Blue and Orange Guitars at Olvera Street

Last night, I mentioned the thought of going to Olvera Street in the morning to buy little toy guitars for the boys.  John jumped all over that opportunity because he has been asking for a little dark blue guitar since our last visit to Olvera Street in 2010 . Sure enough, we headed over there this morning and found little guitars in the second stand on the street.  After purchasing their guitars, we continued to walk down the way.  The boys would stop at every stand along the way, but they had fun.  Nicholas really wanted some orange maracas, so we may just have to go back there to pick them up in two years.

John and Nicholas plan to give a concert in our back courtyard for the neighbors.  Their friend, Annabelle, may even join in on the fun.

Making Cookies for Papi For Father's Day

At Pavillions, we saw this cookie kit and thought it would be nice for the boys to make cookies to take over to Papi on Father's Day.  The boys had so much doing it that they decided that the living room was now going to be called John and Nicholas' Bakery.  I like the sound of it.

BTW, Papi liked his cookies.

Johnny Does Not Hate Jazz

Our neighbors who live one floor below us, Rob and Val, invited us to join them and their daughters at LACMA for the free jazz concert on Friday night.  Anyone, who knows me, knows that we like to keep the boys on a strict schedule, but we decided to take a chance and have some fun.  John and Nicholas love to play with Annabelle, so it was win-win.  Baby Tabitha is still too young to run around, but she'll get there.

Anwho, we joined the Johnsons and walked over to the lawn at LACMA for some fun music and dinner.  Maureen was kind enough to pick up some sandwiches from the wine shop, so we had some lovely prosciutto sandwiches.  John just loved it and Nicholas just loved saying prosciutto over and over in a slight faux-Italian accent.  Annabelle even liked the prosciutto.

The highlight for the kids was to run around and dance in the courtyard.  If you ever want a nice place for kids to run around, head over to LACMA.  Aside from the museum buildings, they have MANY great areas for the kids to run around and have fun.  Plus, it's next to the La Brea Tar Pits, so if you want to teach them a lesson about the Ice Age and woolly mammoths, you can do that as well.

Saturday Morning at Yum Yum Donuts in Hollywood

Saturday morning, I had an appointment to visit Jerry on Larchmont.  After that, I told the boys I'd go pick them up to go get donuts.  John decided that we were going to go to Yum Yum Donuts across the street from Pavillions on Melrose and Vine.  They'd gone to the Yum Yum on Melrose and Highland before when we picked up gas that the 76 station, so they were happy to see another store.  Mommy and Daddy were not too excited about going to Yum Yum since it's kind of small and there were some seedy looking characters in the parking lot.  Still, we went in and had donuts.

The boys didn't bother to eat most of theirs.  They just nibbled on them and ate some of the chocolate off the top.  I think they were more excited to see the vast variety of donuts at this particular location.  And, they were super impressed by the number of facings of milk in the display case.

To say the least, Maureen and I are still fans of Bob's Donuts.  I think we'll keep this one on the "Do Not Visit" list.  We'll just tell the boys that its closed if they ask to go there.  Plus, the help wasn't all that helpful.  It said that it had an "A" rating, but I don't think an LA County inspector had been there in a while.

King Beach Boys

One of the joys of the weekdays for Maureen is to take the boys out for adventures.  Last Tuesday, it was such a lovely day that Maureen actually took John's recommendation to head out to the beach.  He said, "It's such a nice day for the beach."   That boy is quite persuasive.  He's either going to be a politician or a lawyer.

Tom's Toys in Beverly Hills

We had to pay a visit to the closest Paper Source store which happened to be in Beverly Hills.  When we parked, we noticed there was a really cool toy store called Tom's Toys across the street and told the boys we'd come back to see if once we picked up our paper goods.  Sure enough, it was a super cool toy store that had all sort so great toys at VERY reasonable prices.  Some of the prices were even lower than Target.  Anway, at the front of the store, they had this really cool riding horse that the boys wanted to ride.  Who am I to say no to that request?

