Road Trips(s) - Part 2

To continue the road trip recounting...  Perhaps the most exciting part of our road trip to San Diego was on Saturday and Sunday when we went to the San Diego Wild Animal Park and stayed there for (almost exactly) 24 hours.  Before our trip out to the park, however, Genevieve requested that we stop in at an art supply store near our hotel to buy her a journal and some pencils to draw with so she could sketch the animals at the zoo.  We decided to all pick up sketch pads so all Lacroixs could try to be artists.  After the visit to the art shop we stopped in on the Saturday farmers market in little Italy for some fabulous crepes.  Izzy, being the foodie she is, preferred the french cheese, meat and mushroom crepe, whereas  Genevieve went for the sugary sweet (and chocolaty) crepe... and that pretty much sums up the differences between those two :)

After some seriously fabulous crepeness we drove away from downtown San Diego and to the Wild Animal Park.  Once there our first stop was new hats for all of the girls because Evie and I didn't have hats and Izzy's hat was decidedly too small.  Fabulous hats were found all around....

What is perhaps not obvious about Izzy's hat is that it is not only a cheetah hat, but a cheetah hat with flip down sunglasses attached to it....

Hats secured we headed for the carousel for a ride.  We then visited with meerkats (and drew some pictures), flamingos (and drew some pictures), and gorillas (and, you guessed it, drew some pictures). I generally leave the art (at least the pencil or brush kind) to the rest of the family, but I must admit I got a kick out of standing there trying to transfer the animal I saw into an animal-like item on a page.

The subject...

The artists hard at work...

After a late(ish) lunch we wandered through a lemur exhibit and over toward the main attraction, the savannahs, big expanses of park with the animals just roaming around.  On our way to the savannah areas it came to our attention that at 3:30 each day the bring out a cheetah and let him (or her) run at top speed.  Given that we had a near cheetah fanatic in our mist (Izzy) we decided to splurge on special front row viewing of the cheetah run. It did not disappoint, with a brief (or rather speedy) view of a sprinting cheetah and then a too cute display of baby cheetah-ness and the baby's best friend, a lively lab puppy.

After the cheetah run we checked in for the main event - Roar and Snore - an overnight adventure in a tent, in the park, on the edge of the savannah.  Months ago Evie and I found this as an option and she decided that this is all she wanted to do for her birthday... no extra party, just a camp out in the wild animal park.  The evening in the park started with dinner looking out at the savannah (rhinos and giraffs and water buffalo, oh my!) and then we "checked" into our tent, which was specially decorated for Evie... she thought that was pretty cool.

 The evening was then filled with a series of crafts, animal encounters and games.  Patrick and I felt like we were at a summer zoo camp along with the girls, it was great fun.  Patrick seemed to particular enjoy decorating tubes for the meerkats...

 I really liked meeting (and touching!) a 3-banded armadillo...

Evie, when asked, said her favorite part was seeing a giraffe pee (apparently on its baby... I was not there, so I cannot corroborate this event), which just goes to show you that scheduled activities are not necessary what leave the lasting impression :) 

We all went to bed around 10 pm to the sounds of the lion roaring.  At one point during the night a bunch of coyotes from outside of the park started yipping and then the lion "answered" them with a roar, yup that was pretty awesome.  The next morning we went on a number of other behind the scenes tours, including getting to meet an echidna.

A bird was very interested in Genevieve's sketches...

That is an echidna

Izzy checking out the wildlife

The adventure culminated with a tram ride around the savannah that we had spent the last 12 hours looking out across.

Then it was to the car and a 6 hour drive back home.  In all it was a fabulous 4 day adventure but I think this picture of Izzy sums it up for all of us:

Happy Birthday Geneveive!

Favorites:
Color - Pink
Animal - Puppy
Book - Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew and "every book exactly"
Music - Beethoven's 5th, made up songs, and more made up songs
Movie - Most girlie movies and Nancy Drew (I think there is a pattern forming here)
TV Show - Magic School Bus, My Little Pony, and Horseland
Subject(s) in School - English and French
Game - "I like to pretend that I am a spy" (which is probably why she really liked the spy kit we gave her for her birthday)
Activity - Odessey of the Mind (an afterschool club all about solving puzzles and creating skits)
Food - "Mina's kind of mac and cheese" (my hippy mac and cheese apparently is not a favorite... or maybe its just that she eats that kind all to often :)
What she wants to be when she grows up - Veterinarian
Best Friends - Nanan and Isabella
Best thing that happened while she was 7 - Met her friend Darsha... who moved away last week :(

Notable things -Really learned how to read in English and French, really got the hang of the bike and started roller skating, went to sleep away camp for a whole week by herself, learned how to write (but not necessarily spell), got really good at math, started Tucson Girl's Chorus, and made lots of new friends.

