April 21, 2013 was Riley's 2nd Birthday! We celebrated the day before with a party at the La Jolla Rec Center up the street for our current house. Friends and family came and it was such a great party. We got a cute cake made for her and had cupcakes as well. Plus bubbles and sidewalk chalk. It was nice to meet some of the parents from Riley's school and have some our coworkers stop by for the festivities. Overall it was a hit! Riley had a blast!
Nory came down from LA to celebrate
Frankie with Roman
Then on her actual birthday we went to the Carlsbad Fields of Flowers. It was breathtaking. We didn't stay too long since right on schedule, Riley's terrible two's was in full effect. She had very little patience and was expressing herself (ahem...yelling, screaming, tantrums, etc) for a good part of the adventure. But it was really pretty and was nice to see even though it was a short trip. We also went out for Brunch at Burlap which was pretty good.
Dirty Girl.
And since Riley turned 2 she had her check up with Dr. Archy. She weighed in at 32 lbs and is 36.5 inches tall....still at the 97 percentile for her age. She basically looks like a 3 year old.
Let the terrible two's commence! I am hoping its short lived but many have told me that it continues for quite a while. Geesh!
It's been an up and down roller coaster house hunting in La Jolla. First, there is very, extremely, ridiculously low supply of houses in the 92037 so picken's have been slim. We
started our search in February and after seeing a few places really
liked this one "fixer-upper" that was inhabited by a couple that must
have been at least 100 years old. And the house fit that décor. It
was a trainwreck but great bones as they say. So we put in a low ball
offer and they did not even respond back to us. So I guess it was not
accepted? So moving on. Next house was quite the find in La Jolla
zip code: 3200 square feet, 4BR/4BA on a 1/3 acre lot. Kind of the
holy grail around here. Well, you know what they say: When it sounds
too good to be true it probably is, well that was what we found. Our
offer was actually accepted on this house and we had a home inspection
done and then requested additional information from the sellers...and
bingo...there it was...not disclosed originally but after digging and
digging...the backyard had a 15 foot landslide! Seriously?
Yes...S.E.R.I.O.U.S.L.Y. Wow. So we walked from that one. While we were walking away and
vowing to take a breather on the house hunt up pops a 4BR house in our
coveted kid friendly neighborhood of Birdrock. Hmmmm....well, even
though we were still in the aftermath of defeat, we thought we should
check it out anyway. So forward on! So we check out this house and
think...hmmmm....this ain't bad. It's a bit on the small side and
basically has no yard, but damn...everything else is perfection!
After a bit wheeling and dealing the seller agreed with our terms and
accepted our offer! Inspection time! So remember that we've gone
this far before and the outcome was not so favorable. This time, its
all good! We have a house! A beautiful house to call our own! I
truly miss our amazing house in Chevy Chase, but I'm ready for the
wonderful adventures of home ownership again! Here are some pictures
I took during the home inspection. We move in at the end of May! Enjoy!
Front door close up
fire pit
Grill area
corner of the house from the street
View of Ocean from Roof Top Deck
Fountain by front door
Park near the new house
On the Riley front, she is a busy little girl! She has school twice a
week for two hours those days, Music class and Swim lessons. I had to
put a calendar out so we could remember everything. She is learning
new words daily and just a joy! We are in birthday mode at the moment
since her birthday is next week and we have family and friends coming
in town to celebrate. Her party will be at the Rec Center, which is
her favorite place in the world. She will have a few friends from
school come but mostly family will be there. I can't wait to share
pictures! She loves to walk around the house playing her drum. So cute!
We celebrated Easter by going to Brunch at Stone Brewing. They had a
egg hunt for the kiddos. It seemed we had more fun than Riley. She
was not impressed with picking up plastic eggs to get candy she can't
even eat. Still bothers me that they would put hard candy in the eggs
for toddlers. We had a great time and Matt was happy to fill his
growler with the latest brew.
With all the house news I forgot to mention that we got a new car too! I love my new car. It's stacked with everything I didn't even know I would want and probably many things I won't be able to figure out how to use. But still...very fun. It's an Infiniti JX35. Yay!
I also got to go to school with Riley. She goes only twice a week for two hours each time but its fun seeing her interacting with other kids. Here she is at snack time. Typical Sykes girl. She was the last to leave the table and kept snacking even when all the other kids have left to do other things. Hilarious.
We are so excited to have found such a great house and such a great
neighborhood. We can still walk to restaurants and to the beach so
life is good!
