Malibu Creek SP

We visited Malibu Creek State Park on Saturday.  I’m getting smarter about bringing both balls and shovels & pails where-ever we go, and so the kids had plenty to occupy themselves.  Actually, with her pail and shovel, DD is more of a menace to all walking.  And with two pails, she had twice the amount of rocks and pebbles to collect.

The visitors’ center had some awesome docents who eagerly pointed us in the direction of all the things the kids could touch and pick up.  We were just about to walk out when one of them asked if DD just might be old enough to understand animal tracks.  Boy, would she.  She points out the horse shoe prints in  Madeline and the Gypsies every time we read it.

We had fun looking for alligators in the river bed, throwing her first rock collection into the water rock-by-rock, and smelling different leaves.

Apparently, she wants to be more like mommy and use the porta-potty instead of the potty we brought along for her — which if you know my husband, was about as likely as a Beatles reunion tour (it’s a germ thing).  So she wildly ran around playing dodge-the-parent as she tried to get into  the porta-potty door without being caught.  Who knew that using the stinky things was a rite of passage?

We also attempted THE FAMILY PHOTO, hence the matching outfits.  If the goal was to get the kids to look cute and charming, we failed.   Here’s how we did.

So, if we don’t do any better in the near future, that may be in a Christmas card soon…assuming I get them done this year.

As we were leaving, we had to stop every twenty feet for Miss Gravel Collector USA to do her thing.

Finally, we made her get into the stroller, which made her so hopping mad (we’d hiked through her nap) that she started to bludgeon her sibling with her plastic shovel.  Turns out that DS has had enough of such behavior and — being armed with the other shovel– whacked her back a few times before all shovels were confiscated.  Was I wrong to be proud of him?

Halloween, 2009

The  whole family was getting in touch with their inner Madeline.

Geography

Map-reading is pretty stinkin’ important in our family.  We take it seriously.

For one thing, Gram’s a professor of Geography and Anthropology.  This is Gram.  (Sir Poopsalot was grumpy that day.)

Isn’t she cool?  We can’t disgrace her, can we?

So, for two months before we drove to Florida, we showed Little Boo on the globe where we were and where cousin N, who she was pining away for, was in Florida.

Then when we left I grabbed a 99 cent map from Target and  we marked our progress moving across the country.

You see, we want her to like maps and to understand them.

And ultimately, to find her way home.

Sweet Boy’s Birthday

I have just two photos to share.  All wordy posts are going to have to wait until I meet a couple deadlines.

Here’s the Birthday boy getting a kiss from his big sister.

 

Little Boo had fun playing with her cousins.

Just Because It’s Cute

Being a sibling is growing on her.

Visiting LACMA

Last month, we met up with Sis and the nieces to go to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.  The hit of the morning was their new Street Lamp exhibit.

 

 

 

Sis was explaining the Rodin statue to the whippersnappers.  I think if I was a better sister, I would have gotten all of her in the photo.  Oooops.  That’s C holding Little Boo’s hand.

 

Later, we saw part of the Pompeii exhibit.  Little Boo wanted to do the audio tour.  It was really fun to watch J tutor her in the workings of the audio player.  The nieces seemed to get a lot out of it.  The biggest connection I could make for Little Boo was to explain that the statue of Aphrodite was Aphroducky (sorry, she adores her Ducktales).  Sis is REALLY good at explaining art to kids.  I could easily see her being a docent for school tours.

 

Gator Photos for Grandma

The Alligator’s name is Hollywood.  He’s three years old.  (And yes, I should have used a flash.   I’m hoping that if I find my other camera there will be some flash photos in there.  Maybe it’s hiding with my deodorant. )

 

How We Sweat

You know how you look when you’re sweaty?  Kinda deflated, right?  My face gets red and then my lips go slack and then I look a bit like a rosy-drunk toad. I’ll spare you the picture.

And then there’s my daughter.

 And this little guy.

 

Nothing toad-like about them.

When God says He gives us new life, besides all the cool things that it clearly means theologically, I think it also means that we respond to life’s challenges with a newness of life as well (and no, I’m not talking about sweltering weather).  After all, we have His Holy Spirit inside us.  It’s  a little bit like how my kids look awesome when they’re sweaty, while Miss 40-Something looks like a rosy toad.

Kate’s Friend

At CHN’s Family Expo, Kate fell for a little guy named Quin.  (I can’t ask his father for permission to show his face, so I can’t show the delightful picture of them each holding their mouths wide with their fingers and sticking their tongues out in absolute glee.)

 

She had been watching the boys play UNO and she kept signing ‘please’ in the most plaintive way… but she doesn’t know either her numbers (by sight) nor her colors so playing with them would be difficult.  Quin distinguished himself from all the other little boys by giving her some of his UNO cards so that she could pretend she was playing too.  What a gentleman!

Can You Blame Him?

It was a long day and my little goober found that warm water mighty lovely.