Cali Drifts and the Creeper Vac

A couple random pictures for your enjoyment:

Joy has decided that she wants to make a robot Creeper (a character from the video game Minecraft).  This morning she made a paper prototype of her idea; she hopes to one day build a metal version with vacuums in its feet that will clean our floor.  I agree that that would, indeed, be awesome, but when she asked for my input on what kind of metal to buy I deferred to Daddy the engineer.  I suspect that the Creeper Vac project won't get much further than the paper prototype above, but Joy has proven me wrong before.

In other news, this is the Southern California equivalent of a snowdrift.  These dried palm fronds blew down off the trees in a recent windstorm, and the city has heaped them all together pending removal sometime soon.  I hope they won't wait long, because parking is scarce enough without a pile of palm fronds taking up two car-lengths worth of curb.

Fans in the Stands (with a Hat)

The Special Olympics are being held in our area this year . . .

. . . and we decided to attend an event at Daddy's school to cheer the Olympians on.  If you're wondering about Daddy's hat, it was lovingly crafted by his eldest daughter, who presented it to him this afternoon.

Daddy believes in sharing, so when Anna asked to try on his cozy hat on this warm July day, he was happy to let her take a turn wearing it.

I'd like to say that we had a great family bonding experience in the stands at the swim meet, but it was kinda hard to tell what was going on, or when to cheer . . . 

. . . and we were sitting in the sun on a hot day.

Frankly, I think the kids' (and their parents') favorite part was when we sat on some steps in the shade afterward and ate snacks while Todd made a new friend.

Swings and Planes

It's Park Day again. :)

This time, Joy decided to bring her paper airplanes along to see if she could make a few sales.  At first she didn't find any takers because she was off to the side of the playground, and no one knew that she was selling anything.

After a while, she got up the courage to walk up and talk to people, and she actually made a few dollars while we were there.

She even sold a plane to Anna's Sunbeam teacher.

She also played on the swings and built sand castles, lest you worry that Joy is all work and no fun. :)

Oh My Okra

I recently read a book called The 52 New Foods Challenge.  The author is a mom who wanted to encourage her kids to try more fruits and vegetables, so she made up a game where they would choose a new food (usually at a farmers' market) to try each week.  Mom and kids would then cook the new food together, and family members could earn points at dinner that day for eating a variety of colors, trying a new dish, etc.  It sounded a little bit overwhelming to me, but I liked the idea of encouraging my kids to branch out and try new things, so I decided to give it a try.

Yesterday I told the kids about the new game we were going to try, then we went to our local farmer's market in search of a new food to sample.  Joy made a beeline for the okra.  Okra???  I'm not sure I'd ever eaten okra before, and I know for certain I've never cooked with it.  Still, if I want my kids to try new things, I need to be open to that, too, right?

Joy did her best to persuade Daniel that okra was the best veggie to try this week, but he remained unconvinced.  Joy and Anna ultimately outvoted him, so I promised that he could choose our veggie next week.  He's leaning toward beets (seriously; I'm not making this up).

At home, I set my order-loving, risk-averse tendencies aside and invited my kids into the kitchen to cook with me.  I even let them handle the big, sharp knives.

Todd wasn't so sure about all of this.  Frankly, I wasn't either . . .

. . . but I let Daniel wield the big Santoku knife (I always want to call it the Sudoku knife; always), and he did just fine.

As we were working on the okra risotto recipe I'd found, the big kids asked if they could try the okra raw.  Um, sure.  They didn't grimace when they ate it, and they even asked for more, so I tried it, too.  It had a mild, pleasant flavor, but the texture was a little unusual.

The risotto dish we made turned out decently, but the kids and I agreed that we liked the raw okra better (who'd have thought?).  Maybe I'll try it in soup when the weather cools down.

Stay tuned for our future culinary adventures.  How do you think Daniel will like beets?

Jam Day 2015

It's Jam Day, folks!

Joy loves to help out, and she has become really interested in cooking lately (she's even compiling her own notebook of favorite recipes), so she was eager to help with the measuring and mashing.

Once all the sweet strawberry goodness was in the jars . . .

. . . the kids and Aunt Heather headed out to the pool to play . . .

. . . and experiment with interesting hairstyles.

Uncle Rob joined the party, and it was fun to hang out with him.

Hmmm.  To wade, or not to wade?

Eh.  Pass.

Thanks for having us over, Red Grandma.

Summer Sliding

We met a bunch of friends at the park today . . .

. . . including Anna's friend Harrison from her preschool group.

Woo hoo!  Big sisters are awesome!

Happy 4th!

The kids kicked off Independence Day with an invigorating game of foosball . . .

. . . then everyone headed to the lake . . .

. . . for some good clean fun.

The community puts on a fantastic July 4th firework show over the lake every year.  It's too loud for Joy's taste (she preferred to watch it from the cabin with me), but Daniel likes it and Anna insisted that she wanted to go along this year, too.  When they got back at 10pm they both said they enjoyed the show, but they almost fell asleep eating their dessert. :)

Boating at Sunset

Papa took us out for a pleasant cruise on the lake this evening.

Aww.  Todd's so cute, even when you can only see half his face peeking out of the life jacket.

I don't know who started giving the thumbs-up sign today, but it became a pretty hot trend on the boat.

Yep--definitely a trend.

Time for a silly picture!

Also, the sunset was epic.

Independence Weekend at the Cabin

We headed up to the cabin today to celebrate Independence Day with my family . . .

. . . and Turbo, of course.

Papa and Red Grandma had found some foam gliders at a hobby store, and took the kids to an open area to try flying them.  The first one crashed and broke apart within ten seconds of liftoff, but the pilots learned from their mistake and the second plane enjoyed a much longer lifespan.

After flight training, the girls decorated cupcakes with Red Grandma . . .

. . . while Todd (like his big brother before him) discovered the delights of the cabin's toddler-accessible light switches.

Anna also enjoyed playing foosball with Uncle Andrew.  I snapped a few pictures of them . . .

. . . then hustled up the driveway to catch Todd before he toddled off to the village in search of pizza or something.