Saturday, April 30

Rock Out

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!

Sunday, April 24

"Stop Mama, Stop"

I can't get enough of this sweet boy.

Just Enjoying theToys

We laid low today and played with all the new loot. Porter played a lot of hoops; more than a sick boy should have. He's got big league dreams I think.
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!

Friday, April 22

TWO

Our birthday celebrating plans got a little derailed as Porter was feeling a bit more under the weather today. We still found fun in the day though and our happy-spirited boy was so sweet and fun, even through coughing fits, fever and a doctors visit. Cheers to you, my boy.
He was so happy with the whole singing and candle routine that we re-lit the candle three times and sang atleast 5 times.
The biggest hit of the day was the hand-me-down train table we acquired, paired with some eBay train scores. Porter was so in love (and adorable in his new engineer's cap from Grandma Marge). 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!

Thursday, April 21

Something Fun Everyday: Egg Dyeing Party

This morning we had 10 kids, 15 bowls of dye, 120 hard boiled eggs and (thankfully) 5 big mugs of coffee on our patio. It was a fantastically wild and fun time.
All the eggs got dyed.
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.)

Wednesday, April 20

Only Two Days til 2

Look who got a $2 bill in one of his birthday cards today!
He opened it and hollered, "Money!" Wise beyond his years I think.

Tuesday, April 19

Not Hollow Anymore!

I guess 65 degrees is too warm to leave your Easter candy in the car.
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!

Goodbye Butterflies

We released the butterflies today, with great reluctance from Matilda. However, she did acknowledge that they would probably like to fly out in the open and drink from wildflowers. She was pretty psyched to bring the little cage around with her all morning in the car. She told me that the butterflies liked the cd we were listening to. In the end it was so exciting to see them flying free and to hold them briefly on a paper towel, that I think that experience helped her get past any sadness.
She held the towel up to a rose and got each butterfly interested in some tasty food. Here you can kind of see the proboscis rolled out for a drink.
Porter is not poking as it appears, but excited and talking nicely to the butterfly saying goodbye.
Have fun out there Painted Ladies!

Monday, April 18

Matilda Ingalls Wilder

Today we got the most exciting package in the mail from my Aunt Molly! It is a dress and bonnet my mom sewed for my (award winning!) Little House on the Prairie costume. Matilda was instantly clamoring to get into it and wore the bonnet the entire evening, even to Vons. A checker thoroughly confused her by asking if she had been to "colonial days." 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!

Friday, April 15

A Butterfly is here!

Very exciting stuff! 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.

Thursday, April 14

Bear With Me Here

OK, one more sentence for you. This is the first whole one she's read to me:

"Mmmmmmmmmmmm," she said, not too hot and not too cold!

I can hardly stand it!

Wednesday, April 13

Reading Update: Can You See Me Bursting with Pride?

As Tim was reading Matilda their current bedtime chapter book tonight she pointed to a word on the page and said, "That says 'moon'." Tim asked her to start reading the first sentence of the chapter and she got this far: "The moon was just rising as I..."

He called me in to report the whole event and she read it again to me. I got all teary. Matilda blushed at our praise with such a beautiful smile on. I was such a bookworm as a kid and I am so excited for her have the chance to disappear into stories.

Tuesday, April 12

Arrrrrrrrgh

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me.

Monday, April 11

Not to Spoil the Surprise

Over lunch today Matilda and I were talking about Porter's upcoming birthday while he napped. She asked what I was going to get Porter for his birthday and I said how Tim & I were planning to get him (actually already purchased, thank you eBay) some wooden train tracks. I then asked Matilda what she wanted to get Porter. After a moment of pondering, she enthusiastically replied, "I think I am going to get him some CUTE PANTS! Like maybe some jeggings like mine." Poor Porter!

Saturday, April 9

Wizard of Oz sing-a-long

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.Matilda's new sparkly birthday-sneakers matched her dress perfectly and were just as good as ruby slippers. It was crazy to see how much taller and long she looks lately, but especially so in this dress.
After the movie, Matilda made a point to mention to me how she wished she had invited Aunt Gia to come because she likes Wizard of Oz so much, too!

Friday, April 8

Train Traveling Visitors

This morning Porter & I went down to the train station to retrieve my grandparents for a quick overnight stay, before they cruise off to Mexico tomorrow a.m. Needless to say, Porter was dumbfounded by his good luck to be woken up early and dragged off to run around surrounded by trains. 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.
Porter supervises, and generally gets underfoot, as Grandpa retrieves the checked bags.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!

Thursday, April 7

Butterflies House

Matilda got an awesome butterfly house for her birthday and we mail ordered the caterpillars right away. They arrived almost two weeks ago now and I really wish I had taken a photo of how tiny the caterpillars were when they first got here. Today they had finally finished filling their little plastic cup to the brim with poop and all 5 turned into chrysalis.
As per the instructions we moved them into their "house."
We peeled off the paper top and pinned it to the side of the little mesh house.
Matilda claims that now she has her own pets!
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, Insect Lore, 7-10 days until we have butterflies!

Sunday, April 3

Back for More Huntington Tea

Matilda, Tim & Grammy got themselves some big plates of caviar and watermelon at the Tea Room today. Or at least that is what Matilda had, while everyone else had scones and sandwiches and various other goodies.
Meanwhile, Porter ran at top speed (with me trailing behind) around the grounds enthusiastically greeting babies in strollers and looking for ducks.
He sniffed every flower we came across and even accidentally tipped himself into a bed of irises as he tried to get a whiff, sadly breaking a few stems.
He often had a big nose full of pollen, too!