School Happenings

Today, I got to be the Mystery Guest in Peter's class. I brought one of Peter's favorite books from home, "The Circus Ship", and was there waiting for the kids when they came back inside from the playground. I could hear Peter's teacher saying, "I wonder who our mystery guest will be today," as she led them back to the class. When Peter saw that it was me, he screamed so loudly, "It's MY mommy! It's my mommy!" and was so excited. It was really special and fun. I hope I can do it again sometime. 

At the end of the school day, one of Peter's shoes was missing. Another friend has mistakenly taken it. Peter's nice teacher offered to carry him all the way up the hill to Clara's class. I felt sort of badly because Peter's teacher is one of the smallest people I've ever met in my life. 

And it is not a short walk up to Clara's class! 

This picture is from earlier in the week. Peter and Clara say "bye" to each other each morning through the good-bye window in Clara's class. Cute stuff. 

Bubbles and other fun things

Pretty fun stuff going on for our family this weekend... What could be better than a train at the mall? Lots of sights to see on the Ladybug Express (like Gap...)

Peter and his dad happened upon a lemonade stand, which was perfect since Peter had been asking for "lemon water" all morning. 

In the afternoon, I left to go to a wedding shower and the kids did bubbles and other fun outdoor stuff with their dad. 

Clara LOVED the bubbles. I think this is one of the first times she was able to blow her own. Apparently, she also drank about half a container of bubble solution, too. 

Next up... play dough! 

Meanwhile... I was at a super fun wedding shower... Check out the featured drinks. Wish I could have tried them out! 

My favorite, the "Hedge" Fund. Ha. 

This morning, it was back to the bubbles for this expert bubble blower.

"Check me out, guys"

Fun Friday Morning

I love Fridays when I get to drop my kids off at school and see some of the fun things they get to do with their days. Lucky kids!

Spring Break

Last week, we took a spring break trip to Angels Camp, CA. It is a goldrush town in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Slightly random, but really, really fun. 

Clara helped pack. Sort of. 

On our first day, we drove to Big Trees State Park to see the gigantic sequoia trees. 

Peter was excited. 

These guys loved running around on the enormous tree stump right at the park's entry. 

Artistic shot with lens flares... Nice job, Ben. 

Snacks on the trail. 

A fallen down giant tree. Peter wanted to climb it, of course. 

Hard to describe how big the trees were...

Hikers. 

Clara - "Big, big trees" 

Cute kids. 

After our hike, we went to a winery. They had beautiful daffodils and tulips all over the place. So neat. 

The winery was on the site of an old goldmine. 

Cool! 

We had a really yummy picnic lunch before we headed back to our hotel for an afternoon of swimming and splashing in the pool.  

The next day, we went to Columbia, CA, another old goldmining town where the main street is basically the same as it was in the 1850s. 

The town museum had cool dress ups. 

I think most miner's wives wore green pants under their dresses, don't you think?

This was the coolest part of the town... 

Looking for gems ("jams") and gold... 

... with a little help from Dad. 

Clara and I had a staring contest at lunch. 

And we couldn't pass up the candy store. 

Enjoying our treats from the candy store. 

We spent another afternoon (in the pool, of course), evening and morning in Angels Camp before heading back to LA. It was lots of fun and we were so impressed with how well the kids did in the car. Maybe there are more road trips in our future.