Birthday #3, Part 1

The end of October is of course Halloween, which means lots and lots of parties, including my own birthday. The week before the big day, the 4 of us went to a big party at a classmate of Ella's. Felix wore one of his costumes, Thomas the Tank Engine; Ella was Super-Girl; Jim was a cowboy and I was a "green neverland fairy". The kids decorated cookies, painted masks, decorated miniature pumpkins, got lots of temporary tattoos and went on a treasure hunt around the garden, and we all enjoyed a very vegetarian-friendly potluck (including a delicious kamut salad).

I took the day off work the Friday before Halloween to attend Felix's preschool costume parade. This time, he was dressed as a pirate. Here he is with his friends "Dorothy" and "Spider-Man" (1 of 2 at the school that day).

Then off to Ella's costume parade, after which there was a carnival with game booths, baked goods and face painting.

The kids had another chance to wear their costumes on Saturday morning, to Dutch School, and finally on Sunday, the day itself arrived! My friend Jen and her daughter M (same age as Ella) came trick-or-treating with us while Jim had door duty. After one hour around the neighborhood, Felix's little legs got tired, so he and I stayed home to hand out the candy, and Jim went around with the others. Ella and M hauled in quite the collection of candy - this is just what Ella got!

After about a week letting them gorge themselves, I was able to convince them to sort through it all, keep a small box for themselves each and donate the rest to the soldiers and the children overseas via Operation Gratitude which is run from the National Guard depot near our house. Seeing as candy is dearly beloved and coveted by our two, I was very proud of them for making the sacrifice.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2011

We had fun making these. Enjoy!
(especially for Emile & Celine)

Hula-hooping Ella

Ella after Dutch school today...

Birthday #2

The second birthday to celebrate in October was FDVD's 4th Birthday! How old are you now Felix? "First I'm 4, then I'm going to be 5!" (shows fingers). Now that Felix is 4, he is in Pre-K (pre-kindergarten). He even gets homework: practicing tracing letters and numbers, and writing his name.

 He has also just started drawing people. This is his teacher, Ms. Jona "under the ocean":

 

On the morning of Felix's birthday, he couldn't wait to open his presents. His favorite things were his Spider-Man umbrella (from Ella) and the "huge car-truck" (from his Oma). 

 

We went to ride the trains at Travel Town in Griffith Park and to have a picnic together with his best friend Liam and his mum & dad. Lucky for Felix, it was a bit drizzly, so he was able to use his brand new Spider-Man umbrella right away. There was a band playing; Felix and Liam danced along with gusto. The fire department was there too, and the kids were all allowed to climb in.

 All aboard!

 Dinner at our favorite restaurant, Crazy Tokyo Sushi, rounded out the weekend. 

(happy face)

Fall and Birthday #1

Fall is always a busy time of year. Here is the first installment of some long-awaited updates... September always means a First Day of School. Not only did Ella start 2nd grade with Mrs. Shusett, and Felix start learning to write letters & numbers with Ms. Jona, Ella is now in Groep 3 with Juf Janneke at Dutch School, and Felix has started Groep 1 with Juf Iris. Here they are on their first day:

Fall is also Harvest Time. When we bought our house, the tree right in the middle of our front yard was an ugly Q-tip shaped thing, which we allowed to grow out and become more tree-like. After a number of years, it started producing fruit and now, 8 years later, we decided to harvest those olives, soak and brine them, to hopefully have our very own supply. It's a tedious process and results are not instant. First the picking and the sorting...

It was a family affair, everyone pitched in and helped out! Now we've sliced them all on one side, are soaking them in water to cure them and changing the water daily.
 
On October 3, our little Ella turned 7 years old! Here she is the night before her birthday:

Ella at 6 yrs + 363 days

While Jim took Ella to see a beautifully restored screening of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, complete with in-person appearance of Belle herself, Felix and I made a cake.

 Then Emma (left) and Wil (not pictured) came over to help us celebrate and enjoy the pink-pink cake.

Last but not least, Felix and I drove out to Palm Desert to Tante Lynnie's house to visit with her and OmaLala! Felix was eager to show off his new drawing skills...

Felix draws OmaLala

Tada! Looks just like her right?

This is Tante Lynnie! Also a perfect resemblance.

Ella: I want a strawberry vitamin
Jim: Sorry, we don't have any
Ella: Stupid parents, why don't you buy more!

LOL!

