Lovely Lara

Lara, Lara, Lara,  how can I sum up Lara. :)  I had her do two months of a "Princess Ballet" class with Claire at a community center, and it was so fun to watch. The class grew to 20, 3-5 year olds, and it got a  little chaotic, but it was fun.

Grandma Solano had her strike a pose and this was the result.  Ballet really paid off.

She has a soft spot for animals and can't wait until we move into a place that allows pets.  Here she is feeding ducks, and a little Lorakeet at the Wild Animal Park.  She spotted the sickly little bald bird that couldn't fly and crouched down and let it eat all the nectar she had.  She is very thoughtful.  Her new favorite PJs have a cute puppy on them.  She is wearing them as we speak and it is past lunch-time. 

 Here is her other pair of puppy pjs. As soon as she sees it getting dusky outside she will run and put her pjs on. This one evening right after dinner she laid down to read a book and fell dead asleep. Her siblings were playing past her and she did not stir. It was a nice change considering that every other night she informs me several times throughout the evening that she does not want to sleep in her bed. She would like to sleep in my bed, or the floor in her room or somewhere else. As soon as I get her to lay still she is usually asleep withing 5-10 minutes, but she is a mover and a shaker and it is hard to lay still and quiet. 

 I loved these profile shots taken at her cousin Joshua's second bday party.  Too cute. She is calmly surveying the scene with her unicorn horn and lemonade.

Here is Lara with her cousin Melanie/Melsie.  When these two get together they have so much fun.  They look similar and we have some funny pictures of the two of them together.  We are so glad to live close by. Lara is really social and always makes friends with random kids on the playground.  I was amazed one time when we attended a  primary in another church while we were on vacation and she was so at ease and made sure to offer a seat to other kids coming into the class.  She definitely isn't shy, but she has fears.  Like she will not walk on this dock at this park.  It juts out onto the water and has slats and is very stable, but she will collapse on it and act like she is about to die.  Silly String is another thing she will not go near.  There are just certain things that come up and she will say, "Nope, I am not doing that."

 Here is Lara on her Skut.  She goes really fast on it and is learning to balance really well, so I think the transition to a bike will go well. We have a slight incline on the sidewalk behind us, and it is perfect for riding up and down on.

 Grandma Solano gave us a kit for turning your Easter egg into a bug and Lara really got into it.  She spent a lot of time on her "butterfly".  Glue+Glitter+wings+stickers.  It was a shame to eat it later. When Lara makes up her mind that something needs to be a certain way she is a determined little one. 

Lara is serious about candy .  Easter was soooo exciting with all the candy filled eggs.  Gum is

also requested on a regular basis.

We love our loud, lovely, Lara.

birthday cakes for 2011

I started this post at the end of last year and obviously got sidetracked.  Rather then scrap it, I better go ahead and finish it up and publish it out of order...This is evidence of my tendency to procrastinate and my love of good dessert.

Brock and I never should have started watching the Cake Boss.  We made the mistake of letting the kids watch a couple of episodes.  As a result, this year the pressure was on for good, creative cakes.  Luckily my family is easy to please.

In February we enjoyed a Raspberry Walnut Torte to celebrate Brock's birthday.  We ate something similar at extraordinary desserts and found a recipe online.  Definitely worth repeating, so we did when Brock's parents came into town. Not a very manly cake, but that's what you get when you have a birthday so close to valentines day.

We got a little store bought lemon cake for Claire's family party and created a chocolate ladybug cake for her friend party at the park.  I am pleased to say that this cake was completely devoured.  It was not one of those cakes where the kids eat half a slice and give up.  These four year olds were coming back for seconds.

 

Ashlyn got a layered berry, angel food cake, trifle this year for our family celebration ( a family favorite) and a chocolate layered cake for her dolphin party with marshmallowy frosting.  The dolphin was made with rice crispy treats covered in fondant (see cake boss for instructions :)  ).

Here is my "ice cream cake" that Brock bought me.  Blew DQ out of the water, and I enjoyed it for weeks to come.  My favorite Phish food on the top.

