Boy Cut

Before

 During

After

Porter and I both got haircuts at home this week. It was the most awesome thing ever. A gal that used to cut Tim's hair was back in LA for a week and looking to make some extra money. It was totally reasonable and I got my hairs taken care of without having to find a sitter or find extra time. Porter enjoyed it, still got a lollipop (thank you Halloween stash), and could busy himself emptying every bin of toys on the floor while it was my turn. Perfect!

11-11-11

Thanks to Matilda's newfound love of being the "calendar monitor" at school, she was really into the awesome date today. For a week now she has been talking about how soon the date will be "eleven dash eleven dash eleven!" I agree with her that it is super cool. 

Thanks to the Veterans Day holiday (Thanks, veterans!), M was out of school today so we could all have some fun together with Grammy in tow. We chose to use the free day to go check out the awesome brand new carousel at the zoo. Stella came too, for an extra measure of fun. 

Then we happened upon 4 other kindergarten friends there, so our group was quickly wild and crazy. I was quite thankful for all the other grown-ups helping track the pack today since Porter spent his zoo time moving at this speed: full stride ahead!

 After much animal viewing, the bird show and a picnic lunch we finally made it to the carousel. Porter's first choice ride, the preying mantis, was taken. For a moment I thought all hell was about to break loose, but somehow he overcame his disappointment and chose to pull it together and ride the rhino.

 Matilda waffled widely, finally choosing this cute little log seat with some owl friends.
Stella got her first choice, tiger!

 Grammy also got her first choice of the dung beetle chariot. So cool! The kids obliged my demands for a photo with much yelling of "Ewww, poop!"

We will be back soon to ride the carousel again with the unicorn, preying mantis, serval, okapi and kangaroo in our sights. At the end of our visit, Stella's much nicer mom bought her an ice cream which led to a full on assault by Porter, who I was denying zoo treats. Stella shared really nicely and volunteered a few bites willingly. Porter's sweet tooth was not satisfied and soon he was dashing at Stella like some kind of wild dog after scraps. 

Hopefully poor Stella wasn't too traumatized. Porter's wails for ice cream ended as he fell asleep in the car, just feet from the zoo parking exit.

Observatory Fun

Smiling cutie.

 Grammy and Matilda give me a cheese.

 Can you see me now?

 This boy is happy and getting big so fast. I am glad to see a little baby chub on his face in this picture since it will be gone in the blink of an eye.

 Monkey climber.

 Monkey see, monkey do.

 Porter was calling this a "vacuum truck." I have no idea why.

Kale Avocado Salad

On Friday as I pulled together dinner I wanted to make a salad but had only kale and avocado.
Solution:

Kale Avocado Salad
So good. Try it!

Muddy Buddy

Gaurav & I (and our big cheering section) braved the chilly 40 degree temperatures and rain to participate in the muddiest Muddy Buddy race yet. It poured rain on us the whole time making the 6 mile course really slick and treacherous. 

Porter helped to keep me warm as we wait at the starting line for our start time.

 I mostly ran with the bike during my bike legs of the relay as I was too nervous to bike on the sloppy trails.

Sarah got the best pics of the day I think, catching us as we emerged from the mud pit finale. 

 
Grammy got a nice shot of us all afterwards. (She'll be visiting this whole next week and is posting pictures faster than me if you want to follow our adventures.)

When it came time for the Mini Muddy Buddy race this year, Matilda backed out. We had already pre-registered for it, but I was almost thankful that she passed. I was so freezing cold afterwards being all wet and muddy and Matilda would have been a disaster to get cleaned up. Poor delicate California girl that we are raising does not like to get cold! Instead I will leave you with the pics from last year's race where you can see I seemed to have worn the same outfit for the 2010 race! The whole affair was done by 11 a.m. and we all climbed back into the car to head home for hot showers, hot pho noodles and a cozy nap. The perfect ending to a cold, exhausting morning.

Halloween Night

We skipped the busy old neighborhood where we have always taken the kids before. Instead this year we stuck to our new block, splitting the time between trick or treating and handing out candy. Our porch had many pumpkins from the annual pumpkin autopsy party. Here is Matilda's pumpkin, completed on her own for the second year. I particularly love it with the crazy eyes she choose.

Here the kids are gathered in the window watching for trick or treaters to start showing up as it gets dark. The anticipation was really getting them super amped up as you can imagine!

 It proved to be fairly impossible to get a good shot of the hummingbird, caterpillar and Gruffalo with all the excitement in the air, but rest assured that they were adorable. 

