At PopPop's birthday party, Athena swiped Mimi's camera and ran around taking pictures of everyone at the party. She got some good shots! Here's the party from Athena's point of view. (Click to enlarge)
Happy Birthday PopPop! We love you!
Oh Zoe, the places you'll go!
For Chris' birthday I made him a daily calendar that has a reason why I love him on each page. It took me about two weeks to put it all together writing 20 or so reasons at a stretch. It amazed me how easy it was to come up with 366 reasons (leap year) to love my husband.
Now, mind you, many of them are silly like "I love you because it's March 24th" and "I love you because you do not snore" but most are more meaningful like "I love how you inspire me to be more than I am" and "I love you because you gave me the gift of our children." Since finishing that project, I think of two or three more reasons why I love him every week that I didn't think of when writing the calendar.
Reason #433 is because he carefully mends the girls stuffed animals, thankfully taking this responsibility from me. I love how he approaches this task as the son of a surgeon taking special care to put them back together without leaving an ugly scar. He even gives them prescriptions of "bed rest" and "no heavy lifting." All of his patients have thus far gone on to lead normal lives.
We're not really sure how Zoe's favorite bear's arm got torn off (foul play is not yet ruled out). She just woke up from her nap and found him like that, brought him to her Daddy in pieces and said "Froke" with a very sad look in her eyes. Although Bear's arm now hangs a little lower than before and he will probably never play baseball again (he played for the Cubs) Zoe is happy. Because Zoe's Daddy is pretty awesome.
Rather than saying "Happy Easter" Athena chose to yell "Happy Easter Time!!!" to everyone today. We spent a lovely day with Yiayia and Popop and had a delicious traditional Easter dinner of ham, asparagus and mashed potatoes. Zoe attached herself to Popop and led him around by two fingers for most of the day.
Yiayia spoiled the girls with baskets of presents and waaaaay too much chocolate and jelly beans. Zoe devoured at least two "Chockleeeee!" eggs and a couple of Hershey's minis and then ran in circles omitting a high pitched squeal. She is so my child.
Here's some photos from our day!
At the ripe young age of just 17 months, Zoe began her film career with a small digital recorder repeatedly stolen from the desk drawer in the living room. The resulting collection of clips is an avant garde film entitled "Pieds, Doigts et Plancher". Her style is abstract and she's well known for her identifying frames, where she turns the camera on herself.
Please enjoy...
Being in California this last week called up alot of questions about where we are, where we want to be and how we're going to get there as a family. Our brief visit drove home the fact that we would really benefit from a permanent change of scenery.
to be continued...After the wedding we had a great time taking in the beautiful beach views, enjoying the warm weather and visiting family. This is Chris' old stomping ground, so every corner has a story.
We took the girls to the San Clemente pier to look for mermaids and dolphins but didn't see any.
And went with Grandaddio to the Santa Ana Zoo, which is a small mammal zoo perfect for toddlers. 
Since we forgot the stroller, a rented wagon came in handy.
Athena had to take her favorite stuffed dog "Happy" everywhere we went. He's about three inches long and gets lost 80 times a day. We're very close to attaching a long two by four (like they do with public restroom keys) to him so that he's easier to find.
My poor pale East Coast girls have not seen a playground since November and were thrilled that they got to go crazy on the slide for a little while.
We love that we got to spend time with Nana, Aunt Mava, Jess and Anthony. It was the first time Zoe got to meet her Great Grandma and she gave out lots of kisses out to Grandma's delight.
Laura and Corey's wedding was absolutely beautiful from start to finish. Athena was convinced Laura was a princess, and during the wedding she asked me to hold her up so that she could see the prince, too. Actually meeting them at the reception was like meeting royalty for her.
The girls were all dressed up in their Sunday best and looked pretty sweet. It was wonderful to see all of Chris' family of 14 aunts and uncles, 19 cousins (with their wonderful significant others) and, so far, four third generation cousins (hmm...what do you call that?)
After a bit of a meltdown at the start of the reception. Zoe crashed hard and could not be woken. Well, it was about 10 o'clock East Coast time when this picture was taken, and that baby likes her sleep. Luckily, she was easily transferred to Aunt Teri for a bit so that Chris and I could slip away to dance.
Our party girl, Athena enjoyed cutting the rug with her Daddy, ate nothing but cake the entire night, and stayed up until 10:30 West Coast time (do the math!) She was a little fussy and demanding, but otherwise, enjoyed the party.
Mostly, she would not let her Uncle David go. She threw a crying fit when he left her to go and dance with Haley. So, poor Uncle David was forced to dance with Athena in his arms.
It was such a fun time, and although we would have like to close down the dance floor with the rest of the family, the girls needed sleep, and crashed hard when we got back to the hotel. The next morning, even Uncle David woke up before them, and Chris and I woke naturally (without someone coming into our room or calling us on the monitor) for the first time in ages.
It's 9:49 am and both the girls are still snoring in their beds. We got back late last night and we're still on West Coast time. So, until I hear the usual "Momma!" calling me to get them up, I'll try to get as many stories down and upload as many photos as possible.
We had a wonderful trip. The weather was fabulous. The first morning Athena woke up saying "Mommy, it's Spring!" and was thrilled to find flowers, warm weather and no snow. She did think that California was extraordinarily sunny and wished she had packed her sunglasses.
The first order of business was to take the girls for their first "In N' Out" burger with Uncle David. Uncle David was a huge hit in the three year old set of our family. Athena kept up a nonstop stream of toddler chatter at him "Uncle David, I see flowers! Uncle David, we're going over a bridge! Uncle David, look at my tongue!" and when Mommy tried to help Uncle David out with some toddler translation, she got very annoyed and said "No, Mommy, I talking to Uncle David. Be quiet!"
Zoe was totally off schedule the whole trip, but other than a few meltdowns on the plane (both ways) and at the wedding reception, she managed quite nicely.
Uh oh, I hear stirring, to be continued...
This was the first time that Athena's toes touched the Pacific ocean, she was only nine months old. So, it's about time we made it back out and introduce Chris' wonderful extended family to our little Zoe. Chris' cousin Laura is getting married Saturday and we can't wait to see everyone. It is going to be a blast.
We're leaving at 4 o'clock in the morning. I've been packing all day (summer clothes!) and I hope I haven't forgotten anything essential. I'll try to post pictures to the blog while we're gone but I'm not taking my computer. It'll have to be done from Chris' computer which is just not the same.
Wish us happy, easy going babies and uneventful travel.
Spinning is a big past time at our household and a metaphor for our week. Spinning, spinning, spinning until you get so dizzy you fall down. Everything is spinning this week, and I am flat on my back with the room still turning.
Tomorrow we pack and get ready for our trip to California!
