Half Moon Bay, California November 2012

Monday, October 31, 2011

Happy Halloween - 2011

Fun times, I tell ya... FUN times!!!
 More details to come!
Until then, Mario, Lady Morgan, and Luigi bid you all a great day of chaos and fun!!!
Hats courtesy of Giver's Log.  Great ideas for a Mario lover birthday party!

Tuesday was a FUN day!

This post is almost a week over due -- it's been in the draft folder... so better post now so you can all see our Halloween events today!  Aghhhh!!!!

We started the morning (just the boys and I) going to their favorite park -- Oak Meadow/Vasona Lake Park.  They scootered to the other side of the park and played....

 But they saw this and wanted to skip some rocks!
 So they did that for awhile....
 Then they played at the playground the rest of the morning -- sand art!
 Um... sand... all over!
 Doesn't he look do big?!
 SO much bigger than E, for sure!!!
 Back to the duck pond for one last peek at the ducks...
 Then scootered back ... just in time to take MD to school!
After school we met Braden and his mom at Uesugi Farm in Morgan Hill.  They had a blast!
Measuring how tall they are now -- and they sure have grown!!!

 Notice how they MD and MG are almost the same height?!  Crazy, huh???  (he's eating a honey stick, if you;re wondering what's in his mouth!)
 Waiting for Braden and Ms. Lori to arrive...
 Then they went for a ride... on the COW train -- not to be mistaken for the Caltrain that they often see zipping passed Ma's house!



 Off they go!!!!
 MD and his buddy from preschool... I hope they become life long friends.
 MG really wanted a picture here -- love her stance!  HAHAHA!!!
 Ms. Lori bought them a treat -- popcorn!!!  The boys :)
 Ms. Lori and MG
 MG, Braden and MD:

 MD -- he's something else... no?
 On the way out we investigated the noise we heard while at the pumpkin patch... and then gave it a try!
 PUMPKIN BLASTERS!!!!
 She even gave it a try!  :0
It was a long day!!!  But they had so much fun!
(And I'm thinking, the pumpkin patch is now more commercialized than it has ever been!  Geez... everything costs and it's so much!  Some pumpkin patches have inflatable jumpy houses... and they cost so much to jump!  Am I cheap or what?  Yes, I admit it, I am cheap!  I don't see why I have to pay for them to jump in a bouncy house in someone's property when we have a perfectly good one at home!  well, that's just my 2 cents....)

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

A few things we've been up to...

1) We skipped school Friday to see Disney on Ice!  (I know!  But I emailed their teachers and explained everything!).  They received free tickets from The Guadalupe River Park and Conservancy (where they attend science class every Wednesdays)... so we 4 went, since Dad had to work... poor Dad.

 Waiting patiently... MD kept asking, "How many more minutes, mom?"  This was his first anything on ice show so he was anxious.  He remembers me taking MG to Princess on Ice for a couple of years so he was very excited about his first show!  E wasn't sure what to expect so he was excited for many reasons!
 It was difficult to take pictures of all the characters as they were moving around so quickly... But I was able to grab some photos toward the end that are actually "clear."  These were taken toward the end when the princesses came out with their significant princes.
 We had great seats for being complimentary!  :)
 After the show -- pretty crowded but would have been worse if the show was later in the evening!  I'm glad I chose the morning showing!
 It was very difficult to get this picture... can you tell?!  A simple sign... but a difficult task!

2) Today we went to the local library and did a pumpkin project:
 He always looks up when the camera is pointing at him... He was busily working until now... Cute smile though, no?!
 She is concentrating very hard (as usual)
 He was determined to get those tubes over the googly eyes and have the pumpkin wear them was binoculars... sadly, that didn't work very well!  :(
 Check out the over flowing feathers!  LOVE it!
 And they all made it home... check them out!  :)


Friday, October 21, 2011

Love them!

Because they mean so much to us...


 We had some rough moments this week... but at the end of the day I always said to myself, "I love these guys!"  They test my patience... but that's what children do, right?!

Monday, October 17, 2011

Halloween Crafts (2)

An easy project the children put together for their teachers  -- and Uncle Leo who loves Halloween!  Original post can be found here.

You will need soap from the Dollar Store (any clear color), add 4 drops of red food coloring and 6 drops of yellow food coloring, then shake it up!!!!  Cut face out of vinyl/contact paper and you are good to go!  (oh and tie a green ribbon for the stem.)

