miss mia turned s-e-v-e-n

a few (very mia) things about her seventh birthday festivities-

• her birthday gifts included some of the things she requested: teaching supplies, indoor plants, junie b. jones chapter books, cooking supplies, and a fish.
  
• she originally named her fish "lefty" because the fish would "have to be left alone a lot."
• she has since renamed her fish "heart." which is appropriate because if i had to chose one word to describe mia it would be "heart."
• because her male betta fish has a dark spot on it's fin she's convinced it's pregnant. (?)
  
• out of everything we did to celebrate her birth, she enjoyed passing out snacks to her classmates best.
  
• she wrote "efth" on her birthday crown because she loves the earth. we have since taught her how to spell "earth."
  

happy seventh birthday to my bighearted, creative
little lover of life on this beautiful efth!

day trippin: part one

after too many weeks of too much work, we decided a family day trip was in order. brian sat the kids down friday night and had them vote on which trip they wanted to take. he presented their two options complete with google image searched pictures.

trip 1: palm springs. a self-guided tour of the cabazon dinosaurs followed by picnicking, swimming, and lounging in desert hot springs. (i cast my vote here!)

trip 2: long beach. the aquarium of the pacific, self-guided tour of the queen mary, and the beach. (i was unanimously outvoted!)

the aquarium is a very cool place and we hadn't been since miley was a baby. brian and miley loved the hands-on exhibits, touching everything from sea anemones and shrimp to leopord sharks and giant sting rays. mommy, mia, and levi preferred to enjoy the wildlife from the other side of the glass. i blame this entirely on tiffanie and john (my evil siblings) who knowing my fear of touching fish, threw frozen peas all around me while snorkeling in hawaii.

just outside the aquarium is an awesome view of the queen mary and long beach harbor. i insisted on one more picture of the monkeys before giving them permission to go tackle their father. that is when i put the camera down and joined the dog pile. so there are no pictures of the rest of our adventures from that day.

we (kind of) snuck onto the queeen mary and let the kids take turns navigating our way around the ships vast decks. made our way back to the car, headed south on PCH, and ended up at the huntington beach pier just in time to watch the sun slowly sink into the ocean that we'd spent all day admiring.

skipping through the orange grove

miss ashley & the miley bug

miss ashley is among a select group of super special people that miley holds dear. she held her hand and skipped in front of the group the entire time we were at the orange grove. i tried to bribe miss ashley into babysitting for me after the miley bug moves out of her class and into kindergarten (sniff sniff), but after spending the morning with mr. trouble pants, i don't see dear miss ashley taking me up on the offer.

the kids enjoyed a tractor ride through the grove, squeezing orange juice, and a guided tour of the property. it was all good until the tour guide told the children that they were welcome to pick oranges if their parents bought them a bag. so we bought a bag, as if i had a choice.

happy, happy!

miss mia is off track for the month of march. we are trying to throw together a big adventure for this weekend. because i'll be damned if my child returns to school after a month long spring break and all she has to report is a preschool fieldtrip.

2:21 am

they had all crashed in front of a movie after a crazy napless day (i sure hope levi didn't have the farts)

this morning i woke at 2:21 am to matchbox cars and dinosaur jammies tangled up in the sheets of my marriage bed. too many bodies on the floor model clearance mattress we financed a decade ago when the twin beds of our childhoods would no longer due.

tonight, it was my turn to quietly escort the little intruder back to his own bed, repeating the loving tucking routine that brian had no doubt completed hours earlier while i was stuck in a postmodernism poetry lecture a few cities away.

this exchange of responsibility is a perfect example of where we (brian & i) are at in our lives together. when one of us (usually me) is drained, laying zombie like in a heep on the couch, the other is there to tuck the sleepy child into bed, clean up after dinner, or pack school lunches. i realize this is a very unromantic version of love, but there are few things sexier to a busy mom than a man who packs a mean sack lunch.

i will return to bed now, stealing a look at brian's sleeping face before killing the light. all of the lines and creases he has acquired over our life together disappear in sleep. miley has a field trip in the morning. and let me tell you, a good nights sleep is essential to the survival of a preschool field trip.