First Lemonade Stand, Thalia's First Jump

Today was a big day for us. Thalia learned to jump! She is very proud of this and likes to show off for us. The girls also had their first lemonade stand today. They teamed up with Ronan and Garrett and set up a lemonade stand in front of our house. Half of the $40 proceeds will go to Unicef, to help children in need. We talked about this with the kids and I think they understand. The rest will go into their piggy banks. Friends from the neighborhood stopped by, Roxana stopped by, we had a trampoline, home-made cookies and lemonade with meyer lemons from our tree. Mari and her friend Mia helped with artwork and working the cash register. Steve made some great signs. The kids played dress up. It was a very fun experience. I still remember my first lemonade stand with Shayna, when we were 5 years old.
After the lemonade stand we all went out for Indian food.
I will post photos soon.

Happy Birthday, Nirmala

Nirmala and Joseph's Wedding at The Ring of Brodgar in Orkney, Scotland

I am pleased to display a sampling of photos taken at Nirmala and Joseph's wedding in Scotland. They recently got back and in a few days we will see them in Seattle. We are looking forward to a belated celebration. These photos are beautiful.

Lindsay Wildlife Museum

On Sunday we took a trip to the Lindsay Wildlife Museum in Walnut Creek. Mari came along with us. They all watched a vulture eat a dead mouse. Thalia and I decided to go look for the water fountain! They rescue disabled animals from the wild and give them a nice home there. We saw a young fox, and lots of pretty owls, a bald eagle, and other things. Afterwards we had a picnic at the nearby park, which was lovely.

A few tidbits about what they are doing/saying

I thought I'd write down a few random tidbits so that I can remember what they have been doing/saying lately.

Sophia sings a song called "You've got to love, love, love yourself" often and she asks us if we love ourselves, too. Its cute. She has been doing this for about a month now.

For the past 2 weeks or so Thalia has been saying "Chee Chee" and I can never figure out what she means. Sometimes I will ask Sophia to interpret and she shakes her head to say she, too, does not understand. Once I asked Thalia, "what does 'chee chee' mean?" and she smiled and said: "Nothing!" Another time I asked her "who is 'chee chee'?" and she replied with a smile, and said: "nobody!"

Sophia is counting a lot and applies math to regular situations. Today we were sitting at the cafe and she looked around and said there are only six people here at this cafe. When we leave, there will only be three left. She was right. This evening as we were heading toward the playground she said she saw two kids and when she arrived with Thalia there would then be four kids.

Altoids: my girls love love love altoids. I never would have thought to offer them altoids, Steve did and they now always ask for them, as soon as they get into the car. For awhile now, the word "altoid" has been Thalia's most clear word.

Sophia has a clever way of dealing with Thalia who always seems to want to say "no!" The other day Sophia was pretending to take a photo of Thalia, she was saying "Say cheese!", Thalia kept saying "no!" and so Sophia said, "ok, say 'no!'" and Thalia said "no" of course, and then Sophia said "good!"

Congratulations, Sheila and Mike

My sister, Sheila and brother-in-law, Mike, just bought their first house! They just moved to Las Vegas for her new teaching job. New state, new job, new house. What will the next news be? I miss Sheila and I am so happy that she will be living closer to me.

Time alone with Sophia

Every so often I have the chance to spend some time alone with Sophia. This Saturday Sophia and I enjoyed a cappucino and cookie while we colored with crayons. She chose a pink and green "melon" macaron and I chose the salted caramel macaron. Masse's makes some of the best desserts. Usually Sophia likes to play in the toy area but this time we drew pictures for each other. She is very sweet, she tells me how much she loves me: "more than infinity, more than infinity plus four!"

Totland

Sophia and Nikolas at the party

Sophia and Nikolas have known each other since they were 20 months old! Look at all of those smiles.

Eleanor and Ethan's Birthday Party

Yesterday we celebrated Eleanor's 2nd birthday and Ethan's 7th birthday at Rosie's house. Perfect sunny weather for a backyard barbeque.

Ring around the Rosie

I took these photos right outside of Totland, on our way back to the car. Thalia was singing "Ring around the Rosie" and she looked up at me and told me to take a picture of her. So she was posing! I love this top photo. And I also love how happy these girls look at the fire hydrant. This photo shows how affectionate they are with each other. They really are very sweet with each other, most of the time.