Little Seahorse

We took a lovely little day trip down to Monterey today. I had been anxious to see the new seahorse exhibit. It was way cool, check it out if you get a chance. They had everything from teeny tiny baby seahorses to sea dragons. The sea dragons were particularly amazing. They look like they are covered in ruffly leaves. Patrick took one look at them and asked if their look was for camouflage. Smart kid!









This week is Patrick's last week of preschool. I cannot believe my little baby will be starting kindergarten in the fall! It will be so strange to have him gone 5 days a week. Patrick seems pretty unaffected by the changes going on. This summer he'll be attending camp at his preschool, back with his favorite teacher. He's looking forward to that. And then in the fall Molly will start 2 days a week! That will give me the time to volunteer at Patrick's school, we've decided to send him to the public parent participation choice school here. So I'll be at the school 3 hours a week. I'm crossing my fingers that it all works out. In the end we figured that any of the choices we made involved a leap of faith, and this was the one that felt most comfortable at this point. We'll see!

Hey Mickey

My poor neglected blog! Still waiting on that new laptop (which I have yet to order), so please do excuse my disappearing act.

Earlier this month we spent a week down in Southern California at Disneyland, Legoland and Seaworld. I look forward to the days when traveling with kids isn't such the production and may actually even be a little relaxing. We had a wonderful time, especially Patrick and Molly. Patrick was completely fearless at Disneyland and was pretty much willing to ride anything. His favorites were Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain Railroad and Star Tours. Molly declared everything a "fun ride!", but seemed particularly impressed with anything in Fantasyland. We had lunch with the princesses (per Patrick's request). He told them all his name was Luke Skywalker. Without missing a beat Cinderella replied "Oh, your kingdom is very far, far away!". Patrick was still smitten with the princesses, although he was a little disappointed that they didn't remember him from his last visit with them (at Disneyworld last year).









After Disneyland we went a little further south and spent a few days in Carlsbad. I wasn't quite sure what to expect at Legoland but we had a really, really great time. Patrick was at the perfect age to really enjoy it. We had only planned for one day at the park, but next time I would plan on 2 days (especially since the park has very short hours). The Lego displays were pretty amazing, there was a recreating of Barack Obama's inauguration, complete with a tiny Aretha Franklin and hat. Awesome! Legoland also has a small aquarium, complete with Lego people in the tanks. It was sort of interesting, but not worth the extra price of admission (we had free coupons).











Seaworld was just OK. The Shamu show was awesome and makes me rethink my decision to major in business when I could have gone to school for marine biology and been an orca trainer. But the other exhibits were pretty similar to things we can see at the San Francisco Zoo or the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Yawn. I would definitely skip that one the next time.



More pics on Flickr!

Celebration

I'm a blogging slacker! In my defense I still need a new laptop, I can't resize photos on this one. Since I last posted we went to Tahoe, celebrated my birthday, celebrated Easter, celebrated Patrick's birthday, and had a party for both kids. Next up is Molly's second birthday on Friday, then our wedding anniversary. Add in a few birthday parties for small friends and we have been busy! So click over to Flickr and you can see some pictures of what we've been up to, here are some previews! The first one is from today at the zoo. Molly is a tad obsessed with rhinoceroses right now, so we thought she would enjoy the chance to view one in person. Who knew they stunk so much? Molly was happy, but kept asking if the rhinoceros would bite. Hee!



And can you feel the birthday love here?











And in school news....Patrick got into both the public school and private schools we applied to. Last week we made the decision to send him to private. But I don't seem to be sitting well with it :( which makes me think we need to rethink it. I wish the future of public education in California didn't seem so bleak. Sigh.

Big Science

A few months ago the newly rebuilt California Academy of Sciences opened up in Golden Gate Park. I've been dying to take the kids but I also have a low tolerance for all the crowds a new museum brings. So finally this week I took the kids along with Nana and Papa. I loved the Academy of Sciences and Steinhart Aquarium when I was a kid, so it was fun to see that they kept so many of the original displays. We were all pleased to see our favorites return (mine was African Hall, Nana's was the alligators, and Papa's was the pendulum). If you haven't been, it's a must see. We plan on returning as much as we can in the next year (with our newly purchased family membership).

Patrick finally got to see a complete dinosaur fossil (skeleton?). He's been asking to see one. Here he is in front of the T-Rex, which it turns out has freakishly tiny hands.



Nana and Molly at the touch pool in the aquarium. Molly really, really liked it and probably would have happily climbed right in with the starfish. BYO Purell.



The alligator exhibit had some silly mist being pumped in so they were hard to see. This is the albino alligator. And they kept the art deco seahorse railing from the original building. Very cool!





