Mountains and Wild and Wacky Ellie

Last weekend it rained, washing out all the much-aligned (and we think overblown) pollution out of the air. We have to admit that the mountains--which we could always see as somewhat indistinct shapes in the skyline--were particularly beautiful when visible in sharp detail through a smog-free sky. Here's the view from our apartment:


The kids seem to be excited about learning Spanish, which is great since they'll start in a Spanish-only Kindergarten tomorrow. Here they are reading along with a Berlitz CD reading a story in Spanish:


Meanwhile, they continue to be wild, wacky, and fun (at least most of the time). Here are a couple of photos we snapped this week of Ellie being silly: first wearing her version of a five year old onesie--Ben's shirt tucked in to Ben's underwear, and then goofing off with the vacuum cleaner attachments and gloves on her feet.