Are my children not adorable? (Written in my Gladiator impersonation.)
I'm polishing off Marla's pictures from May today. (So far behind!)
Enjoy them! Emma and Henry surely enjoyed the posing for your future entertainment.
There's nothing quite so sweet as a pre-school performance, is there? Need proof? WItness the photos and bonus video! What could make the day more special? When grandparents (Mandel, in this case) are in town to see it, too.
Emma and her pre-school practiced for many weeks to bring us the fine show you see captured here. They sand, they strutted, they blew the doors off!
Check out the photos and be sure to watch the video, too.
Emma's pre-school went to Tanaka Farms at the height of strawberry season for some hot, you-pick vegetable action. Both Henry and Emma chowed down on fruits and veggies, with Henry being the more adventurous of the two.
(Observant readers will note that this was in early May and it is now... August.)
Emma was especially proud of her heart-shaped strawberry. What a find!
In mid-June, while our house was being fumigated for termites, we spent a long weekend in San Diego with Granma Northcutt in tow.
First stop: Sea World!
We'd never been before, despite passing it on the freeway many times. It turned out to be a real treat. Emma and Henry both loved the animal shows but, even more so, the giant "playgrounds" in between.
We finally landed in the evening at our hotel, a swanky spot in the Gaslamp Quarter in downtown San Diego.
We were a little wary of how the kids would do in a hotel room for three days but our worries were for naught. Emma and Granma split a bed, Henry snoozed in his pack and play and Marla and I were in the remaining bed. We turned in early each night and everyone woke up in a good mood the next morning.
The highlight of the weekend was probably the trip to the San Diego Zoo, though Emma would probably choose the ice cream from Ghiradelli if you put the question to her.
If you've spoken to Emma in the last month or so you know that her latest obsession is Cars, the new movie from the geniuses at Pixar. We were lucky enough to get tickets to see the movie at The El Capitan Theater in Hollywood the day after it opened.
The theater was magnificent - a true "movie palace" from a time when a trip to the theater was an event. I thought it was fitting given that this was Emma's first big feature film. It was an event! (We saw March of the Penguins last summer.)
She was as excited as could be, of course. I think the sense of wonder comes across in the pictures from before the show. The pipe organ played, the audience sang along and when the curtains finally rose (real curtains!) Emma was practically beside herself.
We had some moments, of course, where she was terrified and ready to leave. It seemed that at any suspenseful moment she suddenly became "tired" and needed to go home "to take a nap." We perservered, though, and given the cheering and clapping at the end I think she was glad she stayed.
