Lucia Takes her First Karate Class

Today, was a very exciting day for Miss Lucia or at least it started that way. She has been wanting to take karate for a long time because of all of the exposure she has gotten watching her brother. One thing we did learn is although she wants to be tough...she wants to do it in style.

All smiles before class starts

But once she discovered that some girls had pink gloves and there were none left for her...well her attitude took a turn. You can see she is obstinately lack luster.

M&L Make Homemade Pizza

Today Navita had the ingenious idea of having the kids make their own meals and staged it as a "fun" activity so they didn't even know they were working. She propped them up and they made mini pizzas.

Lucia takes her pizza making seriously

And Mateo was incredibly focused

To see and hear more click the link below

Lucia and Mateo Making Pizza

M&L Do Science Experiments

So one of the coolest gifts the kids received for Christmas was an experiments book. They tended to do random experiments using our expensive shampoos and creams (without permission), so I am glad that they now have a more structured inexpensive outlet for their creative minds.

Today's 1st experiment involved jello, a peppermint and some soda. Unfortunately, it was a dud and completely fizzled, but not in a good way.

Fortunately, the experiment was good enough to eat

The second experiment worked out much better and was a lot simpler. It was to make Goop - simple - water, corn starch and food coloring

And voila! Happy Times!

A little commentary on the experiment

Of course this is what was left of my countertop, but it was all in the name of science so I have to support it.

Lucia the Builder

Lucia has really gotten into building with some of her old and new toys. One of the newer toys actually belongs to her brother, but she enjoys it just the same.

Lucia builds a marble castle

Lucia Goes to Vivi's 5th Birthday Party

Today Lucia and Mommy got to venture into the city to go to a birthday party at the Children's Museum of Manhattan. It was a cold and rainy day, but made our way through it to help Vivi celebrate her 5th birthday.

Lucia was fascinated by this putty like substance that she could turn into any form

Vivi had other guests who Lucia knew...Alessia and Amelia in pink and black

Lucia made this fancy hat for the children's parade

And the birthday girl, Vivi, had the grandest hat of all as she led the parade

Lucia and Alessia stayed in step

Another friend, Tom, was also there. Tom is quite popular..Lucia has called Tom her "boyfriend" and Amelia to the right has said she is married to Tom. Lucky guy!

And now at the end of the party, the kids' favorite part. BALL PIT!!!

So what is great about having a party at the museum is once the party is over the kids get to participate in all of the other activities in the museum for free, so that is exactly what we did. Lucia made a headdress.

She also did prints using a ink and a paint roller

She finished off her time drawing at the easel

Later that evening Lucia and Mateo kicked off their experiment trials. Since they are both so curious, for Christmas they received a book of experiments. Tonight they tried a very basic one - celery in food coloring. This is their best scientist faces.

Lucia's is in red and Mateo's is in green. The end result will be red and green tinted celery...all the way up to the leaves

M&L Get Special West Coast Visitors

So the year started out stellar because not only were the holidays great, but today the kids had fun day playing with our friends. It was a major playdate, Mateo and Lucia had Maddie and Max and I had Jess. Yah!

Princess Maddie and Princess Lucia had a great time playing dress up

 Mateo and Max built up this marvelous marble structure

 And surprise, surprise...we got additional guests. Aiden came to visit which means that the kids (Aiden, Max and Lucia) got to relive the baby pinwheel.

To see their younger pinwheel sessions. Click on the links below.

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 We also got to meet Sonia (mini Ant) for the first time and of course Ant and Tara were there as well.

 Eddie and Ant enjoyed the play-offs

Sam looks like he has two dedicated fans of his own.

Good Times!