December Day in the City

We headed into SF a few weekends before Christmas to see the sights, sounds and splendor of Christmas in the city.  It didn't disappoint.

We stopped at our usual haunts and then had a fantastic lunch at the Cheesecake Factory overlooking Union Square.  Our outdoor terrace table was so perfect that we stayed forever, even ordering a decadent brownie sundae for dessert that we didn't have the room in our tummies for!  We loved this brownie sundae SO much that we named our annual nutcracker (that we wait in line way too long to pay for every year at Macy's Holiday Lane), Sir Sundae!

 Look at this view!!

 There is very clean glass between

Audrey and this bird but it wanted a bite

of her lunch!

Such a fun day we won't forget!

Warriors Game!

Natalie has participated in a very cool enrichment class twice this past year through Scientific Adventures for Girls, an organization developed and run by a good friend of ours.    The organization was recently given a grant by the Warrior Foundation and part of the package was tickets for a few girls to attend a Warriors Game.  Natalie was very excited!  Her father was very jealous!  He asked if our friend needed more chaperones.  Unfortunately, she did not.  Until she did at the last minute!  She made is MONTH when she called that afternoon and explained that she had a chaperone cancel at the last minute and asked if he still wanted to go!  They had a blast...a tour of the arena, a free t-shirt, a great view of the team warming up on the court, and great seats to a great game.  Super fun night both of them will remember for a long time!

 Natalie and her "bestie," Brooklyn

Trip to Cal Academy...

with LOTS of kids. A few months ago Corey decided to give our family pass to the California Academy of Sciences a real workout and take one grown up buddy and a collection of SIX kids there for the day.  They had a blast!  However, as soon as they got there they learned that it was FREE day.  Yes, apparently there is one day a year when there is no admission to the museum.  Of all the days...the day he chose to be responsible for six kiddos at a very big and very crowded museum was the same day everyone else in Northern California decided to go there, too.  Ha!

They all had fun but we've learned to check out the Cal Academy calendar of events before going!

Beauty with Bling

Ear bling, to be specific!  After being granted the go-ahead almost two years ago, Natalie finally worked up the nerve to get her ears pierced.  She is loving having sparkle in her ears!  The only hurdle has been that (after a looooong wait to change them for the first time) she seems to have inherited my sensitive ears and she's had trouble wearing any of the cutesy little earrings she's collected over the last few years.  So far the only earrings that agree with her are the gold studs she had them pierced with.  Looks like only 14 carat gold for this princess (at least for now)...no surprise there, I guess, given this girl's expensive tastes everywhere else!

Daddy Daughter Weekend

Because he hasn't made it to Tahoe with us the last two summers, Corey decided he needed a Tahoe weekend this fall.  The girls had a day off school that I didn't so he decided it was high time for a Daddy Daughter weekend at 6000 feet!  They had a blast!  Natalie is doing a California History project on Vikingsholm at Emerald Bay so that was stop number one on a weekend full of adventurous stops.  They came home happy and tired.  These weekends are such awesome times for all of them.

What a great daddy!

Peace. Love. Tahoe.

Auntie Ammy

Auntie Ammy visited a few weekends ago and we had such a great time with her. We discovered the greatest thrift store downtown, drank lots of coffee, stayed up way too late talking and had fun cooking and baking together.  We're so happy she's only living 3,000 miles away now instead of on the other side of the world!

Happy Halloween!

Well, here we are at the end of October and I'm just sitting down to post again!  That says a little about our month.  It's been full...of school, soccer, sickness, and, finally, Halloween!

This year we had a very cute little witch and a very elegant Renaissance queen.  Super fun, jam packed holiday, as usual.    We carved pumpkins on Friday night (using our power drill...super fun!), got ready for our school Fall Carnival on Saturday, spent the day at the carnival on Sunday and then fit in a school Halloween parade on Monday morning and trick or treated in the rain until past our bedtime Monday night.  What a whirlwind!!

Such a fun holiday.  Cannot believe it's November now!

 Nana has been here to keep us standing through it all!  

Thank you, Nana.  We couldn't do Halloween without her!

Family Selfie

Well, September was a whirlwind...hence the one and only post.  Sorry, GGMa!  I started teaching, the kids started school and soccer and life got a bit nutso.  We are heading into October with a little more stamina and sure footing so I'm hoping to document a little more of our life.

In the meantime, our one and only family selfie.  I'm seriously not sure we've ever done this before...

School Days

The girls are loving their classrooms and teachers this year.  Audrey is enjoying being a 1st Grader and playing on the "big playground" and Natalie loves that her teacher handed out organizational planners for the class to use every day.  That about sums up how much my children have in common with each other!

During Back to School Night last week I was able to see the first of their school year wall worthy works of art.  This is my favorite part of BTS night.

 This is Audrey's drawing of her and Natalie 

picking berries in Michigan.
"One great thing I did this summer was..
go to Michigan and pick berries."

That's the tree swing to the left there.

And this is Natalie and her brain bubble filled 

with all the things she's excited to learn about

this year in 4th grade.

And she also appears to be wearing red lipstick.

I know it's going to be a great year for these two!

Daddy Daughter Day

Corey took the girls to Tilden Park recently and they had a great time exploring the trails and botanical garden there.  He shot some cute pics of them exploring!