A Lovely Mid-Summer Evening

 It was a splendid evening at home. Atter a fun day playing together and especially enjoying Jody's company, we shared a pleasant meal and were out playing in the yard in the warm air and the warm light of a summer sunset.  Good Times! Here are a couple pictures...

 

 

Liv got to be "The Girl in the Jungle Book Movie, Carrying the Bottle of Water"

We played a follow-the-instructions game, "Red Square, Blue Square"

Camila finally managed to wrap herself up in Yellow. It took many tries, but the hard work and determination paid off in the end!

Good Times at DG

The HOA set up a "vendor day" for any self-employed residents to meet their neighbors and get the word out. Great idea; and for the sake of a party they grilled some burgers, brought in the fire trucks, had games and bounce houses for the kids.

Lucky us! Jody came out for a weekend visit! What a fun time we've had!

Here they are looking at the extended ladder on the fire truck:

 whoa.

Little Buddies off to the park.

And back to the bounce house for Camila.

Liv and Klaudia were playing and went to have a drink in the shade of the "go-go."

But seemed to have hit some little speed bump in preschool relations.

These kids are still developing their speaking and listening skills, and their interactions with friends. (aren't we all? but they are really new at it...)

You can just see Klaudia trying to process this and come up with a reasonable response.



Music Box Carousel

Each of the girls received a beautiful music box carousel from Grandma Maryalice when they were babies. The other morning Camila woke up first (as usual) and she asked that I take down the carousel for her. (Well, you know, in her own pre-verbal way.) So, I set it up on a low stool, wound it up and enjoyed it with her. You can almost imagine how magical this is...

Liv woke up a bit later and joined the magic.

First Dentist Visit

Unfortunately, an unplanned visit... Liv fell at the pool last night. I wrapped her up in a towel and she tripped and fell forward and with her arms wrapped up she fell face first.  :(

She hit her chin, lips, and front teeth. Since it wasn't a super hard fall & she's one of those lucky watch-her-heal-in-front-of-your-eyes kids -- I was (am) optimistic that there is no tooth or nerve damage beyond some pretty nasty bruising. That said, I called all the local dentists first thing this morning and went to the one with the earliest opening.

We talked about it on the way there: typical dr's office stuff, desk, papers, magazines; then the people with masks & stuff, the big lay-down chair, lots of cool adjustable lights, tables, tools, tubes. Probably an X-ray (how cool! We're going to get to look at the bones under your skin!!) and the big heavy blanket and crazy camera they stick right in your face. 

She was great! Cooperative, patient (we had to wait), calm.  The Dr says it doesn't look too bad at all, and she showed sensitivity to cold air, which means the nerves are still functioning! (He said we should keep an eye on those teeth for discoloration or blistering on the gum. And that we should come back in a few weeks for a follow-up and a full cleaning/exam). She (we) got kudos for clean, healthy teeth and "good home care."  I was one proud mama. 

Here she is after xray (see background) watching Pingu on Netflix & waiting our turn. and rocking the paper bib.

Swim Lessons

Liv had her first swim lesson yesterday!  Very exciting stuff.

Its hot this week, which makes it easier to want to go swimming. But I suspect she'd be excited no matter what...

She's the smallest of the group of 5 kids in her Level I class, and def. not the bravest. But, she's super excited to be in swim school and likes her teacher, and loves the giant pool. She's fascinated by the diving boards (and we may use that as motivation to become a strong swimmer).

Yikes

This rather large black widow was camped out on the front porch last night.

Field Trip to Local Apricot Grower

We had a wonderful field trip with the MOMS Club earlier this week to a significant local business, here in Patterson, the "Apricot Capitol of the World!" Dave Santos of Blossom Hill Apricots (Lucich-Santos Farms) very generously gave us a great tour of the processing facility and the orchard, let the kids pick cherries and sent us each home with cherries and apricots. NICE!

