Monthly Round-Up

It's hard to believe that the school year is entering the home stretch - the girls only have 6-7 more weeks of school! Here they are on the day of Spring Pictures...

And wow, this is back in February, but the girls had a Father/Daughter dance to attend. I hung out with my good friend Michelle and afterwards, we all went out for frozen yogurt. :)

Marika's class had a field trip to Stater Brothers. I know, I know... you're thinking what a lame idea but it was actually a fun time for all - the staff did a good job of educating the kids on foods, why you should eat healthy, and the different roles each person plays in the store. Of course, giving the kids a chicken strip, a balloon, and a backpack didn't hurt either!

Mom and Fred came to visit last month and were able to watch both girls play softball. Afterwards, they kindly treated us to dinner at a ritzy Japanese restaurant. Yum yum!

The day prior to Grandma's visit, the girls had had a birthday party - for the first time in about 4 years. This was Marika's big wish and so, we made it happen. Conveniently, both girls have good friends that are siblings, so things worked out pretty nicely, as far as the guest list was concerned. I did some research on the internet and found some fun party games - although, I was surprised and dismayed that a lot of crying did ensue. I guess everybody wanted to win!

Of course, the girls wanted two different birthday cakes (one loves vanilla, the other loves chocolate) so we had to order them both. We ended up purchasing a third cake, just to make sure everybody got enough - and all that happened was that I ended up eating birthday cake for the next few days! Good thing I run a lot, right?

The following week, the girls were still on Spring Break and conveniently, Daddy Dude had taken the week off to spend with family. We visited the Cal Science Museum (Michelle was supposed to join us, but regrettably, fell ill) and had a lot of fun, especially Daddy Dude. We are really big on "educational" trips and fortunately, the girls have loved every single science museum they've ever been in. This time, they went into a deep sea journey simulator (I stayed outside, of course), a hurricane simulator (somebody had to take pictures, right?) and Daddy Dude even went onto the high wire bike ride, as well as lending himself to a falling experiment (that picture where he's strapped into a contraption? Completely voluntary on this part!).

The big staycation plan, though, was to visit Legoland. This trip was actually overdue by one year (it was supposed to be the girls' birthday present for last year, in lieu of a birthday party) and we almost couldn't make it, due to the weather. Fortunately, everything worked out.

They had some new displays, including Sonny's favorites here... (although Harry seems a bit small here, doesn't he?).

And of course the girls had tons of fun on the rides! We were really bummed, though, because the new Star Wars mini land was supposed to open the day we were there - but apparently, some hooligans broke into the modeling area during lunchtime the previous week, and destroyed several exhibits. Sooooo... we missed it. Next time!

And what was *my* favorite part? We love these delicious apple fries (with whipped cream!). Thanks to our friend Brian, who introduced us to this treat, we were a few dollars poorer afterwards, but our stomaches were quite pleased... :)

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Yesterday, we celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary. Because we are trying to be frugal, we thought a great way to celebrate would be to visit the Getty Museum, which just happened to be having a very special Leonardo da Vinci exhibit. We had this planned about 6 weeks ago and finally, the big day arrived.

It'd been about 4 years since our last attempt at visiting an art museum. The girls definitely weren't ready then and it was frustrating, because Daddy Dude and I really like to walk around museums. For the past few weeks, I'd been preparing the girls for this visit, explaining how special the things we'd see were and what the rules were - no running, no screaming, no touching.

After a long drive, we finally arrived! The girls seemed to enjoy the tram ride, which was a pretty efficient operation.

Here is a balcony view from the outside of the museum. We went to explore the da Vinci exhibit first, since that was the main reason for coming. Unfortunately, photography wasn't allowed in any of the rooms (I was gently reprimanded by the guard, but he was very nice about it -very professional). The da Vinci exhibit also included works by several of his friends and associates. We explained to the girls that everything was at least 500 years old and created by an artistic geniuses. The girls seemed impressed and interested. However, in one of the rooms, one guard did not like the fact that Mika was looking at the paintings TOO CLOSE (I had explained that with oils, the resulting texture really enhanced a painting) and so, she and I got yelled at for that (I suppose she could have been worried about Mika sneezing on the painting, I don't know). THEN, when Marika started to get tired and raised one arm up to stretch, the same guard rushed over to Daddy Dude and told him that the museum recommended small children be placed in a stroller and where he could get one. I was totally flabberghasted by (1) the suggestion (she was just slowly raising an arm, I didn't think she was in any danger of knocking down an art piece) and (2) her demeanor was really quite offensive (was I really going to allow my kids to ruin a multi-million dollar piece of art?!). I thought my girls had been behaving pretty well - so what is this guard like when a more active child comes in??? Not a single other guard treated us in this manner. She was like a chicken jumping on a june bug. This was the only downer during our entire excursion.

