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?

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.

He’s …

Mr. Kissilicious, Mr. Snugglicious, Sir Poopsalot, My Growly Bear

 Photos by Kate.

The day before Mothers’ Day,  we went to Babushka’s house for tea.  Out came the samovar.  Now, a full and proper samovar needs to have both a tray for collecting ashes and a chimney to help with air-flow.  We have neither the proper tray nor the proper chimney. 

Roman filled the tube that goes down the center with kindling, created a chimney from 7-Up cans and started the fire to heat the water.

He cut the wood with a cleaver.  It didn’t occur to me until just now, but I could have Kate keep her wood for samovar kindling — you know, as a way of contributing.  The samovar is a left-over from the times when people used their fireplaces to cook everything.  It was considered quite practical because there could be a continuous source of hot water for people to have tea.

He’s ready to split wood and help out Papa.  (And don’t worry, after having been used for splintering wood, it was quite dull.)  And for the readers who are wondering why we didn’t give the cleaver to Kate — Oliver can barely lift the thing.  Kate would be truly dangerous.

 He’s just so cute, no matter what you put him in.

Same look, different child.

 Oh, this will comfort those of you who are worried.

Put the skirt on her head and now she’s a mermaid.

 He started getting grumpy about the hats right about now. 

 A gypsy.

He’s a very handsome flower.

I like how Janet Pratt once explained Easter Eggs to her daughter.  They are part of the way we celebrate Easter; but Easter or Resurrection Day isn’t about Easter eggs.  And just like balloons and birthday cake are the way we celebrate someone’s birthday, they aren’t the reason we celbrate a person’s birthday.

Resurrection Day Egg Hunt at Gram’s House

 The thrill of the hunt…

Kate and her cousins play in Gram’s stream.

On Friday Kate and I were eating a variation on Ginger’s Mac & Cheese.  Kate wanted to be excused and I told her that she needed to eat two more bites.  So she started to sing “Two More Bites.  Two More Bites” to the tune of the ‘Brother John’ part of “Frere Jacques”.  She took one more bite.  I said, “One more bite.” and she started singing “No more bites. No more bites.” with that mischievous little twinkle in her eye.  I wish I knew more about how the human mind puts pieces together; it’s totally fascinating to watch.

On Sunday, 3/15/09, Oliver pushed through another tooth, this time the top left-center.  This was accompanied two nights of teething pain (AKA waking up every hour for nursing).

Last, Kate is adjusting to Olvier playing with toys that she’s outgrown.  Kinda.