Fairy Land

Spring break is just about over now, and we've been keeping very busy. Monday we went strawberry picking, Tuesday the car was in the shop so we biked everywhere we wanted to go, which was an adventure in and of itself. On Wednesday the kids and I headed up to Oakland for a visit to Fairyland. The kids had been so curious about it since we moved to the area so it was fun to see what that was all about.

This picture was taken at the entrance, right before we went inside.

As soon as we got in El right away jumped on this giraffe's back. The rest of the kids ran for the slide and into a giant whale's mouth. This was El's choice. Watch out for her this trip - I'm not sure she has a normal picture the whole time.

The next stop was Gepetto's workshop. Inside that window you could see a little Gepetto robot working on his Pinocchio puppet -- a task on which he kept working and working... and working and working.

Jake loved this little house. He wanted to stay.

See? Here he is long after the others have moved on. He doesn't even mind his creepy tower neighbor, who also happens to be Pinocchio.

Next we moved on to a (lame) mini ferris wheel that was supposed to have something to do with Anansi's web. The kids LOVED it. Good thing they've never been to a real amusement park - they would have been so disappointed with this place! As it was, they were absolutely thrilled with everything they discovered here.

Caleb in his little cage. The ferris wheel was so small they could only put one kid in each car.

Emi all excited and ready to go. The kids loved being in adjacent cages and spent the ride calling to each other.

Jake spent the ride here, watching the other kids. He could have gotten in with Caleb (they let smaller kids ride together) but he chickened out at the last minute. It was okay though. He was a nice cheerful companion to have while I waited.

He took a minute to get acquainted with this little statue. I didn't read up on what it was or why it was there. Something from an Anansi story, I assume.

Next we went over to the Beatrix Potter section of the park. I've always loved Beatrix Potter. The stories make me thing of my sister Steph because she had a collection of some of her books when we were younger. Now our family has a great compilation of all of her stories that we love to read from or occasionally just leaf through, looking at the pictures.

Emi has recently discovered the stories for herself and was enthralled to find Mrs. Tiggywinkle here, complete with a line of laundry drying in the sun.

Jemima Puddleduck. I love her because I have a little ceramic duck that I've called Jemima since I got her, maybe 8 years ago. Joseph always wondered why I settled on that name so quickly and decisively.

 There was also a little messed-up dollhouse display for Two Bad Mice, and this sweet little Owl house:

Squirrel Nutkin is one of Caleb's favorites (along with the Fierce Bad Rabbit).

Next we headed on over to the super lame-o merry-go-round. The kids, of course, loved it.

I love to scroll through those three pictures and watch Elinor. Never a dull moment! Jake did surprisingly well on this ride, although I didn't realize until later that he was too small to get on.

Here he is, devastated, sitting on a bench the second time we came to ride the merry-go-round. The attendant had changed and this time he was not allowed to get on so the other kids went without him. I believe this picture was taken just before he yelled at me, "No picture!" He was very upset.

Next we went to see a puppet show. This was a convenient time to stop and have a snack, so that worked out well.

The kids chose to watch from this swing, which was fine with me. Again, what's up with Elinor?

Jake eventually wandered off to this playground which was right next to the puppet show.

This pirate ship was another of his favorite features of Fairy Land.

Caleb usually hates heights and climbing, but was pretty enthusiastic about scaling the rigging to hang out in the crow's nest here.

There are tons of these bottle brush bushes here in California. They remind me of Australia and Bush Babies and Snugglepot and Cuddlepie.

This Alice in Wonderland card maze was pretty great.

Caleb came out first. Then Jake.

Then Emi joined them. But where's Elinor?

Oh, yes. Of course. She's going to do things her own way. :)

We rode a train that was slow and noisy and very inconvenient -- a maximum of four people per car and one has to be an adult! We went in shifts with me and Jake going twice. It was very annoying but again, the kids were just thrilled. They thought it was the greatest thing ever.

And there were a bunch of other things we did, but I think I've posted enough pictures for today. Oh, except for this last gem. What are we going to do about that Elinor?? (Seriously - enlarge this picture and check out her face.)

