Half Moon Bay, California November 2012

Friday, January 6, 2012

Last Week of their Winter Break!

And we packed it in...
Each day there was an activity (or two) planned!

Monday:
We met friends at the park near their school.
These 3 girls have known each other since they were babies -- in fact, Kylie (in pink) and MG have the same birthdates!  I met her mom, Sharlyn, while in the lactation office... getting help with nursing MG who didn't want to nurse because she was so sleepy all the time! (yes, jaundice does that to you!)
 There are 7 of us in this group... and between the 7 of us we have 17 children!!!!  Not everyone could attend this gathering...

Tuesday:
We went to a park we used to frequent... when they were younger.
They played hide and seek:
They watched the planes take off:
 They played in the dirt!
 They ran off to explore the rose garden:
 They finally sat down and I desperately tried to take a picture of all 5...
 But it didn't happen!
 It was a hard task!
 After our friends, Ave and Owen left us, MD and MG took me on a exploration.  This is their territory.  These trails are the verytrails they take during their Wednesday science class.  So off they went...
 As I followed behind...  (I love that they can do this together now)
 They introduced me to the creek where they collect specimens to examine in the classroom:
 It was fun!
Wednesday:
We met friends at Vasona Lake Park.  The children played from about 10:30am until 1:00pm with their friends.  But their youngest sibling had to leave for a nap, so they left us.  We however, stayed on and played some more! The boys took their sister to their favorite place:
 Then the boys decided they wanted to get their feet wet...
 and then quickly changed their minds...
 because the water was really cold!!!!  (the ducks didn't seem to mind)
They spent the rest of the afternoon riding their bikes and then playing in the sand:

 Thursday -- Happy Hollow Zoo:
Our membership expired... but surprisingly, they wanted to renew it.  I thought they would think they were too big for this place.  Alas, my children are simple children and this place will do still.  :)
Upon arrival (as routine), he gets on the carousel and rides it 2 times (I join him each time), while the other two (who can't stand going around in circles!) run off to the play area across from us.  We see them playing as we ride around and around (and wave at them).
 Today, they were the only one in line so they stayed on... for about 5 rides before MD got tired of it and got off!  They love the Frog Hopper!
 Then they all went around in circles for another 15-20 minutes on these... MD calls them Pod Racers.  Good exercise!!!
Wish I could've gotten on with them!
 He really had the hang of it and I was so proud he was keeping up with the other two. :)
 Then he went on this 2 times while the other two ran off to play in the maze.
 After about 5 hours of this... we packed up and headed home to pick him MD's guitar and made it to lessons  5 minutes... late!  (Phew)
 After guitar lesson, we came home and relaxed a bit....  We all read...
 I did too!  I need to read more... It's very relaxing!
Friday -- last day of vacation.  Guess what they wanted to do?!
ICE SKATE!!!  (I did it once... waaaay back when - before children!  I visited Kate in VA one year and she took me ice skating.  FUN times!)
He was so excited!
 This was her 3rd time!
 They were all out with buckets... for 2 hours!
 MD finally got brave after the first 40 minutes of running around with his buckets.  He discovered he could do it on his own.  So he came up with this game.
Toss the buckets away...
 Then skate to them!
 And hold on tight!!!!
 Then he was off on the other side of the rink with the other non-bucket users!
 I'm so proud of this kid!  He tries everything - no matter how many times he fell down, he picked  himself up and went right back to it!
It was a great way to end our vacation together.  I love them... but I need to get back into the swing of things and get back to work!  I have pendants to make and videos to edit!

Monday, January 2, 2012

Happy New Year!

A few days before New Year's Eve I was able to go out with a few of my friends -- a well deserved ladies night out.  It was nice to sit around and laugh A LOT!  That's why I love these women!  They make me laugh A LOT!!!  we don't get together often but when we do.. we laugh A LOT!  Loan, thanks for visiting us and giving us an excuse to get together.. to... well, you know, LAUGH!!!! (A LOT!)

 New Year's Eve this year went out with a bang -- so much fun!  These are just a few pictures... Vince took some nice ones on his camera - but he takes forever to upload them.. So here are mine.
 The children had a blast and ate a LOT!
 I am so thankful I have such great friends... who have such great children!
More pictures to come... who knows when!  ;)

Another Merry Christmas!

A few days after Christmas we spent some time with our friends, Jenna and her mom, Lisa.  Remember we volunteered with them a few weeks before organizing Christmas gifts for less fortunate children during the holiday season?  Here's a picture from that night:

 I'm so happy that Lisa was able to get us a spot to volunteer.  It's a great experience for the girls to help other children in need.  And a great way for them to learn to work together to get a goal accomplished in a short period of time.  I hope we can continue to do this for many years!

But here we were on the 27th of December.  We met them at our favorite jumpy house - SilverCreek Sportsplex.
 This is one of their favorite slides -- It is pretty steep!!!
 But they love it!
 Even little one has no fear of it -- he goes up and jumps down like a big boy!
 Exhausted from jumping around for  hours, we went home, hopped in the shower and cleaned up... Then headed to Uncle Jim and Auntie Clare's house (our second home, really) for another Christmas celebration.  Auntie Clare insisted we opened gifts first before dinner... as the meat was still on the grill cooking!
 They were happy to receive a soccer ball and goal net -- it will be fun to play soccer in the front yard!
 Auntie Clare bought me a pair of house slippers -- but MG liked them! :)
 Corinna bought us a few guide cards (one for mushrooms and one for edible wild plants).  If you knew my husband, you know that he likes to just pick things up and eat them when we go on hikes... I'm hoping this will help us help him! ;)
 This was out big surprise for Corinna.  She has been wanting a new camera and we know that she will not buy one for herself -- so we took the liberty of buying it for her!  She truly deserves it and we hope she will take many pictures on her trip to Florida soon!
 Even our friend and neighbor, Pat, from across the street came to help us celebrate.
 Corinna bought the children new gloves... err, mittens... they were kind of both!  Pretty creative I tell ya!
 MD loved the guides and started reading them right away!
 E trying on his gloves/mittens... um, hand warmers!  ;)
 And more Legos!!!!  SCORE!!!!!
 Everyone getting's hungry....
 I found these and snuck a few! ;)
 And dinner is served!!!!
 Let the feast begin!
 Beef roast (cooked on the grill), mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, peas, cold slaw, and Yorkshire pudding (that didn't turn out so well, but we enjoyed them regardless!):
 After dinner we HAD to walk around... to help our food digest and make room for dessert!
 The street is always so beautifully lit:

 This is our favorite house.  MG's classmates from last year...  Their house is always the center of the street's attention.
 And the bonus was this train that is operational!  They all had a turn and had a BLAST!!!!
Dessert was marvelous... so good that there were NO pictures! ;)