Cooking Claire Style

We were sitting around the dinner table while Jenn was telling us about leaving home before sunrise so she could attend Disneyland's appreciation breakfast for trainers. "All they had was a Danish and a juice box for us!"
"You'd really expect Disney to prepare something hot--not just open a package," I said.
Claire thought about this for a minute and said, "Here's how you prepare a dinner:" she gestured with both hands in the air, like she was conducting. Then she brought down one hand in a karate chop, "First, you kill something."
Jenn just barely didn't spit out the wine in her mouth. It took us a few minutes to settle down. "Not just anything, whatever kind of meat you want."
I added, "You're right Claire. That's how you know they appreciate you; they have to kill something."
She went on to talk about planting vegetables and cooking, but we had already had the laugh line for the night.
That's my youngest daughter, Clairifying cooking for all of us.

Yucaipa Camping

We took a quick camping trip this weekend too. We made the reservations long ago before we knew when soccer would start. It was worth it though to get a nice break, let the kids play and have some grown up conversation (and beverages) around the campfire.
The kids played with water balloons and tried not to get soaked. Some were more successful than others. They also had fun rolling down the hill in the background. After dark they played with flashlights and ran all over the grassy areas. When we wanted them to stay closer to the campsite they played in the tent. Whatever that game was it was loud and funny.
Of course there were s'mores!
Water balloons are really only fun if someone is getting wet. We took this picture of John soaking himself showing off his mad heading skills. When we saw how the light picked up the water everyone wanted a try.
The girls aren't as good at heading (yet) so Daddy needed to help a bit. It was a warm, dry day in Yucaipa so no one stayed wet for long.

Soccer!

Daddy's dream has finally come true and both girls are playing soccer for the first time this year. He is even coaching Emily's team. They had their first games today and all in all things went well. Claire's team, Pixie Dust, played as well as they could against a stronger team. They don't keep score in her division but let's just say that we were really excited when our team was not going to be shut out!
Emily's team, the Fighting Flamingos, won 3-2 in a hard fought evenly matched game. Emily even played goal keeper in the final quarter. She had several saves! Phew! Mommy was sweating it a bit. They both enjoyed playing today. We'll just have to see how long the enthusiasm lasts. Who knows maybe they really will follow in Daddy's cleat prints.

First Day of School

Second and Fourth Grades have officially begun. Claire has the same teacher she had last year, Ms. S and Emily has her kindergarten teacher, Mrs. W again! Talk about recycling =) We're happy though because they are both great teachers. There's a little twist though... they are both pregnant and due fairly soon. Mrs. W had to let her substitute Mrs. S start the year with the kids and she will return after her babies are born (yes, twins). Mrs. S transferred from another local school and has taught 4th grade before. That was a huge weight off my mind. She also impressed me by walking down the line of students before they walked into their classroom and shaking each of their hands and introducing herself. Emily seems to like her a lot so far. But Em's favorite thing so far has been the binders that were handed out the first day. The school does a program for the 4th-6th graders to help them learn organization. Each of them gets identical binders so the teacher can help them learn how to put things away so they can be found again. My neat freak/office supply diva is in heaven!
Claire's class is a 1st/2nd combination. So far there hasn't been as much "talking talking" as there was last year. That was a constant source of irritation for Claire so I hope it continues to be peaceful for her.
We're all excited about another successful school year for the girls!

Getty Museum

We took advantage of the last few days of summer vacation to visit the Getty Museum. It was a perfect day to go. Most kids are back in school after Labor Day and it was an unusually cloudy, drizzly day. We watched a movie about the Getty to get an overview of what was there. We decided to stick with the decorative arts rather than the paintings. We thought the girls would be more interested and we know we are. I was amazed by the number of ways they had for kids to interact with the exhibits. Next to several pieces there were computer touch screens that they could use to get a close up of the art. On one small cabinet there were four very small painted panels. When we could see the detail on the computer screen we realized they represented the four classic elements - water, air, fire and earth, just like in the girls' current favorite show, Avatar: the Last Airbender. We studied the pictures for a few minutes and tried to guess which each represented. When we had decided, the girls pushed another button that "labeled" each picture so we could see if we were correct. The same information could have been written on one of the classic wall plaques next to the art, but this made it more interesting for the girls to be able to manipulate a screen.
After lunch we headed outside to the sculpture garden. We could have spent the whole day in this part alone. There we so many things to see between the flower garden (felt like we were back in Europe), the sculpture garden and the zig zag walk along the creek. Claire also had fun running up and down the steps. They were long with a short rise so she felt like they were built for her.

Emily is now aspiring to be a still life photographer. I think she has an eye for it.
Another cool thing they had for kids was the Family Room. Again the kids could interact with the art. In this case they hopped into a replica of an 18th century French bed. We later found the real one. Turns out that Emily's bed isn't that much newer than this one in the museum. Plus we think hers is prettier.

We also poked through the gift shops and found a letter box. I had to go to work that night so we had to leave before we were feeling done. The girls really wanted to stay longer. I think next time we may try to go to the Getty in Malibu to see the Roman and Egyptian pieces.