4 Years Old!

Our babies are 4! We celebrated Sadie and Jack's 4th birthday yesterday with a party at Vista Hermosa Park. It will be a memorable birthday. Sadie vomited in the middle of the party. It seems like it was part of a 24-hour stomach bug that has hopefully passed. Jack was not sick and seemed to enjoy his party thoroughly. He got very into being the parade leader as we lead the kids around the park before cake. Jack was so sweet, he asked for a coconut cake because J. likes coconut cake and he wanted to give a piece of his cake to his dad. It doesn't get much sweeter than that. Sadie wanted her traditional chocolate cake. She's a purist. Her stomach bug did not stop her from eating cake, which she thankfully did not throw up.

Once we got past the vomiting, it was a lovely party, made extra special because Pud was here to celebrate with the kids. We had lots of family friends and friends from the Playhouse, including all the Playhouse teachers.

Tomorrow we give our birthday present to the kids - Disneyland. Wish us luck!

Amirs Garden

We took a beautiful hike up to Amir's Garden in Griffith Park yesterday with Tatum, her baby sister Hazel, and Meghan. It was a mile hike round trip, but the kids did great and had lots of fun to boot.

Hanging with Violetta

This has been the week of play dates with Violetta. Violetta goes to the Playhouse with Jack and Sadie and has become a close friend. We started with a trip to the Griffith Observatory on Sunday. We met up with two other kids from the Playhouse, Gabriel and Lucy, and their mother at the Observatory. It was a little crazy with five kids and three adults, but the kids had a great time, communed with Einstein, and were enthralled by the planetarium show. On Tuesday the ratio only got worse, but we had a wonderful afternoon with Jack, Sadie, Violetta and Violetta's older sister Gloria. Despite four kids and one adult on Tuesday we had a very nice dinner at the food trucks. Today I took the three kids to the library and then we had dinner and a dance party. There is nothing like three kids, dressed the nines dancing their hearts on the coffee table to the Pennsylvania Polka!

I heart public transportation

It is a beautiful day today. So what better way to head Downtown than by bus? We went on little adventure and took a local bus downtown to check out one of our favorite bookstores. The kids could not have been more excited to ride the bus. We had a good ride and then got off at the foot of Angel's Flight, the shortest railway in the world. For 25 cents we were able to ride to the top of Bunker Hill and back down again in a rail car from 1901. From Angel's Flight it was just a 4 block walk to the Last Bookstore. Trains, buses, and books - a perfect morning.

On the Campaign Trail

Jack and Sadie having been doing a great job of helping Luis Lopez get elected to the CA state assembly. A few weeks ago we walked the neighborhood to collect signatures to get his name on the ballot. Today we celebrated his campaign kick-0ff. We learned today, that if nothing else they know how to steal the show!

Creepy Crawlies

We spent Saturday morning at a playdate for El Rio, a new charter school in the neighborhood. When they were not learning about Waldorf play the kids spent the morning pretending to be spiders.

In Their Element

It can be hard taking photos of the kids these days. They like to pick out their own clothes. They avoid having their hair brushed like the plague. Smiling for the camera is more like trying to scare a predator off. J. did manage to capture these photos of the kids in their natural environments. Here is Sadie at 7:30am this morning. This is her version of dressing for school.

This is a photo of Jack on a hike to Switzer Falls this weekend. He could not be happier than when he is swinging a giant stick around. He could have done this for hours.