Do you have your pets, er, I mean kids?

So tonight, E is working late, and after a long day for me and P, we decided to hit Pizza m$ Heart for dinner. There was a couple of women there with four children, who looked between 2 1/2 and maybe 5. The four kids were sat together and the women sat at a different table at the other end of restaurant. Now, it's not a big place, and I'm all for sitting the kids together. But not to be at an adjoining table seemed, a tad, questionable. The moms kind of watched the kids at first, but then a man joined them and they got busy in conversation. By now, the kids were tired of sitting, and started to run in circles around the place. I watched, as one mom made some half-hearted efforts to check on the kids, slowly rising and glancing around when they were out of vision. The next thing I know, Miss P says - pointing at the front door, "Hey mommy, someone just left without their owner!"

Shhhh..

Sometimes, after I drop Miss P off at Sunday School, I zip back to my car, en route to Starbucks, book in hand. Instead of making a left and walking into church with the rest of the parents.

What's your dirty little secret?

Okay, okay....

...I love Facebook now! I finally joined a few weeks ago, and was inactive at first, just checking people's pages once, and not posting anything myself. But, I've finally gotten into it and have come across so many cool things, such as seeing pictures of E's cousin's adopted sons for the first time and just yesterday hearing about a friend's surprise wedding (and seeing photos). It is a good way to keep in touch with lots of people that don't live close by, and/or just aren't in your day-to-day life due to conflicting schedules. (But whom you still care about).

Bravo, Facebook!

Happy Earth Day

This evening we celebrated Earth Day by seeing the new movie of the same day. It was really good! It was released by Disney Nature and is a documentary following three animal families - elephants, humpback whales, and polar bears. I am not a big documentary person. You won't find me, glasses on, watching the Discovery Channel, or reading National Geographic. It just aint gonna happen! However, I was completely enthralled by this movie.

E and Miss P liked it too. However, there was a bit too much 'circle of life' happening, if you know what I mean, for P's taste. Poor thing had to hide her eyes several times. Unfortunately, she is also a loud movie talker, and peppered us with questions throughout. We were just waiting for someone to turn around and glare, which fortunately, didn't happen.

An understatement, I know, but watching this movie really reminded me of how incredible our Earth is. How animals communicate with each other and instinctively make complex decisions. There is a scene where lions and elehpants are circling each other and the hungry lions are trying to figure out how to get to the elephant calfs. The calfs are too well protected, so they figure out a way to seperate one of the elephants from the herd, and then all the lions attack it at night. I was quietly saying, 'shit, shit, shit' over and over (I never usually swear - I just don't).

Anyway, go see it. Just think about preparing small, sensitive ones first.

More Monterey

So, we had a fabulous time on our Monterey trip. Not only was it fun, but educational in so many ways. Not only did we learn new facts about several sea creatures, we learned that our little family is quite...'unique.' Here are the top three things that gave me pause to reflect on our 'character.'

3. We have a penchant for knock-knock jokes. Made up knock-knocks. Miss P still hasn't gotten the hang of it and will say random things, and laugh hysterically, asking 'was that a punch line??' Actually, any style hokey joke will do. Here's one of my 'homemade favorites.' "What did one cat say to the other while on vacation? I'm having a purrr-fect time!" (Bum dum dah!)

2. How else did we entertain ourselves, between aquarium going, eating at Bubba Gumps, and shopping? Charades. Our second night there we camped out in front of the fireplace in the 'reading room,' with some glasses of wine, P and her coloring books. We happened upon some older folks from NY who were also on Spring Break and were teachers. We just all seem to find each other. Anyway, after a great chat with them, E and I did a few fun rounds of charades with P. How often do you see a family, out in public, acting out Snow White eating the poison apple, Giselle falling into the well, or Mulan defending her country?

And 1. Possibly the oddest...our adventures with 'Sage.' Miss P loved the aquarium and loved the trip. But she had a few moments of homesickness. You see, we drove down just for the afternoon initially, without clothes for us (we did have a spare set for P), or P's beloved 'Doggy.' On a lark, as the earlier post tells, we decided to spend the night, and one night turned into two. We ran to Longs and The Gap for necessities and enjoyed winging it, for the most part.

However, Miss P missed her home, special things, and routine a bit. That's where Sage came in. To distract her from homesickness, we invented a character - Sage - who was 'after us.' We were a bit fuzzy on her purpose. I think she was a bit like Dora's Swiper. She wanted to infiltrate and take P's doll (now, as I write this, it sounds terrible! I thinkn that was P's idea.) Anyway, we devised several missions to protect ourselves and belongings from Sage, and Miss P loved the action and excitement. (It also helped move her quickly.) The hotel wasn't busy, and had this one really wide curving staircase that had a glowing jellyfish type chandelier over a vast landing. We did a fair amount of hang out time there, getting out wiggles and completing training for future Sage missions.

Paige training above.

E training using the most available form of free weights.

E practicing his 'moves.'

Miss P practicing her dancing moves.

Wouldn't you love to have us as your hotel guests?

How is your family unique?

Monterey!

Last Monday we headed down to Monterey for an afternoon excursion at the aquarium, and ended up staying until Wednesday afternoon! The day was so gorgeous, it was day 1 of Spring Break, and anything felt possible. So I said, 'let's stay the night!' E was not hard to convince (we have a history of impromptu trips) and we got an amazing 'walk in the door on a low-key weekday' rate at this hotel. We ended up staying not just one night, but two!

More to come later. We are out the door again!

Easter Day Marathon 2009

Good morning! Let's start our 12 hour day...

After Church at Grandma Riley's....Miss P and Cousin C in matching American Girl play dresses

Some of the Riley clan...awful photo

Next stop, celebrating with close friends - Miss P hunting with her dear friend Miss I

BFF!

Spontaneous tea party

Not pictured - yummy Easter dinner with mom!