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.

Happy Halloween: Part II

After our Addie-focused morning, we spent the afternoon at Eliza and Xavier's school for their parades.   When Eliza, dressed as a ladybug, saw us though she refused to return to her class who was happily promenading around the school yard. She reluctantly took a lap or two holding Addie's hand, which was rather sweet actually. After the ceremonial walk-around, the girls played on the swings before we went to Xavier's class.




Wingless but happy

Happy Halloween: Part I

Halloween was a 12 hour celebration.  After waffling back and forth trying to figure out how I was going to get to three school parades at three different times and be home early enough to trick-or-treat, I decided on Tuesday just to take the whole day off. I am so glad I did.

I went with Addie, dressed in her awesome Princess Vampire costume, at 8 am to her school where I spent the entire morning in her classroom helping with their Halloween festivities. I would like to take a moment to say that I Rock.  I'm a room parent again this year and part of the responsibilities include organizing holiday events. I chose the activities the kids would be doing for 2 hours, bought the supplies and prepped the work. The original idea was to drop it all off and have other parent volunteers help, only 2 parents never showed up so I am extra glad I took the day off to be there (plus I had a blast and wish I could do it all the time)! It ended up being me, another mom (so grateful to her!), their teacher and 20 costumed 1st graders.

The idea was to have three stations that the kids rotated through - a reading station where a parent would read them Halloween stories (Mom was a no-show b/c her older son was sick) but luckily I had some word searches printed up as back-up, a craft (we did pasta skeletons) and a second craft station. I found this super cute math game on a blog so I decided to get a little Halloween-themed addition/subtraction work into the day. How nerdy of me! Thankfully the kids loved it and got super into the game. They sorted math facts written on popsicle sticks into jack o'lanterns with the answers written on each.


My math game

All the kids came in costume and after the morning activities, they had brunch (organized by my co-room parent) and then the all-school parade. Cap and Mit joined us at school. I seriously needed a nap after that, plus I couldn't sleep the night before and was awake from 1-3 am. No such luck though. We had an hour at home before heading over to Eliza and Xavier's school for their activities starting at 2:30. Stay tuned for Part II!

Pumpkin Patch

Saturday, in 96 degree heat (!!!) we visited the pumpkin patch for a quick but thoroughly festive afternoon. We didn't make it out to Underwood Family Farms this year between art class and swim lesson schedules but we did got to Mr Bones where we have been in the past. The girls rode ponies, cuddled with chickens, got their face painted and picked out pumpkins. Xavier wandered around looking at everything and generally being cute.

pumpkin head