Sea World

We woke up early again on Sunday and got to Sea World when it opened. I wasn't sure how much the girls would be able to do there, since they obviously don't ride roller coasters yet. Turns out the girls LOVED Sea World. They were excited about seeing all of the different water animals - and the Budweiser clydesdales were a big hit too. We managed to catch a sea lion show, a dolphin show, and (of course!) Shamu's show. The girls have been playing "Shamu" ever since we left. Claire is generally Shamu and Maddie is the trainer (because she's smaller) but sometimes they change it up and they're dolphins in a dolphin show. It's pretty funny.

And the obligatory photos:

The World Famous San Diego Zoo

We decided to go to the zoo on Saturday after consulting the weather. It was supposed to be overcast that day and mostly sunny on Sunday - we figured overcast would be good for keeping our pasty selves from getting sunburned while wandering outside at the zoo all day. We woke up bright and early to hit the hotel's breakfast and discovered... RAIN! It wasn't a heavy Midwestern-type rain, but more like the kind of rain we got in Washington. Who goes to San Diego and gets rain??? Anyway, another check of the weather assured us it would clear up by noon, so off we went. We lived in Washington for four years - a little misty drizzle can't stop us!

The weather didn't really clear up, but we had a great time anyway. The zoo is absolutely beautiful and the animals were all out and very active. The bears were playing "tag-you're-it" (according to Maddie - they were chasing around their habitat). The polar bears were wandering about. Maybe it was the weather! Even the snakes were slithering around in their snake house (yuck! But Maddie and Claire had no trouble finding them in their habitat.).



We took a bus tour, saw pretty much all of the animals, visited the petting zoo, caught a sea lion show, rode the air tram THREE times (aka "sky train", according to Claire) and were too tuckered out for dinner so we got pick-up Mexican food. Yummy. It was a really fun day!

Space-A to San Diego

Day 1 of our trip to San Diego is in the can. No time for photos now, we're a bit tired. The flight went well and the kiddos enjoyed the trip in a C-17.

Katie spent yesterday laundering and packing the important stuff for everyone -- clothes, toys, activities for the airplane.

My packing list was a bit different, and makes me wonder if we really need all these toys:
Big Camera...check.
Little Camera...check.
Claire Camera...check.
Video Camera...check.
iPod...check.
Laptop...check.
Cell phone...check and check.
GPS...check.
Blackberry...check.
Leapster...check.
Maddie toy computer...check.
DVDs...check.
Charging devices for items 4, 6, 7, 8...check.

About all I can say is there is currently no video, about 6 pictures taken, and no movies watched. Multiple batteries below 50% charge. And two tuckered out girls. An inglorious start.

We hit the ground running with a trip to In-N-Out Burger, Target, and dinner and visiting with my Uncle Den and Aunt Jude. Cousin Dan and his friend Ina also joined us to see the girls do their best performances for visitors. This should be a nice trip -- San Diego Zoo and Sea World are on the agenda for the weekend.

Maddie napping-out like a true crewdog.

Favorite Skirt

Claire has begun picking out her clothes on a regular basis. (I know I had a longer period of time than most during which I got to dress her up like a life-sized Barbie doll, so I'm not complaining.) While finding her own style, Claire has definitely found a few items that are her favorites. She likes any of her t-shirts that have monkeys or princesses on them. For bottoms, though, she has only one favorite: her horsey skirt. Her grandma Beth made it for her cowgirl birthday party, and it doesn't see much time in her dresser (gets put on straight from the dryer).

Claire's 1st dance recital

Saturday was Claire's very 1st dance recital. They've been working on their dances all year. She has been practicing on stage for two weeks so they wouldn't get the jitters. She had three practices this week. So of course she started throwing up Friday night/Saturday morning. And then had an elevated temp on Saturday - 99 degrees. Phil was ready to throw in the towel (he's such a GUY!), but I really didn't want her to miss her big recital. I figured we could just keep her from touching anybody and breathing on anyone and it would be OK. We doped her up with some Motrin and hauled her there, and she did GREAT (and I think we kept our germs to ourselves). She was her usual bouncy, happy self up on stage and snuggled with her yellow blankie in between numbers.

