Carpinteria Camping

This Spring Break we once again went to our favorite beach campsite: Carpinteria

Of course we went with my Papa without whom vacations would not be possible. 

We had an excellent site this time with lots of space for play and a great view of all the incoming campers. About every few minutes or so either Jason and Dad would discuss the merits of the next approaching camper entering the park. I think because we have a tent we get "camper envy" although I suspect even people with campers check out everyone else's set up. We do love our tent though!

Our camping trips always include Dad's little friend Archie. You can almost see on little Archie's face, "Why isn't he playing with me? With ME?" He stares after Dad constantly and whinnies and pretty much drives Dad absolutely bonkers. But he's still a fun camping buddy for the rest of us!

Oh boy Smashball!

One thing that's fun about Carpinteria is that everyone gets their favorite park. This is Adam's. It's set up right next to the railroad track and the incoming Amtrack is always faithful to give the kids a honk or even a "Shave and A Haircut, Two Bits!" honk. 

Francesca's favorite park is the "workout" park right near the beach. Lots of bars to flip on. She's having sort of a Zen moment here. 

Natalie likes all parks.

My favorite park is just simply the beach. I LOVE this beach. Most times we come we see some sort of interesting wildlife like dolphins swimming by or a seal popping it's head out of water or the puff of a whale's blow hole. On this occasion we went for a little hike to see the harbor seals.

Lots of tar formations along the coastline

But inland you need to watch your step because tar is oozing from the ground. 

But then the Seals!

Here are lots of seals and pelicans camped out in the afternoon sun. 

And unfortunately we saw two dead seals washed onto the shore. Who knows why?

I'm not sure what Jason's favorite park is. My guess is that he just likes the time off. He's the one who took all these pictures!

Of course he likes to ride bikes with the kids. 

Natalie take one: Shy Face

Take Two: Big Cheese!

Well hello there Granny Frannie! (Or is she just pretending to be me?)

Until next time!

Bringing Literature to the Table

When I was a member of the San Dimas UCC I had a few really good conversations with the pastor's husband who was a physics professor at one of the Claremont colleges. At one point I learned that he had a few siblings and when he mentioned what their professions were, I was super-impressed. I believe one was a doctor, another was a history professor at another university and the third worked at JPL. I asked him, "So tell me, what did your parents do to get all of you to do so well academically?" He said that the best thing his parents ever did was bring something interesting to read to the dinner table every evening. Maybe it was a poem, or an article from the news, or something from a biblical writer. But every evening they had something to share and they'd often discuss it. As the kids grew up, they brought their own interesting reading to the table to share and there was always a lot to discuss and debate.

Seeing this man, who was not only smart, but first and foremost a genuinely good kind person I took note of his words and, like that Oprah episode about the cooking I wrote about, I've had this bit of advice tucked away in my heart for several years.

I'm not sure when it started exactly, but at some point during the school year, I decided to read one story from 100 Classic Stories each evening at dinner. Or even breakfast if we were all there at the same time. On Sunday we were late for church and ended up not going at all, and for the first time I cracked open our NIV Study Bible and started reading to the kids straight from John.

I can tell there are good things happening here for all the kids, and even for me. It's only the beginning of something that I hope continues for many many years.

The Vault

Hey now, it's kindergarten y'all. Get ready Adam!

Time to go to school.

He's serious.  Hup two!

 Find your spot on the carpet.

Now the rest of the kids find their spot too.

And Mommy do your best to crop out every kid in class so as not to violate the "internet privacy code of conduct concerning other people's children". 

 Day Two

Adam's a happy guy. And he's loving school. The funny thing about it all is how much more TALKATIVE he's become since starting! He's like a different kiddo. Kindergarten has opened the vault. 

Natalie's silly little habits (A BIG long post)

I know I haven't written enough stuff about Natalie! And she's seriously the silliest little thing ever. So I'm compiling a bunch of "Natalie-isms" here to make up for several posts. Hopefully this gives a good sampling of the broad spectrum that is Natalie at the wonderful age of 3.

One of her silly habits is that she falls asleep in the middle of the hallway at night. Gets out of her bed, drags her ladybug pillow and blankie out and plops herself right there above the stairs. I've moved her back into bed several times only to get a report from Jason, "did you know Natalie was asleep in the hallway when I got up?" Now I just let her sleep there undisturbed.

night #1

night #2

night #3

And of course this is how it really looks as I'm walking up the stairs trying not to step on her.

