Playground fun

Lately, Lily loves carrying Ennio around while exclaiming: "Look how strong I am. I'm carrying Ennio!!!" One indeed needs a lot of muscle strength to pick up and carry around this little guy!

Ennio doesn't get to participate in all the fun camp activities Lily is telling us about, so I try to make it up to him by going out a lot on my Wednesdays off and on weekends. Last Wednesday, we had lunch at Larchmont Village and visited a nearby playground, Robert Burns park.

Climbing is still one of Ennio's favorite activities!

Getting annoyed when things are getting a bit difficult...

Enjoying some milk at the Pain Quotidien on Larchmont Blvd.

On Saturday, we discovered a new and very cool playground in Glendale, Glenoaks Park. It even has a wading pool, ideal for toddlers and little kids who can't swim yet! Unfortunately, we couldn't use the pool yesterday because there was a birthday party going on and the pool was reserved for the guests. On Mondays and Tuesdays, the wading pool is open for the public. I'll definitely try and go back on a Monday or Tuesday!

Lily at the Glenoaks Park playground, she's wearing her tie dye shirt!

Ennio on the slide - the higher, the better!

It's hot! The water fountain feels good!

Lily is a fast climber too!

We also went to the playground in The Americana (photo on top of this blogpost), and tonight we're going to Garfield Park in South Pasadena for a picnic and summer concert. Speaking of which, it is time to get ready and get going!

Summerkids camp - week 2 and 3

On our way to camp!

Some pictures of Lily's second and third week at Summerkids Camp. Her days were again filled with fun activities.

In week 2, the kids made their own "tie dye" T-shirts (with some help of the camp counselors of course!)
In our weekly camp e-mail newsletter we read that "the first-ever SK-PreK Tie Dye extravaganza was a huge success! The PreKers did a great job rubber-banding their shirts in bullseyes, spirals and polkadots, and the counselors assisted with adding the dye. We've already seen a couple of their masterpieces, and we are impressed."
Lily loves to wear her shirt!
She also spent a lot of time in the camp garden, watering the plants, picking fruits and vegetables and eating yummy grapes and peaches!



In week 3, she came home with a birdseed biscuit on a string that she had baked and made herself (see photo on the left). We hung it outside our balcony, so the hummingbirds can eat it.
On Friday, she got a chance to see "Poseidon's Playhouse", a performance by the Summerkids older kids. "The SK-PreKers were great theater-goers, staying rapt with attention, laughing at the funny parts and joining in on all the fun."
Lily also learned the first rules of basket ball! She's turning into an all-American girl ;-)

Making tie dye shirts!

In the garden!

Picking grapes!

Big veggies!

Drawing the mountains!

Group picture in the garden!

Playing basketball!

I can't believe summer is almost halfway done! It sure is flying by!

Los Angeles Arboretum

Some pictures of our visit of the Los Angeles Arboretum and Botanical Garden on Sunday. The weather was overcast. The kids had woken up very early that morning (why do they ALWAYS wake up early on WEEKENDS???) so they got tired while we were in the gardens. Instead of walking the grounds, we decided to take the tram tour. Kids loved it and since it was a guided tour, we learned a lot too.

Left: a wild peacock. There are a lot of them running around at the Arboretum!

Ennio at the water fountains.

San Gabriel Mountains in the distance.

Peacock

Tour of the gardens!

Hanging out!

Waterfalls

Ennio on daddy's lap.

One of the many nice trees!

To the hairdresser!

This morning Lily woke up and the first question was: "Is it time to go to the hairdresser already?" I had set up an appointment for her to have her hair cut and she was very excited about that. It was her first time to a "real" hairdresser. She had had her first haircut at a kids hair salon when she was about 2.5 yrs, but since then, I had not taken her anymore. She wanted to have long hair (as long as Rapunzel's!), so we let it grow and I just cut her bangs myself every so often. It saved us a lot of money, as the price for a kids haircut is around $20-25!
Lately, Lily had been asking for a trip to the hairdresser (her friend Lola had had her hair cut just a few weeks ago...). She had also cut her hair herself a couple of times in the past few months (when I wasn't watching!), so figured a professional hair cut would not be such a bad idea. So off we went this morning! We went to my regular hair salon, the loft hair lounge. Lily enjoyed the whole experience and now has a layered hair-do and short bangs. Nice!

Here are some pictures of BEFORE, DURING and AFTER the cut.

