Memorial Day BBQ on 7th Avenue

What a wonderful Memorial Day party we had! Our newest neighbors (and Skyler's best little playmate) came over for a little backyard fun. Nancy, Vernon, Benito & Zoe came over for a Memorial Day Grilling and brought some of their family and friends, Sean, Lisa, Monica and it was so much fun, they are all wonderful, kind, kid-loving people and we all had a great time. Nana brought Skyler's favorite, fruit salad (he's still eating it) Nancy & Vernon brought great hot dogs and Nancy made the most delicious Mojitos - she's my favorite bartender - we grilled burgers & dogs, pigged out and played with our wonderful kids. 7th Avenue Rocks!

Daddy is Pluto and he has to bark all day

Skyler decided that he was Mickey Mouse, I was Minnie Mouse and daddy was Pluto. Matt had to bark all day and Skyler said that he understood what he was saying (barking). We went to Fisherman's Wharf to the Musee Mecanique http://www.museemechanique.org/ to get Skyler a replacement ring from the 25¢ machine and play the antique arcade and musical machines. His ring is gold with a big green stone and looks very fancy.

Next we watched the guys at the outside seafood stands cracking crabs, Skyler watched one of them picking out the meat with a little pick and decided he wanted to eat crab. Pluto and I ordered the best ceviche ever. Skyler had a crab cake and a few fries. We found a great little spot in between the fishing boats to sit and eat. It's sunny and beautiful here and even though there is a little wind it's lovely. We walked around the docks and looked at the little boats and the smallest church in SF.

We let Mickey call the shots and he said, "Pluto! Let's go to the Exploratorium to see dead!" (Skyler's favorite, I think we have a future Paleontologist on our hands - or something...). Pluto had to bark his answer. We got there and looked at the inside of chicken eggs to see embryos with beating hearts and lungs, make giant bubbles, hear music in tubes of glass, play with the balls, lights and all of the other cool stuff they have there.

Then Mickey told Pluto that he was tired and wanted to leave so we went home for naptime, while I worked in the garden Matt met his band and put on his Dr. Phil hat... what a great, caring man I have!

Daddy In Wahington DC, Sky & Mom in SF

Daddy was in Washington DC all weekend playing a music festival with his band Smash-up Derby, seeing the sites, museums and playing Dr. Phil...

Friday - Tot's Gym at the Richmond Rec Center. Hung out with Sharon & Brodie then went to Home Depot to get some plants to put in the ground in the backyard before this weekends rains came.

Saturday - We went to the Oakland Zoo with Nana. Next to the zoo is Nolan Park, which has cute old 40’s - 60’s carnival, rides with little cars, planes, a great carrousel and a small roller coaster.

Sunday - This morning was the Bay to Breakers race. It's a race that starts at the Bay and goes 7 miles to the beach. Best known for the costumed partiers and naked runners. Skyler and I didn't run the race but he put on his Buzz Lightyear costume, we walked across the street to GG Park and cheered on the runners. We watched as all the costumes ran past: Superman, Flash Gordon, Little Bo Peep and her sheep (all men, including Bo Peep), groups of lady bugs, fairies, some Sesames Street characters and of course lots of men in dresses. Tons of crazy hats, feather boas and a hand full of naked men - Skyler wanted to see more naked people running, I guess that's interesting to a 3 year old - these are people that are in shape enough to run 7 miles but, in my opinion, not in shape enough to be in public running nude on a chilly morning.

Then we ran some errands and stopped my the Julius Kahn park in the Presidio. What a beautiful spot, like a magical forest with a wonderful kiddy park and new slides, swings and spinning climbing things. We ran around the park and then had an adventure in the forest pretending to fight mean trees by hitting the ground around them with sticks.

After naptime we went to dinner with Nana at Mel's - yummy but totally off my lower cal & fat diet but a nice break and it's always fun to hang out with Nana.

Taxidermy

Today I took Skyler to the Academy of Science and we had a great time. It's kind of like the natural history museum with lots of old stuffed dead things (bears, birds, big cats, etc.) and he asked, "Why was it sad when the bird by our house died but it's not sad that all of these birds here are dead?" I told him that I did think it was kind of sad for these birds but that it was for science so that everyone could see birds that they might never see in real life. He had a million other questions to go along with everything we saw and as we were leaving he told me that someday, maybe, he would stuff dead things with fluffy stuff the same way they stuffed his bunny at the Build a Bear Store. He’s so smart. I told him that I didn’t think people did that very much in this country anymore and that he would have to hold the dead thing in his hand to stuff it and that I thought that would be icky. Don’t get me wrong, I like that his mind is thinking of career options at three years of age, but don’t most kids want to be Firemen or Policemen? Not that I want him being either of those, but Taxidermy! Wow, what a cool and strange kid.

