Dinner Theater with Friends

Last night we joined Ciaran and Sophie's families for dinner theater in the park. The show was "The Wish Peddler". I don't think any of the kids particularly enjoyed the show. As Elly said, it was kind of "talky". Anthony and Sophie are both in love with The Wizard of Oz, maybe we should have gone to Saratoga to see that. Meike and I both thought it was a long drive in rush hour, though.

Afterwards Sophia from daycare joined up for some nice running around time. What a treat!

"I'm Batman

And batman doesn't wear clothes!" announces small person as he swoops around the room wearing (only) his hooded towel like a cape. Off the bed, around the room and back on the bed.

It was quite the scene.

Final Cake

Tonight was the last night of my Wilton Fondant Class at Michaels. I really enjoyed the class and I thought my daisy cake came out pretty darn spiffy. It should be yummy, too. The filling is strawberry buttercream and was amazing!

We signed on for a #2

Today Bob and I made the trip up to Pleasant Hill to sign on with our agency for adoption #2. Its been a long time coming, and we're very excited to get started again.

The second adoption should be much easier than the first. It certainly feels less stressful--I'm familiar with the homestudy process and its not nearly as intimidating the 2nd time around. Its still going to be a lot of work--fingerprints for Bob and me, physicals, four letters of recommendation, etc. But, less work than the first time.

IAC has also made some changes that will make it easier. They have design templates for both the website and the "Dear Birthmother" letter, for example, so you don't have to create them from scratch.

As for the picture choice for this blog post. Bob and I were in the reception area when we noticed a picture of Anthony on the bulletin board. Looking closer we realized that there were tons of pictures of Anthony and his pals that Bob took at the IAC picnic that first year. We were so proud!

Kids Love Soccer

Today was Anthony's first day of soccer class. He was a little apprehensive, mostly because he didn't know what soccer was. He had a GREAT time! They played all sorts of ball games. They dribbled the "toys" into the toy box. They used their feet to stand up cones that had fallen over, and then they used their soccer balls to knock over the cones to put out fires.

I was VERY impressed with the program. The instructor was fabulous. He kept the kids entertained and on task. They learn their basic soccer/gross motor skills but in an age appropriate manner. We need to get shin guards and a soccer ball so we can practice our "little kicks" at home.

Swim Lessons

Anthony's swim class finished their day by jumping into the pool. He's a little more nervous than some (little blond kid doesn't wait for an instructor), but he clearly enjoys it.

He got a pretty good report card from round 1 of swim lessons. He's accomplished nearly all the skills they require for moving on to level 2. Of course, the ones he hasn't mastered are the hardest--moving his arms and legs in tandem. But that's okay. We're signed up for another round of level 1, anyway!

Swim Lessons

We signed up for two 2-week sessions of swim lessons through our local parks and recreation. Its going so well that I wish we'd signed up for more. I only did four weeks because its pretty rushed going from work to daycare to swim to home to dinner to bedtime. Phew.

Anthony has made no real progress in actual locomotion, but his confidence in the water has skyrocketted. Before lessons started he enjoyed the water, but really needed to be held tightly the whole time. He wouldn't allow us to help him float on his back, for example.

After his third lesson he was jumping off the side of the pool into his teachers' arms, and after the fourth lesson he jumped directly into the pool. He'll bob his head all the way under and blow his bubbles as they float him around the pool. I'm very pleased!

The only thing he really doesn't like is swimming/floating around the pool on his back, he complains about the sun in his eyes. I don't blame him.

Our New Wading Pool

Anthony had so much fun in his cousins' wading pool that we decided we needed one of our own. We made the conscious decision to get a bigger/deeper (18") pool, rather than a smaller kiddie one with sprayers. Why? Because Anthony is the one kid who doesn't like the sprayers.

C and R came over and they had a lovely time together.

I'm not entirely convinced we're keeping said pool. It takes a TON of water and its quite hard to drain. Plus, the sides are so high that Anthony can't cannonball in. I wonder if we'd be happier with something smaller and shallower. But, the price was right!

Cannonball!

Anthony enjoyed playing in Kurt and Erik's wading pool. I'm afraid he chased poor Erik out of the pool with his enthusiasm.

Beach Day with the Cousins

My cousin Christina and her fiance are in Irvine for a month, so we flew down to my parents' house to visit.

