Trick or Treat!

Happy Halloween!

We decided to take the girls to Balboa Park for some Halloween festivies. We looked it up online, saw that it seemed to be "happening" today. Uh...total flop. Caleigh and Bella were like the only children dressed up at Balboa Park, and the only "happenings" we could find was a military flag salute/program. This kept their attention for about 5 minutes. We cruised around and Bella kept asking, "Where is Halloween"? Soooo...we took them to the merry go round which Cal refused to ride.

Ok, we HAD to find something Halloweeny-soooo we went to the strip mall near our house and took the girls trick or treating. They were THRILLED to go from store to store, collecting goodies. I have never done that before, but it was actually really cute to see all the little kids dressed up in the daytime and the local shops seemed to get a kick out of the adorable kids running around.

On Halloween night we went over to our good friends house for a pizza party and trick or treating. The kiddos had fun running around. The parents had fun watching and having some cocktails. The kids were soooo excited. Caleigh was a little apprehensive at first. Bella was totally into it. One of the highlights was Elmo's house (yes, he answered the door and let us take his picture-of course, the girls wanted NOTHING to do with him) It was just so cute seeing the kids run around going from house to house. They were sooo excited to see how full their pumpkins were getting of loot!

After the trick or treating (candy rush + margarita buzz) we ended the night with a laser beamed dance party! :)

Just a fun night for all-friends, food, laughter and memories...

Is it Halloween ...YET?!

The girls are minorly obsessed with wearing their Halloween costumes. They just love looking at all the Halloween decorations...whether it be in the neighborhood, at the grocery store, on billboards, on tv-anywhere!! Trouble is, they are having a hard time understand WHEN Halloween is!? :)

We have gone to the pumpkin patch...twice. We have been to a Halloween party for playgroup, a Halloween party for school. We attempted to go to the Halloween festivities at SeaWorld only to find out it was closed-soooo we went to on the train at the mall instead (I couldn't think of what to do with two dressed up kiddos on a Friday night). The girls are loving ringing our doorbell and practicing trick or treating.

Bella asked me, "Is it Halloween...YET"?!

They loooooooove the month of October (yup, so do I! ) :)

See you soon...

So Yasmine and Brian are on theirway to Denver. Yup, they are moving. Brian's current company relocated him back to Denver-where he lived 10 years ago.

They will be missed.

We have had such memories with them...to many to write. Of course the memories will continue, even if they aren't living here.

I am not very good at goodbyes...so instead I'll say, "see you soon".

Picnics, Forts and Fun!

The girls had such a great day just PLAYING today. All day-at home, just playing. They played princesses in the backyard, jumped on the jumper, painted, had a picnic in the backyard, and played with their flashlights in the fort.

Yup, the house was trashed. But yes, they certainly had fun.

Love that the girls are sisters.... and friends.

San Diego Vacay for the Lurias!

Kicking it with the cousins... Bike ride 'round Coronado

Ferry Ride

Fooooootball! SeaWorld

Luria Family

Pumpkin Patch

The Luria Family decided to come to San Diego for their family vacation this year....lucky us! While they were down here, we managed to tag along on many of their fun outings! We went to SeaWorld-not once, but twice! The best part was watching the walrus reguritate its food right in front of us (I know...gross, but cool!). The Bijan and Luria crews took the ferry to Coronado and biked around on quad bikes. The girls favorite part was, "being able to sit in the front seat". Gil and Bijan went to the Charger/Bronco game. These two are a perfect matchup for the game as they are both equally die-hards as it comes to their teams (too bad the Chargers lost). We had a family birthday party at our house for my Dad, Jenni and Gil (all have Oct bdays)-we had a fondue party-which was a lot of work, but fun. It was fun to all be together. We all went to the dinky pumpkin patch down the road-which we thought was pretty lame-but the kids loved it as it had like 5 jumpers...We had lots of time to visit, for the kids to play...they took a 4 person bath-which I was surprised by how calmly and quietly they were playing. We watched Finding Nemo many many times and just had so much fun together. We are really lucky that the Lurias live only a couple hours a way. Its great having our kids grow up together.