A few different versions -- here, here, and here

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Halloween crafts (1)

They have been so busy with school work, homework, after school activities... We all needed a break!  So I thought we should do some arts and crafts.  It's what I do when I need a break - doing something that requires very little thinking!  I've been looking at so many different Halloween arts and crafts lately that I feel so overwhelmed -- because I want to do them all!  But this is a project that has been around for years and I remember doing these when I was in elementary school.
We have so many jars around the house -- we are now washing and reusing any glass jars that we purchase.  I LOVE them!  These here are from our salsa jars (my 3 love taco dinners because they love eating salsa!).  So I cut some red and yellow tissue papers, watered down some white glue for them, they picked a jar and went to it!


 He did pretty well but got tired toward the end so I had to help him finish.  The jars sat overnight to dry.
 The next day I gave them black contact paper.  They drew the face of their jack-o-lanterns on the back, cut the pieces out, and stuck them on!
 I went to the dollar store, picked up a few packs of battery operated tea lights... and voila!  There you have it!  Tonight we lit them and I took them into the house when they went to bed... need to save the batteries for Halloween night!  ;)

Monday, October 10, 2011

A FULL weekend!

Saturday was a fun day at Pumpkins in the Park.  We have been every year since MG was one and just learning to walk.  It was so easy then!  ;)
Now they are older and want to do everything - at different times!  But we always manage to agree on the activities and enjoy the day! They did tons of arts and crafts -- here are a few pictures of their favorite activities:
They made some great spiders!

 Then they played some games:
Half way through the day we visited the huge pumpkin patch.  They mostly just run around, move pumpkins, build forts with them, and I take tons of pictures!
Aren't they too cute for words?!

 He rolled this big thing from one corner of the patch to the other...
 So that it would be included in their group picture!  :)
 We also watched a lot of different performers.  For once this year, they were willing to go near the dragon and lion dancers!
 So much noise -- but so much fun for them!
 There were a few of them and all three chased them down to either pet them or just look closely at the young teenagers inside dancing around to make the lions' eyes move!
 Guess whom we saw today?!  Yes, Andy Z!!!!  He is always our favorite performer to watch!  We had a nice conversation with him after both of his performance today.  What a nice guy he is!
 We ended our day at this bead table where they made a bracelet showing how many items they should eat each day from each food group!  It was a great idea!
Saturday was a full day.... and Sunday was no different!  We woke up pretty early, picked up our friend, Uncle Leo and headed to the Renaissance Faire at Casa De Fruta in Pacheco Pass.  This was our first time.  MG was fortunate enough to have a dress to wear, thanks to our dear friend, Corinna.  Thank you Corinna -- she felt like a princess all day!
 Some performers at the entrance:
 Daddy immediately felt the need to buy her a head piece to finish off her attire:
 She was fitted by the head piece maker:
 Isn't she beautiful?!
 He was a nice guy!
 This man was full of stories and the boys loved him!  He sold tons of "pirate" things!  He gave them each a gold coin.
 Matthew loved this parascope!
 Look at all the people dressed up!  (I've never seen so much cleavage in my life!)
 This lady pulled them in at the puppet place and they didn't want to leave!
 MD found a dragon!
 MG found a soft cuddly bunny:
 Oh, my -- a three headed dragon!
 E found a dragon too!
 She loved this snow owl -- they kept calling it Hedwig!
 He loved that the head rotated 360 degrees!
 We were able to convince them to leave the puppet stall when we told them about the horse tournament!
 The knights came out in a very grande and ceremonious way... from behind closed doors and as they were called out, they came charging forward to the crowd cheering for them.  The horses were beautiful.  It was awesome!
France:
 Ireland:

 England?
 Spain:
 The queen and her ladies came out to watch!
 Counting the rings that each knight captured during the competition:
 After the show, we followed the queen out and when she saw MG, she stopped so we could get a picture.  They children were very impressed with how kind she was.  MG was so cute because when she saw the queen, I whispered to her, curtsy honey -- and she did!  She looked soooo adorable doing it too!  She made me so proud!  :)
 And off she went!
 So we went and did a few more activities as we made our way to lunch.
 I don't know what this instrument is called... anyone?  (I was too busy to ask and didn't want to interrupt him!)
 Of course, MD was attracted to this huge chess board!
 Look at the beautiful headpieces for sale!
 We sat down to watch a show while the guys ran off to buy lunch:
 A parade came by:
 The performer!
 Chicken pot pie -- yummy!
 She loved it!  I had cottage pot pie (same as chicken pot pie but with beef..  It was delicious!!!
 We spotted the Queen again as we were walking around.
 Then MD saw this:
 Of course, we stopped....
 And we bought him his very own, Harry Potter Chamber of Secrets wand (thanks, Uncle Leo for contributing too):

So, of course, E wanted one too!  Luckily, he didn't care about the wand's name or title... he just wanted a wand to cast a few spells on me!  :)
 I just had to take another photo of my princess for the day!
At the end of the day... we were all exhausted and broke!  (I'll tell you why another day!)
 Until then... enjoy the week!