Happy Birthday, Arthur!

Arthur is two!

The day began with birthday doughnuts.

For his birthday this year, Arthur got a basketball hoop, a toy car garage, some beautiful blocks from Mina and James, and a large illustrated book of animals.   

 

 

Everyone was sick today so we didn't do a big trip to the zoo or to the beach, as we'd considered, but we did take Arthur to the park and then let him choose what he wanted for lunch (he emphatically chose tacos). 

A birthday animal parade.  I copied this idea from the blog Oh Happy Day and Arthur loved it, he was particularly excited about the "gorilla in a hat."  (His favorite animals are gorillas and turtles.)

   

I also made a special hat for Boo.

We had dinner at home, followed by birthday cake.

When Arthur's enjoying himself he's fond of shouting "I'm having fun!" or singing out, "I'm so happy!" Here he is talking about his birthday and his cake.

 

Witty, perceptive, affectionate, joyful, and smart - you're only two years old and already you're a full and fully wonderful person.  Happy Birthday!

Birthday Party Invitations

Today I mailed out the invitations to Beatrice and Arthur's upcoming birthday party.  In the meantime, we have gifts, cake, and birthday fun planned both here and in Texas.

Beatrice and Arthur in silhouette

* I blurred out our address, in case you were wondering what that giant white space in the middle of the invite is.

Spring School Photos

Beatrice the Bee

Today Beatrice received her new dance recital costume.  Sadly she won't be able to participate in this year's recital - it conflicts with our upcoming trip to Texas - but at least she gets to enjoy her bee costume (this year's recital number is a tap dance to "Baby Bumblebee").

  

New York and Newport

View from the High Line

Two weeks ago I went to New York to spend four days with my friends Aubrey, Melissa, and Stacey (and to meet a new coworker and friend, Erik).  I had a wonderfully relaxing time strolling in Prospect Park; eating bagels, linguine with clams, and pizza; and touring the High Line.  Not to mention taking a very long walk from Chelsea to Soho.  And the weather was the most perfect I've ever seen in New York.

Stacey's neighborhood in Brooklyn

Stacey took a photo of me at The Standard

Then this weekend I headed out for our annual Girls' Weekend trip with Amy, Amy, Summer, and Stephanie, this time to a gorgeous seaside resort in Coral Cove near Newport Beach, where we ate an amazing seafood lunch by the water, hiked along the beach, shopped on Balboa Island, and lounged poolside (even if it was still a little chilly to do much swimming).

Coral Cove beach houses

Tide pools

Thank you, Dev, for watching the kids two weekends in a row so I could go have fun!

Brooklyn on Dwellable

Let's talk

 

Arthur just sat down next to me on his bed and folded his hands in his lap.

"Hi Mommy, let's talk."
"Okay, what do you want to talk about?"
Pause.
"Swordfish?"

My New Favorite Thing

Ever since we moved in two years ago, I've been envying my neighbor's beautiful Japanese maple tree.  I intended to get one of my own, but when I went to the nursery last summer to pick it up the sales clerk talked me out of it.  It's true that L.A. is a very hot, dry place to grow a maple tree - but after all, my neighbor has one just two doors down that's doing fine.

My little tree with the neighbor's full-size maple in the background.

Anyway, after two years of waiting, I finally decided to just go ahead and buy a Japanese maple (it helped that they were 50% off at Lowe's, with a money-back guarantee).  For $50, I figured it was worth a try.

I wanted the tree to be tucked up right by the house, so I chose a dwarf variety of acer palmatum dissectum 'Inaba Shidare' that will only grow to be 6-7 feet tall (and it grows so slowly it will take decades to get even that big).  It's supposed to be one of the most heat- and drought-tolerant Japanese maples, though none of them are exactly desert plants.  But it's in the shadiest part of the front yard, and as the London Plane tree grows bigger and bigger, it will get shadier still.*

Dwarf maple with dog for scale.

And even if it doesn't thrive as well as my neighbor's maple has, at least for now it looks great.  The warm, rich color looks perfect with the gold and green tones of the Nandina and Mexican Feather Grass and the reddish blush from the Japanese Barberry (which is finally growing in after being dormant all winter).

Nandina in green, gold, and red.

* Someday the London Plane may also make the front yard too shady for my Nandina and Mexican Feather Grass, but I'll worry about that some other day.