Photo Updates.

Last Tuesday I got to volunteer in Ellie's class room, helping keep an eye on the kids at a Science Assembly. We learned lots of good stuff about solids and gasses and liquid nitrogen, and as you can see, she was thrilled to have some parent participation.

This is what mornings look like for the artist Baskethead. She'll color whenever she gets a second to herself.

Adam's mornings. He can be a real pill, but there's something very sweet about a little boy who wakes up in the morning and goes to sleep at night asking to "snuggle wif you." After I drop Ellie off at school in the mornings, he and I curl up for a half hour of Disney Junior - he sucks his thumb, I finish my coffee, Lulu tries to smother him with her fat butt.

Thursday night we went to Tip a Cop at Claim Jumpers, and the kids got a preview of what their life is going to be like if they don't go easier on their mommy.

Friday night Ellie got to go with Mimi, Carly and Grandma Chris to see Cinderella live on stage. She was so excited to be able to be big enough to go do fun princess stuff!

Meanwhile, Adam and Lamby went joy riding. It was so sweet - there was also a little fire engine ride on toy, and Adam climbed out, pretended to get the ladder from the side of the truck, then mimed climbing the ladder and told me "oh here, I got your kitten out of the tree for you!" Thanks, fire fighter Ford!

We spent the weekend mostly hanging out with friends, having dinner parties and doing some good dancing to Prince songs.

This morning Firefighter Adam and I got to call Animal Control on our walk - another neighbor had found this guy in the gutter with his back end paralyzed. She was at a loss as to what to do, so we called Animal Control and I moved him into a box in the shade (mom, I didn't touch him with my bare hands, I am smart in my old age.) Poor Honey Bunny.

It's Miller Time!

Grandpa Charlie and his lady companion Mary have been visiting for the past week, which has been really nice. The sweetest thing is that Adam goes racing into the house every day yelling "GRANDPA CHARLIE!" and then he throws himself at Grandpa and begins chattering a mile a minute. The other best part is that between Grandpa's hearing not being too great, and Adam's English not being so good, Grandpa doesn't catch most of what Adam says, but nevertheless, the love connection is strong.

We had a really sweet evening tonight, eating and spending time together relaxing in the back yard. We all sang and the kids danced, and even did a little limbo (the kids are dirty cheaters.)

It's also been nice to spend time with Mary, who is a very sweet soul. She has seven kids of her own and a whole passel of grandkids. On Friday when Ellie was over at Gigi's house after school, she and Mary made an easy chocolate cake recipe that Mary had brought with her. It was hilarious - as we were walking to school on Friday morning I said "Mary really know how to make cakes, because she has a ton of grandkids," and without missing a beat Ellie goes "yeah, but I'm her favorite." Whatever you say kid!

Dress Up.

Earlier this week I accidentally stepped on Ellie's favorite head band and snapped it to pieces, so I promised her that we could go to Target and get her a new one. She picked out a three pack, and when the checker let us borrow her scissors to cut the head bands free, she immediately awarded one to Adam. Not pictured: she started cooing over how cute he looked, and then asked him to kiss her. He did, and then wiped his mouth and said "yuck." Meanwhile, when we were at Tim's office for dinner this week, he tried to kiss his friend Harold and Harold's dad on the mouth when we were saying goodbye. He's an affectionate kid, and also a gross boy.

In other costuming choices, we got our outfits for Ellie's dance recital this week. Sadly, she's missing the actual recital, but I already paid for the outfit, so voila. She's so cute that I can hardly stand it.

A rarely seen moment of calm and cooperation between my sons. Today I brushed both cats, and ended up with giant furballs that were bigger than softballs. I should put googly eyes on them and sell them on Etsy.

Happy/Not Happy

How busy was this weekend? So busy that today Adam took a nearly four hour nap to catch up on all of the rest he missed, and still was yawning when bedtime came around tonight. 

Our big fun Saturday night was going to Dave and Busters for a party celebrating Emily and her father Arvie's birthday (it was a surprise for Arvie, which was really sweet.) We also got to meet darling new baby friend Walter, which is always great.

It may appear that all was well, but the poor kids melted down real early and we had to leave before cake, sobbing all the way out to the car. Oh, small children. Party animals, but in a "YOU ARE ACTING LIKE AN ANIMAL" way. Is there something that means a combo of party pooper and party animal? That's what they are.

Sunday morning/afternoon we hosted the whole family, who wanted to come over and meet Walter. He did some good sleeping when he first arrived, but finally woke up to get loved on by his cousins and all of his many aunties. 

It was a really nice day with everyone - relaxed and fun. Plus it was cousin Katie's birthday, so we had plenty of delicious Costco cake. Both kids climbed into her lap when it was time to blow out the candles, so helpful!

And then when most of the family went home, our friend-family came over for an Overwatch LAN party. 

