Newport Beach

On Monday night, after Rob got home from work, we took the family to Newport Beach. This is Ciel’s first visit to the ocean (not counting Guam where she was born). Everyone had lots of fun chasing the waves and collecting seashells. We’re so lucky to live close to the beach (only a 15 minute drive away). I’m not sure how often we’ll go, though, since we’re still working on getting the sand out of everything! For more pictures of our beach adventure with Ciel, check out our gallery.

Mini Golf

We had so much fun going to play miniature golf together!

The crew pauses for a photo.

Emma got a little frustrated a few times while trying to master her putt.

Hannah just picked up her ball when she felt like she was done and put it wherever she wanted.

Sabrina was a great cheerleader.

Hunter was our dedicated score keeper.

True Princesses

The other day Hannah was all dressed up in her purple princess outfit and just couldn’t wait to “play princess” with Sabrina. She grabbed a dress from the dress-ups and as she ran upstairs said, “I gonna play sisess wif Beena.” She ran into Sabrina’s room, where she was still enjoying an unusually long nap, all excited and started jumping up and down yelling, “wake up Beena, tine a play sisess!” When Sabrina finished waking up we got her dressed and they posed for these pictures.

The whole princess obsession has reminded me of one of my favorite stories about a feisty princess that isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty. It’s The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch and Amazon summarizes it like this:

“Elizabeth, a beautiful princess, lives in a castle and wears fancy clothes. Just when she is about to marry Prince Ronald, a dragon smashes her castle, burns her clothes with his fiery breath, and prince-naps her dear Ronald. Undaunted and presumably unclad, she dons a large paper bag and sets off to find the dragon and her cherished prince. Once she’s tracked down the rascally reptile, she flatters him into performing all sorts of dragonly stunts that eventually exhaust him, allowing her to rescue Prince Ronald. But what does Prince Not-So-Charming say when he sees her? “You smell like ashes, your hair is all tangled and you are wearing a dirty old paper bag. Come back when you are dressed like a real princess.” In any case, let’s just say that Princess Elizabeth and Prince Ronald do not, under any circumstances, live happily ever after.”

My favorite part of the story is where Elizabeth tells Prince Ronald that he is a bum, and then happily runs off into the sunset. I like that the princess is smart and strong and won’t allow herself to settle for a loser of a prince… I know it’s a bit of a stretch using this as my Sunday Thought, but I always enjoy an empowering children’s story!

Ceramics and Clay

Hunter and Emma just finished a ceramics class that was offered through the community. They went every week for 6 weeks and made some really fun things! They still have some projects curing on the shelves at the studio, and we’ll add those to the gallery too when they’re ready. (Also in the gallery are pictures of Emma’s projects from her after-school class where she painted ceramics. Hunter took a “Mad Science” class and it was a blast, but there weren’t any projects to include in the gallery.) It was great fun for them and the little girls loved it too because we would play at the park next door during the class and watch the ducks on the pond there. We even fed the ducks sometimes which Hannah and Sabrina especially loved.

Now that this class is over, it’s on to bowling class, and although the kids were super late to their first class because we got stuck at an orthodontist appointment for Emma, it looks to be great fun as well. I just may need to bring a roll of quarters to keep Hannah busy at the video games because she would love to bowl right along with the big kids.

Baby Bird Brina

Lately Sabrina has taken up a new way to communicate when she’s hungry. She looks wide eyed at whatever you’re eating and opens her mouth as wide as she can! It’s so cute, and she reminds me of a baby bird waiting in the nest for her momma to feed her. We all smile and laugh every time she does it. Such a cutie pie!

Preschool Twister

A few times we have played a family game of Twister as a fun activity. The kids all laugh and it is a silly game that makes us happy. The other day Hannah wanted to play it, and we had more fun than I expected. It turned out to be a nice teaching tool too. She loved putting her hands and feet on the colored dots as I called out, “put your hand on green, put your foot on red…” We’re not quite to rights and lefts yet, but what a fun way for her to practice her colors, her coordination, and get a little bit of exercise. It can be kind of like yoga with all of the stretching in crazy poses, right? Hannah and I took turns and she loved telling me what to do too. Sabrina had a blast slapping the mat and laughing as she crawled around. Who would have guessed Twister would be not only fun, but have a teaching purpose too?