Busy Weekend

Friday evening, we all went to Laguna where Lyman was playing outdoors at an art festival.
Saturday we visited a grad school friend of mine in her new home. We had a great evening of water balloons, swimming and a delicious grilled dinner. It has been a long time since our kids have seen one another, but they got along perfectly very quickly.

The weekend culminated with a visit to Maddie and Sophie's house for more swimming, sprinkler and slip and slide. Milo loved the meatballs and kept asking for more lolly pops (meatballs on a fork). The next day, Milo had his first visit to the dentist. He was wonderful! At the advise of one of my Jenny's, we had read several books about going to the dentist ("Vera Goes to the Dentist" was Milo's favorite for all you moms out there with kids younger than Milo) so he was prepped for what was to come. He was very excited to do everything Vera had done. He happily had his teeth cleaned, rinsed, spit sucked out, flossed and counted. He got a "good" score for teeth condition at present with no cavities. Whew! I had really been worrying about the state of his teeth because A. I like to worry. B. He insists on brushing them himself, and he's not the best brusher. So now I have one less thing to worry about. Whatever will I do with that free time?

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Ok. I know I said no more Holocaust books after heartbreaking "Sarah's Key" but this one promised to be uplifting. An uplifting book about an isolated island occupied by German Nazis? How do you do that? Well, you give it a quirky title, endearing characters, a love story, little mention of concentration camps and...voila! This book is all your friends, family and co-workers claims it will be- definitely worth the read. Reading this book reminded me of one of my all time favorite book series "Anne of Green Gables." Another group of quirky characters on a beautiful isolated island. A charming, loquacious female character enters their world, books are shared, girl meets boys and all lives are enriched by each other. The only sadness of Guernsey is the death of the authoress, so there will not be sequels to follow these characters on their island as there were with Anne on hers.

Eat Pray Love

Lyman came home from his gig in Seattle and found me reading this book in bed. He asked, "Why is every woman in America reading that book?" To which I replied, "Because this book is amazing...and the movie comes out this summer with Julia Roberts." I read it for the amazing quality. I loved it so much, I don't know if I can see Julia NOT do it justice, but I probably will. Elizabeth Gilbert is the kind of writer you just know would be your best friend if you ever had the opportunity to meet. I loved all the parts; Eat is the most amusing and funny as she indulges her way through Italy. Pray is the most informative as she meditates in an Ashram in India. Love is the most endearing as she learns to love herself and help others. Only a cold hearted cynic could read this without crying several times. It is her spiritual memoir, but there is something in there for everyone who has loved and lost, been depressed, been hungry and wondered about the creator of the universe. This was my favorite part personally, "Always wanted to be the quiet girl. Probably precisely because I'm not. It's the same reason I think that thick, dark hair is so beautiful- precisely because I don't have it, because I can't have it. But at some point you have to make peace with what you were given and if God wanted me to be a shy girl with thick, dark hair, he would have made me that way, but he didn't." (Gilbert p. 192)

Natural History Museum

Sunday we went downtown to the Natural History Museum. It was wonderful! I have not been to the one in NYC, but this building looks so much like the movie "Night at the Museum" (where the movie is supposed to be set) I wonder if they are very similar places. This polar bear was on the lower level where kids could touch and hold many exciting things.
I love a special event and always check out the inset on events of the day. Lyman was not into this idea, but I made sure we were at the dinosaur encounter on time. The gallery room was packed, that's a good sign, but we had no idea what to expect. This cute, chipper lady comes out talking about dinosaurs pretty fact-like and she had a fossil of some dino dung, so that was all ok. But then, she told us all to put on our imagination caps (Milo pantomimed putting his on, cute) then she said turn the dial back 2000 years (he turned the dial, adorable) and out walked this T Rex. It was crazy. There was a general inhale of shock, a rummage of bag zippers for cameras, chimes of devices being turned on, and then the wail. The general crying that erupted after the T Rex puppet walked out was both hilarious and anxiety provoking. Milo did seem concerned about being so close to the T Rex, but then she froze him so we could all get a look, get the hysterical ones out and then move on with the program. It may have helped that last week, we saw a puppet show at the library which mesmerized Milo. After the show, the puppeteer showed the kids the puppets and how they work. I explained to Milo the T Rex was just a big puppet which was enough for him. He said twice that he wanted to go, but Lyman kept reassuring him to stay.