BEFORE:

Not that bad (I guess I would not have been a bad hairdresser myself!!!), but she insisted on a trip to the hairdresser...

Look how long!

Just a crazy pic!

DURING:

 AFTER:

All done!

Still a crazy girl!

Update: Just re-read this and I completely forgot that Lily did get a haircut last year during our trip to Belgium. So I guess this was her third haircut ever...

Date night!

Eindelijk kwam het er nog eens van: date night voor Marcus en mezelf! Ik denk dat het geleden was van ergens in februari toen we naar de film geweest waren (Argo), dus het werd weer eens tijd :-)  Eigenlijk was het ook een soortement verjaardagsetentje... Marcus had de dag vóór mijn verjaardag (2 weken geleden) naar Nobu gebeld om te reserveren maar de eerst mogelijke reservatie was pas mogelijk deze week! Dinsdagavond was dus "the night"!  Pamela was onze babysitter van dienst - Lily was opgetogen - en wij trokken naar Malibu!!!

Onderweg: zonsondergang vanop de Pacific Coast Highway (ook Highway 1 genoemd)

Nobu is één van de restaurants van de bekende Japanse chef Nobu Matsuhisa. Ik was er nog nooit geweest, Marcus wel en hij was toen zo onder de indruk dat hij me er perse mee wou naar toe nemen. Het was inderdaad een geweldige ervaring. De locatie (vlak aan de oceaan!), het interieur (strak design), de drankjes (piña martini!) en vooral... het eten! Mmmmm, elke hap was een streling voor de tong én voor het oog! We hebben ervan genoten, en de rekening achteraf... die heb ik maar niet bekeken :-)

De inkom van Nobu Malibu. Voor de geïnteresseerden: de man met de rode sjaal die aan de ingang zit, is Guillermo del Toro, de regisseur van ondermeer Hellboy en Pan's Labyrinth.

Mooi zicht over de oceaan. We kwamen aan net rond zonsondergang (hier in Californië is dat redelijk vroeg, al rond 20u30!)

Eindelijk nog eens met ons tweetjes op stap, vandaar de grote glimlach!

Nog een foto van de oceaan, genomen vanop het terras van Nobu.

En hier beginnen we eraan! Links: Lobster Ceviche on Limestone Lettuce. Rechts: Bigeye and Bluefin Toro Tartar with Caviar. Oooooh zo lekker!

De chefs van Nobu Malibu aan het werk!

't Was superlekker. Een ervaring die ik niet snel zal vergeten!

Day at the Pier in Santa Monica!

We met up with Pamela yesterday and admired her new place (she's in the middle of moving, and it already looks lovely, I'm sure it's going to be beautiful when she's all settled in). She moved to Santa Monica, so we decided to have lunch close to the beach (at Seasons 52 - great food, especially the ceviche!) and then spend some time at the Pier. Lily had already seen the rollercoasters from the restaurant patio and had been begging us to go there during our entire meal! I wasn't sure she was going to be tall enough for the "big" rollercoaster, but the minimum height was 42" and Lily is about 44" right now. She was so excited she could go on the ride!

A happy girl! (this was after the rollercoaster ride)

Lily is on one of those carts with her hands in the air (next to Pam). She wasn't scared at all!

Ennio and I waited until Lily's ride was done. Every time the coaster rode by, he said "Weeeeeee"!

After Lily's ride, we went on one of the "little kids" rides, so Ennio could share in some of the fun too! He absolutely loved it, and cried for about 20 minutes after his "Weeeeeee" was done! Poor little kiddo, but we really didn't have more time to spend at the park!

Ennio on his ride!

Summerkids camp - week 1

SK-PreK stands for:
Summer Kids - Pre Kindergarten

Lily spent her first week at Summerkids last week. It's amazing what they have the kids do there! I've never her seen her more tired or dirty, but she seems to be having a blast!

Painting, building camps, swimming, hiking,... she even tried archery (boogschieten) and helped with a science experiment (made a vulcano!).

I do have to say, it's a lot of extra work for me... As I said, she comes home completely dirty (almost to the point where I can't get her clothes clean anymore), and it's not just 1 outfit per day, but 2! (She has swim class in the middle of the day, and puts on a new set of clothes after).

I hope she is building memories of a lifetime :-)

Painting the banner (Lily is the girl with the bandana on)

Getting ready to jump in the pool!

Blowing (self-made) bubbles

Lily and her friend, about to play frisbee

Building a camp!

Copyright photos: Summerkids.