Today

This morning I needed some help making my coffee; can you see who was helping?

Next up, a hike in Griffith Park.

Then later in the day Porter & I worked on thank you notes form his birthday. For most he wrote just a 'P', but a few got the full 6 letter signature!

Another round of the rat-I-spy game for you:

Tap Dancer!

Matilda's dance class performed to "Deep in the Heart of Texas" today.

I was working and missed it but thankfully her dad and brother got to witness the awesome hilarity.

Toothless!

Matilda lost her second wiggly tooth today. She did not swallow this one and was so excited to be able to hold it, inspect it, and show it off! 

Matilda wanted one tooth-documetning pic with her brother:

Super Boy

  

Birthday Sister

Matilda was the sweetest gal celebrating her brother this weekend. These were a whole bunch of cute pictures I wanted to share.

Matilda and her buddy, M, showed up in adorable coordinating outfits. 

Fresh from her exciting first tooth loss, she compared notes with Z, who has lost a whopping 7 teeth!

Matilda spent about half of our time at Travel Town climbing in this tree. 

She really loves tree climbing these days. 

For Porter's birthday, Matilda picked out three books that she thought he would enjoy. As soon as he opened them she volunteered herself up to read one.

Smiley gal in pajamas and her new sun hat. (We stumbled upon a crazy discount hat warehouse last weekend and she got 2 new ones, both modeled in the above pictures.)

I Have a Cake Problem

When it comes to birthday cakes for my kids I can not seem to curb my crazy. I love challenging myself to construct whatever they are asking for from cake and frosting. I think that Matilda's dragon cake is evidence enough!

Porter gave me such a fabulous huge grin when he woke up and came out to find this. 

Here Matilda and Porter inspect the work in progress on the morning of his party. He quickly asked why the (Oreo) wheels were not on the (licorice) track? Such attention to detail for a 3 year old! Thankfully any misgivings he had were forgotten when he learned I planned to fill the cars with Cocoa  Krispies "coal" and (left-over Easter) candy loads. 

I waited until we got to Travel Town to fill the train with goodies to avoid excess spillage en route.

"Put the jelly beans in here!"

The final product, sitting proudly among the big train cars.

 As we sang happy birthday to Porter the wind kept blowing out his candle, leading to a lot of frowns and concern.

As soon as we did manage to get the candle lit long enough for Porter to blow it out, the hollering began. Each of the 21 children present began to vocalize their strong opinion over what piece of the cake they wanted most. I fled the scene with the cake to slice it up (as quickly as humanly possible) from the relative safety of two picnic tables over. 

Porter very sweetly wanted to feed Adlai a jelly bean!

Yum!

Already today both Matilda and Porter were talking about their plans for the next birthday cakes (Hello Kitty and Snow White cakes, respectively.) They will change their minds a hundred times before next spring but I will love the challenge of whatever they choose. 

Porter's 3rd Birthday Party

We all had a blast at the big birthday party at Travel Town yesterday, especially the birthday boy himself. 

The conductor gave Porter a turn sitting in the drivers seat.

The model trains were as captivating as ever. 

 A chicken leg and a juice box = perfect birthday lunch in Porter's assessment.

 "Who likes cake?" I got a lot of hands up for that question.

I wish I had video of Porter seeing his cake for the first time Sunday morning; 

his face was so sweet as he lit up. 

Parachute fun with friends.

 I think our boy felt really loved surrounded by so many friends to celebrate his day.

 (Hopefully none of them took offense as he greeted them by asking, "Did you bring me a present?")

3

Almost Three

We took the boy out for some special fun today before he turns THREE tomorrow. Pancakes out, train spotting and a walk to the corner store for ice cream. A perfect day. 

 Porter also opened a few presents today and is IN LOVE with these roller skate.

Tooth Fairy Time!

It finally happened, while eating a Drumstick, she swallowed her first tooth. She is beyond excited, regardless of the current location of this lost tooth!

My Baby Boy

I ran across this photo today from the day Porter came home from the hospital, almost 3 years ago!

Meet the Rat Boys

I have been doing a cruddy job of getting pictures of our new pets. They are so fast that I am a little afraid they will disappear. Often, there are 4 other little hands grabbing at them to pet or hold. I spend all my time with the rats out playing a game of interference to keep the rats safe, from escape or mauling.

Today we managed to get a few shots of them finally. This is Tinchi, the light grey one.

This is Watson. He is the most shy about being held, but he is crazy curious and is always the first one to investigate anything new. He almost always finds a hidden treat faster than his cage mates. 

I was so bummed this shot is a little out of focus but it depicts Leopold perfectly. If the cage door is open he will stand at the edge looking pathetic like this, just begging to be picked up.

Saturday Doings

Nothing big going this weekend, just trying to catch up a bit.

 Porter and Tim went off to the zoo for class this morning for a few hours.

 He just had a haircut a month ago, I cannot believe it is so shaggy in his eyes already. A cutie anyways.

 Matilda and I got the rest of our seedlings in the garden and a few more seeds started. She loves gardening so much and I forgot how much I do. I spent almost three hours out in the yard today puttering and getting muddy. It was lovely.

 Before bedtime Matilda got a few last minutes in with Leopold. Leopold was named by Porter. Originally Porter was suggesting Leo but when Tim asked what Leo was short for (and offered up several full names that shorten to Leo) Porter switched to Leopold and now won't tolerate any nicknames. Leopold is crazy friendly; all the rats are sweet, but Leopold is content to spend all day riding on your shoulder. I need to get video of Matilda with a rat on her shoulder because she so hysterical just giggling and cackling the whole time (they are tickle-y!).