The facility uses computer optics and manual sorting for size, color, defects. There were about 125 people working in the processing facility.

  He told us that they are processing 2 million apricots a day!! More than any other apricot grower in North America.They clean, sort, and package organic fruit & send them to Trader Joes, Whole Foods, lots of high end grocers as well as the non-organic varieties to Costco, Mariani (dry fruit processors) and jam producers too!

Yummy!

Then we trooped out to the cherry orchard - which they officially finished picking a couple weeks ago - and he let us gather what we pleased. What a fun treat for all of us!!

Dang! Those were some juicy cherries. phew!

Now we're home with more fruit than we can safely consume - any favorite apricot recipes, anyone?

We started with popsicles. (blended apriots, yogurt, honey, milk)

A fun treat on a hot afternoon.

Liv's New Pet

No. Not really.

But she did ask. "Can the bunny be my pet? I really want one."

"Let's talk about it some more and then discuss it with Daddy when he gets home."

We kept bunny overnight. Fresh water, clean the box, lots of yummy grass. 

We talked about what kinds of love and attention pets need. And also how wild bunnies like to hop around and run, and that living in a cage, she wouldn't get to do much hopping. :(

And then ... she escaped.

Of course, Jeff started researching puppies again. sigh.

Finger Painting for the First Time

Finger Painting!

I have fuzzy early memories of happy times finger painting as a preschooler with my Grandma Maryalice. I've been stalling for a while, dreading the mess, and unsure how one even sources butcher paper these days... 

But finally, I picked up the paints at Target & just gave up on the slippery paper. (Though I will keep looking - does anyone have any ideas?)

 I really wasn't sure how to start, but I showed them a couple pictures of kids finger painting, covered the table, squirted some paint on plates, gave them paper and stood back.

A period of tactile exploration...

Wait. What is Liv looking at?

Awwww. Really?

Right. Ok. Umm,

Let's keep the paints on the paper...

"Sure! Why didn't you say so?!"

Needless to say, I stood back as much as I could... which of course, ended up not being very much.

And those are about all the pictures I took. sigh.

 The aftermath...

(not too bad after all)



Happy Hollow Zoo

I promised the girls an adventure. Liv's first suggestion was a dinosaur museum. However, there are no dinosaur museums in Northern California. Maybe when we go back East this summer.  So I suggested a trip to the zoo! And everyone thought that sounded like a great idea! Now to pick a zoo. Plenty of small city zoos with in a couple hours of here: Sacramento, Fresno, Oakland, San Jose, and of course San Francisco! But this place stood out as a best bet for families with small children.

Our weather has been pretty unseasonable these past few weeks. Cool, cloudy, even raining! Anyway, I had mentioned to a couple friends that I was planning this trip but was considering postponing, when she reminded me that hot and sunny isn't that much fun at the zoo, for anyone, not even the animals, never mind with toddlers. Right!!! Upper 60s and overcast was sounding pretty good, as a matter of fact, and off we went!

As expected the carousel was an instant favorite!!

Its a lovely carousel called the "Keep Around" full of endangered species.
Here are the girls previewing their first ride!

We were lucky to have no wait, and no height restrictions!

We rode a couple times then I managed to persuade them that we should go visit the animals, too!

The squirrel monkeys and capuchins are, as always, adorable, familiar, engaging.

Camila was especially excited, signing and trying to say "monkey" and "cookie" (because the monkey had a snack!).

cool cat!

Danny Dragon train ride and a chance to grab a bite of granola bar!

Liv is JUST big enough to ride by herself on the swings! She measured exactly 36" at the drs office a couple of weeks ago. When she got to the sign she had to stand up VERY straight and not look down at all.  :) 

Camila was a little disappointed.

But very happy about getting to ride on the firetrucks!

DING - DING - DING

There is also a fun redwood climbing park. With lots of structures for big and little kids.



A big day. We all had a blast.

The kids were nearly asleep by the time we got out of the parking lot.