I just ran across this as I was archiving photos from Em’s birthday.
I can’t imagine how I missed this photo the first time around.
I love it. They almost have the same look on their sweet little faces. Lost…deep in thought. I wonder what they were thinking…
I do know what I’m thinking right now…Thank God it is the weekend. Hope you all have a happy one!
Just when I thought it was safe to put the ‘ol checkbook away, Addie’s school has decided to do a trike-a-thon. Much like the Em’s jog-a-thon, only with…well, trikes and bikes.
I admire the creativity of our schools in finding new ways to raise the much needed funds and honestly I am very thankful we are not selling the horrid boxed candy. So we will be there, cheering on all the preschoolers.
We got a much needed new helmet for the occasion.
We will be removing the Minnie Pearl price tag before Saturday, of course.
And you can bet I will be taking photos. Fifty preschoolers riding around a track? I’m sure some sort of hilarity will ensue. Emma said to me today, “A trike-a-thon is probably going to be very dangerous, don’t you think Mama? All those kids on bikes, they are all going to fall down! I don’t think it is a very good idea.”
Yes, yes. They probably will. This coming from the (now 6-year old) girl who still panics when you let go of her bike without training wheels.
Yesterday morning Addie crawled in bed with us before it was time to get up and I asked her if she had asked Daddy for some “trike money.” There is nothing sweeter than hearing her little raspy-morning voice squeak out, “Will you sponsor me, Daddy?” (SUCKER!) And she has since asked me three or four times, but when I try to get her to call or ask relatives and friends, she won’t do it. She freezes up.
But if you want to sponsor her, I know she would appreciate it and you’d at least get a very big “thumbs up!”
Ok, OK! Don’t be a hater!
Remember even though we have some heavenly weather whilst many of you are still shoveling snow – we also have crazy house prices, unbelievable air conditioning bills in the summer, and well…earthquakes.
Everybody has something to deal with, I guess. But the girls will tell you that running through the sprinkler in April? Yeah, it is worth a little earthshake or two!
Em and Addie invited the little girl across the street for a romp in their new sprinkler. Today was 100 degrees again, but it will be back to mid-70s tomorrow, through the rest of the week. Crazy weather. Crazy girls. The hose water…it is cold!
Hmmm…doesn’t this look familiar? A little like this photo from last year, maybe?
Trying to get everyone else wet.
The tongue definitely helps you run faster don’t you know?
It also helps you when you are running through and trying to avoid the water.
And the tongue also helps warm you up at the end of the sprinkler session.
No…my lips aren’t really purple and my teeth aren’t chattering.
So now that our heat wave is over – it is time for us to get out and enjoy Mother Earth.
We are off to recycle a few things, plant a few things and decide what else we can do to make our
Earth healthy again.
Happy Earth Day!
Just barely squeaking a CT in today.
I have not had a lot of time to craft fun stuff this week…again. I did put together some thank you notes for Em, but they look very similar to the invites and the other party stuff.
Maybe you sent Em something for her birthday, but you haven’t received one of these little thank yous? Aye…it is coming. I am trying to instill the importance of writing thoughtful thank you notes into Em. So she is writing all of her notes herself, under some guidance from me. And remember even though she is a superstar, she has an incredibly short attention span. So we have been doing a few thank yous each night. By summer break we should have everyone done! Ha.
And when not trying to do thank you notes, we have moved our craftiness outside since the weather is getting so nice. We had a flower bed next to the courtyard that has always aggravated me. It had three big, nearly dead, plants that I think must have been in the allium family since they were so very stinky. And they were clearly old and needed to be divided – probably 5 or 6 years ago.
So we ripped them out last weekend. And instead, finally got some new citrus trees. J. has been wanting an orange tree for awhile, and I’ve been wanting a lime tree. So we got one of each and another tree that is a cross between a tangerine and lime too. We got dwarf trees – so we can keep them in pots for awhile and then Addie and I went looking for some pretty plants to put around them.
This is so not a very good photo since I ran out at the very last minute last night to take it…and our avocado tree is shedding all of its’ flowers right now, so the bed looks messy. But once all of our plants fill in a bit, we’ll take some better photos to share. All I know is that it smells heavenly in our courtyard right now. All citrus-y and orange blossom-y. Mmmmm….
We also finished planting our herb garden, and just one tomato plant this year and strawberries. We still have our cucumbers and Em’s bean plant from school to find a spots for. I have a feeling that will be our task for later in the week when it cools down a little bit.
What about all of you? Any goodies to share this week?
There is nothing like the feeling of sun on your face and sand beneath your toes…
I know technically summer is a few months off, and many of you are still waiting for signs of spring.
So it probably feels a little unfair that we had an amazing, as “summer-like” as it can get, type of weekend around here.
Today it was 95 degrees, and tomorrow we are supposed to hit 100 in the valley.
Hello, summer!
If you haven’t figured it out – the LB aquarium is at the top of our list of favorite places in the LA area to visit. We take everyone who comes to visit us there, and we usually make at least one trip by ourselves every month or so. I love the ocean, I love ocean life and I LOVE that the girls are just as fascinated as I am with all things “ocean.”
So naturally, when the girls came to visit last week, the first place we took them? The aquarium. To see the
“fiss-hhhies!” as Ella would say.
