Rain in June

We are typically done with rain for the season by now. Yet yesterday, the forecast was for rain; Bob and I figured it would just be a few sprinkles. Anthony heard us talking about rain and went running for his umbrella to take to daycare. (No worries, the kid takes his umbrella to daycare on sunny days, too.) Well, the joke was on us as we got a good half inch of rain!

The puddles were gone by the time we got home in the evening, but Anthony put his boots on to make the best of it!

Formation Flying

Bob spent last weekend up in Washington at a formation flying clinic. He finds it more helpful flying in air with actual pilots, rather than up and down the hallway with Anthony.

Anthony and I were on our own all weekend and we filled it up! We spent most of Saturday at Happy Hollow with Ciaran. We had a great time, but Anthony was pretty wiped out afterwards.

Sunday was more of a typical Sunday. We went to church, then the farmer's market. Anthony was exhausted so I let him take a 2 1/2 hour nap after lunch. (Normally he isn't allowed to nap, he'll stay up all night.)

J from preschool came over for a playdate after nap. Anthony has a pretty rough time hosting playdates at his house, but was REALLY excited to have J come. The boys had a really, really nice time together. It was probably one of the more successful playdates we've hosted. It helped that we were outside most of the time, its easier to share and take turns outside.) The boys mostly jumped in the bounce house and played in the playhouse.

Bubble Fun

A photo that got "misplaced" after Joshua's visit.

Saturday of Joshua's trip was a wet rainy day, so we went to the children's museum. One great exhibit is the bubble area. Anthony was so proud when he was able to catch a bubble floating down (10 feet) from the bubble-dropper-thingie.

A Thousand Words

The State Capitol

Its funny, there are many great things to do with children in Sacramento--the train museum, Old Town, the zoo... We spent the morning exploring the Capitol and Anthony seemed to really enjoy it. We started off in Capitol Park. There were trees and flowers to explore and Anthony was particularly fascinated by the statues. To be quite precise, he wanted to know why they weren't moving like they did in the show the day before.

Then Anthony spotted the Capitol building and thought it was a castle. So we went inside. He saw a statue in the rotunda. He thought it might be Sleeping Beauty, but the guard inside confirmed it was actually Queen Isabella of Spain. We climbed the stairs to get closer to the top of the dome and then briefly joined a tour group. On the way out we stopped by Governor Brown's office to visit the grizzly bear standing guard. (It took awhile for Anthony to work up the courage to touch the bear.)

After Anthony was done in the Capitol building we headed back to the hotel for more swimming!

Our trip to Sacramento

Sacramento is far enough away that we decided to stay overnight. After the theater Anthony was DYING to go swimming. He had a great time splashing around with Daddy. (The big pool was WAY too cold for Mama.)

Then he discovered the "small pool", aka hot tub. It wasn't too hot and Anthony had a great time swimming with Mommy and Daddy there.

We stayed at the Residence Inn in downtown Sacramento. It was perfect--we parked once, then walked to the theater, walked to dinner... Anthony slept on the sofa bed and was so wiped out he got a good night's sleep!

Mary Poppins

Today we made our big trip to Sacramento to see the Broadway touring version of Mary Poppins. Anthony has been quite obsessed with her for almost a year now, so we thought he'd enjoy the musical.

Honestly, for a kid who sleeps with his parrot-handled umbrella, he didn't enjoy it quite as much as I'd expected. The show was over two hours long, and he'd already had a two and a half hour car ride. (He ended up sitting out the last 15 minutes or so.) However, he still clearly enjoyed the show and talked about it the rest of the trip.

A few random thoughts:

1. Most of the new musical numbers didn't do much for me.

2. They introduced Mr. Banks' former nanny as a new character. She was scary and nick-named "The Holy Terror." Her name was "Miss Andrews". Anthony talked about her insessantly.

3. Julie Andrews was easily replaced. Dick Van Dyke was NOT. His dancing was so amazing in the movie. However, the effects in this show were amazing, especially when Bert danced on the ceiling in "Step in Time".

4. The sets were stunning!

The show is coming to San Jose next May. I think we will probably try again next year!

The Wonderpets

This picture was taken watering the gardens at Elkus Ranch. We made a point of showing Anthony the celery growing.

On a tangent... I hate the Wonderpets. I don't care if they use teamwork to solve their problems. I don't care that Anthony is adorable while singing the theme song. I don't care that Anthony thinks the guinea pigs at the pet store are Wonderpets. The babytalk they use is particularly grating. I'm sure I have other complaints, but I have found a use for them.

Celery! Anthony likes celery. Why? Because the Wonderpets like celery.

I'd been craving wings for quite some time, so when we had family dinner out for my birthday, we ordered a plate of wings as an appetizer. The wings were too spicy for Anthony, but he spotted the celery and announced that he wanted to eat celery just like the Wonderpets. While we ate dinner, he played with (and ate) celery.

