Thursday Outing

Alex, Julia and I took a little trip to the Ferry Building this morning, via BART.  Alex always loves going on the train, so that in and of itself is part of the fun.  Once at the food lover's mecca, the Ferry Building, we enjoyed a few treats, of course.  We split a grilled cheese at Cowgirl Creamery.  It had their Wagon Wheel cheese, which is just a mild cow's milk cheese, along with fiore sardo, which is a hard sheep's milk cheese, and then there were chopped sun dried tomatoes mixed in....yum!  Julia had some too and enjoyed it!  Later, we split a wood fired pizza with cremini mushrooms and spring onions and drank a strawberry lemonade.  I love that we all enjoy eating so much.  All we were missing was Daddy to join us, but we enjoyed some for you, Daddy.

Camping

In an effort to recreate the weekend when we closed on our new home last year,  (http://smaskensbaby.blogspot.com/2011/04/campout.html), we camped in the ex-box room last night.  I think that it could be considered a multi-purpose room at this point, since in the past year it has housed boxes for storage, hosted a party with fifty people, been the stage of many an evening soccer game or dance party, and has now served as a campground as well.  Surprisingly, all four of us slept in the tent (with Xena nearby on her bed) for the entire night, despite the fact that our tent is pretty darn small.  I think that the backyard is the next step....raccoons, owls, deer, coyotes...here we come!

Class Playdate

Lots of fun, fun, fun yesterday at the class playdate!  There was a bouncy house and everyone brought a bike/scooter to ride on.  Add in some beautiful weather and that makes for a great playdate!  Even Mimi found a friend to play with!

Sports

Alex has been attending a class each Tuesday, where they try out a variety of sports.  So far, he's tried floor hockey, basketball and soccer.  It would appear that soccer is his favorite, so I think we'll be continuing on with soccer in the near future.

Visitor

Peek A Boo!

Big Boy Bike 2!

Here's Alex just a few minutes after first riding on his own.  So exciting!

Big Boy Bike!!

This morning we took Alex to the school playground for a little surprise....a big boy bike!  It has been hiding for a few months due to a glut of presents from Christmas and his birthday, but today seemed like a good day to get it out of hiding.  The first video I took was at 10:01 and this video was taken at 10:13....so within 12 minutes, this is what happened!  Thanks to all of the practice on his Strider bike, he was able to transition to a big boy bike with pedals without ever going through the training wheel stage.  He was quite a happy camper!!  He has already taken another trip to the park to practice his new found skills!

Daddy Day at School

Daddy Day was celebrated at The Nurtury last Friday, so it was quite an exciting day for Daddy and Alex.  Alex even got a special surprise.....a ride in the TT!  Daddy surprised him by putting the carseat in the TT, so they "raced" to school, instead of driving slowly, like Mommy does ;-)  The top photo shows a portrait of Daddy, which Alex made just for the special day.  I think that the portrait is a pretty good representation!  Lots of hair, and that huge smile!  The answers to the questions were really fun to look at.  Daddy made out good in the age category.  There were answers ranging from 4 to 250, and another said "big and old", so "college age" seems  pretty good to me.

Buds

Smiley Blueberry Faces

At lunch today we had some blueberry "pudding" (silken tofu, blueberries, mango and a touch of maple syrup) for dessert.  Since little Miss Julia was enjoying it so much and getting it all over her face, I took out the camera.  As you can see, Alex is a much neater eater!

The Boy Loves Yardwork

Pic of the Day

Always looking up to her big brother!

Greenfield Lumberjacks

Here are the lumberjacks with the fruits of their labor.  Dead plum tree branches salvaged for fire pit wood.

Little Miss at 9 Months

It is so hard to believe that Julia is already 9 months old.  Where does the time go?  She is getting very adept at her stairs and has learned how to come down the stairs as well.  She can pull herself up to standing using whatever happens to be available and is enjoying exploring all of the things which were previously inaccessible.  She likes to feed herself and is a champ, trying all kinds of foods, including eggs, cheese, mango, pasta, tofu, salmon, breads....there really is not much that she doesn't like, especially if she can feed it to herself!  She is starting to babble more, lots of da da das happening as of late.  She is completely intrigued by her big brother, watching his every move and wanting to copy it.  She especially loves singing and dancing together and loves books too.  Such a sweet little girl with the best smile ever!  We love you, Miss Julia!

Yet Another Ramp Application

Put two ramps and a balance disk together....instant race car.

Visitors

We had a nice visit from Grandma Elaine and Larry last week!  Lots of reading, playing outside, putting puzzles together, playing with playdough and coloring were on the agenda.   It was fun to be able to just hang out and show them our routine around here.  Hope that you guys had as much fun as we did!  Oh, and thanks for hemming the pants too!

Playtime

Julia loves to explore everything in the playroom, especially things which her brother is interested in.  She has recently taken a liking to the kitchen which we made a couple of years ago.  And of course, the ramps are always a favorite.  She's pulling herself up to standing, so no doubt she will be into even more things very soon.

Lemons!

It took awhile, but we have lemons!  I think that we counted about 5 in all.  Yay for fresh Meyer lemons.  If only you could smell them.  Delish.

http://smaskensbaby.blogspot.com/2010/05/lemon-tree.html