Thanks Jake! The kids all played together, the gentleman did some gaming, and I laid on the couch and read a book. I wish I had taken a four hour nap today!

Internet Famous.

Would you like to spend seventeen minutes listening to Tim talk about the Overwatch netcode? WELL YOU ARE IN LUCK, HERE YOU GO.

Tim was nervous about having the video posted, because he makes the mistake of reading the comment sections on the internets, where all manner of trolls reside and spit venom. I mean, don't get me wrong, plenty of times people say nice things, but we all know how gross people can get from behind their computer screens. The good news is that the community was mostly excited about the developments that Tim and Phil discussed, but also, their comments about appearances made me laugh, such as "the guy on the left looks like a caricature of an English person, except that he doesn't have an accent" and "Blizzard is keeping up with a tradition of glorious facial hair." Or just straight up "check out those side burns!" Tim and I also laughed about he and Phil being compared to Muppets. Funny because it's true.

The other funny part is that I've known Phil since I was 18 years old, and we actually dated briefly in college but remained friends, and when he and Tim met in person, they realized that they used to play video games online against each other when they were in middle school and high school. Now they are best friends forever! (and his wife is awesome.) And most importantly, INTERNET STARS!

In other news, Ellie's cowgirl boots are beginning to fall apart. We bought them right before she turned four, and she's worn them most days since. She's got tennis shoes, she's got light up tennis shoes, she's got flats and flip flops, but her boots are her go-to shoes. I ran by Target while she was at school and picked her up a new pair in a bigger size, and when I showed her to them, she said she'd rather have pink than brown. I told her the Target by us didn't have pink, and I even took her to Boot Barn and we tried on some pink and brown ones, but no dice. In the end, she decided to keep the brown ones and just do a straight replacement. Welcome to the house, new boots. Old boots, you've been very, very good fish.

I probably shouldn't be showing you all this, because it's technically a secret, but check out this nutsy handshake my kids made up. Love those two.

Princess At The Castle.

Yesterday Princess Ellie and I were lucky enough to get invited to go to The Princess at the Castle Event at Kimberly Crest, a historic house out in Redlands. James is on the board, so he encouraged Pari and Mila to check it out, and we got to go along as their dates.

It was SUCH a cute afternoon. I mean, it's always great to be with Pari and Mila - I was joking with her that when we're together, I feel like I'm 18. Maybe 22 at the oldest, so it's weird that we have these little girls around who seem to think they belong to us. Thankfully the girls are SO CUTE together.

They had popcorn and pink lemonade and strawberry ice cream for the girls, and then tons of fun little activities. You could meet a slew of princesses, go fishing in the little fish pond, do a scarf dance, sit in the carriage, and do a princess adventure course that ended with getting a little bit of magic bestowed on you by the fairy godmothers. Ellie had an absolute BLAST!

One of Ellie's favorite parts was when all of the princesses got announced. They went through the house and got escorted by one of the Kimberly Juniors (sort of Junior League girls) who taught them how to walk gracefully and curtsy, and then as they came down the front steps, the herald announced "Princess Ellie, from the House of Ford." Ellie thought it was just about the best thing ever, and practiced that princess walk for the rest of the day. They also got nice little gift bags with a magic wand and some other little prizes.

She was a little sad that they didn't transform her into Princess Tiana, but she did get a lady bug painted on her face later, which is almost the same thing.

It was a really lovely afternoon, The grounds and house were gorgeous, and it was such a fun day with our darling princess girls.

Our silly, beautiful princess.

Aquarium, Et Al.

A couple of months ago, when mom and dad were up in Long Beach, they got themselves a grandparents membership to the Aquarium of the Pacific, and this week, since the kids are on spring break, they had a grandparents day (after they picked up the kids, I promptly took my coffee and my book and got back into bed to finish both. Sweet, lazy freedom!)

The kids had an absolute blast! They saw sharks, they petted starfish, they had a picnic and played with their grandparents - a full day all around.

They reported that Ellie could have done another few hours looking and learning and touching, but Adam had hit his max and was crying and ready to go home, then promptly passed out in the car. It's hard to be three!

It's not hard to be Mike Mulligan though - while were on the play ground the other day waiting for Ellie to finish dance class, Adam spent probably twenty minutes using this little digger. Poor Judd just wanted Adam to come play with him, but Adam and Maryann had to dig faster and faster!

I wouldn't be surprised if the poor kid is having a growth spurt this week. He has been SO WHINY and at times straight up miserable. He complains about being tired, even though he's sleeping in and taking good naps, and he's had a couple of meals where he just sits down and eats like he's going to the electric chair (which is not often a thing that happens with Mr. Starvation Diet.) We had our friends over for pizza tonight since he got shut out on his birthday, and he spent a large portion of the evening curled up in my lap, too hungry to eat. He's a mess!

We had a really rocking dance party at the end of the night though, so you can't beat that. And then all of the kids melted down and cried on their way out the door. SUCCESS!