Happy Holi-Day

Today was our block's 2nd annual Holi celebration. Wikipedia explains it better than I possibly can, so I'll just stick with the fun we had.

Basically, we had wet and wild fun. Water balloons, squirt guns, small people throwing small buckets of water. The "color" is an important part of the fun; we threw colored powder (from plant extracts) on everyone.

Anthony had more fun than I had expected. Last year the craziness was really more than he could handle. I expected the same this year--he cried earlier in the day when Robert squirted him with a water gun. It took a little while for Anthony to warm up, but soon he was throwing water balloons with the best of them. He definitely preferred throwing water than receiving, so everyone was pretty gentle with him.

We ended the evening with potluck dinner and bicycle time in the (closed) street. Aparna brought yummy samosas from the place in Sunnyvale. (Bob went there at Divali a few years back and returned over an hour later.)

Sheep to Shawl 2011

(Or, city kid learns about agriculture)

Today we headed out to Elkus Ranch, UC Davis' demonstration farm for their annual open house. As usual, they put on a really nice event. We started off by grinding corn to make meal to feed all the animals. Anthony carried his husk around for the rest of the day, including the drive home.

This year we got to watch the sheep shearing demonstrations. Bob thought it was unfair that the sheep didn't get a lollipop when they were done with their haircuts. We got to take a little bit of the wool, wash it and dye it to bring home.

The clear highlight of Anthony's day was getting to be the "egg helper". The woman minding the chicken coops scooped an egg out of the nesting box and gave it to Anthony to carry around and show the other children. Anthony is fascinated with eggs and where they come from and really got a kick from being in charge of the egg.

Fried Worms

Tonight was the kick-off for our library's summer reading program. We picnicked in the park with Ciaran's and Robert's families. The boys had a great time running around the park with the other kids.

Besides the cake, the highlight of the evening was a performance of "How to Eat Fried Worms" put on by the Peninsula Youth Theater. As you can see, the kids were CAPTIVATED.

We weren't sure how much they actually understood, so I asked Anthony about it when we were walking back to the car. He told me that they were eating gummy worms with sauce on them. I think I liked that better than Ciaran who informed his Mama "We're having worms tonight!"

A few more pictures

Joshua Visits Happy Hollow

This was a whole weekend of firsts for Joshua. This afternoon we took him to Happy Hollow for a series of firsts--his first roller coaster ride (success!) and his first puppet show (success). He was excited about the frog hopper ride, but there were tears by the end. Oh well.

The goats were VERY aggressive this time. Strange, usually in the afternoon they're so full you're begging them to eat their food.

Both boys really enjoyed the lemur playground. Anthony couldn't quite get his feet up over the rope. He can do it on a bar, though.

Family Fun Day at Preschool

Anthony's preschool is over for the year and today was their annual "Family Fun Day". It was pretty crowded but the boys had a good time (for awhile). Joshua enjoyed the fishing game the best while Anthony enjoyed the alphabet walk. They both took a bunch of turns on the "bouncy caterpillar" which pooped the kids out at the end.

Beach Day

Julie REALLY wanted a beach day for Joshua. The weather today was a bit iffy (gray, 40% chance of rain) but we decided to give it a try. I'm really glad we did. While it was pretty gray, the sun was warming us a bit and the wind wasn't blowing. The water, of course, was pretty darn chilly. The kids really didn't seem to mind too much.

Anthony pretty much made a bee-line for the water. It took Joshua about 30 seconds to get used to the surf and want to come in, too. The surf was pretty high today, so the boys had to hold parents' hands the whole time.

When they started turning blue we came in for some sand play fun. I think we're going to have to spend a lot more time at the beach this summer.

Joshua comes to visit

Anthony's cousin Joshua arrived today from Colorado. Anthony was SO excited to have him here. Bedtime was pretty rough that first night; they did NOT want to be separated.

A funny: We made up Joshua's bed with Anthony's "Winnie the Pooh" blanket. I meant for Anthony to note see it, it would make him jealous. Well, he did see the blanket on J's bed and said, "I have a blanket like that!" We just left it at that.

"A is for Anthony"

Anthony has gotten a wee bit possessive of the letter A.

In retrospect, its been coming for awhile. On preschool days I ask what letter he sat on during "sit on letter time." The answer is ALWAYS "A". Sure enough, the day I spent at preschool he sat on A during circle time.

Until this week, I thought it was benign.

Then we received a thank you note from Jay. Jay signed it himself, all 3 letters. One of those, of course, is an "A". Anthony was quite indigant that Jay wrote an A in his name. He was actually a bit put-out.

Today was Anthony's last day of preschool for the year. As we were talking about his day, I asked what letter he sat on. He answered "H". Whoa, this is something new. I asked him if someone else was sitting on "A" and he said that Laura was. I wouldn't be surprised if there was fighting over the A.