The number one thing on my list for the weekend (besides catch up) was a beach day. I wanted Anthony to enjoy the "warm" water of southern California. The water there is still cold, but its a good 10 degrees warmer than here.

The boys didn't play together too much while we were at the beach. Andrea's boys like the sand and Anthony liked playing in the surf. Christina and I spent awhile holding his hands and playing in the waves.

Firefighters Came to Meet the Plane

We just came back from visiting my family in southern California. A few minutes after taking off, Bob noticed that one tank had a MINOR gas leak caused by a loose gas cap. We diverted to land and fix it. No big deal, Bob clarified multiple times with air traffic control that it was NOT an emergency.

Upon landing we were greeted by four fire trucks, two police cars and a police helicopter. Basically, we were victims of a game of telephone. Evidently the ground tower interpreted "non-emergency gas leak" as "engine fire".

The firetrucks were sent back home immediately but the airport guys (the ones who would clean up the fire retardant foam) stayed behind and let Anthony wear their boots.

Anthony can swing all by himself

For months now Anthony has been talking about how he can pump a swing all by himself. I even commented on it in his 3 1/2 year old update. Yet, when we'd go the park all I'd hear is "Push me Mommy." When I picked him up at daycare last week he was pumping away. I was so excited that he could FINALLY pump by himself. Maria looked at me and said, "He's been doing this for months!" The little stinker.

Happy 4th of July

We had a great 4th of July.

The highlight of the day (besides swimming at Rengstorff Pool) was the 4th of July concert at Shoreline Amphitheater. Each year the theater gives away 2000 free tickets to Mountain View residents. Bob was pretty much the front of the line! We arrived early and enjoyed picnic dinner on the lawn.

The show was the San Francisco Symphony, in conjunction with Radio Disney. How's that for contrast? Radio Disney did the pre-show including a performance by Amber Lily that Anthony just loved. At the end she threw wrist-bands out in the crowd. Meanwhile her mother handed one to Bob for Anthony because she thought he was so cute.

While generally the music was "accessible", with a California theme--some folk songs, some cartoon theme songs, with video, Anthony found the concert to be rather long. Mostly, he didn't understand why we had to sit through all this music stuff when he wanted to see the fireworks. (He was tired, but really, he wanted to see the fireworks!) A bag of cotton candy kept him entertained for a long time. He'd never had cotton candy before and was thrilled!

Finally, the fireworks came and he was CAPTIVATED. Fortunately he wasn't afraid of the noise at all. Well, he wasn't afraid of the noise from the safety of my lap. It was a great show and it was my first time seeing fireworks with live music!

One thing we did REALLY REALLY right. We rode our tandem bike with the trailer behind. It was still ridiculously crowded getting out, and the bike trail was crowded too. However, we arrived home 45 minutes before our next door neighbor and 75 minutes before another friend. (We still didn't get home until 11 pm.) I put him to bed with his cotton candy as I didn't have the energy to fight it, but I removed the candy when he fell asleep. First words out of his mouth in the morning were, "Where's my cotton candy?"

Paul's 50th Birthday Party

Our neighbor Paul's 50th birthday party was today. It was a great affair, they had a balloon artist/face painter AND a puppet show. (Paul has two young children, as did most of the crowd.) Anthony had a GREAT time.

He'd been wanting a balloon sculpture from the farmer's market for a long time. They're pretty expensive, so I always say no. He was so excited about his big blue flower.

Jungle Joe put on a pretty cool show, too. Very funny. It was aimed at slightly older kids, but Anthony still really enjoyed it.

Dinner Theater

We've found a new Friday night tradition. Peninsula Youth Theater puts on a number of two-week camps through the summer. The camps culminate in a performance at our Center of Performing Arts' amphitheater. The performances are really quite good, given they're put on by a bunch of 8 and 10 year olds. They do the set, make the props and everything. (Okay, honestly, its you get what you pay for theater, but picnic dinner under the redwood trees is pretty nice, too.)

Last week we went with Ciaran and saw, "The King Who Loved Lollipops." Anthony loved it, so this week we went back for more.

Tonight's show was a musical; Henny Penny, aka Chicken Little. Anthony loved it and came back home singing the main number, "The sky is falling." After the show he had his picture taken with Henny Penny.

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.