Road Trip(s)!

These past two weekends have been a fabulous flurry of fun on the road.  Last weekend just Patrick and I took a 3 day 1,240 mile journey across Arizona, New Mexico and a bit of Texas to visit with Abu and Oma (aka Gerard and Monique). The main purpose of our journey was to acquire all of the "accessories" for our newest baby...  a 1958 MG-A, which Gerry and Monique decided to sell to us, and conveniently arrived at our house from her original home with Gerry and Monique the day after Patrick's birthday.  (And yes, Patrick sang a little Happy Birthday to me song) The car, however, was only part of the package.  Along with the car itself we journeied to Texas to get the much needed top, side curtains (both of which need some TLC), a heater, and tons of other bits and pieces (including models and books) to help two new Brittish car parents along their nubile journey.  (Perhaps most important is a highlighted MG-A moss motors catalog of all of the additional bits and pieces we could acquire to maintain and improve our newest addition).

Patrick and I fully enjoyed our duo roadtrip, taking stops to eat at a gastropub (now there is a new oxford word for ya) in El Paso, hang out with Monique and Gerry until almost (gasp) midnight, and  leisurely walk the streets of Sanderson.

Patrick sipping his beer in El Paso... the only child who came with us was Sadie... she enjoyed the only child time immensely :)

Then this weekend we went on a grand adventure, this time heading West to San Diego.  The point of the mission was to celebrate Evie's 8th birthday, which also means this blog itself is about to celebrate an 8th birthday...I guess it turns out reporting on the kiddos is habitforming.

Anyway,  on Thursday we packed our bags and headed out of town.  The girls, as is per usual, were great travelers and only complained bitterly toward the end of the 6 hour drive. Their reward for the long drive (which Izzy later told a random person at the hotel "made my butt really hurt") was a short walk from our hotel to the most fabulous playground I think I have ever seen

The playground had fountains to splash in and then a ton of complicated playground equipment that looked like atoms and molecules.

 Unfortunately I don't have too many pictures of the playground because I was too busy playing too :)

The next day we took a short drive over to Balboa Park where we first wandered around and then went to the science museum.  Izzy was not terribly happy with the idea of a museum, all she wanted to do was go back to the park from the previous day.  She did soften up a bit though after getting to spend some time playing on a crocidile (dragon?) sculpture.

Once at the science museum we were treated to exhibits on cells and building bridges (among other things) and a dome imax presentation on humpback whales (probably my favorite part of the day). From there we rushed back to the harbor for an afternoon whale watching tour (in hopes of seeing them not just in the movies).  The girls seemed pretty worn out at this point... and made little places to lay down on the deck.

In the end we didn't see any whales, but for Evie and I it was a nice trip out on the ocean.  For Izzy and Patrick, who got sea sick I think the would have rather settled with just a whale imax....

So bedtime calls... I will save the rest of this post, or rather our fabulous 8th birthday adventure, for tomorrow or maybe next weekend...

International Day 2015!

This year was our sixth annual international day representing Belgium for Evie's school!  I cannot believe it has been six years since the first time we decided to make real Belgian waffles and create a game for the kids to learn something about the country.  That first year I think I served about three waffles, due to the fact that we were in the parking lot of the old school and I couldn't even run a toaster without blowing a fuse.  I also recall a lot of wind, which kept on blowing over my spin-the-wheel-and-guess-the-belgian-thing game. All of that is to say it did not go terribly well... but I do recall having fun.

This year I decided that I would shake it up a bit and create a new activity for the kids and would take a day off of work to get it all put together. These both turned out to be excellent ideas. With (most) of a day I was able to get all of my ingredients, craft a comic book printout game/contest, and create Tinin, Milieu, and Captain Haddock masks. The contest was to fill out the blank comic bubbles with what you think they are saying (in of course the funniest way possible) and the child winner received a pound of Belgian chocolate.  The adult winner received a bottle of Belgian beer.  The kids (and adults) wrote some fabulously funny renditions of a page from Tintin and the Picaros (and two people, Evie's French teacher and one of the 4th graders, even guessed that the strip was taken from that comic).