Community Day at Park La Brea

It was Community Day at Park La Brea.  We decided to go check it out because we read there were going to be all sorts of activities, food trucks, the police, and firemen.  After jumping around in the bouncer (there were some ruffians in there who were way too old to be in there, but that's not my call), I stopped by the King Kone truck for a soft serve cone.  Sure enough, my two little buddies decided that they wanted to eat my ice cream.  Initially, they said that they didn't want anything, but I guess they forgot about that when they saw my chocolate/vanilla swirl cone.

After a little more play, we picked up some lunch from another truck.  Maureen had some Musubi and I had the more tradition hamburger and fries.  The boys much on that and some ice cream.  They both rejected the Musubi.  I don't blame them.  We went to see the fire truck and as you can see, one of the boys got to go in the truck.  John was just a little to shy to do it.  Just down the way, there was a police motorcycle and Officer Henry was kind enough to let the boys on there.  John did make it on the motorcycle, but he refused to have his picture taken.  Like Father, Like Son!

Lazy Boys on a Sunday Morning

As usual, Nicholas strolled into our room at about 5:45 AM this morning like a little cat.  He started calling for Maureen and he wound up in our bed between us.  It's a good thing we have a California King because Prince John decided to follow in on the fun about 30 minutes after that.  Sure enough, he joined in on the California King bed and watched a little tv.  I cannot recall what we put on at that hour, but we eventually went out to the living room for some breakfast.  After breakfast, the boys were just lounging around and stumbled upon a cache of lollipops.  Before we knew what was happening, they were just lazing around on the couch.  After their snack, John started up with his regular weekend question, "What fun thing are we going to do today?"

Nicholas' First Trip to Pink's

This morning, John had a birthday party to attend, so Nicholas and I were looking for an adventure.  I decided that we were going to go to the dry cleaner to pick up our clothes and then maybe go get my car washed.  It really needs one, but that's not a story to share here.  Anyway, after picking up the clothes, I decided to drive up La Brea and was almost to Pink's.  I asked Nicholas if he wanted to get some french fries.  He replied (in that ever sweet voice of his), "Uh-huh."  I figured that there'd be a line and that would be my excuse to say we can't go, but there was no line.  You don't have to twist my arm to stop at Pink's when there is no line.  We picked up some victuals to go.  I went with the bacon burrito dog and chilli fries.  Nicholas went for the regular fries.  He actually wanted to eat there, but I didn't want to take the chance of him pooping in public.  I just don't want to deal with the mess.

We agreed that the next time we go to Pink's that we'd take Johnny and Mama.  We also agreed that we'd eat there.  He really wanted to eat there.

The New Trader Joe's

As if having one Trader Joe's down the street from us wasn't cool enough, now we have a brand new one about three quarters of a mile away.  The boys really enjoy going to the new Trader Joe's because it is far more spacious and it has child sized shopping carts.
Today, we had to stop in to get some supplies of a fettunta that Maureen is going to make this evening for dinner.  The boys insisted on each getting their own shopping carts.  John was an old pro at it since he was used to the shopping carts at Ralph's, but our Nicholas needed a little more help and eventually abandoned the cart.  That meant that I had to use the mini cart for the remaining time in the store.


As soon as we hit the store, John kept on asking to head over to the samples area.  Last week, he enjoyed some yogurt and apple slices.  This week, he had granola and yogurt.  This was the first time he tried granola and he seemed to like it.  Nicholas, of course, refused a sample.  He was more concerned with picking up our "Garden Party Cookies".

Yummy Treats

We took the boys to Village Pizzeria for dinner. Nicholas was almost at his wit's end since he had been awake since 5:45 AM and it was now 5:00 PM.  Don't blame us.  He woke up bright and early of his own volition which meant that we were pretty much awake at that hour anyway.  Anywho, he rallied and made it through dinner and we decided to take the boys over to 31 Flavors for a nice ice cream treat.  John decided that he wanted an ice cream cone, so of course, Nicholas asked for the same.  Nicholas went for the rainbow sherbet (I always thought it was SHERBERT), and John likes the traditional vanilla.  I'd say they both made good choices.  For the record, I had rocky road.