 Sarah and Gaurav did an amazing job with their homemade Gruffalo costume, even down to the purple prickles on her back and "poisonous" green wart on the nose.

 They get into the swing of it at our first house out.  

Porter yelling about something, possibly candy.

After just a few blocks, our crew was all happy to come home and hand out candy. 

Porter and Matilda both really liked seeing all the trick or treaters coming up. Except for one particular penguin. A grown man in a big penguin costume came marching up the front yard with his beak really obscuring his face. Porter took one look at him approaching and screamed bloody murder. The poor penguin quickly looked up to tilt the beak back and show his face, causing Porter to calm down fairly quickly. I feel a little awful saying that it might have been the highlight of my evening. Poor Porter has the best terrified scream ever. Every time he does it (which seems to be with some regularity), I am torn between cracking up myself and rushing to try and console him. The irony is that the really scary costumes never phased him. He got especially excited for the many Scream mask characters calling them the "open mouth guys." 

Happy Halloween!

Hummingbird in profile. 

CHOMP goes the caterpillar.

Blurry wing action.

 Posing in all their adorableness. Look at that boy's face: trouble.  

 Just two critters conferring in the garden.

Matilda and Porter both very specifically chose their costumes, an orange caterpillar and an Anna's Hummingbird. As always, Tim & I had a really fun time making them a reality and we are all quite pleased with the results. 

Happy Halloween 2011!

Priorities

I just sewed the last bit of Porter's Halloween costume, a fuzzy caterpillar helmet with horns. Matilda's hummingbird costume is freshly washed for a third straight day of wearing. Pumpkins are purchased for the carving party at 2. We had homemade pumpkin pancakes with chocolate spread for breakfast (orange and brown, so cute!). As a result the house is totally trashed, and I am pretty sure that I don't care.

Elementary School Fall Festival

The big fall event at school today proved to be lots of fun with costume contests, yummy food, car racing and even glittery-paint craft tables (staffed by yours truly). I dressed as a witch with our purple dress up wig and it was more fun than I expected. So many kids were freaked out as I talked to them, wondering who the hell I was and how did I know their name. My personal favorite was poor nervous Stella who Did-Not-Trust the Stranger-In-Purple-Hair despite all reassurances. 

The best in show cars were quite impressive. That fifth one in there that looks like it has a fish bowl.....does. Live goldfish swimming around. So cool! I am hoping they didn't race it. The unicorn in the foreground is the work of Matilda's pal M's family - so talented and awesome.

All of us had lots of fun. Can you see the snowcone pouring onto Porter's chest? That spells a good time!

Mixed Up!

Somehow these pictures loaded in mixed up order from actual chronological time of our Friday. I am too lazy to switch them so here you go.

We went back to the old apartment building to celebrate Ella's 2nd birthday with dinner and cake. Matilda was insistent that everything looked "So different!" Even the bushes in the front yard. Porter was quite pleased with the cake, Matilda enjoyed the Wii dancing game Ella got for her birthday.

 8:20 a.m. Halloween parade at elementary school = utter chaos and thorough entertainment. I have a zillion pictures of Matilda gleefully dancing around with school buddies but I am fairly certain I am not supposed to post them publicly. She totally enjoyed it.

 Post parade, Stella joined us back home for lots of fun.

I think this is what bershon looks like.

 Static head.

 After school, driving to Disneyland and then San Diego, per Matilda and Porter's agenda. 

 These two are so cute together. 

Day by Day

Today Porter decided Ian the bulldog should get dressed instead of him. In the end, we settled on matching outfits for Ian and Porter, instead of a naked boy at the park. 

Porter was overjoyed to discover they were resurfacing the parking lot adjacent to our playground of choice today (this one is known as Daddy's playground, because it is next door to his office.) We stayed long enough for a little play, a quick visit with Tim and some lung damaging close supervision of the work. I dragged him away long before he was ready to go, with apparent disregard for noxious fumes.

In the mail today we got our enormous Halloween package from Grammy. Halloween shirts, new jammies, socks, pencils, tea, snacks, and of course boatloads of candy. Very exciting!
 Also, Tarte Tatin. Big one for Jo and little one for us. They also look very pretty once they are flipped out with all the apples arranged and drenched in caramel, but I love the crusty tops (bottoms) best. So yummy and caramel-y.

Also, Adam has some really nice pics of our kid crew up from Adlai's birthday if you like that sort of thing. You know you want to see them.....click on over.

Needle Graveyard

My sewing machine is getting quite the workout. I have never broken a needle before this huge fleece costume of Porter's. Thankfully I am moving on now to Matilda's much thinner more delicate, and fussy material. The sewing machine will be relieved.