I knew she could say, "one, two, three," but when Jill and Adam were playing hide 'n seek the other day I was shocked to hear her count to 14 all on her own. What? How did she learn that? It's amazing what children learn from the siblings. Elmo probably deserves some credit, too, as she loves playing Elmo games on the computer. What was even more impressive is that I got it on video! Jill is not one to perform when asked, and I had to be patient as the first 20 seconds are nearly silent....she's actually whispering...but when I told her, "louder," I was so happy that she started over and counted to 13 loud and clear. I will treasure those 20 seconds of video as I'm sure she won't have this toddler voice for long...
We are a family of six residing in Southern California. Andrew and Jocelyn have been happily married for ten years and have four kids: Jason 10, Beth 9, Adam 7, and Jillian 5. So here's our chance to talk about our adventures and our fabulous kids because, well...we can!
Friday, February 25, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Skirball Museum and Cultural Center
In case you live or will be in the area, we visited the Skirball Museum and Cultural Center last week and had a great time. Best of all - it's free on Thursdays! But you have to make your reservations in advance as the free time slots fill up fast. Ok, enough advertising, let's see some pictures and video! The exhibit is very hands-on. It starts with a storm, which you have to experience to understand so here's a video. Turn your volume down as some child (not mine) is whining in the background...
Once you begin the storm, you load the animals on the ark.
The kids load the animals on a conveyor belt two by two.
Or you can just ride the animals two by two :)
Some animals need help moving. Here Jason moves thus moving the tall giraffe.
Then it's time to get on the ark! Jill went right on climbing up and up and then...she got scared!
So I got to climb up and rescue her. I was very relieved that I fit through some of those tight corners. 
And Grandma made it all better.
Then it's time to feed and care for the animals.
That includes cleaning up after them.
One of my favorite moments was when I handed Adam this rubber animal dropping and he just stared at it and then handed it back saying, "No, thank you," as he walked away. He cracks me up.
Taking care of all these animals may even include alligator wrestling!
But in the end the dove brings back the olive branch, woo hoo!
Time to celebrate. Jason was put in charge of gathering everyone, walking through the exhibit and inviting everyone to a musical celebration.
Everyone got to play an instrument along with the leader drums. They played different rhythms as they echoed the lead drum. I was impressed with our little group.
Once you begin the storm, you load the animals on the ark.
The kids load the animals on a conveyor belt two by two.Or you can just ride the animals two by two :)Some animals need help moving. Here Jason moves thus moving the tall giraffe. Then it's time to get on the ark! Jill went right on climbing up and up and then...she got scared!So I got to climb up and rescue her. I was very relieved that I fit through some of those tight corners. And Grandma made it all better.Then it's time to feed and care for the animals.That includes cleaning up after them.One of my favorite moments was when I handed Adam this rubber animal dropping and he just stared at it and then handed it back saying, "No, thank you," as he walked away. He cracks me up.Taking care of all these animals may even include alligator wrestling!But in the end the dove brings back the olive branch, woo hoo!Time to celebrate. Jason was put in charge of gathering everyone, walking through the exhibit and inviting everyone to a musical celebration.Everyone got to play an instrument along with the leader drums. They played different rhythms as they echoed the lead drum. I was impressed with our little group. The Grandmas participated playing the drums.
The exhibit ends with a craft. It was a great collection of fabric scraps, double sided tape stickers and squares of burlap. Let the creativity begin (actually they had so much fun that most of them went home with a bag of scraps to continue their work!)
Of course, the last part of the exhibit is a mist wall of rainbows. We went home with some very wet children!
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Big Fun in Big Bear
Missing snow, we took the opportunity to spend a weekend in Big Bear on the lake. We stayed at Midoriland, the retreat house I've been going to since I was in Jr. High. It's so fun to go back and visit and see that nothing's changed except the amount of snow each year.
Unfortunately, there wasn't much snow this year but we managed to find enough for a few snowball fights. And we drove around and found a few small sledding hills.
Jill loved sledding with Daddy.
Adam, too.
And when waiting for your turn takes to long, just slide down on your pants. When snow has been sitting around a few weeks in warmer weather, it gets nice and slick.
We found a small patch of ice that was perfect for slip-sliding around. Even Daddy got to enjoy some rides on the ice.
Some snow was eaten...
And lots of snow was thrown! Jill thought this was great fun and was often found carrying around a snowball waiting for the right moment to throw it!
We met up with our friends, the Harris family, and they took us to their much bigger sledding hill. It was a great conclusion to a great weekend.
Check out Andrew and his amazing sledding skills...So as the sun sets on another great trip to the snow...
and Beth gets to experience what it's like to be pink, 
we say good night...until next winter.
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