Miscellaneous May

Jim bought a bag of pistachios. Wren was super into them and called them "mustachios."

Annie Bunnell has had crazy back issues (culminating in spinal fusion) and has needed help with her kids. We had Fox and Remy over one day and ended up playing with Nathan and Noah, too. Fox is an animal whisperer and thoroughly enjoyed playing with the lizards that had colonized the wall in Cikaneks' yard. The only picture I have of the festivities is of a somber-looking Tiny.

Ever flew through Ron Roy's A-Z Mysteries series and left books all over the floor to prove it.

The littles continued their swimming lessons.

Ever and Wren chose to cuddle up on the floor a few times.

The activity days girls sang a song for Easter. We listened to it a bunch of times the week or two before so Ever could learn it, and the littles ended up learning it, too. This video is amazing because - well, let's just say, the von Trapps we are not. Also it perfectly captures the way Tiny and Wrenzy interact. 

The squirrels made themselves very comfortable in our backyard and got fat off our land.

We had Al and Maggie Long and their kids over one last time before they moved to Maryland for Al's fellowship. She and I both took multiple pictures of the kids, and this is the best we got between us:

We really, really enjoyed them. The good news is that they are only about a half hour away from Coco's house, so there's a chance we'll stay in touch and see them again.

Wrenzy and Tiny caught the cleaning bug one day.

I have the kids fold their own laundry, and they really do a great job when they get in the game - even two-year-old Tiny. 

After swimming lessons, I came out of the bathroom with Tiny to find this:

Tiny did some exquisite spin-dancing that made her super dizzy. I cut off about 18 seconds of spinning in the beginning of this video, and nobody knows how long she'd been spinning before I started filming.

There was a little more Barbie car driving.

We stopped at Target after school drop-off one morning, and Tiny said something perfectly adorable and hilarious about this puddle when she hopped out of the car. I snapped a photo thinking it would help me remember what she said, but of course it's been forever and I don't remember at all. Something about swimming in it or I don't know what. Super sad I didn't write it down, but she sure is cute.

Tiny hasn't gotten the game/puzzle time that Ever did. She's a neglected third child, and I put all the puzzles up a while ago because I was tired of the girls' dumping them all out and mixing them up. Anyway, she was very pleased when she completed her first puzzle.

Wrenzy had her Little Bugs Preschool graduation. They did a skit, sang songs, and each kid showed a picture he'd drawn of his favorite thing about preschool. Then Miss Paula said something about each kid and presented him with his end-of-year stuff. I had a terrible seat, and Tiny was on my lap moving nonstop, so my videos could not be worse. But Wrenzy is so cute and so very shy.

I hope these little videos can help us remember what the kids were like at this age.

She is sunshine.

Over lunch, the littles started chanting "Mommy, read Charlie! Mommy, read Charlie!" because they wanted me to read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory while they ate. We've been loving Roald Dahl, E. B. White, and others. They love reading as much as their big sister.

I made them put on hats before playing outside because I'm so afraid of the sun. Their outfits were really something.

We had a voucher to use at the trampoline park, so we went one last time. I kept filming Wrenzy on the rock climbing wall hoping she'd go all the way, but she kept going halfway and then jumping off.

Ever's Cheetah Project and SeaWorld Field Trip

Ever had a school project where she had to research an animal and make a model of it (preferably from recycled materials). It was due shortly after we got back from Pat's Run, and I had to help her make the model at the last minute. Thanks to Google and Pinterest, I found a cheetah that was doable, and I was quite proud of how it turned out.

Then I saw the pictures Mr. Quarrie posted of the other kids' models, and man, were they impressive! They had habitats and everything. 

There was something at the school one night where we could go and look at all the kids' models, but I couldn't make it. Ever presented her project to me at home later.

She and her classmate, Monroe, made a poster together because they both researched cheetahs.

First grade also had a SeaWorld field trip in May. Ever really desperately wanted me to chaperone. As in, she was crying the morning of and threatening not to go. I had volunteered to chaperone but not quickly enough, so they didn't need me. I could have gone if I'd wanted to pay for my own ticket (discounted, but still) on top of paying a babysitter for the littles, so I told Ever no. 

Of course she had no problem once she was on her way. She ended up being in her friend Kai's group, and Kai's mom was with them and sent me pictures. I was very pleased to see that Ever kept her hat on all day, in accordance with my instructions (on account of the sun phobia). 

Disneyland with Ever

Ever has been working on overcoming a tough habit, and her six-month reward was a trip to Disneyland in May. I pulled her out of school to take her, and it just so happened that the day I'd chosen was the day activists asked parents to keep kids home to protest the state's health education curriculum. So two birds, one stone.

I think I've become a dependent, shut-in type of lady, so it felt like a big deal to figure out / deal with Disneyland by myself. Everything went well, and we had a good time. Ever loved it, although she did get freaked out on a couple of the rides. The Indiana Jones ride was a particularly bad call. She passionately loves roller coasters and has no fear of them, but she does not do well when the ride is really dark and loud and its primary purpose is to scare you. She was absolutely terrified on Indiana Jones, and she spent the ride bent over, eyes closed, just dying for it to end. I felt bad about that.

Space Mountain was one of her favorites. 

I was eager to see our Space Mountain photo, but Ever was too small to be seen.

My sweet, big girl.

She wanted to watch some of the parade, although we didn't have the best view.

It was a lovely mother/daughter day. 