I think she liked the fishies. Addie certainly liked being older than someone and being able to show off the stuff she knows.
The sting-ray touch pool was a definite favorite…
And I think everyone (except maybe Madey, she wanted to touch them until they came within 3 inches of her fingers) got to touch one of these…
And look! I relinquished the camera yet again. When J. is with us I end up in a photo…
…sometimes even two!
We can’t get enough of the aquarium. So come visit us – we’ll take you, too!
I already told you that I am not very focused this week. And even though I have a week’s worth of photos to post and write about, I just opened this folder from Saturday to edit. So today we will be reliving…Em’s birthday trip to Disneyland. (A million thanks to Uncle Jeff!)
You did hear that she turned six last week, right? I think everyone at DL knew after Saturday, compliments of her birthday button…
…and her birthday ears.
And during the parade, when they asked who was celebrating a birthday – she made sure to make it known…
I think she liked being the birthday girl. What do you think?
We crossed some stuff off of our list, including a chilly ride on Splash Mountain!
And then we hung around ToonTown for a bit…
And tried to contain two little monkeys…
And we borrowed Minnie’s mirror to primp a little bit…
It was a jam-packed and fun-filled day. This is one of my fave pics of Addie…
And my fave of Em, too. I just wonder what she was thinking when I snapped this.
It was a great way to celebrate the big SIX! Thanks again, Uncle Jeff.
“Focus up.”
I say this to the girls at least once a day when I need them to channel their energy into eating, getting dressed, or some other task that they can’t seem to be bothered with at that exact moment.
But this week, I find that I’m the one who needs to do a little focusing up. I can’t figure out what my problem is. Normally, I am a pretty organized person. I have my task lists, I organize my errands to minimize my “running around,” and my house looks – for the most part – inviting and clean.
But for the past few days I have been incredibly scatterbrained. I can’t even put together a task list that makes sense. I move stuff from one room to another and then back again. I’ve found two different birthday cards that should have been sent out last week. And I started to write out a check to pay our taxes, went to answer the phone and by the time I came back I had already forgotten what I was doing.
Grrr. It is frustrating. And Em came home today and was so excited about collecting her jog-a-thon winnings and I remembered that I never even posted to let you all know how she did!
MOM! You didn’t even blog about how amazing your little runner did?
Uh…nope. Let’s discuss now, shall we? Here she was before the race…
Flash! During the race…
And after…
I roped all of our visitors into “volunteering” for the PTA as well. I was marking the runners as they did their laps. Meesh was taking photos (Thanks, M!), Lexer was on the water station…
And the three little ones were on cheerleading duty…
So how did she do, you ask?
Well, when we were fundraising we were told that the track was 1/8th of a mile. So she and I thought that she might try to run 10 laps – so that would be over a mile! And they had 20 minutes to run. I figured that was pretty do-able.
And the girl is good. She got pledges from both Nana AND Papa, Nena AND Bill and then she hit me up, and also got a separate pledge from Daddy. And also sweet talked both Daddy and Uncle Jeff each into $5 a lap.
You see where this is going, right?
Yeah. She ran 20 laps! She made some c-a-s-h for her school. But it is all for a good cause. The fearsome foursome…
Good work, girls. And I’m so glad one of us is able to focus up and overachieve around here lately.
I had such high hopes and expectations for Easter and spring crafts. Easter cards! Spring wreaths! Cute almost-summer sundresses! I have the makings for all of them.
And then? Somehow Easter snuck up, and flew by me, and I’m standing on the other side of it with nothing, nada, zilch.
So perhaps we’ll get some Happy Spring photos and cards made someday. But at the rate I’m going…I wouldn’t hold your breath.
But, my friend Christina gave me permission to count dyeing Easter eggs as a “craft.” So I’m taking it!
And while I’m at it, let me tell you all about how it doesn’t always pay to be organized – and the best laid plans…well, they don’t always work out as planned.
For instance, even though you buy Easter egg kits a month in advance, you’ll still need to actually find some time to use those kits to color some eggs.
And also, even though two of the 18 eggs you are boiling crack and explode, doesn’t mean that the other eggs are in fact “hard boiled” enough to eat. (They sure look pretty, but Ewww…runny yolks!)
And another hint? That cute kit with the little roller brushes at Target…yeah, pain in the neck and total waste of time!
And no matter how many times you tell your 3-year old to not wipe her hands on her shirt, she’ll continue to do it, even though there is a washcloth within three inches of her hand. (I’ve got photographic proof on this one, Addie!)
And also? When you find an amazing sale on cute Easter dresses for next year, take into consideration that your little “weedlings” may sprout an extra inch or two. With dresses it is always okay to be a little long, but a little too short is treading on some dangerous ground.
At the very least, you should probably try them on before Easter morning. Before you are running late. For Easter mass. Of course.
And last, but not least, you’ll never get a good photo when you really want one. This last photo was the best photo I could conjure up of my two little sugared-out bunnies. I have about 100 outtakes. And this is the best.
*Sigh*
But we did make it to mass. It was beautiful, and we spent the remaining day with just our little family and did a little gardening. So in the end? It was all perfect.
So come on…show me all of your perfect craftiness this week!
