We took the train downtown today for the big festival of books at USC.
Sadly, our biggest transit fan slept through the whole train ride and missed it. Matilda enjoyed it though as we don't get on the subway that often lately (and Porter will get his fill of trains tomorrow at his make-up birthday gathering at Travel Town).
A big bonus of going to the festival was seeing our old kids music pal, Justin Roberts, perform. Stella joined us and danced with Porter in the aisles for a bit before they both lost interest and left the aisle to run top speed around campus instead. 
Matilda danced for a few songs but spent a good part of the show very intently watching. 
She almost looked like she wasn't having fun, but each time we checked on her she assured us that she was just paying very close attention. Intermidtently she would hop up and dance around in between her solemn viewing from the chairs. Porter ran his little butt off and then entertained the entire bus on the drive home; by the time we got in the door he lost his tired little mind and was begging to go to bed!
This morning I was cursing the train table since Porter refused to eat or get his diaper changed or do anything that involved leaving the train table. By the afternoon he was a bit more reasonable, although clearly still in passionate love with the whole train affair. 
We are bracing for sugar-fest tomorrow, which should be helpful in getting these two healthy!
Cheers to you, my boy.
In the end we had to drag him off to bed, sobbing "more play trains, more play trains." We pushed his little birthday celebration at the park to next weekend so he'll have the whole weekend to recoup with his trains!
Most of the fingernails got dyed. Who needs those funny wire egg lifters anyways - fingers are faster.
And some clothes got dyed. (Two girls showed up dressed in all white?) Here Matilda hands over an egg made especially for a school bud. 
Also, my little boy turns 2 tomorrow! He's a little under the weather so don't mind the boogers mixed with that paint. 
(Yes, we painted today, too. It was mess-central around here.)
I also have a bag of half melted, tacky jelly beans if anyone is interested. Although it may be a blessing in disguise as the bag that we purchased was fruit flavored with not a single licorice bean in sight. I will rectify that the second time around!
I just need to get her a little white apron and find a tin bucket for her lunch and she'll be totally ready to head off to school in September!
Apparently they poop out some red goop at first. Thank goodness the instructions warned us or there would have been some frantic googling I think. 
One out, waiting on the other 4. 
We spent the better part of this afternoon watching two of the cocoons thrash around.
For today's fun, after depositing the great grandparents at their cruise ship, we attended a sing-a-long screening of Matilda's old favorite. She still fits into her Dorothy dress and was one of MANY Dorothy's there. Here you can see a few in the aisles as they called everyone in costume to stand up:
It was Porter's first in-theatre movie experience and he napped through the entire thing, which was kind of nice as I am sure he would not have sat for so long. Tim & I enjoyed the singing along and Matilda enjoyed some of it, and was stressed out by the scary parts (yes, even though she's seen it a 100 times). They also had a Dorothy-impersonator (complete with a taxidermied Toto) who may not have looked like Judy Garland's twin to grown-ups, but totally enchanted M.
He couldn't be bothered to look at the camera as their were so many awesome passenger trains to keep track of. 
We enjoyed the nice morning outside with a coffee and bagel in the courtyard at Union Station.
The Greats also brought along some great presents. Porter was particularly pleased to finally get some present-opening in as his birthday season opens. This "digger book" from Uncle Gordie and Aunt Lori was met with huge exclamations of "Wow" from Porter as looks of awe, as you can see here. Thanks guys!
Porter was quite pleased with finally getting custody of this plastic cup, once the fragile residents were out. He spent quite some time shaking the yucky poop maraca before he threw it in the garbage bin. 
According to our suppliers, 
Or at least that is what Matilda had, while everyone else had scones and sandwiches and various other goodies.