Anniversary Getaway

Alissa Hawkins came home from her first year at BYU and was available for babysitting. We snatched her up for an overnighter so we could do a San Diego getaway for our anniversary in May.

We headed down Friday evening after Jim got off work, grabbed a quick dinner at a mediocre new empanada place near the symphony hall, and then went to the symphony. We really enjoyed it, except for a new piece by a composer who was there to introduce it. The piece was about climate change, but mostly it was just terrible music. ("Music" is a stretch.) I'm afraid stuff by living composers is just bound to be bad.

After that, we went in search of dessert. We did some research trying to figure out a good place to go and decided on a spot in Little Italy. We started walking there and kept passing electric scooters lying/standing all over the place. Since it was late and we were pressed for time, we decided to try them. Those things are so dangerous. I could not see while riding. Possibly the wind in my eyes was making them super watery. I don't know, but I kept telling Jim that I was blind. It was really weird and scary, but we kept going.

We got to our destination, and there was a line down the street that we had no desire to stand in. We then set our sights on Extraordinary Desserts and headed in that direction on our scooters. We'd been once before, and Jim thought he'd liked it pretty well. We finally got there around 11:00 P.M., and there was nothing that really looked appealing. That place is super popular. They make fancy-looking desserts featuring gold and stuff, but I just don't think their treats are that delicious. At least, they're not our style. We didn't get anything and headed back to the car.

For a while, we had to ride our scooters on a busy road. I hit a pothole that gave me a painful jolt and made me feel very close to getting thrown off. We finally ditched the scooters and walked the last little bit to the car. Then we picked up cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory by our hotel and went to check in. Somehow there was a long line to check in at midnight. Then there was some elevator issue, and the place was really confusing, and it took us forever to get up to our room. But we made it.

The hotel charged a resort fee that Jim was really upset about because of a lack of up-front disclosure. If we bought certain things at the hotel - like food - that resort fee would be credited toward it. In order to avoid feeling taken advantage of, we wanted to buy some food in the amount of that resort fee on Saturday morning. We confirmed with the front desk that even though we were running a few minutes late checking out, we'd be able to apply the resort fee to a purchase of food at the little market/cafe place there. The food offerings were pathetic and insanely overpriced, so we ended up just getting Luna bars, a banana, and one or two other things to add up to the resort fee (I think $25). Then we checked out. Later, Jim looked at the receipt and discovered that the resort fee had not been credited toward our food; we only bought the food to be further ripped off. Jim vowed never to stay there again.

He had booked a kayak tour to the sea caves in La Jolla for mid-day Saturday. It was something I had wondered about doing for years but had never done. We got my bottom half into my really old, 5/3 wetsuit (read, so thick it's nearly impossible to don, doff, or move around in), got sunscreened up (despite the clouds), and joined the group just in time. Although it was not the most exciting tour in the world, it was fun, and we were glad we went.

Video quality plummets when Jim e-mails or texts them to me from his phone, but this is evidence of the millions of seals: 

After the kayak tour, we went for a late lunch at Puesto La Jolla (fancy taco place) that I thoroughly enjoy and first discovered with the Rob and Annas. Then, partly because we wanted to use their showers, we squeezed in a super-short workout at the YMCA in La Jolla before it closed. 

We checked out the Mount Soledad Veterans Memorial and tried to get hungry so we could eat again. (The late lunch was not ideal.)

We were too full from Puesto to stomach dinner, so we just did dessert. First we went to a crepe place. I got a not-great nutella crepe, and Jim got a really-not-good lemon something or other. As we were sitting there eating, I looked across the street and saw the San Diego Comedy Store with a big sign saying that my old friend from L.A./acting class, Ben Gleib, was performing there that night and the next. That really tripped me out, and I sort of wanted to go over there and try to talk to him. We did not, though.

Being the crazy, buy-all-the-desserts-on-vacation guy that he is, Jim insisted we go to a novelty ice cream place after disappointing dessert no. 1. (That was always his plan. Dessert no. 2 would have happened whether or not dessert no. 1 was disappointing.) They had weird ice cream concoctions involving sugar cereals, among other things. None of it appealed to me, so I opted out. Jim got a bizarre cotton candy thing that he did not enjoy. 

Despite some lackluster food, we had a nice time. It's always lovely to get away. Happy anniversary to us.

Mother's Day

On Mother's Day, Ever and I made a lemon bundt cake. I had told her a couple weeks before that we could have lemon bundt cake for our FHE treat. Big mistake on my part. I ended up not being able to get it made that night and then not being able to get it made on our next treat night, either. She lost her mind (even though substitute treats were given) and threw a giant fit, and so I said no treats at all for two weeks. The two weeks ended (and were not really entirely treat-free), and then Mother's Day was our opportunity to make the coveted bundt cake. We went to the ranch with the Wilsons that night and were able to share it with them.

Ever had made me a beautiful box for my beautiful Mother's Day necklace.

I enjoyed sweet notes from her and Wrenzy.

This year's "All About Mom" was a bit more accurate than last year's, although I don't like to cook, don't always love what I make (unless it's treats), and almost never nap. But if you sub "bake" for "cook," it's pretty good, and I'm guessing that's what Ever was thinking about.

Wren's signature:

It was fun to see the Wilsons at the ranch that night. The TV was on (as always), so the girls became glued for a time.

Trisha insisted on taking a picture of the girls and me, and I'm so glad she did. Man, do I love these three! They are the sweetest, funniest, most adorable and wondrous little beings.