new exhibit - box city

Missing our old neighbors we invited them to come down and go to the children's museum with us one day. Lola wanted her face painted like a kitty. We had fun playing in the new exhibit box city where there was a room full of cardboard boxes, tape and crayons. She loved having a little box house. She really enjoyed seeing her little girl friend too.-

double decker carousel

One night we had to take Daddy downtown to get his visa to go to India so we stopped at the pier to have dinner. Afterwards we rode on the double decker carousel. On the top level of course. Then we went to see the sea lions. There were so many baby ones and man was it smelly there.

Fairyland

Fairyland in Oakland has got to be one of the coolest places to visit if you are a lover of children's stories. www.faiyland.org It's an amusement park for little boys and girls and it had so many fairy tales to visit. We loved it. I look forward to going again soon. I may even do Lola's next birthday there. The girls wanted to go through the Alice in wonderland tunnel lots of times. There were farm animals to look at too. The girls liked watching the alpaca do tricks for his lunch too. It was a really fun day.

Tap-Ballet-Gym

We found a nice combo class that is once a week for the Doll that has dancing and gym. When she visited the gym class it moved at too slow of a pace but the dance class with a little gym class at the end was a much better fit. So Daddy had to buy her a pair of tap shoes :) her ballet shoes still fit from her last class. I'll take a few better pictures next week.

Children's Discovery Museum

Fun, Fun, Fun! I can't believe we had never visited here before. It was so much fun. I only planned to be there a couple of hours and then come home to eat lunch.. Well, we were there from 10 until 4 and we didn't see everything. Their special exhibit was a curious George room where Lola loved trying all the activities. She was a little nervous about sitting next to the statue of George though. We had lunch at the cafe and the staff offered for people to come outside to see open mike time. It sounded like a good idea so we took our sack lunch out. Well, Lola watched a couple kids try to sing some songs. She was so curious... After about the 3rd kid tried to sing twinkle twinkle without finishing- due to nerves, I guess- she asked if she could go down and sing... We were at the top row of a little outdoor amphitheater . I said sure. She walked down the steps by herself stood in line and then when it was her turn she told the lady her name and age.. THEN sang twinkle twinkle perfectly. Everyone cheered and clapped. I was in tears from being so proud. She came running back up the stairs to me and said I think I'll sing another one. So between bites of lunch she sang several other songs.. I sure was sad I didn't bring my video camera. Who knew she would be such a great brave singer at 3. After lunch we made these little dollies out of corn husks. They turned out sooo cute.

Mermaid in my living room

Mermaid in my living room

There once was a girl who was part fish

She could walk around or swim with a swish

A wonderful host she always tried to be

We surely had fun when we went for tea

She was always kind and had the sweetest grin

A princess perhaps, I think she might have been

See my sand Frog!

Emptying our storage unit finally has uncovered a lot of missed treasures.. like this sand frog that Lola received for her 1st Birthday from Grammy. We haven't put sand in it yet because it's been fun to let her splash around in a bit of water for now (since it's about 86F) She was so happy to have it again.

Santa Cruz

With the boys in town to help us move to our new place we thought we should take an afternoon off and go to the boardwalk. Lola has been wanting to try a roller coaster. So Eric was very glad to be the one to take her. She loved it. We had a picnic on the beach and she played in the sand for a long while. It was a nice time to spend with her brothers before they go back to school.

playing at the park at dark

While Virgil has been playing on another softball team Lola and I have enjoyed playing at the park as the day ends. She thinks it's quite a treat.

City Hiking

Every first Tuesday there are a number of musuems that are open free to the public. We don't spend a lot of time in them; we just swiftly walk through rather than pause to appreciate the pieces - it's nice to get in for free every once in a while. So on days like this I like to make an adventure of it by 'hiking' there. ( walking a couple of city blocks rather than using the buggy) The Doll is always up for the adventure. Usually the only nature we see are ducks and geese and city turtles, but to a three year old that's exciting too. Another really fun part for momma is watching the tourist argue of which street to turn on while holding huge maps... it's really fun seeing what they take pictures of too.

Happy 20th Birthday Eric!

Always exciting to have open flames on a piece of delicious food.

Ponies shopping

Setting up a 'mall' for the ponies to shop at was a new idea... I wonder where she gets those... :) She had different parts, like a shoe store and a toy store.. It was very cute.

Check out my cool Arial dress

Aunt Nichie had found this Arial combing head for Lola's birthday. It was kinda funny to see her standing next to it while she had on the Arial dress. She's really into dress up these days. Also how many mom's have gotten this look when they've had enough pictures taken.....