Maddie was disappointed that we left after Claire's last number. If we had stayed until the end then Maddie could have gotten on stage for the finale. Poor girl will have to wait until next year, when she'll be doing her own two numbers on-stage. Here are a few shots from Claire's big day:

Rain, rain

Maddie sings, "Rain, rain, go away, nex-a time you come back" (instead of "come again another day"). It's one of her favorite songs and she's had plenty of opportunity to practice it these past few weeks. We've had a bunch of rain. Makes us a bit reminiscent of Washington. You're not going to see me complaining about it, though, since it has kept us from having the scorching heat we would usually see this time of year. My pregnant self is dreading the 100+ degree days, so I'll take the rain for as long as we can get it!

With their usual outdoor activities on hold, the girls have had to be more creative with their play. Here are some pics:

In-home pedicures:

Cardboard box:

Dress-up:

And, of course, just watching the rain while enjoying a treat:

Prayer

Maddie was saying her nighttime prayer the other day, and this is what she came up with:

"Now I 'way me
Down to s'eep
I pway to God
I go to s'eep"

Mommy hopes so too!!!

And Claire usually puts an addendum at the end of the prayer that goes like this:

"And please, God, make more dandy-lions tomorrow."

That girl loves her dandelions. If only she knew about the weed-killer her daddy has been applying to the lawn. It seems God has been listening to her, though, because there is always at least one for her to pick each day, in spite of Daddy's efforts.

Happy Mother's Day!

The girls wanted to make it a special day for Katie.  They planned a surprise breakfast in bed for their mom.  I was able to help them get it together, sneakily before Katie woke up.  Surprisingly, everyone got to sleep in and this action didn't happen until AFTER 7:30 AM!  

So with a flick of the lightswitch and a few yells of "Surprise!" Mom got a delicious breakfast of cereal and coffee in bed this morning.  The girls also gave their mom a nice t-shirt for sleeping in, with the world's greatest airplane on it (something needed to replace that old ratty t-shirt she was wearing!).  

After mass we enjoyed another fine brunch at the Club with some good friends.  

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms, grandmoms, and great-grandmoms out there!  We love you!

Beautiful (albeit stolen) flowers

Here they are: the beautiful iris that my mom and I snuck out and stole - er, I'm mean saved - last year from the area of housing where they demolished a bunch of houses. Someone lovingly planted these pretty things and they were just going to get neglected in the field or bulldozed or mowed over. So we "rescued" them and relocated them to my front yard. They sure turned out to be pretty - and they smell nice too!

Silly

Yep, my kids are silly. Maddie insisted on running around in this tutu all day long, and Claire rode to her swimming lessons all decked out in her cap and goggles. They were quite a silly looking pair. :)

Pretty Maddie

This morning Maddie finished her breakfast early and went to go play while Claire and I finished ours. Then I got Claire dressed for school (not her usual day, but they were making up a snow day today). Maddie came back once to tell me that I had left my purse out last night (I usually put it into the closet) but then she disappeared and was playing quietly by herself. In hindsight, she probably was playing TOO quietly. Here's what Claire and I discovered when we came back into the living room:

Isn't she pretty? I'm actually ducking a hug in that photo. Anyway, she managed to find the ONE red lipstick that I own while she was going through the contents of my purse. You know, the purse that I left out ONE TIME! I own several gazillions of tubes of light pink lipstick but there was a random red one in there. Fortunately, she was pretty neat with it, in that she only put lipstick on herself and didn't get any on the couch. Which was great, except that meant I wasn't TOO mad so I'm not entirely certain that she understood that she wasn't supposed to play with Mommy's make-up.

"This is harder than I expected..."

"This is harder than I expected, keeping track of a baby!"

This came from Claire's mouth, as she followed a 1 year-old around our house. We were babysitting a friend's baby this afternoon and Claire was a bit overwhelmed after about 20 minutes. In her defense, this little guy was REALLY exploring our house and finding all sorts of things to get into (guess we'll have to re-babyproof our house sometime in the future...). And she took it upon herself to watch his every move and 'keep track of him'.

Then, after she watched me give him his bottle and rock him to sleep she said, "Wow, I guess babies are a lot of work!"

Maddie discovered he was here when she woke up from her nap and spent the afternoon trying to keep him occupied ("Here is yo' toy, Baby! Baby, you want to pway, Baby? Baby, I find yo' stuffed anim-o!").

They were hilarious. I'm thinking this was good practice for all of us! Maddie and Claire are definitely going to be wonderful big and biggest sisters.