More Singing of Spring

Last Wednesday was Mam's very last Spring Sing at her preschool, where she's been for the last couple of years. Although the preschool director got all choked up when introducing our 4-year-olds, after seeing 8 "sings" in the course of the last three years, I wasn't as sentimental about this one as I'd expected. It's still unbearably cute. And, Mam is just luminous up there, waving to all her fans.And it is impressive to hear 100 4-year-olds sing 14 songs, even if they're largely the same songs I heard at the last two Spring Sings. Of course, when there are so many of them, any given one can forget the words and it doesn't really hurt the performance. And they have so many cute little hand motions and songs with sign language.Unfortunately, Mam's class was the last one on the stage and that meant they sat at the front. That's unfortunate mostly because her preschool is loaded with type-A parents who will wait an hour to get in and get a front row seat. I'm not one of them, so we generally have a back row seat instead. It was hard to see her through all the bodies in front of us.I think she knew we were there. At least she waved at someone after every song.

And when it was all over, we joined the kids for snack, where they used pretzels and blue frosting to "fish" for Goldfish crackers. Very cute.And so, it was over with very little fanfare. It was fun, it was cute, there are still a couple of months left. I guess I ought to enjoy them while she's still in preschool!

Serenity

Serenity? O.K., not really. But this is about as close as you can get to it when you've had two kids in tow all day and it's getting late in the afternoon. Last Friday (yeah, I'm behind again), I took the kids to Happy Hollow...well, actually, I made an ill-fated trip to the Children's Discovery Museum in San Jose. Smunch really, really wanted to see the Clifford exhibit that they've been advertising on PBS and both kids love the museum. It seemed like time to take them back. But I didn't count on it being the first day of the Silicon Valley Grand Prix...and the roads to the museum parking were all blocked off. And parking was going to cost me $25. I bailed...thankfully. It turned out it took a Grand Prix ticket to get the the museum anyway. The kids begrudgingly agreed to go to Happy Hollow instead.

We've been to Happy Hollow a lot this summer, so I didn't feel the need to take a lot of pictures since I did that every other time we were there. It was another fun day with the kids. No fighting, just a lot of wandering around, riding rides, feeding goats. At least Mommy managed to remember to bring a pocket full of quarters this time!

The most surprising part of the day (and this is where the serenity comes in) happened when we left the park. We were headed back to the mommymobile when Smunch spotted a little sign with an arrow and asked me what it said. I told him it said "Japanese Friendship Garden".

Smunch: Can we go there?
Me: Well, sure Smunch, but it's getting a little late. (looks at time on phone) You might miss Curious George
Smunch: (pauses to think) O.K.
Me: Really? Mam, do you want to go to the Japanese Friendship Garden?
Mam: O.K.

I have no idea where we're headed because, although I've seen the sign before, I've never actually considered going down there. But all three of us head down the hill. It doesn't look like Japanese garden down there. There's a big sign "Japanese Friendship Garden". I took the kids that way and finally spot a little doorway, which opens, as you might hope, into a big, lovely Japanese garden.

I don't know what I expected, exactly. There were really quite a lot of people there and it was just a garden, after all. But the kids were thrilled and they were well-behaved.




They loved the bridges, the giant koi, the water lilies and the dragonflies. There was a waterfall, flowering trees and streams running around the whole place. There was even a dispenser for fish food...but I'd used up all my quarters on the goat chow at the Happy Hollow petting zoo.

A Marine Memorial Day

Since Daddy was in serious need of working on Memorial Day, I decided to take Smunch up on his request for a visit to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We took Mam too, of course. It wasn't a huge mistake, but I'd errantly envisioned the same kind of happy day we'd spent at Happy Hollow. I was...uh...wrong. Mam was still whiney and snotty and Smunch was still belligerent. He was thrilled to be going to the aquarium. He'd never been there before, but he'd heard about it from friends. Unfortunately, the anticipation of the visit was more exciting than the aquarium itself.

There were a few highlights though. The first tank of jellyfish was pretty cool. They weren't so interesting after the first several tanks, but they were cool for a bit. One of the kids' favorite things had very little to do with fish at all. There is a clear, glass tunnel that was supposed to give the impression that you were in a tidepool, with waves splashing over you every minute or so. So, you stand in there and *whoosh*, a giant wave of water goes over the top of you. Cool. And it got the kids away from the whining and crying they were doing while looking at the penguins and playing in the kiddie area.











After three hours of struggling to keep the kids on a short leash in the aquarium, the place was absolutely packed and we finally left to go check out the beach. I don't know why I didn't make myself leave sooner! We didn't even pay to get into the aquarium because I used my parents' guest passes. I didn't need to torture myself, or my poor semi-bored, semi-overwhelmed children. Oh well. We meant to go down to Point Lobos, but it was already getting a little late for that, with a long drive home ahead of us. So, we drove down the coast a ways to a place where Smunch saw waves hitting a big cluster of rocks and making giant splashes. It had turned into a beautiful Monterey day, even if it was windy.We all trudged down the beach and picked our way, carefully across the rocks as the tide was going out.
We had a grand time sitting on top of the big jumble of rocks, watching crabs skitter by and Smunch and Mam screeching in delight (and almost giving Mommy a heart attack by jumping up and down in excitement while perched atop the rocky outcropping) as the waves splashed up against the rocks and showered them with water.

So, what started as a day with potential and turned into a lesson in the frustrations of going to a crowded tourist attraction on a holiday, finally turned into a pretty great memory of two little kids having a fantastic time gazing out at the sea. Possibly my favorite quote of the whole thing came from Mam who got to the top of the rocks and declared, "I can see the whole ocean!"

Walking back to the mommymobile, I couldn't keep the kids from walking on the ice plant, but it made for a pretty picture at the beach...and solidified it as a fine day after all.