Sunday, April 25, 2010

A New Friend On The Roof

I have no idea what type of bird this is. But it is not a pigeon, which is a a miracle in itself. It is hard to tell in this picture, but the bird has a bit of red on his head and very fluffy feathers.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Cue "Circle of Life"

My home base is right by the kindergarten rooms, so I eat lunch with those teachers everyday. The kindergarten is currently doing a unit on the life cycle of butterflies. They bought the little tents, ordered the caterpillars and each student got to watch their very own creature turn from a caterpillar to a pupa to a butterfly.

It took 2 weeks for the entire transformation to take place. And as you can imagine, the students were giddy with anticipation. Recently the butterflies finally hatched and dried their wings. They were ready to be released to the wild.

My friend took her class out to the courtyard for the great release. Everyone was so excited. She opened the tent and the butterflies took to the wind in a beautiful fluttering display- just in time for a flock of birds to swoop down and eat them, mid-air, one by one.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

And More Wildlife

It was probably a good thing the cat wasn't around to guard his wall. I hear lizards are yummy. They taste like chicken.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Cuteness On So Many Levels


The nuk.
The big blue eyes.
Holding the teddy bear that use to be AJ's at this age.
The teddy bear that use to be AJ's wrapped up in a blanket.
The teddy bear being rocked to Rock a-Bye Baby.


The cuteness soon ended when Charlie got to the part about the baby falling out of the tree and he dropped his "baby" on the ground.

AJ Getting Ready For His First Pool Play Date

Saturday, April 10, 2010

It's Spring!

Shawn was backing out of our garage and came running in to tell us to come outside. This is what we saw:

Sunday, April 4, 2010

The Day The Earth Did Not Stand Still

I was minding my own business, taking a nap when suddenly I woke up to the bed vibrating. I figured it was Zeena, the cat, who has a habit of getting under beds and building nests in the lining of the bed frame. So, I started yelling at Zeena. She was not there.

Then I hear AJ run to his dad and ask if he felt the shaking too. So I figured we were dealing with an earthquake. I wondered if California had finally fallen into the ocean.

Luckily, it hasn't. Yet. But there was a 6.9 magnitude earthquake in Baja California, Mexico. The strange thing is that some of my friends who live in our neighborhood did not feel a thing.

I have to say, it was very unsettling feeling the earth move underneath you. I cannot imagine what it must be like for the people who are in the midst of it. Shawn and I have been dizzy ever since.

I still have not seen a news story yet. Hopefully everyone is ok.


Easter Tattoos

AJ wrote these on their hands. His hand says: "Charlie is my bro". And Charlie's says: "AJ is my bro".


Easter

Coloring the eggs.


The dyed eggs.


The boys and their Easter baskets. The white thing in AJ's basket is a Team USA soccer shirt. He loved it. And the giant egg in Charlie's basket is, of course a Thomas train.


Here is a picture of the egg hunt. Charlie was so into it. He got so excited whenever he found one. In this picture he was screaming "I found it! I found it!". Then when he saw the camera, he yelled "Cheese!" without missing a beat.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

The Monthly Project

AJ has a monthly project due each month (obviously). They have ranged from a puppet of a historical figure, to creating a game, to this month's theme of designing a park.

AJ was ready to go. He started the project weeks in advance. Shawn and I sat down with him and we went over project planning for the 4th time this year. (But whose counting?) The assignment was to build a park for $5,000 or under. Each object had a price tag. And there were certain elements that were required so that ended up eating up some of the budget from the beginning.

I am sure at this point you are thinking- "Wow! A design project! Didn't you go to school for that? AJ is the luckiest kid alive to have such a knowledgeable and talented mother to offer such valuable advice and guidance." I know !!! That's what I told him!

That did not go over well. He is a bit stubborn. He's an Aries. What can I say? So, I decided that after that initial discussion about project planning (and lugging out examples of my drawings, schedules and plans of projects I had done), I would let him figure things out on his own.

I was very proud of how he did the project. He was totally into it, and was trying his best to do a nice job. The park looked great, and I told him so. And then I causally (yet meaningfully) asked (2 days before the project was due) how his budget was looking. There were blank looks, then confused looks, and then panicked looks. And then there was a lot of yelling (Shawn and I) and a lot of crying (AJ).

But to his credit, AJ was able to recover the project and his spirits. After having to back track and do is budget after the fact, it all ended up being ok. I am hoping that this will be the "lessoned learned" time. But, I doubt it. Oh, well. I have to earn my keep somehow.

Here is a picture of the project.