Month of May

I had a wonderful Mother's Day! I had my mom (and dad) over for dinner. My dad BBQ'd ribs, my friend Vincent made brussel sprouts with pine nuts and bacon bits, and I made homemade bread rolls and fruit salad and dark chocolate brownies from scratch for dessert. Naturally the boys had to test the batter to make sure the chocolate was yummy.

 The blue Link and the green Link, adventuring together.

Gabriel tries on his new jacket and poses with my friend Vincent.

 Two awesome boys help me go grocery shopping.

Gabriel insisted on giving me a new hair style last night. You can't see it all, but it was three pony tails.

Fishy Faces

"I'm a puffer fish!"

We all love making fish faces.

My sweet Gabriel!!

Look out! It's a dragon!

My happy boys reading a book together.

Ephraim practices his smile for picture day.

 

 Awww, adorable brothers!

Darts and Mud

Happy birthday to my little brother. I bought a pack of three sucker-dart guns for the party. Uncle Mike got creative with the darts. :)

 

I took Friday off work to spend some time with the kids during their spring break. We went to Point Pinole with my friend Vincent. The shore isn't the most beautiful, but we saw birds and water and had a nice walk under the trees.

 

 

Oh, and then we all got stuck in the mud. Literally. Ephraim was stuck. I went to pull him up and his shoes came off. I tried to carry him away and I got stuck. We then decided that we'd spent enough time in the low tide mud and went back to walking the trail. 

Then we found this awesome eucalyptus tree. It was perfect for climbing!

Oh, and Ephraim really wanted fish again, so we went to the store and got three medium-size goldfish. We named them Two-face (half-orange, half-silver), Shiny (all silver), and Doodles (orange with black squiggle on head). Here are two cats watching them.

Ewoks live around here, look out! Eecha-wawah!

Extreme Bugs Exhibit

A two-headed monster.

A friend in the mirror.

This ninja likes the movie "Frozen." Gabriel drew each of the characters from the movie on the same balloon. This side has "Olaf" the snowman who likes "warm hugs."

We went to the Lawrence Hall of Science on this winter stormy Saturday. We enjoyed the Extreme Bugs exhibit. (I thought it was fitting that we go since Ephraim's birthday theme was bugs.) The giant bugs moved and made noises. Here Gabriel is acting scared of the giant tarantula and Ephraim is pretending to be a spider himself.

We learned about how geckos stick to walls. Ephraim is at the last panel of the exhibit, putting into action the things we learned to make the animated gecko walk on the screen.

We saw a cool 3D movie about bugs. It was amazing because they went to a rainforest and somehow got footage of the life of a real praying mantis and life cycle of a butterfly and put it to a story from their point of view (up close!).

Learning about animation is always entertaining.

We got trapped in the store too. I got sucked into spending money on science toys, but it goes to a good cause.

Running away from the centipede! Time to go home!

Gabriel and Ephraim Are Charming Boys

Last Thursday was Open House at Gabriel's school. We visited his class and teacher and then he wanted to check out the 2nd grade classroom for next year. My darling boy walks right in, states his purpose and introduces himself. He put smiles on everyone's face at his boldness. He can be so mature and charming when he wants to be!

I think we need to work on our senses with Ephraim, he made me laugh tonight with one simple sentence. After brushing his teeth, he walked straight outside for a second and came in.  I asked him what he was doing and he said, "I wanted to hear my minty breath!"  (His breath smelled like mint from the toothpaste, and he went outside to try to see his 'haaawwww' breath even though it wasn't cold enough. Not sure how he was going to HEAR either of those things, but it made me chuckle.)

(More pictures coming, one of these nights...)

Turning Four!

I found this old picture on my camera. Gabriel is reading to Ephraim (with a snuggling cat trying to listen too).

Ephraim turned FOUR on Sunday! He's so big now.

We received a package in the mail, thank you Grandpa and Grandma Gunn and Uncle Tony and Aunt Michelle. Naturally, the card with Cookie Monster singing a happy birthday song was the best part of the gift. :D

Ephraim in his camo, ready to hunt bugs.

I had a huge party on Sunday for him. Grandpa and Grandma McMillan made the caterpillar cakes! Heather and Uncle John & cousin Everett and Uncle Mike & Aunt Kalu came too. Plus lots of friends: Sandra & Miguel Alejandro and Julia & Mark & Lucy. We made our own antennae, used fingerpaints to made our handprints into spiders, and caught paper butterflies in nets.

Yes, there were presents!

Grandpa's homemade circuitboard was a hit for kids of all ages (from Ephraim to Uncle John).

 Ephraim chillin' with the new book he got from his pediatrician's visit on Monday.

Just Another Day

My cuties are taking a bath together. Sometimes it's together and sometimes separately, depending on their moods. Here they are singing and experimenting with bathtub echoes.

Ephraim has been fighting a cold for almost two weeks, poor thing. He gets so tired at night. He cried for about half an hour tonight over something small. When he got too heavy to hold while I was standing up (which rocked him to sleep the other night!), I sat down in the rocking chair. The cats get very concerned when Ephraim cries. Leia came over and jumped up into Ephraim's lap to console him, which worked instantly!

 

Ephraim felt better only minutes later. He was back to his silly self: balancing a bowl on his head while balancing on one leg!!

Gabriel reached a milestone for reading. It is no longer this horrible unwanted thing that makes him instantly throw a tantrum (if I suggest he read a simple sentence). He knows enough words finally to grab a Seuss or Seuss-like book off the shelf and read it. He has been doing that every night while waiting for me to put Ephraim to bed. I am so proud of him. He has no trouble with "Go, Dog, Go" and isn't afraid to try new books.