Stratford Family

yesterday started with a trip to the dentist the girls did great, but Dr. Susan (who is absolutely amazing) was adamant that PLou gets rid of the paci’s, we knew this day was coming and it should have happened quite awhile ago. it is hard to disrupt the pace of things when everybody sleeps, but we’ve decided to be strong and pack up all the paci’s to send to cousin Ava who will be arriving shortly. we took a trip to downtown LA to meet a friend for lunch and the girls got some pretty amazing treats for being such troopers at the dentist – yes i get the irony of a sugar treat after the dentist office.

these girls love sweets just like their mama, the Nickel Diner did not disappoint!

The first night sans paci was less than ideal with a post 9 fall asleep, up for an hour from 12:30-1:30 and then up for good at 6, wish us luck for more zzz’s in our future.

We’ve had a busy week already and I am tired. I do blame this tiredness on the haze, it is 3 and the sun is finally coming out – I don’t like to complain, but come on it is July! Us Moms need the energy from the sun to keep us going through these busy summer days.

This week we are doing swimming lessons…currently the girls are enrolled in a program that meets everyday for 2 weeks. Hoping for some breakthroughs!

This morning we toured a local fire station with some friends which was fun for all! After my adventures being rescued from the side of the freeway by some nice fire fighters last week it seemed fitting to take the kiddos.

We took a quick trip to the beach:

And for some reason Greg decided that it was a good idea to buy the girls a real microphone…I guess this house wasn’t noisy enough for him! So now we are all set up for kid karaoke – I fear we are becoming “those” neighbors who are always loud! At least we are quite between 8pm-7am….

” I like to Move it Move it”

P’s favorites are “All the single ladies” & “Puff the Magic Dragon”

SO COOL!
We spend the day at the Skirball Cultural Center today for the Noah’s Ark exhibit. I’ve been wanting to take the kids for awhile now and I’m so glad we made the trip. Everything was hands on and interactive, the staff was quite great and they had some many little nooks to discover and explore. Truly a unique and amazing exhibit. I would say it is best for 3 and up and they do have some climbing that says its for 4 year olds and older, but P had a good time for the most part, even though her mood left something to be desired (as did her night of sleep the night before!) As you would expect – lots of photos from the day….
We brought a picnic lunch to enjoy before we went in.

We enjoyed cookies for Jake’s birthday.

The crew minus P who was in a mommy mommy mood and B who was probably running away from her Mom.

Getting warmed up to see the animals; jumping like a kangaroo








Lots of animals to snuggle!

Take a picture of me laying with the Walrus.

Climbing and exploring

Yes I know this is a ton of photos for one post – the slideshow below shows the above plus more of dancing like animals, working on a craft project – a fun-filled day!

Monday was a big day! We took our first trip to the American Girl store and had a special lunch with Grandma Nancy. It was a bit overwhelming as they wanted every single thing in the store with all of their might. “Let’s put it on your birthday list” was the phrase of the day. P Lou did get to pick out her first doll as having one special doll and two girls in the house was causing a lot of angst. They both got to get PJs for their dolls and a set of matching shirts for them and their doll – Grandma was super generous!

Thank you!

The anticipation is palpable:

The first look:

After some tough deliberation PLou chose Lanie – the newest doll or doll of the year or something – she supposedly likes the outdoors and gardening.

The hair did look nice for about 1 minute – these dolls are pretty high maintenance in terms of their haristyles. These days I certainly spend more time on dolly hair than may own (a sad sign of the times). The dolls with the long hair are technically for 8 year olds and up, but really how can one resist them, and head for the babies?

After the madness in the store we headed upstairs where there was more and more and more clothes and accessories and dolls, but we made it to the cafe and had a nice lunch. They bring little high chairs for the dolls which of course the girls loved and asked if we could buy one! “Birthday list!”
C and Julie in their matching tees:

This was a fun adventure for the kiddos, not one to make every month, but maybe a yearly trip.

After chatting with my friend Anne about her very cool scrap booking class and what she has learned I was discussing photoshop actions with Greg, much more his language than Anne and mines’ anyhow, he showed me camera bag which allows you to do some pretty cool stuff to photos, all for only $19, a much nicer investment than photoshop, which my computer is too slow to run anyhow. I’ve had the app on my phone, but am now having fun using it for some real pictures – below are a couple of examples.

using the lolo filter

using the instant filter

Now I think these are pretty good pictures to start with (Greg was the photographer), but made to look even better with the filters- what do you think?

Today was market day (not like I only have one a week – I wish!) and Pfeiffer helped me gather the bags and we were ready to go.
But wait, what does every sensible girl where to the market? Plastic princess heels of course! Now she can walk amazingly well in these little numbers, but no Mom does not let her go out of the house in them…..

Image courtesy of firepile via flickr

On the way out of pre-school today we happened upon a cellist and a violinist performing for a small group of seniors at the J. We got to enjoy about 20 minutes of their music and Charlotte the music lover was quite entranced. Pfeiffer was most interested in clapping after each number, but I think she enjoyed it too. It was a nice break from the chaos of the pick-up and helped me turn my mood around. For some reason I woke up anxious and it was so nice to have some beautiful music to listen to.

We got to take a trip to Disneyland today, always exciting! We  met up with Jenny, Larissa and Will and opted to stay in California Adventure the whole time because it was a bit crowded. We rode the bug rides, carousel, played in the Brother Bear area and took in the High School Musical show/parade (I fear I liked HSM a little too much!) Topped off with a chance to meet Pluto, overall a successful visit.

Today we got to see my Mom, sisters and cousin Bella to celebrate Valentine’s Day. We often meet at the country mart in Malibu as they have a great little playground and it is about half way to Ojai. Gorgeous weather, yummy treats and fun Valentines made for a great Saturday morning.

Happy Birthday PJ!

I think it is probably because it was one of the first words she learned how to say, but Pfeiffer loves ducks! Today after PJs birthday party in Irvine we got to have a little fun at the park in the post rain freshness.

After some visitation with the Quackeroos we had some fun on the playground with the Kouz boys.