Our second priority was to visit the French Impressionism wing. It's probably my favorite art period. =) In this wing, I was trying to explain how valuable a single painting was to Mika. I don't think she grasps that concept yet.

Here's the gang just outside one of the buildings... (by the way, it was really windy and cold that day!)

And just outside the Family Room, there was a beautiful spot for photography...

The Family Room was a special little building for kids to explore and play. They made a mask and then went to have some fun. We had to wait at least 15-20 minutes to get in.

There were a couple of art prints that I really liked here... (especially the one on the right!)...

And I *know* you were just dying to see the girls' masks up close...

We stopped at the Sculpture Terrace, just before we headed off to see the gardens...

What you see here is some heavily trained bougainvillea (one of my favorite shrubs). Gorgeous, aren't they?

And here are some shots from the garden itself... we really liked those red poppies with the black spots (I called them ladybug poppies - I wonder what they are really called! I want some!).

And last but not least, while the girls zonked out in the backseat, Daddy Dude drove me around town. First we drove around UCLA, then we passed by Beverly Hills, saw some people selling "star maps" (which totally cracked me up - but I couldn't get a very good picture of their signs) and finally... cruising on Sunset Boulevard. I asked Daddy Dude to please drive here, because for years, I've had a "Sunset Blvd" scrapbooking title sticker - and NOW I can finally use it! They had some awesome billboards on the strip, especially one advertising Season 3 for one of my favorite shows, True Blood (Season 2 is available on DVD in 2 days!!!).

All in all, it was a good day. The girls only lasted about one hour, because they started to get tired. Lunch and a visit to the Family Room perked them up a little bit, so we left the museum after 3.5 hours - not too bad for a 5 and 7 year old! Maybe in a couple of years, we'll venture out to the Getty Villa...

And so begins the New Year...

On the first Sunday of every month, this museum offers free admission. Our sports schedules don't usually allow us to go, but this afternoon, we had time!

For the first time, we checked out their Exploration Station, which featured live animals. On the way, we passed some interesting old artifacts. Here, the girls are posing in front of something called a "Mormon Logger". It helped them move felled trees, but how it works, we have no idea. I just googled it and couldn't find anything! So, if anybody ever finds the answer, please feel free to enlighten us!

The Exploration Station was a great place for the kids - they had lots of displays filled with live animals. The girls got to pet a baby ball python and Ginger the bunny rabbit. There was a tanned Nile Crocodile hide, which was really interesting - I'd never seen anything "tanned" and it almost had a bronzed quality to it.

Of course, I had to take pictures of these cool cockroaches! The ones on the left are "cave cockroaches" while the ones in the middle are "hissing cockroaches" (we always joke that Marika sounds like a hissing cockroach when she's congested - a bit of entomological humor that she does not appreciate). The white cockroach on the right is a freshly molted hissing cockroach... pretty neat, eh?

The girls probably enjoy the bottom floor of the museum the most, since it's the natural history section. There are fabulous displays of preserved animals (can you tell I have a keen interest in taxidermy?).

The museum also has a lovely insect display...

And here are the girls in front of a Sugar Pine slab cut in 1900 or so. When it was felled, the tree was 457 years old. Look how big it is!


And in other news... the girls and I spent most of the weekend at my first soccer tournament (DaddyDude was a real trooper and went Saturday for three games!). My team had signed up for the 30+ league, but were told Thursday night that no other such teams had registered so... our captain put us in the open league (meaning teams with 16+ years and older could play). To make a long story short... there was a lot of catfighting on Saturday but we were among the top two teams (out of 4) so we played the championship game this morning against the team we had tied yesterday. However, today, we were without 3 of the 4 "young" people (the captain had felt compelled to add them at the last minute) - and were down to one sub. We lost 4-1, but it was a good game - no fights and lots of playing time for everyone. Anhd hey, we still won a trophy! =)

All in all... it was a good weekend... =)