Fossils, fabric, and all manner of foolishness

-Last week our free culture pass took us to Mesa to visit the Arizona Museum of Natural History (ding!) where we met up with Auntie Noe and the adorable baby Makakoa, who is so cute I want to explode so how did I neglect to photograph him? I will do better next time. Well, this triceratops made the cut, at least.

Animatronix in a museum? It felt like Disneyland. This museum got two ecstatic thumbs up from all the kids, and therefore also from me.


Char was all slobbery kisses with the stuffed stegosaurus. He is most affectionate with stuffies, perhaps as they share his affinity for snuggling.

Panning for fool's gold flakes was almost as much fun as just pouring sand and water all over each other.

The highlight of the exhibit on color and light was experimenting with the green screen effect. We just had to put on a few magic shows.


-Zina had a birthday, and so a birthday piggy bank. But how boring a gift is that? It needed fancifying. (Or have we been reading too much Fancy Nancy in preparation for Ellie's party?)


Yeah, these really are the best shots I got at Zina's party. You can't even see the cute homemade tutus Becca cranked out.

I love me a cupcake tower. I had to photograph the Z topper because it's the ONLY part of the party Becca let me take over. Seriously, I didn't even help her at all. And, strangely enough, I'm okay with that. I think my party obsession is shifting toward freakishly healthy eating (the theory, not practice). Ellie's birthday's in two weeks and I haven't planned or made a thing. Weird.

-In the meantime, as you can see, Ellie is making the most of her new found literacy. Yesterday we started an incentive program in which I will pay her (in Littlest Pet Shop toys) to read books. Not so much because I'm desperate to have her reading Harry Potter by kindergarten, but because Erik's been getting lots of praise and prizes for his potty training regiment and Ellie was thrilled to see her own share of praise and prizes. And yes, potty training is going quite well. Not without accident or incident, but leaps and bounds more successful than this premature attempt.

-Erik started gymnastics class, which was cool except he chose not to participate in a little more than half of the exercises. And the teacher is a little particular about technique, which makes me wonder why she's teaching the toddler class...

-If you're wondering what Charlie's favorite thing is to do in the whole wide world (besides snuggling), take a looksie here. You better watch your chair if you get up to refill your glass or answer the phone. He's taken some tips from his buddy Brooks and has made the kitchen table his locale of choice at pretty much every opportunity. And though we push our chairs against the walls when we're not in them, that still gives him about 592 opportunities each day to boogie on up to the table and do his thang. I think we'll go Japanese.

Don't fall for the charms. He's a hooligan, through and through.

-I dusted off the old Singer and produced these pops of color (except the front orange one, which came from IKEA's clearance section long before it became useful to our color scheme) for our netural/blah living room. I have a huge girl crush on the fabric's designer, Anna Maria Horner.

And what a bonus that they double as costume props!

-And now I'll just top things off with a little recreational biking lesson from Uncle Bob. One of the great improvements of our living arrangement here is that we see a lot more of Uncle Bob. True, he was always living with us, but when the basement was his private lair, I'd go days without seeing him, except as he surfaced in the kitchen to quickly rummage for grub. Bob surely yearns for privacy, but the kids do love having him around for a playmate, and I'm grateful for that.