4/25 - Bat Ring listens to a love song

Bat Ring and I met this nice large bird today, who sang us a love song after we said hello. What a friendly fellow!

4/24 - Bat Ring says, "Who are you calling a cream puff?"

This morning, we found helpful instructions on how to operate a cherry picker.  No keys, though.

We took Jeanine for lunch to thank her for being a rockstar admin, and the place had these yummy birds on display.

3/22 - Blue Monster Truck plays chicken

Blue Monster Truck wanted to race with this yellow car, but it had to take The Man to work.

Then, he tried to play chicken with a basket of roosters, but that didn't go so well either.

At least, the Shoe Wiz was happy to get a ride.  (Although... why wouldn't he use his magic to make flying shoes?)

3/08 - Stormtrooper Piggie tries on some dinosaur legs

They were even faster than he thought they'd be, as they were on the side of a moving bus!  Go, go baggy legs!

This guy is clearly on the angry birds' side...  Watch out, Stormtrooper!  (He's OK.)

3/05 - Alienist goes cloud sailing

He wanted to tell this bird all about cloud technology, but the bird squawked and flew away in surprise.  As if he’d never seen a cloud-flying alien before.  Sheesh.

Alienist says, "I am not a moustache!" He also didn’t like being a pince-nez.  But who would?

Also, who would take their shoes off and ride all the way into the city in their sock feet?  This guy.  It's not like he didn't have shoes -- they were right there under his seat!

1/20 - Angry Birds Birthday Party

My little guys are not so little anymore...  This weekend, the twins turned SEVEN (7) years old.  They are fast-paced gangly people with strong opinions and fierce imaginations that still let me hug and kiss them up at will.    #love  This year, they wanted an Angry Birds Star War party.  Super cool, but there isn't much merch out there to buy yet.  Not that this was going to stop me...

Nor was their teacher's request to only send healthy snacks (no cupcakes!)...  Inspired by the post at bentology, I made piggie spinach tortilla sandwiches with garden cream cheese spread and not-healthy candy eyes.  The birds were crackers and provolone cheese, with carrot beaks, not-healthy candy eyes, and seaweed eyebrows.  Crouching Mother, Hidden Toddler's tutorial for painting cheese is here.

For the party, I built a live action Angry Birds game.  I covered boxes with butcher's paper to make them look uniform, got some piggie stuffies from the party store, and ordered some new Angry Birds Star Wars stuffies to throw at them and knock them all down.  The kids worked as a team to build up the structures and took turns hurling the angry birds.

Next, I wanted to make an Angry Birds bowling game, but my attempts with the paint I had were not successful.  Happily, Mama had some plastic bowling pins on hand, so we used those and a ball I meant to draw a bird face onto, but I ran out of time.  The kids never noticed the lapse in theme and loved the game, so I'm going to count it as a win.

Our last game was a variation on Hot Potato -- Pass the Angry Bird.  Whoever was left with the bird in hand when the music stopped "got exploded."  We played three rounds!

Then, it was time for cupcakes!  You can use my cupcake topper template.

Happy birthday, my sweeties!  I love you!

9/17 - Toucan hears a "beep beep"

The BART roadrunner was going so fast, he was a blur!  He said, “Beep beep!” as he went past, but Toucan couldn’t reply or he’d lose the berry in his mouth.

8/02 - Rico has a surprise for the rare peacock vulture

We saw this strange bird on the cover of a newspaper. Rico wanted to sneak up behind him and KABOOM!, but then the light changed and we had to cross the street.

Good team + good food = good team lunch.  Good is good.  We will miss Elizabeth, who is moving on to better things...

6/22 - Pink Penguin haz a happy

This motorcycle guy had a smiley face on his pants leg. How funny! It made Pink Penguin smile too.

Pink Penguin tried to teach Cutie Bird to ice skate. She slipped on the desktop, and Pink Penguin asked, “Are you OK?!” Cutie Bird said, “I meant to do that!”

6/19 - Shy Guy plays king of the coffee

We usually drink coffee from the office kitchen, but when there’s an early meeting, I grab one on the way in. Shy Guy felt so tall up there on this cup!

Whooo is his new friend? A nice owl we met on the way to haircut, that's who.

5/15 - Sparrow considers a career change

First, Sparrow tried to get Raj to be a pirate, so he could be a pirate parrot.

Then, he wanted to be Koopa Troopa’s pet parrot.  Silly Sparrow!

When the parrot idea didn’t work out, Sparrow tried to be a woodpecker.  But when it hurt his beak, he decided it was just fine to be a Sparrow after all.  The end.

4/29 - Weekend fun: Pickle edition

This weekend, we enjoyed the warm, sunny weather.  The kids came with me to derby practice, where guest coach Shadow Soldier whipped us into shape, and gave us scrimmaging pointers.

On Saturday, we went to the farmer's market and I went a little veggie crazy.  Turns out the kids are nuts for snow peas!  Between lunch and dinner, they ate them all!  I learned that orange cauliflower is orange all the way through -- stems and all.

Today, despite the racket from the neighbor's roofing project, we soaked up the sun in the backyard.  My favorite moments were reading with the kids on a blanket under the plum tree and chasing them on their bikes in my roller skates.  (Note to self:  Lil' Guy can run faster than I can skate.)

In keeping with our game where we pretended to be a bird family, I made the twins a "worm lunch," with worms of many colors and some grubs (brown rice).  They loved it!

Also, we made @RecipeGirl's bread and butter pickles with cucumbers from the farmer's market.  They are soooo good!

4/25 - Field Trip!

I am sorry to say that today's post does not include any toys in quasi-adult situations.  What we have here is one adult (me) in a child situation -- with animals!  They count, right?  I volunteered to be a chaperone for the kindergarten field trip to the local nature center.  Here are Lil' Gal and Lil' Guy and their posse.

Here is Ashley, the blind possum.  (Did you know that a possum's "pocket" is vertical, not horizontal?)

We got to pet a nice gopher snake.

And meet the tiniest grown-up screech owl.

And then Lil' Guy lost a tooth to a taffy lollipop.  (Lil' Gal's wiggly tooth is still attached -- she is NOT happy.)

04/19 - Ian finds angry birds and pretty trees

Ian thought the chicken in the fez might be an angry bird, but she wasn’t.  Phew!

We also liked this pretty tree.  It reminded me of the weeping willow at my childhood house.

Today is the 2-week anniversary of my ear infection.  I still cannot hear properly out of that ear.  Argh!!

2/14 - Green Birdie goes postal

He thinks he’d be a really good mascot.  Look at that fine beak!

Green Birdie is loved -- A magic mirror told him so!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2/08 - Carrot thinks you are beautiful

Orange Carrot met Pink Flamingo, Yellow Cab and Yellow Crane on a colorful lunchtime walk.

Never forget:  You are beautiful!