"Mommy, I had a dream about Daisy this morning"

Daisy is a little girl in Skyler's class, I woke him up this morning and he said, "I had a dream this morning that Daisy gave me a hug and a kiss, but she doesn't really give me hugs and kisses...why?" I told him that I didn't know why and that I thought be was VERY huggable and kissable. He said, "Maybe she's shy."

Nice weather and sheared sheep

The weather here has actually been beautiful, sunny and warm - a total shock compared to the solid month of gloom and rain that we just suffered through! Skyler and I went to the zoo today to watch them shear all of the sheep in the "Family Farm" area (basically a petting zoo) and it was quite dramatic. A big burly guy puts a choke hold on the poor sheep and then pins them to the ground while he runs a noisy shaver over them and takes off piles and pounds of wool. Skyler kept asking if he was hurting the sheep and if the sheep was dead. I pointed to the sheep's face and said that the sheep looked like it was doing okay so far. Then they let all of the sheep that had just been shaved out so we could pet them with their nice short haircuts. I guess it’s just one of those things that you never think of or picture – just how do they get all of that wool of those sheep? Now we know!

The garden is doing nicely in this warm weather. We have strawberries, which Sky loves to pick and eat right off the plant, and lettuce, which we use in salads just about every night. I have a tomato plant but no fruit yet and Matt accidentally pulled out my eggplant plant thinking it was a giant weed (duh Homer). We also have lots of pretty flowers and birds that come to eat our food and splash in our birdbath.

Trip to Disneyland and LA!

We drove and Nana flew and we all met at our hotel across the street from Disneyland. Driving for 8 hours with a three year old could be horrible but Skyler was so good and patient - getting out of the house was a different story but we got past that and only a couple of hours off schedule we were on our way!

We had three days in the Disney parks (Disneyland and the newer California park) and, I won't go into every detail, but let me touch on a couple of magical highlights…

One day as we were leaving the park to go back to the hotel for naptime, just inside the entrance to the park, we spotted Snow White and Cinderella sitting on a bench under a tree with a small group of 7 or 8 kids sitting on the ground in front of them. Snow White would say in a sweet little voice like in the movie “Now see if you can guess this one” whistling tunes from Disney movies while Cinderella encouraged the kids to guess what movie it was from. Whoever guessed correctly got to get up and whisper in Snow White’s ear the next song she should whistle and give the Princesses a hug.

Skyler got a couple of them right and got to guess again. All of the sudden Goofy came running up and got down on the ground right in front of the Princesses and the kids and like a silly pup rolled around on the ground. Skyler got up and went over to Goofy and Goofy grabbed him, hugged him, and sat him on his lap while the Princesses continued whistling songs. It was just too cute to see Skyler sitting on Goofy's lap all snuggled in and looking totally comfortable lounging in the giant dogs’ arms! It was one of the most magical moments of the trip. The shocking thing is that in a park full of thousands and thousands of people we got to sit there with just a handful of kids and two famous Princesses!

A lot of the characters that walk around the park, like Mickey Mouse, are in a big costume and do not talk, but more and more theses days they are just dressed and made up as the character and can talk and act like the person did in the movie. Disney picks very good actors to play the parts, and they are so dramatic in their EVIL with exact posture, attitude and expression or so Sweet with their gentle voice and smile. Besides the Princesses we also met the Wicked Queen from Snow White and Cruella De Vil from 101 Dalmatians and they were so true to the movie, very wicked! We also met Skyler’s all-time favorite Buzzlightyear, Woody and Jesse, Mickey and Minnie and after each one he would ask why they didn’t talk.

I think we rode everything we wanted to a couple of times and we ended each night at the park with a Winnie the Pooh ride and a couple of times on Skyler’s (and ours) favorite ride the Haunted Mansion!

We ended our trip with a visit to Ahmee and Baba's in LA. Even though they just recently visited us it was great to see them, hang around the pool a bit and see those gorgeous roses! Danielle, Bob and Sequoia came down and we all got a chance to hang out. Sequoia is getting so big and she's so bright-eyed and adorable! I look at her and I see an older, wise woman that looks familiar but I can't quite place the face.