Girls, Garbage Trucks, Good Times

Mondays are quite the fun-days with Mary Jane and Betsy.  You wouldn't believe how much excitement they receive watching trash trucks go down the street.  And the best news: three different trash trucks and they have to go east and west down the street.  Six times to see trash trucks!!!  No greater joy than seeing that arm reach down, grab the receptacle, raise it high into the air, fling it over the top, release the garbage, and then slamming it back down onto the ground.  Try it some time.  It might not awe you but watch it with a toddler.  Now I understand why little kids were so into Bob the Builder and stuff like that.

Of course that would just be six times to see the trash trucks doing their glorious deeds.  To maximize trash-dumping viewings, I pulled out the stroller and followed them down Dewey Street.  Interestingly enough, the trucks eke ahead a little more than the casual stroll a parent would use.  Yes, I could haul it with the Double Bob but I had my sandals on and as Mary Jane knows, I only run with my white shoes.  Sandals?  Maybe a deliberate pace... but never fast.  Regardless we did see lots more trash dumping today.

Happy Independence Day!

Mary Jane and Betsy Jo say happy Fourth of July to all.

Post-Modern Art

 Betsy Jo and Mary Jane have now taken up art.  Or at least coloring anything that moves as is apparent from the picture above.  They were given three colors: red, blue, and yellow.  So one can see all the varieties of dipping they did to get their colors as perfect as they can be.

Of course there is no better canvas that the human face.  At least these paints are water-based so all the paint comes off the face and hair easily enough.  And I already learned from the first outing, no clothes except diapers!  Otherwise everything gets stained...

More masterpieces forthcoming.

Tricycle: the Power Ride

Mary Jane was power riding down Dewey Street this afternoon.  She barely had time to say Hi and Bye to her dear Mommy.  Now that is an exercise ride!

Father's Day in Pictorial Retrospect

 Those crazy Father's Day traditions.  In my family, the dad makes waffles for the family.  So there you go... waffles with bacon (thanks, Mommy) and milk.  Darned delicious if I might say so myself.  Every year I say I need to do this more than once a year.  Maybe I should... but for the third annual Erb Father's Day Breakfast, a full tummy was had all around.  Look at those girls!

 Yum.  Bacon and waffles.  Cold glass of milk.  Much like the hokie pokie, that's what it's all about.

Our girls chilling inside an old abandoned building on the Paramount Ranch.  It's somewhere between Malibu and Calabassas in the hills of the Santa Monica Mountains.

The Doctor Is In

She makes house calls.  Regarding my sore knee (from running 12 miles this morning!), she said that I need a band-aid and, "Throw up, Daddy!"  Yeah, guess that might help my knee.  Silly doctor.

That New Generation

Speaking of "generations" (a not too loosely made allusion to The Who from the previous post), the new girls Cookie Sue and Heidi have expressed their disdain to the traditional rabbit hunger strike.  Cherry Bugg often created hunger strikes to show the humans how much suffering the bunnies were going through.  It's true that the hunger strikes did not work well with Root Beer Float and Ruby Jane as they would eat anything within sight.  Then again after their quick munching, they would proclaim that Mister John did not give them enough to eat.

Heidi does seem perplexed that there is a water dish named for Fred.  Ah, good ol' Fred.  He was Mister John's rabbit back when he first met Miss Jill so long ago.  Such a chill rabbit.  No hunger strikes out of him, that's for sure.

Smile!

Mary Jane says she's taking a picture of me.  Yay!  A picture of someone taking a picture.  How meta.

Long live The Who!

Someone Was All Dressed Up

Mister John, aka Daddy, aka Mr. Erb, was dressed up for graduation last week.  Yeah, he's a bit blurry here but he's that way in real life too.  The graduation was for Mary Star's class of 2013 and all went well.

Some day Mary Jane and Betsy Jo will graduate high school as well.  Lots of pictures and crying (by Mommy) then.

Early Summer Fun with Family

A busy Sunday afternoon with Uncle Greg, cousins Ryan and Connor, and Jenna came by to visit the girls.  Mary Jane and Betsy Jo were overjoyed to see Uncle G and their cousins this afternoon.  Any chance to show off their abilities is something they look forward to.  And any chance to play with water as well.

Hey, no breaking the hammock!