Our Family Summer Vacation

This year for our summer vacation, we went to the Lake Arrowhead area in the San Bernardino Mountains again. Last year, we went at the end of June, right after school ended, but this year we didn't go until the middle of August, so the weather (and the pool!) was a lot warmer. We rented cabin #5, Little House, this time, which has stairs going up to two separate sleeping areas upstairs. The stairs alone were a huge hit with Felix, who must have gone up and down them 50 times the first day. Maybe when we remodel our house, we can install some for him... Anyway, we left home on Sunday mid-morning and headed to the 101 which goes right into the 134 which goes right into the 210 and then up the mountain. If you look at the map, you'll see that it's almost a straight shot headed East:

View Larger Map

After our usual stop at Del Taco, we arrived at Pine Rose Cabins mid-afternoon, right at check-in time. After unloading all the suitcases and food and finding the best spot for everything, we headed right out to the pool. Felix got some brand new "swimmings" (arm floaties) but he didn't actually make it into the pool the whole time, preferring instead to watch from the side and throw stuff in for us to retrieve.

The next morning, and the morning after, we saw a big group (flock?) of California Quail (the state bird) pecking, jostling and skittering around the grounds of the cabin. We were able to borrow the membership card for the private beach clubs at Lake Arrowhead from the owners of the resort, and we made our way over to the North side of the lake and spent a pleasant morning relaxing under a shady tree at the Tavern Bay Beach Club which had shallow (but cold) water. The kids collected seaweed (lakeweed?) and made sand-cakes. We visited the same beach again the following day, and went to a different beach a few days later, Burnt Mill. Burnt Mill was actually smaller and even shadier, and the water was also shallow but went out further so it was warmer and even I swam in it!

Another day, we drove out along Highway 18 to the Children's Forest and tried to take a short easy hike but we had a couple of complainers in our party (one of whom had just woken up from a nap so he was even more grouchy). Further up the mountain, up along a windy road, sparsely vegetated, at 7882 feet (2317 m) was the Keller Peak Fire Lookout. It was getting near closing time but the volunteer fire looker-outer was still at the top of his tower, and we climbed up (me carrying Felix!) to be rewarded with a beautiful view, and lots of busy hummingbirds at the feeder.


On the Wednesday, we drove out to Big Bear (about 30 miles away). It was funny to drive past all the winter resorts, with the bare snow-less mountains, and their ski lifts deserted and quiet, dangling statically. We gathered pine cones and visited the Discovery Center where we joined a short, informative and entertaining nature walk. The kids learned a new word: scat, and how to identify different scat & its possible owners. We also visited the water slide park at Big Bear and played a round of mini-golf.

Other days, we went into the village of Lake Arrowhead proper and fed the ducks, ate ice cream, sat on the grass for an evening rock concert, ate at the pizza parlor/arcade and I bought myself a couple of cute summer dresses at the Friday market. We also went over to Crestline and went bowling, on a day that it was really hot out. In the evenings, we borrowed movies from the front desk of the cabin resort for the kids. One morning, we did a treasure hunt - reading the clues on an old map, a story about elves & dwarves, and looking for the boxes hidden around the resort which had stamps & pads in it to mark into the kids' little booklets. At the end, they were allowed to pick out a wooden 3D puzzle.

Here are a few photos, and if you'd like to see more, click on the link at the end for our Shutterfly site with all of the photos.




At the malt shop


That big pile of sticks is a rat nest, built and lived in by one just rat

The treasure hunt

The rest of the photos: Shutterfly Dennis Family Site

Bunnies eating

A movie for Emile & Celine

Bunny Love

Well the day has finally come, Ella's dream has come true. After asking and asking and asking (for 3 years) for a bunny, the day has arrived that we welcomed two bunny friends. Ella didn't think it was ever going to happen (lamenting "I'll NEVER get at bunny and I'm already six-and-a-half!"). Diamond and Groucho (names came with the bunny and the kids like them, although Ella has added Jewel and Felix has added Patrick) are a 2-year-old brother-sister bonded pair and were rescued and fostered by Linda of Redondo Beach Rabbit Rescue (don't worry - they are sterilized, so no baby bunnies in our future!). We have a lovely hutch for them, although they are allowed to hop around in the patio while we are home. They have been exploring their surroundings slowly and carefully; they are a little timid but love to cuddle and be petted. We've been feeding them two kinds of hay, as well as fresh veggies, including carrots, kale and dandelion greens from our garden (I hate dandelions!). It has been interesting seeing the cats react to their new housemates. Byron just hisses at them and stays away as much possible, Toots isn't particularly interested (she's a people-cat), and Otto isn't sure if he's supposed to play with them or attack but since they are at least twice as hefty as he is, he mostly just observes. Eventually he will probably either play with them or ignore them. MamaRose, who popped inside this morning, was the only one not afraid. She went right up to Diamond, they had a little nose-sniffing exchange and then she walked away. Diamond started hopping after her; maybe she thought MamaRose was a bunny also, since they have the same short stubby tail... We've been impressing upon Ella that it is her responsibility to take care of the buns, and she's taking it seriously. She and I take care of them together; I get to sweep the poops and wash off the removable floors and she dries the floor and gives them hay, food and water. She also has to pet them every day.

