Merry Christmas

With love to all and hope for peace in the new year.

Gingerbread Houses

One of the advent calendar events was to decorate gingerbread houses. We invited Addie's friends June and Lily (and Lily's older sister) to decorate them with us. The girls also put on a surprise play for us involving queens, princesses and a "pesky" aunt and sister.


I love Addie's candy wreath

The girl's houses are super cute and Addie left a single lifesaver candy mounted to the roof for easy licking. Gross but efficient. My house resembles a mono-browed monster barfing colored BBs.

Advent

The girls have been eagerly counting down the days until Christmas with their Advent Calendars. Pop-Pop and Nana sent them a chocolate calendar from Africa and then we have our wooden door calendar with notes on festive activities each day. We have done crafts, donated toys to Toys-for-Tots and eaten lots of festive treats including peppermint ice cream cones, s'mores and hot chocolate with marshmallows and of course watched Christmas movies.



The girls also wrote letters to Santa. Eliza asked for toys (generically) but when prompted for more detail said "animals, bunnies, dogs, cats, a mouse and a teddy bear." Here is Addie's letter. She has asked for "more."

We had Gran with us for 10 days and are sad to see her go back home. Pop-Pop, Nana and Drew arrive on Christmas day so we are excited for their visit.

Thanksgiving Weekend Adventures: Sunday

Sunday we went on a little road trip to Oak Glen near Yucaipa. I think this is our third year making a trek out there. It's about an hour and a half out on the 10 and into apple growing territory. We went on a little nature walk, took a carriage ride, ate roasted corn and bought apple butter. A perfect fall day!








Lassoing


Xavier took it upon himself to clean up the leaves

Thanksgiving Weekend Adventures: Saturday

That Saturday we headed up the coast for a late afternoon beach adventure and an early dinner at Paradise Cove in Malibu. Addie and Eliza loved running up and down the beach, playing with their sand bucket. Xavier spent the first part petrified of the water, clinging to either Cap or I before getting comfortable enough to step foot on the sand. I'm telling you this kid has a major water-phobia.

Order up! 

Thanksgiving Weekend Adventures: Friday

We did a lot of LA exploring over our 4 day Thanksgiving weekend. Work has been frantic with several 12 hour days (even a 17 hour day!) and working weekends. I really deserved this break!





We took the girls to see Rise of the Guardians on Friday morning and then later that afternoon we explored Chinatown. I was secretly hoping to score a Ming chair for the dollhouse that Santa is bringing for the girls. No luck there but we had fun poking around the shops and I got to eat an egg tart. Then we drove over to the Cornfields park where the landscape was disappointingly desolate but the girls got to pet Sammy the bunny that someone was taking for a stroll in the park.

E for Eliza

Eliza surprised me with writing her first letter. E for Eliza of course. Go Eliza!

So Long Streamliners!

We are so proud of Addie! Unexpectedly her swim teacher announced that Addie had passed the Streamliners level. She got her white ribbon for completing that level and now she's a Freestyler with her red cap. This new level is all drill, drill, drill on her strokes so the teacher suggested it might be more fun (and I am assuming less expensive) for her to be in group lessons.


perfecting her backstroke

We have been considering taking a break from swim lessons for Addie since she's already a strong swimmer and is also enrolled in art classes. The main issue is that we want to keep Eliza in lessons to get her swim safe. She continues to cry in most of her lessons and it has been 6 months now! I hadn't realized that much time had passed. Maybe I should consider switching teachers if we move Addie to group lessons. Poor girl.

Don't get me started on Xavier and the water. Even the sight of 2 inches of the stuff in his bathtub has him screaming. I don't know if the temperature (too hot? too cold?) bothers his exczema or if he just really, really hates water. He is usually very mellow until you try to bathe him.

Love This Place

I do love this place. And the kids love it no matter their age. Addie has probably been to the aquarium two dozen times and she still wants to come back again and again. Eliza is always excited too and now it's great to see Xavier be totally amazed by all his new aquatic friends. Because our favorites parts are inside, it's great to go year-round, regardless of the heat or the cold (okay, mild chill and slight chance of rain as the weather goes in LA). This is from last week. Over Thanksgiving weekend we have had a few other adventures!

Addie, Xavier and the diver (Addie used to be terrified of the scuba divers)

Eliza makes herself comfortable

I'm rather fond of the jellies

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a lovely thanksgiving! We had our feast at home with the five of us and Papa Mit. The best part was Cap cooked everything. Okay, the best part was being with my family but still. The girls and I created a Thanksgiving table runner decorated with turkey hand prints. Addie gave us clear, step-by-step instructions including mixing her own brown since we didn't have brown paint. 

Mommy, Eliza, Addie and Xavier handprint turkeys

Addie read us her Thanksgiving essay before we ate. So sweet.  

clows = clothes

cises = kisses

Happy Thanksgiving!

Jog-a-thon

Jog-a-thon is such a great school fundraiser. Addie runs. Grandparents and Aunties pay.

This was the first year I got to cheer Addie on in person as her class ran first at 8:30 am. The kids love it and take great pride in their achievements. If all of our pledges come in by Monday, Addie will have raised over $400 for her school. Way to go!

School Pictures!

Addie's official 1st grade pictures are here! Same horrid blue background, same pretty girl with a winning smile!

Half Day

Not breaking news, but we are all thrilled at our house with the re-election of Obama for a second term. Cap and I voted by mail which, while fantastically convenient, I'll admit I miss getting the I Voted sticker.

On Veteran's Day schools were closed but sadly work was not. Cap and I split the day and I was on the afternoon shift at home. I took the three monkeys back to Kenneth Hahn Park even though we had been there they day before. It's free on national holidays! We didn't do a hike but played on the playground until the girls slide down the slide into Xavier's face and then we decided to go visit the ducks.



Here are photos from our family trip to Kenneth Hahn Park:


View of downtown


Baby overlooking Mid-City (tiny Hollywood sign in the background)


The Fam


Sunshine girl

Happy Halloween: Part IV

And the final phase that day was trick-or-treating. We left a sleepy Xavier at home with Papa Mit for the evening, while we took the girls over to their friends' Danika and Kieran's house.  Their family theme was black and white so Danika was a b/w cheerleader, Kieran a penguin and his parents and his aunt were a nun, a jailbird and a pilgrim. They looked awesome.

Addie is a pro now with the trick-or-treating routine and Eliza couldn't have been more excited. Both girls remembered to say Thank You too. Kieran and Eliza decided to retire early though so they could watch a movie and have popcorn while the Dads took the big girls out for another 45 minutes. Super fun night. I'll be happy not to see anymore candy for a while though.

Happy Halloween: Part III

Introducing Mommy's Mummy!



and the Mummy Mommy!

How cute is my little mummy? I made his costume with some basic white clothes, cheap surgical gauze (yay 99cent store!) and some fabric glue. The project was easy to make but sourcing the supplies was by far the most time consuming. Who knew finding white toddler pants was such an impossible task?! His costume was collecting dirt and rapidly disintegrating while he ran around the playground at school (I should make sure I have a fresh bottle of glue next time as I was down to the dregs) but since he's 5,000 years old I guess he's looking pretty good.