My Littlest Ballerina

Another day, another first...

In stark contrast to Sunday's skateboarding, on Monday Lola took her first ballet class.

And did she love it? Absolutely.

Dressed in her leotard, skirt and ballet slippers she pranced around the studio on tippy toes, arms in the air, spinning here and there.

When it came time to follow instruction from her teacher she was super serious and concentrated very hard. Ava has always been the same too. Ballet, ice skating, cheerleading... what ever she's doing there's always a serious look on her face that tells me she's concentrating as hard as she can on getting it right. Lola had the same serious face throughout the whole class but I knew she was having a ball.

Here's my littlest ballerina enjoying her first class...

Little dancer

Skater Girls

Yesterday we were a family of skaters!

Ok, not quite... I let the team down with my lack of wheels, but three out of four of us were skaters so close enough.

Yesterday morning Kim bought himself a skateboard to ride to and from the train when going to work. That probably sounds a little odd to my friends back home but here in Berkeley and San Francisco skateboarding is a relatively common way to get around.

We knew that Ava would be keen to get her own skateboard once she saw Kim's. She has a tiny Dora the Explorer skateboard which she has enjoyed playing on over the past few years, but it's really getting too small for her. Plus, she getting a little grown up for Dora ;)

So the Dora skateboard was handed down to Lola and we headed back to the skate store to get Ava her very own real skateboard.

On the way to the store the girls wanted to skate. So with helmets and knee pads on they skated their way down the sidewalk and through a park; Lola on the Dora skateboard and Ava on Kim's. 

Riding Daddy's skateboard with a little help

At the park Ava practised riding on her own

Cooking with Kids: Slime Pie

Earlier this week Ava brought home a recipe from school. A recipe for Slime Pie. She's been so eager to try her hand at baking and cooking so we thought this would be the perfect recipe for an afternoon of cooking together.

Slime Pie is pretty disgusting looking! It's green, it's full of worms and of course, it's slimy! In reality though, it's really just a take on key lime pie, and it actually tastes pretty good.

Lots of worms

Here's how to make Slime Pie...

LEGO KidsFest

Last Sunday we headed down to San Jose for an afternoon of Lego fun at Lego KidsFest.

There were Lego bricks as far as the eye could see. And kids as far as the eye could see too. The whole event was sold out so it was incredibly busy with excited kids rushing around everywhere.

Of course, our two were among the excited kids rushing around. They wanted to try and do everything all at once: looking at Lego sculptures, building cars to race, building little houses, burying each other in Lego blocks, making Lego angels in the piles of Lego and Duplo, making artworks to display...

So much Lego fun to be had.

Here's a look at our afternoon at Lego KidsFest...

Excited to arrive at Lego KidsFest

Lola's First Day of Preschool

Today my baby is a big girl. A big preschool girl.

Lola's first day at preschool started out promising this morning. 

She was super excited about going to preschool and couldn't wait to get her backpack on her back and head off. In fact, she told me that when I'm big enough I can get a backpack and go to preschool too!

She was excited the whole way to preschool on the bus...

Waiting for the bus

Happy (Australian) Father's Day 2013

Yesterday was Father's Day number two for the year, otherwise known as Australian Father's Day. Lucky Kim gets to celebrate Father's Day twice each year (American Father's Day was back in June), while I get just one Mother's Day.

We had organised to spend the day at Lego KidsFest in San Jose so I figured that a Lego themed card would be just the thing for this Father's Day. I played around with a few different ideas (trying to write out different messages in Lego) but kept coming back to the simplicity of a Lego heart. Much easier to make than a Lego message and it ties in nicely with this year's Mother's Day cards, which you can see here.

Here's a look at our Lego inspired cards plus a few shots from our photo shoot. I really wanted to take photos up on our roof but as always the wind came out as soon as the camera did so Ava has some interesting looking hair! 

Don't "Lego" my heart!

Punch Buggy Field Guide

Ava and Lola love to play Punch Buggy when we're out and about. You know that game where the first person to call out "Punch Buggy" when a Volksgwagen Beetle goes past gets to punch the other one? Needless to say I'm usually the recipient of said punches! Little, gentle punches of course.

Well, even though they love to play it, my girls aren't too good at recognising just what is a Punch Buggy and what isn't. Oh, they never miss the opportunity when a VW Beetle does go past, but they have trouble when it comes to similar looking cars. This results in a lot of extra punches! Mini Cooper, Fiat 500, Smart Car, Toyota Prius... Pretty much any small, roundish looking car that goes past is greeted with a cry of "Punch Buggy". And trust me, hardly a moment goes by when we don't see a Mini Cooper or Toyota Prius in Berkeley! Especially the Prius.

To combat the onslaught of gentle (yet numerous) punches I've been receiving, I decided to make the girls a Punch Buggy Field Guide to help them accurately identify Volkswagen Beetles.

Punch Buggy Field Guide

With their new Punch Buggy Field Guide in hand it was time for the girls to test it out.