Anyway, without further delay, introducing our new friends, Diamond Jewel and Groucho Patrick!

Summer Camp

Since she finished 1st grade 3 weeks ago, Ella has been going to summer day-camp. It's very close to Felix's pre-school (nice & convenient for me). This is the first time she's attended this place but she already knew a few kids there. The days are action-packed: different themes every week, swimming 4x/wk and a field trip on Thursdays. They play soccer, tennis, flag football, have messy-days (mud/goop/shaving cream/water balloons, etc.), plant flowers, cook, and do lots and LOTS of arts & crafts. Today, the kids went off to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the local college, and on field trip days, they have to wear their camp t-shirts. Ella's was just a bit too big so we personalized it with a beaded fringe to make it into a tunic instead. Ella LOVES camp and tells me so every day.

Start of Summer

We tried growing cucumbers for the first time, not in the least because Felix absolutely LOVES cucumber and would eat it every day (and usually does). Here's a big one we found hiding behind the planter. It was delicious. I should have taken a picture of it cut open because it's about 3" in diameter.

Here is Felix proudly wearing his new summer shirt all the way from the Galapagos Islands, which his Oma sent him!

Ella's Best Day Ever

aka... A Day in the Life of a 6 1/2-Year-Old

Ella's school year is almost over, just one more week. Today all the 1st graders went on their third field trip of the year (the others were to the fire station around the corner from the school, and to the Getty Museum). First of all, Jim took Ella to school, which in itself was a treat for her. Then, the kids with some of the parents, took a school bus down to the Santa Monica Pier. They were given an entertaining and educational presentation out on the boardwalk, and toured the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium. They had a picnic on the beach and hunted for shell fragments.

Upon returning to school at 2;30pm, Ella was allowed to have a slice of pizza from the Friday Pizza Sales, and THEN.... the tooth that she'd been wiggling and wobbling for over a year... FINALLY came out!



Later, Jim took Ella to the mall and bought her three new swimsuits, a cover-up, and a pair of jelly light-up flip-flops. Now she's all ready for the swimming lessons she'll be getting every day at summer day-camp.

As if the day was not yet fun enough, she got an ice cream cone from Baskin-Robbins (vanilla, of course).

Felix Dances

After their bath on Saturday evening, the kids were having a little snack before bed. Jim fired up the old iTunes library and started out with some upbeat Disco which made Felix start to bop in his chair. I asked him to put on some quieter music instead, to lure the sandman, so he chose Keith Jarrett and after listening to it for a few minutes, Felix was inspired to climb up onto his chair and do an interpretive dance.

Felix Sings

Felix is always singing. He breaks into song spontaneously, sings to himself while he's playing, sings along to music (especially Michael Jackson "Rock With You" in the car). One of his favorite songs is "If Elmo Had A Dinosaur" from the Elmo Dinosaur movie. I've been trying to get this on video for months and finally he sat still long enough for me to catch him. He is wearing his favorite Thomas the Tank Engine pajamas, which are always either on his body or in the wash, never just in the drawer. He puts them on as soon as he gets home from school. Now without further dalay... our cute little Monkey singing! (Click HERE for lyrics)

Ella at almost 6 1/2

This morning, for the first time ever, I dropped Ella off at the car-pool gate instead of parking up the street, walking her to her classroom, waiting til class starts and walking back to my car. I do enjoy spending a little more time with her in the morning, and being involved (the small amount that I can) with her classroom, but it does take up a chunk of time in the morning. I would have been early for work, too, but the traffic lights were out on Mulholland and Sepulveda (a large, busy area) so I ended up being a bit late.

We rented "Charlie & The Chocolate Factory" (Tim Burton/Johnny Depp 2005) from Blockbuster on Thursday and she loved it so much, she watched it every day for 5 days until we had to return it. She loves the book which we read to her at bedtime (in English) and she's been reading it by herself during quiet time in her class, and now I am reading it to her at bedtime in Dutch as well. I loved Roald Dahl when I was young as well, so I'm happy she likes it too. The illustrations by Quentin Blake in these new versions of Charlie are a bit quirky and not as beautiful as the edition I remember reading, but unfortunately the version with illustrations by Joseph Schindelman is no longer in print.

Speaking of Dutch, she attends Dutch School every Saturday morning and is doing well. Last year when she started, she did not say much in class, but Juf Iris reports that she is starting to speak up more. One of Ella & Felix's favorite songs is "Isabella Caramella" by Annie M. G. Schmidt.

We have not yet been visited by the Tooth Fairy. The one wobbly tooth (bottom, front) has been like that for about a year. I suppose it will come out eventually. There is one girl in her class who already has braces.

Funny: the other day when we were walking to her classroom, there was a car parked on the sidewalk, very close to a hedge. She said, "Only a pencil could get through there... a walking pencil!"