Spectacled Sweetie

When we picked up Matilda's glasses on Monday she was over the moon. Here she is beaming as she gets a glimpse of the world through her new glasses for the first time.

 I have such strong memories of the drive home from picking up my first glasses, seeing all the detail of the world in sharp focus again. It was really exciting for me to hear Matilda's thoughts and chatter as she experienced the same thing.  

The whole process of picking out frames took forever as she debated between so many great choices. This was her maybe pile: 

She especially loves the heart and rhinestones on the sides of her #1 choice, these candy apple red frames.

These calmer wire framed ones also have rhinestones to appease the almost-eight-year-old's flair!

The funniest part for me is realizing how glasses are in. I remember glasses seeming very clearly not cool in elementary school. For Matilda, her experience has been the opposite. The eye doctor confirmed that kids generally really want glasses these days and he even gets fakers coming in, seeking specs!

Boogie Boarder

We took advantage of the gorgeous, summer-like weather and hit the beach today. 

Previously, Porter's favorite boogie board use was pulling his sister around the driveway on it. However, after watching Tim get a particularly long ride in on a wave, Porter was interested in trying its' proper use.

 He was hooked after the first ride!

  

 He was enjoying it so much that he even handled the dunkings like a pro, just to get back on the board and try again.

 Waiting for a wave to carry him in further.

 An beautiful day for certain!

Joining the Club

Matilda came home from school last week ecstatic with news from the school nurse that she should go for an eye exam. She was just glowing with the information and told me she wanted to, "call everyone I know to let the know I might be getting glasses!!"

Today she finally had her dream confirmed when the eye doctor finished her exam. 

She was super proud of her disposable sunglasses after they dilated her pupils. Next time I will know not to schedule the eye exam before school, since she wasn't going to be able to read for a few hours until the effects wore off - a travesty for her! 

We did some preliminary browsing of glasses at the eye doctor's office, which she really enjoyed. After each pair Matilda put on, she would exclaim these are the ones I want! I hope her enthusiasm for the whole process lasts once the novelty wears off.

Construction Crew

If you unexpectedly find the sidewalk blocked, it may be the work of this rogue team.

Thank You Daylight Saving time

I saw the most amazing sunrise today because I was up early after the time change!

Pictures from Thursday

Matilda was only slightly excited about this giant chocolate croissant. 

Delicious coconut snack bars deserve to be bought in bulk.

i caught this mammoth playing ice age in my fridge. 

3.3 miles on these biking legs today. 

The Artist

Porter busied himself with a big painting project yesterday morning. 

He absolutely loves to use huge quantities of paint, especially when I give him free reign with the paint bottles. 

After a time, squirting paint onto the paper wasn't satisfying enough so he moved to painting the driveway. When I suggested he should paint on paper, he replied, "But I'm making ART!" I cannot argue with that. We then took the puddles of paint everywhere and made prints onto paper. For a final step, he was very pleased to drive a scooter through the whole paint field and make rainbow tracks. 

We are now completely out of paint in our house!

Phone Dump

Check out my new toy. It's a hand me down from dear friends who moved away and left me sad and highly caffeinated.

Matilda's annual school jog-a-thon fundraiser was today. She did great running, but even more impressive was her mad math skills figure out her pledge per lap totals! Sneaky school raises money AND strengthens multiplication skills all at once.

Porter enjoys the motor bike at school.

Some after school play leads to the creation of a new Olympic sport! Helmets optional.

Storming through the neighborhood on our walk to pick up Matilda.-

We met friends at the park adjacent to a driving range this weekend and found a massive amount of golf balls. We were also probably playing in the danger zone for head bonks.

T-Ball Begins

Porter had his first t-ball practice today and was super excited about it. I was amazed to see how quickly he picked things up from the coaches. The team has three dads as coaches and they were all super encouraging and great with the kids; it was a blast to watch. 

Tim and Matilda went to visit family in NC for the weekend so Porter wanted me to make sure I took extra pictures and video to share with them. He is clearly his father's son in wanting adequate documentation! 

Happy Valentine's Day

Both the kids came up with creative homemade Valentine projects that were a little labor intensive but turned out quite cute. Thankfully they both stuck with it to help making them, so it wasn't quite a mommy-Valentine-sweat-shop around here. After a trip to Legoland and a viewing of the Lego movie (Go see it right now if you haven't! Really.) this month, Porter was set on a Lego theme. We got creative with a new mold and a old box of busted crayons and made some really fun looking lego crayons. 

He hung in there to label most of the 40 packets for school friends, a giant task. 

Matilda, renowned by her classmates for a love of reading, settled on making bookmarks.   

She wrote "Love Your Books" on the back of each one and signed it. Only slightly silly when you think about how she chopped up books to make them!  

Happy Valentine's Day! 

Ralph

I forgot to put this one for you last month, Mom! Glad you guys made it up the tram without having to use that nice sun hat!

Farm Diorama

Matilda's class got a really fun open ended assignment this week to create something. It could be anything really, just so long as it was creative and told something about yourself. Matilda chose to create her grandpa's farm. It was fun to see all the methods she used to create different aspects. My favorite part is the donkey ears I think, although the orange tractor that looks like a school bus is pretty awesome.

 I love seeing all the kids so excited to arrive at school and share their projects. She was beaming the whole walk to school!

Cheetah Trim

Porter's shaggy hair finally got long enough that he was willing to consent to a haircut this week. His hair stylist was not phased by the preschool make-over he had already had that morning. 

Here's the final result, sans cheetah disguise. 

Classic Roller Coaster Pic

I don't normally go for this type of purchase, but I couldn't pass up such spectacular kid faces documented on the roller coaster at Legoland yesterday!