Various and Sundries.

And so, a photo catch up.

The kids have been enjoying having Grandma Rosie around - Ellie got to read her a book the other day as part of her homework. The night before she'd put up a HUGE fuss about how she was too embarrassed to read out loud to her dad, but when we mentioned that Grandma Rosie knows all about teaching kids to read, she was into it. Adam mostly enjoys having someone else to show off his trucks to.

In my Rocky memorial, I was remiss in not including this gem:

Ellie held a cat party one Friday afternoon, and her sign says "Dear Cats, this is the Cat Day for you." As you can see, well attended by Gigi and Grizz's animals.

Lulu LOVES sleeping in Ellie's room, and so she's been allowed to take part in more nap times lately. Ellie probably only sleeps a quarter of the days now, but when she does nap, she makes it cute.

Meanwhile, Adam only has lamby.

And now, a series of Grizz and the children, entitled "this looks like it will end well."

Friday afternoon Grandma and I headed up to LA to see Gustavo Dudamel conduct the LA Phil at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Grams has mentioned wanting to see Dudamel since he first took over in 2009, and lo, this visit he was actually in town and conducting selections from Romeo and Juliet, so we went!

It was such a fun night. The Walt Disney Concert Hall is such a cool venue, inside and out, and the music was absolutely incredible. Plus it's always fun to take Grandma on a date, considering she spent my entire childhood taking me to whatever Laura Ingalls Wilder site I wanted to see.

Yesterday we took the kids down to the park and worked with Ellie on riding a two wheeler. It went about as well as you'd expect, considering that her bike is still a bit big for her, and if she's not great at something to begin with, she sobs like she's being murdered. Plus she's got me as her mom, so Tim basically stands back and hopes we'll knock heads hard enough to be concussed and leave him alone. But lo, by the end of it she was gliding a few feet along at a time (as long as she didn't realize I'd let go of the seat.) Everyone's got to start somewhere! Look for video of her actually riding in six months, ugh. In the meanwhile, maybe we can have some tearful high lights. Thank goodness I brought a hankie yesterday, because she was crying pretty hard over every injustice. Like her pedals, or her shoes not staying on.

In closing, here is a nature video, narrated by Adam.