Christmas Eve

We had a really wonderful Christmas this year. On Christmas Eve, we went to Stella's house for dinner. We had a great time tracking Santa's progress on the NORAD website. We kept the grown-ups informed when he was in "Ho-hio" (Ohio) and "Indy-Hannah" (Indiana). We stayed up past our bedtimes but as soon as I got home, I jumped in bed and covered up my head.

Daddy and me pretending to be Rudolph!

Happy Halloween!

Ahoy me hearties! Catherine the Pirate Queen had a fantastic Halloween. We are still amazed at the elaborate decorations on the houses in our neighborhood. We had such a fun, busy weekend. On Friday, Peabody had their annual costume parade where all the students march around the quad while songs like "Monster Mash" and "Thriller" are played over the loudspeaker. Later in the afternoon was the class party and Mommy helped out. We made Halloween-themed arts and crafts, decorated pumpkin-shaped sugar cookies and Mrs. Perkins read us a Halloween story.

Then on Saturday night our neighbors had a party. My friend Laird is 4 and he and I play together a lot. The party was at his house. His mom, Gwyn, is a huge Halloween fan and no wonder, her birthday is the October 30th! Even Mommy and Daddy dressed up for this party. Daddy was a Southern California vampire and Mommy was a witch. I love her hat!

Laird and me

On Sunday, Mommy and I got to go sailing with Daddy for the first time. It was a beautiful day, lots of wind and we sailed a great race. We think we won! After the race we had to come and relax a bit before heading out trick-or-treating with my friend Colette and her sister, Ava.

Colette, Ava and me

My Very Own Very Hungry Caterpillar

We have been fascinated by Monarch butterflies since moving to Southern California (see first entry January 2010). After reading books about Monarchs we learned that they only lay their eggs on the milkweed plant and that is the only thing their caterpillars will eat. Auntie Shaunmarie and the Crazy Boys gave us a gift certificate to a nursery and we used it to buy the biggest milkweed plant they had. The very afternoon we brought it home a beautiful Monarch butterfly visited and laid her eggs, lots and lots of tiny green eggs.



Suddenly, our milkweed was literally crawling with yellow, white and black caterpillars. Our highest count was 24! They start out very small and eat and eat and eat until they become very fat. Just like one of our favorite books "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle. The poor milkweed plant looks terrible now but that is its fate.

In this picture you can see three different stages of the caterpillar: the tiny green dot on the upper left of the leaf is an egg, the small green caterpillar and the big fat one.

We named a particularly big one Pudgy and one day we noticed he seemed to be slowing down. Then one morning we couldn't find him. That evening we noticed he had crawled up the side of the house. He began to curl and by the next morning he had spun his chrysalis.

The chrysalis was green but after more research we learned that the chrysalis shell is clear and that the green we saw was actually the pupa inside. As the transformation inside occurred we began to see the faint outline of the butterfly's wings inside.

This morning we knew it was time, we could clearly see the orange, yellow and black wings of his wings. Catherine had to go to school and I had errands to run and by the time I got home, the Monarch was out! His wings were not fully opened and I watched and waited as they slowly opened and closed, getting bigger and bigger. After 30 minutes I went inside and when I came back out the Monarch had flown away.

After breaking free, the wings are not fully open.

The last I saw of Pudgy before he flew away

I spied a beautiful Monarch on the milkweed later this afternoon and I think maybe it was Pudgy - although we'll have to come up with a better name now, more suited to a beautiful Monarch butterfly.

PS - We put another large caterpillar into a small, mesh covered "Critter Cabin" the other day and he has now spun his chrysalis hanging from the top. We named this one George and we'll see if we can capture his breaking free of the chrysalis. Stay tuned.....

First Day!

Today was my first day at Peabody Charter School. I am officially a kindergartener! I requested strawberry pancakes for breakfast (and spaghetti for dinner tonight). I've got my new shoes, new outfit and my fancy new backpack - I'm all set.

Mommy and Daddy walked me to school a little before 8 o'clock. We gathered on the kindergarten playground behind our classrooms. There are 100 kindergarteners in 5 classrooms. I have 20 kids in my classroom and Mrs. Perkins is my teacher. She is super nice! I think I am going to like kindergarten.

Namaste

Catherine has been studying yoga for two years, since she was introduced to it in preschool at The Children's School in Seattle. We found a studio here in Santa Barbara that offers children's yoga and she has been doing it every Tuesday this summer. She loves it and I have to say I am very impressed by some of her poses. Her wonderful teacher took these photos of her in action.

