School ended today! The ladies are excited and promptly decided to say hello to summer with both their fronts…
…and their fannies. Charming!
Today’s theme in Maddie’s class was “Camping Out”. To go along with the Heat Miser-like hat they made in class, Mad fashioned a tent to camp out in, complete with little books that were ”ghost stories”. I especially like the reassuring smiley faces squeezed in. Unfortunately I couldn’t find the sleeping bag with complete with detachable pillow she made (it had a sleeping head drawn on it, which would made for a great slasher movie scenario) to round out the photo. I’m sure it’s stashed somewhere already (whoosh).
Can you find the inside smiley? It’s in one of the O’s. Too cute!
It’s the last week of school and Maddie’s class has lots of fun stuff packed into these final three days. Today was “Pajama Day”, and everyone could wear their favorite PJ’s and slippers to class. I was amazed that Maddie agreed to borrow Daddy’s moose slippers for the occasion - shows you how far she’s come this year!! You go girl, calling attention to yourself! Her classmates loved them, and I’m pretty sure Mad had a good time too. As Soph would say, “Yippee!”
Now, you silly moose - get to work!
We enjoyed a nice long Memorial Day weekend, kicking off the summer season with lots of swimming and playing and general fun. At the top of the list was to celebrate Sophie’s 3rd Gotcha Day with us - the anniversary of her joining our family. For anyone that knows her, you know that had she been able to speak (in English) at the time we first met, it would have been HER saying “Gotcha” instead of us - and in the most “I-know-something-you-don’t-aren’t-you-going-to-be-surprised” kind of way! I’m not sure why I ended up plopping six candles in front of her (I was just filling out the number of cupcakes it took to spell GOTCHA, which I squirted on top), but perhaps that is how we’ve aged in the time that we’ve known her - double! All kidding aside, Soph, we don’t know what we’d do without you. You are definitely an original, sometimes a mystery, and always a love.
We’re going to see the stage version of “Fiddler on the Roof” next weekend and so one night we were listening to the soundtrack for fun. As mentioned in an earlier post, the girls have seen the movie and can sing along with some of the catchier songs. As fate would have it, Soph just happened to be wearing a peasant skirt, had her special blanket, and had just made some fabulous tissue paper flowers. It took very little to get her to do her best impression of Golde singing “Do You Love Me?”. Although, as you can see, Soph added her own, er, dramatic twist. I think she’s looking a little more like a flying nun than a yenta! Or maybe a kickboxing one…who knows?
We DO love you, Soph - no question! Who wouldn’t love that smile!
We’ve just returned from a long weekend in San Diego to be godparents at our nephew’s baptism. We took the opportunity to give the kids a vacation as well, which they were plenty excited about. This was also Sophie’s first airplane trip since coming home from China, and Maddie’s first in a while as well.
The girls were excited to have their own rolling bag to copy ours - though enviably theirs were much lighter. And probably cuter too.
The weather was beautiful and the day we got there we headed over to PETCO Park (where the Padres play) to check out the stadium. It’s amazingly family friendly with a hill and bleachers outside the stadium where you can watch for cheap. The bleachers even have grass planted at your feet so you can take your shoes off and feel like you’re having a picnic!
Mad and Soph took more than a few runs around the bases in a small diamond they have set up outside the stadium. We’ll have to teach them how to slide one day when they’re not wearing skirts!
Then it was off to a cool little playground in the same area, where the girls discovered a spinny seat that they both proceeded to get ludicrously dizzy on. I tried it myself and had to jump off after two or three rotations. The ladies, on the other hand, discovered how to crank up the speed themselves by whipping their bodies around - I’m really stunned that neither of them got sick!
This shot somehow reminds me of “Frog and Toad Are Friends”. Little buddies, sailing off who knows where, on an adventure…
The next day, we were off to the famous San Diego Zoo. The first thing we did was take the Sky Tram, which lifted us over the enormous complex so we could look down on everything. Needless to say the girls were loving it! I even think that Sophie liked the ride better than the animals themselves.
“Yeah! Faster and higher, please!”
We saw all sorts of creatures, some we never knew could stand this straight on two legs…
…or these either…
Then after a quick snack break for people…
…it was off to see the animals eat as well!
I think Sophie just realized there was an enormous hippo looking over her shoulder here.
Later that afternoon we went over to the Hotel Del Coronado to catch the sunset.
The girls searched the entire coastline for that sunset before asking for quarters to actually turn the telescopes on!
Finally, it was B-Day - little baby Jimmy’s baptism aboard the USNS Mercy. Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of the ceremony itself, but it was very cool and an honor to be a part. Jimmy was baptized in a hangar on the helo deck of the Mercy, with the ship’s bell serving as the baptismal font.
Everyone looked so pretty - Daddy too!
Rounding out the trip for the kids was a hop over to the Children’s Museum, which evidently is a brand-new facility. As soon as we checked in, we were advised to go check out the “Mattress Room”, which we promptly searched out.
What do you know — a room full of mattresses! But also, lots and lots of “tires” that were actually stuffed pillows, the net effect being a padded room that kiddos can go nuts in for 10 minutes at a time. The mattress slide was a hit, as was having tires stacked up around them until they were completely encased in a column of them. Good silly fun!
Needless to say, it was a thumbs-up trip in everyone’s opinion. We’re pooped and ready for bed!