I love this place, I love this market

Had such a fun weekend. Cousin K. "met" Miss M for an afternoon of playing around. The girls just ran and ran and were so busy with absolutely NO down time at all. I spent a little bit of time playing with them and chasing them around the house, but mostly, they were just busy playing with each other. We didn't have any problems with them at all (except for when they decided, for some reason, to draw on each other's faces with marker!!!). They really seemed to enjoy each other's company. Don and Roxana came, too, of course and that was fun to see them and hang out with them without them being busy doing other stuff. :)
Sunday, I had all these ideas for stuff to do - - we could go to MOLAA (for their Family Sundays), go to the mall and ride the carousel, make a paper maiche type bowl (from something I saw in a Woman's Day magazine), do a handprint mold (from one of the many that I got when Miss M was born that I was too tired to even try to do when she was first born), or something fun like that. Miss M wanted to go to the mall and we were on our way there when I remembered the Farmers Market in the Marina on Sundays. So we had a change of plans and headed that way instead. I figured why be inside at the mall on such a beautiful day? It would be more fun to be outside, walking around, looking at all the food, right by the water - - and we could get some awesome tamales(!). When I told Miss M that there had been a change in plans, she was not very happy. But, I think once we had been at the Market for about 10 mins, she told me "I love this place, I love this market". Yeah!!!! We ended up only buying organic kale, celery, and corn on the cob (they have soooo much more organic food there than we used to have at our Signal Hill FM). We also shared a pineapple tamale (which I will probably not get again...I would have gotten back in line for another one, but it was too long). Miss M didn't like the tamale so much, but she did REALLY enjoy all the guys there with guitars. I think her favorite was the guy who was actually singing. He must make a lot of money doing that because it seems like every FM I go to in LB, he's there. We were there for quite awhile...they now have an adjoining craft fair that goes on, too. I didn't see a lot of actual buying and it looked like most people were there for the Farmers Market and then just walked down to the craft fair to look around (like us).
Afterwards we walked over to Whole Foods for lunch (even though our WF is small in comparison, having lunch there always reminds me of how much we enjoyed going to WF in Seattle, trying different things, and just sitting down and relaxing). We ended up sharing the Raw Kale Salad, Couscous, and this (deeelicious) Sesame Tofu. For desert, Miss M had a little baby cupcake that she completely ate (it was the perfect size). We walked down and looked at the boats for awhile and then headed off to Target to pick up some stuff really quick.
It was very nice and relaxing - and something different. For dinner, we were gonna head over to Ninos on Atlantic, but (thank gawd) I got on yelp and looked it over - - we decided to just be safe and go to CPK in the Marina instead since they are so kid friendly. However, I guess we should have tried somewhere new since Miss M fell asleep on the way to the restaurant and didn't wake up again until we got home!!! :)
More later! :)

Sid the Science Kid (at AOP)

Had so much fun last Friday - - picked Miss M up from school, went to the library (our normal after-school trek) and she got her own library card! Then, she told me that she didn't want to go home yet, but I guess she forgot that it was the night that Sid the Science Kid was going to be at the AOP! I called SN to see if he wanted to go - I forgot to tell him about it in any detail...I think I had casually mentioned it in passing a few weeks earlier. So, he decided to stay late at work and Miss M and I went out for dinner (CPK - yum, yum - Miss M was soooo good - she ordered all her own food and "thank you"s everytime - - aaahhhh! makes me so totally proud!!!) and then we went over to the AOP.

It was pretty much like any other kid's event that they have - special food (ie - mac n cheese), a craft, face painting, and see the live, colorful shrimp that they have on display in one small tank... They usually have classes and movies for the older kids, well older than mine (!), but since most of these events don't start until 6:30, it's hard for us to do everything anyways. But, the big event of the night was that they had Sid there. He was tall - bigger than me - but, the kids all loved him!!! We got in line so that Miss M could say hello. We got part way down the line (not quite half) when Miss M decided that she just wanted to stand and watch him. She had a good vantage point, and she waved a few times, but he never saw her (I don't think that she really noticed that, though). Finally, she decided that she wanted to give him a hug, so we got back into the line and started moving towards the front...and they gave the guy a break!!! sheesh! We hung out for probably five or ten minutes after his break started, but Miss M kept asking where he was, so I finally suggested that we walk around and do something else...she never asked about him again - she was too busy with other stuff (including, sometimes, just walking around looking at things!!!

She ended up making this hat that was just a black band with a pipecleaner stuck in the front and a cotton ball-thingy on the end that would hang down in front of the kids' faces.... I don't know if they do the same things over and over every year, or if they just have someone really creative working there to think up crafts. But, both times that we have been there for something like this - - the crafts have been a big hit with Miss M!!!

Very fun!

More later!!

:)