My Little Super Heroes!

Lately, Owen has been asking for us to tie his blanket around his neck as a cape so he can run around the house pretending that he has super fast running/ flying skills.  Well, this blanket was rather thick and came undone about every two seconds, so I thought I would invest in a real cape for him.  I wanted to make it myself, but I hardly have time to sit at a sewing machine and overwhelm myself with yet another project.  So, I got on Etsy.com and found a ton of cute capes to choose from!  I picked one for Owen, and I knew Emily would be wanting her own as well, so I got a cute pink one for her.  I was hoping to make this a part of Easter, but they didn't come in the mail until the day after!  I held on to them for a few weeks until an average day, out of the blue, I made them close their eyes and hold out their hands and gave them their new favorite article of clothing! 

I think this is the best present Owen has ever received. He LOVED it and wears it every day now.  Emily is pretty keen on hers as well.  She wants to do everything her cool big brother does. Here are my favorite photos of the day.

He can seriously fly in this thing!

They must have run the equivalent to a marathon in our backyard that afternoon.  I am pretty sure they crashed hard in bed that night.

I love these two kids!

I think this is one of my all time favorite pictures EVER!

I like this one too ; )

Couldn't decide if I like color or black and white better in the next two....

Chilln'

Have you ever seen a smile this big?!

I heart this photo.

And this one....

Earth Day!

 We met some friends downtown for the Earth Day Festival on Sunday.  It's a pretty big event for Santa Barbara every year.  We started in the live animal section.  Emily and Owen got to pet Chance, the bull, and Lucky the goat (I think that was his name anyway...I forget).  Then The kids all crowded around a large box full of baby chicks who were three days old.  Oh, they were SO cute....until Emily quickly grabbed one out of Adam's hand and threw it back into the box!  I was mortified!  Poor baby chick : (  I am sure she wasn't the first to do it, but we got a pretty nasty look from the woman who was in charge of the birds.  I am sorry lady if you are reading this.

 I whisked them away to the next station before we got kicked out of our first 5 minutes of Earth Day!

 Owen was pretty obsessed with this surfboard contraption that tested your balance.  It was HARD!

 After that, Owen got sucked into to a Karate School demonstration.  The owner was awesome!  He had a pretty thick NY accent and was great at teaching and encouraging kids to listen.  I was pretty impressed at how well Owen did with his instructions and his listening skills.  I had to chuckle when the instructor told Owen to listen with his "Ears (pronounced "eas"), eyes and body."  Owen had to repeat those three things back to him, and he totally repeated it with the accent!  Too funny!  I am definitely going to sign this kid up soon!! I have always wanted him to get involved in a martial art.  It teaches them so much more than just self defense skills.

Next, we got to see a giant turkey who was gobbling around the park : )  Quite a site, such a beautiful bird!

 Of course we couldn't leave without Owen and  Emily getting a shot at driving the eco friendly bus that was parked outside : )  Owen even got to make an announcement on the microphone which was heard on and off the bus! : )

 Keep your eyes on the road Emily!

After that, we had Owen picking up trash and putting it in the right place.  It was Earth Day after all!

Once I dragged Adam away from the electric Porche he was drooling over, we zoomed through the rest of the fair and headed home for naps!

Easter 2012

Owen gets very excited over holidays, no matter how big or small.  He just knows he gets to wear "sharp clothes", eat good food, and hang out with his family.  A perfect day for him.  

He also is a big believer in all the magic that goes around the mythical holiday beings like, Santa Claus, his elves, the Tooth fairy (though he hasn't lost a tooth yet), and of course, the Easter Bunny.  Everyone knows that the Easter Bunny only comes to people's homes if their homes are clean and the floors are picked up.  Otherwise, he will have no where to hop and can't leave a basket, or hide any eggs. Right?  Well, that's what Owen now believes, courtesy of moi.  It worked too :)  Our floors were very clean for about a week.  Gotta come up with something even better for Memorial day! ; )

The festivities started at his preschool with their Easter Egg Hunt.  The kids put on their home made bunny ears and grabbed their decorated bags for putting their eggs into and took off like a bunch of wild turkeys to collect as many eggs as they could!  Even Emily was allowed to get in on the action.  She managed to get a small collection of eggs even after the bigger kids would swoop in right in front of her and take the egg she was about to grab. She didn't mind, I think she had fun regardless.  (It was also her nap time, hence the straight face in this picture!)

 

Then a few days later, the REAL Easter was here!  Owen got dressed in his nice clothes (socks and shoes included) before coming into our room to see if the Easter Bunny had come.  He was grinning from ear to ear with excitement.  Once he and Emily came out to the living room, they saw their baskets brimming with goodies.  They both devoured as much candy as they could before I stopped them.  I included dark chocolate and yogurt covered raisins, chocolate candy coated sunflower seeds, organic fruit leather and "natural jellybeans" (whatever the heck that is, there is nothing natural about a jelly bean in my opinion, but hey, it's Easter!)

Adam let the kids have a little Berenstain Bears Movie time while I made brunch and he snuck out to go hide the eggs while the kids were distracted.  Nana came over and we started the coffee, the mimosas and I made lemon ricotta pancakes with blueberry lemon curd sauce, as well as a vegetable fritatta and fresh fruit.  Way to much food for us, but it was sooooo good and we had left overs : )The kids ate as quickly as they could so they could get on out to the yard and start egg hunting!