Wonder Aunt Power...Activate!

Form of...an awesome cool aunt!


Shape of...an ice sea anemone!

Okay, I have no idea what that second thing means. I just punched the button on my internal "Wonder Twins Form/Shape Generator" and that's what popped out. You can't strike gold every time.

My sister Hope just left on Saturday, and we're all still in mourning a little bit. Actually, a lotta bit. She was here for a week and we had a terrific visit with her. Kiernan clearly adores her--the way he would light up when he saw her first thing in the morning was just beautiful--and she clearly reciprocates that feeling. She was great with him, and was a huge help during a week when Wendy had to be out of town on business. Hope would get up with us every morning and help get Kiernan ready for school and then join us in the drive to school. She and I would then return to the house and I'd do some cleaning, a little bit of work, and then the two of us would talk for a bit. Then we'd head back out to pick up Kiernan from school and go on with our day. Rather than expecting to be entertained or anything like that, she totally wanted to focus on jumping in and being a part of our day to day routine. This made for a great visit, for all of us.

In honor of that, I shall now post one of her favorite pictures of her nephew from her visit. She took this during the birthday party we attended over the weekend.


Cool picture.

The party was for Kiernan's friend Julia and was held at this cool little nature center in a place called Placerita Canyon. We got there and found the party just where Julia's mom, Brenda said it would be, at the Butterfly Garden. Kiernan immediately started exploring while Ranger Mary--our guide--prepared the craft project that would kick off the party. Kiernan was less than interested in settling down to do the craft project, which consisted of taking a cross section disk that had been cut from an old Christmas tree and gluing various bits of nature to it in order to create a "creature". These bits were mostly rocks and flora...Kiernan may have been more interested had the project included a little fauna. Oh well. He focused long enough to make a simple creature then dashed off to explore some more.

I love this picture of him settling down to do the craft. I love that Hope caught this moment, because this captures a thing he does that really makes me happy. When we're reading together, or just hanging out, he'll often drape his arm over my shoulders. For intance, I often read the comics to him from the paper. I hate the comics, have hated them since Calvin & Hobbes [rightly] deserted their pages years ago, but he loves me to read them to him, so I do. I like to lie down on my stomach while reading them, and he often sidles up to me and throws an arm over my shoulders. It's such a cool buddy move.

After this Kiernan spent a little time jumping off a bench while we waited to go on a nature hike. Hope's pictures might give you an idea of the action.

After this bit of jumping, in preparation for the nature hike to come the kids lined up to make trail mix for themselves. Each kid got a zip-top bag and got to scoop one spoonfull from five or six containers of trail mix ingredients. Plain M&M's. Raisins. Assorted nuts. Peanut butter M&M's. Something else I can't remember. The kids were limited to one spoonful of each selection in creating their trailmix. The genius move on Julia's mom Brenda's part was putting a spork-like utensil in the Plain M&M's container. She knew that anybody in their right mind would try to Bogart extra M&M's, and she was prepared. Genius.

The nature hike was next, after a quick stop at the restrooms. Well..."quick" may be the wrong word. We are talking about twenty toddlers here, and four port-a-potties. So let's just say this "bathroom break" took a bit of time. Time enough for Kiernan to polish off his entire bag of trail mix. Oh well. Onto the trail!

The hike was cool. Ranger Mary stopped every few steps to explain something about Poison Oak or coyote scat ("On the trail we don't call it 'poop'..."--giggles all around). The highlight of the hike was when she stopped to show each and every kid a trapdoor spider that had set up shop along the path. She crouched down and took out her knife and gingerly opened the spider's trap door. Then she allowed each child to file past and peek in at the spider. The kids loved this part of the adventure.

After we arrived back at the Butterfly Garden, Ranger Mary started bringing out creatures for the kids to see. She brought out a snake for them to look at. Also a tortoise. Also a tarantula. After the tarantula we took a break for cupcakes and some amazing concoction Brenda had created for the parents called "dirt 'n worms" or something that was basically cake, pudding, and gummy worms in a bowl. After licking the icing off his cupcake, Kiernan was happy to dig into this other dessert.

Ranger Mary then brought out an owl for the kids to see. That was amazing. A real owl that she had adopted. The kids thought this was just fine, but the adults were clearly mesmerized, asking questions and pretty much forgetting they were at a six-year-old's birthday party. I love moments like this.

Finally we all filed into the gift shop and picked out party favors. Kiernan got a long yellow snake (plastic) and some weird insect encased in goo and housed in a plastic egg. I'm not sure what we're going to do with that thing. I'll keep you posted.



All in all the party was great. Julia's parents, Brenda and Michael, did a great job hosting the party at a new and interesting place. Good on them for pulling that off. I know I could never have done that. Wendy could. Not me. I'd be constantly thinking about the coyote that had left that scat, asking myself, "Why would a coyote--or anybody really--leave his scat right in the middle of the footpath? Isn't that just embarrassing? Unless he was taunting us. Setting a trap for us."

Oof. I know. I watch too many movies. Or too much "Looney Tunes" in my youth. Who knows.

But that coyote should be ashamed of himself. Seriously.