Life with Lotus Maria and Lucian Stone

The end of the year was a rush of Thanksgiving, holiday school events and Christmas, but these are the highlights:

Lotus having a tea party with her cousin Loren on Thanksgiving day. He had promised to come by our house a year ago to have a tea party and my girl never forgets a promise.









Lotus sent her first letter to Santa that she wrote all by herself



Her first Christmas/Holiday school concert. Which was awesome, and showed us yet again how lucky we are that we live in this awesome neighborhood with an awesome neighborhood public school. Lotus was an amazing participant, even when the girl behind her threw up. She just stepped out of the way and kept on singing.



The usually over indulgent and abundant Christmas with Santa and many others making my children's Christmas wishes come true.

And we finished up 2010 and began 2011 with a great little family trip to Monterey.

Whew! I think I am caught up now

Lotus had a great Halloween. She dressed up as a rock star cheetah. Had a super cool school parade and got to go trick or treating in the neighborhood with one of best friends.

Lucian was a puppy and was just happy to be a puppy!




Apparently there was some sort of sporting event going on so it was unusually quiet in the neighborhood, which made for slight less decrease in the amount of people at that door and consequently less outflow of candy. Worse still Nate was sick for Pixar's the day after Halloween kiddie parade which is the usual source for candy overstock so I had to do some serious hiding and eventual discarding of the leftover candy.

We weren't able to make our annual family trip up to Portland for Thanksgiving because of Nate's work schedule and Lucian's inability to sit still long enough to take a flight to Portland. But I missed my family desperately and Lotus had the whole week of Thanksgiving off on account of the State of California being broke and we have to furlough teachers so we decided to take a girls trip and leave the boys to fend for themselves. Lotus is at an awesome age to travel with and all those sometimes painful airplane trips during her toddler years have paid off. She knows what to do when we go through security. Get her own tub, puts her shoes and backpack in it. Reads her books and colors on the plane while I read as well. One airline attendant commented that she wished more business travelers were as well prepared and mannered as Lotus. I am thrilled that I'll have a traveling buddy for life!

But the best part of this trip was we managed to keep it a secret from Kaiya and Mila that Lotus was coming with me. So they were super surprised when she was at the airport with me. I thought I was going to go deaf from all the high pitched screaming! We were also super surprised by the unexpected snowstorm that arrived with us. Lotus had never seen snow before and though we didn't have the most appropriate clothes for the weather the girls had a blast running outside and then in again once they got cold.
We had a mini early Thanksgiving at our usual Thanksgiving spot, and a great family night out!











The Pearl girl cousins are nothing but uber cuteness and have the best time together. The weather made it difficult to do too much, but we had an awesome time at the local nickle arcade.
We had super fun sleepover at my sister's house and then we had intended to head down to Eugene with my dad and fly out from there, but the weather had other plans when it turned from snow to ice and we were stuck at Rach's house.

The girls were great and didn't mind one bit, but I went a little stir crazy so I took a walk to the store. Or I should say I slid to the store. I am not cut out for cold weather, but was baffled when I got to the store and saw a guys in front of it in shorts and a t-shirt with a scarf wrapped around his neck. Really, was the scarf useful? I wish I had asked.

The Fall/Winter of 2010 flew by! It was filled with many fun adventures. Lotus settled into school wonderfully and we feel so lucky to have landed into such a great community. In September Lotus turned 5 and we took a road trip for a belated birthday present. The first stop we made was in Santa Cruz for a dear friend's wedding. We all had a blast! We spent the morning in Capitola and included a visit to my old workplace, Mr. Toots and then spent the afternoon at the Boardwalk.


Where we warmed up for Disneyland by taking in a few rides.


















Then Lotus got to go to her first wedding, which was beautiful and she danced the night away with her new friend Maren. Luckily for everyone at the wedding we left our adorable terror, Lucian with a sitter.









The next day we drove to Anaheim. Now I have to confess that when Nate suggested a road trip Disneyland as a vacation destination I was pretty sure it was the dumbest idea he had ever had. First off we don't even have a big enough car that a road trip really works, so we had to rent a car, second 6-8 hours in the car with the kids sounds like a nightmare and finally, Lotus doesn't really like rides, waiting in lines or crowds. I'm not a big fan of them either, but I don't freak out and start screaming and hide my head under the nearest shirt (at least all the time). So there was literally nothing about this trip that was the slightest but appealing as far as I was concerned. But he managed to convince me that it would be fun... or at least since he had a Disney silver pass we wouldn't have to pay for the torture and we could spend a few days recovering in Santa Monica. Needless to say the bar was set pretty low for me that this would be a good vacation. But I was pleasantly surprised, which means (as much as it pains me to admit this) Nate was right and I was wrong.




Luckily and thanks to the silver pass we were able to bring in some assistance. My cousin Mary Kay joined us for one day and Nate's Aunt and Uncle joined another. And though Lotus was pretty distressed by a few of the rides (the Jungle Cruise was a very bad idea), she loved Dumbo and the tea cups and went nuts over all things Disney princess and we did do all things Disney Princess. She got to have her hair done at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique and she saw Tiana at New Orleans Square.







Most importantly Nate made us reservations at Ariel's Grotto and we had breakfast with all the Disney Princesses... or at least the white ones. Now those of you that know me know that I must truly love my daughter to have happily sat through these experiences. Since as Lotus will happily tell you "My mommy thinks Disney Princesses are stupid."

I would also add we went to Disneyland mid-week in October when it was raining and it WAS STILL FULL OF PEOPLE!! I am such a nerd I wanted to interview everyone and find out why they were there, especially the ones with out kids. I mean it's not inexpensive and you could go somewhere really cool for the cost of admission, accommodations and all the crap they get you to buy. Nate managed to convince me not to embarrass the whole family by interrogating strangers, but I still want to know if you could only take one vacation, why would it be Disneyland?? Thoughts? I will happily hear your reasoning!

I did query one of the salesgirls at why the princess section seemed to only carry the white princesses. Lotus was looking a Tiana item and they didn't have anything from Princess and The Frog, so I asked if it was because they didn't like the princesses of color? She rolled her eyes at me and explained the movie just came out and they didn't have any Princess Tiana items yet. That seemed like a lame excuse, but I let it slide.














Because as this picture obviously shows we had a fabulous time!


After Disneyland we spent a fabulous few days in Santa Monica relaxing at our fav hotel and catching up with old friends and meeting a few new ones.