Molly's Friend Birthday Party

Wow! What a party. We all survived our first "organized" friend party. It was a lot of work, but I *think* Molly enjoyed it. We had just a few of Molly's friends over for Shrinky Dink making, pizza making & pizza eating, lots of running around, and of course (cup)cakes and ice cream. I totally understand now why folks say small parties are best. Even with just a handful of kids invited, it was overwhelming!

All things considered, Molly held things together pretty well during the party. We just need to work on convincing her that, although the birthday girl is special on her birthday (or birthday party day), she still doesn't get everything she wants.

Here are pictures of the girls decorating the cupcakes, Molly-the-birthday-girl striking a pose, and balloons. More to come.

Happy almost birthday, Molly.

Family in Fog

As I drove off to work this morning I beheld this beautiful foggy sight...

Pictures

Pictures from a trip up to Tilden two weeks ago on a bright sunny day after many rainy days. Clara, Molly & Zach examine a ladybug; Molly & Clara peer down at a creek; Sofi & Molly eat lunch; Zach takes a walk; Clara & Zach eat lunch. Yum!

Feeding Animals - on the farm

On Sunday we went down to Ardenwood Farm for a kids 'n' goats program. The kids cracked the corn, fed the goats, and then the naturalists read them some goat-themed stories by the fire. Fun for a rainy Sunday!

Pictures: Molly in raincoat. Clara in red. Goats in fur.

Feeding Animals - at home

Here's Clara enjoying feeding the hens a snack. That's Jane the Jersey Black Giant, Clucky the Americauna/Easter Egger, and Chie-Chie the Marans (last photo only, she's a little more shy than the others).

Molly's Table

A few weeks ago Molly helped/watched as I quickly built a stand for the chicken's water. In the process, I pulled out a collection of pieces of wood from our stash. As I pieced together the stand, Molly pieced together her own creation.

I made one or two suggestions about matching the height of the "legs", and did the drilling for her. But otherwise, the table as you see it is a "Molly original".

Always Our Babies

A week or so ago, Zach and Molly had a sweet exchange at bedtime, along these lines:

Z: Will you always be my baby?
M: Yes.
M: Daddy?
Z: Yes?
M: You don't have to ask.

In other, related news, on Monday, I got to go to gymnastics with the girls. For the bear-walk warm-up, Clara insisted on being the baby bear, walking under the mama bear (that's me), as usual. About half way through, though, she scooted out from under me and announced: "I'm my own bear!".

Yes, dear, you are your own bear. But you'll always be my baby. Just like Molly.

Photo: sisters watching a ladybug, Tilden Park, February 15, 2010

Picnic in Tilden

bike riding

Back in January I took the girls on a mini bike ride to the Malcolm X Elementary School playground for biking practice. Clara consented to riding on the tricycle (that I pushed), but Molly was thrilled to get on her bike with training wheels and zoom around. She practiced steering, stopping, starting, and all the good stuff. She particularly enjoyed using the yellow kick-ball diamond as an obstacle course of sorts.

We'll have to do more mini-bike trips this spring.

Big Trees Snow Trip

(To see the pictures bigger you should be able to link to the entire album by clicking on the picture above, or click here)

Rain down here means snow in the mountains. So, while our friends and family in the mid-Atlantic were (and still are?) being hit with "Snowmageddon 2010" we zipped up to the Sierra for a some snow play.

We had a great time - we spent most of the first day at Big Trees State Park, which had snow and, well, big trees. It also had a nice warming hut with volunteers serving hot cocoa around a roaring fire. There was a perfect little meadow for snow-man making, mellow sledding (just our speed!), tromping in the snow, and (a theme for the trip) clean snow for eating.

We also strapped snowshoes on and did a hike through the big trees. Molly and Zach went part way and stayed to explore one of the fallen big trees in-depth, while I hiked the whole loop (with Clara in the backpack).

We loaded back into the car and instead of zipping back home we went a few minutes down the road to stay overnight in the cutest little inn/cabins. After exploring the sleeping loft, Molly proceeded to spend another hour (at least) exploring the snow in the meadow at the inn. She loved sinking into the snow up to her hips. She loved picking pu chunks of snow. She loved it all! It was dark by the time I dragged her inside for dinner.

This morning was just as fun - we went to an overlook and played some more in the snow. Clara was pretty maxed out on the snow (it's hard to walk in, especially when you're dressed as a marshmallow and you're only 3' tall). But Molly couldn't get enough. She even had a whole line about needing more time in nature ("and snow is part of nature, you know") when it was time to go.

Good thing we have another snow trip planned in a few weeks!

Rainy Sisters

It's been raining a lot recently. The girls have actually enjoyed it, mostly. These pictures were taken a few weeks ago, but the same scene has been repeated frequently in the past month.