On the waffle side I got up early yesterday morning and made three batches of waffle mix and then started making those puppies at 9:30 after getting my booth set up.  I was sold out by 1 pm (the event goes from 10:00-2:00) so I guess next year I'd better make 4 batches!  (Or keep Evie and Izzy...and Patrick.... from eating my wares)

The whole event kicked off with all of the preschool and junior school kids singing a few songs in a few languages. You can't see her in the picture but Genevieve is there too.  Then, while I made waffles and supervised comic creation, my Mom took Izzy and Evie around to the games, which this year included a little train and velcro wall.  Thankfully my Mom even grabbed my camera so for the first time I have more than just one photo of the event!

The whole experience was fabulous, and terribly exhausting.  So much so that when we got home all I could do was lie in bed and veg out on bad television for the rest of the day :)

Tucson Girl's Chorus

Back in January Evie decided that she wanted to switch from dance to choir, so she "auditioned" for the Tucson Girls Choir (I put audition in quotes because I have it on good authority that for the younger girls they all get into the choir unless they are totally and utterly tone deaf... which of course is a reasonable concern for a child of mine, but fortunately she takes after her grandma Nicole and not me). This past Sunday was her first performance.  Evie and the other girls in her Ladybugs choir preformed a series of songs for the annual Tucson Girl's Chorus fundraising dinner.  I must admit, the dinner was quite expensive and parents weren't expected to attend, so we didn't actually go to this first performance.  What we did do, however, was help her get all dressed up and get to listen to her practicing her songs for the performance all week long.  Both were a delight, and I cannot wait for her actual choir performance in a few months!

Book Day!

This week was book day at the girl's school.  Evie decided this year to go as Nancy Drew and Izzy vacillated between a number of different characters including skippy jon jones, a cat (from who knows what book), and little red riding hood.  Ultimately she choose the latter. 

We did not, however, have a hooded cape for her, so we gave her a red baseball cap and a red shirt as a cape and told her to tell everyone she was "little red riding in the hood" (Oh we think we are so clever...)  The big challenge with Evie's costume was to find a magnifying glass (more difficult than you would think) and for me to figure out how to curl her hair in a 50s-esque flip out do.  I went so far as to buy a curling iron and then practice the night before.  I am not sure the practice helped much though... Regardless, Evie was happy with the end result so that is all that mattered :)

Talking Dog Movies

A dark and all encompassing illness has struck my household.  About a year ago it began innocently enough, in search of a family friendly film that Patrick and I too could watch (read not Frozen for the 100th time or Barbie Takes Paris) Patrick put on a Super Buddies Film.  After about 10 minutes I felt the life (or was it intellect) slowly slipping from me and decided to save myself from the gloom. I tried to entice the rest of my kin to step away before it was too late, but, alas, they had already fallen under the strange spell of The. Talking. Dog. Movie. Once captured by this strange genre (and yes folks it is a genre... or at least Netflix thinks so) it is all but impossible to shake the icy-cold cuteness of its grip. The illness starts slow, one talking dog movie interspersed with three or four regular movies, but as the sickness spreads throughout the body (and soul) one finds themselves gravitating to nothing but the talking dog movie. 

The problem with this obsession is that there are hours (days!) of viewing to feed the disease.  From the well known like Beverly Hills Chihuahua (1, 2 and 3!) to the obscure like Underdog (a charming story about Shoeshine the police dog with, you guessed it, superpowers that, yup, saves the city) Then there are the Buddies Movies, which I am pretty sure there are a dozen of...Air Buddies, Super Buddies, Space Buddies, Santa Buddies, Snow Buddies, Treasure Buddies, Mall Buddies, Office Buddies, Vacation Buddies, and Inane-Formulaic-But-Oh-Too-Cute Buddies. Other household favorites are Santa Paws (Christmas in July, and June, and February, and April), Bingo (way to be creative naming your dog and movie), Cats and Dogs (this one almost had me because of the alien theme....), Beethoven (and sequels 1 through at least 5, right?), Marmaduke, Scooby Doo (this is Izzy's preferred dog movie...although almost not really talking dog), Milo and Otis (OK this one is a classic...), and the movie of last weekend... Good Boy.... a sweet story of a boy who finds an alien dog (again aliens, so I was intrigued) sent to earth to determine if earth dogs had, in fact, taken over the world as they were sent to do. With this much fodder for their doggone disease it is no wonder I have lost my family to the canine cinematic chasm that is the talking dog movie.  Sigh. 

