New Family Picture

Kara drew a picture of our family.... including her not-yet born baby brother :)

Parlier Picnic Time!

All year long the kids practice their "Parlier picnic run" in the backyard and look forward to running the races, snacking and playing with their cousins. Ben ran around the whole day with a big, big smile on his face. Kara loved hanging out with her older cousins, climbing trees and making bird nests. What a great day!

Mani and Pedi

Kara went to the gets her nails done for the first time with her cousin, Elyse. She was a bit nervous at first, but ended up loving it, like we knew she would! She was eager to go to school today to show everyone her painted nails with flowers. She's growing up!

Spring is in the air!

I guess spring doesn't technically start until Sunday, but the weather is warming up which means more outings to the park, bubble-chasing in the backyard and sleeveless dresses!



Ben is singing his ABCs and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.... while Kara learned a "Days of the Week" song at school that goes along with the Adams Family tune, that she's proud to sing on her own now.



Ben used to always sleep with a little wash cloth, just like Kara did when she was little. These days, Ben chooses an object, whether it's his hammer, a magic wand, a car, or once, a bag full of corn puffs, to take to sleep with him... and he usually tries to sweet talk us by saying, "Go Mommy and Daddy's bed?" He has mastered the art of quietly sneaking out of his room and climbing into our bed at night... And when we're ready to go to bed, we find him sleeping, so sweetly, sideways, in the middle of the bed with some random object by his side.



And since it's Mach..... Let's hope we have something to cheer about when UCLA plays against Michigan State in Round One of the NCAA basketball tournament!

What's New.....

It sometimes seems like really, not much has changed... but I know both of the kids are growing and learning and changing...



Kara enjoys spending her time coloring, drawing, writing her letters and reading books. She does a great job coloring and is often her own worst critic if she happens to color outside of a line... she pouts and says she needs to start over. Quite the perfectionist.

Ben is talking up a storm these days! He's put together sentences like, "Daddy, me window down please" or "Go to Grandma's house right now." He definitely understands 'right now' and 'later' because if he asks to do something, like watch Cars and the answer to right now is 'no', then he says, "later, right, Momma?"

What has not changed, besides those bear-towels, is how much we love to watch them togehter... to see the kids spontaneously hug, to hear Ben say "sorry, Ka-wa bug", to watch Kara help feed her little brother, the dance parties in the living room..... absolutely the best!

Snow Day at School

Kara's preschool brought in snow for a day and the kids had a great time playing in the snow.... Kara made a little pyramid-snow person, complete with pink star.



With the help of food coloring, she also made some pink shaved ice....



And a pink snowball pie.



I guess we will definitely have to do a trip to the snow next year - Sho and I went to help out and wore our snowboarding gloves.... which we took out of storage... because we haven't gone snowboarding for the last three (ugh!) years.

Day Trip

We took a day trip to Santa Barbara over the weekend and visited the SB Zoo for the first time. We saw the live giraffes, but only happened to take a picture of Ben in front the statues... It was a beautiful day, lots of sunshine, lots of green grass to run around on, a train to ride and lots of animals to see...



We made a very short stop at the Camarillo Outlets and the highlight of the trip for the kids was the 50 cent little ride outside of the bathroom.... go figure. Kara is trying to help Mommy get Ben to look a the camera. What a helpful big sister.