Someone No Longer Needs to Wear Pull Ups

It took longer than it should have, but our John has decided that he is a big boy and wants to wear his underwear full time.  It all started on Tuesday morning when he came into the bed room and informed me that he had a present in his pull up.  I told him that he was too old for that and that he'd only wear diapers from that point on.  He turned to Maureen and said, "Mama, is this true?  Only diapers for me?"  She said no and that he'd have to try to be a big boy sooner than later.  I felt kind of bad for saying the diaper thing, but I think it may have worked.

Later, I received a call from home at work.  It was John and he had something important to tell me.  He told me that he had made a few nuggets in his potty.  Actually, he was playing at home and he just went into the bathroom and did it all by himself without telling anyone.  He came out with his little commode and showed Grammy and Maureen his fine work.  I told him that I was going to bring him a special reward and picked up a couple of Hot Wheels cars.  I told him that he'd get one every time he did his business in the potty.  I even told him that if he didn't have any #2 accidents, that we'd buy him a special Hot Wheels track with a dinosaur.

As you can see from the picture, he is the proud owner of a special race track.  Also, you can see the bucket of cars that we have for both boys.  Nicholas even gets in on the action since he likes to make #1 in his little potty as well.  We told him that he'd get a special Hot Wheels track if he makes poop in his potty, but that's a little ways off, don't you think?

Fun at the Museum

Maureen mentioned that she wanted to go to the museum to see the California Design Exhibit.  I hopped onto the internet and saw that the exhibition closed today, so we knew we had to head over to view it immediately.  After running our errands at Kmart and Whole Foods, we packed up and headed over to LACMA.  Normally, we'd walk; however, I felt that it might be a good day to drive because it would give us a good chance to use the parking lot elevator.  For those of you who haven't used the elevators in the parking structures, they're pretty cool.  Yes, I'd have to pay for parking (or so I thought); however, the elevators would entertain the boys.

After a bit of lunch at the Plaza Cafe, we headed to the box office to get our tickets.  Our next door neighbor works at LACMA and he was at the box office.  The boys were happy to see him and he was ever so nice to the boys.  We headed over to the Resnick Pavillion to view the exhibit.  The boys weren't exactly excited to see the exhibit, but they did get to enjoy the "Hearphones" and watch industrial films from the fifties and sixties.  It was quite entertaining to see their amazement at the music and sound that they'd hear.  I guess "Hearphones" is a good name for those things.

Also at the Resnick Pavillion, we saw the Children of the Plumed Serpent Exhibit.  That featured artifacts from all sorts of Mexican civilizations like the Mayan and Aztec cultures.  I was able to show John where Merida was on the map.  He didn't seem particularly impressed with the fact that his grandparents were from there.  He was more impressed with the map.  He's going to be a cartographer or navigator in the future.  It is written.  Anywho, I showed him a carved serpent from Chichen Itza that was on loan from some museum somewhere.  I would have told him about the time I went to Chichen Itza as a boy, but he would not have cared.  He just wanted to look at the snakes.

After that, we headed over to the Broad Pavillion to look at Metropolis II.  Actually, we took the really, really, really big elevator up to the third floor to go to the observation level.  We headed out on the patio and could see our building, the Grove, the Beverly Center, the 99 Cents Store on Sixth/Fairfax, the Hollywood Sign, and the observatory.  It was a bit smoggy so the last two were hard to see for the boys, but that third floor gives a great view of the city north of Wilshire.

After viewing Metropolis II, we headed home.  First, I had to go back to the box office to pay for parking, but our super, cool neighbor was kind enough to comp my parking.  I'd say getting free parking at the museum was the cherry on the ice cream sundae of a Saturday afternoon at the museum!