Evie the Artist

Ask Evie what her favorite day of the week is and she will tell you Friday.  Now Friday has a lot of things going for it anyway. First and foremost, it is the end of the week. Friday is also  mahjong day (at lunch time), which also generally involves pizza at lunch (so long as I remember to sign them up). Furthermore, there is a bi-weekly after school ice-cream experience (I am pretty sure at this point I owe the PTA mucho bucks because they always give the girls ice cream and I cannot remember the last time I ponied up). Despite all of these other fabulous things Genevieve will tell you that the reason she loves Friday is because that is when she has her art class.

Evie's art goes beyond the classroom.  At any given time she has a pad, notebook or scrap of paper in hand and is drawing pictures.  It has been really fun to watch her art change over the past few years. To put some images to this post I just went around the house a collected a few of her most recent endeavors:

Yesterday Genevieve decided she was going to draw caricatures of each of us.  This is Patrick.

There is a contest at school for the best invention.  This is Evie's current idea... Her other ideas included a flying bird wash and bunk-walk-bed house (a house that was also a bunk bed that could also walk)

A water color of Rapunzel

Random princess (this is Evie's title)

Oil painting that she worked on with Patrick yesterday.  It is titled "Backyard"

Sedona

Last weekend we renewed our family tradition of a February weekend in Sedona via Patrick's family court conference (last year we missed it because Izzy got pneumonia and the two years before Patrick had decided not to go). In years past it was a highlight for me because Genevieve and I would hang out together during the day while Patrick was in the conference and then the three of us would have fun at night.  This was the first year for Izzy to join in on the fun.  While perhaps not quite as chill as when it was just Evie and I, it was certainly more fun.

In keeping with our (rather odd) tradition, on Friday afternoon after we got there and Patrick went into his meeting the girls and I walked over to the Gap outlet and went shopping. Among other treasures they found caps that looked like something Patrick would wear and they were only 3 bucks so they walked out even fancier than they walked in.  We then spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out at the pool (it was ridiculously warm... and the pool was heated).

The next morning we went for a hike up Bell Rock.  At first Isadora was four-square against the idea, but fortunately I made her solider on until she was no longer scared because once she was over her fear she had a blast.  She "walked" Sadie most of the way up the hike and it was hilarious to see the two of them together bounding up the rocks.  At one point Evie and Izzy decided they were no longer girls but in fact ponies (as in My Little) and that I had to play as well.  They informed me that I was to be pinkie pie, which meant (for some reason) I had to hop everywhere.  I gladly played along (except for the hopping, which would have surely spelled disaster for me... I just can't hop down rocks). That afternoon we once again headed to the pool...

On Sunday I took them out for another little hike.  The place I had originally planned on turned out to be a bit too much of a 4x4 trek for me to do by myself and in the little time we had before Patrick was finished, but the hike we did do was still beautiful and a place I had never gone before in Sedona.  After the conference we headed home via a stop at Montezuma's Castle, Rock Springs Pie Shop, and the outlet mall (which was an emergency food stop when Rock Springs was too crowded and we were all getting hangry).

It is so much fun to take off for a long weekend, but I must say this week was a bit hard because all of the weekend fun wore me out for the week!

On the Banks of the Rillito

This past weekend we have had an incredible amount of rain.  I can't remember the time it rained for so long for so many days (like almost 3 whole days... yes that is incredible to a desert dweller). 
 Round about the 2 day of the rain the Rillito River started to run.  The rain slowed down this afternoon, so we decided to brave it and head down to the river via scooter and balance bike to check it out.  Luckily for us, as we got to the river path the remainder of the clouds parted and it was a sunny and warm afternoon, but with water in the river! 

The girls enjoyed the walk a lot, but I think their favorite part was going down to the river bed and playing in the sand.  For me the best part was momentarily closing my eyes, leaning against the retaining wall, feeling the sun on my face and listening to the water.  I almost felt like it was summer and I was up on the Blue... oh heavenly!

All about Isadora

Isadora is fast becoming a big girl. Her favorite colors are shiny pink and shiny purple (absolutely not regular pink or purple).

