my last! The kids LOVED it there... we even ended up staying there the entire day and closed the park down! Ella met Santa and Diego. I have the cutest video ever of Ella and Santa talking, I will try to post it on here. 

 

Tabitha & me.

I met Tabitha when we were freshman in college and we were both living on the same floor of our dorm. We went from living in the same dorm to becoming roommates and also sorority sisters. We have so many incredible memories together from the 4 1/2 years we were in college together. And to our surprise, we found out our houses were within 20 minutes of eachother, so on our summer & winter breaks during college and after college we were able to still spend a lot of time together!.. until I moved to Los Angeles :(  Every time I go to visit my parents in Chicago, Tabitha and I meetup and it is always the best time! I love her so much and so wish we lived closer. She is one of my forever friends. We have such a strong bond and can go a day or a year without seeing eachother and our friendship is just as strong as ever. I love you so much Tab! Thank you for being so amazing!!!   

So when I visit we usually meet up for a playdate with our kids... but this time we decided to go out just the two of us. We met for dinner and ended up staying out for over 6 hours together laughing and catching up with what was going on with eachothers lives. It was great!!!   

Day 2 we woke up and spent the morning playing out back at my parents house followed by playing at the park and taking Charlie (my parents dog) to the dog park. Then we spent the rest of the day at the Children's Museum. Ella loves this place and it is always a "must go to" when we visit my parents. 

Our first day in Chicago we spent the morning at the mall and had lunch at cheesecake Factory with my mom, nani, brother steve, aunt terri, ella and jacob. Then that afternoon we enjoyed the beautiful weather in the backyard at my parents house.

Ella, Jacob and I went to Chicago for a week and what an amazing time we had! One of our best weeks ever! I will get more into our trip, but first I just have to say how great both kids always do on the plane. I give them so much credit because traveling these days is not the easiest. But they were all smiles from the LAX to Chicago.

We signed Ella and Jacob up for swim lessons this year. Considering how warm it is in California almost year round and the fact that we have 2 community swimming pools within walking distance... Vincent and I agreed that both kids would greatly benefit from swim lessons. Having the kids play in the water as it is scares me so much and it is so important to us that they learn water safety. The classes lasted 5 days and were 20 minute sessions. Both kids did amazing. What a fantastic swim instructor they had!! Ella loved every minute and did fantastic. By the last day she was able to swim from her instructor, Miss Kim to the wall. She also learned to jump in the water, turn around and swim to the ledge. Jacob didn't like the swim lessons, but he still did great. He cried the first 2 days, but was tear free the last 3. Except when his lesson was over and Miss Kim would hand him back to me...then he would start crying to me. He learned to hold his breath underwater and was able to glide from Miss Kim to the wall. So proud of both kids and cannot wait for all the fun pool days that we have ahead of us to enjoy and practice their swimming skills.

And even though Jacob wasn't too fond of the lessons, he learned alot and practices his swim kicks and swim arms in the bathtub nightly! 

Happy Father's Day Vincent. Thank you for being the best daddy ever to Ella & Jacob!