Just me and Bella

Yesterday Bella and I had such a special day together. Caleigh had school, Bella is off this week. So, Bel and I had a little day together. After we dropped Cal off at her school, I asked Bella what she wanted to do . She asked, "You mean, it'll be just you and me?" You bet Bella. She said, "Eat in a restaurant and ride bikes at the park." So..thats what we did.

We went to Americana in Del Mar-a quaint little restaurant for breakfast. I taught Bella how to pour the cream in my coffee and a bit of sugar. Very carefully she stirred the coffee with my spoon. For some reason, this was such a treat for Bella. (although I think I had like 4 cups of coffee!) I had no snacks, no toys....just us. After breakfast we got out her bike and rode around. We rode to Powerhouse Park and we just played. We just were really "present" in the moment and enjoyed each other. I taught her to use my camera and she had so much fun taking pictures. After the park, we only had a little time left...I needed to get my eyebrows waxed...so I brought her with me. This was absolutely fascinating to my little 3 year old. She was laying on me while I layed on the table. Quite a sight I am sure.

As I was tucking Bella in bed, we were reminiscing about the day. Bella thanked me for teaching her how to make coffee. Then she turned to me and hugged me so very tightly...and looked right in my eyes and told me, "your eyeballs look really pretty mommy". (I was like what, eyeballs..ohhhh...the eyebrow waxing).

Being a mom isn't always the most glamorous job, but today...it was.

Pumpkin Patch

Our playgroup went to the pumpkin patch today. We've been doing this since our oldest kids were just turning one. Its crazy to think that that these kids have known each other since they were only months old! When we went to the patch a few years back, we all only had one child. Now, many of us have two and some even three kids!!! Wow, we have certainly grown over the years!

I feel lucky to have met such an incredible group of mommies and friends.

Bella and Caleigh are lucky to have met such great pals thru playgroup.

first trip to the patch, 2006-just turning 1...

next trip to the patch, 2007 just turning 2... no trip in 2008, due to the SD fires...

this years trip, 2009...the big kids turning 4, the littlest ones-2 and under... Safe to say these kids have been friends pretty much their entire lives!

Disney On Ice

eagerly awaiting Nana & Pops' arrival...

In awe...

The girls loving the serenade...

This weekend we went to the Princess Ice Capades-Disney on Ice. Let me first say that these two girls of mine just LOVE princesses and all things girlie-dressing up, jewelry, shoes, purses...the whole sha-bang. So when we heard about this show coming to town....I knew the girls HAD to go! Nana and Pops came with us (they came down to celebratemy Dad's' birthday) and it was such a special memory for us all. The show was really entertaining actually-great costumes, skating, music...it was fun. Bella was mesmerized the ENTIRE show. Of course, Cinderella was her favorite. Caleigh liked Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs...she was afraid of the witches in each scene, and held me extra tight for the loud parts, but it didn't seem to scare her too much. Nana bought the girls toys from the event and a program-which we have looked at least 2 dozen times already! After the show we went to lunch in Old Town where the girls got serenaded. They were loving it, and so was the guitarist. It was soooo cute! When we left in the car Bella asked, "Can we do that again"? Caleigh signed and said, "More more"? Fun day indeed!

My little writers

One of the girls favorite activities at home is writing on their wipe boards. Usually its just random pictures, letters, Bel writes her name...whatever....but these week Bella made a leap, she started writing stories! How cool! What every kindergarten teacher dreams of! :)

Here is Bella's recent story about going apple picking. You can see in the middle the apple tree with the apples in it. At the top of the page are Bijan, Caleigh, Bella and myself. On the right side are the "mushy" apples that we left on the ground. Below is Bella's story about the spooky cat that we put out at our front door (the girls are minorly obsessed with Halloween decorations). She said the word cat and said, "c-c-c-hey, I hear a C in cat". She was so proud of her writing, and so am I!