 Our ONE YEAR OLD!!!  Warren spent his birthday beach camping with cousins.  Spencer and Kim and kids go beach camping every September and it was a lot of fun to join in.  I am so glad they let us tag along, and we hope to make it a tradition.  He got a little cupcake while everyone else ate their doughnuts and then we celebrated with the extended family the following week-end.  Cousin Julia was born only two days before Warren and here they are enjoying their first cake together. One of those cake rolls with vanilla whipped cream filling.

Lastly here we are in October with Lara.  A chocolate Oreo cake.  Our big three year old.  She lasted tolerably well through everyone elses' birthdays.  We had to keep telling her, "yours is right before Halloween."  She loves candy so much and feels that Halloween is an extension to her birthday.

Other notable cakes/treats of 2011

Claire's play dough cakes
Her dogs enjoy them

Kim's Banana Cream Pie
courtesy of Becca-- holy moly

Uncle Tim's rolled up pudding cake
He is a good sport and has to
share his birthday parties with
Warren and Julia now.

Kristen's Chocolate Truffle cake-YUM

Grandpa Plumbs birthday crown
not a cake, but a treat
work it grandpa



My parents anniversary
Raspberry Mango tart



Warrenito

I thought I would write about Warren next since he ate his first snail yesterday...he has a gourmet pallet already.  Our 19 month old is quite a busy guy.  He has three older sisters to keep up with, and can still scream louder than all of them.

He is fairly self sufficient.The girls often have him play the puppy in their make believe games and he excels at the part, panting and licking and drinking from the sink. We keep the toilet seats down.

 He likes trying on shoes and stomping around in them.  It is nice he has a good selection with four women in the house.  There are always shoes lying around.

 He likes to pick up any round, ball-like object and throw it around.  I have to be careful to put groceries away quickly.  Apples he will just eat, all the way through the core, but oranges, watermelons, cantaloupes...watch out.  He will try to bounce them and throw them. He is equally attracted to things that Go.  Skateboards, scooters, bikes, cars, etc.

 

And Holy Guacamole, chips are always optional when guacamole is on the table. If chips are present they are a utensil.  I have to buckle Warren in his high chair and give him his own bowl.  I didn't do this once, just ONCE, but Warren didn't seem to mind.  

reminded me of the plate of rubios bean and rice and carnitas incident of 2011.  This kid pulled if off the table sat down in it and devoured it.

 Who's on top??  Don't you love it when mom asks everyone to smile in the middle of a wrestling match?  I love how Claire and Brock will always comply.   Looks like Lara's taking a water break.

          

Warren is also an animal lover.  I don't think he will ever put another snail in his mouth though:).  The barn was on display during Claire's open house at her preschool.  All the farm animals kept Warren occupied for a half hour while Claire showed the rest of us around.  He does this funny high pitched laugh for a horse and loves to climb up on top of Ashlyn's bunk and steal  horse figurines from her collection.  He was very excited about the Lorakeets at the Wild Animal Park  (I probably will never be able to adjust to calling it the San Diego Safari Park).  It is a lot of fun to have them land on you and drink the nectar from the cups.

A few days ago I had to convert the crib into a toddler bed because Warren kept crawling out at 4 in the morning and I didn't want him to fall out.  he now sleeps in until 6ish, but that is still a little early for everyone involved, and naps don't last as long when it is so easy to get up and go.  Luckily he will still fall asleep in other places and catch up on his beauty sleep.

Claire

I just downloaded 3 months worth of pictures off my camera onto the computer.  So many were blogworthy and I have been so lax about blogging and concerned about catching up and filling in the big gaping hole I have left. In 2012 we have already celebrated three birthdays and have had several visits from Grandma and Grandpa and some big family get togethers.  I think what I will do first is give a little summary of each kid and then talk about fun events.  I thought I would start in the middle this time.  I often start with the oldest or youngest, so let's start with Claire tonight.

