Gettin' Ready!

Brace yourself, Oakland. There is a new fairy in town and she is smart, sassy, twinkly, beautiful, fluttery and ridiculously sweet.

A weekend full of "Big Girls....." oh my!

From a Saturday spent with Autumn to a Sunday spent with Lucy and Mia....Lily could not be giddier! We have become friends with the family of my former student, Mia. Last year, Lily took to Mia and her sister, Lucy, immediately. When Mia found out that Lily was a fan of "Sid the Science Kid," she contacted her family in LA (who works on the fabulous production) and they sent Lily a care package full of videos, science experiements, dolls and books. Lily will forever be grateful.

Autumn River Comes to Oakland!

Our friends, Greg, Sarah and Autumn came to visit this past weekend. They live in Yosemite, so we decided to make our night out very "city," and we took them to our local sushi bar. Lily has a huge crush on Autumn and for the past week, has continually asked, "is this the day Autumn comes?" As you can imagine, she was all smiles the entire evening.

Prancing at the Pumkin Patch!

Last weekend, we went to the Clayton Valley Pumpkin Patch. For a year, Lily has consistently asked "when are we going to visit that farm that has the pools of beans that I can jump into?" Not only do they have millions of limas, they have a petting zoo, a train, and a hay maze (Lily was pretty stoked that a sweet "big girl" approached her kindly, smiled, and then took her hand and led her gently through it). Oh, they also have pumkins!

Mornings with Papa

Every Tuesday and Thursday morning at exactly 6:45, Lily rushes to the front door to greet Papa. They bond over a big breakfast, they read, Papa watches Lily's many performances, they take Gymboree classes and they run lab experiments. When I get home at lunch time, they both have a ton of dirt behind their fingernails, they are giddy, wiped out and covered in stickers.

Sometimes your bed just seems so far away....

Lily had dozed off in the dining room. She woke up long enough to drag herself into the hallway, where she again feel asleep. A couple minutes later, she was alert enough to cross the threshold into her room. At this point, we felt like awful parents, we stopped documenting the situation and helped poor miss Lily into bed.