Banditos!

Memorial Day for us meant a several things: dry walling the space for our new closet, eating ridiculously delicious barbeque a la Simon every night, and Monday we spent the day at the Bandito campsite up Angeles Crest highway. 

Mostly I needed to get out of the city. Fast. Sometimes a gal just gets claustrophobic. We headed up the hill for a picnic lunch and some general wandering around in the woods with no one else around.

The kids had a great time. Many sticks were inspected, pine cones were hoarded, then launched.  Flowers were discussed, and hide and seek games erupted. Tree bark was prodded and Sonny Salsbury's "These Are The Trees" song was sung with enthusiasm.

Mostly we listened to the silence and breathed in the air like vitamins.

Party Girl

Lucy was invited to a special birthday party this week. 

Her friend Chloe from Bethany invited her over for bounce house fun, cake, pinatas, and even a visit from fan favorite Rapunzel!

Rapunzel gave make overs to all the little princesses.

Bounce!

Royalty

( I love how Lucy is holding her dress out in this picture. Totally in character.)

On the way to the yogurt shop. . .

. . . we saw this.

And, yes, in answer to your question. . . I do change Henry's clothes from time to time. 

He just loves his new t-shirt! 

So he wears it.

 And I'm cool with it.

Muddy System

You can keep your fancy gaming systems and your $200.00 dollies.

 Don't pester us with promises of toy cars that drive themselves and helicopters that operate using your smart phone. 

 All we need is

 a 

big

 pit

 of

 mud

 Done.

"In the spring, at the end of the day you should smell like dirt." ~ Margaret Atwood

Beachy Goodness

Grey weather. 

Mid week. 

No sun. 

To me, this spells perfect beach weather. 

I've never been one to enjoy sunny beach days where you actually have to get in the water. 

I'm more of a walk along the beach in the fog kind of person. 

Turns out, the kids dig it too.

Simon's cousin Toff came over to play on Sunday afternoon! 

We tried our best to impress him by plying him with French onion dip and baby carrots. 

And then he impressed us by bringing along Twiglets, Jaffe Cakes, Marmite cashews, and two sweet Olympics 2012 t-shirts. 

 The best bit though, was Simon and Toff getting to chat and reminisce while simultaneously trip out on how similar Toff's son Joe is to our Henry. Take a look at the pic at the top of THEIR blog. So much fun! Thanks for coming Toff, and remember, mi casa su casa- next time, bring Kelly and Joe and we'll go to Disneyland! :)

Lucy and Toff

Henry models his new t-shirt

Fancy Nancy

What do you do when you are invited to a Fancy Nancy party? 

You show up rocking a Fancy Nancy costume! 

One of these kids is doing their own thing. . .

We got to spend the night at the Prince's castle this weekend!

Sarah, Tony, and their twins Fallon and Fletcher invited us over with the kids for a night of free play, "Enchanted," and real New York style pizza. We got the kids tucked into bed, then went to check on them when all was quiet. At first, I couldn't even find Henry. Then, I saw him, and had a fit of completely silent hysterical laughter in the room with 4 sleeping children under the age of 5. 

See if you can find him. . . 

Cousin's Night Out

Sweet dream weekend!

Take two adorable Eckerts, add puppies, costumes, a splash pool, an art contest, and a private screening of "Aristocats" and you have a recipe for the best night ever!

 

Why Kids Need Dads- Part 2

Kids need Dads! I discussed this subject a while back here. . . you may recall.

Dad is more important now than ever. Here, Simon has decided to whip the IKEA shopping cart in complete 360's in true tea cup style. Love it.