Milo was so proud of himself after the dinosaur show proudly saying, "I didn't cry." He was very brave. So brave that he went up to the chipper speaker to touch the dino dung too.

Graduation Day

Last week was graduation day at Milo's daycare/pre school. Only four kids were graduating, but all participated. Even the littlest one sat in her high chair dressed like the others in a white shirt. The program had a very patriotic theme starting with the kids waving flags and marching in singing "God Bless America." Milo sang, "Glod Bless America." At the start of the ceremony, Lyman handed our camera and camcorder to me saying he wasn't going to take any pictures, but that didn't last long. All the songs were so cute it was impossible not to document. We parents are shameless when it comes to documenting though. Everyone had a device in hand. K often wonders what these little guys will be like as they grow older having had a camera in their face since the delivery room.
Here is Milo's teacher, Lena. She's a wonderful person with high expectations. Her husband Peter is Milo's other teacher who is so sweet and kind.

Here is the younger group sitting down while the graduates get their diplomas.

These four were so cute in their hats. They are off to great kindergartens and private schools. Now Milo will be in the older group!
This is one of Milo's best buddies, Zachary. After the short ceremony, we all went out on the patio for delicious food. Lena makes much of the kids lunches and snacks. She is often send a snack with me too when I pick up Milo since I like her Russian food so much. I don't know what it's all called or what's in it, but I will eat anything she makes. Yum!

Getty

Sunday morning, Milo and I went to the Getty Art Museum. It was overcast and chilly up on the hill which made it the perfect place on a hot weekend. We took some time to explore the gardens...

Milo worked on his super-hero poses...

In the kid room, there was a craft to make a mask and from our inspiration outside, we made a garden. Milo handled the glue. He is a through gluer; if ever you need something glued, he is your man! We spent just a little time in the galleries, but it sticks with him. He is still telling me about the sphinxes and the statue of Mercury we saw. Thankfully the life size painting of Christ crucified has now stuck in his mind! Yipes. This is a sweet though: I was explaining that Mr. Getty was the man who collected all the art so we could see it here. Then I said that Mr. Getty isn't alive anymore, but all the art is still together. He said, "Now they are all our paintings Mommy." *sigh*

Slip & Slide

Sunday afternoon we happily accepted an invitation to hang out with Jenny, Maddie and Sophie. Maddie and Milo dove all over the slip & slide and slid and splashed happily in the kiddie pool until Milo ruined the fun by peeing in the pool. He maybe could have hid the fact easier if I came prepared with swimmers and trunks. He didn't mind that I forgot and happily went skinny dipping. Skinny dipping is an amazing feeling. When I was little, like grade school, I used to spend a lot of time with my cousins Heidi and Kennilyn. Their aunt lived across the street and had a pool. We swam there all the time. One night we were brave and bold enough to take off our suits in the dark pool. It was wonderful. My little guy loved the feeling too, but I am sorry and embarrassed that he ruined part of Maddie's fun.

Lucas turns 5

Saturday we celebrated Lucas' 5th birthday at his house. It was a great party! Milo and all the kids loved the balloon man. Milo's only had eyes for swords even though he made the cutest animals!

Here is the birthday boy and his mom and dad. The dad plays in Steve Tyrell's band with Lyman.
We stayed until the very end when the presents came out. I was nervous that Milo would not cooperate watching Lucas open all the goods, but he was very courteous watching and waiting for Lucas to show him something. Aren't they the cutest looking at this book together?

Three Weissmanns of Westport

Book club is on hiatus for the summer, but we do have our fall line-up for those of us who want to read ahead, like me. Of the Three Weissmann's of Westport, the book jacket says, "The novel is a playful, devoted, loose-jointed homage to Jane Austen's beloved Sense and Sensibility..." This was the blurb our book club founder read at a meeting. She had me at Jane Austen.
It's a good try. She makes a good effort at a modern day look at the Dashwood ladies' situation. The book isn't great; the most fun it trying to figure out who all the characters are. Some are clearly obvious, while others had me (embarrassingly!) looking at a character list on the Internet to remember their name. The end takes a twist from the original so to keep you reading and not just sliding in your well worn DVD and watching the better original. Because while she does a good job, no one is better than Jane.