Eric and Jonah were in Monterey for work Tuesday through Friday, and Max and I wanted to take the kids down there and meet them on Friday. But Friday was supposed to be snow day (different from east coast snow days, this is where they bring the snow in!) and we didn't want to miss snow day. When they cancelled due to rain, we decided to play hookey and head down in the morning. We went to the aquarium and the kids had a great time. They like pressing buttons more than they like looking at jellyfish or penguins or anything living, even if it's not clear what the buttons do.
We went to the splash zone and the girls were quite happy to hang out in one spot. I was tempted to get them to try everything but I managed to restrain myself. I realized for the 101st time that we don't really need to take her to Monterey, we can just put her outside with a bucket of water, a couple of plastic fish, a boat, and a friend, and she'll be completely happy. And I learned for the 101st time that I should take off her sweatshirt BEFORE she starts playing in the water. The girls were quite excited to get matching purple penguin t-shirts so they wouldn't have to wear their wet shirts.
Casey also got to spend her allowance. We're giving her $2 a week to spend on what she wants, and we're going to stop buying little crappy toys. She'll have to learn what she can afford and she'll learn to save for things. And if she doesn't have enough money she'll have to learn she can't buy things. The idea is that just like you would spend money on books (and boy do we), you spend money on letting her learn to manage her money. And you don't tie it to chores or cleaning, because they have to do that as part of the family anyway. Hopefully we won't drill in the idea that you get money without working. We started a couple of weeks ago at the Chinese New Year Festival. We gave her $2, I went to buy drinks, and Eric took her to look at pinwheels. They came back with a pretty big one, and I said, "That was $2?" And Eric said they didn't have anything for $2, they only had pinwheels for $3, $5, and $6. "Did you take her $2 back?" "No." So we officially started this week. She had that $2 and she had $2 from this week, so she kept coming to me asking if she could get this or that or this at the gift shop and I kept saying no no no, that's $6, that's $8, you only have $4. Finally she found a small deck of cards for $3 and she got it. She plays a lot of cards so it will actually be useful. And they are nice and small. I'm not sure why they make giant decks of cards for little kids. They can't hold them. And their eyes are good, so small cards seem better.
When Eric was done working we went to our favorite restaurant, the Flying Fish, and Eric and Casey played Go Fish with her new cards while we waited for the food. Some of Eric's coworkers were there so she went and sat with them for a while. She actually worked the whole room that night, charming everyone. On our way out every single table told us how cute she was. She hasn't done that in a while. Anyway, this is getting to be a long story, but we ended the night with ice cream sundaes. That's my girl.
Grandparents in town! Casey was literally counting down the days. She woke up on Monday morning and the first thing she said was, "3 more days!" They've been to kung fu (she has only been taking it since December and five of six grandparents have been to watch), two birthday parties, the Exploratorium, to a movie, and to the same restaurants we've taken them to every time they've been here. Casey and Grandpa made a mini foosball table, Casey and Grandma made some socks for Grandpa, played LOTS of memory and go fish, and read lots of books. 