Viva La Fiesta!

Every August, the whole of Santa Barbara pretty much shuts down for Old Spanish Days, more commonly referred to as Fiesta. It began in the 1920's as a way to bring tourists back after a devastating earthquake. It is now a 5 day festival and everywhere you go there is music and dancing. We were showing Papa and Nana around town when we stumbled on a stage at the mall where girls were dancing. There is also a mercado (Spanish for market) with merchants selling dresses, pottery, jewelry and pretty much anything else you could think of. There are also food booths selling delicious Mexican food. Mommy and Daddy had tamales and enchilladas and for dessert we all had churros!

On Saturday, there is a children's parade and Clipper Windpower had a float that I rode on. It was so much fun! My friend Stella loaned me a dress and I got to hand out pinwheels to all the kids along the parade route. I can't wait to do it again next year. Viva La Fiesta!

Independence Day Part 2 - The Afternoon

After taking a little break following the parade, we headed to a BBQ/pool party in the afternoon, hosted by a friend of Daddy's (he owns the sailboat Daddy races on). The pool was amazing, it even had its own waterfall! I played in the pool for a long time with the other kids that were there and Daddy even got in to help me swim. I'm getting better!

A view from the top - look at me swimming with Daddy!

Under the waterfall

In the hot tub

Independence Day Part 1 - The Morning

I had such a fun 4th of July. We started out the day in Montecito, where I got to ride in the parade with my friend Stella, her sister Shaelynn and their friend, Arabella. We rode in a neat old car, a 1947 Willys Jeepster, that was decorated with ribbons and balloons. Stella and Shae's grandpa was our chauffeur (that's a fancy word for driver that I learned from Fancy Nancy) and we got to sit in the back seat and wave to the crowds. It was a blast!

Stay tuned for my further 4th of July adventures.....

Notre Dame Pre-K Graduation

Catherine graduated from pre-kindergarten a couple of weeks ago and they had a lovely ceremony at school. The children wore caps and scarves and received "diplomas." When asked what they liked most about pre-k the overwhelmingly popular response was playing outside with their friends on the playground.

The art teacher worked for a month with the children to do a landscape painting on canvas as a gift for the parents

With the wonderful pre-k teacher, Mrs. James

Catherine is very excited to be a kindergartner now and is looking forward to going to Peabody Charter School in the fall. Peabody is just a couple of blocks away so she is already practicing riding her bike to school.

I Madonnari Street Painting Festival

One of the most popular Memorial Day weekend festivities in Santa Barbara is the I Madonnari Festival. It is a street painting festival based on those they have in Italy, so-called because the artists traditionally painted pictures of the Madonna.

The Santa Barbara festival was created over 20 years ago and takes place in front of the beautiful Old Mission. Countless artists work over a 3-day period to create masterpieces out of pastels on the ground in front of the Mission. In addition, there are food booths with traditional fare, including gelato, which you bet we had!

Here are pictures of a few of our favorites:

In progress

This one looks familiar!

The artist at work


Doesn't it look like you could step right into this one?

Sesame Street Live

We have had a very busy couple of weeks and I have lots to report. Mommy promises she'll get it all on the blog but it might be out of order.

First up on the long Memorial Day weekend we drove an hour south to Thousand Oaks to see Sesame Street Live. Even though I don't often watch Sesame Street anymore, I loved it and I recognized all the characters - Abby Cadabby, Bert & Ernie, Elmo, Zoe, Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Oscar the Grouch...they were all there. It was so much fun to see them all come to life. There was a lot of singing and dancing - both on stage and in the audience! I brought my own Abby Cadabby along to see all her friends and she and I danced and sang along with everyone else.

Me and Abby Cadabby ready for the show

Abby & Elmo doing the hula

With my Elmo balloon

San Francisco!

My fifth birthday celebration continued in San Francisco with Papa and Nana. We had such a great time exploring the places I'd read about in my books "Maybelle the Cable Car" and "This is San Francisco." We went to Fisherman's Wharf, rode a cable car, a bus and a trolley, went to the Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park and Steinhart Aquarium. One of the best things was taking a ferry ride in the Bay - we went right under the Golden Gate Bridge and past Alcatraz Island!

Riding a cable car with Nana and Mommy

Wow! The Golden Gate Bridge is ginormous, especially seen from the water below.

Papa and I sharing dessert in a North Beach restaurant.