Overall, it was a good experience. The kids loved it and Emi has been begging to have her birthday party there for the last couple of days. Hopefully she forgets about that soon! If it didn't come through clearly before, I thought it was super lame, but it was really fun to see the kids so excited and it wasn't too expensive. So, there you have it. Our day at Fairy Land. Fun for all (if you're a kid under the age of 6 who has never seen a real amusement park)!

Spring Break!

The kids are currently home for spring break (didn't we just have winter break??) so I am scrambling to find activities to make them feel like they had a real vacation. Good thing I have Emily the super-intense ultra vacation planner extraordinaire on my side!

Today we had strawberry-picking on the docket so off we went. It's really pretty early in the season to be picking berries, so I warned the kids that it wouldn't be like last time. They were still enthusiastic about it and it turned out to be a really fun activity.

First we stopped in at the little store/bakery place for baskets. The kids were instantly drawn to the quaint family room set-up, complete with comfy chairs, toys, and board games.

I was tempted to just hang out in there the whole time but I decided to drag the kids outside instead.
The location was kind of amazing. It was close enough to the ocean that we could see it the whole time.

That blue spot in the back is all water. Well, except for the part that's the sky.

The mountains and fog were really pretty as well.

We worked for a while, hunting for ripe strawberries to fill our baskets with. The girls were good little workers.

Jake needed a little guidance, but he was good.

And Caleb... well, Caleb was all over the place. He finished in about half the time of everyone else and then came to me wondering what else he could do.

We stopped for some pictures before going inside to pay.

Aren't they cuties?

Inside we sampled their jams - strawberry, olallieberry (it's a real thing!), strawberry-olallieberry, and blackberry. They had little animal crackers for you to smear your sample on before eating it, which Jake loved. He tried every flavor at least twice. He seemed partial to the blackberry. I almost bought a jar of strawberry-olallieberry just to take home for Joseph to try, but then I found out it was $10 and  put it back carefully. :)

We did buy some strawberry lemonade, a chocolate cheesecake, and a mini blackberry pie. And we used the "honor till" to pay for it all. And we were honest about it. Here's where I had a talk with Emily (who is currently doing a money unit at school) about how it's so nice to know how to count money and make change.

I asked the kids which table we should eat at and the pumpkin table was the immediate unanimous decision.

Jake got a little offended when I got mad at him for sticking his finger in the cheesecake, so he disappeared under the table for this shot... not that any of the kids look great here.

 Don't worry - he reemerged in time to eat half the cheesecake and a good helping of the pie. Atta kid.

El's perfect strawberry.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing at home. We got a little less work done than I would have liked, but that's sort of what spring break is all about, right? I would say we're off to a good start.

Easter catch up

For FHE the Monday before Easter Joseph and the kids came up with an extensive and detailed list of things our family would do to celebrate Easter this year. The kids' lists and pictures were awfully cute

This was El's. The little eggs and strawberries are so cute! Caleb's list was pretty cute too, but it's long gone by now. And Emi's was the most coherent and useful.

The first couple of things on the list were decorating the house and dying eggs, but I didn't get any pictures of that. Another thing that was important to the kids was drizzling/dipping strawberries in chocolate.

Everyone got involved.

Emi's creation.

Yum!

And here's a random picture of Caleb and Elinor.

For the last couple of years we've had the kids plant jelly beans the night before Easter and they harvest lollipops the next morning. We've tried to make it very clear that it only works the night before Easter, but I have to admit I've dug up more surprise jelly beans in the garden than I thought I would.

Yeah, it might be more magical if they weren't so blatantly commercial. Maybe we'll go for a more artsy type next year.

Like these?

 Or these would be cute in a garden.

But you know if we were ordering off the internet we'd end up with something like these awesome lollipops:

Eye of Sauron, anyone?

And we had a belated family Easter egg hunt the Tuesday after Easter. It was enjoyed by all. I love having a yard and a handful of kids to make it fun.

Elinor's signature look.

More of Elinor's artwork:

Joseph had sketched out this Spongebob for reasons that I don't really want to go into here (really, we do not support that show. We feel that it makes children stupider). Elinor found it and decided to try her hand at it. And then she make a couple of teeny ones and decided they needed a heart to show that they were in love.

And sometimes the kids have impromptu picnics in the backyard. All the while I'm in the kitchen wondering why everyone is all of a sudden so hungry. :)