Camping

We went camping over Memorial Day weekend with a big group of people from our church. The camp grounds were in Malibu cayon and were beautiful. This state park is most famous for being the filming site of MASH and something else I forgot. All the landscape looked very much like MASH, but not so much like Korea (from pictures I've seen).

We spent Saturday at Leo Carillo beach. Matt surfed. Eleanor played in the sand. I hung out under the umbrella.

I'm pretty sure Eleanor loves camping so much because of the food. We had a very loose policy this weekend concerning what she ate and she enjoyed that immensely: Frosted Flakes for breakfast, Cheetos for lunch, s'mores after dinner.

Sunday we went hiking. We only made the three-ish mile hike instead of the 5ish one to the MASH site or longer to Reagan's ranch. Eleanor caught a ride the whole time. Matt was pretty wiped by the end of the hike.

Eleanor enjoyed sharing snacks with Brady. Mostly because Brady had Cheetos.


She was also able to get a little fishing in using Brady's pole. She didn't catch anything and I'm pretty sure she would have dropped the pole if she had.

Eleanor also decided this weekend on a new profession: a "wheat cutter." Forget dreams of being a "baby doctor" or an artist, she's on to more noble pursuits.

The Saturday Between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday

 Easter Egg hunt at Fuller started a bit early for some.

Neighbor, Eli was ready to go.

 

Thomas, Mary and little Audrey turned out as well.

 

 "And Go!"

 

E was not in a hurry (Dress courtesy of Memaw).

 

 

She did find an egg.  I had goldfish inside.  We encouraged her to look for more but she replied: "I found one already."  We did not wish to change her lack of greed.

 

Later she went to climb on a prominent statue in the center of Fuller Seminary's campus depicting the crucifixion of Jesus.  Eleanor likes to hug the man swinging the hammer and ask me why they wanted to hurt Jesus.  This Good Friday is the first she has asked about the crucifixion.  We read to her a couple of versions from children's Bibles before a wonderful service at church made the mystery evident to her in sight, sound, word and song. It is truly amazing experiencing worship and the Christian story through the eyes of someone who is still putting it all together.  It is a reminder that we are all still putting it all together.

 

Later (after a change of clothes) we dyed eggs.

 

  

Eleanor loves food coloring.  I love stacking things.

 

Melody and Eleanor both love to eat hard boiled eggs.

 

Easter Pictures

Eleanor looked absolutely adorable Easter morning. Unfortunately, the sun was too bright and I didn't use the good camera. I should have had her stand in the shade, then we could have gotten a better picture and a less squinty face. Eleanor was so excited to wear her new dress, new shoes, and new lace socks. She asked for braids, which her hair is now long enough for (two french braids). The only part of her outfit that didn't match was her hair rubber bands. She insisted on one purple one (her favorite color most days) and one blue one (her next favorite color most days).

Sister got graham crackers

Mouth full of chocolate

Sharing some Easter snacks with Sister

A forced smile:

And on a different note, Eleanor has been drawing pictures of babies "inside the uterus." Here's one that she gave to me. Note the two hairs. The circles on the side of the head are ears.

Guess

What do you think she's eating?

Huntington Beach Party 2009!

Pictues from Lately

The PC has been broken but now it's fixed so you get a flood from our backlog of pics. If you have trouble seeing the slideshow above please comment and/or click on it to see the photo album where they're hosted.

Eleanor's Art

Matt recently discovered a huge stack of old theology papers and decided to put them to good use. Now Eleanor has a huge pile of blank (on one side) paper at her disposal. That means more pictures. Her people are getting more detailed and interesting. Here is a self-portrait:

Notice the teeth. The scanner didn't get the colors quite right. Her hair is highlighter yellow in the original, not orange.

Here is a picture of me (Melody). She always says that my hair is brown and draws it as such. My teeth aren't quite as straight as hers, but they are the same shade of blue. I like my eyelashes.

This one she did this morning. It's four people "playing in boxes." The top left corner and the bottom right corner are Matt and I, but I forgot which is which. The top right corner is Eleanor when she was a baby (notice the "two hairs"). The forth picture (bottom left) is my grandma, or Grandma Night-Night as E calls her. She died last year and E went with me to her funeral. Eleanor brings her up in conversation at least once a week. I asked Eleanor what it was all over Grandma's face and she said, "that's her old." I think she means wrinkles.



And a rainbow:
The other creative way Eleanor is expressing herself these days is through her clothing choices. I tend to let her choose her own clothing as long as they are appropriate for the weather. Sometimes I make suggestions or veto something, but mostly I let her decide. This leads to interesting attire. Today I picked out a hoodie that was blue with dark blue stripes on the hood and sleeves. It had two birds stitched on the front pocket, one of them was pink. I suggested some jeans to go with it. E had other ideas. She wanted to wear "softie pants" which are second best to anything that "twirls." The pair that she insisted on have brown stripes with patterns in the stripes. She said they matched because the small pink hearts on the pants matched the pink bird. I tried to take a picture, but the battery in my camera is dead.

Dressup

Dressup from Matt Lumpkin on Vimeo.

E enjoys dressing up and describes her attire.


Dancing Princess from Matt Lumpkin on Vimeo.

E dresses up and dances like a princess to the Chemical Brothers.

Adventure

Adventure from Matt Lumpkin on Vimeo.

E leads us on an adventure on an out of the way corner of Fuller's campus. Then, upon encountering neighbors, Harrison and Lindsay, leads them upon a similar adventure.

Motherboard

Matt and Eleanor went out for breakfast this morning and then to a few yard sales around. Eleanor came home and informed me, "Daddy bought a new motherboard. It's funny because it's has 'mother' in the name."

Matt did buy a couple of computer components (for very little $) and should have the computer up and running again in a couple of weeks. He is going into finals week and won't be able to work on it until after that.

The problem with taking young children to yard sales is that people give them junk. Eleanor takes her own money when she goes and will sometimes choose something to buy (usually stickers or something small). We see this as sort of a beginning education in dealing with money. Today, Eleanor bought an Easter basket with a little duck in it. She was given a ring, a book and stickers. Hmm.

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday. Eleanor came with us and really enjoyed hearing baby's heartbeat. All is going well.