She is very concerned with eternity, and or has no concept of time, I am not sure which.  When you tell her it is time to go to bed, to wait in line, or that you are taking shirt away to be washed, her first (and usually only) question to you is: FOREVER? Or, Izzy no TV today... NOT FOREVER? Today we went to the Tucson Botanical Gardens and we were talking about plants and how if you don't give them water they die. Her first question was... FOREVER? and I said yes, and then she said, "but if you take one of their seeds and plant it and give it water the plant will be alive again."  She is a clever kid!
 
She likes to make inventions. One of the most notable is the mermaid tail, whereby any regular old doll can become a mermaid with the simple addition of a kid's sock over the doll's legs... voila, multicolored mermaid tails. She learning to count.  The other day she asked if she could have a pez. Patrick told her she could have 2. I asked her what would she have if she ate one more and she said 3 pez. Patrick then asked her what she would have if she ate 3 and then had 1 more. Izzy responded, "A lot." Awesome.

She is very fond of her friends and her best friend Leo in particular. Before Christmas she was in REI with Patrick and found a collared striped shirt that she decided Leo just had to have.  Patrick bought it for her and we finally gave it to him this week. She was so excited to give it to him and then kept asking me afterward, Do you think he liked it? She also makes friends very easily. Last weekend Patrick and the girls were at the park and Izzy made a new friend that now every day this week she has been asking if we can go over and play with her. Finally, she is very fond of her big sister. If Evie would let her she would sleep on the top bunk with her every night. The two of them are like peas in a pod most moments and have gotten into making up elaborate shows for Patrick and I to watch.

For all her friendliness, Isadora can be tentative too. She always insists on grabbing my hand as soon as we get out of the car.  I never have to ask her to hold my hand when we are anywhere near a street (and often she is holding my hand even when we are no where near a street). At the Gardens today we went to the butterfly exhibit and she spent the first 10 minutes glued to my back and grabbing onto my pant pocket for dear life. (I have no idea why she decided it was safer behind me instead of holding my hand... I think I was serving as a human butterfly shield) After about 10 minutes though (and a magnifying glass) she warmed up to the situation and started looking at the flowers and the butterflies with guarded interest.

In the sandbox, note the Anna (ee) doll waiting behind her.

Isadora likes to put an "e" after the things she says.  For example,  she is madly in love with the Christmas present Evie gave her, but instead of calling her Anna, she calls here Anna-eee  Anna-(ee) must go everywhere with her, including tied on with a "seat belt" to the front of her balance bike. Her other favorite possession is the guitar that Santa brought her for Christmas.  Starting in about October her mind was set that a guitar was what she wanted, and man was she excited with the rosy-cheeked man delivered. She currently plays it more like an upright bass, holding onto the top and strumming it.

Last, but not least, Izzy is silly. She is always cracking jokes and making silly faces, both of which crack her up (in addition to the rest of us).

 

Ph(D)inished!

This weekend there is cause to celebrate!  It is my first weekend in 4.5 years where I have had not one single thing to think/worry about for my Ph.D.!  It is such a relief.  Patrick and I kicked the weekend off with a silly 5k run where they threw colored corn starch at you.  Luckily for me he was very patient, my running (and physical fitness in general) has definitely fallen off these past four months.  Even despite all my quick walking though we managed to finish in about 33 minutes, which sets a good baseline for improvement for this year.

During their last week of break they got to spend time with my Mom and Patrick. Patrick, among other adventures, took them to the Air and Space Museum... I think they had a good time :)

In other news the girls started back at school this week.  It was a mercifully smooth transition.  I think they are both happy to be back with their friends, although I know Evie is not too happy to be back to homework.  This morning, while we were at the dash, my Mom graciously took Evie over for an audition with the Tucson Girls Chorus.  Evie is super excited to start singing with them next week as a "ladybug". It is a neat thing for me because this is the first time she has really asked to do an activity (as opposed to Patrick or I suggesting and her acquiescing). After the choir audition we all hung out outside for the entire afternoon, sometimes it is just wonderful to be in Tucson in January!

Happy New Year!

Well 2014 was a pretty awesome year (for the blog, well, not so much).  We had told Evie she could stay up until midnight, so we sent 2014 on its way by watching the NY Times Square ball drop (we thought that watching it live would make it so we could go to bed 2-hours earlier... Evie called our bluff though) and then lighting some sparklers... as it snowed.  Pretty awesome, albeit cold.

 

The next morning we woke up to a snow covered catalinas (and tortilitas and rincons).  It was positively beautiful!