August 9, 2010
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Pretend City
Yesterday, we met up with Chris, Victoria and Maddy at Pretend City in Irvine. It’s a hands-on children’s museum with a kid-sized “grocery store,” restaurant, farm, beach, health center, fire station … you get the idea. I’ve wanted to go ever since I heard about it, but up until this point, Derek’s been too young to enjoy it. Now that he’s cruising and playing with toys independently, it makes more sense to take him.
We had a great time! All the kids enjoyed it, and I really liked it, too. Funny how shopping for groceries is so much more fun when the food is in miniature … and the money is pretend. LOL. We got a lot of great pictures, too!
Jack and Derek browse the produce section at the grocery store
Johnny and Jack make a sandwich at the fixins bar, and then Johnny samples the results. Mmmm, plastic sandwich!
Jack has a cute moment of pretend with an older boy at the checkout stand; Derek and I at the “farm”
While Derek and I chilled on the farm, Jack was working on pipe construction nearby
Jack was fascinated by the pipes; meanwhile, Maddy has excellent taste in cars!
Jack had fun in the “Persian Restaurant” kitchen
They also had a water play area, which Derek LOVED! There was one area where the pipes dispensed gusts of wind, so that the kids could control their sailboats. Really cool!
After the water play, we all headed into the health clinic.
Chris examines Maddy; Maddy listens to Derek’s heartbeat
Me and my baby!
After that fun morning, we were hungry for lunch, so we went to the nearby Irvine Spectrum. I’d never been there before … what a nice shopping center! We had a yummy lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. For a meal with four adults and three children, I think it went pretty well. Victoria treated us to Cold Stone afterward.
Look at Jack and Maddy holding hands!
Jack and Maddy play a game of chase around a giant planter
After lunch, the kids napped while we drove back home, then we enjoyed a nice couple of hours playing in the backyard. It was an idyllic Sunday.
And now, back to the grind. I’m now tutoring three evenings a week, for two or three hours at a time. It’s exhausting to take care of the kids all day, and then go straight to tutoring, but I really love working with the students, and it’s good money. The biggest plus is that when I’m not doing it, I’m not on call at all. Yay! For the rest of August, I tutor Wednesday through Friday. When the school year starts, I’ll be tutoring Monday through Thursday, from 7:30 p.m. to 10 or 11 p.m. Whew! So far, my mom’s been sitting for us, but soon she’ll be leaving to spend a few months with my dad in Taiwan, so we’ve hired the (very responsible) 16-year-old son of a family friend, who has experience with kids, to hold down the fort while I go tutor. The kids are already in bed by then, so all he has to do is sit here and make sure nothing out of the ordinary happens until Johnny gets home (which usually doesn’t happen until after 8 p.m., unfortunately). It’s a pretty good deal for a high schooler to get paid for doing his homework! At most, he’d be here for two hours, and even if Johnny happens to get home five minutes after I leave, we’ll still pay him for the whole two hours. We interviewed him last Friday, and we really liked him. He wants to be a nurse, so we know he likes to take care of others. My students live close by, so I told him to just give me a call if the (extremely unlikely) situation ever arises that he doesn’t feel confident handling by himself.
I’ll leave you with two adorable pics … one of Derek pushing his push car backwards, and one of me and my boys!
Comments (9)
That place sounds reallycool and your boys are gettin so big!! You are obviously such a devoted mom and it is really special to read your blog.
What subjects are you tutoring? What age?
My company has an office in irvine! That is where HR is located for the most part so it isn’t out of the relm of possibility that I might move there if a job opens up that would make it worthwhile!!
@PennyLumpkins - Awww, thank you! I try to be a good mom, but I definitely have many moments where patience eludes me.
As for tutoring, I focus on English. I have one student who’s gearing up for the SAT, so I’m helping him with reading comprehension and essay writing (he’s good on the vocab and sentence completion portions). Another student is also in high school, but he’s an ESL student, so we’re working on basic English. I have another who’s in middle school and just needs general reading comprehension/vocab/writing help. With all three, I’ll primarily be helping them with their homework once the school year begins. The oldest student (the one who’s taking the SAT this fall), his mom also wants me to keep him informed of world events. So I bring articles for him to read each week. Anyway, tutoring is an easy way for me to help our family finances while still being able to be with the kids all day … plus it lets me use my brain for something OTHER than conversing with a three-year-old. 
How cool that your new company has an Irvine office! Irvine is just an hour south of where I am. If you ever need to travel out here for work, let me know! it’s a great place to live, too … Irvine is a relatively new city, so everything’s very clean and easy to navigate. Plus, you can’t beat the weather!
How’s the cost of living in Irvine? Is it by the water? I am under the impression it is between LA and San Diego, which sounds pricey!!
That’s cool the mom wants you to keep him informed on current events. I read today that something like 70% of high school graduates never read another book after graduating and 50% of college grads don’t read another book. That seems so sad to me!!
@PennyLumpkins - Ooooh, that IS a sad statistic! As for Irvine, it’s close to the ocean, but not ON the ocean. It’s really beautiful, though — it’s a planned city that was only built in the late 1970s, so everything about the city’s layout is well thought out. It wouldn’t appeal to someone who’s into old-time charm, or someone who’s anti-planned developments. It has a really low crime rate and a lot of employers, though. There are plenty of parks with manmade lakes. It’s in Orange County, and it is between LA and San Diego. The cost of living is high, but not as high as it is in LA.
so cute! can’t wait to take caleb…. … when he’s older. lol. Glad you’re back! I missed you! Even though I don’t see you much. Whenever you’re free I was thinking of visiting with Caleb.~ but i’ll let you get settled in from your trip first!
@My_Enigma_Heart - Hey hey hey!!! I miss you, too. We’re all settled in now, but we have a flurry of family activities (weddings, get-togethers, trying on wedding gowns for June, who’s getting married next July, etc. etc. etc.). How about in early September? Bring Caleb and Seb, too! We can all hang out! I posted a ton of pics from our summer vacay in Michigan on FB, too. You need to post MORE pics! Whenever I go to stalk your FB page, there’s not much new there! Sure, sure you’re busy with work and family, but remember your adoring audience is waiting for you to post pictures.
@bevconeal - hahha.. I know! I’m so bad with posting these days. So June has a date set? Yay!! How exciting! Must tell me more when we get together. Beginning of Sept. sounds good. I might be gone 1st 2 weekend of Sept. tho. hmm.. so maybe like the 3rd or 4th weekend. Seb will be out of the country at that time tho, so it might be just me and caleb.
maybe I’ll self invite, pack my bags, and spend the night with caleb! that’s if your weekend is okay to do that. Ok, must take more pics, which I will do this saturday when I go to the Farmers Market in Irvine to buy my organic produce.
@My_Enigma_Heart - Ooooh sleepover with Caleb sounds good! Let’s plan on it!
ok , so .. once i will check calendar and then msg you possible dates.. and you let me know~