Cowgirl Zadie

Last week Zadie had a great time in San Diego. My sister and her family are living with my parents for two months, so Zadie came down and got to spend a full week of quality time with her cousins. She even got to go to their pre-school with them everyday and had lots of fun making cool art projects, swimming, etc.

As usual, Zadie didn't miss her moms at all and had no interest in coming home. She cried the whole drive back home. I guess I should be thankful that she's independent and loves to stay at her grandparents so much.

On her last day in San Diego, my dad took her to feed the ducks and he was wearing a cowboy hat. Apparently Zadie really loved it and so my dad took her to a western wear store and got her very own cowgirl hat. While she was there she fell in love with these pink boots, too.

I thought it was so cute that my dad took her shopping! Thanks to my parents and my sister and family for taking such good care of her.

Cousin Gavin Comes for a Visit

Tori's sister Katie and her son Gavin came for a spur-of-the-moment visit this past weekend, which was a nice treat. We're super excited for Skip to have a boy cousin that is so close to him in age (Gavin is two months younger) and this was really the first time that they really played together and and enjoyed each other, so it was fun to watch. Our duplex neighbor got really upset about all the pounding of little feet because they chased each other around so much, but there wasn't much we could do about that.

Gavin is a really sweet kid. Even though he is younger than Skip, he's much bigger. But he's kind of a big sweet oaf, whereas Skip is a small, scrappy little booger that likes to tackle his bigger cousin to the ground. Gavin never complains, but doesn't seem too interested in roughhousing. He can go toe-to-toe with Skip in his love of balloons, though. And milk.

Katie loves to go to the beach when she visits from Las Vegas, so she and Tori took the two boys, but unfortunately it was an oddly chilly day at the beach. Still some nice photos, though. The really nice photo of Skip was taken by Katie, so thank you, Katie!

The Happiest Place on Earth

Super cute photo of Zadie and the twins before our big day at Disneyland. I love this picture!

Zadie and I made it into Mickey Mouse's secret lair to get a photo.

Zadie with Grandma Niece at the petting zoo.

Zadie and I were invited to attend a very special birthday party for her cousins Sophie and Izzy last week. To celebrate their fourth birthday, we all went to Disneyland for the day (well, technically we were over it at 1pm and left, but it felt like the whole day!).

They were enthralled with Disneyland and especially the chance to meet and take a picture with Mickey Mouse, but I have to say that "the happiest place on earth" may not be Disneyland, but rather anywhere these three little cousins gather. We spent the night at a hotel the night before and the three little girls had the BEST time running around the hotel, stuffing each other into the mini-fridge, playing pretend shopkeeper, etc. It was really cute (though Kim wouldn't let them put themselves into the fridge once we figured out what they were doing).

Happy fourth birthday to some really great nieces!

Oh, Italy

I haven't had a chance to write much about my big Italian vacation. It's kind of hard to write about because it involves a lot of superlatives. My mom really spoiled me and my sister to a getaway filled with fine wine, food, relaxation, and lots of quality time together. Two weeks away from children, work, and the stresses of daily life was pretty special. This wasn't one of those vacations where you get stressed out managing your daily itinerary and getting from place to place. We didn't cover a lot of ground on our trip and we had lots of down time to soak everything in, read books, enjoy tea and gelato, etc.

My sister documented our trip with great photos and narratives at www.doubleblessingsblog.blogspot.com, so I don't think I will try to rival her. We spent most of her time in Tuscany hill towns and also in Cinque Terre.

The highlights were (in no particular order) delicious wine, Tuscan salami and cheese, beautiful scenery and weather, time to actually read novels, and, of course, time with my mom and sister. It was a really special trip that I'll always treasure. Thank you, parents!

Easter 2011

I'm far behind on my posts, but rest assured that we had a nice Easter weekend (a few weeks ago). Our town has a big Easter egg "hunt" extravaganza. I can't even guess how many hundreds of kids attend, but it's not really a hunt since they put them all in the grass in a big field and then they line the kids up in a circle and when they say "go" all the kids sprint to fill up their Easter baskets. Kind of a funny scene. Here are some scenes from that weekend...

Zadie and her good friend Xixi with some goose (am I supposed to know who this is?)

I love this picture, especially of Tori!

This Easter egg hunt was at Tori's relatives' house in Studio City, but unfortunately Skip napped through this one and missed it. This is the white Easter dress I forced Zadie to wear (as my mother once did to me!).