More Academy pics on Flickr! Plus pics of our Christmas tree, check it out!

And in house news, out bathroom remodel is 95% done. Whoo hoo! We're still missing the quarter round trim tiles for the shower. Never mind that they were ordered the first week in October and we were told they would be in in a week. Don't order tile from Walker-Zanger unless you have nothing but time. The tile won't be here until mid January, so Jo will finish once that comes in. He's still got a few tiny things to do like adding cabinet hardware but we're mostly done. I need to figure out where to put the towel rack, and ideas? Common sense would be putting it under the window right outside the shower, but I hate the thought of covering up that pretty glass tile. I was thinking of maybe putting a train rack style bar over le toilette, like you often see in hotels. What to do?

Seaside Adventure

We've had goregeous, wonderful, amazing weather over the last few days. Last night while watching the news we noticed that is was supposed to be 80 degrees at the coast today (which is rare even in the summer!) so it was the perfect day for a little trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It's one of Ptrick's most favorite places int he world (right behind Disneyworld and Disneyland) and Molly loved looking at th "fish! fish! fish!". It was just one of those wonderful days that makes you happy to live where we do.

Someday Molly will not scream when placed in this clam.



Fish!



Cool Dad Tricks

Missing Persons

I've been a neglectful blogger. I can't even blame it on being super busy because school was out, summer camps were over, and we spend most of our time at home. But oh, how those weeks kicked my behind. I decided to use the break from our regular schedule to work on getting Molly down to one nap. Mission mostly accomplished. It didn't help that Molly was teething yet again, this time getting tooth #13 and 14, her eye teeth. Despite being a calm newborn Molly has proven to be just as willful as her brother, maybe even more so. Patrick was beyond bored being home all day and made sure to tell me as much. At least 10 times a day. That boy has boundless energy, it's really rather amazing. Anyone who spends a few hours with him is sure to comment on how worn out they are. Trust me, I know. In the last few weeks they've started to play together, which warms my heart to watch. Molly no longer seems hell bent on destroying anything Patrick is working on. Yesterday she sat patiently with him while he did a puzzle of the 50 states, she just watched and handed him pieces. Patrick continues to adore Molly and loves teaching her new things. Today he taught her how to jump on the bed. I am thinking he may need to run future lessons by me before hand.

Some quick picks of what we've been up to over the last few weeks...

Molly was cute.



Patrick went to his first Giants game. That's cousin Danielle in the background.





It got really hot and the kids played in the "pool".



We went to Chico for the wedding reception of cousin Gina (they got married on a mountain top in Colorado!).





Patrick played a LOT with Legos. New obsession!



And today, preschool started up again! Patrick's in new room this year and will go 3 mornings a week. Notice the ever present Batman cape.



Coming soon, another big adventure! Wish us luck on the airplane :)

Happy Birthday, My Little Sonny Boy

Little man turned 4 today.

It makes me both happy and sad. 4 seems so old. He's no longer a toddler. He's a little boy. I have to register him for kindergarten(!) in 10 months. Where did the time go? But on the other hand, it is so much fun seeing his personality develop. Patrick is really such a sweet little boy. He's polite, and a good friend, and loves his sister to death. He loves to tell jokes, his favorite being one he wrote himself, and is best repeated very loudly and very quickly... We go to school at 20 o'clock! Laugh hysterically. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

It's hard to believe I've been a mom for 4 years. It seems like just yesterday we were blessed with this amazing little baby boy. I was so scared about having a baby, let alone having a baby boy. What did I know about boys? I really and truly believe Patrick came into our lives to teach us. Patience, humility, understanding, unconditional love, faith... all things taught to me by my son. He's a blessing and a joy, and every day we are thankful to have him.

So how does a newly 4 year old boy roll? With a bowling party of course! Imagine 14 3 and 4 year old with 6 pound balls in matching shoes. It was a miracle no fingers were lost. It was a little chaotic, but the kids seemed to have a complete blast. They all seemed to have the most fun running in circles around the table after cake. Go figure.

Molly helped to keep score

The cake was from one of the very few Carvel's on the West Coast. Yummo!



Today, we let Patrick decide what he wanted to choose and he chose a trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium (surprise, surprise!). The weather has been absolutely gorgeous and summer like for the last few days and today was no exception. It was one of those rare 80 degree days at the beach, just perfect for a birthday celebration and some ice cream! Patrick even wore his new "Super Patrick" cape we gave him for his birthday.

Patrick with his seafood lunch. Seafood...see food...get it? I crack myself up. Now I know where he gets it from.