  We helped celebrate Annie Moultray’s birthday today, joining her family and friends for a “Pump It Up” Party in Sunnyvale.
Annie and her mom are two of Felicia’s favorite friends, too, so the whole Martin-Keller Family was invited to the party. Here’s are some pictures of the birthday girl jumping for joy with Jocelyn. |
 The entire family attended the Booksin Elementary Spring Open House last night, enjoying our tour of Jocelyn’s classroom and future options for second grade. Of course, we see the classroom daily, and Karen volunteers every Tuesday, but it was still fun to be at the big event.
This is a picture of Jocelyn next to her “Art Vistas” project, which was on display for the whole school in the cafeteria. |
  Or, Happy Birthday, Kiana! Kiana Martin turned four today, and we’ve been celebrating all weekend, with the official birthday party on Saturday and the family-only affair earlier today. This is a picture of the birthday girl, surrounded by friends, eyeing the “teddy bear” birthday cake that her mom made.
Our family runs an incredible birthday gauntlet between April 18 and May 21, including Karen, Grandee, Aunt Jenni, Uncle Geoff, and probably a few others. (Throw in Mother’s Day, and it’s all a bit too crazy!) Anyway … Felicia has had lots of practice, and now comes pretty close to saying the whole phrase correctly. Updated 5/24: The second picture is a great shot of the tye-dyed scarves and skirts that Karen (with Jocelyn’s help) made for all three California Cousins. |
Jocelyn’s bedtime questions from tonight:
“How do computers have so much stuff in them?”
“How was Google invented?”
“Why does everyone in the world have a unique fingerprint? ”
 OK, the rain has finally ended, and so has the hockey season. So, it’s time to celebrate Spring before Summer roars in to Willow Glen. We’re all keeping busy, of course, biding our time …
Felicia continues to grow and climb, displaying a physical strength we haven’t had in our family before. She turned two in January, and is ready to do anything, without fear. She climbs ladders, scales rope swings, and kicks every “soccer ball” she can find. She’ll start preschool in the Fall at San Jose Parents Participating Nursery School (SJPPNS). As a first grader, Jocelyn excels in math and reading, but also enjoys music. Every week we have “Musical Wednesdays,” with ballet/jazz class followed by piano lessons. Felicia’s “Music Together” CD’s have been in high demand, requested and memorized by both girls. She’s gearing up for soccer in the Fall, and also plans to try softball next Spring. Karen and David are trying desperately to catch-up. Karen works hard at Crossbow and volunteers hard at Campbell United Methodist Church (CUMC). She also helps out in Jocelyn’s classroom, and just finished her stint coordinating our Girl Scout troop. David works hard at home, publishes a very small community of weblogs, and really enjoys shopping at Target. He also keep his Rotary Club focused on the end of his Presidency (June 30!), helps run Willow Glen PAL Soccer, and joins the SJPPNS Board as Treasurer in June (because he’s not busy enough, apparently). |
Actually, it’s not raining. Unless you’re imagining along with Felicia.
Lots of her imaginative play recently has included taking cover from the rain. We hide under trees during neighborhood walks, duck under playground equipment at parks, and often take the long way back to car from Jocelyn’s classroom — under the covered walkway, of course. She says, “Raining,” and then points to the dry spots, presumably.
It probably doesn’t help that a recent Maisy book features Tallulah dodging a sudden rainstorm that only lasts for one page.
And, her favorite computer game is an older verion of Jumpstart Baby that Jocelyn used to play. In one part of that program, players use a series of keys to get Teddy dressed in the right clothes for the day’s weather. Of course, Felicia’s favorite is the sunny “beach” weather. Teddy’s rainy weather is a close second.
Considering she’s the sibling that wasn’t born in Seattle, it’s all kind of amusing.
Felicia’s been “running” for a long time, but she’s been covering more-and-more ground with less-and-less effort recently. She’s also been wasting less energy bouncing up-and-down while running. It’s fun to watch — And now, it’s fun to listen:
On our daily walks or during any time spent at a playground, Felicia now insists that we race with her. She firmly establishes the starting line, and then she starts the countdown. We’re not sure where she got this particular cadence, but this is how the race always starts:
“Six … Seben … Nine … Ten …. Un* …. Run!”
* We think “un” is really “done” … but it could be an abbreviated “eleven.” We’re not sure.
I got the idea this morning that it would be fun to plant my mother’s vegetable garden today. We swung by the nursery on our way up to Saratoga and picked up 3 tomat plants and 6 strawberries. While Felicia napped and David and Jocelyn played Monopoly indoors (they decided it was too hot at 90 degrees), I prepped the garden with some compost and fertilizer and then did my little bit of planting. It was really fun!
 I had a lovely breakfast for Mother’s Day this morning. One of the coolest things about it was that Jocelyn made the waffles entirely by herself. We had practiced the day before at her request. We had to talk through doing the recipe at 1 1/2 times what is on the box. She hasn’t really studied fractions yet, so this added some challenge to the process. This morning she went downstairs to make them while I sat in bed browsing all the lovely pictures and books I received. Daddy was down there in case she needed anything, but she didn’t.
I think she was really proud to do the whole thing herself, and so was I! The waffles were really delicious! |
