just another day being 4

Friday was pretty much heaven for Greta. She loves when I work at her school, she loves it even more when they have ‘paint your own face’ day at her school, and she loves it even more when she gets to take Oakland home for the weekend, and she loves it EVEN more than that when all that is followed by dance class. See for yourself. Photos courtesy of my iPhone.

Yes, she likes lots of color as you can tell from her tights. I rarely argue with her about her clothes unless it’s completely inappropriate for the occasion or if I insist on her wearing warmer items due to weather. She cracks me up with what she puts together but I love her experimenting. She comments quite often on what I wear and almost daily I hear the phrase, “mama, can you go to that store and see if they make that in kid size?” We debated back and forth between two names for her, 1. Greta, and 2. Piper. She could’ve been named either, but looking back she could’ve totally pulled off the name Pippa as well. I can’t wait until she reads Pippy Longstocking and see what her take is on her outfit choices.

And I’d like to report that we survived our crazy weekend of fun filled activities. We’ve had lots of houseguests rotating sleeping over, kid parties, basketball games, a renewed love for skateboarding by Gunnar, bike riding, more rain, book clubs, midnight snacks while catching up with old friends, a huge container of ladybugs that just got dispersed into our garden this evening,  lots of laundry, and lots of list making to get everything done tomorrow that was not accomplished this weekend.

meet oakland

Oakland is Greta’s class pet. Greta is obsessed with Oakland. Obsessed. Since the very first day of school that is all she has talked about. She made sure that she was on the weekend rotation immediately as one of the first family’s to take Oakland home. We quickly all fell inlove with Oakland. I know that’s strange to say about a rodent, but he was so friendly and nice. He never once was nippy or tried to squirm away and Greta is a master hamster holder. The school even sent home a little clear ball for him to exercise in. It was kind of funny. I would be reading in the kitchen and then all of a sudden, “oh, hi oakland” as he goes rolling by your feet on his way into the dining room. It was pretty hilarious.

Hamsters are nocturnal I learned, which is great because the kids got to spend an hour or so with him in the morning after they woke up and then again after dinner for an hour or so. And then he slept the rest of the day, so it was kinda fantastic. Just enough activity to distract them from fighting and watching television, but not too much where I wanted to give the hamster away. Here’s some highlights.

There was a whole lot of this, which cracked us up.

And Oakland even visits you when you are in timeout.

Lola did this a lot. Just stared at Oakland and followed his ball around. She was trying to make sense of it. While I took this photo Oakland was cleaning himself in the ball and after a few minutes Lola couldn’t take the stillness any longer so she went over to him and gave him a nudge and off he went rolling around again.

I honestly have never seen Greta so responsible and happy. She was just this jolly little girl the entire weekend. And when you would ask her where Oakland was, she would immediately go and check on him and report back his location. She would feed him grapes and raspberries, check his water. It was pretty sweet. In fact on Monday morning she crawled in my bed at 7am and started to cry and ask if we could keep Oakland another week.

The school sent along a little instruction sheet, but no journal. So we quickly remedied the situation and started a journal for Oakland’s weekend adventures to go from family to family. I didn’t know how the school would react since they are very developmental, but they loved it. They thought it would be great for the kids’ literacy. This is Greta’s entry she dictated. And then she insisted on signing her and Oakland’s name and drawing a picture of the two of them. Notice her very long earrings in the drawing.

a friend

Each time we visit Ojai we like to take a walk along a trail/bike path from the hotel and into town to a little park for the kids to play in. We’ve seen this horse before but this time she was friendly enough to come visit. She was so great with the kids and each day we decided to visit her and bring her treats of acorns and apples. When we fed her the apples she was so good about taking it with her lips and only biting half, and then waiting for you to give her the other half. Here she is, oh yeah, my kids want a horse now. . .

RIP Slurpie

Yes, our beloved Slurpie, Greta’s fish died. Sad. Sad. Sad. We had a little funeral service for him and we let Greta do the honors.

few random updates

Today has been a day of deaths around here. First Michael Jackson, then Farrah Fawcett, and last but certainly not least, Chonie. Chonie was a guppy. Aaron brought home 3 additional fish a few days after we welcomed Orange Bubbles, Slurpie and Catwiser.

The 3 new fish were Chonie and Chovie, and Casten. Chonie and Chovie were married. Chonie was the girl and Chovie was the boy. And Greta told us that they got married. Chonie was a good fish. Chonie was a loyal fish. And now Chovie hasn’t even waited a few hours before he has moved on to younger and apparently hotter fish. We don’t know how Chonie died but the kids are all claiming that their fish are way too nice or shy or good to have eaten him. I don’t know how long he’s been dead, but we found him on the bottom of the tank today, and we only found half of him. Not sure if he disintegrated after he died or someone tried to take a bite out of Chonie. Either way we are mourning poor poor Chonie.

Other news around here. Auntie Rachel and Uncle Dave are here for a visit. The kids are having a ball. This week they have been out of school, no camp, nothing scheduled and they are basking in the attention of our good friends from New York. Many don’t know this, but Auntie Rachel is partly responsible for Gunnar’s life. Long story. Dave is a sports nut and so he and Gunnar are pretty thrilled just playing catch with their baseball mitts. I took the kids to Disneyland on Tuesday because our passes are blocked out for summertime. Crazy I know. 3 kids, one adult. But we met Jane and Alissa and it’s always so much better to share my chaos with other unsuspecting friends.

Saw The Proposal Sunday night. LOVED it! Haven’t laughed that hard at a movie in a long time. Also saw the preview for FAME! Couldn’t be more excited for this dance movie!! Looks DIVINE! In fact, I kind of wanted to stand up in the aisle right then and dance. But I don’t think my neighbor would’ve been too happy bout that. So I restrained myself.

Also, in book news. I started reading The BFG to the kids.

The beginning is a bit on the scary side so I didn’t know how the kids were going to like it. They were literally on the edge of their bunk beds. And when we finished chapter 2 the first night they both cried because they wanted to read more. We are flying through that book and the kids are giggling up a storm. I love reading to the kids and I am so happy that they love it just as much. We spent this afternoon riding bikes and lounging on a picnic blanket in the yard with snacks while Auntie Rachel and I took turns reading from it. I think we read for an hour straight and finally when my voice was about to give out Gunnar said he’d do the next chapter because they were dying to know what happened next.

Also, along other reading news, on Gunnar’s last day of school last week he was awarded with the Most Avid Reader Award in class. His teachers gave each child an award that completely fit who they are in class. They said that Gunnar is a closet reader who keeps his book under his desk and as soon as he finishes the assignment given he slides the book out and thinks that his teachers don’t know what he’s doing. Couldn’t have chosen a better award for him myself! I’m so proud of that little man.

Next week starts camp for the boys, they are looking forward to it a ton. In fact today we went to the park in the morning and Gunnar saw his counselors and friends that started camp this week. After an hour or so he couldn’t take it anymore and joined them in flag football. My little sports guy.

Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!