This has been an exciting year for Claire.  She recently turned 5 and is always SO excited and enthusiastic.  She loves her preschool class and I can't believe she will start kindergarten next school year. She loves daddy daughter dates and recently got to go on a rare mommy daughter date.  It is fun to get some one on one time; she becomes extremely giddy.  I took her with me to a baby shower for her aunt Kristen on Saturday, and she was so funny the whole time.  It was an hour drive up and then back and I thought she would crash on the way home for sure, but with Great-Grandmother Plumb, Grandma Plumb and aunt Becca in the car, she didn't want to miss a second.

This picture was taken the day after she broke her arm and cut her own hair.  I pulled her hair back, so you don't get the full effect of her retro do-it-yourself hair doo.  She was leaning over cutting some hearts out of paper and decided she would cut off the hair hanging down too. She cut off a huge chunk on the right and then created a short little side burn on the left. We were rescued by a lady we go to church with that cut off quite a bit to even everything out.  It turned out cute, so it will probably be her hairstyle for a while. She had a look on her face after she did it of complete innocence.  All the hair had been carefully put in the trash, and I think she was rather hoping I would not notice.  I had been vacuuming when this heinous crime was committed and so our big bean bag was up on the couch.  She thought it would be fun to get on top of the bean bag and roll off with her little bro.  This would have been fun if the vacuum was not in the way...She crashed into it and fractured her radius bone up by her elbow.  This happened on a Friday and we didn't know it was broken at first.  I didn't take her into the doctor until Monday, and the urgent care doctor didn't spot the small fracture so we didn't get a cast on until that Thursday.  Luckily, (or rather unluckily) one of our good friends had also broken a bone.  She got a green cast to match his, and neither of these two let a cast slow them down.  Claire was mad they wouldn't let her do anything in PE time.  She loves her preschool PE teacher coach Ben, and really didn't like not being able to participate.  Fortunately it only had to be on for a couple weeks.

Here is a picture of Claire with her Preschool teacher Mrs. Mahlstedt. She was Ashlyn's teacher too and runs such a great program.  We feel lucky to have found her.  Claire was so excited to show off at her open house.  She took Brock around and showed him everything.

Right after the cast came off in the middle of March  We were out riding bikes and she said her friend Adrienne didn't use training wheels and she didn't want to either.  I took them off and in one afternoon she had it down.  She took a spill two days ago and sprawled forward skinning her chin, but that won't slow her down. 

 This picture just cracks me up. Claire bravely leaping over this little "stream" in the middle of the Salk institute in San Diego. Ashlyn did a report on Dr. Salk, and so we went down to explore. I think the kids appreciated the running space a little more than the science and research. Brock has convinced the girls that being a Doctor of the mind enables him to read thoughts and basically be our resident expert on almost everything...I am often called into question by Claire when it comes to being knowledgeable on certain subjects. "Mom, are you sure?...you are not a Doctor of the Mind." :)

Here is Claire and her friend from school, Adrienne. On her birthday Brock picked them up from school and let them play at Playwerx for a few hours before coming home for presents and cake when her sister got home from school. She was fairly particular about her cake this year. She wanted her prince and princess on top and yellow and purple flowers. fun fun.

For her birthday we flew her new kite in the evening.  There was absolutely no wind, but a tradition is a tradition.  :)  We only got an hour in since we kept hoping some sort of ocean breeze would come our way, but it was kind of a muggy day for us. The girls had to run like mad to keep it up in the air. Dumbo was a good sport.

Here is Claire with Great-grandma at cousin Joshua's second birthday party at the park by the beach (Great Grandmother calls Claire her "little Swedish Girl").  This was a few days before the cast came off and we covered the cast with a leg warmer to keep the sand out.  She was itching enough as it was, but a good sport about everything. She is a girly girl, prefers skirts to pants, but a tough one.

Last thing about Claire...When she is around, guard your cell phone.  She has a knack for sneaking off with my phone and taking random photos with it of her toys and siblings.  :)  future photographer.  She loves taking pictures and having pictures taken of her.   Can you believe she'll be in Kindergarten soon????!!!