She kind of does whatever she wants at night which means that she's often up playing in her room for at least an hour or two after "bedtime". And obviously she sleeps wherever she wants. I mostly go with the flow on this unless she's bothering the other two.

In kitchen news, Natalie loves to cook.

She makes "tookies" out of playdoh...and then sticks them in the fridge.

So I find bags and tupperware with multi-colored "tookies" tucked all over the fridge that I'm not supposed to touch. "Because they're cooking." And they're for Noah's party. See the pink tupperware down there?

Tookies.

In the lunchmeat drawer. Tookies.

And down deep in the produce drawer. More Tookies.
Don't take them out! They're cooking.


I really should do a whole post on Natalie's wonderful Bie. That Bie is so important to her and such a part of her that I will be sad if/when she decides she doesn't need it anymore! Her Bie is her precious pink blanket that she carries with her all over the place and sleeps with and still sucks on like she's a breastfeeding baby. And she delicately pinch, pinch, pinches the pink fabric up and down one of the folds, just like "twiddling" nursing behavior. She holds it up to her face and I see her big brown eyes always peering over and I just know I will always hold that picture of her in my mind as a sweet toddler girl. (And notice how every single sleeping picture I posted with her in the hallway has her Bie in it.)

Where Natalie goes, the bie goes.

Even in Brother and Sissy's first day of school picture 

A picture from May 2011. You can see her "twiddling" the fabric.


Another picture from May 2011. Her tongue is doing that suckle thing. And she's sleeping with her Wiggles DVD like it's a teddy bear. This is one thing she doesn't do anymore! Although now she sleeps with her teddy bear "Jeff". (Named after the sleepy purple Wiggle of course.)

All that time watching Wiggles videos I think has contributed to her being really excellent at remembering songs. Here she is singing a song she learned at Vacation Bible School. Now mind you, she didn't utter a peep of this song during that week nor the week after! And then bam a week later I start hearing her bust this out and she sounds like the most evangelical three year old I've ever heard.

So that's a bit of my sweet lovable and ornery Natalie. I wuv her!

Hooray for the Wiggly Party!!!

We just got home from our super-duper Wiggles concert! Hooray! Or "Hoop de Doo!" as they say. I was so excited when I found out the Australian group would be coming to So. Cal. I simply had to buy tickets. And AFTER I bought the tickets I found out that this will be their very last tour with the original group members: Greg Page, Murray Cook, Jeff Fatt and Anthony Field. All but Anthony are retiring and there will be three new Wiggles cast members starring in the show.

This silly little children's group is a big deal because they've been singing and dancing to my children almost every day and thus their music has become the soundtrack of this stage of my life. I just know that in 30 years if I happen to hear "Do the Monkey" I'll be right back in this house in this living room with a 3 year old Natalie, 5 year old Adam, and 7 year old Francesca. It's a beautiful thing! And I'm quite grateful to the group for that.

The Wiggles characters: Dorothy the Dinosaur, Henry the Octopus, Captain Feathersword and Wags the Dog

So for this event I splurged and got us some good seats and all five of us went to our "Wiggly Party". We enjoyed ourselves so much although I know the kids were pretty overwhelmed at first with the whole thing. It is quite strange to meet people, whom you've only seen as 5 inches tall on TV, in real flesh and blood. Like "hey these are the real Wiggles!" Not just characters playing the fake Wiggles cast, but the actual Greg, Murray, Jeff, and Anthony. And even the real Captain Feathersword. That's pretty cool! Natalie especially was much much quieter and still than I thought she'd be. It wasn't until I bounced her around a lot on my lap that she loosened up a bit. Adam was scowly through quite a bit of the show which is pretty typical for him. I do know that he enjoyed it though and will likely talk about it in a week or so at the oddest moment. He never forgets things. He'll remember this one for sure. Francesca enjoyed the concert a lot and I know she'll remember too.

I smiled through the whole show!

Anthony coming into the crowd to collect roses for Dorothy

So happy Greg was at the show!

Natalie loves Jeff. She even has a stuffed bear she named Jeff.

Captain Feathersword Paul Paddick

Can you point your fingers and do the twist? Natalie can!

They sang favorite songs, did lots of silly acrobatic tricks, and came out into the crowd to say hello. For me, it was a celebration of my kids' childhood and of me and Jason as young parents! Thank you Wiggles for a wonderful show!