Easter season, here we come...

Trying to stay slightly ahead of the curve this year regarding preparing our hearts and house for Easter (unlike last spring)... Last night we started the season kick off. After dinner we opened up our first of the dozen "Resurrection Eggs" after dinner; great resource I'm thankful we found last year.

And I put on my "crafy mom hat" by googling Easter craft ideas and lifting the idea of a truly crafty mom. Thank God for the internet! Our envelope bunny easter craft was highly enjoyed by the kids (anything utilizing glue is, I'm realizing) and came out very cute. Three of these are now hung on the wall alongside some rockin' egg decorations - a start on decor. Go team!

Girls' weekend

It was a heavenly couple of days at Avila Beach last weekend with all the MOMS girls. One of my friends said, "You don't even realize how much you need the time away till you get it." I said, "I did. I can't think of a time I'd realized it more." Having that third kid - the impact it has upon your day to day life - kind of creeps up on you until one day the craziness and intensity of it all kind of smacks you in the face. At least that's how it's gone down for me this spring!

We hung out, had some group and worship time, ate a lot, saw a movie, chatted and laughed, and just enjoyed being responsible for only ourselves for 48 hours. Magical.

I thought of that bumper sticker that says: "How can I miss you if you won't go away?" and laughed to myself at the truth of those words in this situation. I did miss my kids by the end of the weekend, which felt refreshing. HF (bless him) did very well at home with all three of them, though I did return to his commenting that he can see how holding down the fort all day with this troupe could be taxing. Which I appreciated!

We call her "Goldfinger"

The monkey was beginning to outgrow his bike, and Roo is getting ready to move toward a bike with training wheels - given all the time we spend on the sidewalk in front of our house. So the dutiful resident dad took a trip to the thrift store last weekend to get a bigger model. When he bought it was a pink "Secret Diary" bike, which of course could not stand, so he let Monkey pick out his own replacement color for the spray paint remodel job. With relish, he chose gold. Being the good dad that he is, HF accepted this choice.

Here's the bike after a coat of gold spray paint and some black duct tape to cover the seat (formerly purple) and crossbar:

We call her Goldfinger. Never was a four-year old boy happier. It's pretty hilarious. He spent hours riding out front today and no doubt will spend much more of the same this weekend, especially since I'll be away for the weekend in Pismo beach with the church MOMS group leadership group I'm on. Kim will be with me, so HF and Chuck will be holding down the resident forts on the street. Can't wait for 48 hrs with the girls! HF and the kids will no doubt have a fun and interesting weekend at home...

Time with Nana & Grampy

Lovely visit with my parents this weekend, in spite of craziness on a variety of fronts including the monkey's intense ear infections (described here), Roo's grump-producing cold that emerged during the weekend, a late night at work for HF on Friday, and the like. The kids all greatly enjoyed their visit - books read by Nana, walks with Grampy up the bike path, and a trip to the seal sanctuary in Carpinteria yesterday afternoon (pictured) - where Grampy was pointedly astounded by the size of some of the bull seals. It was a beautiful day and we had a lovely walk there.

Last night we grown-ups left the kids with a babysitter and had a nice dinner out last night, which was a treat. On Saturday HF stayed with the kids while my parents and I had lunch in Santa Barbara with their old friends the Bergs who run Beautiful Feet Books, a homeschooling-oriented publishing company that specializes in "history as literature" for children. Nice lunch and very educational for me.

My dear parents' generosity - in time, support, and finances - is always greatly appreciated by everyone in our family, and this visit was no different! We're sad to see them go.

Long Beach Aquarium

My dad flew into Los Angeles on Thursday after attending a conference in San Francisco to join my mom in the grandparental visit. I decided to use the opportunity that a pick-up at LAX afforded me to take the big kids to the Long Beach aquarium, leaving the Goose at home with my mom. The monkey is taken with all things aquatic, especially sharks, octopuses, and orca whales. The first two out of three of these things were happily in attendance at the aquarium, and the trip was a resounding success. George the octopus, a hammerhead shark, and the two sea turtles were the biggest hits- along with the giftshop shark and octopus that we brought home.

That night after a family dinner in which Nana's and Grampy's attendance were heartily enjoyed, the monkey came down with a roaring double ear infection a few hours after going to bed. He and I were up together for several hours, and finally he threw up around midnight and was able to fall asleep. The next morning I took him to the doctor and then to pick up prescribed meds, and he threw up a second time all over the floor in front of the drop-off window at CVS pharmacy. We'd left the 'barf bucket' in the car (won't make that mistake again). Fortunately there was no one in line behind us... Today has thankfully been much better.

3 bears in the (bath) and the little one said...

Now that she's 6 1/2 months old, the Goose has joined the big kids in their bath (well, sort of). She has a quick dip during their tub time and gets washed off... One realizes how much less a third child receives a bath than a second or especially first child did, even though we have never been the bathe-every-day type of family. It's good fun though!

My mom arrived on Monday night for a week-long visit, a delight, and my dad will join us tomorrow afternoon. Fun week!

Animal card adoration

Kids are so funny. You can never tell what's going to be a hit with them. Sometimes it's the simplest thing that delights the most. I remember being in South Africa and seeing kids' joy in rolling a tire down the dirt street... More exuberance than most American children have with a box-full of brand new toys.

Well, the "animal cards" that I got in the $1 bin at Target on a whim one day are the absolute favorite of our Monkey. I mean, this boy adores his animal cards. We play a game where he lays them all on the table (as pictured) and then we have him pick them by group. "Find me all the animals that live in a cold climate," for example, or "All the animals who are on a tree branch." The back of each card tells fun facts about the animal such as size, climate, foods eaten, and the like. Monkey loves this info and is particularly taken by what animals eat. He has actually memorized this line for several of his favorite animals like the octopus and orca whale. Budding zoologist, maybe? (Just kidding!)

San Diego sojourn

On Friday the kids and I took a 36-hour roadtrip down to San Diego to visit our good friends the Welds; it was our third visit to them since Aug '08 and always feels like a trip to visit family. The monkey is exactly the same age as their oldest, Michael, and Roo is 9 months old older than their youngest, Kathryn. We last saw them ten months ago so it was great fun to catch up and watch the kids playing together with a bit more maturity under their belts. They played very well together during our 18 hours with them, even notwithstanding the drenching rain that kept us inside virtually the whole day on Saturday. This occurs so rarely in so Cal that rainy days are actually a lot of fun. We did venture out to jump in puddles briefly (pictured)... Andy and I, both New Englanders, noted our concern that our boys voice a distaste for getting wet that we feel must be reversed at any cost!

Our trip down on Friday was rather eventful. We left home at 9 AM and were making good time; it was 11:45 and we'd just gotten back on the road after a half-hour snack break. We were about an hour from our destination. Suddenly - brake lights; stopped traffic. And I mean stopped. No forward movement and no traffic on the other side of the highway coming north either. What in the world? Interstate 5 is the major north-south road in coastal southern California. Turns out that someone had put a grenade on the highway so they shut the whole thing down for two hours. Good grief. It was the most taxing two travel hours I've experienced since the advent of kids. They took turns melting down, one by one, as we sat there, trapped... Finally at 1:45 the opened the road back up; we were at the Welds' an hour later, at which point we regrouped and enjoyed the afternoon! Well worth the annoyance, and always good for moms to realize that even when things go wildly awry, one gets through it and lives to tell about it. The boys are pictured playing stationary tennis on the back terrace - great fun. Thanks for the great hospitality, Welds! The monkey was quoted as saying that Michael was "his best friend" on our return (comparatively uneventful!) drive home on Saturday evening. Very sweet.